[PlanetCCRMA] Lockup on tar command over ssh

[Fernando Lopez-Lezcano]

On Fri, 2008-06-20 at 15:32 +1000, Adam Swift wrote:
> Getting a complete lockup on the 2.6.24.7-1.rt3.2.fc8.ccrmart kernel  
> when I run the following command over an ssh session, as a normal user  
> or as root:
> tar -c -f - -C / --exclude=./proc --exclude=./sys .
> 
> What happens is it starts dumping data as expected, but after maybe 6  
> seconds the whole computer locks up. Locks up as in completely  
> unresponsive- num lock doesn't work, magic sysrq doesn't work (after  
> explicitly turning it on with echo 1 > /proc/sys/kernel/sysrq ). I  
> have to do a hard reset.
> 
> Observing my switch, both lights (the Planet CCRMA box and the ssh  
> client box) flash initially as the data starts transferring. Once the  
> Planet CCRMA box hangs, the light for ssh client box stops flashing  
> but the Planet CCRMA box light keeps flashing. That suggests to me  
> that it's still transmitting but the data is corrupt, and so the  
> switch can't direct it to a real network interface.
> 
> It works fine with 2.6.25.4-10.fc8 , over a local ssh session, and  
> just plain locally in a terminal.
> 
> Any ideas from where to go from here?

Not much to do, regretfully. Are the keyboard lights blinking after the
computer locks up? That would suggest a kernel panic (which is my best
guess of what might be actually happening). 

Anything in /var/log/messages after you reboot?

Hmmm, you could try a new experimental kernel I have just released based
on 2.6.25.7... It is in the "testing" repository. 

-- Fernando

PS: you can activate the testing repo by installing:
http://ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/mirror/fedora/linux/planetccrma/8/i386/repoview/planetccrma-repo-testing.html

That will install a planetccrma-testing.repo file in /etc/yum.repos.d/,
what I would suggest doing is actually disabling it by editing the file
and manually enabling it in the yum command line when you want to try
something specific that is there ("yum --enablerepo planetccrma-testing
__commands__")