Alistair sez:
>I know everyone's probably away at USENIX, but are there any -current
>users out there using IDE disc(s)?  I *think* the problems I'm
>experiencing with trash getting written onto my partitions emanates
>from the wd driver, and would like to know if anyone else is seeing
>this.  So, if you've got IDE disc(s), and are running a January
>-current, I'd like to hear from you.


Yes, I've been running 386BSD and NetBSD with dual IDE drives for
almost two years.  I have two Conner CP3104 100meg IDE drives.

I have not experienced the inode problem you're referring to, as far
as I know (sometimes I reboot remotely, but I assume the machine
wouldn't come up if it was damaged that severely).  To my knowledge
this has never happened to me.  My current sources are never more than
3 to 4 days old, and I've been running current since mid-Novermber.

I had, however, been having problems with the IDE hang bug a lot in
the past.  My system would freeze up on a frequent basis requiring
hardware resets.  The patch to the wd driver that catches "lost
interrupts" has totally eliminated this for me.  Thanks so much!

I can now run my machine without fear remotely, and I can go more than
a few hours of hard compiling without the machine hanging on a disk
access (it never does anymore -- just reports "lost interrupt" and
marches on).  My machine has been up for 2 1/2 days so far since the
last reboot (for the latest kernel installation), and I've received
four lost interrupt messages in that time, but the machine is still
running like a champ.

This is not to say that I think the wd driver is perfect now.  It
still is full of hacks and flaws, and needs a total rewrite.  And, the
bug you describe very well could be lurking somewhere deep inside.
But, I've been told the new wd driver is currently under development
in the magnum branch.  Thank god -- it's been needed for ages.

But, this week the UPS man will be bringing to my door a brand new
BusLogic 747 EISA SCSI-2 controller, and a 425meg drive, so I won't
ever have to deal with the wd driver mess (or IDE CPU starving) again.
:-) Can't wait...


>BTW, if anyone is put off upgrading to -current because of this query,
>don't be -
>
>a) it's just an "is anyone else seeing this" question, and
>b) the savings with the stability and shared libraries and other
>goodies are well worth the pain...


Definiately!  NetBSD-current is nothing short of awesome.  The shared
libs are great, stability (in general) is superb (much better than
0.9), and it's just a really great system all around.


>Alistair
>--
>Alistair G. Crooks (agc@uts.amdahl.com)			     +44 252 34
6377
>Amdahl European HQ, Dogmersfield Park, Hartley Wintney, Hants RG27 8TE, UK.


				--Michael

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Michael L. VanLoon  --  michaelv@iastate.edu  --  gg.mlv@isumvs.bitnet
 Iowa State University of Science and Technology -- The way cool place to be!
   Project Vincent Systems Staff, Iowa State University Computation Center
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------------