YUM thread.error: can't start new thread

[Faye.K]

When I tried to update my OS this noon, I got these error messages from Yum, it's strange that it works well during the passed ages.
Is there any one give me some directions please?

[root@126 janghiz]# yum update
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/yum", line 29, in ?
yummain.user_main(sys.argv[1:], exit_code=True)
File "/usr/share/yum-cli/yummain.py", line 229, in user_main
errcode = main(args)
File "/usr/share/yum-cli/yummain.py", line 104, in main
result, resultmsgs = base.doCommands()
File "/usr/share/yum-cli/cli.py", line 339, in doCommands
self._getTs(needTsRemove)
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/depsolve.py", line 101, in _getTs
self._getTsInfo(remove_only)
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/depsolve.py", line 112, in _getTsInfo
pkgSack = self.pkgSack
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 591, in <lambda>
pkgSack = property(fget=lambda self: self._getSacks(),
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 434, in _getSacks
self.repos.populateSack(which=repos)
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/repos.py", line 223, in populateSack
self.doSetup()
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/repos.py", line 71, in doSetup
self.ayum.plugins.run('postreposetup')
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/plugins.py", line 176, in run
func(conduitcls(self, self.base, conf, **kwargs))
File "/usr/lib/yum-plugins/fastestmirror.py", line 181, in postreposetup_hook
all_urls = FastestMirror(all_urls).get_mirrorlist()
File "/usr/lib/yum-plugins/fastestmirror.py", line 333, in get_mirrorlist
self._poll_mirrors()
File "/usr/lib/yum-plugins/fastestmirror.py", line 376, in _poll_mirrors
pollThread.start()
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/threading.py", line 416, in start
_start_new_thread(self.__bootstrap, ())
thread.error: can't start new thread

Any input would be highly appreciated as I need to fix it a.s.a.p

Faye.K

[joseph]

Hi,Faye,

Basically this issue is rare to see, it's a memory resource issue with the vps which is caused by yum's fastestmirror plugin. This issue can be repeated when the following two conditions are met:

1, You're running VPS, for example in an OpenVZ virtual server.
2, There's a mysql instance running in this vritual server already.

This is a reported bug which had been fixed two months ago.

As we know the exactly reason for this error, there're two ways to bypass it:
1, Stop the mysql instance and run yum again.
2, Disable yum's fastestmirror plugin when start yum, like this:

yum --disableplugin=fastestmirror update

Cheers - joseph.chen

[Faye.K]

Cool, thanks a lot!