diff -r 255c0a4cb4eb -r 9058789475af src/os_cpu/linux_x86/vm/os_linux_x86.cpp
--- a/src/os_cpu/linux_x86/vm/os_linux_x86.cpp	Tue Mar 05 08:50:59 2013 +0100
+++ b/src/os_cpu/linux_x86/vm/os_linux_x86.cpp	Tue Mar 05 13:55:56 2013 -0800
@@ -305,6 +305,11 @@
           // to handle_unexpected_exception way down below.
           thread->disable_stack_red_zone();
           tty->print_raw_cr("An irrecoverable stack overflow has occurred.");
+
+          // This is a likely cause, but hard to verify. Let's just print
+          // it as a hint.
+          tty->print_raw_cr("Please check if any of your loaded .so files has "
+                            "enabled executable stack (see man page execstack(8))");
         } else {
           // Accessing stack address below sp may cause SEGV if current
           // thread has MAP_GROWSDOWN stack. This should only happen when