segmentation fault with 'ls'

[rayyes]

Hi,
I'm in FC4 and too scared to reboot because the computer might not boot again

but before i state my problem, let me give some background info:

a few days ago i booted from linux to XP, nothing wrong here. When i tried booting back into linux, i recieved an ugly error message during bootup, right after the 'decompressing kernel' part and before the udev part. It was very similar to this one: http://fedoraforum.org/forum/attachm...ttachmentid=45.

I tried everything i could think of to rescue the installation, including suggestions on this forum and others, to no avail.

After finally giving up on my linux installion, i figured it was time for a windows-style format-reinstall. I removed all linux partitions except for /home, reinstalled everything, updated my system, got everything working just right yesterday. what a pain in the ass.

anyway, this is old news.

I woke up this morning and did an ls in my home directory to find this:

$ ls
Segmentation fault

thinking it might be whats linking to ls at fault, i tried the command directly:

$ /bin/ls
Segmentation fault

finally, doing an strace gives this:
$ strace /bin/ls

execve("/bin/ls", ["/bin/ls"], [/* 41 vars */]) = 0
brk(0)                                  = 0x8f7e000
access("/etc/ld.so.preload", R_OK)      = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY)      = 3
fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=89858, ...}) = 0
old_mmap(NULL, 89858, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE, 3, 0) = 0xb7fcb000
close(3)                                = 0
open("/lib/librt.so.1", O_RDONLY)       = 3
read(3, "\177ELF\1\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0\3\0\1\0\0\0\260\20"..., 512) = 512
fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=49396, ...}) = 0
old_mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xb7fca000
old_mmap(0xb1f000, 81656, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0xb1f000
old_mmap(0xb27000, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x7000) = 0xb27000
old_mmap(0xb29000, 40696, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xb29000
close(3)                                = 0
open("/lib/libacl.so.1", O_RDONLY)      = 3
read(3, "\177ELF\1\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0\3\0\1\0\0\0\260\"\311"..., 512) = 512
fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=23084, ...}) = 0
old_mmap(0xc91000, 24556, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0xc91000
old_mmap(0xc96000, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x4000) = 0xc96000
close(3)                                = 0
open("/lib/libselinux.so.1", O_RDONLY)  = 3
read(3, "\177ELF\1\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0\3\0\1\0\0\0\20\305"..., 512) = 512
fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=68864, ...}) = 0
old_mmap(0x83a000, 68592, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0x83a000
old_mmap(0x84a000, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x10000) = 0x84a000
close(3)                                = 0
open("/lib/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY)        = 3
read(3, "\177ELF\1\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0\3\0\1\0\0\0\n\237\267"..., 512) = 512
fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=1489572, ...}) = 0
old_mmap(0xb65000, 1219548, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0xb65000
old_mmap(0xc89000, 16384, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x124000) = 0xc89000
old_mmap(0xc8d000, 7132, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xc8d000
close(3)                                = 0
open("/lib/libpthread.so.0", O_RDONLY)  = 3
read(3, "\177ELF\1\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0\3\0\1\0\0\0\204\327"..., 512) = 512
fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=101600, ...}) = 0
old_mmap(0xdb9000, 70084, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0xdb9000
old_mmap(0xdc7000, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0xd000) = 0xdc7000
old_mmap(0xdc9000, 4548, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xdc9000
close(3)                                = 0
open("/lib/libattr.so.1", O_RDONLY)     = 3
read(3, "\177ELF\1\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0\3\0\1\0\0\0 \233&\000"..., 512) = 512
fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=29337, ...}) = 0
old_mmap(0x269000, 13412, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0x269000
old_mmap(0x26c000, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x2000) = 0x26c000
close(3)                                = 0
old_mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xb7fc9000
old_mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xb7fc8000
set_thread_area({entry_number:-1 -> 6, base_addr:0xb7fc86c0, limit:1048575, seg_32bit:1, contents:0, read_exec_only:0, limit_in_pages:1, seg_not_present:0, useable:1}) = 0
mprotect(0xb27000, 4096, PROT_READ)     = 0
mprotect(0xc89000, 8192, PROT_READ)     = 0
mprotect(0xdc7000, 4096, PROT_READ)     = 0
mprotect(0xb61000, 4096, PROT_READ)     = 0
munmap(0xb7fcb000, 89858)               = 0
set_tid_address(0xb7fc8708)             = 28630
rt_sigaction(SIGRTMIN, {0xdbd340, [], SA_SIGINFO}, NULL, 8) = 0
rt_sigaction(SIGRT_1, {0xdbd3a8, [], SA_RESTART|SA_SIGINFO}, NULL, 8) = 0
rt_sigprocmask(SIG_UNBLOCK, [RTMIN RT_1], NULL, 8) = 0
getrlimit(RLIMIT_STACK, {rlim_cur=10240*1024, rlim_max=RLIM_INFINITY}) = 0
_sysctl({{CTL_KERN, KERN_VERSION}, 2, 0xbf8de370, 30, (nil), 0}) = 0
access("/etc/selinux/", F_OK)           = 0
brk(0)                                  = 0x8f7e000
brk(0x8f9f000)                          = 0x8f9f000
open("/etc/selinux/config", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = 3
fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=447, ...}) = 0
mmap2(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xb7fe0000
read(3, "# This file controls the state o"..., 4096) = 447
close(3)                                = 0
munmap(0xb7fe0000, 4096)                = 0
open("/proc/mounts", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = 3
fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0444, st_size=0, ...}) = 0
mmap2(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xb7fe0000
read(3, "rootfs / rootfs rw 0 0\n/dev /dev"..., 1024) = 466
read(3, "", 1024)                       = 0
close(3)                                = 0
munmap(0xb7fe0000, 4096)                = 0
--- SIGSEGV (Segmentation fault) @ 0 (0) ---
+++ killed by SIGSEGV +++

Please anyone i need some help. Im scared to reboot my computer and fall into the same situation where i can't boot.

[huw-l]

Are you doing this as root or yourself?

[tashirosgt]

There is a old FC3 thread on the forum about the corelutils being corrupted by an interrupted update. The "ls" command produced a segmentation fault in that case. Can you determine whether most corelutils commands segfault. Compare them to the binutils - try something exotic like readelf.

[rayyes]

thank you both for replying

unfortunately the system failed to boot as expected and now i am left wth no solution but to format.

huw-l this occurs wether i do ls as root or as a normal user.
tashirosgt- yes most coreutiles namely ls cp mv etc... have been corrupted and produce the same error.

i have spent too many hours on this problem, it is becoming a showstopper and i am starting to despise linux because of it.

please tell me what might be the problem so i can try to perhaps avoid it?

[tashirosgt]

What is the particular hardware that you have? I suppose FC4 still has trouble on particular systems. And does the machine work well in XP? If it hasn't been used much, test your hardware with memtest86 and with whatever diagnostics are for your particular brand of hard drive.

I don't know if the role you had in mind for Linux could be tested by using a single cd distribution of Linux, but it might be worth trying something you don't have to install. This would check whether the problem is with Linux, in general, or only with Fedora, in particular.

[rayyes]

i dont know waht to tell you. XP has never suffered on my hardware, and linux was running smoothly ever since i installed fc4 when it came out. this thing just happened out of the blue. I've also tried half a dozen live CD distros with no problems at all.

Anyway, I reinstalled everything on brand new unused partitions now. I'll have to wait and see...

thanks nevrtheless