I did a search for this problem and found that the sparc64 guys had a similar problem that they solved. I don't know if the problem is similar. http://lists.debian.org/debian-sparc/2003/debian-sparc-200311/msg00068.h tml They solved it by analysing an strace. I did the same. Looking at it, it looks like some linking is failing and then later on SYS_4255(), the critical function is failing. Hope that helps someone to understand. marty Barcelona:~# strace df execve("/bin/df", ["df"], [/* 16 vars */]) = 0 uname({sys="Linux", node="Barcelona", ...}) = 0 brk(0) = 0x10001000 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) old_mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x2aac2000 open("/etc/ld.so.preload", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY) = 3 fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=9507, ...}) = 0 old_mmap(NULL, 9507, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE, 3, 0) = 0x2aac4000 close(3) = 0 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/lib/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY) = 3 read(3, "\177ELF\1\2\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0\10\0\0\0\1\0\1PD"..., 512) = 512 lseek(3, 588, SEEK_SET) = 588 read(3, "\0\0\0\4\0\0\0\20\0\0\0\1GNU\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\2\0\0\0\4"..., 32) = 32 fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=1692012, ...}) = 0 old_mmap(NULL, 1872896, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE, 3, 0) = 0x2ab02000 mprotect(0x2ac7f000, 312320, PROT_NONE) = 0 old_mmap(0x2acbe000, 45056, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED, 3, 0x17c000) = 0x2acbe000 old_mmap(0x2acc9000, 9216, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x2acc9000 close(3) = 0 munmap(0x2aac4000, 9507) = 0 brk(0) = 0x10001000 brk(0x10022000) = 0x10022000 brk(0) = 0x10022000 open("/etc/mtab", O_RDONLY) = 3 fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=162, ...}) = 0 old_mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x2aac3000 read(3, "/dev/sda1 / ext3 rw,errors=remou"..., 4096) = 162 read(3, "", 4096) = 0 close(3) = 0 munmap(0x2aac3000, 4096) = 0 fstat64(1, {st_mode=S_IFCHR|0600, st_rdev=makedev(136, 0), ...}) = 0 old_mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x2aac3000 write(1, "Filesystem 1K-blocks "..., 67Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on ) = 67 SYS_4255() = -1 EINVAL (Invalid argument) write(2, "df: ", 4df: ) = 4 write(2, "`/\'", 3`/') = 3 write(2, ": Invalid argument", 18: Invalid argument) = 18 write(2, "\n", 1 ) = 1 SYS_4255() = -1 EINVAL (Invalid argument) write(2, "df: ", 4df: ) = 4 write(2, "`/proc\'", 7`/proc') = 7 write(2, ": Invalid argument", 18: Invalid argument) = 18 write(2, "\n", 1 ) = 1 SYS_4255() = -1 EINVAL (Invalid argument) write(2, "df: ", 4df: ) = 4 write(2, "`/sys\'", 6`/sys') = 6 write(2, ": Invalid argument", 18: Invalid argument) = 18 write(2, "\n", 1 ) = 1 Barcelona:~# df Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on df: `/': Invalid argument df: `/proc': Invalid argument df: `/sys': Invalid argument df: `/dev/pts': Invalid argument df: `/dev/shm': Invalid argument Barcelona:~# uname -a Linux Barcelona 2.6.4 #3 Mon Mar 22 00:14:42 EST 2004 mips GNU/Linux Barcelona:~# cat /proc/version Linux version 2.6.4 (root@Barcelona) (gcc version 3.3.3 (Debian)) #3 Mon Mar 22 00:14:42 EST 2004 Barcelona:~# dpkg -l coreutils libc6 ii coreutils 5.0.91-2 The GNU core utilities ii libc6 2.3.2.ds1-11 GNU C Library: Shared libraries and Timezone data -----Original Message----- From: Ralf Baechle [mailto:ralf@linux-mips.org] Sent: Saturday, 20 March 2004 11:22 PM To: Martin C. Barlow Cc: linux-mips@linux-mips.org Subject: Re: hwclock and df seg fault I checked in the last fixes for the preemptible kernel less than two days ago so if your kernel is older than that it's time to update :-) Ralf
