Re: Armv7 unresponsive with flashing disk light

On Fri, Apr 25, 2025 at 05:02:36PM -0700, Mark Millard wrote:
> 
> 
> On Apr 25, 2025, at 16:12, Robert Clausecker <fuz@fuz.su> wrote:
> 
> > Am Fri, Apr 25, 2025 at 02:46:58PM -0700 schrieb bob prohaska:
> >> A Pi2 running -current armv7 got stuck again during buildworld.
> >> No debugger escape was possible, despite repeated tries. Power
> >> cycle was followed by a normal boot.
> >> 
> >> This time, the usb hard disk activity LED was pulsing steadily,
> >> roughly 3-5 Hz. That's new. Formerly all stoppages had no disk
> >> activity indications.
> > 
> > That could be the kernel dumping itself.  Did it eventually stop?
> 
> Per that note: you (Bob) may want to let the light blink
> until its stops (or it has been a very long time) if such
> happens again in the future. Then you might have a crash
> dump to get information from once you do boot again.

It never crossed my mind that the disk activity could be
a crash dump in progress. Dammit! Lost my chance. The
two Pi2s running armv7 -current have been locking up 
during buildworld for a year and I've never found
a crash dump, nor been able to get at the debugger. 
This was the first time I've seen _any_ change in behavior.

How long should a crash dump take? Both machines have
dumpdev="AUTO"
in /etc/rc.conf
and swap partitions larger than RAM.

IIRC, the clock time in the top window when I
pulled the plug was at least an hour tardy. 
Could a crash dump take longer than that?

Anyway, buildworld was restarted and is back to
building libraries. I'll be a lot more circumspect
when it misbehaves again.

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska