Bug 73363

Summary:	Running Loki Installer under Null as guest in VMware Workstation 3.1 can freeze host
Product:	[Retired] Red Hat Public Beta	Reporter:	Need Real Name <ylai>
Component:	kernel	Assignee:	Arjan van de Ven <arjanv>
Status:	CLOSED NOTABUG	QA Contact:	Brian Brock <bbrock>
Severity:	high	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	null
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	i386
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2002-09-03 18:28:55 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Need Real Name 2002-09-03 15:01:06 UTC

From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 Galeon/1.2.5 (X11; Linux i686; U;) Gecko/20020606

Description of problem:
When I run Red Hat Linux Beta Null in the VMware Workstation 3.1, and then start
the Loki Installer of the Loki Software's game "Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri",
either of the full version or the demo (that came along with Red Hat Linux 7.0),
the host system freezes.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
kernel 2.4.18-11, glibc 2.2.90-24

How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install VMware Workstation 3.1.1-1790
2. Install Red Hat Linux Beta Null as guest
3. E. g. insert and mount the Loki Demo CD that came along with Red Hat Linux
7.0 and install /mnt/cdrom/smacx-demo-x86.run, or alternatively, the
corresponding setup script if the full version CD is available.


Actual Results:  The host operating system freezes. The mouse pointer does not
move and Ctrl-Alt-Fx do not work.

This happens even if VMware Workstation runs under a virtual frame buffer X
server and is being used by VNC. Therefore, the actual host freezes and not just
the X server.

Expected Results:  The text mode Loki Installer of the demo version, or the
graphical installer of the full version comes up.

Additional info:

This problem never occured in any previous Linux that I used under VMware (even
recent ones, like SuSE Linux 8.0) and seems to be specific to the Beta Null.

The host operating system is Red Hat Linux 7.2 with SGI XFS kernel (kernel
version 2.4.9-31SGI_XFS_1.1, glibc version 2.2.4-29, VMware Workstation version
3.1.1-1790).

I am really not sure which component should be attributed to. This problem could
also be related to the glibc component.

Comment 1 Arjan van de Ven 2002-09-03 15:05:04 UTC

How about reporting this bug to SGI since it's their kernel that crashes

Comment 2 Need Real Name 2002-09-03 15:42:24 UTC

I do not think that this is specific to the SGI kernel. I will try to run it on
a stock Red Hat kernel.

Comment 3 Arjan van de Ven 2002-09-03 15:46:51 UTC

I'm not sure that's useful; kernels with the vmware modules loaded I can't do a
lot with generally.

Comment 4 Need Real Name 2002-09-03 15:53:37 UTC

The problem is that the Red Hat Linux Beta is the changing variable. As I have
noted before, other Linux distributions that I ran as guest never exhibited such
a behavior.

Comment 5 Need Real Name 2002-09-03 18:28:49 UTC

I have now checked the problem with a stock Red Hat Linux Beta Null as host. To
my surprise, the problem seems to be disappeared. Also with the NVIDIA kernel
module loaded, the lockup cannot be reproduced.

However, since I also have the OSS modules from 4Front Technologies loaded in my
Red Hat Linux 7.2 host (which produces the lockup) and there seems to be
problems to get their modules run under a GCC 3 compiled kernel, I cannot tell
whether SGI or 4Front Tech. is acutally to blame for the lockup. But since this
is certainly not a problem caused by Red Hat software, I think we can close the
report. Sorry for any inconveniences.