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Date:      Sat, 23 Mar 2002 18:29:30 -0500 (EST)
From:      Robert Watson <rwatson@freebsd.org>
To:        Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com>
Cc:        Willie Viljoen <will@laserfence.net>, freebsd-fs@freebsd.org, freebsd-bugs@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Soft update instability with heavy IO and offboard IDE controller
Message-ID:  <Pine.NEB.3.96L.1020323182807.47668I-100000@fledge.watson.org>
In-Reply-To: <3C9CCAE8.4A9B9FB6@mindspring.com>

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On Sat, 23 Mar 2002, Terry Lambert wrote:

> Disable write caching on the drives.  THis is a FAQ.

Hmm.  I thought the wc bit should only affect this sort of scenario in the
event that the system was actually powered off; otherwise, the hard disk
can still flush to disk gradually as it.  From the description, it seems
the system panics, but power is never removed from the drives.  That said,
I wouldn't be surprised if the problem goes away on the basis that this
will substantially change system behavior for performance reasons, hiding
whatever subtle bug it is :-).

> 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
> > 
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