Subject: Potential problem with stable

From: Todd Graham Lewis <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 29 Jun 1996 16:21:09 -0400

Hello, all.

I just switched from RedHat to Debian on my home machine, and I am very 
impressed.  I needd a number of packages, set the ftp install running, 
went to bed, and woke up to the configuration script.  This and tons of 
other stuff has almost completely converted me.

This is a problem which people have referenced on linux.dev.kernel, but I 
figured that I'd follow the advice I give to others, and come here first.

When I try to remake my kernel, the `make dep` hangs and starts chewing 
CPU.  Below are the last 10 lines of the strace:

write(1, "rm -f .hdepend\n", 15)        = 15
brk(0x8033000)                          = 0x8033000
sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK, [HUP INT QUIT TERM XCPU XFSZ], NULL) = 0
fork()                                  = 5680
sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, [], NULL)      = 0
wait4(-1, [WIFEXITED(s) && WEXITSTATUS(s) == 0], 0, NULL) = 5680
write(1, "gawk -f scripts/depend.awk `find"..., 113) = 113
sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK, [HUP INT QUIT TERM XCPU XFSZ], NULL) = 0
fork()                                  = 5681
wait4(-1, 
<<<

As you can see, it hangs, apparently, in the middle of a "wait" call and 
just shoots the loadavg through the roof; it has to be killed after that.

I have a clean 1.1-stable release that I installed three days ago.  
Nothing is on the machine not from a .deb package other than ssh.  I did 
apply Alan Cox's suggested kernel patch.  386/40, 16MB RAM, 1.0GB IDE, etc.

Feel free to email me instead of cluttering the list.  If anyone needs 
more info, I'm happy to provide it.  If I do figure it out, I'll be sure 
to post the answer here.

TIA, and keep up the good work.

Todd
_____________________________________________________________________
Todd Graham Lewis        Core Engineering      Mindspring Enterprises
[email-masked]  (Standard Disclaimers)   (800) 719 4664, x2804

---

From: Todd Graham Lewis <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 29 Jun 1996 22:30:58 -0400

Well, it looked like it was hanging.  After I posted my report, I decided 
to let one go and see what happened.  Turns out my machine was just 
really slow in doing the sed script.

These things happen on a 386 with no math coprocessor.

<GRIN=SHEEPISH>
Never mind
</GRIN>