Bug 284019 – ~amd64: glibc/linux-headers fail to support signals

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED INVALID

[Description Albert W. Hopkins 2009-09-07 19:53:31 UTC]

Ok this is rather difficult to explain, so you may first look at URL.

Basically on a newly installed box, processes receive no signals.  I can only kill -9 them.  This has been bothering me for a while.  I tried 2 different scenarios:

+ Use snapshot stage3 and immediately switch ACCEPT_KEYWORDS to ~amd64.
+ Use non-snapshot stage3, install everything as stable amd64, switch ACCEPT_KEYWORDS to ~amd64 and then "emerge -DuvaN world"

In both scenarios, processes receive signals until the switch to ~amd64.  I could not tell you exactly where in the process things went wrong.

To make a long story short, I found out what the problem is, but let me tell you what *didn't* work first:

+ emerge -e world
+ re-emerging glibc
+ re-emergeng gcc
+ recompiling kernel
+ switching to stable gcc
+ switching to stable kernel and linux-sources
+ (tried to switch to stable glibc but you can't downgrade glibc)
+ various permutations of the above

I spend weeks trying to debug this problem.  I almost became convinced that it was a hardware problem (it's a brand new box).  Then I saw an obscure page on the internet that suggested it might have something to do with the kernel headers used to compile glibc.  So I tried this:

# cd /usr/include
# mv linux linux.0
# ln -s /usr/src/linux/include/linux linux
# emerge -1 glibc
# reboot

The result is: I can kill processes, services can be stopped, the system shuts down correctly,  even netkit-rsh compiles!  I don't know what's wrong with the interaction between glibc and linux-headers.  I have the same versions of the same packages on other machines and they work fine (though I didn't install from scratch on those machines).

I'm really not sure what's going on.  I installed both times from scratch.  I've been using/installing Gentoo Linux for 7 years and this is the first time this has happened to me.

the relevant info:
gentoo-sources-2.6.30-r6
linux-headers-2.6.30-r1
gcc-4.4.1
glibc-2.10.1
(emerge --info to be attached)
(world file to be attached)


This is the default/linux/amd64/2008.0 profile.

Very puzzling but apparently repeatable.

Let me know if you need any other info (like to diff the two directories).

[Comment 1 Albert W. Hopkins 2009-09-07 19:55:06 UTC]

Created attachment 203400 [details]
emerge --info

[Comment 2 Albert W. Hopkins 2009-09-07 19:55:40 UTC]

Created attachment 203401 [details]
/var/lib/portage/world

[Comment 3 Albert W. Hopkins 2009-10-18 13:53:58 UTC]

I'm closing this bug as it seems inconsistent (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't).  I'm not sure what the issue is, but it seems to only occur on this one system so perhaps it's hardware related(?)