[OpenWrt-Users] ps and top say "Segmentation fault"

[Stefan Monnier]

>>> I have a kamikaze (compiled from the svn trunk a few days ago.
>>> Uses kernel 2.6.23) running on a wrtsl54gs.  Overall it works OK, but
>>> every once in a while, it gets into a state where `ps' and `top' do not
>>> work and just segfault (after printing the first line header).

>> 2.6 kernels have some bugs in cache-handling on the broadcom CPUs, as
>> the cache on this CPUs is not 100% mips compliant. This results in

> My segfaults are very specifically related to `ps' and `top', it seems,
> and once they start, all subsequent `ps' and `top' crash in the exact
> same way until I reboot.

Actually, it seems the problem is in some part of the /proc data.
E.g. I recently got into a state where `ps' would die but only after
displaying some processes.
I could make `cat' segfault as well with:

   ~# cat /proc/253/environ 
   Segmentation fault
   ~# cat /proc/253/cmdline
   Segmentation fault
   ~# 

The rest of the system seemed to be working OK and `logread' didn't
mention anything unusual.


        Stefan