Bug 12785

Reply-To: akpm@linux-foundation.org


(switched to email.  Please respond via emailed reply-to-all, not via the
bugzilla web interface).

(uh-oh)

On Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:20:46 -0800 (PST) bugme-daemon@bugzilla.kernel.org wrote:

> http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12785
> 
>            Summary: kswapd block the whole system by IO blaster in some case
>            Product: Memory Management
>            Version: 2.5
>      KernelVersion: 2.6.28.4
>           Platform: All
>         OS/Version: Linux
>               Tree: Mainline
>             Status: NEW
>           Severity: low
>           Priority: P1
>          Component: Other
>         AssignedTo: akpm@osdl.org
>         ReportedBy: crackevil@gmail.com
> 
> 
> Distribution:debian lenny with some experimental packages
> Hardware Environment:ThinkPad SL 400 7DC with 2G memery
> Software Environment:no swap partition,kernel with 4G memery support
> Problem Description:
> Some day, my box dived into a block while HDLED was blinking.
> I switched to console from gdm, tried iotop by long waiting and found the
> killer was kswapd.
> In "top" output, free memory is almost 50M.The most memory is cached by swap.
> The system blocked even shutdown command wasn't effective.The box had been
> killed by pressing then power button.
> BTW, there was no network available then, so there was no attack possibility.
> 
> I'd like to attach my kernel config file, but I don't know how to.For someone
> interesting, we may transfer the file my mail.crackevil@gmail.com
> 
> ps:these experimental packages installed
> 
> libdrm2_2.4.4+git+20090205+8b88036-1_i386.deb
> libdrm-dev_2.4.4+git+20090205+8b88036-1_i386.deb
> libdrm-intel1_2.4.4+git+20090205+8b88036-1_i386.deb
> libdrm-nouveau1_2.4.4+git+20090205+8b88036-1_i386.deb
> libgl1-mesa-dev_7.3-1_all.deb
> libgl1-mesa-dri_7.3-1_i386.deb
> libgl1-mesa-glx_7.3-1_i386.deb
> libglu1-mesa_7.3-1_i386.deb
> mesa-common-dev_7.3-1_all.deb
> mesa-utils_7.3-1_i386.deb
> xserver-common_2%3a1.5.99.902-1_all.deb
> xserver-xorg-core_2%3a1.5.99.902-1_i386.deb
> xkb-data_1.5-2_all.deb
> 
> 

> 
> (switched to email.  Please respond via emailed reply-to-all, not via the
> bugzilla web interface).
> 
> (uh-oh)
> 
> On Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:20:46 -0800 (PST) bugme-daemon@bugzilla.kernel.org
> wrote:
> 
> > http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12785
> > 
> >            Summary: kswapd block the whole system by IO blaster in some
> case
> >            Product: Memory Management
> >            Version: 2.5
> >      KernelVersion: 2.6.28.4
> >           Platform: All
> >         OS/Version: Linux
> >               Tree: Mainline
> >             Status: NEW
> >           Severity: low
> >           Priority: P1
> >          Component: Other
> >         AssignedTo: akpm@osdl.org
> >         ReportedBy: crackevil@gmail.com
> > 
> > 
> > Distribution:debian lenny with some experimental packages

As far as I know, lenny (debian 5.0) use kernel 2.6.26.
then, recently changed code don't provide any hint.

Martin, if remove experimental package, do you still see the same issue?



> > Hardware Environment:ThinkPad SL 400 7DC with 2G memery
> > Software Environment:no swap partition,kernel with 4G memery support
> > Problem Description:
> > Some day, my box dived into a block while HDLED was blinking.
> > I switched to console from gdm, tried iotop by long waiting and found the
> > killer was kswapd.
> > In "top" output, free memory is almost 50M.The most memory is cached by
> swap.
> > The system blocked even shutdown command wasn't effective.The box had been
> > killed by pressing then power button.
> > BTW, there was no network available then, so there was no attack
> possibility.
> > 
> > I'd like to attach my kernel config file, but I don't know how to.For
> someone
> > interesting, we may transfer the file my mail.crackevil@gmail.com
> > 
> > ps:these experimental packages installed
> > 
> > libdrm2_2.4.4+git+20090205+8b88036-1_i386.deb
> > libdrm-dev_2.4.4+git+20090205+8b88036-1_i386.deb
> > libdrm-intel1_2.4.4+git+20090205+8b88036-1_i386.deb
> > libdrm-nouveau1_2.4.4+git+20090205+8b88036-1_i386.deb
> > libgl1-mesa-dev_7.3-1_all.deb
> > libgl1-mesa-dri_7.3-1_i386.deb
> > libgl1-mesa-glx_7.3-1_i386.deb
> > libglu1-mesa_7.3-1_i386.deb
> > mesa-common-dev_7.3-1_all.deb
> > mesa-utils_7.3-1_i386.deb
> > xserver-common_2%3a1.5.99.902-1_all.deb
> > xserver-xorg-core_2%3a1.5.99.902-1_i386.deb
> > xkb-data_1.5-2_all.deb
> > 
> > 
> 

Those experimental packages have been in use for 2 months, this issue
just occured and just once.
I think it's quite unexpectly random. Even in the same environment, I
can't make that issue alive again.

Today I'll look through the logs. Maybe in the syslog I can find
something valuable while other logs like dmesg, messages, kern.log,
etc have been found useless.

On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 1:48 PM, KOSAKI Motohiro
<kosaki.motohiro@jp.fujitsu.com> wrote:
>>
>> (switched to email.  Please respond via emailed reply-to-all, not via the
>> bugzilla web interface).
>>
>> (uh-oh)
>>
>> On Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:20:46 -0800 (PST) bugme-daemon@bugzilla.kernel.org
>> wrote:
>>
>> > http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12785
>> >
>> >            Summary: kswapd block the whole system by IO blaster in some
>> case
>> >            Product: Memory Management
>> >            Version: 2.5
>> >      KernelVersion: 2.6.28.4
>> >           Platform: All
>> >         OS/Version: Linux
>> >               Tree: Mainline
>> >             Status: NEW
>> >           Severity: low
>> >           Priority: P1
>> >          Component: Other
>> >         AssignedTo: akpm@osdl.org
>> >         ReportedBy: crackevil@gmail.com
>> >
>> >
>> > Distribution:debian lenny with some experimental packages
>
> As far as I know, lenny (debian 5.0) use kernel 2.6.26.
> then, recently changed code don't provide any hint.
>
> Martin, if remove experimental package, do you still see the same issue?
>
>
>
>> > Hardware Environment:ThinkPad SL 400 7DC with 2G memery
>> > Software Environment:no swap partition,kernel with 4G memery support
>> > Problem Description:
>> > Some day, my box dived into a block while HDLED was blinking.
>> > I switched to console from gdm, tried iotop by long waiting and found the
>> > killer was kswapd.
>> > In "top" output, free memory is almost 50M.The most memory is cached by
>> swap.
>> > The system blocked even shutdown command wasn't effective.The box had been
>> > killed by pressing then power button.
>> > BTW, there was no network available then, so there was no attack
>> possibility.
>> >
>> > I'd like to attach my kernel config file, but I don't know how to.For
>> someone
>> > interesting, we may transfer the file my mail.crackevil@gmail.com
>> >
>> > ps:these experimental packages installed
>> >
>> > libdrm2_2.4.4+git+20090205+8b88036-1_i386.deb
>> > libdrm-dev_2.4.4+git+20090205+8b88036-1_i386.deb
>> > libdrm-intel1_2.4.4+git+20090205+8b88036-1_i386.deb
>> > libdrm-nouveau1_2.4.4+git+20090205+8b88036-1_i386.deb
>> > libgl1-mesa-dev_7.3-1_all.deb
>> > libgl1-mesa-dri_7.3-1_i386.deb
>> > libgl1-mesa-glx_7.3-1_i386.deb
>> > libglu1-mesa_7.3-1_i386.deb
>> > mesa-common-dev_7.3-1_all.deb
>> > mesa-utils_7.3-1_i386.deb
>> > xserver-common_2%3a1.5.99.902-1_all.deb
>> > xserver-xorg-core_2%3a1.5.99.902-1_i386.deb
>> > xkb-data_1.5-2_all.deb
>> >
>> >
>>
>
>
>
>

On Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:29:18 -0800
Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> wrote:

> 
> (switched to email.  Please respond via emailed reply-to-all, not via the
> bugzilla web interface).
> 
> (uh-oh)
> 
> On Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:20:46 -0800 (PST) bugme-daemon@bugzilla.kernel.org
> wrote:
> 
> > http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12785
> > 
> >            Summary: kswapd block the whole system by IO blaster in some
> case
> >            Product: Memory Management
> >            Version: 2.5
> >      KernelVersion: 2.6.28.4
> >           Platform: All
> >         OS/Version: Linux
> >               Tree: Mainline
> >             Status: NEW
> >           Severity: low
> >           Priority: P1
> >          Component: Other
> >         AssignedTo: akpm@osdl.org
> >         ReportedBy: crackevil@gmail.com
> > 
> > 
> > Distribution:debian lenny with some experimental packages
> > Hardware Environment:ThinkPad SL 400 7DC with 2G memery
> > Software Environment:no swap partition,kernel with 4G memery support
> > Problem Description:
> > Some day, my box dived into a block while HDLED was blinking.
> > I switched to console from gdm, tried iotop by long waiting and found the
> > killer was kswapd.
> > In "top" output, free memory is almost 50M.The most memory is cached by
> swap.
> > The system blocked even shutdown command wasn't effective.The box had been
> > killed by pressing then power button.

BTW, pages can be SwapCache even when there are no swap partition ?

Thanks,
-Kame

Martin, 

did that happen again ?

it`s a little bit weird how kwsapd can be an i/o killer when there is no swap attached. 

if this is not reproducible, then it`s almost impossible to debug this problem. 

holding this bugreport open is just a waste of time then...

@Kame:
>BTW, pages can be SwapCache even when there are no swap partition ?
i think that was just misinterpretation of top output, as "cached" appears in the line were swap information (total/used/free) is also displayed.

regards
roland

Roland,
when it happened, kswapd made my CPU too busy so that made a system dead. I
think memory in system maybe informative so I add some memory, so I didn't
mean it caused by no swap attached. actually I think on the spot, kswapd was
trapped into a dead loop :)-
since it never happened again, I'll close this bug report.
thank you

On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 3:22 AM, <bugzilla-daemon@bugzilla.kernel.org>wrote:

> http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12785
>
>
> Roland Kletzing <devzero@web.de> changed:
>
>           What    |Removed                     |Added
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>                 CC|                            |devzero@web.de
>
>
>
>
> --- Comment #5 from Roland Kletzing <devzero@web.de>  2009-08-11 19:22:39
> ---
> Martin,
>
> did that happen again ?
>
> it`s a little bit weird how kwsapd can be an i/o killer when there is no
> swap
> attached.
>
> if this is not reproducible, then it`s almost impossible to debug this
> problem.
>
> holding this bugreport open is just a waste of time then...
>
> @Kame:
> >BTW, pages can be SwapCache even when there are no swap partition ?
> i think that was just misinterpretation of top output, as "cached" appears
> in
> the line were swap information (total/used/free) is also displayed.
>
> regards
> roland
>
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