Subject: painful (i.e. with data loss) crashes when transfering files (ftpd &
To: NetBSD-help , NetBSD-bugs <netbsd-bugs@netbsd.org>
From: Rogier Krieger <rogier@virgiel.nl>
List: netbsd-help
Date: 04/17/2001 16:42:35
Hi,

after installing NetBSD 1.5 on my old pentium machine together with
the lukemftpd & samba packages, I experience seemingly random
crashes and kernel panics when uploading files to directories/shares.

Not only panics occur (giving me the nice green debugger prompt),
at times the system just stups responsing; not even the numlock light
stays functional.

The only option is dumping core and rebooting. This brings out the
painful part: when fsck'ing the filesystems numerous "unexpected
inconsistencies" occur. Partially allocated inodes, files which have
to be deleted after their (partially allocated) inodes had to disappear.

In other words, misery, since at times essential system components
(/bin/mkdir or /bin/ps) get wiped out. Also, files which were never even
accessed before (such as entirely unknown package sources files
for packages I never even looked at and that aren't among the
required dependencies) are in this list.

At first had, this seemed a disk hardware problem, but a Linux reinstall
of the machine showed me otherwise; it survives any test for file transfer.
Furthermore, the discs show no signs of fatigue or breakdown (with
my testing software)


In other words: help. Is there anyone with suggestions to counter
this threat to my data? I know the hardware is relatively old, but it's all
I can currently spare and I'd like it to be on NetBSD since my experiences
with the sparc ports are superb.

Any help is greatly appreciated. For completeness, I added more
information below.

Thanks in advance,

Rogier Krieger




A few of the panics I encountered:
	ufs baddir
	ufs bad mapping
	





Details on system layout:
	Intel P133 (Award 4.51PG BIOS)
	VIA PCI chipset

	3.2G Quantum Fireball
	4.1G Western Digital
	40G IBM Desktar (supported through BIOS extension)

	RealTek 8139 NIC's




--
"well...in layman's terms, this is called the Hindenburg effect"