2.2.x and RH4.2

["Robert A. Hayden" <rhayden mr net>]

Earlier this week I installed the 2.2.x kernel on my RH4.2 server.  The
compilation went fine as did the actuall installation.

The server since the upgrade to 2.2.0 and eventually to 2.2.1 has left the
server pretty unstable.  I've suffered two fatal crashes in 48 hours.  The
first one caused some kind of malloc error in named.  I was unable to
restart the daemon even after clearing the stale PID.  A reboot was
necessary.

Last night, I suffered another crash.  Unfortuately, the console monitor
was frozen in the "screen saver" position (so it was blank) and no entries
were made to the log files.  Again, a reboot brought the system right back
up (after, of course, a hefty morning fsck).  However, I determined at
that point I was a little wary of 2.2.x and went back to the 2.0.36 kernel
I had running with stability.

I'll be the first to admit that this is an almost-two-years-old 4.2
installation that is probably not very geared for the newer stuff, so it
shouldn't by any means be taken as a harbinger of doom for the 2.2
kernels.  Simply that there might be some hidden incompatibilites with
older installations and 2.2.

This system is slated to be replaced early 2nd quarter, probably with a
RH5.x machine of some type, so I'm not real concered about having the
latest-and-greatest on a machine that's going away.
 
=-=-=-=-=-=
Robert Hayden                   rhayden mr net          UIN: 3937211
Network Engineer                MR Net                  (612) 362-5820