Instability

July 07, 2009, 05:36:18 PM

#0

LoialOtter

LoialOtter

Show LoialOtter's last posts.

Show general stats for LoialOtter.

Super Hero
Posts: 13

Instability

I've also been having a problem with stability while doing some package management and installing things. Specifically, with the 2.6.25 kernel, while installing certain packages (libc6 and a few others) the cpu halts or freezes. With 2.6.30 kernel instead of freezing it sometimes dumps (I've attached one such dump)

I've seen it halt or crash while unpacking files from a debian file, untar'ing a file. I have seen it break on both on my USB ext3 filesystem as well as the jffs2 filesystem. I've also seen the same sort of problem with 2.6.25, 2.6.27 and 2.6.30 kernels compiled by both Glomation and myself. It also is the same on both GESBC-9260S boards I have.

I'm wondering if there's something in the setup that I'm missing.

I'm recompiling the kernel with more debug info and I'll see if I can figure out what's causing the crash. I'ld like to just make sure this hasn't already been figured out and fixed by someone else.

I've already checked my power and there is no changes on it and the power supply is rated for 2.5A

« Last Edit: July 07, 2009, 06:35:14 PM by LoialOtter »

GESBC-9260S_dump.txt (20.42 KB - downloaded 105 times.)

July 08, 2009, 10:00:48 AM

#1

admin

admin

Show admin's last posts.

Show general stats for admin.

Administrator
Super Hero
Posts: 342

Re: Instability

The log message indicated that you are unpacking Debian Armel package. Although it is possible to have ABI and EABI programs co-exist on the same root file system but more often it causes instability of the system if program/library are not well separated. Please use ABI package for the pre-packaged Debian file system. You should build a full EABI file system if you need to use Armel package.

July 08, 2009, 02:09:43 PM

#2

LoialOtter

LoialOtter

Show LoialOtter's last posts.

Show general stats for LoialOtter.

Super Hero
Posts: 13

Re: Instability

That's only because I was able to get a dump from the external filesystem. I have seen the same trouble on the internal filesystem with only 'arm' binaries.

July 08, 2009, 02:30:33 PM

#3

admin

admin

Show admin's last posts.

Show general stats for admin.

Administrator
Super Hero
Posts: 342

Re: Instability

The Debian unpacking tool does not check library compatibility and dependencies. The incompatible library or missing library also can contribute to system instability. Debian apt-get or aptitude tools should be used to add or remove packages. If you still have kernel oops when install/remove packages running the pre-packaged Debian file system then it could be hardware problem. But first try to eliminate other factors that might be the cause.

July 10, 2009, 04:56:31 AM

#4

LoialOtter

LoialOtter

Show LoialOtter's last posts.

Show general stats for LoialOtter.

Super Hero
Posts: 13

Re: Instability

I've carefully tested both boards. Both have the same issue so either I have two boards with the same exact hardware fault, or there's something else wrong here.

I've captured the latest core dump, this is from the 2.6.30 kernel found in the GPIO thread here. The filesystem is the rootfs available on the main site. No other modifications are done than to mount the /var/cache/apt directory as tmpfs and making the required directories in there.

If possible I'ld like other people to try installing libc6 and see if they have the same issue.

Attached is the dump.

KernelDump.txt (5 KB - downloaded 77 times.)

July 10, 2009, 07:33:50 AM

#5

admin

admin

Show admin's last posts.

Show general stats for admin.

Administrator
Super Hero
Posts: 342

Re: Instability

Updating a key library of a live system is not a trivia thing. You should try to boot up to a RAM disk image or something to update the library.

You may even need to rebuild the entire file system if you need a different version of glibc. There could be version compatibility problems when different version of library is used.

« Last Edit: July 10, 2009, 09:02:38 AM by admin »

July 10, 2009, 01:41:31 PM

#6

LoialOtter

LoialOtter

Show LoialOtter's last posts.

Show general stats for LoialOtter.

Super Hero
Posts: 13

Re: Instability

I get the same error while unpacking libc6 into a seperate directory. That should not cause any problems on a running system and yet it still crashes.

The kernel oops that i got this last time points towards an MMU or memory management issue, which would make more sence as the varying setups i've tested this on don't point to the file system at all.

I'm continuing working on tracking this down.

July 11, 2009, 03:10:05 AM

#7

LoialOtter

LoialOtter

Show LoialOtter's last posts.

Show general stats for LoialOtter.

Super Hero
Posts: 13

Re: Instability

I have no idea what the change was, but it was probably kernel related. My latest tests of the crash can't get the CPU to halt... it seems like it's fixed...

I'll test on my other board with this combination of rootfs and kernel and see if it also works.

Thanks for the help on the subject. Hopefully this'll continue working.