random kernel crashes

[Audrius Šaikūnas]

This issue has been daunting me for about a year.

Basically what happens is:
immediately after *cold* boot in about 5 minutes kernel sometimes crashes. If I manage to survive these 5 minutes without a crash - everything runs perfectly. If the kernel crashes and I reboot then no more crashing occurs.

This can be illustrated by 'last' logs:
 % last | grep crash -C 5
angel tty7 :0 Sat Jan 22 13:52 - down (13:20)
reboot system boot 2.6.35-23-generi Sat Jan 22 13:52 - 03:13 (13:20)
angel tty7 :0 Sat Jan 22 13:51 - crash (00:01)
reboot system boot 2.6.35-23-generi Sat Jan 22 13:50 - 03:13 (13:22)
angel pts/3 :0.0 Fri Jan 21 11:30 - down (14:41)
--
angel tty7 :0 Wed Jan 19 14:17 - down (12:57)
reboot system boot 2.6.35-23-generi Wed Jan 19 14:08 - 03:14 (13:06)
angel pts/3 :0.0 Wed Jan 19 14:03 - crash (00:04)
angel tty7 :0 Wed Jan 19 14:03 - crash (00:04)
reboot system boot 2.6.35-23-generi Wed Jan 19 14:03 - 03:14 (13:11)
angel pts/4 213.197.181.238 Tue Jan 18 18:34 - 18:48 (00:13)
--
angel tty7 :0 Tue Jan 11 13:40 - down (11:14)
reboot system boot 2.6.35-23-generi Tue Jan 11 13:40 - 00:55 (11:14)
angel tty7 :0 Tue Jan 11 13:39 - crash (00:01)
reboot system boot 2.6.35-23-generi Tue Jan 11 13:38 - 00:55 (11:16)
angel pts/3 :0.0 Mon Jan 10 15:01 - down (12:15)
angel tty7 :0 Mon Jan 10 15:01 - down (12:15)
reboot system boot 2.6.35-23-generi Mon Jan 10 15:00 - 03:16 (12:15)
angel tty7 :0 Mon Jan 10 14:59 - crash (00:00)
reboot system boot 2.6.35-23-generi Mon Jan 10 14:59 - 03:16 (12:17)
angel pts/3 :1.0 Mon Jan 10 14:57 - down (00:01)
--
reboot system boot 2.6.35-23-generi Fri Jan 7 13:59 - 00:46 (10:47)
reboot system boot 2.6.35-23-generi Fri Jan 7 13:53 - 13:55 (00:02)
angel pts/3 :0.0 Fri Jan 7 12:59 - crash (00:54)
angel tty7 :0 Fri Jan 7 12:58 - 13:52 (00:53)
reboot system boot 2.6.35-23-generi Fri Jan 7 12:58 - 13:55 (00:57)
--
angel tty7 :1 Tue Jan 4 15:36 - down (10:48)
reboot system boot 2.6.35-23-generi Tue Jan 4 15:35 - 02:24 (10:48)
angel pts/3 :0.0 Mon Jan 3 14:30 - crash (1+01:04)
angel tty7 :0 Mon Jan 3 14:30 - crash (1+01:04)
reboot system boot 2.6.35-23-generi Mon Jan 3 16:19 - 02:24 (1+10:05)
angel pts/3 :0.0 Mon Jan 3 16:16 - crash (00:02)
angel tty7 :0 Mon Jan 3 16:16 - crash (00:02)
reboot system boot 2.6.35-23-generi Mon Jan 3 16:15 - 02:24 (1+10:08)
angel pts/3 :0.0 Sun Jan 2 16:30 - down (07:38)

As you can see, crashes always occur within first 5 minutes of a cold boot and never again.

I've been using different kernels - 2.6.32.x, 2.6.35.x, different ubuntu versions - 10.04 and 10.10, different GPU drivers - r600 radeon, radeonhd and fglrx, tested with and without vmware modules - crashes never stopped.

I've also attached a typical crash log.
I've also observed one difference when using radeon vs fglrx drivers:
* When using fglrx, kernel crashes usually in a 'hard' way (caps & scroll lock leds are blinking, magic keys don't do anything). The only way out is to do a hard reset.
* When using radeon, kernel oopses. There are two ways kernel can crash:
** Usable: some of the running processes crash completely, but I can still launch a new process and to upload crash logs somewhere. I can also do "init 6" to restart the machine.
** Unusable: Computer is still running, but I can't launch any new process. If I run, say "cat /var/log/syslog", it just hangs (no reaction to SIGTERM/Ctrl+C). So the only way out is to use magic keys to reboot the machine.

If you have any questions regarding anything, please ask.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: linux-image-2.6.35-23-generic 2.6.35-23.41
Regression: No
Reproducible: No
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-23.37-generic 2.6.35.7
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-23-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx wl
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.23.
Architecture: amd64
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: STAC92xx Analog [STAC92xx Analog]
   Subdevices: 0/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse: Error: command ['fuser', '-v', '/dev/snd/by-path', '/dev/snd/controlC1', '/dev/snd/hwC1D0', '/dev/snd/pcmC1D3p', '/dev/snd/controlC0', '/dev/snd/hwC0D0', '/dev/snd/pcmC0D0c', '/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p', '/dev/snd/pcmC0D1p', '/dev/snd/seq', '/dev/snd/timer'] failed with exit code 1: Cannot stat file /proc/6702/fd/23: Stale NFS file handle
CRDA: Error: command ['iw', 'reg', 'get'] failed with exit code 1: nl80211 not found.
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'NVidia'/'HDA NVidia at 0xf0880000 irq 17'
   Mixer name : 'IDT 92HD73C1X5'
   Components : 'HDA:111d7675,102802a1,00100103'
   Controls : 24
   Simple ctrls : 15
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'HDMI'/'HDA ATI HDMI at 0xafeec000 irq 47'
   Mixer name : 'ATI R6xx HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:1002aa01,00aa0100,00100100'
   Controls : 4
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card1.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [off]
Date: Mon Jan 24 15:26:37 2011
Frequency: Once every few days.
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=f8dbe2eb-0fd8-4d91-b46e-7ce738690ee0
MachineType: Alienware M17x
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-23-generic root=UUID=197a0956-7cf0-4dd6-973e-f6ba5066d23b ro apparmor=0 memory_corruption_check=0 nosplash
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/zsh
RelatedPackageVersions: linux-firmware 1.38.3
RfKill:
 0: hci0: Bluetooth
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
SourcePackage: linux
StagingDrivers: udlfb
Title: [STAGING]
WifiSyslog:
 Jan 24 15:00:53 heaven kernel: [ 1236.180548] /dev/vmmon[5070]: PTSC: initialized at 2801000000 Hz using TSC
 Jan 24 15:01:00 heaven kernel: [ 1242.817066] /dev/vmnet: open called by PID 5081 (vmware-vmx)
 Jan 24 15:01:00 heaven kernel: [ 1242.817084] /dev/vmnet: port on hub 8 successfully opened
dmi.bios.date: 07/30/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: Alienware
dmi.bios.version: A05
dmi.board.vendor: Alienware
dmi.board.version: A05
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Alienware
dmi.chassis.version: A05
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAlienware:bvrA05:bd07/30/2010:svnAlienware:pnM17x:pvrA0523:rvnAlienware:rn:rvrA05:cvnAlienware:ct8:cvrA05:
dmi.product.name: M17x
dmi.product.version: A0523
dmi.sys.vendor: Alienware

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

Hi Audrius,

If you could also please test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

    [This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Audrius Šaikūnas (tuxmarkv)]

I'm sorry, but I cannot test upstream kernels, because they don't have aufs filesystem module, on which my root file system is sitting. If anybody has any suggestions in this matter, please advise.

[Audrius Šaikūnas (tuxmarkv)]

I've managed to salvage another crash log.

[Audrius Šaikūnas (tuxmarkv)]

I've found a post from !6! years ago, which describes a similar bug:
http://www.linuxhelp.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=4090

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]