Hello, I installed Linux again a couple of months ago, had been running Windows for a while. Ever since that I have had a problem with random system crashes. These crashes occur very randomly in time, the computer may have been running for between 5 miuntes and 10 days. However, they most often occur after the system has been running for 1-3 days. They appear almost exclusively when I'm at the computer doing something; almost never when the computer is idle. Often before the whole system locks up various programs segmentation fault. Associated with these program crashes klogd report kernel oopses. Check the bottom for a sample of them. It seems to me the crashes occur more often during heavy disk reads, but I am not really sure about that. Sometimes the scroll lock and caps lock leds flash simultaneously when the system is in the crashed state, but sometimes not. Until the system freezes everything works perfect.
My system froze under Windows too, but it is hard to tell if it was the same problem since I was using an application that was quite unstable and many friends reported crashes when running it too. Before switching to Linux I added one memory module and an additional hard drive. However, I've been trying to run the system with either one of the memory modules (in different slots too) but without any difference. I have not tried running the system without the new hard drive since I really need it. I have tried running memtest86 on all combinations of memory (both modules and either one of them), but memtest86 seems to freeze. I get to a blue screen with a red bar at the top with the version number. A cursor is blinking but nothing more happens. I left it in that state over a night but no change occured. I have searched the web and usenet for hours without finding much useful. I am extremely grateful for any help. Kind regards, Kristoffer Erlandsson ----------------------------------------------------------------------- My system specs: Debian unstable Kernel 2.4.20 gcc 2.95.4 (other versions too, but the kernel was compiled with 2.95.4) libc 2.3.1 Hardware: AMD XP 1800+ at 1533 MHZ 2x 512MB DDR-DIMM PC2100 CL2.5 (only one inserted now due to testing) Abit KR7A Motherboard using VIA VT8366A and VT8233 chipsets Creative PCI SB 128 Vibra Cnet Pro 10/100Mbit NIC using Davicom DM9102A chipset Western Digital IDE ATA-100 60GB 7200RPM 2MB cache (WD600BB) (Running one ntfs partition and one ext2 with the operating system in question on) Western Digital IDE ATA-100 120GB 7200RPM 8MB cache (WD1200JB) (Running two fat32 partitions) LG CD-ROM CRD-8522B 52X Creative 3DBlaster GeForce4 MX440 64MB AGP (Running Nvidia's driver) A sample of two oopses: (Maybe worth noteing is that all oopses I have looked at end with an instruction accessing %e*x, where * is a letter a-d. I do not know what this means, but I thought it was worth mentioning for those more skilled than me. I can produce more oopses on request, I do not want to make this letter any longer.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ksymoops 2.4.8 on i686 2.4.20. Options used -v /usr/src/linux-2.4.20/vmlinux (specified) -k /proc/ksyms (default) -l /proc/modules (default) -o /lib/modules/2.4.20/ (default) -m /usr/src/linux-2.4.20/System.map (specified) Jun 8 15:22:15 n14 kernel: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000004 Jun 8 15:22:15 n14 kernel: c01412bb Jun 8 15:22:15 n14 kernel: *pde = 00000000 Jun 8 15:22:15 n14 kernel: Oops: 0000 Jun 8 15:22:15 n14 kernel: CPU: 0 Jun 8 15:22:15 n14 kernel: EIP: 0010:[prune_icache+43/212] Tainted: P Jun 8 15:22:15 n14 kernel: EFLAGS: 00210217 Jun 8 15:22:15 n14 kernel: eax: c2cd22c0 ebx: 00000000 ecx: 00000000 edx: c000b840 Jun 8 15:22:15 n14 kernel: esi: c2cd21c0 edi: 00000000 ebp: c163bf60 esp: c163bf48 Jun 8 15:22:15 n14 kernel: ds: 0018 es: 0018 ss: 0018 Jun 8 15:22:15 n14 kernel: Process kswapd (pid: 4, stackpage=c163b000) Jun 8 15:22:15 n14 kernel: Stack: 0000000c 000001d0 00000020 000005ea dc6430e8 d94185e8 00000006 c014137f Jun 8 15:22:15 n14 kernel: 00000f36 c0129717 00000006 000001d0 00000006 000001d0 00000006 00000020 Jun 8 15:22:15 n14 kernel: 000001d0 c02720d4 c02720d4 c012976c 00000020 c02720d4 00000001 c163a000 Jun 8 15:22:15 n14 kernel: Call Trace: [shrink_icache_memory+27/48] [shrink_caches+111/136] [try_to_free_pages_zone+60/92] [kswapd_balance_pgdat+65/140] [kswapd_balance+26/48] Jun 8 15:22:15 n14 kernel: Code: 8b 7f 04 8d 73 f8 8b 86 08 01 00 00 a8 38 75 e6 0b 86 c8 00 Using defaults from ksymoops -t elf32-i386 -a i386 >>eax; c2cd22c0 <_end+29daf3c/205a1cdc> >>esi; c2cd21c0 <_end+29dae3c/205a1cdc> >>ebp; c163bf60 <_end+1344bdc/205a1cdc> >>esp; c163bf48 <_end+1344bc4/205a1cdc> Code; 00000000 Before first symbol 00000000 <_EIP>: Code; 00000000 Before first symbol 0: 8b 7f 04 mov 0x4(%edi),%edi Code; 00000003 Before first symbol 3: 8d 73 f8 lea 0xfffffff8(%ebx),%esi Code; 00000006 Before first symbol 6: 8b 86 08 01 00 00 mov 0x108(%esi),%eax Code; 0000000c Before first symbol c: a8 38 test $0x38,%al Code; 0000000e Before first symbol e: 75 e6 jne fffffff6 <_EIP+0xfffffff6> Code; 00000010 Before first symbol 10: 0b 86 c8 00 00 00 or 0xc8(%esi),%eax ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ksymoops 2.4.8 on i686 2.4.20. Options used -v /usr/src/linux-2.4.20/vmlinux (specified) -k /proc/ksyms (default) -l /proc/modules (default) -o /lib/modules/2.4.20/ (default) -m /usr/src/linux-2.4.20/System.map (specified) Jun 9 10:19:36 n14 kernel: Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address ef212e63 Jun 9 10:19:36 n14 kernel: c01289d8 Jun 9 10:19:36 n14 kernel: *pde = 00000000 Jun 9 10:19:36 n14 kernel: Oops: 0002 Jun 9 10:19:36 n14 kernel: CPU: 0 Jun 9 10:19:36 n14 kernel: EIP: 0010:[kmem_cache_reap+404/504] Tainted: P Jun 9 10:19:36 n14 kernel: EFLAGS: 00010002 Jun 9 10:19:36 n14 kernel: eax: c160fe40 ebx: c160fe40 ecx: d35ed020 edx: ef212e63 Jun 9 10:19:36 n14 kernel: esi: 00000000 edi: 00001eab ebp: 000008c4 esp: c163bf54 Jun 9 10:19:36 n14 kernel: ds: 0018 es: 0018 ss: 0018 Jun 9 10:19:36 n14 kernel: Process kswapd (pid: 4, stackpage=c163b000) Jun 9 10:19:36 n14 kernel: Stack: 00000017 000001d0 00000017 00000003 c160fe30 c02d224c 00000000 00000f56 Jun 9 10:19:36 n14 kernel: 00001889 c160fe30 c01296c4 00000003 00000017 000001d0 c02720d4 c02720d4 Jun 9 10:19:36 n14 kernel: c012976c 00000017 c02720d4 00000001 c163a000 00000000 c0129871 c0272020 Jun 9 10:19:36 n14 kernel: Call Trace: [shrink_caches+28/136] [try_to_free_pages_zone+60/92] [kswapd_balance_pgdat+65/140] [kswapd_balance+26/48] [kswapd+153/188] Jun 9 10:19:36 n14 kernel: Code: 89 02 c7 01 00 00 00 00 c7 41 04 00 00 00 00 fb 51 8b 54 24 Using defaults from ksymoops -t elf32-i386 -a i386 >>eax; c160fe40 <_end+1318abc/205a1cdc> >>ebx; c160fe40 <_end+1318abc/205a1cdc> >>ecx; d35ed020 <_end+132f5c9c/205a1cdc> >>esp; c163bf54 <_end+1344bd0/205a1cdc> Code; 00000000 Before first symbol 00000000 <_EIP>: Code; 00000000 Before first symbol 0: 89 02 mov %eax,(%edx) Code; 00000002 Before first symbol 2: c7 01 00 00 00 00 movl $0x0,(%ecx) Code; 00000008 Before first symbol 8: c7 41 04 00 00 00 00 movl $0x0,0x4(%ecx) Code; 0000000f Before first symbol f: fb sti Code; 00000010 Before first symbol 10: 51 push %ecx Code; 00000011 Before first symbol 11: 8b 54 24 00 mov 0x0(%esp,1),%edx ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- dmesg: Linux version 2.4.20 ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) (gcc version 2.95.4 20011002 (Debian prerelease) ) #4 Tue May 6 00:54:51 CEST 2003 BIOS-provided physical RAM map: BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable) BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved) BIOS-e820: 00000000000f0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved) BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000001fff0000 (usable) BIOS-e820: 000000001fff0000 - 000000001fff3000 (ACPI NVS) BIOS-e820: 000000001fff3000 - 0000000020000000 (ACPI data) BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 00000000fec01000 (reserved) BIOS-e820: 00000000fee00000 - 00000000fee01000 (reserved) BIOS-e820: 00000000ffff0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved) 0MB HIGHMEM available. 511MB LOWMEM available. On node 0 totalpages: 131056 zone(0): 4096 pages. zone(1): 126960 pages. zone(2): 0 pages. Kernel command line: auto BOOT_IMAGE=Linux ro root=302 Found and enabled local APIC! Initializing CPU#0 Detected 1534.019 MHz processor. Console: colour VGA+ 80x25 Calibrating delay loop... 3060.53 BogoMIPS Memory: 515624k/524224k available (1180k kernel code, 8212k reserved, 369k data, 248k init, 0k highmem) Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 7, 524288 bytes) Inode cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 6, 262144 bytes) Mount-cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 4, 65536 bytes) Buffer-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes) Page-cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes) CPU: L1 I Cache: 64K (64 bytes/line), D cache 64K (64 bytes/line) CPU: L2 Cache: 256K (64 bytes/line) Intel machine check architecture supported. Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0. CPU: After generic, caps: 0383fbff c1c3fbff 00000000 00000000 CPU: Common caps: 0383fbff c1c3fbff 00000000 00000000 CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1800+ stepping 02 Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done. Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done. Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK. POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX enabled ExtINT on CPU#0 ESR value before enabling vector: 00000000 ESR value after enabling vector: 00000000 Using local APIC timer interrupts. calibrating APIC timer ... ..... CPU clock speed is 1533.9509 MHz. ..... host bus clock speed is 266.7740 MHz. cpu: 0, clocks: 2667740, slice: 1333870 CPU0<T0:2667728,T1:1333856,D:2,S:1333870,C:2667740> mtrr: v1.40 (20010327) Richard Gooch ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) mtrr: detected mtrr type: Intel PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfb4d0, last bus=1 PCI: Using configuration type 1 PCI: Probing PCI hardware PCI: Using IRQ router default [1106/3099] at 00:00.0 Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4 Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039 Initializing RT netlink socket Starting kswapd VFS: Diskquotas version dquot_6.4.0 initialized Installing knfsd (copyright (C) 1996 [EMAIL PROTECTED]). NTFS driver v1.1.22 [Flags: R/O] pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI en abled ttyS00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A ttyS01 at 0x02f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A Real Time Clock Driver v1.10e Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 6.31 ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx VP_IDE: IDE controller on PCI bus 00 dev 89 VP_IDE: detected chipset, but driver not compiled in! PCI: No IRQ known for interrupt pin A of device 00:11.1. Please try using pci=bi osirq. VP_IDE: chipset revision 6 VP_IDE: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later ide0: BM-DMA at 0xd800-0xd807, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:DMA ide1: BM-DMA at 0xd808-0xd80f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio hda: WDC WD600BB-00CAA0, ATA DISK drive hdb: LG CD-ROM CRD-8522B, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive hdc: WDC WD1200JB-00CRA1, ATA DISK drive ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14 ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15 hda: 117231408 sectors (60022 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=7297/255/63 hdc: 234441648 sectors (120034 MB) w/8192KiB Cache, CHS=232581/16/63 hdb: ATAPI 52X CD-ROM drive, 128kB Cache Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12 Partition check: hda: hda1 hda2 hda3 hdc: hdc1 hdc2 Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077 dmfe: Davicom DM9xxx net driver, version 1.36.4 (2002-01-17) eth0: Davicom DM9102 at pci00:0f.0, 00:08:a1:25:9c:c3, irq 10. Linux agpgart interface v0.99 (c) Jeff Hartmann agpgart: Maximum main memory to use for agp memory: 439M agpgart: Detected Via Apollo Pro KT266 chipset agpgart: AGP aperture is 64M @ 0xe0000000 es1371: version v0.30 time 00:55:34 May 6 2003 es1371: found chip, vendor id 0x1274 device id 0x5880 revision 0x02 es1371: found es1371 rev 2 at io 0xd000 irq 5 es1371: features: joystick 0x0 ac97_codec: AC97 codec, id: TRA35(TriTech TR A5) usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs usb.c: registered new driver hub uhci.c: USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v1.1 uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0xdc00, IRQ 11 usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1 hub.c: USB hub found hub.c: 2 ports detected uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0xe400, IRQ 11 usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3 hub.c: USB hub found hub.c: 2 ports detected usb.c: registered new driver serial usbserial.c: USB Serial Driver core v1.4 usbserial.c: USB Serial support registered for Handspring Visor / Palm 4.0 / Cli é 4.x usbserial.c: USB Serial support registered for Sony Clié 3.5 visor.c: USB HandSpring Visor, Palm m50x, Sony Clié driver v1.6 NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0 IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP IP: routing cache hash table of 4096 buckets, 32Kbytes TCP: Hash tables configured (established 32768 bind 32768) NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0. VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly. Freeing unused kernel memory: 248k freed Adding Swap: 1060280k swap-space (priority -1) 0: nvidia: loading NVIDIA Linux x86 nvidia.o Kernel Module 1.0-4363 Sat Apr 19 17:46:46 PDT 2003 blk: queue c02f08c4, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff) blk: queue c02f0c28, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff) spurious 8259A interrupt: IRQ7. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]