problems writing to swap (kernel fault?)

wroot · 2007-04-13 10:54:23

I have problems with my server, actually old IBM desktop Vista, P4 256MB RAM. I have installed it with 0.8 Beta installer (Auto-partition). So cfdisk output is:

cfdisk 2.12r

Disk Drive: /dev/sda
Size: 40016019456 bytes, 40.0 GB
Heads: 255 Sectors per Track: 63 Cylinders: 4865

Name Flags Part Type FS Type [Label] Size (MB)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sda1 Boot, NC Primary Linux ext2 1052.84
sda2 Primary Linux swap / Solaris 1052.84
sda3 Primary Linux ext3 7871.60
sda4 Primary Linux ext3 30038.73

I'm running IM server (Openfire) which is written in java, so i have jre. It's only CLI, iptables, ssh, openfire. After booting everything works fine, applications are fitting in RAM, but after some time server starts to react very slow. I mean, IM server (which is already loaded) is running fine. But i cant do anything with OS (ssh or launching other programs like mc), and i cant install plugins in Openfire, probably because i need more RAM for this and it has to be written to swap.

I have posted this problem in Openfire forum and some people are thinking that maybe it's a kernel problem. Because of such error in logs: "swapper: page allocation failure".

I have a lot of logs posted in that other thread, so i dont know do i have to copy-paste them here. Maybe i'll just give you a link: http://www.igniterealtime.org/forum/thr … 07&#144207

i'm using 2.6 kernel (was using it with older PC for 2 years without problems, migrated to udev and mkinitcpio, and it was working fine). I'm keeping my system up2date with pacman -Syu. So i upgrade kernel. havent installed any specific drivers or else. Just base install. It was working fine before, so i thought this will do.

Any ideas? I could miss something really simple, i'm not an advanced linux user. Is it kernel? Should i try 2.4 instead? It could be hardware malfunction, i will check hdd and memory once more, but it was fine before installing Arch.

Thanks

Sigi · 2007-04-13 11:28:34

I don't have any logs or a real proof but my laptop system (IBM T43) with an up2date arch (with testing enabled) started to behave exactly like you discribe two weeks ago. I have 512MB RAM and a 1GB swap partition and the systems becomes irresponsible in the moment swap is needed/used. I first thought it was a firefox bug (because it appeared first while browsing the web) but it also happend without firefox running. I haven't had the problem since I upgraded to kernel26ck version 2.6.20.6. I hope it was a kernel bug and never happens again...

Cheers Sigi

wroot · 2007-04-13 13:32:27

Sigi wrote:

I haven't had the problem since I upgraded to kernel26ck version 2.6.20.6.

What do you mean by kernel26ck? Is it from testing repository? I havent used testing before. Now i'm installing kernel26-2.6.20.6-4 Will see.

wroot · 2007-04-13 13:36:14

i totally forgot about this error. It was fine always, and before 2 weeks maybe after kernel upgrade it started to show this when i run lilo

[root@jiveserver jive]# lilo
/proc/misc: No entry for device-mapper found
Is device-mapper driver missing from kernel?
Failure to communicate with kernel device-mapper driver.
Added arch *
Added arch-fallback

Sigi · 2007-04-13 13:40:52

Make sure to back up your /etc Dir if you upgrade all packages in [testing]. I heard the newest filesystem-package causes some problems...

edit: kernel26ck

Last edited by Sigi (2007-04-13 13:41:49)

wroot · 2007-04-16 12:46:55

any more ideas? cause it still happening, swpd is 0 always.

wroot · 2007-04-18 05:44:45

wroot wrote:

[root@jiveserver jive]# lilo
/proc/misc: No entry for device-mapper found
Is device-mapper driver missing from kernel?
Failure to communicate with kernel device-mapper driver.
Added arch *
Added arch-fallback

fixe that with
modprobe dm-mod

and probably this is not related

wroot · 2007-04-20 11:58:46

so, i'm getting suggestions to try to find kernel without preempt. Is there such arch-kernel option? Or should i compile it by myself?

Arch Linux

#1 2007-04-13 10:54:23

problems writing to swap (kernel fault?)

#2 2007-04-13 11:28:34

Re: problems writing to swap (kernel fault?)

#3 2007-04-13 13:32:27

Re: problems writing to swap (kernel fault?)

#4 2007-04-13 13:36:14

Re: problems writing to swap (kernel fault?)

#5 2007-04-13 13:40:52

Re: problems writing to swap (kernel fault?)

#6 2007-04-16 12:46:55

Re: problems writing to swap (kernel fault?)

#7 2007-04-18 05:44:45

Re: problems writing to swap (kernel fault?)

#8 2007-04-20 11:58:46

Re: problems writing to swap (kernel fault?)

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