From owner-freebsd-questions Fri Sep 10 6:23:53 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from out0.mx.skynet.be (out0.mx.skynet.be [195.238.2.35]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DADF6150E1 for ; Fri, 10 Sep 1999 06:23:50 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from blk@skynet.be) Received: from [195.238.1.121] (brad.techos.skynet.be [195.238.1.121]) by out0.mx.skynet.be (8.9.3/odie-relay-v1.0) with ESMTP id PAA10079 for ; Fri, 10 Sep 1999 15:23:49 +0200 (MET DST) Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: blk@foxbert.skynet.be Message-Id: Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1999 15:23:39 +0200 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org From: Brad Knowles Subject: Advice requested... Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Folks, I'm still slogging through the manual, the FAQ, searching the mailing lists, DejaNews, and posting to comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc for some answers or more information on the problems I'm having. Specifically, I think I might have two separate problems, or one might be causing the other. The first problem is attempts to fdisk a particular device (da7, in my case) cause the process to hang, hard. It doesn't recognize kill -9, and the only way to get the console back is to ssh in and kill -9 the parent shell. I have some experience debugging SCSI problems, and I've ensured that there are no SCSI id conflicts, as well as shortening the cables, removing other devices from the chain, using external termination in place of the existing auto-termination, changing the Adaptec 2940UW card configuration to limit maximum attempted transfer speeds to 10Mbps, etc.... I've got more detail I can share with you if necessary, but I'm wondering if there might be a better place for me to ask detailed questions about further debugging SCSI buses -- perhaps the freebsd-scsi mailing list? The second problem is that once I ignore the particular failing device and try to create a vinum RAID-5 logical disk across the other three similar devices (which seem to work okay -- fdisk works, disklabel works, etc...), I get a kernel panic and crash dump. I'm wondering if I should try switching from 3.2-RELEASE (what I'm currently running) and go to the latest snapshot of 3.2-STABLE, 3.2-RC, or perhaps even all the way to 4.0-CURRENT? Alternatively, if this problem is likely to be caused by the failing device (even though I'm not including it in the attempted configuration), then perhaps I should work out all the hardware problems first, before I try working with vinum+RAID-5+softupdates? Thanks for any advice you may be able to provide! -- These are my opinions -- not to be taken as official Skynet policy ____________________________________________________________________ |o| Brad Knowles, Belgacom Skynet NV/SA |o| |o| Systems Architect, News & FTP Admin Rue Col. Bourg, 124 |o| |o| Phone/Fax: +32-2-706.11.11/12.49 B-1140 Brussels |o| |o| http://www.skynet.be Belgium |o| \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ Unix is like a wigwam -- no Gates, no Windows, and an Apache inside. Unix is very user-friendly. It's just picky who its friends are. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message