From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Dec 17 21:34:58 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 91205106566C for ; Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:34:58 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cswiger@mac.com) Received: from asmtpout025.mac.com (asmtpout025.mac.com [17.148.16.100]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 80A3A8FC08 for ; Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:34:58 +0000 (UTC) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Received: from cswiger1.apple.com ([17.227.140.124]) by asmtp025.mac.com (Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-8.01 (built Dec 16 2008; 32bit)) with ESMTPSA id <0KUT00AMKFY78390@asmtp025.mac.com> for questions@freebsd.org; Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:34:56 -0800 (PST) From: Chuck Swiger In-reply-to: <4B2AA1F4.5020206@locolomo.org> Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:34:55 -0800 Message-id: <69AC657B-A0A7-41CA-92F6-989FEFEB776E@mac.com> References: <4B2AA1F4.5020206@locolomo.org> To: Erik Norgaard X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1077) Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: System crashes under heavy disk i/o X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:34:58 -0000 Hi-- On Dec 17, 2009, at 1:26 PM, Erik Norgaard wrote: > FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE-p1 #0: Fri Dec 11 11:53:19 CET 2009 > norgaard@localhost:/usr/local/obj/usr/local/src/sys/GENERIC > Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0 > CPU: VIA Nehemiah (800.04-MHz 686-class CPU) > Origin = "CentaurHauls" Id = 0x69a Stepping = 10 > real memory = 268435456 (256 MB) > avail memory = 231383040 (220 MB) > atapci0: > ad6: 476940MB at ata3-master SATA150 > > In normal operation I have no problem, but when performing intensive read or write for a prolonged time the system crashes. This happens also even if the partition is read-only. The crash occurs both with single large files (1GB) as well as many small files (10kb-10MB). That's probably a sign of either thermal problems from inadequate cooling, or possibly PSU not giving stable voltage rails and sagging a bit too low; also, at least the older VIA C3 EPIA hardware had somewhat flaky PATA interfaces; if I tried to use both PATA channels I'd see lockups, unless I turned everything down to UDMA-33 speeds. Hopefully their SATA implementation has been improved since. Consider looking at smartctl and see whether your drive temps are running too hot-- supposedly, drives are rated up to around 60C, but I don't like to see drives going above 40C given any choice in the matter. Regards, -- -Chuck