I am having an apparent kernel panic with the 2.6.11-gentoo series of kernels. So far, the only consistent pattern I can find is that it happens when the system-beep is occuring at the same time as some other operation. For example, the system usually hangs when I'm in a console (possibly SSH) and I hit backspace too many times and cause the cursor to butt-up against the prompt. When the system-beep occurs the system hangs mid-beep giving me the constant tone of death. Perhaps this is a timing issue within the kernel? I couldn't find anything remotely close to this in the forums or bug tracker. Therefore, I'm not sure if this is specific to amd64 or not. Reproducible: Sometimes Steps to Reproduce: I can usually reproduce it with the following (but not always): 1. SSH to somewhere 2. Type a command or a bunch of text in the SSH session 3. Hold down the backspace key until you hit the command prompt. This should generate a system beep if you're using an appropriate console program (like xterm or Eterm). Actual Results: The system will often hang (probably a kernel panic). Here is my output from emerge info: Portage 2.0.51.19 (default-linux/amd64/2004.3, gcc-3.4.3, glibc-2.3.4.20041102-r1, 2.6.9-gentoo-r14 x86_64) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.9-gentoo-r14 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+ Gentoo Base System version 1.4.16 Python: dev-lang/python-2.3.4-r1 [2.3.4 (#1, Feb 28 2005, 04:29:53)] dev-lang/python: 2.3.4-r1 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.59-r6, 2.13 sys-devel/automake: 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.5, 1.4_p6, 1.6.3, 1.9.4 sys-devel/binutils: 2.15.92.0.2-r7 sys-devel/libtool: 1.5.10-r4 virtual/os-headers: 2.6.8.1-r4 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-march=athlon64 -O2 -pipe" CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/env /usr/kde/3.3/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/shutdown /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/X11/xkb /usr/lib/mozilla/defaults/pref /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-march=athlon64 -O2 -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoaddcvs autoconfig ccache distlocks sandbox" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gentoo.osuosl.org http://gentoo.ccccom.com http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.namerica.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="amd64 X aalib acpi alsa arts avi bash-completion berkdb bitmap-fonts cdparanoia cdr crypt cups curl divx4linux doc dvd dvdr dvdread esd fam flac font-server foomaticdb fortran ftp gif gpm gtk gtk2 icq imap imlib ipv6 jabber java jce joystick jp2 jpeg junit kde kerberos ldap libwww lzw lzw-tiff mad motif mozdevelop mozilla mp3 mpeg nas ncurses nls nvidia ogg oggvorbis opengl oscar oss pam pda pdflib perl png python qt quicktime readline samba sasl scanner sftplogging spell ssl tcpd theora tiff truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts usb userlocales xml xml2 xmms xpm xrandr xv xvid yahoo zlib" Unset: ASFLAGS, CBUILD, CTARGET, LANG, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY
Created attachment 55528 [details] Kernel config for 2.6.11-gentoo-r3 Attaching the kernel config I was using on the hanging kernel.
I've done some further testing tonight on this kernel. It is TOTALLY UNUSABLE for me. When I boot into this kernel, the system locks up regularly at seemingly random intervals now. Sometimes it hangs with the "long beep of death" as indicated above, but it's also hanging at other times with nothing apparent happening. I'm not sure if this has to do with my 64-bit system or something specific in my hardware. But there is something MAJOR wrong. Some additional information: I've rolled back to the 2.6.9-gentoo-r14 kernel. For the most part, this one is MUCH more stable. However, I *have* experienced a couple of lockups with this one as well (rare occasion). Therefore, there is a definite difference between these two kernels. The new one locks within 10 minutes of boot on a regular basis, while 2.6.9 runs perfectly except for the rare occasions. The only other thing that has changed on my system recently is the nVidia drivers. Since these are also kernel modules, I'll do some messing with different versions of them and see if that helps.
Well, I'm not exactly sure what was going on, but after extensive testing I have fixed this issue. I believe I was a victim of the recent glibc crash issues. I'll try to summarize in case it becomes helpful in the future. In my previous testing, I could cause a system hang at will by using Eterm or xterm and holding down the backspace key (or pressing backspace as quickly as possible) -- thus generating constant/repeating system-beeps. I was guaranteed a system hang within 15 seconds using this method. Then, in an effort to make sure that everything was current on my system, I decided to upgrade to from the 2004.3 system profile to 2005.0. This involved the following: 1) I added the distcc packages to my system (probably not needed, but in the amd64 Howto for migrating to 2005.0). 2) I migrated my profile symlinks to 2005.0 3) I resynced my Portage tree, just to be sure it was current (I do this pretty regularly anyway). 4) I re-emerged glibc. After this I completely rebuilt the 2.6.11-gentoo-r3 kernel. I used the exact same config attached to this bug. After doing this, my problems seem to be completely gone. I am unable to reproduce any system hangs at all, via any method. I regularly keep my system up to date with a combination of: emerge -uDv system emerge -uDv world Therefore, I know my libraries were fine up to date before this. My best guess is that glibc was having the known issues from a few weeks back -- I originally did have problems building the newer version and I had to build it several times to get it to work. Many users were reporting strange system crashes and segfaults using this glibc back during this period. I understand it has since been fixed. It is highly likely that rebuilding this package fixed my problem.
I believe this is fixed. Marking as resolved.
