SUMMARY: Solaris 2.5 machine freezes

From: Stephen Campbell (steve@avalon.dartmouth.edu)
Date: Thu May 21 1998 - 10:05:48 CDT


Original query:

> We have a SPARCstation 4 running Solaris 2.5 and serving exclusively as a
> print server. [...]
>
> The machine has been in service for just over a year with no hardware
> problems. In fact all was working well up until April 5, when I applied the
> cluster of patches called 2.5_Recommended. Since then I have also applied
> 103093-22 and 103723-07 in case they helped the problem. The problem is that
> since applying the recommended patches a month ago, the machine will
> occasionally freeze up totally. This happens every few days. The mouse pointer
> does not move; the cursor stops blinking; there is no ethernet activity. The
> machine needs to be power cycled to recover. It does recover, but there are
> file system errors, and it's messy.
>
> It's possible the box has developed a hardware problem coincidently with the
> patches, but it's also possible the patches introduced some bug that
> occasionally causes the freeze-up. I would be interested in knowing if anyone
> has seen similar behavior.

Several people reported similar problems. My solution was to upgrade to 2.5.1
from its CD. I applied no 2.5.1 patches. So far, this seems to have solved the
problem. The machine has been up and stable for 5 days, including some pretty
heavy printing loads.

Assuming that the machine stays up, I will consider the problem solved. My
conclusion is that one of the 2.5 patches introduced the instability. In the
future I think I will apply patches on an as-needed basis only. If it ain't
broke, don't fix it.

                                                Steve Campbell



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