niklas@appli.se (Niklas Hallqvist) (11/26/90)
Hello, We have severe problems with an installation of SCO Unix. About every other open of the cartridge tape device hangs with a status of B in ps(1) (i.e. "Waiting"). I've examined the process who did the open with crash(1M) and found that it's stuck in ctopen, which I suppose is the kernel open routine for the ct device (I don't have the developer package, so I can't nm /etc/conf/pack.d/ct/Driver.o to verify that). By reverse- engineering, I've found out that ctopen could be hanging in getcpages (called from db_alloc), if the OS hasn't got the pages needed to complete the operation, but then a message should be printed somewhere (to the console or /usr/adm/messages, maybe?). The message should be something like: "getcpages, Waiting for xx contignuous pages...". Anyway, I can't find that message anywhere, so I'm not sure that's the problem. Do anyone of you out there have a hint about what's happening? Then don't hesitate to followup or reply immediately, even if your guess is wrong. We REALLY need help, our customer is getting quite frustrated over this inability of backing up we've provided them with. If my suspicion about getcpages is correct, what kernel parameter should I change? I couldn't get any help from SCO's agents in Sweden, they just begged my to try cpio instead of tar, even though assured them that the user mode process has nothing to do with what's happening here. FYI, I really did try cpio instead of tar, and the result was still the same. Thanks Niklas PS. My hardware setup is: NCR 386 25MHZ WD 7000 SCSI HOST ADAPTER DIGICHANNEL PC/4 ARCHIVE VP402 (SC402) INTERFACE ADAPTER ARCHIVE VP 150i TAPE STREAMER My software setup is: SCO UNIX 3.2.0 INSTALLATION Type 386GT (N1 - N5 3.2.0f) BASIC UTILITIES (B1 - B8 3.2.0e) EXTENDED UTILITIES (X1 - X10 3.2.0d) MAINTENANCE SUPPLEMENT (UFA1, UFA2 3.2.0d) INTERNATIONAL SUPPLEMENT (1.1.0d) SWEDISH CHARACTER-SET FOR SCO XENIX/UNIX unx162 revB 3.2.0 unx205 3.2.0 (WD 7000 SLS) This is what /usr/adm/hwconfig says: %serial 0x3F8-0x3FF 04 - unit=0 type=Standard nports=1 %serial 0x210-0x217 03 - unit=1 type=DIGIBOARD nports=4 F2%floppy 0x3F2-0x3F7 06 2 unit=0 type=96ds15 F3F4%console - - - unit=vga type=0 12 screens=68k F5%parallel 0x378-0x37A 07 - unit=0 F6F7F8%tape 0x200-0x204 05 3 type=A F9F10%adapter 0x350-0x352 14 6 type=wdha ha=0 id=7 F11GH0H1H2H3H4H5H6%disk - - - type=S ha=0 id=0 lun=0 %Sdsk - - - cyls=100 hds=64 secs=32 and this is what /usr/adm/messages says: Fri Nov 23 7:13:35 UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T Portions Copyright 1976-1989 AT&T Portions Copyright 1980-89 Microsoft Corporation Portions Copyright 1983-89 The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc Portions Copyright 1988-89 SecureWare, Inc All rights reserved SCO System V/386 Release 3.2.0 Operating System kernel id 1.91 with Maint. Sup. A for i80386 Serial Number: omi550417 D10 bits of I/O address decoding EF0F1device address vector dma comment --------------------------------- Fri Nov 23 7:13:36 ------------------------------------------- %serial 0x3F8-0x3FF 04 - unit=0 type=Standard nports=1 %serial 0x210-0x217 03 - unit=1 type=DIGIBOARD nports=4 F2%floppy 0x3F2-0x3F7 06 2 unit=0 type=96ds15 F3F4%console - - - unit=vga type=0 12 screens=68k F5%parallel 0x378-0x37A 07 - unit=0 F6F7F8%tape 0x200-0x204 05 3 type=A F9F10%adapter 0x350-0x352 14 6 type=wdha ha=0 id=7 F11GH0H1H2H3H4H5H6%disk - - - type=S ha=0 id=0 lun=0 %Sdsk - - - cyls=100 hds=64 secs=32 H7H8H9H10H11H12I0mem: tota Fri Nov 23 7:13:38 l = 3968k, kernel = 1348k, user = 2620k JKLAutoboot from rootdev = 1/40, swapdev = 1/41, pipedev = 1/40 nswap = 20000, swplo = 0, Hz = 100 kernel: i/o bufs = 494k -- Niklas Hallqvist Phone: +46-(0)31-40 75 00 Applitron Datasystem Fax: +46-(0)31-83 39 50 Molndalsvagen 95 Email: niklas@appli.se S-412 63 GOTEBORG, Sweden mcsun!sunic!chalmers!appli!niklas