A.P. Lawrence

Best of the Newsgroups: panic dump analysis

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From: tony@aplawrence.com
Subject: Re: SCO OSR5.0.6 System Crashed during LoneTAR Verify
Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2003 22:05:27 +0000 (UTC) References: <Pine.UW2.4.21.0306131400050.4267-100000@ris7.UniXpress.com> <bcd8of$sgv$1@pcls4.std.com> <20030614202653.GP8316@sco.com>

Bela Lubkin <belal@sco.com> wrote:
>Tony Lawrence wrote:

>> Do you really want to go through the trouble of saving, extracting, and
>> analyzing a dump?  Do you even have the tools and knowledge to
>> do so?
>> 
>> For must of us, a dump is nearly useless.  The trap and cpu information is
>> enough to tell us the type of problem and whether it is repeating
>> (which could indicate a specific driver), but dumps can't give
>> us much more.  I can read assembly language fairly well,
>> and I know a little bit about hardware and vm and so on, but even if I 
>> had source code to help me, I wouldn't bother with it, at least 
>> not initially. You need intimate knowledge and experience to get 
>> very far.  The trap/cpu registers give enough for my teeny brain
>> to work with, thank you.
>> 
>> Unless of course you are planning to throw a bunch of cash SCO's
>> way and have them look at it?

>I have to firmly disagree with you on this.  You don't have to analyze a

Well, we'll have to disagree.  More than 99% of the time panics are
either bad ram or other hardware or missing patches.  I see no point 
in paying or taking the time to analyze a dump for that.

>dump yourself, you are typically going to go ask someone for help on it
>-- whether that's the newsgroups, SCO, or a local consultant.  Whoever

Lone-Tar Backup and Disaster Recovery
for Linux and Unix

Quick, name three consultants with the resources to analyze a dump :-)

>it is, one of the first things they're going to ask for is a symbolic
>traceback of the panic.  That can be gotten out of a panic dump with
>little skill; can't be gotten out of the panic _message_ at all.

>The message printed at panic time is full of hexadecimal addresses that
>are _meaningless_ without examining the kernel that produced them.

>Anyone wanting help with a panic should _at least_ allow a dump to be
>saved in /dev/swap, then run:

>  # crash -d /dev/swap
>  > panic -w /tmp/panic

>and post the resulting contents of /tmp/panic.

Well, tell you what:  I'll be sure to suggest that from now on, but
my bet is that unless you happen to be reading that day, it will 
get them nothing.

--  
tony@aplawrence.com Unix/Linux resources: http://aplawrence.com
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