Re: bash segfaulting and not being able to log in

[Anthony Fox <ant@lonelyroad.org>]

kmself@ix.netcom.com writes:

> on Sun, Mar 18, 2001 at 09:44:51PM -0500, Anthony Fox (ant@lonelyroad.org) wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > I have two questions:
> > 
> > 1. Bash segfaults when I hit tab to autocomplete a filename.  I
> > have checked the bash FAQ which does not address my specific
> > problem.  Has anyone seen this?
> 
> What version of bash?  In my case:
> 
>     $ bash --version GNU bash, version 2.04.0(1)-release
>     (i386-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright 1999 Free Software Foundation,
>     Inc.

GNU bash, version 2.04.0(1)-release (i386-pc-linux-gnu)

> 
> You've posted this problem before and we've tried a couple of things
> (keysyms, strace), without results.  The problem is odd, I'd try at
> this point:

strace didn't work because auto completion using the tab key doesn't
function correctly.  i used gdb to debug a bash process and found the
stacktrace to be failing in libreadline::autocomplete.  the weird
thing is that sometimes it works fine and sometimes it fails.  i can't
duplicate the stacktrace because bash is working fine right now.

>   - Check bash bug reports.  - Keyboard test.  This appears to be
>   related to the problem.  - Identify parameters of problem.  -
>   Memory test.  Possible but unlikely if bash is the only problem.
>   - Reinstall bash.

I recompiled bash from a source .deb.  Last night, while /bin/bash was
segfaulting, I ran the newly compiled bash and it worked just fine.
The differences in sizes of the binaries is large.

===[ant@driver] ~ $ ls -l bash-2.04/bash
-rwxr-xr-x 1 ant ant 1527145 Mar 18 21:54 bash-2.04/bash*
===[ant@driver] ~ $ ls -l /bin/bash
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 404340 Nov 20 17:38 /bin/bash*

The newly compiled binary is almost quadruple the size of the
installed binary.  It is compiled for i686-pc-linux-gnu, but I
wouldn't think that would make such a difference.

Should I install this version?  If so, how do I install a binary that
I have compiled from source?

> > 2. I log in at the console, /etc/motd is printed, and then I am
> > logged out.  I have seen this problem on a box where home
> > directories where NFS mounted and the NFS mount did not exist.  My
> > particular box does not have home directories mounted, but my
> > partition table looks like:
> 
> Does this happen when logging in as a regular user, as root, either?

Both.  Like the bash problem, it happens half the time and half the
time my box works just fine.  That is why I think the problems are
related.

> Does /etc/nologin exist?
> 
> Check your .bash_profile and .bashrc files, as well as any
> /etc/bashrc and /etc/profile files.  You might try renaming these
> temporarily.

I have checked the startup scripts, there is no problem with them.
/etc/nologin does not exist.  Plus, I can log in just fine half the
time.

Thanks for your help.

Anthony