From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri May 8 17:49:12 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C1AB11065672 for ; Fri, 8 May 2009 17:49:12 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from perryh@pluto.rain.com) Received: from agora.rdrop.com (agora.rdrop.com [199.26.172.34]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 959B78FC0A for ; Fri, 8 May 2009 17:49:12 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from perryh@pluto.rain.com) Received: from agora.rdrop.com (66@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by agora.rdrop.com (8.13.1/8.12.7) with ESMTP id n48HnBqu047352 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT) for ; Fri, 8 May 2009 10:49:11 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from perryh@pluto.rain.com) Received: (from uucp@localhost) by agora.rdrop.com (8.13.1/8.12.9/Submit) with UUCP id n48HnB4e047351 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Fri, 8 May 2009 10:49:11 -0700 (PDT) Received: from fbsd61 by pluto.rain.com (4.1/SMI-4.1-pluto-M2060407) id AA05509; Fri, 8 May 09 10:47:27 PDT Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 10:47:22 -0700 From: perryh@pluto.rain.com To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-Id: <4a04702a.ZaIfHAUzw/YexVK2%perryh@pluto.rain.com> User-Agent: nail 11.25 7/29/05 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: how to fix "interrupt storm" X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 17:49:13 -0000 What, exactly, is an "interrupt storm", and how do I fix it? I have added a 64GB Patriot flash drive to a 7.0 system, but it does not seem to be working properly. Pertinent parts of dmesg.boot: FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE #0: Sun Feb 24 19:59:52 UTC 2008 root@logan.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0 CPU: Pentium II/Pentium II Xeon/Celeron (449.85-MHz 686-class CPU) Origin = "GenuineIntel" Id = 0x652 Stepping = 2 Features=0x183f9ff real memory = 67100672 (63 MB) avail memory = 51662848 (49 MB) ... atapci1: port 0x1800-0x180f,0x14f0-0x14ff,0x14e0-0x14ef,0x14d0-0x14df,0x14a0-0x14bf,0x1000-0x10ff irq 9 at device 16.0 on pci0 atapci1: [ITHREAD] ata2: on atapci1 ata2: [ITHREAD] ata3: on atapci1 ata3: [ITHREAD] ata4: on atapci1 ata4: [ITHREAD] ... ad6: FAILURE - SET_MULTI status=51 error=4 ad6: 61136MB at ata3-master SATA150 At first things look OK, despite the "FAILURE" message: $ ls -l /dev/ad6* crw-r----- 1 root operator 0, 88 May 3 20:30 /dev/ad6 $ file -s /dev/ad6 /dev/ad6: x86 boot sector, Microsoft Windows XP MBR, Serial 0x9e5523de $ grep -w ad6 /usr/local/etc/mtools.conf drive f: file="/dev/ad6" $ mdir f: init F: non DOS media Cannot initialize 'F:' Now this seems a bit odd: file(1) says it's a Windows disk, but mdir(1) says it isn't. (Note that there are no slices, else the initial ls(1) should have shown them, so I suppose the drive has a single FAT filesystem as one would expect on a floppy disk.) Then, when I tried to investigate further by examining the contents of the drive with "od -c /dev/ad6 | more", I got one screenful of output followed by (on console and in dmesg): interrupt storm detected on "irq9:"; throttling interrupt source interrupt storm detected on "irq9:"; throttling interrupt source interrupt storm detected on "irq9:"; throttling interrupt source interrupt storm detected on "irq9:"; throttling interrupt source interrupt storm detected on "irq9:"; throttling interrupt source ad6: FAILURE - SET_MULTI status=51 error=4 ad6: TIMEOUT - READ_DMA retrying (1 retry left) LBA=10712 interrupt storm detected on "irq9:"; throttling interrupt source interrupt storm detected on "irq9:"; throttling interrupt source interrupt storm detected on "irq9:"; throttling interrupt source interrupt storm detected on "irq9:"; throttling interrupt source interrupt storm detected on "irq9:"; throttling interrupt source ad6: FAILURE - SET_MULTI status=51 error=4 ad6: TIMEOUT - READ_DMA retrying (1 retry left) LBA=136936 etc. etc. until I killed it with ^C. (Just entering "q", to cause more(1) to exit and presumably stop od(1) with a SIGPIPE, did not stop the spew of messages.) What does this indicate? Hardware problems? Bad configuration? Something else?