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A few days ago the power went out, and I don't have a UPS so my system went down as well. It's Debian etch with 2.6.18 kernel (i386) on a Pentium 4. I should mention that after I restart I need to manually `modprobe -r ehci-hcd' which is a workaround I've found to stop the kernel from randomly crashing because it doesn't like my USB hard disk (/dev/sdc).
Anyway, now after a day or so of uptime I check /var/log/messages and get a lot of things like
Code:
Feb 23 22:21:54 localhost kernel: c0149f2b
Feb 23 22:21:54 localhost kernel: Modules linked in: i915 drm binfmt_misc ppdev lp ipv6 nls_iso8859_1 nls_cp437 vfat fat dm_snapshot dm_mirror dm_mod ide_generic ide_disk parport_pc floppy i2c_i801 parport snd_hda_intel snd_hda_codec snd_pcm_oss snd_mixer_oss rtc psmouse serio_raw i2c_core usblp pcspkr snd_pcm snd_timer snd soundcore intel_agp agpgart snd_page_alloc tsdev evdev ext3 jbd usbhid sd_mod usb_storage ide_cd cdrom ata_piix libata scsi_mod piix e100 mii generic ide_core uhci_hcd usbcore thermal processor fan
Feb 23 22:21:54 localhost kernel: EIP: 0060:[<c0149f2b>] Not tainted VLI
Feb 23 22:21:54 localhost kernel: EFLAGS: 00010213 (2.6.18-3-486 #1)
Feb 23 22:21:54 localhost kernel: [<c0149fde>] try_to_free_buffers+0x44/0x6d
Feb 23 22:21:54 localhost kernel: [<c0139472>] shrink_inactive_list+0x42e/0x68b
Feb 23 22:21:54 localhost kernel: [<c01384ad>] __pagevec_release+0x15/0x1d
Feb 23 22:21:54 localhost kernel: [<c0138f8e>] shrink_active_list+0x307/0x30f
Feb 23 22:21:54 localhost kernel: [<c013977b>] shrink_zone+0xac/0xce
Feb 23 22:21:54 localhost kernel: [<c0139ba9>] kswapd+0x24e/0x34b
Feb 23 22:21:54 localhost kernel: [<c0122cd3>] autoremove_wake_function+0x0/0x2d
Feb 23 22:21:54 localhost kernel: [<c013995b>] kswapd+0x0/0x34b
Feb 23 22:21:54 localhost kernel: [<c0122b74>] kthread+0xaf/0xdb
Feb 23 22:21:54 localhost kernel: [<c0122ac5>] kthread+0x0/0xdb
Feb 23 22:21:54 localhost kernel: [<c0101005>] kernel_thread_helper+0x5/0xb
And shortly after
Code:
Feb 23 23:51:10 localhost kernel: <1>BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000024
Feb 23 23:51:10 localhost kernel: f891fc58
Feb 23 23:51:10 localhost kernel: Modules linked in: i915 drm binfmt_misc ppdev lp ipv6 nls_iso8859_1 nls_cp437 vfat fat dm_snapshot dm_mirror dm_mod ide_generic ide_disk parport_pc floppy i2c_i801 parport snd_hda_intel snd_hda_codec snd_pcm_oss snd_mixer_oss rtc psmouse serio_raw i2c_core usblp pcspkr snd_pcm snd_timer snd soundcore intel_agp agpgart snd_page_alloc tsdev evdev ext3 jbd usbhid sd_mod usb_storage ide_cd cdrom ata_piix libata scsi_mod piix e100 mii generic ide_core uhci_hcd usbcore thermal processor fan
Feb 23 23:51:10 localhost kernel: EIP: 0060:[<f891fc58>] Not tainted VLI
Feb 23 23:51:10 localhost kernel: EFLAGS: 00010246 (2.6.18-3-486 #1)
Feb 23 23:51:10 localhost kernel: [<f891fdf6>] journal_put_journal_head+0x4d/0x59 [jbd]
Feb 23 23:51:10 localhost kernel: [<f891ceff>] journal_invalidatepage+0x194/0x24b [jbd]
Feb 23 23:51:10 localhost kernel: [<c0149cff>] do_invalidatepage+0x19/0x1b
Feb 23 23:51:10 localhost kernel: [<c0138903>] truncate_complete_page+0x18/0x38
Feb 23 23:51:10 localhost kernel: [<c01389ca>] truncate_inode_pages_range+0xa7/0x24c
Feb 23 23:51:10 localhost kernel: [<f89513b4>] ext3_delete_inode+0x0/0xba [ext3]
Feb 23 23:51:10 localhost kernel: [<c0138b78>] truncate_inode_pages+0x9/0xd
Feb 23 23:51:10 localhost kernel: [<f89513c7>] ext3_delete_inode+0x13/0xba [ext3]
Feb 23 23:51:10 localhost kernel: [<f89513b4>] ext3_delete_inode+0x0/0xba [ext3]
Feb 23 23:51:10 localhost kernel: [<c015c3ce>] generic_delete_inode+0x9d/0xf5
Feb 23 23:51:10 localhost kernel: [<c015bf02>] iput+0x5e/0x60
Feb 23 23:51:10 localhost kernel: [<c01556d5>] do_unlinkat+0xa7/0x116
Feb 23 23:51:10 localhost kernel: [<c011ad9d>] do_gettimeofday+0x2c/0xc2
Feb 23 23:51:10 localhost kernel: [<c0118222>] sys_gettimeofday+0x27/0x53
Feb 23 23:51:10 localhost kernel: [<c0102a47>] syscall_call+0x7/0xb
and
Code:
Feb 24 04:25:02 localhost kernel: <1>BUG: unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 1303599d
Feb 24 04:25:02 localhost kernel: c015af75
Feb 24 04:25:02 localhost kernel: Modules linked in: i915 drm binfmt_misc ppdev lp ipv6 nls_iso8859_1 nls_cp437 vfat fat dm_snapshot dm_mirror dm_mod ide_generic ide_disk parport_pc floppy i2c_i801 parport snd_hda_intel snd_hda_codec snd_pcm_oss snd_mixer_oss rtc psmouse serio_raw i2c_core usblp pcspkr snd_pcm snd_timer snd soundcore intel_agp agpgart snd_page_alloc tsdev evdev ext3 jbd usbhid sd_mod usb_storage ide_cd cdrom ata_piix libata scsi_mod piix e100 mii generic ide_core uhci_hcd usbcore thermal processor fan
Feb 24 04:25:02 localhost kernel: EIP: 0060:[<c015af75>] Not tainted VLI
Feb 24 04:25:02 localhost kernel: EFLAGS: 00010202 (2.6.18-3-486 #1)
Feb 24 04:25:02 localhost kernel: [<c0153099>] do_lookup+0x24/0x135
Feb 24 04:25:02 localhost kernel: [<c0154b90>] __link_path_walk+0x734/0xba8
Feb 24 04:25:02 localhost kernel: [<c015504b>] link_path_walk+0x47/0xb9
Feb 24 04:25:02 localhost kernel: [<c0155370>] do_path_lookup+0x195/0x1b5
Feb 24 04:25:02 localhost kernel: [<c0155abb>] __user_walk_fd+0x2a/0x3f
Feb 24 04:25:02 localhost kernel: [<c0150008>] vfs_lstat_fd+0x12/0x39
Feb 24 04:25:02 localhost kernel: [<c0150074>] sys_lstat64+0xf/0x23
Feb 24 04:25:02 localhost kernel: [<c015b277>] dput+0x1a/0x10b
Feb 24 04:25:02 localhost kernel: [<c0149ad0>] __fput+0x10a/0x12d
Feb 24 04:25:02 localhost kernel: [<c015e2c8>] mntput_no_expire+0x11/0x59
Feb 24 04:25:02 localhost kernel: [<c014765a>] filp_close+0x4e/0x54
Feb 24 04:25:02 localhost kernel: [<c0102a47>] syscall_call+0x7/0xb
So far I've not been able to understand what is happening by searching for similar occurrences.
Any ideas are appreciated in helping me understand this,
well it's some sort of memory accessing error by the look of it, and some potentially useful debugging info. i'd guess there are acutally more messages above what you've typed though, which you've not shown us. might mean you have some dodgy ram, or there's a bug in the kernel you're running. if it's arisen from a crash, i'd be looking at the hardware myself.
Aside from the boot up messages, the rest are `-- MARK --'. I don't think it's hardware or a bad kernel, as I've been using both for quite a while. The uptime was at about ~70 days before the power went out with the same hardware and kernel, and never had any problems.
well sudden losses of power cause hardware problems. you aren't going get get a software bug arising froma power outage, that's for sure (until i'm corrected!). The errors say there are problems accessing pages of memory within the kernel, and memory is in RAM or swap...
I don't think it's hardware or a bad kernel, as I've been using both for quite a while.
Doesn't leave a lot of other options does it ???.
Power outage means hardware problems until proven otherwise. Have you done the basics - fsck (all partitions), memtest ???.
For me, having to "work around" a (presumably) on-board USB problem would be sounding alarm bells re the motherboard.
How you you test all the components on it ??? - you can't.
For a required system I'd replace it, and hope nothing else was broken as well.
I once lost everything due to lightning strike - mobo, 3 disks, DVD burner, video card. Only saved the floppy and a CD drive (and the memory surprisingly) - yes, I *had* a UPS.
Another occasion, only mobo went. I try to have at least 2 machines with the same motherboard, so I can swap components to isolate failures.
My machine worked without issues on 'old' dsitributions like mandriva 2006, ubuntu etc.
My problems began with new distro's like suse 10.2 , mandriva 2007, ubuntu 6.10 which had me worried about my machine being broken. My sessions would be very lucky to last as long as 1 hour without complete freezing and a flick of the power button. (the reason why I had cycled through so many distro's thinking that they were buggy - I was just trying to get a stable session!!!)
The other common thread with the freezing was that the new distro's were kernel-2.6.18.x, and I saw the "printing eip:" as a commonality. Since my printer is USB, I disabled the Parallel port in the machine's BIOS.
My machine now behaves flawlessly since disabling the parallel port.
I've got this worked out now. One of two 512 MB memory sticks had been damaged. I learned my lesson though, and when I was at the shop buying my replacement memory I picked up an APC UPS unit. A highly recommended investment!
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