From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Nov 29 16:28:50 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from grumpy.dyndns.org (cm-24-246-28-166.toney.mediacom.ispchannel.com [24.246.28.166]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7585237B402 for ; Wed, 29 Nov 2000 16:28:47 -0800 (PST) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by grumpy.dyndns.org (8.11.1/8.11.1) with ESMTP id eAU0SeS59757; Wed, 29 Nov 2000 18:28:40 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from dkelly@grumpy.dyndns.org) Message-Id: <200011300028.eAU0SeS59757@grumpy.dyndns.org> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.2 06/23/2000 with nmh-1.0.4 To: Terry Lambert Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG From: David Kelly Subject: Re: ATAPI CD-RW drive: how? In-reply-to: Message from Terry Lambert of "Wed, 29 Nov 2000 17:53:32 GMT." <200011291753.KAA18886@usr08.primenet.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2000 18:28:40 -0600 Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Terry Lambert writes: > > > I think the lockup is starting up team and dd at rtprio 5 to > > > keep the CDROM writer streaming, regardless of whatever else > > > is running on the system. > > > > The lockup I was refering to was with cdrecord under Irix and FreeBSD, > > without any external rtprio or dd or team or nothing. Cdrecord has to > > run as root to access the kernel priority mechanism. And at least in > > versions around 1.6 when the cdrecord starts on the recorder it locks > > out everything (think under Irix 6.3 the mouse pointer would even stop, > > but the network would still ping) at the start of the burn procedure. > > I can explain the mouse pointer stopping. The VM system and > buffer cache on System V derived systems are cannibalistic; > you will see the same lockup of your X server when linking a > large program, if you are using the standard linker, since > the standard linker will map all your object files, and seek > around like a maniac. [...] I don't think it was that exotic. The cdrecord man page says a lot about priority levels and real time features of kernels, that on some systems its unable to gain higher priority than internal kernel processes, and says this about Solaris which I don't fully understand but maybe you do: Cdrecord runs at priority 59 on Solaris, you should run mkisofs at no more than priority 58. On other systems, you should run mkisofs at no less than nice --18. Under Irix, the system froze the first time cdrecord accesses the blank CD-R. All other disk activity stops (as observed by LEDs on the devices). The freeze was fairly long, 10 to 15 seconds and ended when the CD-R LED started flickering. I believe it was exactly the same under FreeBSD 2.2.8. Its very likely it was a timed hang with the intent of presetting VM state. -- David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly@hiwaay.net ===================================================================== The human mind ordinarily operates at only ten percent of its capacity -- the rest is overhead for the operating system. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message