Arch Linux

acura

Member

Registered: 2007-07-08

Posts: 21

Global segmentation fault?

Sometimes I get global lockups. All programs running freezes, except my WM. Can change virtual desktop and window focus.
After these freezes the filesystem is kind of inaccessible. I can most times list files I think, but cannot write to disk. Can write to tmpfs.
Some programs start to crash after the freeze. Like firefox. But xterm+bash runs. If I from bash tries to run any program i just get an segmentation fault.
So it seems like things loaded into memory runs fine.

So I would guess that it is some kind of failing harddrive. It is a SSD drive.
Using smartmontools and running:
smartctl -t long /dev/sda
smartctl -H /dev/sda

Reports:
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

So from there I am a bit clueless what I can test further.

Maybe I should also run a memtest, but the harddrive would be my first guess.

So, any recommendations before getting a new harddrive?

MightyPork

Member

From: Prague, Czech Republic

Registered: 2014-06-16

Posts: 93

Website

Re: Global segmentation fault?

Sometimes I get global lockups. All programs running freezes, except my WM. Can change virtual desktop and window focus.
After these freezes the filesystem is kind of inaccessible. I can most times list files I think, but cannot write to disk. Can write to tmpfs.
Some programs start to crash after the freeze. Like firefox. But xterm+bash runs. If I from bash tries to run any program i just get an segmentation fault.
So it seems like things loaded into memory runs fine.

Have you checked memory/swap usage when this happens? I've had weird freezes when something
decided to eat up all available memory... just guessing.

Certainly this is not a segfault, segfault = abrupt and total crash of the application. There wouldn't be
anything left, no frozen windows and such. And "global segfault" would equal kernel panic, you don't
have that either (it's a complete freeze with flashing keyboard LEDs).

Last edited by MightyPork (2015-07-30 09:33:52)

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If it ain't broke, pacman -Syyu and it will be

acura

Member

Registered: 2007-07-08

Posts: 21

Re: Global segmentation fault?

Sometimes I get global lockups. All programs running freezes, except my WM. Can change virtual desktop and window focus.
After these freezes the filesystem is kind of inaccessible. I can most times list files I think, but cannot write to disk. Can write to tmpfs.
Some programs start to crash after the freeze. Like firefox. But xterm+bash runs. If I from bash tries to run any program i just get an segmentation fault.
So it seems like things loaded into memory runs fine.

Have you checked memory/swap usage when this happens? I've had weird freezes when something
decided to eat up all available memory... just guessing.

Certainly this is not a segfault, segfault = abrupt and total crash of the application. There wouldn't be
anything left, no frozen windows and such. And "global segfault" would equal kernel panic, you don't
have that either (it's a complete freeze with flashing keyboard LEDs).

It might have something to do with full memory+swap. Last time it happened I was running Virtual Box with Windows XP and firefox, this is kind of a low usage situation. But I maybe I should close Virtual Box when not needed.

You are right, it has nothing to do with a segfault. Just called it that because that is kind of what happens afterwards. All programs I try to start afterwards segfaults, even the smallest programs like ls and cat.