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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!network.ucsd.edu!dog.ee.lbl.gov!overload.lbl.gov!agate!agate.berkeley.edu!cgd From: cgd@erewhon.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Chris G. Demetriou) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions Subject: FAQ Answer: What does the "trap type nn" message mean? Date: 12 Jun 93 19:57:52 Organization: Kernel Hackers 'r' Us Lines: 36 Distribution: world Message-ID: <CGD.93Jun12195752@erewhon.CS.Berkeley.EDU> NNTP-Posting-Host: erewhon.cs.berkeley.edu [ i just wrote this up, because i've seen this asked a lot of times, and i've seen almost as many incorrect interpretations of the panic message. i'm just about to send it off to Dave Burgess... -- cgd ] FAQ: What does the "trap type nn" message mean when the system crashes? Answer: That message means that the system received an unexpected (and unwanted) trap that probably indicates some form of kernel bug. The number (which appears in place of "nn" above) is *NOT* the i386 or i386 trap type, it is a BSD-defined trap type number. The definitions of the various trap types can be found in /usr/include/machine/trap.h. two of the more common ones are: 9 T_PROTFLT protection fault (The kernel tried executing code which was not noted as "executable". This happens if the kernel jumps to a bogus location.) 12 T_PAGEFLT page fault (The kernel tried to access a bogus area of memory. This can happen if an invalid pointer is dereferenced.) chris -- Chris G. Demetriou cgd@cs.berkeley.edu "386bsd as depth first search: whenever you go to fix something you find that 3 more things are actually broken." -- Adam Glass