rTorrent + FreeBSD + pf = freeze?

cpghost cpghost at cordula.ws
Wed Oct 21 20:44:53 UTC 2009


Hi,

could a resource leak or bug in pf(4) crash a RELENG_7 router (as of
Oct 6th)?

I'm experiencing frequent crashes on my soekris net4801 home router
for some months now, and I'm wondering if it could be some kind of
pf-related bug similar to this on OpenBSD:

  http://www.mail-archive.com/misc@openbsd.org/msg58042.html

More precisely, when I fire up rtorrent-devel on some *other* machine
(not the router!), everything runs fine at first.  It could also run
very fine for many days. BUT should I start a torrent with a large
number of seeders which could saturate my link for an extended period
of time, the soekris router would suddenly freeze... but not
immediately: more like a few hours (3 to 6) or so of relatively heavy
traffic. Only a hard reboot of the router would help.  Please note
that rtorrent is NOT running on the router, only its traffic is being
redirected through the router.

So I'm suspecting some bug / resource leak in pf that would bring the
kernel down somehow. What kind of resources should I monitor (and
how)? Maybe that could bring some clues?

Oh, before anybody asks: I have no crashdumps, the router freezes
totally without panicking. And it doesn't recover automatically
even after many hours.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
-cpghost.

-- 
Cordula's Web. http://www.cordula.ws/


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