Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Tue, 17 Jul 2001 12:17:09 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Tue, 17 Jul 2001 12:16:59 -0400 Received: from delta.Colorado.EDU ([128.138.139.9]:9743 "EHLO ibg.colorado.edu") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Tue, 17 Jul 2001 12:16:53 -0400 Message-Id: <200107171615.KAA254078@ibg.colorado.edu> To: Andrew Morton cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Too much memory causes crash when reading/writing to disk In-Reply-To: Andrew Morton's message of Wed, 18 Jul 2001 00:00:54 +1000. In-Reply-To: <200107171322.HAA245907@ibg.colorado.edu> <3B544516.FF6643E8@uow.edu.au> Organization: Institute for Behavioral Genetics University of Colorado Boulder, CO 80309-0447 X-Phone: +1 303 492 2843 X-FAX: +1 303 492 8063 X-URL: http://ibgwww.Colorado.EDU/~lessem/ X-Copyright: All original content is copyright 2001 Jeff Lessem. X-Copyright: Quoted and non-original content may be copyright the X-Copyright: original author or others. Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2001 10:15:42 -0600 From: Jeff Lessem Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In your message of: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 00:00:54 +1000, you write: >> I made the patch against >> 2.4.6, because 2.4.7-pre6 doesn't boot at all (I guess I should send >> another message about that problem). > >If it's locking up just after printing out the `NET3' banner, >don't bother - known problem with softirqs. It'll be fixed >in the next kernel. Yes, that is the problem. I'll wait for a future release. >> >Also (but separately) try enabling the NMI watchdog with >> >the `nmi_watchdog=1' kernel boot parameter. >> >> This worked, and I recreated the crash: > >Wouldn't have a clue. It isn't spinning on a lock. >It almost looks as if the timer interrupt isn't getting >cleared, and the CPU is never leaving the interrupt. But >that would cause the timer interrupt count to increase like >crazy and the NMI would never have kicked in. Nice one. > >For interest's sake, could you please try booting with the >`noapic' option, and also send another NMI watchdog trace? I tried that, but the Symbios SCSI controller freaks out with noapic. I can be more detailed if that would be useful. I can also try a non-smp kernel and run the machine with 1 processor and 8GB, if you think that would be useful in solving the problem. I appreciate your help in this, as yes, the problem is indeed a nice one... -- Jeff Lessem. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/