From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri May 22 11:43:07 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AE26310656A3 for ; Fri, 22 May 2009 11:43:07 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dgl@dlee.org) Received: from mail.ff44a.com (mail.ff44a.com [64.127.120.100]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 948D38FC20 for ; Fri, 22 May 2009 11:43:07 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dgl@dlee.org) Received: from localhost (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by mail.ff44a.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id D438D7E4093; Fri, 22 May 2009 04:32:12 -0700 (PDT) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at mail.ff44a.com Received: from mail.ff44a.com ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (mail.ff44a.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id W5okD8DciyRP; Fri, 22 May 2009 04:32:02 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mini.local (pool-71-178-105-137.washdc.east.verizon.net [71.178.105.137]) by mail.ff44a.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id F0E837E4092; Fri, 22 May 2009 04:32:01 -0700 (PDT) Date: Fri, 22 May 2009 07:42:41 -0400 From: Doug Lee To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20090522114241.GA69281@mini.local> Mail-Followup-To: Doug Lee , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <20090517110657.GC2706@mini.local> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20090517110657.GC2706@mini.local> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.18 (2008-05-17) Subject: More info (was Re: 4.11 panic every 23 hours 55 minutes or so) X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 22 May 2009 11:43:08 -0000 On Sun, May 17, 2009 at 07:06:57AM -0400, Doug Lee wrote: > One of the weirder things I've seen in a while here... > > OS: FreeBSD 4.11 (yeah I know, old, but generally stable) > CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.00GHz > real memory = 536608768 (524032K bytes) > Hds: IDE > > Problem: Ever since a suspitious power outage (I say suspitious > because we think a surge was also involved), this box has been > exhibiting kernel panics about every 23 hours 55 minutes, give or > take about 4 minutes either way. Obviously hardware is suspect, > and hopefully in line for upgrade; but as FreeBSD has always proven > so stable for me, I'm curious what on earth could cause this sort > of regular panic? > > It's not time of day; if I reboot at 2:00 AM, 3:55 PM, or any other > time, it's 23:55 or so later I get a panic, whenever that may be. > I think this rules out cron jobs, external attacks, and load-based > issues. Update: I killed mysqld, four nfsiods, Apache2, mpd, and maybe a couple more no-longer-needed processes two mornings ago. I also disabled them at that time in rc.conf. the next morning, the system restarted with a panic as usual, BUT... This morning, on the first boot that never ran all those processes, I have not seen a restart yet, and we're at 1 day 1 hour as I speak. I looked in /var/at earlier in the week and never found any scheduled jobs. It shouldn't be Cron, since it's sensitive to boot time, not clock time. Is there some way one of those processes, like mysqld, could be scheduling an event to occur 24 hours after launch, without using `at', and without having to be running 24 hours later? Example: Could mysqld schedule something without `at' that will run 24 hours after mysqld starts even if mysqld is no longer running? Also, is it even possible that any process could cause a kernel-mode page fault without there being damaged hardware? Example: Could some mysql file be so corrupt that it would panic a perfectly fine machine? I should hope not, but I wonder. -- Doug Lee dgl@dlee.org http://www.dlee.org SSB BART Group doug.lee@ssbbartgroup.com http://www.ssbbartgroup.com "When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you." --African Proverb