[ale] signal 11

[Eric]

Let me clarify this.  

Bob is right in that a Signal 11 indicates a memory fault.  However, if
you have a system that you have not used very much and the compiler that
you installed from a distribution is dying from a seg fault or other
strange problem (Illegal Instruction, Floating Point error, etc.)
when compiling a kernel, then you might suspect hardware problems.  

If you are compiling the kernel and the compilation dies with a
segfault, try re-starting the compilation.  If the compile continues and
sucessfullly compiles that file, only to subsequently die again on
another file, you should seriously start to consider a hardware problem.
Look in your error logs for any strange errors (/usr/adm/messages).
Just because your system works under windows/dos doesn't mean it isn't a
hardware problem.  

The reason you see this is that compiling the kernel is one of the most
demanding things you can ask your Linux box to do.  The CPU stays busy,
if you don't have much memory, it's going to force you to use swap
space, you are creating and erasing losts of files in a short period of
time. 

-Eric.


eric at compgen.com writes:
 > 
 > Here's an interesting page on that subject.  
 > 
 >  http://www.bitwizard.nl/sig11/
 > 
 > (I looked at it last week and it won't come up now.)
 > 
 > The main thing they suggest is a hardware problem.  They suggest
 > resetting the BIOS to its defaults first (or choosing the most
 > conservative settings)  If you are overclocking the
 > CPU -  don't.  I've seen this sort of thing (IOT traps, etc) as a sign
 > of bad RAM chips.  If you restart you compile and it keeps working, its
 > almost certain you have  some sort of hardware problem.
 > 
 > -Eric.
 > 
 > Christopher Fowler writes:
 >  > I'm trying to compile a kernel on a 486-slc 66 and every few minutes
 >  > my compile dies because it catches signal 11.  Does anyone know why?
 >  > 
 >  > I'm using the most recent version of slackware.
 >  > 
 >  > Thanks,
 >  > Christopher Fowler
 >  > 
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