Subject: kernel panic...
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 11:35:20 +0100
From: d88-man@nada.kth.se
To: Linux-activists@joker.cs.hut.fi


I got a nasty kernel panic when using uemacs this morning:
Kernel panic: Trying to free up swapper memory space.
In swapper task - not syncing
Bug or not ? 
The scenario was a uemacs with 2 'windows', I had exited uemacs several times 
(with ^X^C) and used gas in between.
Although it doesnt't say much I wrote down the preceding infolines 
if they can be some clue:
EIP: 000f:67c4
EFLAGS: 13213
ESP: 17:23558
base: 0, limit: A0000
Stack: 0 ffc 13f 5412
Pid: 0, proc. nr: 00x07
 89 02 eb ef 8d 65 f8 5e 57 c1

The panic resulted in a corrupted CMOS too ! Which I recall somebody had
earlier.

/Mats Andersson (d88-man@nada.kth.se)

Subject: Easy way to report problems.
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 08:22:23 PST
From: pmacdona@sanjuan.UVic.CA (Peter MacDonald)
To: linux-activists@joker.cs.hut.fi


When 0.12 comes out, and you have a problem, like a panic,
you will be able to take a snapshot of the screen with 
setterm -dump n

No more will you have to laboriously transcribe all that information
on you screen.  And hopefully, accuracy will improve.

(That is, if screen dumping made it into .12?  Linus?)

Subject: Re: Easy way to report problems.
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 11:43:34 -0500
From: tytso@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Theodore Ts'o)
To: pmacdona@sanjuan.UVic.CA
Cc: linux-activists@joker.cs.hut.fi
In-Reply-To: Peter MacDonald's message of Mon, 13 Jan 92 08:22:23 PST,
Reply-To: tytso@athena.mit.edu

   Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 08:22:23 PST
   From: pmacdona@sanjuan.UVic.CA (Peter MacDonald)

   When 0.12 comes out, and you have a problem, like a panic,
   you will be able to take a snapshot of the screen with 
   setterm -dump n

Maybe I'm missing something obvious, but.....

After a panic, the Linux OS is looping in kernel mode, waiting for the
user to type the reboot key.  (No other processes are going to be able
to execute.)  How are you going to be able to do the setterm -dump n?

One comment: when people send in kernel crash reports, they should make
sure they specify which version of the kernel they are using.
Obviously, if you are using a kernel with patches, it's going to be very
difficult to figure out which routine was responsible by looking at the
EIP output.  Hopefully in the future, the kernel will be able do crash
dumps, and we will have crash dump analysis programs to figure out where
things actually were dying.

							- Ted