/bin/sh core dumps on FreeBSD 7.2

[Hans F. Nordhaug]

* Jeremy Chadwick <freebsd at jdc.parodius.com> [2009-11-12]:
> On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 11:33:08AM +0100, Hans F. Nordhaug wrote:
> > Suddenly /bin/sh started to crash all the time with core dumps. I'm
> > running FreeBSD 7.2-RELEASE-p4 (i386) and I have not updated anything
> > lately.  The /bin/sh binary seems to be untouched. It might be some
> > hardware trouble, but the machine seems to run OK now. (I had to
> > replace /bin/sh with a symlink to /rescue/sh.)
> > 
> > I would like to track down the problem, but running sh I only get
> > "Segmentation fault: 11 (core dumped)". I would be happy to run
> > gdb and give you a backtrace. Any clues?
> > 
> > PS! I tried to run "freebsd-update IDS" to see if any files are
> > broken, but it stops at
> > Inspecting system... sha256: ///boot/kernel/utopia.ko.symbols: Input/output error
> 
> Hardware problem.  Take your pick: bad RAM, bad hard disk, bad
> motherboard, bad PSU, bad cabling.
> 
> You can rule out hard disk problems by installing smartmontools from
> ports (sysutils/smartmontools).  Please provide output from the
> following command:
> 
> smartctl -a /dev/{disk}

Thx for the infp about smartmontools. The only problem I found was:

ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE    UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022   001   001   045    Old_age Always   FAILING_NOW 253

Don't know if this is a serious problem.

Hans

PS! The disk is of type
Model Family:     Western Digital Caviar Second Generation Serial ATA family
Device Model:     WDC WD2500JS-55NCB1