From owner-freebsd-current Thu Apr 15 17:47:56 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from allegro.lemis.com (allegro.lemis.com [192.109.197.134]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B33A114C36; Thu, 15 Apr 1999 17:47:47 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from grog@freebie.lemis.com) Received: from freebie.lemis.com (freebie.lemis.com [192.109.197.137]) by allegro.lemis.com (8.9.1/8.9.0) with ESMTP id KAA29434; Fri, 16 Apr 1999 10:15:23 +0930 (CST) Received: (from grog@localhost) by freebie.lemis.com (8.9.3/8.9.0) id KAA27849; Fri, 16 Apr 1999 10:15:21 +0930 (CST) Message-ID: <19990416101520.A27806@lemis.com> Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1999 10:15:20 +0930 From: Greg Lehey To: mmercer@ipass.net, FreeBSD current users Subject: Re: Kernel panic'd when using mtools command 'mdir'. References: <37167CF3.AEE13EC8@ipass.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.93.2i In-Reply-To: <37167CF3.AEE13EC8@ipass.net>; from Michael E. Mercer on Thu, Apr 15, 1999 at 07:57:39PM -0400 WWW-Home-Page: http://www.lemis.com/~grog Organization: LEMIS, PO Box 460, Echunga SA 5153, Australia Phone: +61-8-8388-8286 Fax: +61-8-8388-8725 Mobile: +61-41-739-7062 Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Thursday, 15 April 1999 at 19:57:39 -0400, Michael E. Mercer wrote: > Hello, > > I just recently installed freebsd 4.0 snap from 19990304. That's FreeBSD-current, and that's where you should report problems. I'm following up there. > I was able to use mtools package here... > > Then I cvsup'd 4.0 current. > made world twice..since egcs is used now... > No problems in compilation... Great... > > However, now I am trying to copy a file from the A drive. > just tried to look at the drive first... > >> mdir > > There is activity for a bit, the light comes on, then nothing.... > > I wait... > > KERNEL PANIC and REBOOT. OK, what are the details? > If I pull the disk out before I get these errors.. > >> mdir > fd0c: hard error reading fsbn 0 (No status) > plain_io: Input/output error > init A: could not read boot sector > Cannot initialize 'A:' That's reasonable. > I then put the same floppy disk in my other computer > running pre-egcs 4.0 current, and it works. > > What's wrong...I will try to send my dmesg output if really > needed...however it will take time..since I have not completely > set the new computer up. You need to look at the dump first. It sounds like you haven't read the fine print. From "The Complete FreeBSD": FreeBSD-CURRENT is the very latest version of FreeBSD, still under development. All new development work is done on this branch of the tree. FreeBSD-CURRENT is an ever-changing snapshot of the working sources for FreeBSD, including work in progress, experimental changes and transitional mechanisms that may or may not be present in the next official release of the software. Many users compile almost daily from FreeBSD-CURRENT sources, but there times when the sources are uncompilable. The problems are always resolved, but others can take their place. On occasion, keeping up with FreeBSD-CURRENT can be a full-time business. If you use -CURRENT, you should be prepared to spend a lot of time keeping the system running. You will run into problems with FreeBSD-CURRENT. When it happens, please first read the mailing list and possibly the mail archives (see http://www.FreeBSD.ORG/search.html for a search engine) and see if the problem has been reported. If it hasn't, try to investigate the problem yourself. Then send mail to FreeBSD-current describing the problem and what you have done to solve it. If you experience a panic, please don't just send a message to FreeBSD-current saying ``My kernel panics when I type foo''. Remember that you're asking somebody to use their spare time to look at the problem. Make it easy for them. Go through this procedure: 1. Update to the absolutely latest sources, unless emails have been warning against this. 2. If you have any local patches, back them out. 3. Recompile, from scratch, your kernel with ddb and with complete symbols (see above). If possible, don't strip your kernel before booting. An unstripped kernel will take up about 8 MB more memory than a stripped one, so this is not possible with very small memory systems. It's still important to build the debug kernel if you do have a small memory. You'll have to strip the version you boot, but you can still use the debug version with gdb to debug a panic dump. 4. Report all details from the panic. At an absolute minimum, give all information from show reg and trace. 5. Try to dump the system. If you don't do at least this, there isn't much chance that a mail message to FreeBSD-current will have much effect. Since writing that, I think it needs updating. You should really dump the system first, and look at the dump. The handbook tells you what to do. Greg -- See complete headers for address, home page and phone numbers finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message