Disable core dump generation on #Linux

By | April 22, 2018

Generation of core dumps that result in freezing the Linux system is another common issue in the new Linux kernels discussed on many forum threads. Same as the bug of kswapd0 discussed here Kswapd0 going haywire this can become very annoying.

It seems that lately someone tries to add developer features turned on by default sabotaging the Linux kernel.

I mean really who needs predictive memory cleanup that in most of the cases freezes your system (see kswapd0 bug) !!!!
The same, who needs core dumps which are useful to the 0.00001% of Linux users that develop kernel modules. Core dumps that again can freeze or even completely crash your system aggravating a server problem instead of fixing it.

So to end my rage here is the guide to disable the broken core dump system from the kernel.

STEP 1
Set in /etc/systemd/system.conf

DumpCore=no

STEP 2
Set in /etc/systemd/coredump.conf

Storage=none

This steps will prevent systemd to write any core dump to the disk. Sadly they are still generated so a system crash due to the core dump can still occur. With the above steps we just avoid the system being locked due to the root partition being filled to the maximum by a huge core dump.

STEP 3
Set in /etc/security/limits.conf

#<domain> <type> <item> <value>
* hard core 0

The step will prevent core dumps, and since it is a “hard” limits, non-root programs can’t override it.

Note that root programs can still override this so that is why we need the first two steps to try to contain the horror 🙁

Do not forget to reboot to have the settings activated.

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