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kenneth.westelinck | 23 Apr 2012 09:39
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stability of Cobalt Qube 2

Dear list,

I am a proud owner of a Cobalt Qube 2
(http://kennywest.blogspot.com/2010/02/story-of-cobalt-qube.html) running Debian Squeeze. I
want to use this as a NAS device for backing up various Linux machines on the network (I want to do this using
mondo over NFS). Apparently this proves more difficult than I thought (see also:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-mips/2012/03/msg00015.html). Seems the Qube 2 dies under heavy
network load. So whenever mondo tries to upload the restore images to the NFS server, it starts to hang.
Also tried using a newer network card (since there is a free PCI slot anyway), still the same issue.
So, I was wondering, what if I tried NetBSD, would this be more stable? Are there people on this list using a
Qube 2 reliably?

Many thanks for your input.

regards,

Kenneth
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Andy Ruhl | 23 Apr 2012 16:55
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Re: stability of Cobalt Qube 2

On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 12:39 AM,  <kenneth.westelinck <at> telenet.be> wrote:
> Dear list,
>
> I am a proud owner of a Cobalt Qube 2
(http://kennywest.blogspot.com/2010/02/story-of-cobalt-qube.html) running Debian Squeeze. I
want to use this as a NAS device for backing up various Linux machines on the network (I want to do this using
mondo over NFS). Apparently this proves more difficult than I thought (see also:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-mips/2012/03/msg00015.html). Seems the Qube 2 dies under heavy
network load. So whenever mondo tries to upload the restore images to the NFS server, it starts to hang.
Also tried using a newer network card (since there is a free PCI slot anyway), still the same issue.
> So, I was wondering, what if I tried NetBSD, would this be more stable? Are there people on this list using a
Qube 2 reliably?

My experience with the Qube2 is that it's very stable with NetBSD, but
not fast for I/O. There was some issue with the PCI bus which impacted
performance. If you search this list far enough back, you might find
the details.

I used mine for small jobs like DHCP server, internet
gateway/firewall, and some other menial stuff until I got a Seagate
Dockstar, which I use now. The Dockstar has it's issues with NetBSD as
well.

Andy
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kenneth.westelinck | 23 Apr 2012 20:32
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Re: stability of Cobalt Qube 2

All,

Thank you for your answers. My setup is as follows (you can also see this in images on http://kennywest.blogspot.com/2010/02/story-of-cobalt-qube.html):
- one CF to IDE adapter (containing NetBSD base install), master
- one 320 GB hard drive containing some Linux partitions, slave

Base install went like a breeze and it boots fine (320 GB drive disconnected). But, whenever I connect the
320 GB drive, I get this:
VIA Technologies VT83C572 USB Controller (USB serial bus, revision 0x02) at pci0 dev 9 function 2 not configured
tlp1 at pci0 dev 12 function 0: DECchip 21143 Ethernet, pass 4.1
tlp1: interrupting at level 2
tlp1: Ethernet address 00:10:e0:00:3c:5d
lxtphy1 at tlp1 phy 1: LXT970 10/100 media interface, rev. 3
lxtphy1: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto
wd0 at atabus0 drive 0: <SanDisk SDCFB-1024>
wd0: 977 MB, 1986 cyl, 16 head, 63 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 2001888 sectors
wd1 at atabus0 drive 1: <WDC WD3200AAJB-56R1A0>
wd1: 298 GB, 620181 cyl, 16 head, 63 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 625142448 sectors
Kernelized RAIDframe activated
viaide0:0:1: lost interrupt
        type: ata tc_bcount: 512 tc_skip: 0
viaide0:0:1: bus-master DMA error: missing interrupt, status=0x61
viaide0:0:1: device timeout, c_bcount=512, c_skip0
wd1d: device timeout reading fsbn 0 (wd1 bn 0; cn 0 tn 0 sn 0), retrying
viaide0 channel 0: reset failed for drive 0 drive 1
viaide0:0:1: lost interrupt
        type: ata tc_bcount: 512 tc_skip: 0
viaide0:0:1: bus-master DMA error: missing interrupt, status=0x61
viaide0:0:1: device timeout, c_bcount=512, c_skip0
wd1d: device timeout reading fsbn 0 (wd1 bn 0; cn 0 tn 0 sn 0), retrying
(Continue reading)

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Claudio Leiva | 24 Apr 2012 03:34
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RE: stability of Cobalt Qube 2

Hi

I have a Qube 2 which I use as web/ftp/media/samba server with 3 drives (10x2.5", 160x2.5" and 750x3.5") and
256 mb of ram running 5.1 generic with an aftermarket psu  and I can also say that it is stable but very slow on
network transfers, I fixed previous stability issues using cron to reboot the system every month, before
that stayed up with maximum uptime of 170+ days before it crashed.

Network as I said before is slow, I use the 750  gb as a backup for 6 computers/laptops and it takes some time but
at the end it does his job.

For what I need the qube does a very good job, hope you can fix your issues.

Regards.

Claudio Leiva S
Las Vegas, Nevada
USA
http://cleiva.no-ip.com
(Powered by NetBSD for Cobalt)

-----Original Message-----
From: port-cobalt-owner <at> NetBSD.org [mailto:port-cobalt-owner <at> NetBSD.org] On Behalf Of kenneth.westelinck <at> telenet.be
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2012 11:33 AM
To: port-cobalt <at> netbsd.org
Subject: Re: stability of Cobalt Qube 2

All,

Thank you for your answers. My setup is as follows (you can also see this in images on http://kennywest.blogspot.com/2010/02/story-of-cobalt-qube.html):
- one CF to IDE adapter (containing NetBSD base install), master
(Continue reading)

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Erik Berls | 24 Apr 2012 07:21
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Re: stability of Cobalt Qube 2

I've seen that the powersupply can be an issue with the Cubes, though
not having one to test is a bit of a challenge.

Do you remember what the symptoms of an underspec'ed powersupply?
(could that be the issue with the OP?)

Also, do you remember the nature of your crash?

-=erik.

On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 18:34, Claudio Leiva <cleivas <at> cox.net> wrote:
> Hi
>
> I have a Qube 2 which I use as web/ftp/media/samba server with 3 drives (10x2.5", 160x2.5" and 750x3.5")
and 256 mb of ram running 5.1 generic with an aftermarket psu  and I can also say that it is stable but very
slow on network transfers, I fixed previous stability issues using cron to reboot the system every month,
before that stayed up with maximum uptime of 170+ days before it crashed.
>
> Network as I said before is slow, I use the 750  gb as a backup for 6 computers/laptops and it takes some time
but at the end it does his job.
>
> For what I need the qube does a very good job, hope you can fix your issues.
>
> Regards.
>
>
> Claudio Leiva S
> Las Vegas, Nevada
> USA
> http://cleiva.no-ip.com
(Continue reading)

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kenneth.westelinck | 24 Apr 2012 09:55
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bus-master DMA error (was: stability of Cobalt Qube 2)

Hi,

I don't care if it's slow, as long as it works :)
I installed the Qube using the 5.1.2 restore cd (which is very easy) and this installs the netbsd-INSTALL
kernel. Could it be that I should be using the netbsd-GENERIC kernel? What kernel (config) are you using,
since my setup seems less exotic than yours and yours is working just fine? How can I enable the
netbsd-GENERIC kernel?

Sorry for my stupid questions, I am a longtime Linux user taking my first steps in BSD land :(

regards,

Kenneth

----- Original Message -----
From: "Claudio Leiva" <cleivas <at> cox.net>
To: "kenneth westelinck" <kenneth.westelinck <at> telenet.be>, port-cobalt <at> netbsd.org
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2012 3:34:31 AM
Subject: RE: stability of Cobalt Qube 2

Hi

I have a Qube 2 which I use as web/ftp/media/samba server with 3 drives (10x2.5", 160x2.5" and 750x3.5") and
256 mb of ram running 5.1 generic with an aftermarket psu  and I can also say that it is stable but very slow on
network transfers, I fixed previous stability issues using cron to reboot the system every month, before
that stayed up with maximum uptime of 170+ days before it crashed.

Network as I said before is slow, I use the 750  gb as a backup for 6 computers/laptops and it takes some time but
at the end it does his job.
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 8 comments |
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Erik Berls | 24 Apr 2012 11:35
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Re: bus-master DMA error (was: stability of Cobalt Qube 2)

On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 00:55,  <kenneth.westelinck <at> telenet.be> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I don't care if it's slow, as long as it works :)
> I installed the Qube using the 5.1.2 restore cd (which is very easy) and this installs the netbsd-INSTALL
kernel. Could it be that I should be using the netbsd-GENERIC kernel? What kernel (config) are you using,
since my setup seems less exotic than yours and yours is working just fine? How can I enable the
netbsd-GENERIC kernel?

Really?  That seems surprising.  Can you run "uname -a" on the system
and post the results?

-=erik.

>
> Sorry for my stupid questions, I am a longtime Linux user taking my first steps in BSD land :(
>
>
> regards,
>
> Kenneth
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Claudio Leiva" <cleivas <at> cox.net>
> To: "kenneth westelinck" <kenneth.westelinck <at> telenet.be>, port-cobalt <at> netbsd.org
> Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2012 3:34:31 AM
> Subject: RE: stability of Cobalt Qube 2
>
> Hi
(Continue reading)

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kenneth.westelinck | 24 Apr 2012 12:36
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Re: bus-master DMA error (was: stability of Cobalt Qube 2)

Below are the results:

cobalt# uname -a
NetBSD cobalt 5.1.2 NetBSD 5.1.2 (GENERIC) #0: Thu Feb  2 13:33:26 UTC 2012 
builds <at> b7.netbsd.org:/home/builds/ab/netbsd-5-1-2-RELEASE/cobalt/201202021012Z-obj/home/builds/ab/netbsd-5-1-2-RELEASE/src/sys/arch/cobalt/compile/GENERIC cobalt

Hmmm, seems he's indeed using the GENERIC kernel. Strange, since I can only find -INSTALL in /ext2/boot/
(but I guess this has nothing to do with it)

cobalt# ls /ext2/boot
boot.gz             netbsd-INSTALL.gz   vmlinux.gz          vmlinux_raq-2800.gz
vmlinux-nfsroot.gz  vmlinux_RAQ.gz
cobalt# 

----- Original Message -----
From: "Erik Berls" <cyber <at> netbsd.org>
To: "kenneth westelinck" <kenneth.westelinck <at> telenet.be>
Cc: port-cobalt <at> netbsd.org, cleivas <at> cox.net
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2012 11:35:38 AM
Subject: Re: bus-master DMA error (was: stability of Cobalt Qube 2)

On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 00:55,  <kenneth.westelinck <at> telenet.be> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I don't care if it's slow, as long as it works :)
> I installed the Qube using the 5.1.2 restore cd (which is very easy) and this installs the netbsd-INSTALL
kernel. Could it be that I should be using the netbsd-GENERIC kernel? What kernel (config) are you using,
since my setup seems less exotic than yours and yours is working just fine? How can I enable the
netbsd-GENERIC kernel?
(Continue reading)

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kenneth.westelinck | 24 Apr 2012 14:34
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Re: bus-master DMA error (was: stability of Cobalt Qube 2)

Yes, I can imagine you can strip a lot of things from the kernel and make it small. When I was young, I used to
strip Linux kernels to run on a 486, but creating a custom kernel for a netbsd machine seems a little more difficult.
I think I have 2 problems:
1) I don't have another BSD machine, so I would need to build the new kernel on the Qube. For this to work, I need
some more space and I don't have a lot of free space left on the CF (the CF is only 1 GB). I also think this might
take a long time (?).
2) Suppose I manage to build a custom kernel, will this solve my "bus-master DMA error". As far as I know, the
GENERIC kernel is similar to a Linux kernel with all of the modules compiled in it (right?). So, even if I
strip stuff out, I am not sure if this will make my problems disappear.
Since there are some people on this list owning a Qube 2, would it be possible to "borrow" a kernel (kernels
seem quite small), just to try if my problems go away?
I am now running 5.1.3, also tried 6.0_BETA, still same issue :(

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Hebel" <nimitz <at> nimitzbrood.com>
To: "kenneth westelinck" <kenneth.westelinck <at> telenet.be>
Cc: "Erik Berls" <cyber <at> netbsd.org>, port-cobalt <at> netbsd.org, cleivas <at> cox.net
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2012 2:14:38 PM
Subject: Re: bus-master DMA error (was: stability of Cobalt Qube 2)

Voices on the wind brought me a message from: kenneth.westelinck <at> telenet.be
> Below are the results:
>
> cobalt# uname -a
> NetBSD cobalt 5.1.2 NetBSD 5.1.2 (GENERIC) #0: Thu Feb  2 13:33:26 UTC
> 2012
> builds <at> b7.netbsd.org:/home/builds/ab/netbsd-5-1-2-RELEASE/cobalt/201202021012Z-obj/home/builds/ab/netbsd-5-1-2-RELEASE/src/sys/arch/cobalt/compile/GENERIC
> cobalt
>
> Hmmm, seems he's indeed using the GENERIC kernel. Strange, since I can
(Continue reading)

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Izumi Tsutsui | 24 Apr 2012 15:08
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Re: bus-master DMA error (was: stability of Cobalt Qube 2)

> Hmmm, seems he's indeed using the GENERIC kernel. Strange,
> since I can only find -INSTALL in /ext2/boot/ (but I guess
> this has nothing to do with it)
> 
> cobalt# ls /ext2/boot
> boot.gz             netbsd-INSTALL.gz   vmlinux.gz          vmlinux_raq-2800.gz
> vmlinux-nfsroot.gz  vmlinux_RAQ.gz
> cobalt# 

netbsd-INSTALL.gz in ext2fs boot dir is stored for emergency operation.

Usually cobalt firmware load NetBSD's native bootloader (boot.gz)
via vmlinux* symlinks and the bootloader loads /netbsd kernel in
NetBSD's root file system.
I.e. there is no size restriction on loading a kernel.

---
Izumi Tsutsui
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