Subject: Re: anybody seen output lossage with 'de' driver?
To: Chris G Demetriou <Chris_G_Demetriou@ux2.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
From: John Birrell <jb@cimlogic.com.au>
List: port-alpha
Date: 10/15/1996 12:33:15
> > I've seen the same symptoms on a small ethernet (mine's bigger than
> > yours 8-), but I was never sure that it was the AXPpci running NetBSD
> > that was causing it. It doesn't happen very often, but at the times
> > it has, there was some hefty NFS stuff (both server and client) going on.
> 
> Hmm.  I also noticed that the 'ncr' scsi code got timeouts and had a
> bit of trouble syncing the disk when it was shutting down.  the
> problems are probably related...

I remember you once saying that the ncr driver "needed work" (translated
from the words you used 8-).

> 
> > BTW, a bigger pain is the fact that the AXPpci running NetBSD/Alpha
> > locks up after periods of no user activity (like leaving the machine
> > on overnight with nobody logged on). The machine is up-to-date with
> > the 1.2 sources that -current has been putting out on sup.
> 
> I think i've mentioned before that i've never seen this...
> 
> Is it only the console that locks up, or does the network lock up,
> too?

I should have mentioned that the system is blipping the disk at about 1 sec
intervals when the lockup has occurred. The system will respond to pings,
but everything else (console login, rlogin, telnet, NFS accesses) hangs.
I have a NetBSD/i386 machine that behaves much the same way, except that
there are things happening when it locks up. I blame it's problems on the
"swap leak for long lived processes" problem that has been discussed by
others on -current. I remember seeing Perry comment that a VM re-write
was needed to fix _that_ problem.

> 
> Could you send me (privately) your /etc/ttys?

It's the same as the one you distribute in /usr/src/etc/etc.alpha/ttys.

> 
> chris
> 

Regards,


-- 
John Birrell                                CIMlogic Pty Ltd
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