Re: kernel: ldt allocation failed

["Jeffrey H. Ingber" <jhingber@ix.netcom.com>]

This problem is very familiar.  It was fixed in an -ac patch against
2.4.9 (although I don't recall the exact one), and is included in
subsequent Linus kernels.  Without this fix, I experienced similar
problems with X on multiprocessor workstations.

Jeffrey H. Ingber (jhingber _at_ ix.netcom.com)

On Fri, 2001-12-07 at 00:40, Kiril Vidimce wrote:
> 
> We suddenly started seeing freezing problems on a number of machines
> in the past couple of days. There is no pattern as far as I can tell.
> It has happened while running OpenGL apps, netscape, or even when not 
> doing anything. The machine will usually just hang and while it's 
> still pingable, it's totally unresponsive and you can't remotely log in.
> The 2.4.3 kernel usually hangs forever; the machines with 2.4.9
> kernels usually come back within 10-15 secs.
> 
> Every time this happens we see the following message in the system log:
> 
> Dec  6 21:29:00 stranger kernel: ldt allocation failed
> 
> The machines are:
> 
> Hardware:
>     - IBM Intellistation M Pro 
>     - dual 2 GHz P4's
>     - 2 GB RAM
>     - NVIDIA Quadro DCC card
> 
> Software:
>     - Red Hat 7.1
>     - kernel 2.4.3smp or 2.4.9smp
>     - XFree 4.1
>     - Ximian Gnome 1.4
>     - NVIDIA drivers 1.0-1541
> 
> Once this problem occurs, even if the hang is temporary, the machine
> is extremely flakey. Almost any app will start causing ldt allocation
> failure messages in the system log. Only a reboot really helps.
> 
> Questions:
> - Does this ring a bell to anybody? What is ldt anyway and what would 
>   cause an allocation to fail?
> 
> - I still keep one of these messages in this state. Is there anything
>   I can probe to get useful debugging info?
> 
> Any help would greatly be appreciated.
> 
> Thanks,
> KV
> --
>   ___________________________________________________________________
>   Studio Tools                                        vkire@pixar.com
>   Pixar Animation Studios                        http://www.pixar.com/
> 
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