From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Dec 1 19:48:12 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C420216A5E0 for ; Fri, 1 Dec 2006 19:48:12 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from chengjin@cs.caltech.edu) Received: from blizzard.cs.caltech.edu (blizzard.cs.caltech.edu [131.215.44.2]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8369743CB5 for ; Fri, 1 Dec 2006 19:47:52 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from chengjin@cs.caltech.edu) Received: from localhost (flood.cs.caltech.edu [131.215.44.31]) by blizzard.cs.caltech.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id 211FB1BBF76 for ; Fri, 1 Dec 2006 11:48:08 -0800 (PST) Received: from blizzard.cs.caltech.edu ([131.215.44.2]) by localhost (flood.cs.caltech.edu [131.215.44.31]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 16919-10 for ; Fri, 1 Dec 2006 11:48:08 -0800 (PST) Received: from orchestra.cs.caltech.edu (orchestra.cs.caltech.edu [131.215.44.20]) by blizzard.cs.caltech.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id EDA9F1BBEFA for ; Fri, 1 Dec 2006 11:48:07 -0800 (PST) Received: by orchestra.cs.caltech.edu (Postfix, from userid 20269) id BD4C74FD8B; Fri, 1 Dec 2006 11:48:07 -0800 (PST) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by orchestra.cs.caltech.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1346A53D61 for ; Fri, 1 Dec 2006 11:48:07 -0800 (PST) Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2006 11:48:06 -0800 (PST) From: Cheng Jin To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Subject: 5.4 kernel crashdump not consistently working 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, 01 Dec 2006 19:48:12 -0000 hi, i have run into this strange problem of kernel crashdump not working consistently under FreeBSd 5.4. we have bunch of development machines with identical physical configurations, and every one of them is setup to save the vmcore after a panic. The difference as far as i could tell is the FreeBSD 5.4 version, which different people installed using different methods, CD, network, CVS... I followed the instructions found on the official FreeBSD site as far as i could tell. including in the kernel config file the following options options DDB options KDB options GDB options KDB_UNATTENDED include in the /etc/rc.conf file dumpdev="/dev/ad0s1b" # 2GB swap partition with 1GB of physical memory dumpdir="/usr/crash" # and making sure the dir exists crashdump works on some of these machines, but not on others, and on those that don't work, i just see Dumping 1014MB and the system just sits there. I added a printf line into the dumpsys function, and it seems that it just loops without ever writing anything to disk. for those that are curious about the details, the variables "i", "mb" are always just zero, "count goes up everytime i press a key, and "va" stays at the same memory address, and left never decreases. Comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Cheng -- FAST powered network performance @626 395 8820