[vbox-dev] OSE r32797 causes null-pointer dereference on linux host

[walt]

On 10/07/2010 09:04 AM, Frank Mehnert wrote:
> Walt,
>
> On Wednesday 06 October 2010, walt wrote:
>> My amd64 machine doesn't print anything at all, but syslog on my
>> x86 is included below.  It makes sense that the offending code has
>> to do with timers because GVMM_SCHED_WITH_PPT is the only thing
>> changed by r32797.
>
> I have a tickless system here as well and currently running
> Linux 2.6.36-rc7. Could you check if the problem persists if
> you update to this version? And please make sure to update the
> VBox source code to r32985 or later.

Okay, I'm up to date with r32986 and 2.6.36-rc7.  Alas, I see the same
behavior -- instant lockup on the amd64x2 with no messages on the console
or in syslog, but the amd32 linux host survives the VBox crash and prints
the same syslog I posted yesterday.

The critical lines of code involved:

#if defined(RT_OS_LINUX) || defined(DOXYGEN_RUNNING)
/** Define this to enable the periodic preemption timer. */
# define GVMM_SCHED_WITH_PPT
#endif

Is DOXYGEN_RUNNING referring to the documentation system of the same
name?  I ask only because I used the --disable-docs configure flag on
both machines because I didn't want to install the entire latex system
just to generate the user manual.

However, the test for RT_OS_LINUX is the recent addition that tickles
this bug by setting GVMM_SCHED_WITH_PPT to TRUE.  If I delete the test
for RT_OS_LINUX, the crash disappears.

BTW, what does the 'RT' mean?

Thanks!