The console dump is: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000018 current->tss.cr3 = 06620000, %cr3 = 06620000 *pde = 00000000 Oops: 0002 CPU: 0 EIP: 0010:[<c010e00d>] EFLAGS: 00010206 eax: 00000000 ebx:c7aba4e0 ecx:00000018 edx:bffff834 esi: bffff834 edi:c2245fc0 ebp:fffffff2 esp:c2245f98 ds: 0018 es: 0018 ss: 0018 Process mingetty (pid: 4089, process nr: 22, stackpage=c2245000) Stack: 00000280 bffff854 00000000 c2244000 00000000 00001000 00000003 00000022 ffffffff 00000000 c0109f58 bffff81c 00000037 400157d8 00001000 00000280 bffff854 0000005a 0000002b 0000002b 0000005a 400121bd 00000023 00000206 Call Trace: [<c0109f58>] Code: ff 09 0f 88 9b 8f 0c 00 f6 44 24 24 20 75 2b bd f7 ff ff ff INIT: Id "1" respawning too fast; disabled for 5 minutes It kept spewing out a bunch of these messages. They're all the same except for the pid of the process at the end. I'd get a whole group of these messages with only one "INIT" message at the end, and then a few seconds later it would do it all over again. This happend immediately after the daylight savings time change (EST). I don't know if it was caused by that or not. This is a stock RHL7 system, with no updates. I was running RealPlayer 7.
This was the first of the many similar messages which was logged in /var/log/messages. Oct 29 00:53:39 jhad kernel: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000018 Oct 29 00:53:39 jhad kernel: current->tss.cr3 = 05936000, %cr3 = 05936000 Oct 29 00:53:39 jhad kernel: *pde = 00000000 Oct 29 00:53:39 jhad kernel: Oops: 0002 Oct 29 00:53:39 jhad kernel: CPU: 0 Oct 29 00:53:39 jhad kernel: EIP: 0010:[old_mmap+89/248] Oct 29 00:53:39 jhad kernel: EFLAGS: 00210206 Oct 29 00:53:39 jhad kernel: eax: 00000000 ebx: c401b040 ecx: 00000018 edx: bfffa628 Oct 29 00:53:39 jhad kernel: esi: bfffa628 edi: c5967fc0 ebp: fffffff2 esp: c5967f98 Oct 29 00:53:39 jhad kernel: ds: 0018 es: 0018 ss: 0018 Oct 29 00:53:39 jhad kernel: Process magicdev (pid: 852, process nr: 38, stackpage=c5967000) Oct 29 00:53:39 jhad kernel: Stack: 08086860 bfffa6b8 00000000 c5966000 00000000 00001000 00000003 00000022 Oct 29 00:53:39 jhad kernel: ffffffff 00000000 c0109f58 bfffa610 00000000 405ba53c 00001000 08086860 Oct 29 00:53:40 jhad kernel: bfffa6b8 0000005a 0000002b 0000002b 0000005a 4057567d 00000023 00200206 Oct 29 00:53:40 jhad kernel: Call Trace: [system_call+52/56] Oct 29 00:53:40 jhad kernel: Code: ff 09 0f 88 9b 8f 0c 00 f6 44 24 24 20 75 2b bd f7 ff ff ff
This problem appears to have been caused by bad hardware. I've rebuilt my machine with a new processor and motherboard and I do not have this problem anymore. Sorry.