Computer Crash. Output means what?

[Jay Nugent]

Greetings,

On Tue, 12 Aug 2008, Lonni J Friedman wrote:

> On Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 2:54 AM, Joel Hammer <joel at hammershome.com> wrote:
> > My ancient gateway/firewall computer (jhammer6) crashed for
> > no apparent reason. We were having short (< 1 sec) power
> > outages that evening but I have a reliable powerbackup
> > and I don't think that it is the problem. Neither of the
> > other computers crashed.
> >
> > Output of uname -a:
> >
> > 2.4.5-win4lin #10 Fri Nov 21 22:12:11 EST 2003 i686 unknown
> >
> > The ip number is 68.34.119.36. I run apache on port 80.
> >
> > A simple reboot made it come back up. Here are the last
> > things it said when it died.
> >
> > At 23:29 to 23:30, this appears in messages:
> >
> > Packet log: input - eth1 PROTO=6 65.55.210.12:20552 68.34.119.36:80 L=48 S=0x20 I=2875 F=0x4000 T=113 SYN (#26)
> > Packet log: input - eth1 PROTO=6 65.55.210.12:20649 68.34.119.36:80 L=48 S=0x20 I=5396 F=0x4000 T=113 SYN (#26)
> > Packet log: input - eth1 PROTO=6 65.55.109.13:63263 68.34.119.36:80 L=48 S=0x20 I=18703 F=0x4000 T=111 SYN (#26)
> > Packet log: input - eth1 PROTO=6 65.55.109.13:63266 68.34.119.36:80 L=48 S=0x20 I=18715 F=0x4000 T=111 SYN (#26)
> >
> > My apache log files show no error at this time, just this:
> >
> > 65.55.210.12 - - [11/Aug/2008:23:29:37 -0400] "GET /Baxter/slides/dscn4582.html HTTP/1.1" 304 -
> > 65.55.210.12 - - [11/Aug/2008:23:29:39 -0400] "GET /Dulles_2004/slides/dscn4694.html HTTP/1.1" 200 1999
> > 65.55.109.13 - - [11/Aug/2008:23:30:44 -0400] "GET /Dulles_2004/slides/dscn4694.html HTTP/1.0" 200 1999
> > 65.55.109.13 - - [11/Aug/2008:23:30:45 -0400] "GET /Dulles_2004/styles.css HTTP/1.0" 200 1328
> >
> > Then, at 23:32, this appears in messages:
> >
> > Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000014
> > printing eip:
> > c01389d1
> > *pde = 00000000
> > Oops: 0000
> > CPU:    0
> > eax: 00000000   ebx: e1f3e000   ecx: 00000009   edx: c08520
> > esi: c21fbfa4   edi: e1f3e000   ebp: 00000000   esp: c21fbf
> > ds: 1008   es: 1008   ss: 1008
> > Process ifconfig (pid: 25828, stackpage=c21fb000)
> > Stack: e1f3e000 00000000 c21fbfa4 c0138bfa e1f3e000 0000000
> >       400160ac 00000004 c012db5d 0804efa0 00000009 c21fbfa
> >       bffffcc4 bffffb5c fffffeff 00000000 efc762a0 0000000
> > Call Trace: [pipe_wait+58/164] [shmem_truncate+177/336] [lc
> >    635 Aug 11 23:32:20 jhammer6 kernel:
> > Code: f6 c1 20 75 5a 8b 40 20 85 c0 74 03 ff 40 30 89 46 04
> >
> > I don't see that apache caused this crash. I am not sure
> > why ifconfig was running at this time. ifconfig does  not
> > appear in other parts of the messages file. Does anybody
> > know what this means, and should I start looking for
> > new computer?
> 
> That's a kernel Oops.  I doubt anyone is going to be interested in
> debugging an Oops from a 2.4.5 kernel.  You should at least look into
> updating to the latest 2.4.x kernel.

   I had "NULL pointer dereference" crash errors many years ago on an old 
machine that still used external L2 cache.  The chip had gone bad.  To buy 
time until I could move to newer hardware I went into the BIOS and turned 
off the L2 cache.  Yeah, it was slow as a dog, but it worked :)

   YMMV

      --- Jay Nugent

In response to the issue about dumbing-down Amateur Radio, a fellow Ham 
said:    "Would you like fries with that emergency communication?"
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