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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!natinst.com!hrd769.brooks.af.mil!hrd769.brooks.af.mil!not-for-mail From: burgess@hrd769.brooks.af.mil (Dave Burgess) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.bugs Subject: Re: Problems with installation of NetBSD 0.9... Date: 21 Sep 1993 08:26:13 -0500 Organization: Armstrong Laboratory, Brooks AFB, TX Lines: 34 Distribution: world Message-ID: <27mve3$plb@hrd769.brooks.af.mil> References: <27ldlm$j27@acsc.com> <AARON.93Sep21184413@downstage.comp.vuw.ac.nz> NNTP-Posting-Host: hrd769.brooks.af.mil In article <AARON.93Sep21184413@downstage.comp.vuw.ac.nz> Aaron.Roydhouse@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Aaron Roydhouse) writes: >==> "Frank" == Frank Mayhar <fmayhar@acsc.com> writes: > >Frank> before fsck runs. (I also see a message indicating an >Frank> unexpected interrupt from wdc0 at this point, but I don't know >Frank> whether that is related.) If it happens during boot, the system >Frank> hangs at that point. > >I have NetBSD 0.9 on a 486dx2/33 and two identical IDE drives sharing >the one controller. I began to experience just the behaviour you [...] >on boot-up; well I got the "ISA strayintr 7" anyway but it didn't lead >to a hang. This isn't a show-stopper for me so long as I avoid the >"fsck -p" during bootup and run it myself afterwards. > I think that we have a considerable quantity of anecdotal evidence that there is at least one timing problem in the wd.c code. Heavy disk usage causing a hard drive hang (versus a coplete system hang) is a known bug, and there is even some mention of it in the FAQ (which is available by anonymous FTP in pub/FAQ:hrd769.brooks.af.mil). I had a similar problem while using an Ultrastore 24F in IDE emulation mode. It is reasonable to assume then that it is not a hardware problem, but a software problem. The description in the FAQ gives a pretty good explanation of a cause and solution. The solution is kind of 'brute force' but fixes most of these hangs after the fact (except for mine, where the reset semantics are just 'a little bit' different). -- ------ TSgt Dave Burgess NCOIC AL/Management Information Systems Office Brooks AFB, TX