Swapfile problem in 6? (was: 6.0: during kernel compilation, 'kernel linking' freezes PC)

Rob spamrefuse at yahoo.com
Mon Nov 14 22:39:01 PST 2005


--- Kris Kennaway <kris at obsecurity.org> wrote:

> On Mon, Nov 14, 2005 at 06:08:27PM -0800, Rob wrote:
> 
> > I left it overnight twice for performing this
> > 'kernel linking' stage. In both cases the machine
> > remained dead.
> > Without the swapfile, this 'kernel linking' stage
> > completes in just about less than a minute.
> > 
> > So I think it's not my impatience, but there is
> > another problem with my swapfile or with 6 :).
> 
> Since you can compile a kernel without it, add DDB,
> WITNESS and INVARIANTS support, then trigger the
> deadlock with the swapfile, break to DDB and
> examine the state of the machine.  See the chapter
> on kernel debugging in the developers handbook for
> more instructions.

Thanks, but for now, I cannot compile a new kernel,
because the kernel compilation terminates with
insufficient swap space error. Apparently 32 MB is
not enough for a new kernel compilation.

So for now I'm stuck with the GENERIC kernel.

This is my partitioning:
 /dev/ad0s1a    253678  34446 198938    15%    /
 /dev/ad0s1b     39848   8168  39848    20%    (swap)
 /dev/ad0s1d    253678 152958  80426    66%    /var
 /dev/ad0s1e    253678   6016 227368     3%    /home
 /dev/ad0s1f   1624576 727274 767336    49%    /usr

First I used 128 MB swapfile on root partition;
then tried again with a 128 MB swapfile on /var.
However, exactly the same deadlock occurs:
when the kernel compilation reaches 'linking kernel'
the PC is dead (no crash). Although I can ping
the PC, there's no response to any other service;
also serial port console is dead.

Without using the swapfile, the compilation easily
passes through the 'linking kernel' stage, but
somewhat later terminates as swap space is
insufficient.

With 5-Stable, I used the swapfile extensively for
recompiling new kernels and worlds, without any
problem.

I only can conclude that something is wrong with
the swapfile construct in 6.

Is 128 MB too big for a swapfile in 6?
I'll try again with a smaller swapfile...

Any other ideas?

dmesg output of this PC is here:
 http://surfion.snu.ac.kr/~lahaye/dmesg

Thanks,
Rob.



		
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