Re: Processes stuck in unkillable D state (now seen in 2.6.8-rc1)

["Rob Mueller" <robm@fastmail.fm>]

I upgraded the kernel on a couple of the machines to 2.6.8-rc1 (compiled 
with debug symbols), but now we've seen two completely different types of 
failures

1. The same as the old one, where a couple of processes (half dozen in this 
case) would get stuck in D state, but the machine was otherwise pretty much 
fine
2. A new one where over 1000 processes get stuck within a short period of 
time and leave the machine is a very fragile state (even attempts to run 
'ps -auxw' freeze up)

I've placed all the results here:

http://robm.fastmail.fm/kernel/t3/

sysreqdmesg1-s1.txt - output of sysreq-t for system with a few procs in D 
state
sysreqdmesg2-s1.txt - same again, just done a second time
sysreqdmesg1-s2.txt - output of sysreq-t for system with 1000 procs in D 
state
vmlinux.gz - kernel image, built with debug symbols
config - config used to compile the kernel

Is there anything else I can provide? This problem is driving us crazy and 
I'd like to help in any way possible to try and get it investigated and 
resolved.

Rob