During nightly testing, sometimes many tests fail with SIGBUS
An example log is available at

http://vmsqe.sfbay/nightly/mantis/DTWS/results/01-13-06/ServerVM/64BITSOLSPARC/mixed/Main_Baseline/vm.gc-NIGHTLY-Main_Baseline-ServerVM-mixed-64BITSOLSPARC-2006-01-14-06-52-56/ResultDir/allocate001/allocate001.tlog

#
# An unexpected error has been detected by Java Runtime Environment:
#
# SIGBUS (0xa) at pc=0xfec6658c, pid=13791, tid=2
#
# Java VM: Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (20060113030552.ap159146.gc_merge mixed mode, sharing)
# Problematic frame:
# Segmentation Fault (core dumped)

Here is pstack output.

----------------- lwp# 2 / thread# 2 --------------------
 fee59944 void frame::print_on_error(outputStream*,char*,int,bool)const (f788, fe9fb608, ff1b4d18, 7d0, fe9fb558, ff1a7ca8) + 30
 ff06b08c void VMError::report(outputStream*) (fe9fb608, ff1b4d18, fe9fb6a4, 20d18, ff13f016, ff194000) + 350
 ff06bf24 void VMError::report_and_die() (fe9fb6a4, c9fe, 13c00, 0, 214e8, 2) + 474
 fed647a4 JVM_handle_solaris_signal (a, fe9fbb88, fe9fb8d0, 97400, 30000, fec6658c) + 9bc
 ff385fec __sighndlr (a, fe9fbb88, fe9fb8d0, fed63dc8, 0, 0) + c
 ff37fdd8 call_user_handler (a, fe9fbb88, fe9fb8d0, 0, 0, 0) + 234
 ff37ff88 sigacthandler (a, fe9fbb88, fe9fb8d0, 54fe04, ff194000, 34e20) + 64
 --- called from signal handler with signal 10 (SIGBUS) ---
 fec6658c void CompactingPermGenGen::initialize_oops() (32b70, ff19fac0, bac0, ff194000, 52daa4, b800) + 34
 fec5f7d4 int universe_init() (16800, 16800, 32b70, cc00, 32d78, ff1aaa88) + 388
 fec4e51c int init_globals() (16000, 16170, 0, ff1aa178, fe9fbd5c, ff1232b0) + 44
 ff031d40 int Threads::create_vm(JavaVMInitArgs*,bool*) (12db8, fe9fbf1b, 30000, 16400, ff1aa504, ff194000) + 290
 fec45938 JNI_CreateJavaVM (fe9fbf94, fe9fbf90, fe9fbf80, 10002, 54e794, ff194000) + d0
 00012664 JavaMain (fec45868, 2b0cc, 0, 0, 0, 0) + 188
 ff385c94 _lwp_start (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
----------------- lwp# 1 / thread# 1 --------------------
 ff31cb30 _lwp_wait (2, ffbff234, 110a0, ff371d18, 5, 0) + 8
 ff379844 _thrp_join (2, 0, ffbff2f8, 1, 0, ffbff2fc) + 44
 ff3799b8 thr_join (2, 0, ffbff2f8, ffbff388, 0, ffbff2fc) + 10
 000188c0 ContinueInNewThread (124dc, 0, 0, ffbff388, fffe7e0c, 0) + 30
 0001249c main (18000, 2ab28, 10000, 2b0cc, 458, 10001) + eac
 000111c0 _start (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0) + 108

Investigation shows that, for example, on machine starwars.sfbay.sun.com Main_baseline java/javac cannot be started at all (JDK distribution located on starwars in /var/tmp/Work/Work/JDK/NIGHTLY/Main_Baseline/solaris-sparc/bin, I've also copied it to /net/sqesvr-nfs.sfbay/global/nfs/vm1/users/nh161220/jdk-bad in case it gets overwritten).

The problem seems to be in corrupted classes.jsa file. Removing it solves the problem. Problematic file is attached.

Crash is only repeatable when java is started with default options or -client -XX:+UseSerialGC. Also, crash seems to be hardware dependant. For example there is no crash on gtee.sfbay.sun.com.

This bug severly impacts testing.