[lug] kgdb/panic question {no filter}

[D. Stimits]

Wilson, Rodger wrote:
> Recently I have been having a problem where my driver has been crashing
> occasionally.  When I worked at Sun, we used to collect the core files from
> the machine.  Is there some way to turn on core dumping in Linux? 
> 
> For some reason I seem to remember that SGI had added this feature to the
> Linux kernel. 
> 
> Thanks in advance 

I'm not sure if the kernel from Redhat is patched with kdb by default or 
not...kdb is definitely not in a stock kernel though. If you have kdb 
ability, then this file will exist:
  /proc/sys/kernel/kdb

If that file contains "0", it is inactive, even with the ability present 
(but it can be enabled).

Before you use kdb, or enable it, you should be aware of the basic 
commands, and *especially* aware that kdb does not work with X11. You 
must either use a serial console or a physical console...should it 
trigger while you are in X11, and if you do not have a serial port for 
debugger access, you will be in worse shape than if kdb were not used. 
If you satisfy those requirements, you can get a stack frame, process 
list, so on. Check http://oss.sgi.com, as well as:
  http://kgdb.sourceforge.net/

D. Stimits, stimits AT attbi.com