xref: /freebsd/share/man/man8/crash.8 (revision 6e8394b8baa7d5d9153ab90de6824bcd19b3b4e1)
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2.\"	Mike Pritchard <mpp@FreeBSD.org>.  All rights reserved.
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37.\"	$Id: crash.8,v 1.7 1997/03/21 20:14:12 mpp Exp $
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39.Dd February 2, 1996
40.Dt CRASH 8
41.Os FreeBSD
42.Sh NAME
43.Nm crash
44.Nd
45.Tn FreeBSD
46system failures
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48This section explains a bit about system crashes
49and (very briefly) how to analyze crash dumps.
50.Pp
51When the system crashes voluntarily it prints a message of the form
52.Bd -ragged -offset indent
53panic: why i gave up the ghost
54.Ed
55.Pp
56on the console, and if dumps have been enabled (see
57.Xr dumpon 8 ) ,
58takes a dump on a mass storage peripheral,
59and then invokes an automatic reboot procedure as
60described in
61.Xr reboot 8 .
62Unless some unexpected inconsistency is encountered in the state
63of the file systems due to hardware or software failure, the system
64will then resume multi-user operations.
65.Pp
66The system has a large number of internal consistency checks; if one
67of these fails, then it will panic with a very short message indicating
68which one failed.
69In many instances, this will be the name of the routine which detected
70the error, or a two-word description of the inconsistency.
71A full understanding of most panic messages requires perusal of the
72source code for the system.
73.Pp
74The most common cause of system failures is hardware failure, which
75can reflect itself in different ways.  Here are the messages which
76are most likely, with some hints as to causes.
77Left unstated in all cases is the possibility that hardware or software
78error produced the message in some unexpected way.
79.Pp
80.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact
81.It Sy "cannot mount root"
82This panic message results from a failure to mount the root filesystem
83during the bootstrap process.
84Either the root filesystem has been corrupted,
85or the system is attempting to use the wrong device as root filesystem.
86Usually, an alternate copy of the system binary or an alternate root
87filesystem can be used to bring up the system to investigate.  Most often
88this is done by the use of the boot floppy you used to install the system,
89and then using the "fixit" floppy.
90.Pp
91.It Sy "init: not found"
92This is not a panic message, as reboots are likely to be futile.
93Late in the bootstrap procedure, the system was unable to locate
94and execute the initialization process,
95.Xr init 8 .
96The root filesystem is incorrect or has been corrupted, or the mode
97or type of
98.Pa /sbin/init
99forbids execution or is totally missing.
100.Pp
101.Pp
102.It Sy "ffs_realloccg: bad optim"
103.It Sy "ffs_valloc: dup alloc"
104.It Sy "ffs_alloccgblk: cyl groups corrupted"
105.It Sy "ffs_alloccg: map corrupted"
106.It Sy "blkfree: freeing free block"
107.It Sy "blkfree: freeing free frag"
108.It Sy "ifree: freeing free inode"
109These panic messages are among those that may be produced
110when filesystem inconsistencies are detected.
111The problem generally results from a failure to repair damaged filesystems
112after a crash, hardware failures, or other condition that should not
113normally occur.
114A filesystem check will normally correct the problem.
115.Pp
116.It Sy "timeout table full"
117This really shouldn't be a panic, but until the data structure
118involved is made to be extensible, running out of entries causes a crash.
119If this happens, make the timeout table bigger.
120.Pp
121.\" .It Sy "trap type %d, code = %x, v = %x"
122.\" An unexpected trap has occurred within the system; the trap types are:
123.\" .Bl -column xxxx -offset indent
124.\" 0	bus error
125.\" 1	address error
126.\" 2	illegal instruction
127.\" 3	divide by zero
128.\" .No 4\t Em chk No instruction
129.\" .No 5\t Em trapv No instruction
130.\" 6	privileged instruction
131.\" 7	trace trap
132.\" 8	MMU fault
133.\" 9	simulated software interrupt
134.\" 10	format error
135.\" 11	FP coprocessor fault
136.\" 12	coprocessor fault
137.\" 13	simulated AST
138.\" .El
139.\" .Pp
140.\" The favorite trap type in system crashes is trap type 8,
141.\" indicating a wild reference.
142.\" ``code'' (hex) is the concatenation of the
143.\" MMU
144.\" status register
145.\" (see <hp300/cpu.h>)
146.\" in the high 16 bits and the 68020 special status word
147.\" (see the 68020 manual, page 6-17)
148.\" in the low 16.
149.\" ``v'' (hex) is the virtual address which caused the fault.
150.\" Additionally, the kernel will dump about a screenful of semi-useful
151.\" information.
152.\" ``pid'' (decimal) is the process id of the process running at the
153.\" time of the exception.
154.\" Note that if we panic in an interrupt routine,
155.\" this process may not be related to the panic.
156.\" ``ps'' (hex) is the 68020 processor status register ``ps''.
157.\" ``pc'' (hex) is the value of the program counter saved
158.\" on the hardware exception frame.
159.\" It may
160.\" .Em not
161.\" be the PC of the instruction causing the fault.
162.\" ``sfc'' and ``dfc'' (hex) are the 68020 source/destination function codes.
163.\" They should always be one.
164.\" ``p0'' and ``p1'' are the
165.\" VAX-like
166.\" region registers.
167.\" They are of the form:
168.\" .Pp
169.\" .Bd -ragged -offset indent
170.\" <length> '@' <kernel VA>
171.\" .Ed
172.\" .Pp
173.\" where both are in hex.
174.\" Following these values are a dump of the processor registers (hex).
175.\" Finally, is a dump of the stack (user/kernel) at the time of the offense.
176.\" .Pp
177.It Sy "init died (signal #, exit #)"
178The system initialization process has exited with the specified signal number and exit code.  This is bad news, as no new
179users will then be able to log in.  Rebooting is the only fix, so the
180system just does it right away.
181.Pp
182That completes the list of panic types you are likely to see.
183.Pp
184If the system has been configured to take crash dumps (see
185.Xr dumpon 8 ) ,
186then when it crashes it will write (or at least attempt to write)
187an image of memory into the back end of the dump device,
188usually the same as the primary swap
189area.  After the system is rebooted, the program
190.Xr savecore 8
191runs and preserves a copy of this core image and the current
192system in a specified directory for later perusal.  See
193.Xr savecore 8
194for details.
195.Pp
196To analyze a dump you should begin by running
197.Xr gdb 1
198with the
199.Fl k
200flag on the system load image and core dump.
201If the core image is the result of a panic,
202the panic message is printed.
203For more details consult the chapter on kernel debugging in
204the
205.Tn FreeBSD
206handbook (http://www.freebsd.org).
207.Sh SEE ALSO
208.Xr gdb 1 ,
209.Xr dumpon 8 ,
210.Xr reboot 8 ,
211.Xr savecore 8
212.Sh HISTORY
213A
214.Nm crash
215man page first appeared in
216.Fx 2.2 .
217