WRT54GL OOM, dnsmasq and crond killed

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Eric
Site Admin
Posts: 1443
Joined: Sat Jun 14, 2008 1:14 pm

Re: WRT54GL OOM, dnsmasq and crond killed

Post by Eric »

Sorry to hear about your troubles.

First, be aware that the problem you were running into initially would exist no matter how much memory you had. There is a limit on the number of connections allowed which can be modified in Firewall/Connection Limits, but when the limit is reached, connections will be dropped. It doesn't matter how many system resources are available once you hit that limit.

Second, neither I or pbix have been able to reproduce the kernel error you report. It might help if you clarify which version you have installed -- there is no version 1.2.7. 1.3.7 is the latest version in the experimental branch and 1.2.5 is the latest version in the stable branch.

If you need QoS functionality and you don't need active congestion control, I strongly suggest sticking with the stable branch. There are a few QoS bugs in the latest release of the experimental branch (though none that would cause a kernel error like what you are reporting), which were only recently fixed in the repository and not yet included in a release. There is a good reason the routers I sell are using the stable branch -- the experimental branch is by definition experimental, and there are bugs/unaddressed issues in there (though I am actively working to identifiy and fix them).

Finally, I also want to add that per the 90 day money-back guarantee, you can still return the router you purchased from me for a full refund if you aren't fully satisfied. If you want to go this route, just send me an email at eric [AT] gargoyle-router.com, and I'll give you the address to ship the router back to.

pbix
Developer
Posts: 1373
Joined: Fri Aug 21, 2009 5:09 pm

Re: WRT54GL OOM, dnsmasq and crond killed

Post by pbix »

I agree with Eric that there are no QoS "bugs" that will cause a kernel panic. In fact the few QoS issues in 1.3.7 only affect class table editing and can be worked around easily. They do not affect the way QoS functions.

Your router must keep track of every connection to the internet. Each connection consumes 352 bytes on the WRT54GL. The limit on connections is configurable under firewall/connection limits. The default is 4096 which in my view is too high for the GL. This number should be reduced to 1024 on the GL. On my router I seldom have more than 100 connections active. If your router hits this limit then new connections to the internet will be denied. If the limit is too high then all your RAM will be consumed and a crash of some sort is the usual result.

You can see the connections under status/connection list. If there a lot your can count them by getting to the command line of your router and typing "wc -l /proc/net/ip_conntrack".

The biggest consumer of connections is usually bit torrent type applications. If anyone is using these have them configure the application to use less connections to avoid overloading the router. There is usually a configuration option to do this.

Sorry your having trouble but let us know what you find.
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Culex
Posts: 28
Joined: Sat Dec 25, 2010 5:38 am

Re: WRT54GL OOM, dnsmasq and crond killed

Post by Culex »

I'm seeing the alloc_pages failure and killing of processes on my wrt54gl with 1.3.9. i'm also seeing mad ksoftirq usage which is cutting my bandwidth in half. funny enough dd-wrt micro is only a 2mb flash and doesn't have this problem..

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