Message-ID: <20001120152543.28696.qmail@web9606.mail.yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2000 07:25:43 -0800 (PST)
From: John Folkers <john_folkers@yahoo.com>
Subject: 2.2.5 more stable than 2.2.12 or later.
To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org

Hello.

I subscribed to this list expressly to tell you guys about a bug in the kernel that
is being carried forward.  I am not a kernel master, all I do is install stuff.

First, before I begin, PLEASE reference linux-kernel posting entitled:

Subject "kswapd related oopses in 2.2.13"
From: Arthur Pedyczak (arthur-p@home.com)
Date: Sun Nov 28 1999 - 10:59:02 AKST

In there, he posted a solution to the problem (see problem definition below) which I
tried and worked... which was to basically roll back to kernel 2.2.5 after many
kernel Oopses.

Problem Description:
I would get a LOT of kernel Oopses randomly.  It could be any process.  bash, gawk,
grep, whatnot.  The request for paging at a virtual address kind.  I would boot up
and within 5 minutes or 10 minutes, I'd get the oops.  I have a Deskpro Pentium II,
and also a Deskpro Pentium III, both from Compaq.

I am posting this to follow with up Arthur's original posting, which largely went
ignored.  I think the kernel has a big problem right now that's going undetected.

First, let me describe what I tried to do to fix it.  I tried RedHat 7.0.  I tried
RedHat 6.2 release 3.  I tried RedHat 6.2.  I tried RedHat 6.1.  I upgraded the bios
on my NIC to the latest.  I upgraded bios of the motherboard to the latest.  I
swapped out many memory sticks from 3 other machines.  I swapped out the HD from a
working linux computer.  None of these fixed the problem.  I even removed the NIC.

Additionally, I turned on APMD to see if maybe that was it.  (See
http://www.bitwizard.nl/sig11/ for the page I got this idea from).  I tried forcing
the HD to be all different kinds of modes via bios and also via hdparm.  (PIO mode 0
didn't work, but ALL the other modes the HD was able to be read/write just fine). 
Still, the problem persisted.

I tried not only different memory sticks (they are DIMMs) but also tried in
different DIMM slots and order.  I tried all combinations.  Still, the problem would
not go away.  Did I mention I even tried three HDs, with one being less than 2GB to
see if that was the problem?

I even told the kernel at boot what CHS geometry the HD had.  I tried changing the
AGP aperature (you can see I was desperate).  Even tried turning off the USB port in
the bios.  Problem would not go away.

I worked on this for 3 straight weeks until finally I came across Arthur's post on
the kernel list.  I tried compiled kernel 2.2.5 and presto.  Not a single fault,
failure of any kind, I was IMMENSELY PLEASED that I could go on to other projects. 
2.2.5 has not bombed even once.  In my book, this one had been solved by rolling
back the kernel to 2.2.5.

Someone needs to pay attention to this.  You too can reproduce this with any Compaq
Deskpro EN series box (I used both a Pentium II 350mhz and a Pentium III 500mhz from
Compaq.  Both exhibited the same results.)  Only Kernel 2.2.5 fixes it.  The latest
kernels just bomb all the time on it.  Ergo, this is a kernel software problem.

Hardware:
Motherboard: Compaq Deskpro EN series.
CPU: PIII-500 (and also PII-350)
64MB DIMM RAM 
6GB HDD (EIDE - primary master) 
EIDE-ATAPI CDROM (primary slave) 
FDD

Kernel Ooops output:
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual
address 44504849
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: current->tss.cr3 = 03a11000, %cr3 = 03a11000
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: *pde = 00000000
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: Oops: 0002
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: CPU:    0
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: EIP:    0010:[sys_read+48/196]
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: EFLAGS: 00010206
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: eax: c3ff7400   ebx: 4450482d   ecx: bffff46f   edx:
00000000
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: esi: fffffff7   edi: 0807c630   ebp: 00000001   esp:
c2f8ffb8
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: ds: 0018   es: 0018   ss: 0018
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: Process bash (pid: 577, process nr: 31,
stackpage=c2f8f000)
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: Stack: 0807c630 bffff478 c0109f58 00000000 bffff46f
00000001 401436c0 0807c630 
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel:        bffff478 00000003 c010002b 0000002b 00000003
400f6c34 00000023 00000246 
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel:        bffff448 0000002b 
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: Call Trace: [system_call+52/56] [startup_32+43/285] 
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: Code: ff 43 1c 85 db 0f 84 81 00 00 00 f6 43 10 01 74 72
8b 43 08 
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual
address 44504835
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: current->tss.cr3 = 00101000, %cr3 = 00101000
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: *pde = 00000000
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: Oops: 0000
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: CPU:    0
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: EIP:    0010:[filp_close+7/92]
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: EFLAGS: 00010206
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: eax: c3ff7400   ebx: 4450482d   ecx: 00000000   edx:
4450482d
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: esi: 00000000   edi: c3282e00   ebp: 00000001   esp:
c2f8ff04
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: ds: 0018   es: 0018   ss: 0018
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: Process bash (pid: 577, process nr: 31,
stackpage=c2f8f000)
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: Stack: c3282e00 c0117821 4450482d c3282e00 c2f8ff7c
c2f8e000 44504849 7baf6000 
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel:        00000000 c2f8e000 c010a478 0000000b c2f8ff7c
c01d91a7 c01daace 00000002 
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel:        00000000 c010f4b8 c01daace c2f8ff7c 00000002
c2f8e000 fffffff7 0807c630 
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: Call Trace: [do_exit+297/628] [die_if_no_fixup+0/64]
[error_table+2631/9344] [error_table+9070/9344] [do_page_fault+708/944]
[error_table+9070/9344] [error_code+45/56] 
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel:        [sys_read+48/196] [system_call+52/56]
[startup_32+43/285] 
Nov 16 00:39:10 A23 kernel: Code: 8b 7b 08 83 7b 1c 00 75 10 68 02 d5 1d c0 e8 16 ea
fe ff 31 


I've had MANY fresh, clean installs.  Here's the bootup after a fresh one:
Bootup Part of Syslog:
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: Detected 348210 kHz processor.
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: Calibrating delay loop... 694.68 BogoMIPS
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: Memory: 62932k/65536k available (1048k kernel
code, 412k reserved, 1080k data, 64k init, 0k bigmem)
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: Dentry hash table entries: 262144 (order 9, 2048k)
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: Buffer cache hash table entries: 65536 (order 6,
256k)
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: Page cache hash table entries: 16384 (order 4,
64k)
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: VFS: Diskquotas version dquot_6.4.0 initialized
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: CPU: Intel Pentium II (Deschutes) stepping 01
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: Checking 386/387 coupling... OK, FPU using
exception 16 error reporting.
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: mtrr: v1.35a (19990819) Richard Gooch
(rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xed9a0
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: PCI: Using configuration type 1
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: PCI: Probing PCI hardware
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.2
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: Based upon Swansea University Computer Society
NET3.039
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0 for Linux NET4.0.
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: TCP: Hash tables configured (ehash 65536 bhash
65536)
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: Linux IP multicast router 0.06 plus PIM-SM
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: Initializing RT netlink socket
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: Starting kswapd v 1.5 
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: Detected PS/2 Mouse Port.
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: Serial driver version 4.27 with MANY_PORTS
MULTIPORT SHARE_IRQ enabled
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: ttyS00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: apm: BIOS not found.
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: Real Time Clock Driver v1.09
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: RAM disk driver initialized:  16 RAM disks of
4096K size
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: PIIX4: IDE controller on PCI bus 00 dev a1
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: PIIX4: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel:     ide0: BM-DMA at 0x2020-0x2027, BIOS settings:
hda:DMA, hdb:pio
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel:     ide1: BM-DMA at 0x2028-0x202f, BIOS settings:
hdc:DMA, hdd:pio
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: hda: Maxtor 90640D4, ATA DISK drive
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: hdc: Compaq CRD-8322B, ATAPI CDROM drive
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: hda: Maxtor 90640D4, 6149MB w/256kB Cache,
CHS=833/240/63
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: FDC 0 is a National Semiconductor PC87306
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: md driver 0.90.0 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MAX_REAL=12
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: raid5: measuring checksumming speed
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: raid5: MMX detected, trying high-speed MMX
checksum routines
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel:    pII_mmx   :   774.192 MB/sec
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel:    p5_mmx    :   813.054 MB/sec
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel:    8regs     :   597.789 MB/sec
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel:    32regs    :   335.280 MB/sec
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: using fastest function: p5_mmx (813.054 MB/sec)
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: scsi : 0 hosts.
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: scsi : detected total.
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: md.c: sizeof(mdp_super_t) = 4096
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: Partition check:
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel:  hda: hda1 hda2 < hda5 >
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: autodetecting RAID arrays
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: autorun ...
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: ... autorun DONE.
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: Freeing unused kernel memory: 64k freed
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: Adding Swap: 105800k swap-space (priority -1)
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: usb.c: registered new driver hub
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: usb-uhci.c: $Revision: 1.232 $ time 16:53:56 Aug
22 2000
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: usb-uhci.c: High bandwidth mode enabled
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: usb-uhci.c: Intel USB controller: setting latency
timer to 0
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x2000, IRQ 11
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number
1
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: usb.c: USB new device connect, assigned device
number 1
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: hub.c: USB hub found
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: hub.c: 2 ports detected
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: Linux agpgart interface v0.99 (c) Jeff Hartmann
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: agpgart: Maximum main memory to use for agp
memory: 28M
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: agpgart: Detected Intel 440BX chipset
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost kernel: agpgart: AGP aperture is 64M @ 0x44000000
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost portmap: portmap startup succeeded
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost nfslock: rpc.lockd startup succeeded
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost nfslock: rpc.statd startup succeeded
Nov 15 05:57:30 localhost random: Initializing random number generator:  succeeded
Nov 15 05:57:31 localhost netfs: Mounting other filesystems:  succeeded
Nov 15 05:57:19 localhost rc.sysinit: Mounting proc filesystem:  succeeded 
Nov 15 05:57:19 localhost sysctl: net.ipv4.ip_forward = 0 
Nov 15 05:57:19 localhost sysctl: net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter = 1 
Nov 15 05:57:19 localhost sysctl: net.ipv4.ip_always_defrag = 0 
Nov 15 05:57:19 localhost sysctl: kernel.sysrq = 0 
Nov 15 05:57:19 localhost rc.sysinit: Configuring kernel parameters:  succeeded 
Nov 15 05:57:19 localhost date: Wed Nov 15 05:57:11 EST 2000 
Nov 15 05:57:19 localhost rc.sysinit: Setting clock  (localtime): Wed Nov 15
05:57:11 EST 2000 succeeded 
Nov 15 05:57:19 localhost rc.sysinit: Loading default keymap succeeded 
Nov 15 05:57:19 localhost rc.sysinit: Activating swap partitions:  succeeded 
Nov 15 05:57:19 localhost rc.sysinit: Setting hostname localhost.localdomain: 
succeeded 
Nov 15 05:57:19 localhost rc.sysinit: Initializing USB controller (usb-uhci): 
succeeded 
Nov 15 05:57:19 localhost rc.sysinit: Mounting USB filesystem:  succeeded 
Nov 15 05:57:19 localhost fsck: /: clean, 76701/774144 files, 248078/1547902 blocks 
Nov 15 05:57:19 localhost rc.sysinit: Checking root filesystem succeeded 
Nov 15 05:57:19 localhost rc.sysinit: Remounting root filesystem in read-write mode:
 succeeded 
Nov 15 05:57:19 localhost rc.sysinit: Finding module dependencies:  succeeded 
Nov 15 05:57:20 localhost rc.sysinit: Checking filesystems succeeded 
Nov 15 05:57:20 localhost rc.sysinit: Mounting local filesystems:  succeeded 
Nov 15 05:57:20 localhost rc.sysinit: Turning on user and group quotas for local
filesystems:  succeeded 
Nov 15 05:57:21 localhost rc.sysinit: Enabling swap space:  succeeded 
Nov 15 05:57:22 localhost init: Entering runlevel: 3 
Nov 15 05:57:28 localhost kudzu:  succeeded 
Nov 15 05:57:29 localhost sysctl: net.ipv4.ip_forward = 0 
Nov 15 05:57:29 localhost sysctl: net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter = 1 
Nov 15 05:57:29 localhost sysctl: net.ipv4.ip_always_defrag = 0 
Nov 15 05:57:29 localhost sysctl: kernel.sysrq = 0 
Nov 15 05:57:29 localhost network: Setting network parameters:  succeeded 
Nov 15 05:57:29 localhost network: Bringing up interface lo:  succeeded 
Nov 15 05:57:31 localhost identd: identd startup succeeded
Nov 15 05:57:31 localhost atd: atd startup succeeded
Nov 15 05:57:31 localhost rc: Starting pcmcia:  succeeded
Nov 15 05:57:32 localhost lpd: lpd startup succeeded
Nov 15 05:57:32 localhost keytable: Loading keymap: 
Nov 15 05:57:32 localhost keytable: Loading
/usr/lib/kbd/keymaps/i386/qwerty/us.kmap.gz
Nov 15 05:57:33 localhost keytable: Loading system font: 
Nov 15 05:57:33 localhost rc: Starting keytable:  succeeded
Nov 15 05:57:34 localhost sendmail: sendmail startup succeeded
Nov 15 05:57:34 localhost gpm: gpm startup succeeded
Nov 15 05:57:34 localhost crond[506]: (CRON) STARTUP (fork ok) 
Nov 15 05:57:35 localhost crond: crond startup succeeded
Nov 15 05:57:35 localhost xfs: xfs startup succeeded
Nov 15 05:57:36 localhost anacron: anacron startup succeeded
Nov 15 05:57:36 localhost anacron[554]: Anacron 2.3 started on 2000-11-15
Nov 15 05:57:36 localhost anacron[554]: Will run job `cron.daily' in 5 min.
Nov 15 05:57:36 localhost anacron[554]: Will run job `cron.weekly' in 10 min.
Nov 15 05:57:36 localhost anacron[554]: Will run job `cron.monthly' in 15 min.
Nov 15 05:57:36 localhost rhnsd: rhnsd startup succeeded
Nov 15 05:57:36 localhost rhnsd[571]: Red Hat Network Services Daemon starting up.
Nov 15 05:57:37 localhost linuxconf: Running Linuxconf hooks: succeeded


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Calendar - Get organized for the holidays!
http://calendar.yahoo.com/
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/