From owner-freebsd-current Wed Oct 25 8:10:38 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from gypsy.vrac.iastate.edu (gypsy.vrac.iastate.edu [129.186.232.122]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7BC1837B479; Wed, 25 Oct 2000 08:10:35 -0700 (PDT) Received: from tomservo.vrac.iastate.edu (tomservo.vrac.iastate.edu [129.186.232.121]) by gypsy.vrac.iastate.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id C527468; Wed, 25 Oct 2000 10:10:34 -0500 (CDT) Received: from tomservo.vrac.iastate.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by tomservo.vrac.iastate.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id B7E335E02; Wed, 25 Oct 2000 10:10:28 -0500 (CDT) To: John Baldwin Cc: Chuck Robey , FreeBSD-current@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: smp instability In-reply-to: "Tue, 24 Oct 2000 19:47:07 PDT." Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 10:10:28 -0500 From: Patrick Hartling Message-Id: <20001025151028.B7E335E02@tomservo.vrac.iastate.edu> Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG John Baldwin wrote: } } On 25-Oct-00 Chuck Robey wrote: } > I'm having rather extreme problems with stability on my dual PIII } > setup. I know this is to be expected, but it's gotten so extreme on my } > system, I can't spend more than a few minutes before it locks up. } > } > Is there any chance that I could make things better by using a sysctl to } > tell the box it's now a single-cpu system? I can't read man pages at the } > moment (I'm composing this on my Sparc Ultra-5) so if this might work, and } > someone knows the exact command to use, I'd appreciate a bit of help. } } You can use kernel.old to compile a UP kernel. I always keep a UP kernel } around just in case. Also, when did your SMP box become unstable? There } was a known problem with SMP boxes when the vm page zero'ing during the idle } loop was first turned on that has since been fixed with the latest commit to } vm_machdep.c yesterday. Symptoms were frequent kernel panic 12's with } interrupts disabled . I am having the same lockup problems as Chuck with SMP kernels built since October 21. The system completely locks up after a short period of time. If I'm running X, it does it within 10-15 minutes, but if I don't run X and just leave it at the console, it can go for a few hours. It does eventually lock up, though. I haven't tried building a UP kernel, but I will try the latest vm_machdep.c changes. If that doesn't work, I'll go the UP route since I'm tired of being unable to list my processes. :\ My working world+kernel was built October 4. Normally, I update my -current system more frequently than that, but this has been an abnormally busy month. Because of that, I can't narrow down exactly when the instability began. Right now, I'm running with a world built October 23 and the October 4 kernel which is rather unpleasant. -Patrick Patrick L. Hartling | Research Assistant, VRAC patrick@137.org | 2624 Howe Hall -- (515)294-4916 http://www.137.org/patrick/ | http://www.vrac.iastate.edu/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message