*BSD News Article 26659


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From: vax@sylvester.cc.utexas.edu (Vax)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: Re: Mysterious 'autonomous' reboots under NetBSD ???
Date: 28 Jan 1994 09:41:49 -0600
Organization: The University of Texas - Austin
Lines: 21
Message-ID: <2ibbnt$lvh@sylvester.cc.utexas.edu>
References: <2hc3rd$qmb@wzv.win.tue.nl> <hastyCJqqoC.750@netcom.com> <1994Jan16.215309.7660@sifon.cc.mcgill.ca> <2hrjii$m89@homea.ensta.fr>
NNTP-Posting-Host: sylvester.cc.utexas.edu

I have experienced similar problems in the past.

However, now I am experiencing a new one.  If I end a large program, such
as X, or I have just caused a large program to page fault many times, such
as when I have just finished telnet'ing to a local mud, and I type
"who" or "w" at the command line, (more often "w"), the command will print
the uptime line just fine, but when it is about to print the first user's
name, it causes a vm_fault and reboots - the specific numbers printed flash by
too fast to read.

In one case, it was completely unable to sync the disks before rebooting,
I remember a "5 5 5 3 ...." sequence being printed just before it gave up.

Is this the fault of slow cache RAM?  Or a bug in the VM system?

I have a 486-33 VLB/EISA/ISA mboard with 15ns cache SRAM and 4MB of
60ns DRAM, and 4MB of 80ns DRAM (I think).  The memory fault occurs much
more often with the new motherboard (and CPU, I had a 386-33 before).
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