[SOLVED] More kernel crashes. Kswapd

zero2cx · 2012-05-01 11:23:58

Hey, all. Each morning I'll run pacman -Syu after about 2 cups or so. Meanwhile, I'll be sipping and surfing pretty intensively. Okay, I do my update yesterday and it incudes a kernel update. The system reboots ok, but then the problems begin.

System freeze. Screen dump is just some blah-blah to me.
...note: kswapd0[17] exited...
...shrink_zone...
...Call Trace...
...kernel_thread_helper... You get the idea.

The system will lock up when I try anything that quickly ramps up my memory usage, e.g open chromium with three+ tabs, compile a big package from aur (even at runlevel 3). Locked, meaning frozen up tight and the same every time.
- unable to switch to (or from) a console terminal
- non-responsive keyboard/mouse (no caps/numlock response)
- ssh session from my hand device stopped dead
- if crashed in console, the error dump to screen -or-
- if crashed in openbox, conky mem-meters showing still-moderate memory usage
- hard reboot required

Each of the following successful diagnostic checks had brought my hopes up yesterday. Still, not long after each step, the same lock up.
- swap partition wiped, reformatted, remounted
- checked for bad blocks on swap partion: none
- swap partition relocated to external drive
- swappiness set low, set high, set back to defaults to no apparent effect
- deactive swap entirely
- memtest86+, 2 full passes. Each cycle: ok
- fresh arch install into a spare primary partition

The problem continues into two fresh installs.
- pacman -Syyu success post-install with the usual manual interventions
- futzing around with small stuff, all good
- building from any large aur package... LOCKS UP!

Before yesterday morning, this lightweight system with a 2 month old install was intensively used every day without a single hard reboot, ever. I've seen more than a dozen identical (Kswapd) freezes since yesterday.

I'm now inwardly re-enacting the printer scene from the movie Office Space. "Damn. It's good to be a gangster", oh-ee-ooh.

I am out of ideas, please share if you have any. Thank you.

grub:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/sda1 ro lapic

pacman.log immediately prior to first freeze:

[2012-04-30 10:35] Running 'pacman-color -Syyu'
[2012-04-30 10:35] synchronizing package lists
[2012-04-30 10:35] starting full system upgrade
[2012-04-30 10:40] upgraded automake (1.11.5-1 -> 1.12-1)
[2012-04-30 10:40] upgraded inetutils (1.9.1-1 -> 1.9.1-2)
[2012-04-30 10:40] upgraded libusb (1.0.8-2 -> 1.0.9-1)
[2012-04-30 10:40] upgraded libxfce4util (4.8.2-1 -> 4.10.0-1)
[2012-04-30 10:40] upgraded xfconf (4.8.1-1 -> 4.10.0-1)
[2012-04-30 10:40] upgraded libxfce4ui (4.8.1-1 -> 4.10.0-1)
[2012-04-30 10:42] >>> Updating module dependencies. Please wait ...
[2012-04-30 10:43] >>> Generating initial ramdisk, using mkinitcpio.  Please wait...
[2012-04-30 10:43] ==> Building image from preset: 'default'
[2012-04-30 10:43]   -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/initramfs-linux.img
[2012-04-30 10:43] ==> Starting build: 3.3.4-1-ARCH
[2012-04-30 10:43]   -> Parsing hook: [base]
[2012-04-30 10:43]   -> Parsing hook: [udev]
[2012-04-30 10:43]   -> Parsing hook: [autodetect]
[2012-04-30 10:43]   -> Parsing hook: [pata]
[2012-04-30 10:43]   -> Parsing hook: [scsi]
[2012-04-30 10:43]   -> Parsing hook: [sata]
[2012-04-30 10:43]   -> Parsing hook: [filesystems]
[2012-04-30 10:43]   -> Parsing hook: [usbinput]
[2012-04-30 10:43]   -> Parsing hook: [fsck]
[2012-04-30 10:43] ==> Generating module dependencies
[2012-04-30 10:43] ==> Creating gzip initcpio image: /boot/initramfs-linux.img
[2012-04-30 10:43] ==> Image generation successful
[2012-04-30 10:43] ==> Building image from preset: 'fallback'
[2012-04-30 10:43]   -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img -S autodetect
[2012-04-30 10:43] ==> Starting build: 3.3.4-1-ARCH
[2012-04-30 10:43]   -> Parsing hook: [base]
[2012-04-30 10:43]   -> Parsing hook: [udev]
[2012-04-30 10:43]   -> Parsing hook: [pata]
[2012-04-30 10:43]   -> Parsing hook: [scsi]
[2012-04-30 10:43]   -> Parsing hook: [sata]
[2012-04-30 10:43]   -> Parsing hook: [filesystems]
[2012-04-30 10:44]   -> Parsing hook: [usbinput]
[2012-04-30 10:44]   -> Parsing hook: [fsck]
[2012-04-30 10:44] ==> Generating module dependencies
[2012-04-30 10:44] ==> Creating gzip initcpio image: /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img
[2012-04-30 10:44] ==> Image generation successful
[2012-04-30 10:44] upgraded linux (3.3.3-1 -> 3.3.4-1)
[2012-04-30 10:44] upgraded mdadm (3.2.3-1 -> 3.2.3-2)
[2012-04-30 10:44] upgraded openssh (6.0p1-1 -> 6.0p1-2)
[2012-04-30 10:44] upgraded vim-runtime (7.3.495-2 -> 7.3.495-3)
[2012-04-30 10:44] upgraded vim (7.3.495-2 -> 7.3.495-3)
[2012-04-30 10:45] upgraded xfce4-notifyd (0.2.2-2 -> 0.2.2-3)

My logs are revealing nothing to me, so here's a stupid phone picture:
http://imgur.com/slhm7

P.S. I am not convinced this is a duplicate issue to what others are reporting. If a mod judges this to be a dupe, please delete. Let me know and I'll repost in the proper thread. Again, thanks.

Last edited by zero2cx (2012-05-01 19:04:18)

hadrons123 · 2012-05-01 17:18:18

does downgrading the kernel help?

nierro · 2012-05-01 18:31:12

Install linux-lts, and you will be sure everything will be ok!
and...have a look here! https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=140635

zero2cx · 2012-05-01 18:51:09

So far, no crashes after the downgrade today (3.3.4-1 -> 3.3.3-1).

Compiling today does not even result in any intense swapping activity.

# sysctl vm.swappiness
vm.swappiness = 60

Here is the peaking moment of swap utilization while compiling. I don't recall exactly what these numbers where yesterday.

# free -m
             total        used       free      shared      buffers      cached
Mem:          499          493          5           0            0         354
-/+ buffers/cache:         137        361
Swap:         486           83        402

Thanks for the guidance.

[EDIT]: Things are very clearly different today. The kernel downgrade did it for me. I'll mark this topic [SOLVED]. Thanks a bunch.

[EDIT2]: The commenters at https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/29694 are offering details that may help someone here.

Last edited by zero2cx (2012-05-01 20:40:54)

Arch Linux

#1 2012-05-01 11:23:58

[SOLVED] More kernel crashes. Kswapd

#2 2012-05-01 17:18:18

Re: [SOLVED] More kernel crashes. Kswapd

#3 2012-05-01 18:31:12

Re: [SOLVED] More kernel crashes. Kswapd

#4 2012-05-01 18:51:09

Re: [SOLVED] More kernel crashes. Kswapd

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