Bug#680550: linux-image-2.6.32-5-amd64: kmalloc-32 memory leak for kernel 2.6.32-5-amd64

[Moritz Muehlenhoff <jmm@inutil.org>]

reassign 680550 src:linux
thanks

On Sat, Jul 21, 2012 at 09:04:53PM -0700, Alan W. Irwin wrote:
> On 2012-07-21 23:24+0100 Ben Hutchings wrote:
>
>> Thanks to the detailed report.  Memory leaks are sadly common, and many
>> have been fixed since Linux 2.6.32.  I don't think it's practical to
>> attempt to match up those many fixes against your list of applications.
>
> Hi Ben:
>
> Thanks for responding.
>
> Could you please attempt to verify the problem (by periodically
> checking kmalloc-32 in /proc/slabinfo on machines you have access to
> for a few days) to get a feel for how common this issue is?  For
> example, it might occur for _all_ desktop users who run
> kernel-2.6.32-5-amd64 and not have much to do with my own particular
> application mix.  After all, this is not an ordinary memory leak.
> Instead, it is a leak in a special kind of memory that the kernel
> controls directly, and presumably this kernel bug is exercised by just
> some subset of the normal kernel calls.  If it is a common kernel call
> that indirectly generates the kmalloc-32 leak, than most users will
> see this issue.  On the other hand, if you check on a couple of
> different machines running kernel-2.6.32-5-amd64 for the course of
> several days and see no kmalloc-32 memory leak, then that is useful
> information to help pin down this issue as well.
>
>> Can you first test whether the current kernel package in
>> testing/unstable (linux-image-3.2.0-3-amd64, version 3.2.21-3) fixes the
>> leak?  (You will also need to upgrade linux-base and initramfs-tools,
>> but nothing else, so this should not disrupt your stable installation.)
>
> I planned to dist-upgrade to Debian testing in any case roughly two
> weeks from now when I hope to finish up a project I am currently
> working on.  I don't want to disrupt that project, but once that is
> done just before that dist-upgrade, I will try your idea of just
> updating the kernel and its dependencies. After all, although I don't
> personally intend to use Debian stable too much longer, others will
> continue to use Debian stable for quite some time, so I would like to
> help out such users by doing some tests if it turns out (see my
> question above for you) the kmalloc-32 memory leak is a common issue
> on 64-bit hardware.

Did you upgrade to Wheezy in the mean time?

Cheers,
        Moritz