I did a fresh install of NetBSD-current to a new machine, temporarily 
using an old, small disk I had lying around.  While unpacking sets, the 
machine seemed to hang a few times -- the progress bar displayed 
"stalled" for several seconds, several times.  It was at least 
partially reproducible -- the first time it happened, I restarted the 
installation, and it hung on the same file (xcomp.tgz).  I'm looking 
for explanations....  Is this likely to be (a) some problem using both 
the disk and CD channels simultaneously (I seem to recall such problems 
with some VIA chipsets -- my dmesg is below), (b) CD or disk errors 
(though I saw no console errors), (c) waiting for disk buffers to empty 
out, or (d) something else entirely?  I'm not too worried about 
problems with the disk and CD simultaneously, since the CD drive will 
rarely be used on the machine.  But I will eventually have two IDE 
drives in a RAID1 configuration -- am I likely to run into the same 
thing?  Should I add a disk controller for one of the two drives (or 
maybe both -- it's got two channels, after all)?

On a possibly-related note, I have some Tulip-based Ethernet cards, an 
RTK card, and the built-in VR NIC.  A very quick test suggests that 
the VR is slower than the RTK; I haven't tried the Tulips yet, since 
they're still in the machine that's currently hosting the RAID array.

---
NetBSD 2.0F (GENERIC) #0: Thu Jun 17 13:15:46 EDT 2004
        smb@challenger.research.att.com:/usr/BUILD/obj/sys/arch/i386/compile/GENERIC
total memory = 511 MB
avail memory = 493 MB
BIOS32 rev. 0 found at 0xfb3b0
mainbus0 (root)
cpu0 at mainbus0: (uniprocessor)
cpu0: AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (686-class), 1497.55 MHz, id 0x681
cpu0: features c3c3f9ff<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,SEP,MTRR>
cpu0: features c3c3f9ff<PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,MMXX,MMX>
cpu0: features c3c3f9ff<FXSR,SSE,3DNOW2,3DNOW>
cpu0: "AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1800+"
cpu0: I-cache 64 KB 64b/line 2-way, D-cache 64 KB 64b/line 2-way
cpu0: L2 cache 256 KB 64b/line 16-way
cpu0: ITLB 16 4 KB entries fully associative, 8 4 MB entries fully associative
cpu0: DTLB 32 4 KB entries fully associative, 8 4 MB entries 4-way
cpu0: 8 page colors
pci0 at mainbus0 bus 0: configuration mode 1
pci0: i/o space, memory space enabled, rd/line, rd/mult, wr/inv ok
pchb0 at pci0 dev 0 function 0
pchb0: VIA Technologies VT8366 (Apollo KT266) CPU-PCI Bridge (rev. 0x00)
agp0 at pchb0: aperture at 0xe0000000, size 0x10000000
ppb0 at pci0 dev 1 function 0: VIA Technologies VT8366 CPU-AGP Bridge (rev. 0x00)
pci1 at ppb0 bus 1
pci1: i/o space, memory space enabled
vga1 at pci1 dev 0 function 0: Nvidia Corporation RIVA TNT2 Model 64 (rev. 0x15)
wsdisplay0 at vga1 kbdmux 1: console (80x25, vt100 emulation)
wsmux1: connecting to wsdisplay0
rtk0 at pci0 dev 9 function 0: Accton MPX 5030/5038 10/100BaseTX
rtk0: interrupting at irq 10
rtk0: Ethernet address 00:10:b5:c0:d9:e3
ukphy0 at rtk0 phy 7: Generic IEEE 802.3u media interface
ukphy0: OUI 0x000000, model 0x0000, rev. 0
ukphy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto
uhci0 at pci0 dev 16 function 0: VIA Technologies VT83C572 USB Controller (rev. 0x80)
uhci0: interrupting at irq 11
usb0 at uhci0: USB revision 1.0
uhub0 at usb0
uhub0: VIA Technologies UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub0: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
uhci1 at pci0 dev 16 function 1: VIA Technologies VT83C572 USB Controller (rev. 0x80)
uhci1: interrupting at irq 10
usb1 at uhci1: USB revision 1.0
uhub1 at usb1
uhub1: VIA Technologies UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub1: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
uhci2 at pci0 dev 16 function 2: VIA Technologies VT83C572 USB Controller (rev. 0x80)
uhci2: interrupting at irq 12
usb2 at uhci2: USB revision 1.0
uhub2 at usb2
uhub2: VIA Technologies UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub2: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
VIA Technologies VT8237 EHCI USB Controller (USB serial bus, interface 0x20, revision 0x82) at pci0 dev 16 function 3 not configured
pcib0 at pci0 dev 17 function 0
pcib0: VIA Technologies VT8235 (Apollo KT400) PCI-ISA Bridge (rev. 0x00)
viaide0 at pci0 dev 17 function 1
viaide0: VIA Technologies VT8235 ATA133 controller
viaide0: bus-master DMA support present
viaide0: primary channel configured to compatibility mode
viaide0: primary channel interrupting at irq 14
atabus0 at viaide0 channel 0
viaide0: secondary channel configured to compatibility mode
viaide0: secondary channel interrupting at irq 15
atabus1 at viaide0 channel 1
auvia0 at pci0 dev 17 function 5: VIA Technologies VT8235 AC'97 Audio (rev 0x50)
auvia0: interrupting at irq 12
auvia0: ac97: VIA Technologies VT1612A codec; headphone, 18 bit DAC, 18 bit ADC, KS Waves 3D
auvia0: ac97: ext id 201<AMAP,VRA>
audio0 at auvia0: full duplex, mmap, independent
vr0 at pci0 dev 18 function 0: VIA VT6102 (Rhine II) 10/100 Ethernet
vr0: interrupting at irq 11
vr0: Ethernet address: 00:30:1b:35:5e:c6
ukphy1 at vr0 phy 1: Generic IEEE 802.3u media interface
ukphy1: OUI 0x0002c6, model 0x0032, rev. 8
ukphy1: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto
isa0 at pcib0
lpt0 at isa0 port 0x378-0x37b irq 7
com0 at isa0 port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4: ns16550a, working fifo
pckbc0 at isa0 port 0x60-0x64
pckbd0 at pckbc0 (kbd slot)
pckbc0: using irq 1 for kbd slot
wskbd0 at pckbd0: console keyboard, using wsdisplay0
pcppi0 at isa0 port 0x61
midi0 at pcppi0: PC speaker
sysbeep0 at pcppi0
isapnp0 at isa0 port 0x279: ISA Plug 'n Play device support
npx0 at isa0 port 0xf0-0xff: using exception 16
fdc0 at isa0 port 0x3f0-0x3f7 irq 6 drq 2
isapnp0: no ISA Plug 'n Play devices found
Kernelized RAIDframe activated
wd0 at atabus0 drive 0: <WDC AC23200L>
wd0: drive supports 16-sector PIO transfers, LBA addressing
wd0: 3098 MB, 6296 cyl, 16 head, 63 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 6346368 sectors
wd0: 32-bit data port
wd0: drive supports PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2, Ultra-DMA mode 2 (Ultra/33)
wd0(viaide0:0:0): using PIO mode 4, Ultra-DMA mode 2 (Ultra/33) (using DMA data transfers)
atapibus0 at atabus1: 2 targets
cd0 at atapibus0 drive 1: <Compaq DVD-ROM DVD-115              011, , 1.12> cdrom removable
cd0: 32-bit data port
cd0: drive supports PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2, Ultra-DMA mode 2 (Ultra/33)
cd0(viaide0:1:1): using PIO mode 4, Ultra-DMA mode 2 (Ultra/33) (using DMA data transfers)
boot device: wd0
root on wd0a dumps on wd0b
root file system type: ffs
wsdisplay0: screen 1 added (80x25, vt100 emulation)
wsdisplay0: screen 2 added (80x25, vt100 emulation)
wsdisplay0: screen 3 added (80x25, vt100 emulation)
wsdisplay0: screen 4 added (80x25, vt100 emulation)


		--Steve Bellovin, http://www.research.att.com/~smb