Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 16:34:01 +0000 From: Doug Ledford <dledford@redhat.com> To: Neil Conway <nconway.list@ukaea.org.uk> Cc: Stephane Bortzmeyer <stephane@sources.org>, aic7xxx@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: File corruption: how to find the guilty? Message-ID: <36793279.14A9D4CB@redhat.com> References: <199812161347.OAA02367@ludwigV.sources.org> <3677BCBE.46D77E3B@redhat.com> <98Dec17.083132gmt.66308@gateway.ukaea.org.uk>
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Neil Conway wrote:
>
> Doug Ledford wrote:
> >
> > Stephane Bortzmeyer wrote:
> > >
> > > I have a Linux box which shows random corruption of files. Example: all Perl
> > > scripts suddenly die with "segmentation fault". Reinstalling the same Perl
> > > package cures it. Two days ago, /etc/resolv.conf became corrupted : strange
> > > characters were in it.
> > >
> > > I wonder what to do? Change the disk? The SCSI controller? The kernel?
> > >
> > > I run Linux 2.0.35 (Debian distribution 2.0), patched for the Adaptec driver
> > > 5.1.2. Here is the configuration:
> >
> > It's memory corruption. I've seen this float through this list or that about
> > 30 different times in the past. Not once has it ever been a kernel or driver
> > issue. In *every* case it has been either RAM, cache, or CPU. Check the CPU
> > fan, check the cache (if it isn't part of the CPU) and check your RAM.
>
> Well perhaps with a stable kernel this is the most likely culprit.
> However, it's dangerous to make blanket assertions - they come back to
> haunt you. Alan Cox was telling me last month about how 2.1.129 was
> causing him random memory corruption leading to disk corruption, and
> this turned out to be a kernel bug (nfs-related I think).
Even in the devel kernels, 2.1.44 is the only one that was likely to do
this on a *local* filesystem. There is a difference when running NFS.
Not the least of that difference is that NFS is currently getting it's
last fixes after having been re-done for the most part, where as ext2fs
hasn't hardly been touched during the entire 2.1 kernel series.
--
Doug Ledford <dledford@redhat.com>
Opinions expressed are my own, but
they should be everybody's.
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