# Linux 2.6.x stability worsening?

## petrjanda

Upgraded to 2.6.14-gentoo and a number of applications would begin to freeze, including firefox and gaim. Has anyone else been noticing? Whats the problem? Seems the forums are full of posts related to kernel problems recently.

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## Cintra

Can't say I have noticed any kernel instability, other than a cdrw glitch in 2.6.14-rc2 that was quickly fixed.

I keep up with the latest vanilla-sources releases and have about 130 items in keywords. I don't update the toolchain every time there's a change, and keep away from most betas. 

I too have noticed a growing (?) number of trolls in the forum.. one just shouldn't feed them IMHO..

Mvh

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## fangorn

I have a problem with usb_storage in 2.6.14 on amd64. But that is maybe in combination with udev. For other stability issues I have to say, it is slightly more unstable than the AIX machines we used to have at work (have to boot once a year to check it is still booting)  :Wink:  But seriously, other than some network problems I have never had stabilty problems.

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## drescherjm

I have not had any stability problems with 2.6 kernels at all and this is on both amd64 and x86 with a lot of ~x86 or ~amd64 packages in my /etc/portage/package/keywords.

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## drescherjm

Are you using gcc4? Could you post the output of 

```
emerge --info
```

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## petrjanda

 *drescherjm wrote:*   

> Are you using gcc4? Could you post the output of 
> 
> ```
> emerge --info
> ```
> ...

 

Using gcc 3.4.4

```

petr@elevator ~ % emerge info

Portage 2.0.53_rc7 (default-linux/amd64/2005.1, gcc-3.4.4, glibc-2.3.5-r0, 2.6.13-gentoo-r4-Heartwork x86_64)

=================================================================

System uname: 2.6.13-gentoo-r4-Heartwork x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3000+

Gentoo Base System version 1.12.0_pre9

dev-lang/python:     2.3.4-r1, 2.4.2

sys-apps/sandbox:    1.2.13

sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.59-r7

sys-devel/automake:  1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r1

sys-devel/binutils:  2.16.1

sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.20-r1

virtual/os-headers:  2.6.11-r2

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64 ~amd64"

AUTOCLEAN="yes"

CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"

CFLAGS="-O2 -march=k8 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer -ftracer"

CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"

CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/X11/xkb /usr/lib64/mozilla/defaults/pref /usr/share/config /var/bind /var/qmail/control"

CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/splash /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d"

CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=k8 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer -ftracer"

DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"

FEATURES="autoconfig buildpkg distlocks sandbox sfperms strict"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/gentoo"

LANG="en_AU.UTF-8"

LC_ALL="en_AU.UTF-8"

LDFLAGS="-W1,-O1"

MAKEOPTS="-j2"

PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"

PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"

PORTDIR="/usr/portage"

PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/share/gentopia /usr/share/overlay"

SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"

USE="amd64 X aac aalib acl alsa apache2 audiofile avi berkdb bitmap-fonts bzip2 cdr chm crypt cups curl divx4linux dvd dvdr dvdread eds emboss encode esd exif expat fam ffmpeg firefox flac foomaticdb fortran gdbm gif glitz glut gnutls gpm gstreamer gtk gtk2 idn imagemagick imlib ipv6 java jpeg lcms libwww lzw lzw-tiff mad maildir mhash mng mozilla mp3 mpeg ncurses network nls nptl nptlonly nvidia oav ogg oggvorbis opengl pam pcre pdflib perl pic png ppds python quicktime readline ruby samba scanner sdl slang spell sqlite ssl svg tcpd theora tiff truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts udev unicode usb userlocales v4l vorbis wxwindows xine xml2 xpm xv xvid zlib userland_GNU kernel_linux elibc_glibc"

Unset:  ASFLAGS, CTARGET, LINGUAS

```

As you notice im back to 2.6.13-gentoo-r4, no problems now.

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## adsmith

More likely than an actual kernel instability, when you changed kernels, you weren't quite careful enough about changing/updating config options.    In new versions, some things that used to not conflict do, and the meaning of some config options slowly changes.    This is very common, even among the best of us.

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## drescherjm

 *Quote:*   

> As you notice im back to 2.6.13-gentoo-r4, no problems now.

 

Sorry I was not more help. If it is an issue with 2.6.14 vs 2.6.13 it is unlikly that I would see it as I have only one pc that I manage at 2.6.14 and 20+ at 2.6.11 to 2.6.13. 

 *Quote:*   

> when you changed kernels, you weren't quite careful enough about changing/updating config options.

 

Did you copy the old .config or start from scratch??

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## drescherjm

What version of udev are you using??

Are there any errors in the output of 

```
dmesg
```

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## petrjanda

 *drescherjm wrote:*   

>  *Quote:*   As you notice im back to 2.6.13-gentoo-r4, no problems now. 
> 
> Sorry I was not more help. If it is an issue with 2.6.14 vs 2.6.13 it is unlikly that I would see it as I have only one pc that I manage at 2.6.14 and 20+ at 2.6.11 to 2.6.13. 
> 
>  *Quote:*   when you changed kernels, you weren't quite careful enough about changing/updating config options. 
> ...

 

I used the old configuration, the only thing i changed in the config was I included support for "Connector - unified userspace <-> kernelspace linker " to try it out.

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## petrjanda

 *drescherjm wrote:*   

> What version of udev are you using??
> 
> Are there any errors in the output of 
> 
> ```
> ...

 

didnt notice any. I use udev-073

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## EG

 *petrjanda wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I used the old configuration, the only thing i changed in the config was I included support for "Connector - unified userspace <-> kernelspace linker " to try it out.

 

I also found the unstability, even worth, the net-driver 8139too will crash the kernel after Samba receive 20MB+ files.

I am still novice, so currently can not debug kernel  :Smile:  , but I found if you DON'T USE old .config file, start from new, the above problem will disappear. I use 2.6.15-r1 & just complete upgrade to udev79r1.

Hope it will helpful

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