xref: /freebsd/share/man/man8/crash.8 (revision 2008043f386721d58158e37e0d7e50df8095942d)
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33.Dd July 23, 2011
34.Dt CRASH 8
35.Os
36.Sh NAME
37.Nm crash
38.Nd FreeBSD system failures
39.Sh DESCRIPTION
40This section explains a bit about system crashes
41and (very briefly) how to analyze crash dumps.
42.Pp
43When the system crashes voluntarily it prints a message of the form
44.Bl -diag -offset indent
45.It "panic: why i gave up the ghost"
46.El
47.Pp
48on the console, and if dumps have been enabled (see
49.Xr dumpon 8 ) ,
50takes a dump on a mass storage peripheral,
51and then invokes an automatic reboot procedure as
52described in
53.Xr reboot 8 .
54Unless some unexpected inconsistency is encountered in the state
55of the file systems due to hardware or software failure, the system
56will then resume multi-user operations.
57.Pp
58The system has a large number of internal consistency checks; if one
59of these fails, then it will panic with a very short message indicating
60which one failed.
61In many instances, this will be the name of the routine which detected
62the error, or a two-word description of the inconsistency.
63A full understanding of most panic messages requires perusal of the
64source code for the system.
65.Pp
66The most common cause of system failures is hardware failure, which
67can reflect itself in different ways.
68Here are the messages which
69are most likely, with some hints as to causes.
70Left unstated in all cases is the possibility that hardware or software
71error produced the message in some unexpected way.
72.Pp
73.Bl -diag -compact
74.It "cannot mount root"
75This panic message results from a failure to mount the root file system
76during the bootstrap process.
77Either the root file system has been corrupted,
78or the system is attempting to use the wrong device as root file system.
79Usually, an alternate copy of the system binary or an alternate root
80file system can be used to bring up the system to investigate.
81Most often
82this is done by the use of the boot floppy you used to install the system,
83and then using the
84.Dq fixit
85floppy.
86.Pp
87.It "init: not found"
88This is not a panic message, as reboots are likely to be futile.
89Late in the bootstrap procedure, the system was unable to locate
90and execute the initialization process,
91.Xr init 8 .
92The root file system is incorrect or has been corrupted, or the mode
93or type of
94.Pa /sbin/init
95forbids execution or is totally missing.
96.Pp
97.It "ffs_realloccg: bad optim"
98.It "ffs_valloc: dup alloc"
99.It "ffs_alloccgblk: cyl groups corrupted"
100.It "ffs_alloccg: map corrupted"
101.It "blkfree: freeing free block"
102.It "blkfree: freeing free frag"
103.It "ifree: freeing free inode"
104These panic messages are among those that may be produced
105when file system inconsistencies are detected.
106The problem generally results from a failure to repair damaged file systems
107after a crash, hardware failures, or other condition that should not
108normally occur.
109A file system check will normally correct the problem.
110.Pp
111.It "timeout table full"
112This really should not be a panic, but until the data structure
113involved is made to be extensible, running out of entries causes a crash.
114If this happens, make the timeout table bigger.
115.Pp
116.\" .It "trap type %d, code = %x, v = %x"
117.\" An unexpected trap has occurred within the system; the trap types are:
118.\" .Bl -column xxxx -offset indent
119.\" 0	bus error
120.\" 1	address error
121.\" 2	illegal instruction
122.\" 3	divide by zero
123.\" .No 4\t Em chk No instruction
124.\" .No 5\t Em trapv No instruction
125.\" 6	privileged instruction
126.\" 7	trace trap
127.\" 8	MMU fault
128.\" 9	simulated software interrupt
129.\" 10	format error
130.\" 11	FP coprocessor fault
131.\" 12	coprocessor fault
132.\" 13	simulated AST
133.\" .El
134.\" .Pp
135.\" The favorite trap type in system crashes is trap type 8,
136.\" indicating a wild reference.
137.\" ``code'' (hex) is the concatenation of the
138.\" MMU
139.\" status register
140.\" (see <hp300/cpu.h>)
141.\" in the high 16 bits and the 68020 special status word
142.\" (see the 68020 manual, page 6-17)
143.\" in the low 16.
144.\" ``v'' (hex) is the virtual address which caused the fault.
145.\" Additionally, the kernel will dump about a screenful of semi-useful
146.\" information.
147.\" ``pid'' (decimal) is the process id of the process running at the
148.\" time of the exception.
149.\" Note that if we panic in an interrupt routine,
150.\" this process may not be related to the panic.
151.\" ``ps'' (hex) is the 68020 processor status register ``ps''.
152.\" ``pc'' (hex) is the value of the program counter saved
153.\" on the hardware exception frame.
154.\" It may
155.\" .Em not
156.\" be the PC of the instruction causing the fault.
157.\" ``sfc'' and ``dfc'' (hex) are the 68020 source/destination function codes.
158.\" They should always be one.
159.\" ``p0'' and ``p1'' are the
160.\" VAX-like
161.\" region registers.
162.\" They are of the form:
163.\" .Pp
164.\" .Bd -ragged -offset indent
165.\" <length> '@' <kernel VA>
166.\" .Ed
167.\" .Pp
168.\" where both are in hex.
169.\" Following these values are a dump of the processor registers (hex).
170.\" Finally, is a dump of the stack (user/kernel) at the time of the offense.
171.\" .Pp
172.It "init died (signal #, exit #)"
173The system initialization process has exited with the specified
174signal number and exit code.
175This is bad news, as no new users will then be able to log in.
176Rebooting is the only fix, so the
177system just does it right away.
178.El
179.Pp
180That completes the list of panic types you are likely to see.
181.Pp
182If the system has been configured to take crash dumps (see
183.Xr dumpon 8 ) ,
184then when it crashes it will write (or at least attempt to write)
185an image of memory into the back end of the dump device,
186usually the same as the primary swap
187area.
188After the system is rebooted, the program
189.Xr savecore 8
190runs and preserves a copy of this core image and the current
191system in a specified directory for later perusal.
192See
193.Xr savecore 8
194for details.
195.Pp
196To analyze a dump you should begin by running
197.Xr kgdb 1 Pq Pa ports/devel/gdb
198on the system load image and core dump.
199If the core image is the result of a panic,
200the panic message is printed.
201For more details consult the chapter on kernel debugging in
202the
203.%B "FreeBSD Developers' Handbook"
204.Pq Pa https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/developers-handbook/ .
205.Sh SEE ALSO
206.Xr kgdb 1 Pq Pa ports/devel/gdb ,
207.Xr dumpon 8 ,
208.Xr reboot 8 ,
209.Xr savecore 8
210.Sh HISTORY
211The
212.Nm
213manual page first appeared in
214.Fx 2.2 .
215