SUMMARY: Patchkit #5 observations .......

From: Thomas Leitner <tom_at_finwds01.tu-graz.ac.at>
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 1997 14:40:57 +0200 (MET DST)

Hi,

In a nutshell, the answers to my questions are: The "chk_bf_quota"
messages are still harmless and are said to be fixed in 4.0D. The
sysconfigtab boot message can be avoided by removing unnessecary
entries from the /etc/sysconfigtab file. In fact this message can
mean that any entries appended to this file are not taken into
account.

Thanks to the following persons for their replies:

      Dr. Tom Blinn, <tpb_at_zk3.dec.com>
      Jody Housman <jhousman_at_emerald.tufts.edu>
      Joseph C King <jking_at_chablis.cos.com>

Here are their answers. My original question is quoted in their
answers.

Thanks again and have a nice weekend everybody

-- Tom

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jody Housman <jhousman_at_emerald.tufts.edu>

On Fri, 24 Oct 1997, Thomas Leitner wrote:

> After Digital finally came up with a workaround for my patch kit #5
> install problem (BTW: thanks a lot for their support), I've managed to
> install the patch kit on both of my alphas.
>
> There are two peculiar things, though and I just want to know if I'm
> the only one who sees these and if I should worry about it:
>
> 1.) I get lots and lots of messages in the logs and on the console like
> this:
>
> Oct 24 18:39:12 xxx vmunix: chk_bf_quota: user quota underflow for
> user 269 on fileset /
> Oct 24 18:39:12 xxx vmunix: chk_bf_quota: group quota underflow for
> group 7 on fileset /
> Oct 24 18:39:30 xxx vmunix: chk_bf_quota: user quota underflow for
> user 269 on fileset /
> Oct 24 18:39:59 xxx vmunix: chk_bf_quota: user quota underflow for
> user 269 on fileset /
> Oct 24 19:23:49 xxx vmunix: chk_bf_quota: user quota underflow for
> user 269 on fileset /
>
> These "chk_bf_quota" messages appeared before as well but only once
> or twice a day and I know that they are harmless. But now I get about
> 20-30 per day? Is this normal? Does anyone see this as well?


We have the exact same thing. I did call DEC and was told, as you said,
that they are harmless, but also that it would be fixed in 4.0D.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Joseph C King <jking_at_chablis.cos.com>

>2.) During bootstrap right after the kernel has been loaded, I get
> a message like this:
>
> sysconfigtab: xxxxxxxxx too big xxxxxx 32543 bytes
>

We got this also but we were applying PatchKit 4.
It only took a hour or so to figure out why all the stuff at the bottom we
added wasn't working.
I consider this a bug. If sysconfigtab is going to be used more and more
by Digital it needs to be able to grow to a larger filesize.

We removed all lines for devices we didn't have and it has been working fine.

Joe

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Dr. Tom Blinn, 603-884-0646" <tpb_at_zk3.dec.com>

> Hello,
>
> After Digital finally came up with a workaround for my patch kit #5
> install problem (BTW: thanks a lot for their support), I've managed to
> install the patch kit on both of my alphas.
>
> There are two peculiar things, though and I just want to know if I'm
> the only one who sees these and if I should worry about it:
>
> 1.) I get lots and lots of messages in the logs and on the console like
> this:
>
> Oct 24 18:39:12 xxx vmunix: chk_bf_quota: user quota underflow for
> user 269 on fileset /
> Oct 24 18:39:12 xxx vmunix: chk_bf_quota: group quota underflow for
> group 7 on fileset /
> Oct 24 18:39:30 xxx vmunix: chk_bf_quota: user quota underflow for
> user 269 on fileset /
> Oct 24 18:39:59 xxx vmunix: chk_bf_quota: user quota underflow for
> user 269 on fileset /
> Oct 24 19:23:49 xxx vmunix: chk_bf_quota: user quota underflow for
> user 269 on fileset /
>
> These "chk_bf_quota" messages appeared before as well but only once
> or twice a day and I know that they are harmless. But now I get about
> 20-30 per day? Is this normal? Does anyone see this as well?

Those are coming out of the AdvFS file system code. I don't remember the
full explanation for why they happen, but it's generally accepted that it's
a bug. I don't know why you're seeing more than before. Sigh.. Report it
through the formal channels and maybe it will get fixed.
 
> 2.) During bootstrap right after the kernel has been loaded, I get
> a message like this:
>
> sysconfigtab: xxxxxxxxx too big xxxxxx 32543 bytes
>
> or something. The reason why I can't specify the message more
> clearly is, that it only appears at the console. There is *no*
> log file entry with such a message. Not even in UERF.
> And I can't boot the machine more often in order to see the
> message better because I can't afford the downtime.
>
> Does anyone else see this?
>
> BTW: I have lots of EISA options etc. in my /etc/sysconfigtab which
> I don't need for sure because this is a PCI bus machine. I just did
> not care about them until now. Are these entries necessary? Can they
> cause this message?

I believe there was a problem with one of the patch kit baselevels where the
installation the patch kit would either corrupt the sysconfigtab file or
make it too large. That message comes out so early in the boot process that
it doesn't get logged. Sigh.. You are right, you can probably edit your
sysconfigtab file to remove the EISA and TURBOCHANNEL device entries with
no impact on your running system. Save a copy so you can restore it before
you do the next patch kit or installupdate.

Tom

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Received on Sat Oct 25 1997 - 14:54:07 NZDT

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