From owner-freebsd-questions  Wed Oct 30 00:30:17 1996
Return-Path: owner-questions
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id AAA16476
          for questions-outgoing; Wed, 30 Oct 1996 00:30:17 -0800 (PST)
Received: from asterix.insight.co.za (asterix.insight.co.za [196.27.7.9])
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id AAA16468
          for <questions@freebsd.org>; Wed, 30 Oct 1996 00:30:11 -0800 (PST)
Received: by asterix.insight.co.za (Smail3.1.29.1 #1)
	id m0vIW1q-000vCVC; Wed, 30 Oct 96 10:29 SAT
Message-Id: <m0vIW1q-000vCVC@asterix.insight.co.za>
From: jvisagie@insight.co.za (Johann Visagie)
Subject: df crashes 2.1.0-R (?!)
To: questions@freebsd.org
Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 10:29:38 +0200 (SAT)
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 ME8a]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org
X-Loop: FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

Hi there,

I'm running 2.1.0-R on a Compaq Prosignia 300 (it wasn't my idea! :)

I'm using the machine's on-board SCSI host adapter (NCR chipset), and I've
been experiencing intermittent problems for some time now.  At apparently
random times, the SCSI subsystem would just appear to enter an unstable
state, resulting in the following sort of messages flooding to the logs:

Oct 29 11:00:38 asterix /kernel: ncr0: have to clear fifos.
Oct 29 11:00:38 asterix /kernel: ncr0: restart (fatal error).
Oct 29 11:00:38 asterix /kernel: sd0(ncr0:0:0): COMMAND FAILED (9 ff) @f0e7d000.
Oct 29 11:00:38 asterix /kernel: NOT READY asc:4,1
Oct 29 11:00:39 asterix /kernel: sd0(ncr0:0:0):  Logical unit is in process of becoming ready
Oct 29 11:00:39 asterix /kernel: , FAILURE

... etc.  This is often accompanied by a bit of binary junk written to
/var/log/messages.  Once or twice syslogd even core dumped.

Yesterday I tried to do a df on my swap partition (/dev/sd0s1b) - don't ask
my why - and the system crashed immediately; blank screen followed by the
BIOS.  I tried it again a few times.  Sometimes it would have no effect,
sometimes I'd get failures like those above before a crash, and sometimes an
immediate crash.

Note that I ran df as a normal user, not root!  :(

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Some info on the SCSI subsystem:

Host adapter:
ncr0 <ncr 53c810 scsi> rev 2 int a irq 11 on pci0:12

Devices:
(ncr0:0:0): "IBM DORS-32160 S82C" type 0 fixed SCSI 2
sd0(ncr0:0:0): Direct-Access 
sd0(ncr0:0:0): FAST SCSI-2 100ns (10 Mb/sec) offset 8.
2063MB (4226725 512 byte sectors)
(ncr0:3:0): "HP HP35470A T503" type 1 removable SCSI 2
st0(ncr0:3:0): Sequential-Access 
st0(ncr0:3:0): 200ns (5 Mb/sec) offset 8.
density code 0x13, variable blocks, write-enabled
(ncr0:5:0): "COMPAQ CRD-254V 1.06" type 5 removable SCSI 2
cd0(ncr0:5:0): CD-ROM 
cd0(ncr0:5:0): asynchronous.

-- Johann
                                                                     ____
Johann    |[Email: jvisagie@insight.co.za] [Tel: +27 83 777 4260]|   \ \/
 Visagie  |[WWW: http://www.insight.co.za/~jvisagie/] [IRC: Mr_V]|  Mr\/