kern/60526: Post-PAE stable SMP machine freezes

[Eugene Grosbein]

Hi!

According to
http://freebsd.rambler.ru/bsdmail/freebsd-hackers_2003/msg03936.html
the problem may be related to the <ServerWorks ROSB4 ATA33 controller>
and ATA write cache (hw.ata.wc=1).

Note however, I had no kernel panic with post-PAE STABLE.
I had kernel lockup. I can understand kernel panic due to the faulty
devices but not endless loop that it seems to happen.

It's known (and noted in the Errata for 4.9-RELEASE)
that PAE integration broke hw.ata.tags. Perhaps, its time
either to document that hw.ata.wc is broken for noted controller too,
either to forbid write cache for it by force.

I run my machine using pre-PAE 4.8-STABLE with security patches still.

Eugene Grosbein