Hello, I am dealing with VM disk images and performing something like wiping free space to prepare image for compressing and storing on server or copying it to external USB disk causes 1) system lockup in order of a few tens of seconds when all CPU cores are 100% used by system and the machine is basicaly unusable 2) oom killer killing processes This all on system with 8G ram so there should be plenty space to work with. This happens with kernels 3.6.4 or 3.7.1 With earlier kernel versions (some 3.0 or 3.2 kernels) this was not a problem even with less ram. I have vm.swappiness = 0 set for a long time already. Presumably the kernel should stop the process writing to disk from creating more buffers and write out some rather than start killing processes to free memory. Also it might use some swap even with zero swappiness when there is no other way to free more space. Earlier kernels certainly did that. Thanks Michal
[773518.533786] init cpuset=/ mems_allowed=0 [773518.533790] Pid: 1, comm: init Not tainted 3.7-trunk-amd64 #1 Debian 3.7.3-1~experimental.1 [773518.533791] Call Trace: [773518.533802] [<ffffffff81373554>] ? dump_header+0x70/0x1aa [773518.533807] [<ffffffff8103fbff>] ? put_online_cpus+0x1f/0x66 [773518.533811] [<ffffffff810a0dd4>] ? rcu_oom_notify+0xc6/0xd8 [773518.533815] [<ffffffff810c428b>] ? oom_kill_process+0x72/0x2c5 [773518.533819] [<ffffffff810612eb>] ? should_resched+0x5/0x23 [773518.533821] [<ffffffff810c49ca>] ? out_of_memory+0x384/0x3d5 [773518.533825] [<ffffffff810c8873>] ? __alloc_pages_nodemask+0x5c0/0x74c [773518.533829] [<ffffffff810f9e4e>] ? kmem_getpages+0x54/0x124 [773518.533832] [<ffffffff810fa778>] ? fallback_alloc+0x125/0x1ed [773518.533834] [<ffffffff810fb3a2>] ? kmem_cache_alloc+0x7b/0xfd [773518.533838] [<ffffffff8111099d>] ? getname_flags.part.23+0x22/0x10a [773518.533841] [<ffffffff81113523>] ? user_path_at_empty+0x35/0xa8 [773518.533845] [<ffffffff81372269>] ? __bad_area_nosemaphore+0x95/0x1ec [773518.533849] [<ffffffff8137b4f4>] ? __do_page_fault+0x2fa/0x376 [773518.533851] [<ffffffff810612eb>] ? should_resched+0x5/0x23 [773518.533854] [<ffffffff813778f2>] ? _cond_resched+0x6/0x1b [773518.533857] [<ffffffff8110bc9c>] ? cp_new_stat+0x11d/0x130 [773518.533861] [<ffffffff81042e59>] ? timespec_add_safe+0x1e/0x4d [773518.533864] [<ffffffff8110ba31>] ? vfs_fstatat+0x2d/0x63 [773518.533867] [<ffffffff81115973>] ? poll_select_copy_remaining+0xea/0xff [773518.533869] [<ffffffff8110bd46>] ? sys_newstat+0x12/0x2d [773518.533872] [<ffffffff81378918>] ? page_fault+0x28/0x30 [773518.533875] [<ffffffff8137d6e9>] ? system_call_fastpath+0x16/0x1b [773518.533877] Mem-Info: [773518.533879] Node 0 DMA per-cpu: [773518.533882] CPU 0: hi: 0, btch: 1 usd: 0 [773518.533883] CPU 1: hi: 0, btch: 1 usd: 0 [773518.533885] CPU 2: hi: 0, btch: 1 usd: 0 [773518.533887] CPU 3: hi: 0, btch: 1 usd: 0 [773518.533888] Node 0 DMA32 per-cpu: [773518.533890] CPU 0: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 0 [773518.533891] CPU 1: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 0 [773518.533893] CPU 2: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 0 [773518.533895] CPU 3: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 0 [773518.533896] Node 0 Normal per-cpu: [773518.533898] CPU 0: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 0 [773518.533899] CPU 1: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 0 [773518.533901] CPU 2: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 0 [773518.533902] CPU 3: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 0 [773518.533907] active_anon:439845 inactive_anon:131886 isolated_anon:0 active_file:611682 inactive_file:680137 isolated_file:0 unevictable:1641 dirty:680244 writeback:0 unstable:0 free:25754 slab_reclaimable:80416 slab_unreclaimable:7512 mapped:9807 shmem:11579 pagetables:4334 bounce:0 free_cma:0 [773518.533911] Node 0 DMA free:15904kB min:128kB low:160kB high:192kB active_anon:0kB inactive_anon:0kB active_file:0kB inactive_file:0kB unevictable:0kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated(file):0kB present:15680kB mlocked:0kB dirty:0kB writeback:0kB mapped:0kB shmem:0kB slab_reclaimable:0kB slab_unreclaimable:0kB kernel_stack:0kB pagetables:0kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB free_cma:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? yes [773518.533917] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 2998 7921 7921 [773518.533920] Node 0 DMA32 free:45188kB min:25528kB low:31908kB high:38292kB active_anon:16040kB inactive_anon:127684kB active_file:1324868kB inactive_file:1352336kB unevictable:0kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated(file):0kB present:3070172kB mlocked:0kB dirty:1352548kB writeback:0kB mapped:1360kB shmem:15220kB slab_reclaimable:165324kB slab_unreclaimable:1936kB kernel_stack:8kB pagetables:808kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB free_cma:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:5267308 all_unreclaimable? yes [773518.533927] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 4923 4923 [773518.533929] Node 0 Normal free:41924kB min:41924kB low:52404kB high:62884kB active_anon:1743340kB inactive_anon:399860kB active_file:1121860kB inactive_file:1368212kB unevictable:6564kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated(file):0kB present:5041920kB mlocked:6564kB dirty:1368428kB writeback:0kB mapped:37868kB shmem:31096kB slab_reclaimable:156340kB slab_unreclaimable:28112kB kernel_stack:2376kB pagetables:16528kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB free_cma:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:10328235 all_unreclaimable? yes [773518.533936] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 0 0 [773518.533938] Node 0 DMA: 0*4kB 0*8kB 0*16kB 1*32kB 2*64kB 1*128kB 1*256kB 0*512kB 1*1024kB 1*2048kB 3*4096kB = 15904kB [773518.533946] Node 0 DMA32: 65*4kB 2176*8kB 940*16kB 242*32kB 10*64kB 0*128kB 0*256kB 0*512kB 0*1024kB 2*2048kB 0*4096kB = 45188kB [773518.533953] Node 0 Normal: 530*4kB 824*8kB 234*16kB 73*32kB 34*64kB 15*128kB 8*256kB 5*512kB 12*1024kB 1*2048kB 1*4096kB = 41928kB [773518.533961] 1304075 total pagecache pages [773518.533962] 0 pages in swap cache [773518.533964] Swap cache stats: add 0, delete 0, find 0/0 [773518.533965] Free swap = 8387576kB [773518.533966] Total swap = 8387576kB [773518.573684] 2064368 pages RAM [773518.573686] 47751 pages reserved [773518.573688] 2211781 pages shared [773518.573689] 849932 pages non-shared [773518.573690] [ pid ] uid tgid total_vm rss nr_ptes swapents oom_score_adj name [773518.573705] [ 445] 0 445 5456 385 16 0 -1000 udevd [773518.573710] [ 3075] 0 3075 2489 716 8 0 -1000 dhclient [773518.573713] [ 3088] 113 3088 7324 245 18 0 0 dnsmasq [773518.573716] [ 3946] 0 3946 7089 251 20 0 0 nodm [773518.573719] [ 3963] 0 3963 98955 37868 158 0 0 Xorg [773518.573723] [ 3986] 0 3986 29676 434 23 0 0 rsyslogd [773518.573725] [ 4129] 0 4129 4167 82 12 0 0 atd [773518.573728] [ 4189] 0 4189 3651 166 13 0 0 inetutils-inetd [773518.573731] [ 4219] 110 4219 19846 625 30 0 0 dictd [773518.573734] [ 4256] 114 4256 1021 78 8 0 0 uml_switch [773518.573737] [ 4274] 0 4274 1685 92 9 0 0 gpm [773518.573741] [ 4377] 103 4377 7512 291 19 0 0 dbus-daemon [773518.573744] [ 4408] 0 4408 5085 228 15 0 0 cron [773518.573747] [ 4435] 0 4435 10731 538 23 0 0 apache [773518.573750] [ 4490] 0 4490 1061 196 8 0 0 acpid [773518.573753] [ 4608] 0 4608 20551 457 42 0 0 winbindd [773518.573756] [ 4648] 109 4648 15146 6221 36 0 0 tor [773518.573759] [ 4726] 0 4726 20551 369 41 0 0 winbindd [773518.573762] [ 4757] 33 4757 11156 282 25 0 0 lighttpd [773518.573765] [ 5044] 0 5044 12462 285 27 0 -1000 sshd [773518.573768] [ 5050] 1000 5050 17146 257 37 0 0 nodm [773518.573771] [ 5052] 0 5052 48274 651 30 0 0 console-kit-dae [773518.573774] [ 5054] 0 5054 983 20 7 0 0 acpi_fakekeyd [773518.573777] [ 5134] 0 5134 30736 452 29 0 0 polkitd [773518.573780] [ 5143] 1000 5143 10193 202 25 0 0 ck-launch-sessi [773518.573783] [ 5157] 1000 5157 3096 130 10 0 0 ssh-agent [773518.573785] [ 5164] 1000 5164 6047 117 17 0 0 dbus-launch [773518.573789] [ 5165] 1000 5165 7450 96 18 0 0 dbus-daemon [773518.573792] [ 5226] 1000 5226 59673 2395 85 0 0 gkrellm [773518.573795] [ 5257] 0 5257 3173 194 11 0 0 getty [773518.573797] [ 5258] 0 5258 3173 193 13 0 0 getty [773518.573801] [ 5259] 0 5259 3173 193 12 0 0 getty [773518.573803] [ 5260] 0 5260 3173 193 12 0 0 getty [773518.573807] [ 5261] 0 5261 3173 194 12 0 0 getty [773518.573810] [ 5262] 0 5262 3173 194 12 0 0 getty [773518.573813] [ 5310] 1000 5310 15322 623 36 0 0 xscreensaver [773518.573816] [ 5311] 1000 5311 56136 2213 94 0 0 lxpanel [773518.573819] [ 5314] 1000 5314 10703 369 27 0 0 menu-cached [773518.573822] [ 5316] 1000 5316 3639 163 12 0 0 uim-helper-serv [773518.573825] [ 5344] 1000 5344 17962 4954 40 0 0 xmonad-x86_64-l [773518.573828] [ 5347] 1000 5347 6047 117 16 0 0 dbus-launch [773518.573831] [ 5348] 1000 5348 7648 368 20 0 0 dbus-daemon [773518.573834] [ 5351] 1000 5351 24138 1870 51 0 0 uim-xim [773518.573836] [ 5352] 1000 5352 56268 1524 75 0 0 uim-toolbar-gtk [773518.573839] [ 5359] 1000 5359 15465 399 35 0 0 gvfsd [773518.573842] [ 5361] 1000 5361 20768 334 36 0 0 gvfs-fuse-daemo [773518.573845] [ 5384] 1000 5384 28001 2911 58 0 0 urxvt [773518.573848] [ 5386] 1000 5386 31756 1295 65 0 0 uim-candwin-gtk [773518.573850] [ 5387] 1000 5387 5522 1070 14 0 0 bash [773518.573853] [ 5458] 1000 5458 744949 486898 1657 0 0 firefox [773518.573856] [ 5609] 1000 5609 27075 1980 54 0 0 urxvt [773518.573859] [ 5610] 1000 5610 5416 909 16 0 0 bash [773518.573861] [ 3831] 1000 3831 7450 149 19 0 -1000 dbus-daemon [773518.573864] [ 3860] 1000 3860 6605 431 17 0 -1000 tmux [773518.573867] [ 3861] 1000 3861 5877 1560 16 0 -1000 bash [773518.573870] [15917] 0 15917 23575 534 50 0 -1000 sshd [773518.573873] [15922] 1000 15922 24426 973 50 0 -1000 sshd [773518.573876] [21553] 1000 21553 25417 475 51 0 0 usmb [773518.573878] [25733] 1000 25733 28656 4048 58 0 0 urxvt [773518.573881] [25734] 1000 25734 5416 939 15 0 0 bash [773518.573884] [11439] 1000 11439 40328 758 42 0 0 gvfs-gdu-volume [773518.573888] [11441] 0 11441 32507 757 30 0 0 udisks-daemon [773518.573891] [11442] 0 11442 11853 164 27 0 0 udisks-daemon [773518.573894] [11448] 1000 11448 15112 430 35 0 0 gvfs-gphoto2-vo [773518.573896] [11450] 1000 11450 36103 389 39 0 0 gvfs-afc-volume [773518.573899] [25534] 1000 25534 11735 453 27 0 0 gvfsd-metadata [773518.573902] [30298] 1000 30298 26677 1508 55 0 0 urxvt [773518.573905] [30299] 1000 30299 5416 939 15 0 0 bash [773518.573908] [ 9122] 33 9122 10731 203 23 0 0 apache [773518.573911] [ 9123] 33 9123 10731 203 23 0 0 apache [773518.573914] [ 9124] 33 9124 10731 203 23 0 0 apache [773518.573917] [ 9125] 33 9125 10731 203 23 0 0 apache [773518.573920] [ 9127] 33 9127 10731 203 23 0 0 apache [773518.573923] [ 9180] 108 9180 5444 256 15 0 0 privoxy [773518.573926] [10394] 1000 10394 10886 535 26 0 0 ssh [773518.573929] [10581] 1000 10581 33217 443 30 0 0 dconf-service [773518.573932] [10585] 1000 10585 10852 472 26 0 0 ssh [773518.573935] [10643] 1000 10643 61337 961 81 0 0 pulseaudio [773518.573938] [14858] 1000 14858 26929 1824 55 0 0 urxvt [773518.573940] [14859] 1000 14859 5455 1016 15 0 0 bash [773518.573943] [15138] 1000 15138 28981 2280 58 0 0 urxvt [773518.573946] [15139] 1000 15139 5416 922 15 0 0 bash [773518.573949] [15203] 1000 15203 10852 493 26 0 0 ssh [773518.573952] [ 9933] 1000 9933 16635 584 39 0 0 gvfsd-trash [773518.573954] [26409] 1000 26409 4387 246 13 0 0 tmux [773518.573958] [26434] 0 26434 5455 327 15 0 -1000 udevd [773518.573961] [26435] 0 26435 5455 326 15 0 -1000 udevd [773518.573964] [26465] 1000 26465 5868 1392 16 0 -1000 bash [773518.573967] [ 7970] 0 7970 4711 1642 16 0 0 atop [773518.573974] [25248] 1000 25248 4574 237 14 0 -1000 cp [773518.573976] Out of memory: Kill process 5458 (firefox) score 118 or sacrifice child [773518.573986] Killed process 5458 (firefox) total-vm:2979796kB, anon-rss:1924664kB, file-rss:22928kB [773519.093622] firefox: page allocation failure: order:0, mode:0x280da [773519.093627] Pid: 5458, comm: firefox Not tainted 3.7-trunk-amd64 #1 Debian 3.7.3-1~experimental.1 [773519.093629] Call Trace: [773519.093639] [<ffffffff810c5d51>] ? warn_alloc_failed+0x111/0x123 [773519.093643] [<ffffffff810c8963>] ? __alloc_pages_nodemask+0x6b0/0x74c [773519.093647] [<ffffffff810f5936>] ? alloc_pages_vma+0x110/0x12d [773519.093650] [<ffffffff810e0356>] ? handle_pte_fault+0x15e/0x7dd [773519.093653] [<ffffffff810c7919>] ? free_hot_cold_page+0x42/0x102 [773519.093657] [<ffffffff810dd8d4>] ? pte_offset_kernel+0xc/0x38 [773519.093661] [<ffffffff8137b528>] ? __do_page_fault+0x32e/0x376 [773519.093664] [<ffffffff810f9572>] ? kmem_cache_free+0x2d/0x69 [773519.093669] [<ffffffff81066342>] ? __dequeue_entity+0x18/0x2b [773519.093673] [<ffffffff8100d025>] ? paravirt_write_msr+0xb/0xe [773519.093676] [<ffffffff8100d652>] ? __switch_to+0x1db/0x3f8 [773519.093679] [<ffffffff81067b88>] ? pick_next_task_fair+0xe3/0x13b [773519.093682] [<ffffffff8105fad7>] ? mmdrop+0xd/0x1c [773519.093684] [<ffffffff8106138c>] ? finish_task_switch+0x83/0xb4 [773519.093689] [<ffffffff81377881>] ? __schedule+0x4b2/0x4e0 [773519.093691] [<ffffffff81378918>] ? page_fault+0x28/0x30 [773519.093693] Mem-Info: [773519.093694] Node 0 DMA per-cpu: [773519.093696] CPU 0: hi: 0, btch: 1 usd: 0 [773519.093698] CPU 1: hi: 0, btch: 1 usd: 0 [773519.093700] CPU 2: hi: 0, btch: 1 usd: 0 [773519.093701] CPU 3: hi: 0, btch: 1 usd: 0 [773519.093702] Node 0 DMA32 per-cpu: [773519.093704] CPU 0: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 0 [773519.093706] CPU 1: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 0 [773519.093708] CPU 2: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 0 [773519.093709] CPU 3: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 0 [773519.093710] Node 0 Normal per-cpu: [773519.093712] CPU 0: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 0 [773519.093714] CPU 1: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 0 [773519.093715] CPU 2: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 0 [773519.093717] CPU 3: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 0 [773519.093721] active_anon:439845 inactive_anon:131886 isolated_anon:0 active_file:611682 inactive_file:680137 isolated_file:0 unevictable:1641 dirty:680244 writeback:0 unstable:0 free:25754 slab_reclaimable:80416 slab_unreclaimable:7512 mapped:9807 shmem:11579 pagetables:4334 bounce:0 free_cma:0 [773519.093725] Node 0 DMA free:15904kB min:128kB low:160kB high:192kB active_anon:0kB inactive_anon:0kB active_file:0kB inactive_file:0kB unevictable:0kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated(file):0kB present:15680kB mlocked:0kB dirty:0kB writeback:0kB mapped:0kB shmem:0kB slab_reclaimable:0kB slab_unreclaimable:0kB kernel_stack:0kB pagetables:0kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB free_cma:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? yes [773519.093731] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 2998 7921 7921 [773519.093735] Node 0 DMA32 free:45188kB min:25528kB low:31908kB high:38292kB active_anon:16040kB inactive_anon:127684kB active_file:1324868kB inactive_file:1352336kB unevictable:0kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated(file):0kB present:3070172kB mlocked:0kB dirty:1352548kB writeback:0kB mapped:1360kB shmem:15220kB slab_reclaimable:165324kB slab_unreclaimable:1936kB kernel_stack:8kB pagetables:808kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB free_cma:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? no [773519.093741] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 4923 4923 [773519.093744] Node 0 Normal free:41924kB min:41924kB low:52404kB high:62884kB active_anon:1743340kB inactive_anon:399860kB active_file:1121860kB inactive_file:1368212kB unevictable:6564kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated(file):0kB present:5041920kB mlocked:6564kB dirty:1368428kB writeback:0kB mapped:37868kB shmem:31096kB slab_reclaimable:156340kB slab_unreclaimable:28112kB kernel_stack:2376kB pagetables:16528kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB free_cma:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:736 all_unreclaimable? no [773519.093750] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 0 0 [773519.093752] Node 0 DMA: 0*4kB 0*8kB 0*16kB 1*32kB 2*64kB 1*128kB 1*256kB 0*512kB 1*1024kB 1*2048kB 3*4096kB = 15904kB [773519.093760] Node 0 DMA32: 64*4kB 2175*8kB 941*16kB 242*32kB 10*64kB 0*128kB 0*256kB 0*512kB 0*1024kB 2*2048kB 0*4096kB = 45192kB [773519.093767] Node 0 Normal: 537*4kB 824*8kB 234*16kB 74*32kB 34*64kB 15*128kB 8*256kB 5*512kB 12*1024kB 1*2048kB 1*4096kB = 41988kB [773519.093775] 1304075 total pagecache pages [773519.093777] 0 pages in swap cache [773519.093778] Swap cache stats: add 0, delete 0, find 0/0 [773519.093780] Free swap = 8387576kB [773519.093781] Total swap = 8387576kB [773519.139790] 2064368 pages RAM [773519.139793] 47751 pages reserved [773519.139794] 2211758 pages shared [773519.139796] 849916 pages non-shared