Would you run this script to see if can crash your system?
 

Hello everyone,

I recently wrote a script which is basically just a string of 'aplay' commands with different frequency parameters.
The interesting thing is that when I run this script on my IBM laptop, it crashes with kernel panics. The laptop is normally reliable so I wonder if I've discovered a kernel/sound driver bug.

If you don't mind, would you help me by running the script and telling me if it crashes your system or not? Here it is:
http://dusthillguy.ddns.net/folder/f...archiv.tar.bz2

Just extract it into a folder and run "output.txt.sh".

would be even more helpful if you gave DETAILS about your system. Saying an "IBM Laptop" tells us nothing, and you don't say what version/distro of Linux you're using, with what kernel. Can't even SPECULATE as to why your system crashes.

But I'm not asking for help with my laptop, I'm asking people to run the script and report if it works on their system.

Oh, so you're asking people to run a potentially dangerous script for your benefit?
I may fire up a VM or two to test the script as I like that sort of thing but, well...

Yes. But don't worry, the script doesn't contain any malicious code. As you can see in the "output.txt.sh" file, it doesn't really do anything other than call 'aplay' and 'sleep'.

malicious vs. crash
 

The subject of this post says otherwise: "...crash your system?".
Sup with dat?

Oh, well, I meant that the worst that could happen is that your system would crash, but it's unlikely.

i'm not surprised it crashes your machine.
you're starting more than 1000 aplay processes there.
not sure if this is a good way of making music - why don't you try some tracker program instead?

I don't think it should cause any system to crash - Linux is supposed to be solid and reliable, right? There may be more than 1000 aplay commands in the script, but while the script is running there's only a maximum of about 10 active at one time.

Yeah, it's not really a practical way of making music. I usually use modplug tracker, I just wrote this script as an experiment.

Your original post says you think you found a kernel/sound bug....yet you don't think that actually telling us anything about your kernel or hardware is relevant to that? There are MANY scripts that are poorly written that will crash a system...yet have nothing to do with kernel bugs. The way you find these things out, is to provide information, to see if the problem follows a kernel/module...that's 'debugging'.

TB0ne: Do you want me to post those details? Yes/no?

That depends on what you're actually after.

If you want someone to help you confirm the possible presence of a kernel/sound bug, because you want to help contribute to fixing that bug, then absolutely. If I have a matching system, I'd certainly help you, and run that script to provide debugging info to assist.

If you aren't after that, and just want to see if it's your script...then there's not much point, since all the evidence you posted indicates that it IS your script, and there probably isn't a kernel/sound bug.

Which are you after?

I'll just be completely straight with everyone now, I just wanted to get people to run the script and hear the short tunes I wrote for it.
It really does crash my laptop, and I do suspect it's a sound driver bug, but it's not really the reason I posted it.

You probably don't have a matching system, I doubt anyone here does. It's an IBM thinkpad T22, pretty old and obsolete. The sound driver is snd-cs46xx.
The reason I think it could be a sound driver bug is because
* I tried it on several different systems, none of them crash except this laptop
* I've stress tested the laptop in different ways and it's completely reliable, except for when I run this script
* it seems like a specific thing that crashes it - running a few aplay commands at one time, each playing a sound at a different sample rate
* it should probably not be this easy to get linux to crash with kernel panics

have a great christmas.

Give me some time. I have a T23 with AntiX 15 on it, or my Panasonic Cf-48 with AntiX 15 on it.
Both are test beds. It won't be right away because Christmas takes priority this week

Thanks rokytnji, it'll be interesting to know if it has the same result with your laptops.