In the last few days, I've had an intermittent problem with a mail server that has /home mounted over NFS and delivers mail directly to user's directories. The following message appears over and over in the kernel log: Feb 7 14:45:11 romana kernel: lockd: task 172507 can't get a request slot Feb 7 14:45:11 romana kernel: lockd: task 173492 can't get a request slot Feb 7 14:45:11 romana kernel: lockd: task 165077 can't get a request slot Feb 7 14:45:11 romana kernel: lockd: task 163791 can't get a request slot Feb 7 14:45:12 romana kernel: lockd: task 158725 can't get a request slot Feb 7 14:45:12 romana kernel: lockd: task 167382 can't get a request slot Feb 7 14:45:13 romana kernel: lockd: task 170975 can't get a request slot Feb 7 14:45:14 romana kernel: lockd: task 164987 can't get a request slot Feb 7 14:45:14 romana kernel: lockd: task 168650 can't get a request slot [restarted nfs-common on romana and wotan, the nfs server] Feb 7 14:45:17 romana kernel: kmod: runaway modprobe loop assumed and stopped romana:~# Feb 7 14:45:17 romana last message repeated 4 times [all seems to be well now, no more log messages] In the place marked above, I have restarted nfs-common, which seems to cure the problem until it comes back. While lockd is complaining, the process table shows many instanced of exim in state 'D' (uninterruptible sleep, usually do to IO: obviously because of the NFS problem). While the trouble is occurring, the files in the NSF mounts still seem to be accessible to shell commands (unless the system has not run out of file descriptors). On Romana the NFS client drivers are modules. -- Henry House The attached file is a digital signature. See <http://romana.hajhouse.org/pgp> for information. My OpenPGP key: <http://romana.hajhouse.org/hajhouse.asc>.
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