From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Mar 2 04:58:41 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4C49716A4CE for ; Tue, 2 Mar 2004 04:58:41 -0800 (PST) Received: from tx2.oucs.ox.ac.uk (tx2.oucs.ox.ac.uk [163.1.2.163]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id ADF9D43D2D for ; Tue, 2 Mar 2004 04:58:40 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from colin.percival@wadham.ox.ac.uk) Received: from scan2.oucs.ox.ac.uk ([163.1.2.162] helo=localhost) by tx2.oucs.ox.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 4.24) id 1Ay9Tr-0007eM-Le for freebsd-current@freebsd.org; Tue, 02 Mar 2004 12:58:39 +0000 Received: from rx2.oucs.ox.ac.uk ([163.1.2.161]) by localhost (scan2.oucs.ox.ac.uk [163.1.2.162]) (amavisd-new, port 25) with ESMTP id 29026-09 for ; Tue, 2 Mar 2004 12:58:39 +0000 (GMT) Received: from gateway.wadham.ox.ac.uk ([163.1.161.253]) by rx2.oucs.ox.ac.uk with smtp (Exim 4.24) id 1Ay9Tr-0007eA-7t for freebsd-current@freebsd.org; Tue, 02 Mar 2004 12:58:39 +0000 Received: (qmail 13285 invoked by uid 0); 2 Mar 2004 12:58:33 -0000 Received: from colin.percival@wadham.ox.ac.uk by gateway by uid 71 with qmail-scanner-1.16 (sweep: 2.14/3.71. spamassassin: 2.53. Clear:. Processed in 1.828712 secs); 02 Mar 2004 12:58:33 -0000 X-Qmail-Scanner-Mail-From: colin.percival@wadham.ox.ac.uk via gateway X-Qmail-Scanner: 1.16 (Clear:. Processed in 1.828712 secs) Received: from dhcp1131.wadham.ox.ac.uk (HELO piii600.wadham.ox.ac.uk) (163.1.161.131) by gateway.wadham.ox.ac.uk with SMTP; 2 Mar 2004 12:58:31 -0000 Message-Id: <6.0.1.1.1.20040302124613.03af9150@imap.sfu.ca> X-Sender: cperciva@imap.sfu.ca (Unverified) X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 6.0.1.1 Date: Tue, 02 Mar 2004 12:57:26 +0000 To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org From: Colin Percival Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Subject: detecting overheating processors? X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 02 Mar 2004 12:58:41 -0000 I'm seeing something very interesting with FreeBSD Update: Lots of overheating processors. FreeBSD Update operates by checking MD5 hashes, applying patches, and checking the MD5 hashes of the patched files. If the file is wrong after patching, it downloads the entire file (and verifies its hash). A significant number of machines (around 5%) running FreeBSD Update have downloaded several patch files, and downloaded one or two complete files. This indicates that FreeBSD Update is working properly, it is managing to find and execute the patch tool (there was a $PATH problem in earlier versions), but in some cases the patch isn't being applied properly. As far as I can see, the failure is random; there isn't any one patch file which is more prone to errors. After talking to a few people who experienced this, I'm sure this is due to heat problems, which leads me to wonder: How many problems are being reported which are the result of overheating? Is it time to add a simple computational stress test into FreeBSD (maybe even as part of the install process) in order to detect problematic hardware? Colin Percival