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Date:      Sat, 23 Mar 2002 20:52:07 +0200 (SAST)
From:      Willie Viljoen <will@laserfence.net>
To:        Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com>
Cc:        freebsd-fs@freebsd.org, <freebsd-bugs@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Soft update instability with heavy IO and offboard IDE controller
Message-ID:  <20020323205001.R204-100000@phoenix.vh.laserfence.net>
In-Reply-To: <3C9CCAE8.4A9B9FB6@mindspring.com>

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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


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