On giovedì 26 aprile 2007, Herbert Volkmann wrote:
> Hi Blaisorblade,
>
> thanks for answering that fast:

Yes, and sorry, but I'm short on time and I do not want private emails - 
please reply on the list (on uml-user actually). So anybody else can continue 
answering.

I'll just say to try a more recent kernel first.

Second suggestion, which is more probably the correct one, where is the UML 
RAM file? It goes in /tmp or in /dev/shm usually (lsof, or ls /proc/<host UML 
pid>/fd can show what happens - or even df on the host). If the host has 1G 
of RAM, by default a tmpfs mount is 512MB wide. If that fills, UML crashes 
with a characteristic error message (IIRC 'Kernel mode signal N', where N is 
the numeric code of SIGBUS).

But maybe, since you append con=null, you get no kernel messages at all... and 
that's bad from you.

> - Filesystem is ext3 on host and uml
> - the things you guessed were right
> - it's a 32bit system
> - uml kernel release 2.6.18, exactly (apt-cache show user-mode-linux):
> Architecture: i386
> Version: 2.6.18-1um-2
>
> I do not write to tmpfs, i execute the following command in /root
> dd if=/dev/zero of=test.img bs=1024k count=512
> right before ending dd, uml crashes, all uml processes end working which
> i can see on host system by executing ps axuf.
>
> what is also interesting is, that i have 256M swap which is never used
> by uml (fstab shows:
> /dev/ubd1   none     swap    defaults   0      0
> )
>
> and i have the same effect when i copy with scp FROM the UML Machine to
> my Host System. cache is increasing, memory goes down and shortly before
> memory is gone, uml stops working.
>
> Any other suggestions from your side?
>
> Thanks for supporting me with this strange behavior,
> Best Herbert
>
> Am Donnerstag, den 26.04.2007, 16:17 +0200 schrieb Blaisorblade:
> > On giovedì 26 aprile 2007, Herbert Volkmann wrote:
> > > Hi List,
> > >
> > > i ran in the following problem:
> >
> > Very strange...
> >
> > > when i produce files (with dd) or copy files to or from the uml
> > > machine,
> >
> > Which filesystems are involved? Can you give a sample command?
> >
> > > i can see (with top),
> >
> > Run on the guest (i.e. UML) I guess, right?
> >
> > > that the used memory and the cached things
> > > increases, while the unused memory will go down.
> >
> > That is reasonable, but the cache should not make the system stop.
> >
> > > shortly before memory
> > > will come to zero, the uml stops working completely without any
> > > messages in the /var/log/* files on uml or host system.
> > >
> > > if i do in between a "echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches"
> >
> > On the guest (i.e. UML) I assume, right?
> >
> > > it cleans caches, frees memory and works fine! but i have to do this
> > > all 10 seconds when i use dd for producing large files ;-(
> > >
> > > these are the components i use:
> > > - debian etch on host with debian kernel patched with skas3 from debian
> >
> > 32bit system, right?
> >
> > > - 1024 MB RAM on host
> > > - RAID5 System with 3ware Controller (5x2G) almost 1 TB
> > > - on uml i use debian etch, with bridged networking, 512MB RAM for uml
> >
> > Which UML kernel release? That's the most important thing.
> >
> > > - 6G root_fs for uml and 256M swap
> > >
> > > here is the command with which i start the uml:
> > > sudo -u uml /usr/bin/linux.uml umid=uml mem=512M eth0=tuntap,tap1
> > > ubd0=/usr/media/uml-linux/root_fs_2007_04_23
> > > ubd1=/usr/media/uml-linux/swap_fs con=null root=/dev/ubda uml_dir=/tmp/
> > >
> > > I would be really happy if someone could tell me what i can test more
> > > to find out why this system is instable with i/o operations and caches.
> >
> > I have only a doubt: if you are filling a shmfs/tmpfs filesystem (which
> > is backed by ram), that's an almost normal behaviour, and can happen even
> > on host systems.
> >
> > > thanx for any reply,
> > > Herbert



-- 
Inform me of my mistakes, so I can add them to my list!
Paolo Giarrusso, aka Blaisorblade
http://www.user-mode-linux.org/~blaisorblade

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