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From: michael butler <imb@scgt.oz.au>
Message-Id: <199603051338.AAA14678@asstdc.scgt.oz.au>
Subject: 2842 and the disappearing file-system :-(
To: stable@freebsd.org, current@freebsd.org
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 1996 00:38:00 +1100 (EST)
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Without warning today, the recurrent collapse of -stable with "panic:
inconsistent xxx queue" managed to trash my root file-system beyond recovery
(/etc et al) and a substantial proportion of anything vaguely near a
file-subsystem root directory (i.e. /var, /usr and /home are all separate
file-systems and all were damaged to varying degrees). I presume that this
was just particularly bad timing as there was significant activity on all of
them at that moment (of the order of ~60 transfers second).

After spending all day at this "game" (picking through a zillion remnants in
lost+found directories and restoring what I could from tape), I've finally
gotten this machine back to the point of being usable .. a fine effort for a
"stable" system, if I might express some of my frustration !

This particular failure, as I mentioned before on the -stable list, is
specific to the VESA controller (2842 rev C). It has never occurred with the
BT542B and I've established that the "cheap" version (i.e. non-enhanced) of
the Amd486DX4 that I'm using is only capable of running its internal cache
in write-thru mode.

My question is this .. since -stable is presently unusable unless I want to
strangle my disk I/O (with news arriving at ~3 articles/second) and -release
too buggy for "heavy-duty" use, is -current likely to be any better ?

	michael