After most of 2012 working perfectly as far as uploading batches of jpg files, I suddenly in Sept 2012 started getting lockups at least 1 of every 2 upload attempts. By lockup I mean entire computer freezes, no mouse movement, reboot, repair all mysql piwigo tables after reboot.

I ran a bunch of tests, single files no problem, 2 files or more frequent lockups.

I increased my
/etc/php5/apache2/php.ini
from
post_max_size = 8M
to
post_max_size = 2000M

I then ran successfully 4 upload batches of around 30-40 jpg files directory size 50-60MB each.

I tried a batch totaling 208M which caused a lockup. After reboot and mysql repairing I had 4 of the files in that last batch in a funny state in piwigo (no image at all no thumbnail, no file info). I nuked the album with the last upload failures, increased

post_max_size = 20000M

and have not been able to crash it since.

I'm curious if I got a linux patch that reset my post_max_size down to 8M that causes this terrible behavior. It is possible, though very unlikely with all the tests i ran on same day - that the post_max_size is not causing the issue. Currently it seems to be the case.

I couldn't find similar issue on forums and wanted to post my possible solution in case helpful to others with same problem.