A repsonse encontra-se em man proc(5)
, aqui está a parte interessante:
/proc/sys/kernel/threads-max (since Linux 2.3.11)
This file specifies the system-wide limit on the number
of threads (tasks) that can be created on the system.
Since Linux 4.1, the value that can be written to
threads-max is bounded. The minimum value that can be
written is 20. The maximum value that can be written
is given by the constant FUTEX_TID_MASK (0x3fffffff).
If a value outside of this range is written to threads-
max, the error EINVAL occurs.
The value written is checked against the available RAM
pages. If the thread structures would occupy too much
(more than 1/8th) of the available RAM pages, threads-
max is reduced accordingly.
Eu suponho que sua versão do kernel é > 4.1, então desde 200000 (o número que você tenta) é menor que 0x3fffffff, o problema parece que a RAM disponível não é suficiente.