Re: Linux 2.6.25-rc4

[Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz <bzolnier@gmail.com>]

On Thursday 06 March 2008, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> 
> * Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz <bzolnier@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > The problem looks very similar to the one recently reported by Anders:
> > 
> > http://lkml.org/lkml/2008/2/22/239
> > 
> > "Trying out 2.6.25-rc2 smartd always causes my box to hang. I can 
> > switch vt:s and the keyboard seems to work.
> > 
> > Using sysrq-e I noticed a callpath open -> ext3 -> journals -> 
> > sync_buffer -> io_scheduel -> generic_unplig_device. I'd guess the 
> > open stems from smartd. Removing smartd from the startup, I'm now 
> > using rc2 fine..."
> > 
> > Initially we thought that it is an IDE regression but after some 
> > testing and further investigation it seems that IDE changes just made 
> > it more likely to occur (yesterday it turned out that the kernel with 
> > the "guilty" IDE commit sometimes boots fine).  The issue is easily 
> > reproducible.
> > 
> > PS We've already verified that it is not PREEMPT related or a compiler 
> > bug.
> 
> smartd is not active here though - and starting/restarting it doesnt 
> provoke a hang.

I was a bit unclear on this, the problem is easily reproducible but _only_
on Anders' system (I couldn't reproduce it with smartd here either).

Thanks,
Bart