Fernando Perez wrote:
Clean, custom (over FTP) install of Fedora2 Final.
System: Dell Optiplex GX-270 (Pentium 4, 2.8GHz, 120 GB Hard disk, 1 GB RAM, NVidia GeForce 4MX video card, Dell 2000FP LCD, correctly identified and working at 1600x1200 resolution). This machine was previously running Fedora1, but a clean install (not an upgrade) was done.
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This system has Hyperthreading activated in the BIOS. Fedora installed both
an SMP and a UP kernel, I have done tests with both. All critical bugs listed below have been reproduced with both kernels.
I am running the stock kernels from the Fedora install, along with the Xorg 'nv' NVidia driver, which works ok (albeit with no 3d acceleration). So no issues can be attributed to third-party kernel modules.
Root filesystem corruption - CRITICAL, DATA LOSS ------------------------------------------------
/ became 'read-only' after a very large build (rebuilding a large .src.rpm, ~ 3 hours of very cpu-intensive C++ compilation). I have never seen this before. Obviously once the system thought that '/' was read-only, shit hit the fan pretty quickly.
I know you've said that this system ran FC1, but have you checked the memory on the system (try memtest86)?
This machine DID have hardware problems after a power outage a few weeks ago, so just recently I ran pretty extensive hardware diagnostics. The memory reported OK (I used Dell's memory testing CD so their tech support people would acknowledge something, but I could retest with memtest86). The motherboard and power supply were flaky, so those got replaced, and are brand new.
One alternative is that your hard drive is dying. Although you gave lots of specs (thank you), you didn't mention the HD manufacturer. You may want to see if they have any diagnostic disks available (the IBM / Hitachi ones are good, for example).
The hard disk is also a brand new Seagate Barracuda (7200rpm) which I purchased separately last week, because I needed more space. The box had a 40GB disk and this one is 120GB. So I guess it could have come faulty out of the box...
You probably don't want to invalidate your warranty, but trying to reproduce with a different hard disk and different memory would be interesting. It smells like dodgy hardware to me.
First I'll try to use one of Arjan's kernels and see what happens. I'm definitely seeing usb-storage problems which are critical to me (we use external USB flash disks, hard disks and DVD burners, so that's a showstopper). Since many others are reporting USB problems as well, I'm sure this one is not my hardware.
For the record, yes, I see the DPMS problem too, although I haven't looked into it yet.
Another annoyance, hopefully someone will look into it. I'll file on bugzilla later, since this one has been confirmed by several people already (on and off-list).
Thanks,
f.
