FreeBSD 5.x and "Bad File Descriptor" errors. Why?

[Klaus-J. Wolf]

Dan Naumov wrote:

> What follows is a description of a problem I used to have when running 
> FreeBSD 5.0 and 5.1. [...] After the installation of the OS (usually 
> about 8-12 days of running non-stop) I start getting "Bad File 
> Descriptor" errors on random files all around the Maxtor drive and I 
> have to go to single-user mode in order to run a full fsck on the 
> system. After that, the system works, until in 8-12 days time even 
> more files get "corrupted" this way and the process has to be 
> repeated. Eventually, so many files are damaged that a full OS 
> reinstall is required.

I had exactly the same experiences while using the same FreeBSD 
versions. The filesystems slowly died without any direct sign pointing 
to hardware problems. But, after having exchanged the harddisk with a 
newer one, the effect never occured again.

k.j.