Bug 669794

Summary: sys_basher dies immediately when running on 32-bit platforms
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: John Florian <john>
Component: sys_basherAssignee: Joshua Rosen <bjrosen>
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity: high Docs Contact:
Priority: low    
Version: 13CC: bjrosen
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2011-06-27 12:33:42 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:

Description John Florian 2011-01-14 19:32:24 UTC
Description of problem:
I'm 90% certain it's a 32-bit vs. 64-bit problem based on empirical evidence so far, but I'd wouldn't swear to it just yet.  However, on all 32-bit systems I've tested sys_basher with so far I see the following:

# sys_basher
Killed
# sys_basher --help
Killed
# strace -f sys_basher --help
execve("/usr/bin/sys_basher", ["sys_basher", "--help"], [/* 37 vars */] <unfinished ...>
+++ killed by SIGKILL +++
Killed

However it seems to work just fine on all 64-bit systems on which I've tried it.  I've tried quite a few CPUs, including:

works: Intel Core 2 Duo T7700, Intel Xeon W3680, Intel Atom D510
fails: AMD Geode PCS, Intel Atom N270

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
sys_basher-1.1.23-2.fc12

How reproducible:
always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. install sys_basher
2. run sys_basher
  
Actual results:
On 32-bit hardware, it always fails with "Killed" (see above).
On 64-bit hardware, it always works as expected.

Additional info:
Confirmed working on F13 and F14; fails only on F13 as I don't have a 32-bit F14 handy.

Comment 1 John Florian 2011-01-14 19:37:26 UTC
Also, I should point out that the version information in the spec file seems garbled.  Fedora has version 1.1.23 whereas upstream (http://www.polybus.com/sys_basher_web/) indicates 1.2.3.  The ChangeLogs match up perfectly if you strip Fedora's '1.' prefix and then insert '.' between the last two digits.

Comment 2 Joshua Rosen 2011-01-14 20:42:45 UTC
I'll have to install a 32 bit Fedora on one of my systems, all of my boxes are 64 bits at the moment. I'll do it over the weekend.

Comment 3 John Florian 2011-01-14 20:58:41 UTC
Joshua,

We found out that the CPU has nothing to do with this problem after all.  Just a strange coincidence.  If you:

objdump -x /usr/bin/sys_basher

... you'll notice that .bss section (heap?) is huge on this executable.  All of the 32-bit systems I happened to be testing on only had 1G of RAM and no swap.  All of the 64-bit systems had 2G of RAM and/or swap.  The problem can most easily be understood with:

# sysctl -w vm.overcommit_memory=0
vm.overcommit_memory = 0
# /lib/ld-linux.so.2 /usr/bin/sys_basher 
/usr/bin/sys_basher: error while loading shared libraries: /usr/bin/sys_basher: cannot map zero-fill pages: Cannot allocate memory

So, while I realize it's a little unconventional to be running without swap, it's not that rare for embedded systems -- which happens to be the case I was in trying to stress test a new industrial PC.  I think this warrants either a big fat warning in the man page, or maybe a nice little front-end to the main executable that does a quick evaluation of the hardware for suitability complete with any warnings or recommendations that may be relevent.

Comment 4 Joshua Rosen 2011-01-14 21:21:43 UTC
I'll have to install a 32 bit Fedora on one of my systems, all of my boxes are 64 bits at the moment. I'll do it over the weekend.

Comment 5 Joshua Rosen 2011-01-14 21:28:53 UTC
There are some parameterized structures in sys_basher. If you have the source code then change MAX_CORES in the sys_structs.h file to the number of cores in your CPU. That will reduce the size of the structures.

Comment 6 Bug Zapper 2011-05-30 11:54:04 UTC
This message is a reminder that Fedora 13 is nearing its end of life.
Approximately 30 (thirty) days from now Fedora will stop maintaining
and issuing updates for Fedora 13.  It is Fedora's policy to close all
bug reports from releases that are no longer maintained.  At that time
this bug will be closed as WONTFIX if it remains open with a Fedora 
'version' of '13'.

Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you
plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, simply change the 'version' 
to a later Fedora version prior to Fedora 13's end of life.

Bug Reporter: Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that 
we may not be able to fix it before Fedora 13 is end of life.  If you 
would still like to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it 
against a later version of Fedora please change the 'version' of this 
bug to the applicable version.  If you are unable to change the version, 
please add a comment here and someone will do it for you.

Although we aim to fix as many bugs as possible during every release's 
lifetime, sometimes those efforts are overtaken by events.  Often a 
more recent Fedora release includes newer upstream software that fixes 
bugs or makes them obsolete.

The process we are following is described here: 
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/HouseKeeping

Comment 7 Bug Zapper 2011-06-27 12:33:42 UTC
Fedora 13 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2011-06-25. Fedora 13 is 
no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further 
security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug.

If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of 
Fedora please feel free to reopen this bug against that version.

Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.