[mythtv-users] OT Help: mdadm segfault

[Steve MacLaren]

On 9/17/07, f-myth-users at media.mit.edu <f-myth-users at media.mit.edu> wrote:
>
>     > Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2007 22:22:19 -0700
>     > From: "Steve MacLaren" <scram69 at gmail.com>
>
>     > Out of desperation, I even booted off the liveCD, used Synaptic to
> install
>     > mdadm in the liveCD environment, and then attempted to assemble the
> array
>     > (sudo mdadm --assemble --scan).  Exact same result: "md0 assembled
> with 4
>     > devices" followed 10 seconds later by a reboot...
>
> I haven't exactly been following this thread closely, but I suddenly
> had an idea---this smells of a power supply problem.
>
> Try this hypothesis on for size:  Your PSU went marginal, which is
> what caused the original crash.  The machine will now stay up as long
> as you -don't- try to pull maximum power.  But what happens the
> instant you start trying to assemble your four-disk array?  All the
> heads start thrashing around and your drives go to maximum power
> demand, causing your PSU to undervolt just enough to cause the CPU
> to reset.

It hadn't occurred to me, but now that I think about it, it's not all that
far-fetched.  I only saw the segfault message once; now that I can reliably
boot on the -15 kernel, it no longer shows up in the message log.  I've gone
ahead and ordered a new PSU.  In the mean time, I'll try dd'ing each drive
like you mentioned.

Thanks for the suggestions!
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