root@cs.utexas.edu (Operator) (01/13/90)
This is another one of those last ditch pleas to the net for help. Normally we can troubleshoot most problems, or worst case get help from Sun. Both have failed in this case... Symptom: Four Sun 3/75 8meg clients off a 4meg 3/180 server running SunOS 4.0.3 have all sorts of wierd errors where suddenly trying to run utilities such as consoletool, a compile, mail, just about anything causes a core dump (illegal instruction), undefined routine in ld.so, etc. Also, sometimes the server crashes with panic: free: freeing free frag or panic: ifree: freeing free inode with the block listed almost always #32, one of the duplicate superblocks. Massive fsck(8)'s follow, with many lost files. Sometimes just rebooting a client node fixes it, sometimes not. History: Never had a problem like this before SunOS 4.X upgrade about 3 months ago. All server hardware involved has been replaced except the backplane and power supply. Hardware diagnostics check out ok on server & clients. Originally we were running 4.0.0, and Sun informed us that there was some issue with the 4.0.0 formatter, so we reformatted the disk under 4.0.3 to no avail. Sun also indicated that we are running the 1.2gig Hitachi DK815 drive, which few sites have and they may not have QA'd this drive in a SunOS4/Sun-3 server environment. If anyone out there in the trenches has fought this battle, please send me email about what you found out. Thanks! Jim Morton, APPLiX Inc., Westboro, MA ...uunet!applix!jim jim@applix.com