Re: kernel panic on heavily loaded 2.4.20 router

[Martin Josefsson <gandalf@wlug.westbo.se>]

On Thu, 2003-05-22 at 21:47, Frank Dekervel wrote:
> hello,
> 
> a linux-2.4.20 (vanilla) machine we use as a router/iptables firewall 
> crashes once a month in what seems to be the IP stack 
> (see the lspci/lsmod/ksymoops output below). Does somebody know
> what the cause could be ?

> Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
> ipt_limit                960  19  (autoclean)
> ip_conntrack_ftp        3776   0  (unused)
> ipt_state                608   4  (autoclean)
> ipt_LOG                 3232  13  (autoclean)
> iptable_nat            14452   1  (autoclean)
> ip_conntrack           16716   3  (autoclean) [ip_conntrack_ftp ipt_state iptable_nat]
> iptable_filter          1728   1  (autoclean)
> ip_tables              10624   7  [ipt_limit ipt_state ipt_LOG iptable_nat iptable_filter]
> serial                 42336   0  (autoclean)
> ne2k-pci                4832   2
> 8390                    5952   0  [ne2k-pci]
> via-rhine              11912   1
> mii                     2288   0  [via-rhine]
> 3c59x                  24712   1

Kernel 2.4.20 contains a bug in conntrack (memory-corruption) that can
be triggered when using conntrack helpers. It's fixed in 2.4.21-rc2 so I
suggest you try that. The crashes you see might be the result of this
bug, or maybe not.

I suggest you send this report to linux-net@vger.kernel.org and ask if
it looks like a real bug or if it's memory-corruption.
But you really should upgrade your kernel.

-- 
/Martin