On Thu, Jan 02, 2003 at 10:24:23AM +0200, Shachar Shemesh wrote:

> When the kernel panics, you don't get a core file. What you do get 
> instead is a dump to console of the stack state during the crash. This 
> is pretty much useless unless you are willing to do some kernel debugging.
> 
> If you are willing to do it, you will need to get panic's output. 
> Unfortunetly, at that stage, you don't have a kernel to copy/paste or 
> write to disk with. Worst yet, the text usually scrolls off screen, and 
> you can't even see all of it or scroll back. At work I solved this 
> problem by hooking up my Linux machine to my Windows machine using a 
> serial NULL modem cable, and directing the console to /dev/ttyS0. This 
> dumps the stack upon panic to the serial, and a terminal program sits 
> waiting there to receive it. You can then procede to post-mortem it.

To complement what Shachar has said, postmorteming it is done using
the ksymoops tool. Read Documentation/oops-tracing.txt in your kernel
source directory for instructions on how to use it. 

> Better ways are the sys-req key and the kernel debugger, but I am, 
> unfortunetly, not familiar with how to work them.

kgdb, http://kgdb.sf.net is an excellent, source level, kernel
debugger. Unfortunately, it requires two machines and a serial NULL
modem cable. I use it daily and it's highly recommended[1]

[1] The website only has a patch for 2.4.18. Let me know if you need a
2.4.20 patch. 
-- 
Muli Ben-Yehuda

"The speed of light really is too slow nowdays." -- Alan Cox 

=================================================================
To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command
echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Reply via email to