*BSD News Article 17179


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Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: Re: Question about Hanging Kernel
Message-ID: <1993Jun15.121806.450@nhqvax.hq.nasa.gov>
From: mnewell@lupine.nsi.nasa.gov. (Mike Newell)
Date: 15 Jun 93 12:18:06 +0600
Reply-To: mnewell@lupine.nsi.nasa.gov.
References: <1993Jun15.132852.18348@news.weeg.uiowa.edu>
Distribution: world
Organization: Sun Microsystems
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In article 18348@news.weeg.uiowa.edu, jboggs@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu (John D. Boggs) writes:
>From article <1vjmgr$50t@stimpy.css.itd.umich.edu>, by altitude@css.itd.umich.edu (Alex Tang):
>> Hi.  I've got some more information...It has happened two or three times in
>> the last 2 days where I've su'ed and when entering the passwd, it'll hang.  If
>> I ping the machine, It'll respond as alive.  If I telnet to it, it will say
>> connection established, then just sit there.  This is getting annoying, I go
>> running in to reboot my machine, and then by the time I walk home, I will
>> login and the first command will hang it.  
>> thanx...alex...
>
>Mine tends to hang when cd'ing after su'ing.  I goes like this:
>
>% su bin
>Password: <A very important, toptoptop secret phrase>
>erato# cd /usr/local/src
>[Hard disk light on, characters echo but no response, gotta reboot]
>

I've had the same problem on my system; in my case it appears to
be a SCSI bus problem.  I have two internal drives connected via
a 2' ribbon cable, and one external drive connected via a 4'
centronics-like cable.  I've got an Adaptec 1542B host adaptor.
When I added another external (CD-ROM) drive to the chain I couldn't
even boot...  

I've minimized the problem by adding a pass-through type terminator
at the system bulkhead connector.  It doesn't hang anymore with
the external drive, however if I add the CD-ROM back into the
chain it will hang after 10-15 minutes of heavy drive usage.  I
can live with that...

Someone has suggested using an active terminator on the bus and
checking the power.  I have done so, and still have the problem.
Maybe the Adaptec is really finiky??

Mike Newell
NASA Advanced Network Applications Group