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Date:      Sun, 30 Dec 2001 11:30:54 -0500 (EST)
From:      Brian McDonald <brian@lustygrapes.net>
To:        Chris Johnson <cjohnson@palomine.net>
Cc:        <stable@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: syslogd blocking => can't su to root
Message-ID:  <20011230111949.G2732-100000@nivomede.internal.lustygrapes.net>
In-Reply-To: <20011230081106.A98698@palomine.net>

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On Sun, 30 Dec 2001, Chris Johnson wrote:

> Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2001 08:11:06 -0500
> From: Chris Johnson <cjohnson@palomine.net>
> To: stable@FreeBSD.ORG
> Subject: syslogd blocking => can't su to root
>
[snip]
>
> I discovered this morning that I was unable to su to root, though I had been
> able to last night.  After I enter the password (whether it is correct or
> incorrect), su just hangs. This is on a FreeBSD 4.4-RELEASE box.

I've seen this on 4.1-RELEASE boxes as well.  Was hoping it would just go
away when I upgrade them to 4.5.  I noticed it when it blocked other
processes waiting for syslog, such as named.

[snip]
> Questions:
>
> 1. What might have caused this behavior? I've never seen it on any of the
> dozens of FreeBSD boxes I've administered over a period of several years.

Dunno.  In both cases, syslogd had been running for over 200+ days.
Perhaps there is a leak?  If you have it happening often, it might help to
ktrace syslogd or kill -6 it to get a core file.

> 2. Can I kill syslogd and restart it to solve my immediate problem?

I killed syslogd and removed /var/run/log (the socket).  I found that if I
didn't remove the socket file, it didn't always come back.

[snip]

> 4. Is there any way to fix the problem remotely? I suspect not, but I can have
> someone sit down at a console to fix it in a few days.

I didn't see anything obvious.  Normally syslog is so stable I wouldn't
worry about it, but restricting the ability to assume root and fix
problems because syslog isn't running correctly seems bad.  Mmmm, junior
hacker project..

Brian
-- 
Brian McDonald, MCP
Klein bottle for sale.  Inquire within.


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