[news.software.nntp] rnews stuck in perpetual disk wait

jxxl@huxley.cs.nps.navy.mil (John Locke) (06/14/91)

This problem has happened twice in the month since I upgraded from
nntp 1.5.6 to 1.5.11 (BNEWS on Sun 4.1). The incoming feeds (I have two)
create rnews processes that are stuck on bogus disk waits. Sample "ps":

  PID TT STAT  TIME COMMAND
 1898 ?  I     0:04 -lll-winke (nntpd)
 1964 ?  D     0:00 rnews
 1972 ?  I     0:00 -gate.read (nntpd)
 1973 ?  D     0:00 rnews

I can't kill the rnews processes and they prevent subsequent feeds from
working, or even news posts from completing. The combos shown above
continue to accumulate as subsequent feeds are attempted. The nntpd's
slowly accumulate CPU time. I have to reboot the machine to get news
working again.

Has anyone had similar problems or know the reason for this one? Thanks
a lot.

John