From owner-freebsd-hackers Fri Dec 28 16:23:31 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from hotmail.com (law2-f8.hotmail.com [216.32.181.8]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EE84037B435; Fri, 28 Dec 2001 16:23:08 -0800 (PST) Received: from mail pickup service by hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC; Fri, 28 Dec 2001 16:23:08 -0800 Received: from 24.196.232.63 by lw2fd.hotmail.msn.com with HTTP; Sat, 29 Dec 2001 00:23:07 GMT X-Originating-IP: [24.196.232.63] From: "Kenneth Mays" To: sos@freebsd.dk, dillon@apollo.backplane.com Cc: silby@silby.com, allbery@ece.cmu.edu, ianjhart@ntlworld.com, agilbertm@earthlink.net, freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: 4.4-STABLE crashes - suspects new ata-driver over wd-drivers Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 19:23:07 -0500 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: X-OriginalArrivalTime: 29 Dec 2001 00:23:08.0148 (UTC) FILETIME=[FD8DD340:01C18FFE] Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Most like, you can investigate the issues with VIA chipsets and AMD chipsets through Microsoft's or VIA's driver support and Linux kernel v2.4.17. For most of the issues I've seen dealing with AMD or VIA-type issues I've found a solution or issue crop up in those areas. I suggest if you are having major issues then get reliable hardware. The DVD player world is plagued with this so feel no different. If we have a "buggy" ATA-100 or Ultra SCSI-160 driver then we need to stress test the OS on quality hardware (IMHO) from the manufacturers or get their support. I think this is the road less or most often traveled by many of us testing applications, OS, or hardware. We need to stress test our drivers with the manufacturers to ensure it meets certain criteria before it is "stablized" unto the world. This is just an opinion, but correcting certain testing habits may benefit us in the long run. If you look at the iterations of video drivers from the video manufacturers then you will see that this is not an easy job (the software engineer and hardware engineer are not always in sync with each other or not the same person). Then, you have the QA analyst that may not run the same test you will do in the real world (high-level server demand testing). Basically, what runs normal with under 5-10 users may reach critical mass at >25 users. This is the same for Linux or Microsoft Windows products. You ever buy a >32GB drive and have your OS not able to format it?!?! How about a 180GB drive?!? Or try to get your USB port drivers to work properly in Linux?!? We all have our issues. So, I hope we can focus on properly researching some of the driver and chipset issues we are having and move on to meet the 4.5 release deadline. Peace, Ken P.S. Only opinions, nothing personal. ;o) _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message