Ok, a little more investigation:
root@bowl:/sbin# cat modprobe-logging
#!/bin/sh
echo "`date` `ps axh | wc -l`: $@" >> /var/log/modprobe.log
exec /sbin/modprobe $@
root@bowl:/sbin# cat /proc/sys/kernel/modprobe
/sbin/modprobe-logging
In /var/log/kern.log:
Jun 11 14:36:58 bowl kernel: request_module[net-pf-10]: fork failed, errno 11
And in /var/log/modprobe.log:
Tue Jun 11 14:36:41 BST 2002 229: -s -k -- net-pf-10
Tue Jun 11 14:36:58 BST 2002 228: -s -k -- net-pf-10
Tue Jun 11 14:36:58 BST 2002 227: -s -k -- net-pf-10
Tue Jun 11 14:37:02 BST 2002 227: -s -k -- net-pf-10
/proc/sys/kernel/threads-max is 4095.
So, nowhere near threads-max (if ps axh is a good test of that),
certainly not processes-wise. Yet at times the request_module is
failing anyway. It would seem that an immediate followup attempt works.
Yup, just had another instance:
Jun 11 14:40:11 bowl kernel: request_module[net-pf-10]: fork failed, errno 11
Tue Jun 11 14:40:07 BST 2002 235: -s -k -- net-pf-10
Tue Jun 11 14:40:11 BST 2002 229: -s -k -- net-pf-10
Tue Jun 11 14:40:11 BST 2002 230: -s -k -- net-pf-10
Tue Jun 11 14:40:42 BST 2002 227: -s -k -- net-pf-10
Note that ulimit -u is 256, but that's per login instance normally and
I'd not have thought a kernel thread goes through PAM anyway...
-Ath
-- - Athanasius = Athanasius(at)miggy.org.uk / http://www.clan-lovely.org/~athan/ Finger athan(at)fysh.org for PGP key "And it's me who is my enemy. Me who beats me up. Me who makes the monsters. Me who strips my confidence." Paula Cole - ME - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/