==> Regarding Re: [Crash-utility] netdump netpoll bug?; "Rohan Mutagi" <rohan208@xxxxxxxxx> adds: rohan208> My kernel version is 2.6.9-34.EL (my system is "up to date" from rohan208> RHN)... I am running this inside VMWare and the eth0 is seen as rohan208> "PCnet/PCI II 79C97OA" rohan208> I am wondering how do I provide the stack trace? As its on the rohan208> screen of my laptop. This trace doesnt apper in the "log" file rohan208> generated by the netdump-server. Typically, I would recommend a serial console. I guess that's not possible with VMWare, though. ;) rohan208> Any leads would be appricaited. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=142269 That bug seems to be private... *sigh* Here is the stack trace that you are likely getting: Call Trace: [<f882604d>] pcnet32_start_xmit+0x23/0xf8 [pcnet32] [<c0274c78>] netpoll_send_skb+0x6a/0x98 [<c02751d6>] arp_reply+0x2f7/0x2ff [<c027521f>] netpoll_rx+0x41/0x2e4 [<c026a5c0>] netif_rx+0x1c/0x1b2 [<f88267e8>] pcnet32_rx+0x2c8/0x325 [pcnet32] [<f88261ed>] pcnet32_interrupt+0xcb/0x3fe [pcnet32] [<f8824132>] pcnet32_poll_controller+0x16/0x1f [pcnet32] [<c0274aa2>] netpoll_poll+0x32/0x8f [<f89ef69d>] netpoll_netdump+0xa3/0x478 [netdump] [<c01f9a96>] sysrq_handle_crash+0x0/0x8 [<c01f9a96>] sysrq_handle_crash+0x0/0x8 [<f89ef5fa>] netpoll_netdump+0x0/0x478 [netdump] [<f89ef5f1>] netpoll_start_netdump+0xf1/0xfa [netdump] ======================= ... Basically, the network transmit queue is busy, and so we call the poll_controller routine to free up some TX descriptors. If, in the process, we end up with ARP requests, we need to service them. This ends up in a call to the hard_start_xmit routine inside the pcnet32 driver, and deadlocks. Is there possibly another driver that VMWare will mimic? If not, you can circumvent this problem by adding an ARP entry for the crashing system to the netdump server. -Jeff
