About half an hour ago my machine crashed, and I think this might be due
to a problem in the module handling or the serial code.
Machine:
- Genuine i486DX2/66
- 8448kB RAM (7000kB available to userspace after boot)
- 128MB of swap
- IDE harddisk
Kernel:
- version 2.0.33
- bootlogo_font (1.01) patch applied
- serial.o as a module
Problem:
In a low-memory situation (process table filling up all memory) the
system crashes completely (no response to anything but the reset line)
after I manually load serial.o using insmod (modprobe doesn't load the
module, although it pretends everything went ok; kerneld doesn't load
the module either).
Suspect:
The insert code does not check whether there is enough physical memory
available.
Workaround:
Don't start [physical Mem]/4096 processes and/or don't use insmod to
load modules. Since neither is possible for ordinary users, no DoS
attacks are possible using this bug.
CU
Simon
PS: Please CC me, I'm no longer on the list (My new[?] machine has an
8450).
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