dumpon to an encrypted swap partition?

remodeler remodeler at alentogroup.org
Sun Nov 1 00:41:57 UTC 2009


I am running 8.0 RC1 on a multi-user server with a few dozen vnet-enabled
jails and netgraph. The swap partition is encrypted by its /etc/fstab entry, like:

/dev/ad2s1b.eli   none    swap    sw   0   0

I am getting sporadic kernel panics on reboot, during the GEOM_JOURNAL
shutdown sequence. However, they occur after geli detaches the swap partition,
so I get an error like:

Cannot dump. Device not defined or unavailable.

I know I can set dumpdev in /etc/rc.conf to a file rather than a swap
partition, but is there a way to (1) have an encrypted swap partition, and (2)
dump a core to a swap partition without failure? If I set up a second
unencrypted swap, I can't let the system write potentially confidential
information into that space.

Also, at the end of the panic, I get the message:

Automatic reboot in 15 seconds - press a key on the console to abort

but then the server hangs and requires manual power-down and reboot. I thought
a reboot was inevitable after a kernel panic - that nothing could prevent it
in terms of misbehaving processes, etc. Any idea what could cause such a freeze?

Thank you.


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