Determining the cause of server crashes

[jrivett]

Are there any tools or guidelines for identifying the cause of BF1942 server crashes?

The crashes I observe on my server are intermittent. There doesn't seem to be any kind of pattern to them.

The server runs a version of the BF1942 executable that's been patched with a few crash-prevention tweaks provided by tuia and others, and seems to be immune to the crash exploits those tweaks were designed for.

The crashes I'm seeing don't seem to be intentional. They don't seem to be associated with any specific maps. It's a co-op server, so it always has a load of bots running around.

On my BF2 (FH2) server, crashes are much more common, partly because it's a co-op server, and bots sometimes do things that cause crashes. Players can also do specific things, such as exiting a vehicle in rough terrian, that can lead to crashes. The use of bots generally seems to increase the likelihood of crashes. I've been assuming that BF1942 is similar.

Another possible source of the crashes is the server-side modifications we've made to all the maps (original, RtR, and SW). These mods are mostly about swapping out units for different units, and changing the limits on units. But all of these mods have been tested and work as expected, and don't cause crashes in testing.

The server crashes about once a day, but on some days it will crash several times. Again, there doesn't seem to be any particular pattern. It may be that disgruntled players are doing it, but there are usually other indicators when that happens (like they announce they are going to crash the server).

So, any ideas? If some or all of them are being caused by something I can fix, I'd like to fix them.

[davidson02]

What's up? Any update about this concern?
drywall finishing in Marietta

[jrivett]

Here's a summary of the segfaults being logged in connection with BF1942 server crashes. All of them have occurred multiple times over the last month or so. All of them using the patched bf1942_lnxded from moddb.com (https://www.moddb.com/games/battlefield ... 2org-patch).

Code: Select all

segfault at 0 ip 0000000000000000 sp 00000000ff80ed3c error 14 in bf1942_lnxded.dynamic[8048000+673000]
segfault at 0 ip 00000000085e3ebb sp 00000000ffaf7f54 error 4 in bf1942_lnxded.dynamic[8048000+673000]
segfault at 20 ip 00000000084a1e46 sp 00000000ff9a2880 error 4 in bf1942_lnxded.dynamic[8048000+673000]
segfault at 4 ip 000000000855a13b sp 00000000ffa73ae0 error 4 in bf1942_lnxded.dynamic[8048000+673000]
segfault at 4 ip 000000000856c1a6 sp 00000000ffa57be0 error 4 in bf1942_lnxded.dynamic[8048000+673000]
segfault at c ip 00000000085f7695 sp 00000000ff90d790 error 6 in bf1942_lnxded.dynamic[8048000+673000]

Can anyone familiar with the server code provide any clues? Obviously it would be nice to get these bugs patched, but I'd be happy if I can just tell players to avoid certain things, like flying B-17s, or entering certain emplacemements.