[PLUG] Debian

[Jeff DeFouw]

On Sat, 14 Apr 2001, Matthew Laurence Wirges wrote:

> I also checked the logs and I notice a few occurances of
> this:
>         vortex kernel: attempt to access beyond end of device

This is a kernel issue.  This error leads to more errors.  Debian
configures your kernel to remount the filesystem read-only when there is a
filesystem error.  The default is to panic (usually followed by an
automatic reboot).

>       I am running Debian 2.2 unstable (but it happened before i
> dist-upgraded), the root partition in question is a 4GB partition on hda
> which is an ATA-66 Drive (are there currently issues with ATA-66?)

dist-upgrades usually don't upgrade your kernel, so if you haven't done
that, you may want to specifically tell it to install something newer.  
There are many issues with certain DMA-enabled controllers on certain
chipsets (especially VIA), so that's a likely source.  Really any hardware
or misconfiguration involved in reading from the disk can cause this
error.  Look through the recent linux-kernel mailing list archives such as
http://boudicca.tux.org/hypermail/linux-kernel/ for similar problems.  
Chipset related filesystem problems are (re)reported frequently.

--
Jeff DeFouw <defouwj@purdue.edu>