Very Computer

Hello everyone,

First, basic system specs: Cyrix 6x86-150, Fujitsu 2.0 gig IDE HD, RedHat
5.0 with kernel 2.0.33.  Ran like a dream until I went on vacation.  Isn't
that how it always is?

Starting last Tuesday, my system has been very unstable and prone to crash
suddenly, after 20-30 minutes of light use.  Before each crash, X Windows
exits with errno 11, and every application I try to run seg faults.  Then,
the screen goes blank, and a message like this comes across the screen,
which I will copy here from /var/log/messages:

Jun 23 06:20:39 stockdale kernel: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address c000002b
Jun 23 06:20:39 stockdale kernel: current->tss.cr3 = 014e7000,
Jun 23 06:20:39 stockdale kernel: *pde = 00102067
Jun 23 06:20:39 stockdale kernel: *pte = 00000000
Jun 23 06:20:39 stockdale kernel: Oops: 0002
Jun 23 06:20:39 stockdale kernel: CPU:    0
Jun 23 06:20:39 stockdale kernel: EIP:    0010:[__get_free_pages+90/444]
Jun 23 06:20:39 stockdale kernel: EFLAGS: 00010293
Jun 23 06:20:39 stockdale kernel: eax: 0000002b   ebx: 00000002   ecx: 00000000   edx: 00000012
Jun 23 06:20:39 stockdale kernel: esi: 00000005   edi: 00000ffb   ebp: 00ee0012   esp: 00329de8
Jun 23 06:20:39 stockdale kernel: ds: 0018   es: 0018   fs: 002b   gs: 002b   ss: 0018
Jun 23 06:20:39 stockdale kernel: Process mail (pid: 1348, process nr: 38, stackpage=00329000)
Jun 23 06:20:39 stockdale kernel: Stack: 0000002b 0000001f 00000013 00000ffb 00ee0012 00008ded 00000000 0012ac8c
Jun 23 06:20:39 stockdale kernel:        001297c7 00000002 00000000 00000000 00329eec 00000080 00ee0000 00329e6c
Jun 23 06:20:39 stockdale kernel:        00129f2d 01ca8700 00000012 00000018 0000002b 00000ffb 00000000 0012a1f3
Jun 23 06:20:39 stockdale kernel: Call Trace: [permission+32/212] [copy_strings+267/496] [prepare_binprm+389/412] [do_execve+251/440] [arp_ioctl+18/820] [sys_execve+50/80] [system_call+85/124]
Jun 23 06:20:39 stockdale kernel:        [get_cpuinfo+147/468]
Jun 23 06:20:39 stockdale kernel: Code: 8b 35 14 fc 1c 00 85 db 74 05 83 fb 06 75 11 83 fe 2f 7e 0c
Jun 23 07:16:21 stockdale kernel: general protection: 0000
Jun 23 07:16:21 stockdale kernel: CPU:    0
Jun 23 07:16:21 stockdale kernel: EIP:    0010:[tty_read+157/188]
Jun 23 07:16:21 stockdale kernel: EFLAGS: 00010212
Jun 23 07:16:21 stockdale kernel: eax: fffffffb   ebx: 0072d000   ecx: 00000000   edx: 00000000
Jun 23 07:16:21 stockdale kernel: esi: 01a9df24   edi: 007e9300   ebp: 00002000   esp: 00948f74
Jun 23 07:16:21 stockdale kernel: ds: 0018   es: 0018   fs: 002b   gs: 002b   ss: 0018
Jun 23 07:16:21 stockdale kernel: Process in.telnetd (pid: 1352, process nr: 36, stackpage=00948000)
Jun 23 07:16:21 stockdale kernel: Stack: 0072d000 01a9df24 08052d50 00002000 00000000 01a9df24 00002000 007e9300
Jun 23 07:16:21 stockdale kernel:        00122d14 007e9300 01a9df24 08052d50 00002000 01dedc0c 00000000 00000003
Jun 23 07:16:21 stockdale kernel:        bffffc50 0010a61d 00000003 08052d50 00002000 00000000 00000003 bffffc50
Jun 23 07:16:21 stockdale kernel: Call Trace: [sys_read+192/232] [system_call+85/124]
Jun 23 07:16:21 stockdale kernel: Code: 89 c2 83 c4 10 eb 05 ba fb ff ff ff 85 d2 7e 08 a1 08 49 1f

Then, the system won't respond to anything short of cutting the power.
Whenever I try to access the server via telnet, ftp, etc, the connection
is accepted, then immediately lost.

Also, I have Windows 95 installed on another partition (but I never use
it, I promise).  When I try to load it, I get about halfway through, then
I see the "It is now safe to turn off your computer" screen.

When I tried to boot Linux from floppy (the standard RH rescue set), the
system would give a different reason for quitting each time - sometimes,
with a disk with boot.img in the drive, I'd simply get "Boot failed",
other times, the boot.img would load, and the drive wouldn't read some
sectors from the disk with rescue.img.  I switched disks, confirmed they
worked on another machine, but my floppy drive didn't want to play nice.

Has anyone seen anything like this before?  It seems consistent with
some sort of hardware malfunction since it's affecting both OS's and both
floppy and hard drives, but I haven't been able to pin it down.  All the
wires and cables are secure, and to my untrained eye, seem as they were
before the problems started.  Everything just stopped working suddenly.

Any advice would be most appreciated.

TIA,
Scott

Quote:>Hello everyone,

>First, basic system specs: Cyrix 6x86-150, Fujitsu 2.0 gig IDE HD, RedHat
>5.0 with kernel 2.0.33.  Ran like a dream until I went on vacation.  Isn't
>that how it always is?

>Starting last Tuesday, my system has been very unstable and prone to crash
>suddenly, after 20-30 minutes of light use.  Before each crash, X Windows
>exits with errno 11, and every application I try to run seg faults.  Then,
>the screen goes blank, and a message like this comes across the screen,
>which I will copy here from /var/log/messages:

>Jun 23 06:20:39 stockdale kernel: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer
>  dereference at virtual address c000002b
[snip]
>Jun 23 06:20:39 stockdale kernel: EIP:    0010:[__get_free_pages+90/444]

Quote:>Jun 23 07:16:21 stockdale kernel: general protection: 0000

It looks like you have a lot of problems with either memory or chache. The
most obvoius guess: heat. BTW, Cyrix requires a _good_ heatsink, so... Try
to work with case opened. If that will help - well, flame the fscking weather.
                                                HTH. HAND,
                                                                Al
--
"You're one of those condescending Unix computer users!"
"Here's a nickel, kid.  Get yourself a real computer" - Dilbert.

: Hello everyone,

: First, basic system specs: Cyrix 6x86-150, Fujitsu 2.0 gig IDE HD, RedHat
: 5.0 with kernel 2.0.33.  Ran like a dream until I went on vacation.  Isn't
: that how it always is?

That's what you get for using a Cyrix chip.  I have had nothing but bad
luck with them, and will never use them again.  Intel, or AMD for me.

--
  Scott Nipp   DSC Workstation Service   Sprint Paranet Technical Analyst