we have a server: dual intel PII 400Mhz 512MB RAM BusLogic BT-958 scsi running: kernel 2.2.5 w/ raid0145-19990309 patch. debian 2.1r2 dump 0.4b4-13 the problem: we are having problems with dump causing a panic with kswapd. this is a repeatable condition. with a raid0 device configured and mounted, but unused beyond mounting, at some point during the dump kswapd generates the below Oops and becomes a zombie process. system may remain up for a brief time after this but will hang if not rebooted quickly. the error seems dependent on the amount of data being backed up by dump as well. i.e., if we do not do a full dump of all filesystems, the dump completes normally. this error does NOT occur with the 2.0.36 kernel or without SMP support AND raid0145 support (using the alpha raid patch and raidtools 0.90 from 19990309) and a mounted (but idle) raid filesystem. we have a second server with identical hardware/software configuration that is working fine, which leads me to believe we have a hardware problem most likely, but.... at this point, i am trying to identify whether this is a software (kernel) or hardware (RAM or swap disk partition) problem. i'd be happy to provide more specific information if someone can tell me what would be useful. memory[56]# uname -a Linux memory 2.2.5 #6 SMP Fri Apr 30 20:34:30 PDT 1999 i686 unknown memory[57]# memory[57]# cat /proc/swaps Filename Type Size Used Priority /dev/sda7 partition 128484 0 1 /dev/sdb1 partition 265036 0 1 /dev/sdc1 partition 265036 0 1 memory[58]# memory[58]# cat /proc/mdstat Personalities : [linear] [raid0] [raid1] [raid5] read_ahead 1024 sectors md0 : active raid0 sdj1[5] sdi1[4] sdh1[3] sdg1[2] sdf1[1] sde1[0] 52531968 blocks 32k chunks unused devices: <none> memory[59]# memory[59]# df Filesystem 1024-blocks Used Available Capacity Mounted on /dev/sda5 792800 351834 400002 47% / /dev/sda1 23300 2185 19912 10% /boot /dev/sda6 3354255 378386 2802369 12% /opt /dev/sdb2 8311395 61916 8249479 1% /logs /dev/sdc2 8311395 1065569 7245826 13% /web memory[60]# May 3 10:38:05 memory kernel: Oops: 0002 May 3 10:38:05 memory kernel: CPU: 1 May 3 10:38:05 memory kernel: EIP: 0010:[kmem_cache_free+379/412] May 3 10:38:05 memory kernel: EFLAGS: 00010282 May 3 10:38:05 memory kernel: eax: 0000003d ebx: c07db740 ecx: c000a000 edx: c07de000 May 3 10:38:05 memory kernel: esi: ca3bec20 edi: 00000282 ebp: 78827289 esp: c000bf6c May 3 10:38:05 memory kernel: ds: 0018 es: 0018 ss: 0018 May 3 10:38:05 memory kernel: Process kswapd (pid: 4, process nr: 5, stackpage=c000b000) May 3 10:38:05 memory kernel: Stack: ca3bec20 c042fb50 c07de000 ca3bec7c c01121a7 c01290b9 c07db740 ca3bec20 May 3 10:38:05 memory kernel: ca3bec20 ca3bec20 c0129b67 ca3bec20 ca3bec20 c042fb50 000007ff 00000030 May 3 10:38:05 memory kernel: c000a000 c011e1da c042fb50 00000010 00000006 c0123487 00000006 00000030 May 3 10:38:05 memory kernel: Call Trace: [schedule+811/928] [put_unused_buffer_head+33/76] [try_to_free_buffers+79/136] [shrink_mmap+222/304] [do_try_to_free_pages+63/172] [tvecs+5147/35276] [kswapd+87/224] May 3 10:38:05 memory kernel: [get_options+0/116] [kernel_thread+35/48] May 3 10:38:05 memory kernel: Code: c7 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 5b 5e 5f 5d 83 c4 0c c3 8d 76 May 3 18:04:50 memory kernel: Oops: 0002 May 3 18:04:50 memory kernel: CPU: 1 May 3 18:04:50 memory kernel: EIP: 0010:[kmem_cache_free+379/412] May 3 18:04:50 memory kernel: EFLAGS: 00010286 May 3 18:04:50 memory kernel: eax: 0000003d ebx: c07db740 ecx: c000a000 edx: c07de000 May 3 18:04:50 memory kernel: esi: c8b82ea0 edi: 00000286 ebp: 0cc2201e esp: c000bf6c May 3 18:04:50 memory kernel: ds: 0018 es: 0018 ss: 0018 May 3 18:04:50 memory kernel: Process kswapd (pid: 4, process nr: 5, stackpage=c000b000) May 3 18:04:50 memory kernel: Stack: c8b82ea0 c0402808 c07de000 c8b82efc c01121a7 c01290b9 c07db740 c8b82ea0 May 3 18:04:50 memory kernel: c8b82ea0 c8b82ea0 c0129b67 c8b82ea0 c8b82ea0 c0402808 000007ff 00000030 May 3 18:04:50 memory kernel: c000a000 c011e1da c0402808 00000017 00000006 c0123487 00000006 00000030 May 3 18:04:50 memory kernel: Call Trace: [schedule+811/928] [put_unused_buffer_head+33/76] [try_to_free_buffers+79/136] [shrink_mmap+222/304] [do_try_to_free_pages+63/172] [tvecs+5147/35276] [kswapd+87/224] May 3 18:04:50 memory kernel: [get_options+0/116] [kernel_thread+35/48] May 3 18:04:50 memory kernel: Code: c7 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 5b 5e 5f 5d 83 c4 0c c3 8d 76 -brad -- Brad Burdick - UUcom Inc. Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Voice: 703.461.1350 | Fax: 703.461.1360