CRASH(8V)

NAME
crash - what happens when the system crashes

DESCRIPTION
This section explains what happens when the system crashes and (very briefly) how to analyze crash dumps.

When the system crashes voluntarily it prints a message of the form

    panic: why i gave up the ghost

on the console, takes a dump on a mass storage peripheral, and then invokes an automatic reboot procedure as described in reboot(8). Unless some unexpected inconsistency is encountered in the state of the file systems due to hardware or software failure, the system will then resume multi-user operations. If the automatic file system check fails, the file systems should be checked and repaired with fsck(8) before continuing.

The system has a large number of internal consistency checks; if one of these fails, then it will panic with a very short message indicating which one failed. In many instances, this will be the name of the routine which detected the error, or a two-word description of the inconsistency. A full understanding of most panic messages requires perusal of the source code for the system.

The most common cause of system failures is hardware failure, which can reflect itself in different ways. Here are the messages which are most likely, with some hints as to causes. Left unstated in all cases is the possibility that hardware or software error produced the message in some unexpected way.

iinit
    This cryptic panic message results from a failure to mount the root filesystem during the bootstrap process. Either the root filesystem has been corrupted, or the system is attempting to use the wrong device as root filesystem. Usually, an alternate copy of the system binary or an alternate root filesystem can be used to bring up the system to investigate.

Can't exec /etc/init
    This is not a panic message, as reboots are likely to be futile. Late in the bootstrap procedure, the system was unable to locate and execute the initialization process, init(8). The root filesystem is incorrect or has been corrupted, or the mode or type of /etc/init forbids execution.

hard IO err in swap
    The system encountered an error trying to write to the swap device or an error in reading critical information from a disk drive. The offending disk should be fixed if it is broken or unreliable.

timeout table overflow
    This really shouldn't be a panic, but until the data structure involved is made to be extensible, running out of entries causes a crash. If this happens, make the timeout table bigger. (NCALL in param.c)

trap type %o
    An unexpected trap has occurred within the system; the trap types are:

0	bus error
1	illegal instruction trap
2	BPT/trace trap
3	IOT
4	power fail trap (if autoreboot fails)
5	EMT
6	recursive system call (TRAP instruction)
7	programmed interrupt request
11	protection fault (segmentation violation)
12	parity trap

In some of these cases it is possible for octal 020 to be added into the trap type; this indicates that the processor was in user mode when the trap occurred.

In addition to the trap type, the system will have printed out three (or four) other numbers: ka6, which is the contents of the segmentation register for the area in which the system's stack is kept; aps, which is the location where the hardware stored the program status word during the trap; pc, which was the system's program counter when it faulted (already incremented to the next word); __ovno, the overlay number of the currently loaded kernel overlay when the trap occurred.

The favorite trap types in system crashes are trap types 0 and 11, indicating a wild reference. The code is the referenced address, and the pc at the time of the fault is printed. These problems tend to be easy to track down if they are kernel bugs since the processor stops cold, but random flakiness seems to cause this sometimes. The debugger can be used to locate the instruction and subroutine corresponding to the PC value. If that is insufficient to suggest the nature of the problem, more detailed examination of the system status at the time of the trap usually can produce an explanation.

init died
    The system initialization process has exited. This is bad news, as no new users will then be able to log in. Rebooting is the only fix, so the system just does it right away.

out of mbufs: map full
    The network has exhausted its private page map for network buffers. This usually indicates that buffers are being lost, and rather than allow the system to slowly degrade, it reboots immediately. The map may be made larger if necessary.

out of swap space
    This really shouldn't be panics but there's no other satisfactory solution. The size of the swap area must be increased. The system attempts to avoid running out of swap by refusing to start new processes when short of swap space (resulting in ``No more proceses'' messages from the shell).

&remap_area > SEG5

_end > SEG5
    The kernel detected at boot time that an unacceptable portion of its data space extended into the region controlled by KDSA5. In the case of the first message, the size of the kernel's data segment (excluding the file, proc, and text tables) must be decreased. In the latter case, there are two possibilities: if &remap_area is not greater than 0120000, the kernel must be recompiled without defining the option NOKA5. Otherwise, as above, the size of the kernel's data segment must be decreased.

That completes the list of panic types you are likely to see. There are many other panic messages which are less likely to occur; most of them detect logical inconsistencies within the kernel and thus ``cannot happen'' unless some part of the kernel has been modified.

If the system stops or hangs without a panic, it is possible to stop it and take a dump of memory before rebooting. A panic can be forced from the console, which will allow a dump, automatic reboot and file system check. This is accomplished by halting the CPU, putting the processor in kernel mode, loading the PC with 40, and continuing without a reset (use continue, not start). To put the processor in kernel mode, make sure the two high bits in the processor status word are zero. (you'll need to consult the procesor handbook describing your processor to determine how to access the PC and PS ...) The message ``panic: forced from console'' should print, and the automatic reboot will start.

If this fails a dump of memory can be made on magtape: mount a tape (with write ring!), halt the CPU, load address 044, and perform a start (which does a reset). This should write a copy of all of core on the tape with an EOF mark. Caution: Any error is taken to mean the end of core has been reached. This means that you must be sure the ring is in, the tape is ready, and the tape is clean and new. If the dump fails, you can try again, but some of the registers will be lost. After this completes, halt again and reboot.

After rebooting, or after an automatic file system check fails, check and fix the file systems with fsck. If the system will not reboot, a runnable system must be obtained from a backup medium after verifying that the hardware is functioning normally. A damaged root file system should be patched while running with an alternate root if possible.

When the system crashes if crash dumping was enabled it writes (or at least attempts to write) an image of memory into the back end of the dump device, usually the same as the primary swap area. After the system is rebooted, the program savecore(8) runs and preserves a copy of this core image and the current system in a specified directory for later perusal. See savecore(8) for details. A magtape dump can be read onto disk with dd(1).

To analyze a dump you should begin by running adb(1) with the -k flag on the system load image and core dump. If the core image is the result of a panic, the panic message is printed. Normally the command ``$c'' or ``$C'' will provide a stack trace from the point of the crash and this will provide a clue as to what went wrong. ps(1) and pstat(8)canalsobeused to print the process table at the time of the crash via: ps -alxk and pstat -p. If the mapping or the stack frame are incorrect, the following magic locations may be examined in an attempt to find out what went wrong. The registers R0, R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, SP, and KDSA6 (or KISA6 for machines without separate instruction and data) are saved at location 04. If the core dump was taken on disk, these values also appear at 0300. The value of KDSA6 (KISA6) multiplied by 0100 (8) gives the address of the user structure and kernel stack for the running process. Relabel these addresses 0140000 through 0142000. R5 is C's frame or display pointer. Stored at (R5) is the old R5 pointing to the previous stack frame. At (R5)+2 is the saved PC of the calling procedure. Trace this calling chain to an R5 value of 0141756 (0141754 for overlaid kernels), which is where the user's R5 is stored. If the chain is broken, look for a plausible R5, PC pair and continue from there. In most cases this procedure will give an idea of what is wrong.

A more complete discussion of system debugging is impossible here. See, however, ``Using ADB to Debug the UNIX Kernel''.

SEE ALSO
adb(1), ps(1), pstat(1), boot(8), fsck(8), reboot(8), savecore(8)
PDP-11 Processor Handbook for various processors for more information about PDP-11 memory management and general architecture.
Using ADB to Debug the UNIX Kernel