I looked at the logs, and it gave me uncomprehensible messages like: ==================================== ct 20 01:43:00 pluto kernel: oom-killer: gfp_mask=0x1d2 Oct 20 01:43:24 pluto kernel: DMA per-cpu: Oct 20 01:43:56 pluto kernel: cpu 0 hot: low 2, high 6, batch 1 Oct 20 01:44:27 pluto kernel: cpu 0 cold: low 0, high 2, batch 1 Oct 20 01:44:34 pluto kernel: Normal per-cpu: Oct 20 01:44:36 pluto kernel: cpu 0 hot: low 32, high 96, batch 16 Oct 20 01:44:36 pluto kernel: cpu 0 cold: low 0, high 32, batch 16 Oct 20 01:44:36 pluto kernel: HighMem per-cpu: empty ====================================
Googled for oom-killer, and found out that it is a new fangled addition to kernel 2.6 called Out Of Memory killer[1]. When the computer for some reason runs out of RAM *and* swap, it tries to kill the largest resource hog. Apparently, this oom-killer sometimes runs amok killing everything in sight.
Andrew Morton on the lkml list said[2] that it was an untraceable problem occuring when you burn audio CDs.
Debian seems to have released[3] a version of the kernel which fixes the problem.
The problem still exists in current FC2 kernel(2.6.8-1.521). It has been reported[4] but no fix yet.
From all the other links, it appears that the problem is not limited to audio CD writing.
- Sandip
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2004-September/msg00148.html [2] http://lkml.org/lkml/2004/8/7/6 [3] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=267464 [4] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=131251
-- Sandip Bhattacharya * Puroga Technologies * [EMAIL PROTECTED] Work: http://www.puroga.com * Home: http://www.sandipb.net
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