PROBLEM: kernel bug, dcache.c:362

DISCUSSION Keith Thompson 1 participant 1 message May 28, 2002

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Keith Thompson

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2002-05-28 23:37 UTC #0 lore raw

The problem: /var/log/messages reports a kernel bug at dcache.c:362, an invalid operand. See the excerpt below.

The system is uffda.sdsc.edu, a Dell OptiPlex GX1 running Red Hat 7.3. I installed it on May 7 (an upgrade from Windows NT). Since then, I've installed XFree86-doc, AbiWord, fvwm2, nvi, openssh-server, and Opera 6.0. I've also installed several updates from Red Hat Network, including a kernel update from 2.4.18-3 to 2.4.18-4.

Prior to the occurrence of the bug, I had been able to connect to the system using ssh. Afterwards, the system responded to ping, but "ssh uffda" from a Solaris box hung indefinitely (i.e., until I killed it with control-C).

I wasn't actively using the system at the time, and I know of no significant processes that were running when the bug occurred. I probably had several shells and xterms running, but they were idle.

About 11 hours after the bug occurred, I cycled power on uffda, and it rebooted normally, other than some unsurprising messages about the file system having been shut down uncleanly; I don't recall the exact wording. I ran a file system check, and it didn't find any problems.

Please let me know if I can provide any more information.

ver_linux says:
BEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGIN If some fields are empty or look unusual you may have an old version. Compare to the current minimal requirements in Documentation/Changes.

Linux uffda.sdsc.edu 2.4.18-4 #1 Thu May 2 18:47:38 EDT 2002 i686 unknown

Gnu C                  2.96
Gnu make               3.79.1
util-linux             2.11n
mount                  2.11n
modutils               2.4.14
e2fsprogs              1.27
reiserfsprogs          3.x.0j
PPP                    2.4.1
isdn4k-utils           3.1pre1
Linux C Library        2.2.5
Dynamic linker (ldd)   2.2.5
Procps                 2.0.7
Net-tools              1.60
Console-tools          0.3.3
Sh-utils               2.0.11
Modules Loaded         binfmt_misc autofs 3c59x ide-cd cdrom cs4232 ad1848 uart401 sound soundcore usb-uhci usbcore ext3 jbd

ENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDEND

/proc/version says:
BEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGIN
Linux version 2.4.18-4 ([email protected]) (gcc version 2.96 20000731 (Red Hat Linux 7.3 2.96-110)) #1 Thu May 2 18:47:38 EDT 2002 ENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDEND

/proc/cpuinfo says:
BEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGIN
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 7
model name : Pentium III (Katmai)
stepping : 2
cpu MHz : 447.699
cache size : 512 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 2
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse
bogomips : 891.28
ENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDEND

/proc/modules says:
BEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGIN

binfmt_misc             7556   1
autofs                 12164   0 (autoclean) (unused)
3c59x                  28520   1
ide-cd                 30272   0 (autoclean)
cdrom                  32192   0 (autoclean) [ide-cd]
cs4232                  5056   0
ad1848                 25696   0 [cs4232]
uart401                 7936   0 [cs4232]
sound                  72012   0 [cs4232 ad1848 uart401]
soundcore               6692   4 [sound]
usb-uhci               24484   0 (unused)
usbcore                73152   1 [usb-uhci]
ext3                   67136   2
jbd                    49464   2 [ext3]

ENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDEND

/etc/redhat-release says:
BEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGIN Red Hat Linux release 7.3 (Valhalla) ENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDEND

Here's the relevant excerpt from /var/log/messages. Times are PDT (7 hours west of UTC). The last message before this block was a couple of days earlier; the first message after this block was over 11 hours later. BEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGINBEGIN

May 28 04:02:15 uffda kernel: kernel BUG at dcache.c:362!
May 28 04:02:15 uffda kernel: invalid operand: 0000
May 28 04:02:15 uffda kernel: binfmt_misc autofs 3c59x ide-cd cdrom cs4232 ad1848 uart401 sound soundcore us
May 28 04:02:15 uffda kernel: CPU:    0
May 28 04:02:15 uffda kernel: EIP:    0010:[<c014a66c>]    Not tainted
May 28 04:02:15 uffda kernel: EFLAGS: 00010282
May 28 04:02:15 uffda kernel: 
May 28 04:02:15 uffda kernel: EIP is at prune_dcache [kernel] 0xac (2.4.18-4)
May 28 04:02:15 uffda kernel: eax: 0000001c   ebx: c9c52830   ecx: 00000001   edx: 0000180a
May 28 04:02:15 uffda kernel: esi: c9c52818   edi: c1387130   ebp: 00000048   esp: c1391f64
May 28 04:02:15 uffda kernel: ds: 0018   es: 0018   ss: 0018
May 28 04:02:15 uffda kernel: Process kswapd (pid: 5, stackpage=c1391000)
May 28 04:02:15 uffda kernel: Stack: c0229019 0000016a c1390000 00000000 00000000 ffffffff c02c4898 00000000 
May 28 04:02:15 uffda kernel:        00000000 000000c1 c01304d3 000001d0 000000c1 00000000 00000000 c014aa30 
May 28 04:02:16 uffda kernel:        00003c84 c0130c1c 00000006 000001d0 000001d0 c1390000 00000000 00000000 
May 28 04:02:16 uffda kernel: Call Trace: [<c01304d3>] page_launder [kernel] 0x2b3 
May 28 04:02:16 uffda kernel: [<c014aa30>] shrink_dcache_memory [kernel] 0x20 
May 28 04:02:16 uffda kernel: [<c0130c1c>] do_try_to_free_pages [kernel] 0x1c 
May 28 04:02:16 uffda kernel: [<c0130f11>] kswapd [kernel] 0x101 
May 28 04:02:16 uffda kernel: [<c0105000>] stext [kernel] 0x0 
May 28 04:02:16 uffda kernel: [<c0107136>] kernel_thread [kernel] 0x26 
May 28 04:02:16 uffda kernel: [<c0130e10>] kswapd [kernel] 0x0 
May 28 04:02:16 uffda kernel: 
May 28 04:02:16 uffda kernel: 
May 28 04:02:16 uffda kernel: Code: 0f 0b 5f 58 8d 4e 10 8b 51 04 8b 46 10 89 50 04 89 02 89 4e 
May 28 15:29:21 uffda syslogd 1.4.1: restart.

ENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDENDEND

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Keith Thompson, San Diego Supercomputer Center, Camp X-Ray
[email protected]  <http://www.sdsc.edu/~kst/>  858-822-0853  Fax: 858-822-5407
Schroedinger does Shakespeare: "To be *and* not to be"