I am able to produce a complete crash of my system Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. You need a system, where swapping is disabled by the kernel 2. You need to run X and have 1GB memory (having less memory will probably produce the crash too) 3. emerge boost Actual Results: After a while, the system becomes completely unresponsive. Even the mouse cursor is froozen and keyboard is not responding. The onlt way out -> reset button. Expected Results: The build script should report "Out of memory, bailing out" and release all resources. The system should remain healthy and responsive. I ran free in the background and before starting emerge boost, I had about 650 MB free memory in a 1GB memory system with running X. NOTE: I have swapping DISABLED in the kernel once a second free was writing into a file, that I examined after I rebootet from the crash, at that time only 8MB where free. So it's definately a "out of memory" situation that is not correctly handled. If you do something in the background, (e.g. like writing to a document), then all data WILL BE LOST !!!
$ emerge --info Portage 2.1.2-r9 (default-linux/amd64/2006.1, gcc-4.1.1, glibc-2.5-r0, 2.6.18-gentoo-r1 x86_64) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.18-gentoo-r1 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+ Gentoo Base System release 1.12.9 Timestamp of tree: Fri, 23 Feb 2007 22:20:01 +0000 distcc 2.18.3 x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) [disabled] ccache version 2.4 [enabled] dev-lang/python: 2.4.3-r4 dev-python/pycrypto: 2.0.1-r5 dev-util/ccache: 2.4-r6 sys-apps/sandbox: 1.2.17 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.61 sys-devel/automake: 1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r2, 1.10 sys-devel/binutils: 2.16.1-r3 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.3.14 sys-devel/libtool: 1.5.22 virtual/os-headers: 2.6.17-r1 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-march=k8 -O2 -pipe" CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/3.5/env /usr/kde/3.5/share/config /usr/kde/3.5/shutdown /usr/share/X11/xkb /usr/share/config" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/env.d /etc/gconf /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/terminfo /etc/texmf/web2c" CXXFLAGS="-march=k8 -O2 -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoconfig ccache distlocks metadata-transfer sandbox sfperms strict" GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/gentoo/ http://cudlug.cudenver.edu/gentoo/ " MAKEOPTS="-j4" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --delete-after --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.namerica.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="X Xaw3d amd64 berkdb bitmap-fonts bzip2 cairo cli cracklib crypt cups dri emacs fortran gdbm gpm graphviz gs gtk2 iconv ipv6 isdnlog jpeg jpeg2k leim lesstif libg++ midi ncurses nls nptl nptlonly pam pcre perl png ppds pppd python qt4 readline reflection ruby session slang spl ssl tcpd tiff truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts unicode xorg zlib" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="nv fbdev vesa" Unset: CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LANG, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, LINGUAS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY
no. your vm is handled by the kernel. see the proc manpage for hinting the kernel which processes to kill first if it can't allocate memory for itself. see the sysconf manpage to hint the kernel what to do in an oom situation.
See above.
(In reply to comment #3) > See above. > I don't know what that means. However, I feel that it is a bug in the gentoo system if it hangs by default...???
