scp or transfers through nfs freezes my arch box

graysky · 2011-03-19 09:07:54

Recently, when I attempt to copy a file from my workstation to my "server", the server will hardlock within several megs of the transfer. This happens reproducibly with an scp command or through the nfsv4 shares. There is *nothing* that I can find in /var/log on the server that would indicate any sort of error.

$ scp archlinux-2010.05-core-dual.iso facade@mars:/media/share
archlinux-2010.05-core-dual.iso                                                 0% 3216KB  99.4KB/s - stalled -

Keyboard on the server is unresponsive; numlock/caplock lights are off and do not respond. Only way to get out of it is to hit the reset switch.

I thought maybe hdd problems but the disk passes a long test via smartctl; there are no SMART errors. Suggestions are welcomed

EDIT: If I boot to my live Arch CD on the server, install sshd and repeat the experiment, it copies successfully suggesting that my problem is not hardware based:

$ scp archlinux-2010.05-core-dual.iso arch@mars:/dev/shm
archlinux-2010.05-core-dual.iso                                               100%  554MB  50.4MB/s   00:11

Last edited by graysky (2011-03-19 09:20:53)

graysky · 2011-03-19 19:54:16

Even something as small as a two line script can take down the box. Using scp I moved, a 2-liner from the work station to the server which hard locked it in the process.

fr33ke · 2011-03-19 20:10:39

A hardlock is usually a kernel issue. I think you should first check if you didn't forget to recompile a kernel module. Then check if it works with a different kernel version, e.g. 2.6.38 from testing or kernel26-lts. That would give you some idea if it's fixed already, and when it broke.

If it's not fixed yet, search the kernel bugzilla and the kernel mailing list for bugs that look like yours, e.g. a hardlock with the same network card.

if you can't find a solution there, find the exact kernel version where it starts happening. Then do a git bisect, or look if you see a suspicious commit and try to revert it.

Of course the last step takes quite a lot of effort, especially if you're not used to compiling kernels, but when you file a bug the more useful information you have the quicker it gets fixed.

Dieter@be · 2011-03-19 21:03:13

do you also have an intel core system? i have this on my shuttle sh55j2 system with intel i3 cpu.

graysky · 2011-03-20 01:07:15

I tried it with kernel26 and kernel26-lts - same result. Yes, it's an Intel chip. C2D on a G45 board. Been running it this way for over a year flawlessly. I did a reinstall just for kicks and it does the same damn thing. I'm at a loss.

graysky · 2011-03-20 22:52:11

After tons of testing, I think the problem was something in the BIOS. Reloading the optimized defaults seemed to have fixed it (knocking on wood).

Arch Linux

#1 2011-03-19 09:07:54

scp or transfers through nfs freezes my arch box

#2 2011-03-19 19:54:16

Re: scp or transfers through nfs freezes my arch box

#3 2011-03-19 20:10:39

Re: scp or transfers through nfs freezes my arch box

#4 2011-03-19 21:03:13

Re: scp or transfers through nfs freezes my arch box

#5 2011-03-20 01:07:15

Re: scp or transfers through nfs freezes my arch box

#6 2011-03-20 22:52:11

Re: scp or transfers through nfs freezes my arch box

Board footer