Re: 2.4.1pre8 Oops

[Andrew Morton]

Jeff Lightfoot wrote:
> 
> Nothing special with this box.  SMP no modules, Squid proxy and
> running VNC/Pan at the time.  Using kernel version of reiserfs on
> filesystems other than root.
> 
> Be glad to offer any other info if needed.

Would I be correct in assuming that you're using a serial
console, and that the oops was caused by the NMI watchdog?

It seems that this is _bound_ to happen - we're busy
waiting on the UART with interrupts disabled....

Some fixes which come to mind are:

1: the serial console code tells the NMI oopser that it knows what
   it's doing.

2: the serial console code aborts the write if it doesn't make any
   progress for 1/10th of a second.

3: Boot the kernel with the `nmi_watchdog=0' LILO option if you're
   using an unreliable serial console.

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