From owner-freebsd-fs Sat Mar 23 10:52:38 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-fs@freebsd.org Received: from prometheus.vh.laserfence.net (prometheus.laserfence.net [196.44.73.116]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3A98A37B404; Sat, 23 Mar 2002 10:52:28 -0800 (PST) Received: from phoenix.vh.laserfence.net ([192.168.0.10]) by prometheus.vh.laserfence.net with esmtp (Exim 3.34 #1) id 16oqcZ-0002PA-00; Sat, 23 Mar 2002 20:52:07 +0200 Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2002 20:52:07 +0200 (SAST) From: Willie Viljoen X-X-Sender: will@phoenix.vh.laserfence.net To: Terry Lambert Cc: freebsd-fs@freebsd.org, Subject: Re: Soft update instability with heavy IO and offboard IDE controller In-Reply-To: <3C9CCAE8.4A9B9FB6@mindspring.com> Message-ID: <20020323205001.R204-100000@phoenix.vh.laserfence.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-fs@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Indeed, apologies to Craig and Terry... Although no system settings seem to exist to disable write caching from the BIOS of my motherboard or my controller, I tried to do this with the hw.ata.wc sysctl as described in the handbook (I know I should have checked there fist) To my dismay, this sysctl claims to be read-only on my system, and I'm still stuck with write caching enable. Could this lock be caused by the driver for my ATA-100 controller, or do I need to add some kernel options? Regards Will On Sat, 23 Mar 2002, Terry Lambert wrote: > Disable write caching on the drives. THis is a FAQ. > > -- Terry > > Willie Viljoen wrote: > > > > I'm posting this to both lists as a matter of interest, my apologies to > > whoever should not be reading this. > > > > I recently installed an off-board IDE controller to manage a large hard > > drive in my system. > > > > FreeBSD has been exhibiting some rather unsettling instabilities, which > > usually culminate in a kernel panic. > > > > Upon reboot after the panic, all the file systems on the drive in question > > have hundreds of softupdate inconsistencies. > > > > I searched the mailing list archives and found a similar bug involved with > > striped vinum volumes and unmounting after heavy I/O. > > > > I have encountered the bug with the GENERIC kernel included with FreeBSD > > 4.5-RELEASE, and all 4.5-STABLE kernels I have built after installation. > > > > It only seems to occur when the drive is handling heavy I/O operations, > > notably during a make world, or a large file copy, and even once when I > > recursively changed ownership for an entire directory in /usr/home. (The > > drive handles all filesystems except /) > > > > The IDE controller is a CMD-649 PCI ATA-100 controller. CMD state on their > > web site that they do not provide end-user support or hardware. The > > hardware vendor, STLab, does not seem to exist. > > > > Have I been looking in the wrong place, or simply not looking hard > > enough, is this a known bug and if so how can I fix it? > > > > Kind Regards > > Willie Viljoen > > > > -- > > Willie Viljoen > > Private IT Consultant > > > > 214 Paul Kruger Avenue > > Universitas > > Bloemfontein > > 9321 > > > > South Africa > > > > +27 51 522 15 60, a/h +27 51 522 44 36 > > +27 82 404 03 27 > > > > will@laserfence.net > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > > with "unsubscribe freebsd-fs" in the body of the message > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-bugs" in the body of the message > > > -- Willie Viljoen Private IT Consultant 214 Paul Kruger Avenue Universitas Bloemfontein 9321 South Africa +27 51 522 15 60, a/h +27 51 522 44 36 +27 82 404 03 27 will@laserfence.net To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-fs" in the body of the message