From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jun 5 17:10:43 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A4F021065672 for ; Thu, 5 Jun 2008 17:10:43 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from pieter@degoeje.nl) Received: from mx.utwente.nl (unknown [IPv6:2001:610:1908:1000:204:23ff:feba:6042]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AF4C18FC24 for ; Thu, 5 Jun 2008 17:10:42 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from pieter@degoeje.nl) Received: from lux.student.utwente.nl (lux.student.utwente.nl [130.89.170.81]) by mx.utwente.nl (8.12.10/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id m55HAKGI011963; Thu, 5 Jun 2008 19:10:21 +0200 From: Pieter de Goeje To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org, Paul Schmehl Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2008 19:10:19 +0200 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.7 References: <9B7FE91B-9C2E-4732-866C-930AC6022A40@netconsonance.com> <200806051023.56065.jhb@freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200806051910.20319.pieter@degoeje.nl> X-UTwente-MailScanner-Information: Scanned by MailScanner. Contact servicedesk@icts.utwente.nl for more information. X-UTwente-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-UTwente-MailScanner-SpamScore: s X-UTwente-MailScanner-From: pieter@degoeje.nl X-Spam-Status: No Cc: Subject: Re: challenge: end of life for 6.2 is premature with buggy 6.3 X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:10:43 -0000 On Thursday 05 June 2008, Paul Schmehl wrote: > --On Thursday, June 05, 2008 10:23:55 -0400 John Baldwin > > wrote: > > FWIW, at Y! 6.3 is more stable than 6.2 (I had a list of about 10 patches > > for known deadlocks and kernel panics that were errata candidates for 6.2 > > that never made it into RELENG_6_2 but all of them are in 6.3). We also > > have many machines with bge(4) and from our perspective 6.3 has less > > issues with bge0 devices than 6.2. > > I'm glad to hear that. I have a server that uses bce, and it was > completely non-functional until I hunted down some beta code that made it > usable. I'd like to upgrade, but this is a critical server with no > redundancy (and it's a hobby site with no money to pay for expensive > support), and I'm not about to upgrade unless I know for certain the > problems won't reoccur, because I have to upgrade remotely and pay money if > the system goes down. > > The problems with that driver were bad enough when the server was being > configured in my study. (The system would lock up, and only a hard reboot > would restore networking.) It would be hell trying to troubleshoot > problems if I had to drive the 45 miles to the hosting site and spend a > night there trying to get the server back up, then go to work the next day. > > # uname -a > FreeBSD www.stovebolt.com 6.1-RELEASE-p10 FreeBSD 6.1-RELEASE-p10 #2: Mon > Oct 16 15:38:02 CDT 2006 > root@www.stovebolt.com:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC i386 > > # grep bce /var/run/dmesg.boot > bce0: mem > 0xf4000000-0xf5ffffff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci9 > bce0: ASIC ID 0x57081010; Revision (B1); PCI-X 64-bit 133MHz > miibus0: on bce0 > bce0: Ethernet address: 00:13:72:fb:2a:ad > bce1: mem > 0xf8000000-0xf9ffffff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci5 > bce1: ASIC ID 0x57081010; Revision (B1); PCI-X 64-bit 133MHz > miibus1: on bce1 > bce1: Ethernet address: 00:13:72:fb:2a:ab > > # grep bce0 /var/log/messages > May 2 09:10:31 www kernel: bce0: link state changed to DOWN > May 2 09:10:39 www kernel: bce0: link state changed to UP > May 25 07:49:49 www kernel: bce0: link state changed to DOWN > May 25 07:50:31 www kernel: bce0: link state changed to UP > May 26 21:28:36 www kernel: bce0: link state changed to DOWN > May 26 21:28:40 www kernel: bce0: link state changed to UP > May 27 13:13:21 www kernel: bce0: link state changed to DOWN > May 27 13:13:31 www kernel: bce0: link state changed to UP > > It's been like that since the server was installed. > > So, if I upgrade to 6.3 or 7.0, am I still going to experience these > problems? Is the server going to stop working entirely? How can I know > that for sure before starting an upgrade? > [...] There's a really easy way to test this. Build & install a new kernel, but keep the old kernel around (by default it's in /boot/kernel.old). If the problem is gone, do the upgrade as usual. If it's still there, you know upgrading won't fix it and you don't waste time; simply rename kernel.old to kernel. This even works with 7.0 provided that you leave COMPAT_FREEBSD6 in the kernel configuration file. -- Pieter de Goeje