Subject: MicroVax II with 5 Mb of memory occasionally hangs
To: NetBSD \"Port-VAX\" Mailing List <port-vax@netbsd.org>
From: Douglas Meade <inforum@umd5.umd.edu>
List: port-vax
Date: 07/11/1999 21:15:31
I've been trying to solve a problem with sporadic hangs with 
my uVax.  I can usually get as far as typing about a dozen commands
after logging in, when it hangs completely.  The machine has about 
5 Mb of memory, and reports 2.7 Mb available after kernel.  I 
currently have no devices installed except for CPU, said memory
and DEQNA.  There is both an RQDX3 controller and the TQK50
but with no drives attached.  I'm netbooting from a 
DECstation 5000/240 running NetBSD 1.4, and running NFS file system
and swap from that server.  I couldn't get this machine to boot
successfully without the boot.mop from Michael Kukat's ftp site.
The kernel I'm using is dated Apr 29, from the standard 1.4 
distribution, although it announces itself as 1.4 BETA.  My 
hunch is that the small amount of memory might be a problem, 
as I was warned about this.  However, it doesn't always hang
when running the same program, and the last time it hung just
as I was logging in as root.  Good time to quit, I thought.

I'm ready to try another machine as server, just to isolate
that variable, but my hunch is it's related to the Vax, or 
the kernel.  Is there a smaller kernel availble I could try?

Two things I notice:

1. As the computer goes into multi-user mode, I get the message
"mount :/ unknown special file or filesystem, although it later
manages to set up the swap file successfully. (swapctl -l reports
swap is in business)

2. I'm able to ping the computer even after it has hung, but I haven't 
got to the point yet of successfully telnetting in, as this usually
causes a hang to ensue.

Any musings or helpful thoughts appreciated.

Doug