From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Apr 2 18:06:30 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org Received: from mx2.freebsd.org (mx2.freebsd.org [69.147.83.53]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E10B3106564A; Mon, 2 Apr 2012 18:06:30 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dougb@FreeBSD.org) Received: from opti.dougb.net (hub.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::36]) by mx2.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6A98A14DEBA; Mon, 2 Apr 2012 18:06:30 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: <4F79EAA6.5050004@FreeBSD.org> Date: Mon, 02 Apr 2012 11:06:30 -0700 From: Doug Barton Organization: http://SupersetSolutions.com/ User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD i386; rv:10.0.2) Gecko/20120218 Thunderbird/10.0.2 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Joe Greco References: <201203301441.q2UEfqIE097518@aurora.sol.net> In-Reply-To: <201203301441.q2UEfqIE097518@aurora.sol.net> X-Enigmail-Version: 1.3.5 OpenPGP: id=1A1ABC84 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org, Mark Felder , freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Please help me diagnose this crazy VMWare/FreeBSD 8.x crash X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 02 Apr 2012 18:06:31 -0000 On 03/30/2012 07:41, Joe Greco wrote: >> On 3/29/2012 7:01 AM, Joe Greco wrote: >>>> On 3/28/2012 1:59 PM, Mark Felder wrote: >>>>> FreeBSD 8-STABLE, 8.3, and 9.0 are untested >>>> >>>> As much as I'm sensitive to your production requirements, realistically >>>> it's not likely that you'll get a helpful result without testing a newer >>>> version. 8.2 came out over a year ago, many many things have changed >>>> since then. >>>> >>>> Doug >>> >>> So you're saying that he should have been using 8.3-RELEASE, then. >> >> That isn't what I said at all, sorry if I wasn't clear. The OP mentioned >> 9.0-RELEASE, and in the context of his message (which I snipped) he >> mentioned 8-stable. That's what I was referring to. > > And since both the poster and I made it clear that this doesn't seem > to be a case of "it fails reliably on a machine of your choosing", > just installing random other versions and hoping that it's going to > cause a fail ... well, let's just say that doesn't make a whole lot > of sense. Or at least it's a recipe for a hell of a lot of busywork, > busywork not guaranteed to return any sort of useful result. And since you can't reliably reproduce the problem, how do you expect us to? I understand that these sorts of bugs are difficult/annoying, etc. Been there, done that. > In the meantime, it's unrealistic to tell people to use supported > releases, to wait fifteen months between releases, and then to criticize > people complaining about problems with a supported release for "using > old code". Just to be clear, I didn't criticize anyone. And I share your frustration with the length of the 8.3 release cycle. I really wish I had a better answer, but as much as you and I may wish that things were different, "Try a newer version" is the best answer we have atm. Doug -- This .signature sanitized for your protection