Re: showstopper race condition in sync() ??? [2.1.119|120]

Stanislav Meduna (stanom@etm.co.at)
Thu, 17 Sep 1998 14:51:48 +0100

>> Now, I got the exactly same problem with quotacheck(8) : failure to
>> return from sync(), sometimes, not always, not on every machine. Obviously
>> passwd(1) is not in fault (the only userland component I'd suspect would
>> be the (g)libc, but that would really be the last component).

> From a quick look at the dquot.c code, there appear to be some problems
> with dquot_sync, and possibly other operations.

I have seen a similar problem with a paralell port ZIP-drive - a sync leaves
the ZIP LED on and doesn't return (and it is of course not possible to
unmout such stuck device). A few kills (or sufficient time) will eventually
help and the data written seem intact.

It happened to me twice or three times with kernel 2.1.119 and some a few steps
older (probably 2.1.117), but it is not 100% reproducible, so I don't know
what has helped to unblock the device :-(

My hardware is single-processor PPro, PP ZIP, VFAT. I suspected
the PPA driver, but this thread has drawn my attention.

Regards

--
                                                   Stano




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