gdb causes system crash on 6.2 system

All -

     I scanned the mailing list archive for references to this problem, but
no joy.  Apologies in advance if it has already been discussed.

     I recently installed a 6.2 system off-of-the-CD on a crusty old Sun ELC
system.  When I use gdb (either 5.0 or 5.1.1) on a program built with shared
libs, it crashes the system by causing creeping segmentation faults on random
processes not related to the program being debugged.  Eventually one of these
is system-critical, and the whole system hangs.  If the program being debugged
is statically linked, gdb dies with a segmentation fault, but the disease does
not spread to other processes.  I suspect a kernel problem related to ptrace.

uname -a produces

   Linux xxx 2.2.14-5.0 #1 Tue Mar 7 20:54:26 EST 2000 sparc unknown

     While the clear message is not to use gdb, if anybody can suggest a
proper remedy, or provide a pointer to a kernel patch or upgrade, that
specifically includes a fix for this behavior, I'd appreciate it.

                                       George Helffrich
                                       ([email protected])