> It seems that either the shell or make eventually hangs in thread-block.
> Sometimes I can compile several files, and sometimes it gets stuck with
> the first one.
[...]
> A signal will of course not wakeup this shell. When everything settles
> (i.e. hangs) the status (^T) report says that there is 
> 	no foreground process group
> 
> I am able to log in from another terminal (running multiuser and
> having a network connection) and doing 'ps', 'ls' and stuff. So,
> the system is not completly stuck. Doing an 'ls' in the
> appropriate directory reveals an executable 'a.out' file
> (which executes just fine), so the compile seems to have completed
> successfully, it just appears the shell missed the exit() entirely.
[...]
> My hardware is a DS3100 (which is a an old one with RZ23's ((rev 0A18)
> and a an even older 300Mb SCSI1 disk attached to it). The Prom monitor
> says KN01 v6.5. All the RAM I got is 8Mb...
> 
> I did notice in one of the older mail-archives that disabling clustered
> reads and writes might solve an almost similar problem.
> But, having tried this [disabling clustered R/W], I dont think I am
> having the same problem.
> I haven't studied the busy indicator (if there is one) on the RZ23,
> but I can touch the disk (which is used for root and swap) from
> another rlogin'ed process.

As I started reading your symptoms I thought, "Ah hah, I know what this
is", but you've already tried what worked for me.

My netbsd disk is an old Micropolis 1578 (like a DEC RZ55, but this one
came from a DG Aviion), and when the system froze the green light on the
disk drive stayed on solid.  Disabling clustered read/write fixed it for
me...


-- 
Ted Spradley   tsprad@metronet.com      Usual disclaimers apply.
Information tends to drive out knowledge.  [...] many people cannot
tell the difference between information and knowledge, not to mention
wisdom, which even knowledge tends sometimes to drive out. -Heinz Pagels