Lockups with dump(8)

[Farid Hajji]

> >   ad0: READ command timeout tag=0 serv=0 - resetting
> >   ata0: resetting devices ..

> I had a similar problem with a -STABLE system
> that I tracked down to two problems:
>    * Long 40-wire disk drive cable.
>      Shorter or 80-wire cable is more reliable

Using only short 80-wire cables in all configs
so far.

>    * Mis-jumpered hard disk.  I had the
>      drive jumpered as "master _with_ slave",
>      even though there was no slave on that
>      cable.  Different hard disks handle this
>      in different ways.

Nope, the drives are jumpered master (without
slave).

I'm puzzled, because everything else works without
any problems. dump(8) with snapshots seems to be
an excellent torture test.

> Once I fixed the jumpering and swapped in
> a better hard disk cable, the problems went
> away.

I suspect a hardware error too. The kernel doesn't
hang since ping works; switching consoles is
not possible, perhaps because that may require a
disk access, therefore blocking.

Hmmm... I'll try again with other cables.

> Tim Kientzle

Many thanks,

-Farid.

-- 
Farid Hajji -- Unix Systems and Network Management.
http://www.farid-hajji.net/address.html
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." --Edgar Allan Poe.