Re: Reiserfs, 3 Raid1 arrays, 2.4.1 machine locks up

[Colonel <klink@clouddancer.com>]

   From: "Tom Sightler" <ttsig@tuxyturvy.com>
   Cc: <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
   Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2001 14:43:07 -0500
   Content-Type: text/plain;
	   charset="iso-8859-1"

   >    > >I'm building a firewall on a P133 with 48 MB of memory using RH 7.0,
   >    > >latest updates, etc. and kernel 2.4.1.
   >    > >I've built a customized install of RH (~200MB)  which I untar onto
   the
   >    > >system after building my raid arrays, etc. via a Rescue CD which I
   >    > >created using Timo's Rescue CD project.  The booting kernel is
   >    > >2.4.1-ac10, no networking, raid compiled in but raid1 as a module
   >    >
   >    > Hmm, raid as a module was always a Bad Idea(tm) in the 2.2 "alpha"
   >    > raid (which was misnamed and is 2.4 raid).  I suggest you change that
   >    > and update, as I had no problems with 2.4.2-pre2/3, nor have any been
   >    > posted to the raid list.
   >
   >    I just tried with 2.4.1-ac14, raid and raid1 compiled in and it did the
   >    same thing.  I'm going to try to compile reiserfs in (if I have enough
   room
   >    to still fit the kernel on the floppy with it's initial ramdisk, etc.)
   and
   >    see what that does.

   There seem to be several reports of reiserfs falling over when memory is
   low.  It seems to be undetermined if this problem is actually reiserfs or MM
   related, but there are other threads on this list regarding similar issues.
   This would explain why the same disk would work on a different machine with
   more memory.  Any chance you could add memory to the box temporarily just to
   see if it helps, this may help prove if this is the problem or not.


Well, I didn't happen to start the thread, but your comments may
explain some "gee I wonder if it died" problems I just had with my
2.4.1-pre2+reiser test box.  It only has 16M, so it's always low
memory (never been a real problem in the past however).  The test
situation is easily repeatable for me [1].  It's a 486 wall mount, so
it's easier to convert the fs than add memory, and it showed about
200k free at the time of the sluggishness.  Previous 2.4.1 testing
with ext2 fs didn't show any sluggishness, but I also didn't happen to
run the test above either.  When I come back to the office later, I'll
convert the fs, repeat the test and pass on the results.


[1]  Since I decided to try to catch up on kernels, I had just grabbed
-ac18, cd to ~linux and run "rm -r *" via an ssh connection.  In a
second connection, I tried a simple "dmesg" and waited over a minute
for results (long enough to log in directly on the box and bring up
top) followed by loading emacs for ftp transfers from kernel.org,
which again 'went to sleep'.