Re: [BUG 2.6.30] Bad page map in process

[Hugh Dickins]

On Sun, 12 Jul 2009, Guennadi Liakhovetski wrote:
> 
> 2. the specific BUG that I posted originally wasn't very interesting, 
> because it wasn't the first one. Having read a few posts I wasn't quite 
> sure how really severe this BUG was, i.e., whether or not it requiret a 
> reboot. There used to be a message like "reboot is required" around this 
> sort of exceptions, but then it has been removed, so, I thought, it wasn't 
> required any more. But the fact is, that once one such BUG has occurred, 
> new ones will come from various applications and eventually the system 
> will become unusable.

I replaced Bad page state's reboot is needed message by just the BUG
prefix: partly because the bad page handling _is_ now more resilient;
but more because I don't like wasting screenlines which could hold
vital info, and because I didn't see how this BUG differs from others
in whether or not you need a reboot.

A BUG means the kernel is in unknown territory: if you're brave and
want to gather more info, you try to keep on running after a BUG;
if you're cautious, you reboot as soon as possible.

(Hmm, but perhaps I should wire these in to panic_on_oops??)

You did the right thing: kept on running, then decided it wasn't
worth it.  (But you've only sent the one pair of messages gathered:
okay, let's forget the rest until you've sorted the hardware angle.)

Hugh
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