[solved] kernel 3.11.6 panicing

Sanjeev K Sharma · 2013-10-25 19:22:48

[solution] : it was virtualbox 4.3 - see bottom comment [/solution]

got this several times in the last few days (I upgraded Wednesday after submitting an assignment) with linux-3.11.6-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz

selected parts:

kernel bug at mm/vmalloc.c:1310
invalid opcode: 0000 [#2] PREEMPT SMP
...
Call Trace:
_vmalloc_node_range+0x70/0x250
...
retint_signal+0x48/0x8c
Code: 00  00 00 0f bd cf 83 c1 01 83 f9 0c 0f 4c c8 b0 13 83 f9 13 0f 4f c8 49 d3 e4 39 fb fe ff ff 4c 82 ff
RIP [<ffffffff8116b498>] __get_vm_area_node+0x158/0x160
  RSP <ffff8805df4b3a30>
---[  end trace 
...
Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt

I typed up the top line & last few lines of the Call trace

happened in different programs but the same mm/vmalloc location. I only starting paying close attention after the 2nd time - The programs have been network related.

I hope this is not my new hardware going bad, and I don't think it is - the times I had memory issues and other times CPU issues the faults/OOPS were all over the place.

FYI - maybe one post will encourage others to report if this is happening to them.
I didn't find this reported recently on google for intel i7. It's there for ARM though (edit: not recent either).

I just downgraded to the previous kernel, so good so far ... but it didn't happen immediately with the most recent kernel so the story's not done.

Last edited by Sanjeev K Sharma (2013-11-05 21:11:03)

cfr · 2013-10-26 02:08:45

Have you reported it if it's a bug?

Sanjeev K Sharma · 2013-10-26 03:30:10

cfr wrote:

Have you reported it if it's a bug?

I was hoping other reports would come in and make it useful, but I Can't rule out my own hardware yet (although I saw nothing hardware specific in the traces), don't know how to trigger this ... could anyone upstream use this productively as a bug report?

cfr · 2013-10-26 03:38:05

I was thinking more if downgrading the kernel worked, that would indicate some sort of regression. But I don't really know what you need for it to be useful...

Sanjeev K Sharma · 2013-10-26 21:07:36

just happened again with the downgraded kernel (the kernel that did nothing funny for the 3 or 4 weeks I used it), so it looks like it's my own hardware acting up

cfr · 2013-10-26 23:13:58

You could try running another distro live to see if you can reproduce the problem. Or even install one if you have the space. Just in case something other than the kernel update is responsible.

WonderWoofy · 2013-10-26 23:19:27

cfr wrote:

You could try running another distro live to see if you can reproduce the problem. Or even install one if you have the space. Just in case something other than the kernel update is responsible.

One of those super tiny distributions might be a good test if you don't have a whole bunch of space... like puppy or tiny core.

If by chance you use btrfs, you can also just make a new subvol to install to as well. This is what I do when i want to test thigns out.

Sanjeev K Sharma · 2013-10-27 02:38:45

Thanks for your time & consideration folks, I'm coming up to a crunch period with work projects due & exams right after that. If this machine worsens any I'll set up a new one & let this one rot for 2 months before I can spend much time debugging it.

Sanjeev K Sharma · 2013-10-27 04:57:11

OK, looks like I'll be setting this up once I get a big block of time

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Kdump

Some other resources I found: - I found the firewire stuff especially interesting. Off to sleep & then Sunday overtime at work ...

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 1#p1341901

Sanjeev K Sharma · 2013-10-29 14:17:44

update: took the time & the risk of failing & used a day to set this up

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Kdump

and it works but only when I panic the kernel manually. when the kernel panics itself the dump capture kernel doesn't load. Will report more as it happens.

Sanjeev K Sharma · 2013-11-02 15:16:28

update:
I got kdump running and it wouldn't work ... the capture kernel comes up when I manually panic the system kernel but not when the kernel panics by itself.

Anyway, I also realized my mobo had an old BIOS. I updated the bios and have had no panics since then.

If this is indeed the solution (if the flaky hardware is not playing with my mind) I have no idea why I ran fine for 2 months (the age of this machine) with no panics.

WonderWoofy · 2013-11-02 20:11:55

Sometimes the bios' acpi implementation is only held to the "good enough for windows" standard. So as linux evolves and improves, while still actually sticking to the real standards, the funny bugs of a system can start to rear their ugly heads. Not sure if this is the case for you, but it is a possibility.

Sanjeev K Sharma · 2013-11-05 18:12:38

happened again, but not kernel panics ... hard lockups with the audio looping over the last 2 second sample. dang ... I swear vitualbox was never part of the stack traces - the virtualbox modules were listed in the module list but the stack backtrace mentioned network stuff or disk stuff. Then I found this, and since downgrading to virtualbox 4.2 I've had no issues.

https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/37432

I'll upgrade to virtualbox 4.3 when reports come in that it's completely fixed.

WonderWoofy · 2013-11-05 21:07:28

I just want to note that whenever you create a thread about a given package, and particularly when it is about the linux package, it is a very good idea to include the version in your title. "Latest kernel" is not going to apply very shortly here, as 3.11.7 is now out, and we should be looking at updating to 3.12 sometime in the not too distant future.

I encourage you to change your title to more accurately reflect your issue to not only be applicable now, but in the future as well.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-10-25 19:22:48

[solved] kernel 3.11.6 panicing

#2 2013-10-26 02:08:45

Re: [solved] kernel 3.11.6 panicing

#3 2013-10-26 03:30:10

Re: [solved] kernel 3.11.6 panicing

#4 2013-10-26 03:38:05

Re: [solved] kernel 3.11.6 panicing

#5 2013-10-26 21:07:36

Re: [solved] kernel 3.11.6 panicing

#6 2013-10-26 23:13:58

Re: [solved] kernel 3.11.6 panicing

#7 2013-10-26 23:19:27

Re: [solved] kernel 3.11.6 panicing

#8 2013-10-27 02:38:45

Re: [solved] kernel 3.11.6 panicing

#9 2013-10-27 04:57:11

Re: [solved] kernel 3.11.6 panicing

#10 2013-10-29 14:17:44

Re: [solved] kernel 3.11.6 panicing

#11 2013-11-02 15:16:28

Re: [solved] kernel 3.11.6 panicing

#12 2013-11-02 20:11:55

Re: [solved] kernel 3.11.6 panicing

#13 2013-11-05 18:12:38

Re: [solved] kernel 3.11.6 panicing

#14 2013-11-05 21:07:28

Re: [solved] kernel 3.11.6 panicing

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