System crash on a machine without swap

Bug #1687731 reported by Alex Garel
10
This bug affects 2 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
linux (Ubuntu)
Incomplete
High
Unassigned

Bug Description

From a long time, I use a machine without swap, because most of the time if I run out of memory, swap would save me at too high a cost (waiting for a long time).

Yesterday, I upgraded from 16.10 to ubuntu 17.04 and changed my sessions from unity to gnome.

The bug occurs as firefox is requesting more memory, and about 10/15% memory is still free.
First Firefox freeze, I try to kill -SIGKILL it without success, then whole system freezes. It happens three times today.

I attach the kern.log extracts reporting the problem
Each time I have the same message: kernel BUG at /build/linux-2NWldV/linux-4.10.0/include/linux/swapops.h:129

There is no swap partition, and swapinness is set to 0.

$ tail -n 2 /etc/sysctl.conf
# I say NO SWAP
vm.swappiness = 0

$ LANG=C free -h
              total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 7,7G 2,1G 3,8G 433M 1,9G 4,9G
Swap: 0B 0B 0B

Also:

$ LANG=C systemctl --type swap
0 loaded units listed. Pass --all to see loaded but inactive units, too.
To show all installed unit files use 'systemctl list-unit-files'.

$ LANG=C systemctl list-unit-files --type swap

0 unit files listed.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.04
Package: linux-image-4.10.0-20-generic 4.10.0-20.22
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.10.0-20.22-generic 4.10.8
Uname: Linux 4.10.0-20-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.4-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: alex 5455 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: alex 5455 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Tue May 2 20:46:06 2017
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=870c2fd1-8a8f-49bb-9bf4-dbefaa08e583
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-11-10 (538 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 15.10 "Wily Werewolf" - Release amd64 (20151021)
MachineType: Intel Corporation Skylake Platform
ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.10.0-20-generic root=UUID=6814e3c1-8cea-4ecc-964d-535fd18782e9 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-4.10.0-20-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-4.10.0-20-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.164
SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to zesty on 2017-02-25 (66 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 11/06/2015
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 5.11
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: WhiteTip Mountain1 Fab2
dmi.board.vendor: Topstar
dmi.board.version: RVP7
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Default string
dmi.chassis.type: 9
dmi.chassis.vendor: Default string
dmi.chassis.version: Default string
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr5.11:bd11/06/2015:svnIntelCorporation:pnSkylakePlatform:pvr0.1:rvnTopstar:rnWhiteTipMountain1Fab2:rvrRVP7:cvnDefaultstring:ct9:cvrDefaultstring:
dmi.product.name: Skylake Platform
dmi.product.version: 0.1
dmi.sys.vendor: Intel Corporation

Revision history for this message
Alex Garel (alex-garel) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Brad Figg (brad-figg) wrote : Status changed to Confirmed

This change was made by a bot.

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury) wrote :

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the latest v4.11 kernel[0].

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug as "Confirmed".

Thanks in advance.

[0] http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.11-rc8

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → High
tags: added: kernel-da-key
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
throwaway45224 (throwaway45224) wrote :
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