Server crash: kernel NULL pointer dereference
 

I've experience 2 crashes in a week. The server was an old system primarily to server as a mail and file server. It has been stable for a long time without a reboot. Now 2 in a row. The log is similar and I am posting the log from last night. Is there any way to figure out which module/software is causing the crash? Any patch fix (not rebuilding the kernel)?

Thanks!

Mar 13 16:12:54 host dhcpd: DHCPREQUEST for x.x.6.49 from 00:13:72:bf:88:44 via eth0: unknown lease x.x.6.49.
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000004
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: printing eip:
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: c012f429
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: *pde = 0ef12001
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: *pte = 00000000
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: Oops: 0002
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: nfsd usbserial lp parport ide-cd cdrom autofs nfs lockd sunrpc iptable_filter tg3 ipt_MASQUERADE iptable_nat ip_conntrack ip_tables floppy sg microcode keybde
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: CPU: 2
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: EIP: 0060:[free_uid+57/112] Not tainted
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: EIP: 0060:[<c012f429>] Not tainted
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: EFLAGS: 00010202
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel:
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: EIP is at free_uid [kernel] 0x39 (2.4.22-1.2199.8.legacy.nptlsmp)
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: eax: 00000000 ebx: cb3684a0 ecx: cb3684ac edx: 00000000
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: esi: c578d284 edi: c9e22804 ebp: f34c4000 esp: d357ff28
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: ds: 0068 es: 0068 ss: 0068
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: Process inma (pid: 7827, stackpage=d357f000)
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: Stack: cb3684a0 c0376f70 00100011 c0122cf0 cb3684a0 f34c4000 c578cdbc 00000000
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: bfea8784 bfea8770 f34c40d0 fffffff4 00100011 00000000 00a587d8 bfea8970
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: c01231be 00100011 bfea8810 d357ffc4 00000000 bfea8830 00a587d8 00000000
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: Call Trace: [copy_process+1664/2816] copy_process [kernel] 0x680 (0xd357ff34)
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: Call Trace: [<c0122cf0>] copy_process [kernel] 0x680 (0xd357ff34)
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: [do_fork+78/368] do_fork [kernel] 0x4e (0xd357ff68)
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: [<c01231be>] do_fork [kernel] 0x4e (0xd357ff68)
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: [sys_rt_sigprocmask+227/512] sys_rt_sigprocmask [kernel] 0xe3 (0xd357ff90)
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: [<c0131c33>] sys_rt_sigprocmask [kernel] 0xe3 (0xd357ff90)
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: [sys_clone+73/96] sys_clone [kernel] 0x49 (0xd357ffa0)
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: [<c0107c09>] sys_clone [kernel] 0x49 (0xd357ffa0)
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: [system_call+51/56] system_call [kernel] 0x33 (0xd357ffc0)
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: [<c0109b77>] system_call [kernel] 0x33 (0xd357ffc0)
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel:
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel:
Mar 13 16:19:15 host kernel: Code: 89 50 04 89 02 c7 41 04 00 00 00 00 c7 43 0c 00 00 00 00 a1
Mar 14 08:23:38 host syslogd 1.4.1: restart (remote reception).

Try Testing RAM
 

Hello. My first thought would be that something is wrong with the RAM in your system. Try running a bootable memtest86 (http://www.memtest86.com/) test for a few hours and see if you get any errors.

If you have not changed the configuration of your system during this period, or installed updates to your software, I personally think this points more to a hardware issue.

Also, have you checked the hard drive(s) for errors?


Krasl