Subject: Constant crashes with -current i386
To: None <port-i386@NetBSD.ORG>
From: William O Ferry <WOFerry+@CMU.EDU>
List: port-i386
Date: 03/18/1998 01:24:27
    For close to a month now I've been trying to build a -current kernel
and having no luck.  I've sup'ed once a week, and the kernels have been
approaching unmodified GENERIC, but they still lock up often.

    I really am not sure what the problem is.  It *seems* to be network
related though.  My most recent kernel (sup'ed 3/7/98) is the i386
GENERIC with pcvt and pms0 enabled.  If I boot the machine and pull it
from the network, it runs for days.  If I boot the machine and leave it
on the network, it locks up in as soon as 30 minutes to as long as 24
hours.  The lock-up is pretty hard, if I leave the display on xdm the
screen stays black and does not respond to keyboard or mouse movements,
or pings or anything like that.  If I switch to a pcvt console, the
first keypress unblanks the display, but it never blanks, and no keys
appear on the console.

    There appears to be a rather large number of teardrop / winnuke /
etc attacks on campus recently.  Could any of these be causing NetBSD to
lock up?  FWIW this is a Digital DE435 10base-T PCI card.

    Any thoughts?  Is there any way I can drop to the debugger from this state?

    Alternately, could somebody else please compile a -current GENERIC
(preferably with pcvt and pms0) kernel I could try (I'm wondering if
it's something with my sources or if this is truly unhappy).  I can't
seem to find any snapshots to grab a GENERIC kernel from that is older
than 1.3.  Given that my machine hasn't had a working kernel in a month,
and I haven't seen anybody else having similar problems, I really do not
know what could be going on.  When I tried compiling a -current kernel
for my SPARC, it locked up several times within a few hours until I went
back to a 1.3B kernel (which worked fine on both my SPARC and the i386,
'cept that the i386 is running 1.3D binaries, so going back is
nontrivial).

    I'd greatly appreciate any suggestions / help.  Thanks.

                                                          Will Ferry

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