On Thu, Jan 16, 2003 at 08:38:46PM -0800, Conrad T. Pino wrote:
> 
> OK.  I want to help.  Can you steer me to documentation that explains
> how "feeding back the crashes" takes place?
> 

<http://www.netbsd.org/Misc/send-pr.html>

documents how to report a bug - not only with the kernel but with any
part of NetBSD.

> Can you steer me to documentation on how to setup a system to auto
> reboot after a panic?
> 

Here is some:

<http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/kernel/#ddb>

hmmm what it does not mention is that you need to have the DDB option
in your kernel.  If you don't want the machine to drop to ddb on a
panic then you can either a) not have the DDB option (which limits
your debugging of the kernel) or b) use sysctl(8) to set the
ddb.onpanic variable so the machine will not stop on a panic.  Having
said that, if you want to get a traceback and submit pr's then you
will need to have the machine stop at the ddb prompt when it panics.
I do not know if it is just me but I have yet to manage to get a
kernel crash dump since I have been using a SMP kernel (my flaky
memory tells me that kernel dumps used to not work with
SMP... perhaps this is still true, I don't know)

> 
> I would like to see these perceived short comings overcome.  I prefer
> to spend my extra time on NetBSD rather than Linux.
>

me too :-)

>  I assume Tomcat 4
> is not the high risk area.  Oracle is the likely problem area.  What
> can I do to help advance the cause and ease your pain?
> 

Yes, Oracle is more than likely the stumbling block.  See what
Christos has to say about the progress on this front.

-- 
Brett Lymn