xref: /dragonfly/share/man/man8/crash.8 (revision 6fb88001)
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2.\"	Mike Pritchard <mpp@FreeBSD.org>.  All rights reserved.
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37.\" $FreeBSD: src/share/man/man8/crash.8,v 1.9.2.5 2002/03/19 01:57:27 dd Exp $
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39.\"
40.Dd February 2, 1996
41.Dt CRASH 8
42.Os
43.Sh NAME
44.Nm crash
45.Nd
46.Dx
47system failures
48.Sh DESCRIPTION
49This section explains a bit about system crashes
50and (very briefly) how to analyze crash dumps.
51.Pp
52When the system crashes voluntarily it prints a message of the form
53.Bd -ragged -offset indent
54panic: why i gave up the ghost
55.Ed
56.Pp
57on the console, and if dumps have been enabled (see
58.Xr dumpon 8 ) ,
59takes a dump on a mass storage peripheral,
60and then invokes an automatic reboot procedure as
61described in
62.Xr reboot 8 .
63Unless some unexpected inconsistency is encountered in the state
64of the file systems due to hardware or software failure, the system
65will then resume multi-user operations.
66.Pp
67The system has a large number of internal consistency checks; if one
68of these fails, then it will panic with a very short message indicating
69which one failed.
70In many instances, this will be the name of the routine which detected
71the error, or a two-word description of the inconsistency.
72A full understanding of most panic messages requires perusal of the
73source code for the system.
74.Pp
75The most common cause of system failures is hardware failure, which
76can reflect itself in different ways.  Here are the messages which
77are most likely, with some hints as to causes.
78Left unstated in all cases is the possibility that hardware or software
79error produced the message in some unexpected way.
80.Pp
81.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact
82.It Sy "cannot mount root"
83This panic message results from a failure to mount the root filesystem
84during the bootstrap process.
85Either the root filesystem has been corrupted,
86or the system is attempting to use the wrong device as root filesystem.
87Usually, an alternate copy of the system binary or an alternate root
88filesystem can be used to bring up the system to investigate.  Most often
89this is done by the use of the boot floppy you used to install the system,
90and then using the "fixit" floppy.
91.Pp
92.It Sy "init: not found"
93This is not a panic message, as reboots are likely to be futile.
94Late in the bootstrap procedure, the system was unable to locate
95and execute the initialization process,
96.Xr init 8 .
97The root filesystem is incorrect or has been corrupted, or the mode
98or type of
99.Pa /sbin/init
100forbids execution or is totally missing.
101.Pp
102.Pp
103.It Sy "ffs_realloccg: bad optim"
104.It Sy "ffs_valloc: dup alloc"
105.It Sy "ffs_alloccgblk: cyl groups corrupted"
106.It Sy "ffs_alloccg: map corrupted"
107.It Sy "blkfree: freeing free block"
108.It Sy "blkfree: freeing free frag"
109.It Sy "ifree: freeing free inode"
110These panic messages are among those that may be produced
111when filesystem inconsistencies are detected.
112The problem generally results from a failure to repair damaged filesystems
113after a crash, hardware failures, or other condition that should not
114normally occur.
115A filesystem check will normally correct the problem.
116.Pp
117.It Sy "timeout table full"
118This really shouldn't be a panic, but until the data structure
119involved is made to be extensible, running out of entries causes a crash.
120If this happens, make the timeout table bigger.
121.Pp
122.\" .It Sy "trap type %d, code = %x, v = %x"
123.\" An unexpected trap has occurred within the system; the trap types are:
124.\" .Bl -column xxxx -offset indent
125.\" 0	bus error
126.\" 1	address error
127.\" 2	illegal instruction
128.\" 3	divide by zero
129.\" .No 4\t Em chk No instruction
130.\" .No 5\t Em trapv No instruction
131.\" 6	privileged instruction
132.\" 7	trace trap
133.\" 8	MMU fault
134.\" 9	simulated software interrupt
135.\" 10	format error
136.\" 11	FP coprocessor fault
137.\" 12	coprocessor fault
138.\" 13	simulated AST
139.\" .El
140.\" .Pp
141.\" The favorite trap type in system crashes is trap type 8,
142.\" indicating a wild reference.
143.\" ``code'' (hex) is the concatenation of the
144.\" MMU
145.\" status register
146.\" (see <hp300/cpu.h>)
147.\" in the high 16 bits and the 68020 special status word
148.\" (see the 68020 manual, page 6-17)
149.\" in the low 16.
150.\" ``v'' (hex) is the virtual address which caused the fault.
151.\" Additionally, the kernel will dump about a screenful of semi-useful
152.\" information.
153.\" ``pid'' (decimal) is the process id of the process running at the
154.\" time of the exception.
155.\" Note that if we panic in an interrupt routine,
156.\" this process may not be related to the panic.
157.\" ``ps'' (hex) is the 68020 processor status register ``ps''.
158.\" ``pc'' (hex) is the value of the program counter saved
159.\" on the hardware exception frame.
160.\" It may
161.\" .Em not
162.\" be the PC of the instruction causing the fault.
163.\" ``sfc'' and ``dfc'' (hex) are the 68020 source/destination function codes.
164.\" They should always be one.
165.\" ``p0'' and ``p1'' are the
166.\" VAX-like
167.\" region registers.
168.\" They are of the form:
169.\" .Pp
170.\" .Bd -ragged -offset indent
171.\" <length> '@' <kernel VA>
172.\" .Ed
173.\" .Pp
174.\" where both are in hex.
175.\" Following these values are a dump of the processor registers (hex).
176.\" Finally, is a dump of the stack (user/kernel) at the time of the offense.
177.\" .Pp
178.It Sy "init died (signal #, exit #)"
179The system initialization process has exited with the specified signal number and exit code.  This is bad news, as no new
180users will then be able to log in.  Rebooting is the only fix, so the
181system just does it right away.
182.El
183.Pp
184That completes the list of panic types you are likely to see.
185.Pp
186If the system has been configured to take crash dumps (see
187.Xr dumpon 8 ) ,
188then when it crashes it will write (or at least attempt to write)
189an image of memory into the back end of the dump device,
190usually the same as the primary swap
191area.  After the system is rebooted, the program
192.Xr savecore 8
193runs and preserves a copy of this core image and the current
194system in a specified directory for later perusal.  See
195.Xr savecore 8
196for details.
197.Pp
198To analyze a dump you should begin by running
199.Xr gdb 1
200with the
201.Fl k
202flag on the system load image and core dump.
203If the core image is the result of a panic,
204the panic message is printed.
205For more details consult the chapter on kernel debugging in
206the
207.Fx
208Developers' Handbook
209.Pq Pa http://www.FreeBSD.org/ .
210.Sh SEE ALSO
211.Xr gdb 1 ,
212.Xr dumpon 8 ,
213.Xr reboot 8 ,
214.Xr savecore 8
215.Sh HISTORY
216A
217.Nm
218man page first appeared in
219.Fx 2.2 .
220