"TIMEOUT - READ_DMA48 retrying" has suddenly started appearing (RELENG_6)

[Daniel Eriksson]

I'm running RELENG_6 on two machines, one SMP and one UP (both using SCHED_4BSD). I cvsup/update the OS a few times a week, and after an update on Saturday (24/9) I've seen multiple "TIMEOUT - READ_DMA48 retrying" errors on both machines, causing all sorts of trouble (broken arrays, panics, ...). After a reboot the disks have come back to life and seem to work just fine.

It could just be a coincidence and multiple disks on two separate machines have started to go bad, but since the disks are different models on different ATA/SATA controllers in different machines it could also be an indication that something has happened with FBSD. If it's a FBSD problem then the "offending" code was added some time between Monday 19/9 and Saturday 24/9.

Is anyone else experiencing similar problems?

/Daniel Eriksson