Re: Linux-2.4.5

Andrea Arcangeli
2001-05-26T03:12:50Z

On Fri, May 25, 2001 at 10:49:38PM -0400, Ben LaHaise wrote:
> Highmem. 0 free pages in ZONE_NORMAL. Now try to allocate a buffer_head.

That's a longstanding deadlock, it was there the first time I read
fs/buffer.c, nothing related to highmem, we have it in 2.2 too. Also
getblk is deadlock prone in a smiliar manner.

Can you try to simply change NR_RESERVED to say 200*MAX_BUF_PER_PAGE and
see if it makes a difference? The unused_list logic doesn't give a
guarantee either and it's one of the "hiding" logics, but it was working
pretty well usually, maybe something changed that needs more than 2
pages (16 bh) reserved?

Andrea