A UML box with host kernel vanila 2.6.7, skas-3 patched, crashes unexpectedly during normal operation (even when the system is idle), in agreement with instability report found at http://umlazi.org/2004/06/16/stable-linux-kernels/ Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Emerge vanilla 2.6.7, patch it skas-3 and compile a host kernel 2. Emerge usermode-sources 2.4.26-r8 and build a linux executable 3. Let the system work for some time (two-three days) Actual Results: The system crashes unexpectedly if left long enough (1-2 days typical life time) Expected Results: The system should remain stable, even under heavy load. The 2.4.24 UML sources have been reported stable at http://umlazi. org/2004/06/16/stable-linux-kernels/ Unfortunately, they have been completely removed from the portage tree! I can guess the reason is to shrink down the size of the portage cache, but in this case I find the lack of the sources really painful. I suggest bringing 2.4.24 usermode kernel back to portage as stable and marking 2.4.26 unstable.
Mind trying out usermode-sources-2.6.8.1?
Thanks for the suggestion. I will consider it at a convenient moment. Since my firts report (2004-11-29) I could find emerged source tree of the usermode-sources 2.4.24-uml1-r9 in an old partition image backup and used it to build the UML kernel for the same host/same kernel where the 2.4.26-uml1-r8 was unstable. The result: since then (more than a month now) no even one crash. I would repeat my suggestion to anyway bring back the 2.4.24 series as the stable ebuld for the 2.4 usermode sources.
Sorry, read "almost a month" instead of "more than a month" in my previous post ;-)
Any chance you could test the "new" UML tree? http://www.user-mode-linux.org/~blaisorblade/patches/guest/uml-2.4.28-bs2-pre11/ Note the "2.4 guest patches" section here, looks like you'll need to patch 2.4.28 with the 2.4.27 uml patch before applying the -bs2-pre11 patch: http://www.user-mode-linux.org/~blaisorblade/patchlist.html#2_4_bs_tree If that solves it and doesn't cause crashes, we can add it to the portage tree.
I'm not sure if I will be able to try this soon... but if I do, I wil surely post a feedback here. Thanks for caring!
Ok, no worries, I think most users use 2.6 now. Please reopen when you get time to test it.
