On Sun, 18 Jun 2000, Topher Sandalwood wrote:

> from /var/log/messages:
> Jun 18 14:52:49 maximillian /netbsd: asc_timeoute: cmd 0xB0198468 drive 3
> Jun 18 14:52:49 maximillian /netbsd: rebooting...
> 
> Here's the deal.. drive 3 is the boot drive, and where /var is stored... 
> How in the heck did it write the timeout to /var/log/messages if the drive 
> had timed out?
> 
> Now how did the system write to /var if the drive had timed out?

  I would say the message was written when syslogd started after the boot.
The message would be written to the in-memory message buffer prior to the
system reboot, and the message buffer contents are normally saved over
the reboot.  When syslogd is started after the reboot, it would be able
to pick up anything in the message buffer that wasn't written to disk
as long as the message buffer was not corrupted.

--
Michael L. Hitch			mhitch@montana.edu
Computer Consultant
Information Technology Center
Montana State University	Bozeman, MT	USA