From owner-freebsd-stable Tue Dec 10 7:12:46 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B3A0C37B401 for ; Tue, 10 Dec 2002 07:12:44 -0800 (PST) Received: from ops.tamu.edu (ops.tamu.edu [165.91.250.112]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5D0D943EB2 for ; Tue, 10 Dec 2002 07:12:44 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from nipsy@ops.tamu.edu) Received: from nipsy by ops.tamu.edu with local (Exim 4.10) id 18Lm3v-0003KR-00; Tue, 10 Dec 2002 09:12:43 -0600 Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 09:12:43 -0600 From: Mark Nipper To: Philip Kizer Cc: stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: question about swap files and crash dumps Message-ID: <20021210151243.GB298@ops.tamu.edu> References: <20021127193544.GA4399@ops.tamu.edu> <200212090311.gB93B57S045590@magus.nostrum.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200212090311.gB93B57S045590@magus.nostrum.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.1i Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Sun, Dec 08, 2002 at 09:11:05PM -0600, Philip Kizer wrote: > >The question is, if I add a swap file using the vnode driver, will the > >kernel know to make use of the space or does the crash dump handler only > >use dedicated swap partitions? > > Good question on dumping to a vn device, but I doubt it would work, > dumpon(8) sets kern.dumpdev with "the device number of the designated > special_file". Looks like a physical device is the only option for that. I figured as much looking at the man page myself. :( Oh well! > Since I'm just cathing up and your question was 1.5 weeks ago, had any luck > since then otherwise? None. And it just crapped itself today again. I'm currently running 4.7-RELEASE-p2. For what it's worth, I configured a 2GB swap file on my largest partition. It doesn't seem to be helping so much right now. :) Also, and this is the first time I've seen this, my nightly mail from Charlie Root contained something of possible interest. It contained 665 lines of "vm_page_cache: attempting to cache busy page". Any ideas what it means and is it related? I cursory search on Google and Google Groups revealed little. It's the first time I've seen it since this started happening, so maybe it's a clue!? Anyway, at this point, I'll probably end up backing up the 260GB+ of junk currently on the machine and will reinstall this coming weekend, configuring enough swap space to catch a crash dump this time. Fun! Of course, once I have done this, it will probably stop dying on me. -- Mark Nipper e-contacts: Computing and Information Services nipsy@tamu.edu Texas A&M University http://arrakis.tamu.edu/nipsy/ College Station, TX 77843-3142 AIM: texasnipsy ICQ: 66971617 (979)575-3193 Yahoo: texasnipsy -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- GG/IT d- s++:+ a-- C++$ UBL+++$ P--->+++ L+++$ E--- W++ N+ o K++ w(---) O++ M V(--) PS+++(+) PE(--) Y+ PGP++(+) t 5 X R tv b+++ DI+(++) D+ G e h r++ y+(**) ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------ ---begin random quote of the moment--- "Give us this day our daily Faith, but deliver us, dear God, from Belief." -- Aldous Huxley, _Island_, 1962S ----end random quote of the moment---- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message