CrunchBang Linux

m0stlyharmless

New Member

Registered: 2013-03-30

Posts: 6

Random kernel panics

I have been running Crunchbang on my Dell Precision 390 for some time now and have been enjoying it except for some issues. For some reason it randomly kernel panics on occasion (far more often than would be normal). I have read the kernel panic screen and a process called “kworker” keeps on appearing. Apparently kworker has something to do with communicating with the BIOS so it could be a problem with the BIOS. How can I prevent future kernel panics?

xaos52

The Good Doctor

From: Planet of the @s

Registered: 2011-06-24

Posts: 4,602

Re: Random kernel panics

I am afraid you haven't given us enough info to answer your question.
The kernel panic screen would be nice - take a pic and publish  it.
What kernel are you using? Your hardware?

uname -a
lspci -knn

A kworker process is just an entity that represents a kernel thread. Could be running for lots of things - work to be done on behalf of the kernel.

Check  /var/log/dmesg.0 after you have rebooted. Thats the kernel buffer trace for the previous boot session. Perhaps it contains a trace of the kernel panic.

Last edited by xaos52 (2013-03-30 19:12:48)

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m0stlyharmless

New Member

Registered: 2013-03-30

Posts: 6

Re: Random kernel panics

I am afraid you haven't given us enough info to answer your question.
The kernel panic screen would be nice - take a pic and publish  it.
What kernel are you using? Your hardware?

uname -a
lspci -knn

A kworker process is just an entity that represents a kernel thread. Could be running for lots of things - work to be done on behalf of the kernel.

Check  /var/log/dmesg.0 after you have rebooted. Thats the kernel buffer trace for the previous boot session. Perhaps it contains a trace of the kernel panic.

Here is the output of uname -a

Linux crunchbang-dell-precision 3.2.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.2.39-2 x86_64 GNU/Linux

and here is the output of lspci -knn

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 82975X Memory Controller Hub [8086:277c]
	Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01de]
	Kernel driver in use: i82975x_edac
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82975X PCI Express Root Port [8086:277d]
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller [8086:27d8] (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01de]
	Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 1 [8086:27d0] (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1c.4 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801GR/GH/GHM (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 5 [8086:27e0] (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1c.5 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801GR/GH/GHM (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 6 [8086:27e2] (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1d.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:27c8] (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01de]
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.1 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:27c9] (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01de]
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.2 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:27ca] (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01de]
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.3 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 [8086:27cb] (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01de]
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.7 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller [8086:27cc] (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01de]
	Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge [8086:244e] (rev e1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801GB/GR (ICH7 Family) LPC Interface Bridge [8086:27b8] (rev 01)
00:1f.1 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller [8086:27df] (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01de]
	Kernel driver in use: ata_piix
00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family SATA Controller [AHCI mode] [8086:27c1] (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01de]
	Kernel driver in use: ahci
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family SMBus Controller [8086:27da] (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01de]
	Kernel driver in use: i801_smbus
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation NV44 [Quadro NVS 285] [10de:0165] (rev a1)
	Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:0334]
	Kernel driver in use: nouveau
04:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5754 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express [14e4:167a] (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Dell Precision 390 [1028:01de]
	Kernel driver in use: tg3
05:04.0 Network controller [0280]: Ralink corp. RT2561/RT61 802.11g PCI [1814:0301]
	Subsystem: Linksys WMP54G v4.1 [1737:0055]
	Kernel driver in use: rt61pci

Here is the hardware specs of my computer:
https://www.dell.com/downloads/global/p … 390_en.pdf

Here is a picture of the kernel panic:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/epx6f1kfpxjw7mz/P1080924.JPG

m0stlyharmless

New Member

Registered: 2013-03-30

Posts: 6

Re: Random kernel panics

It turns out that this problem was caused by a loose RAM card. I plugged the RAM card in a bit more and it is now fixed.