Subj : Server crashing
To   : Ian Moote
From : Leonard Erickson
Date : Mon Nov 06 2000 04:59 pm

 -=> Quoting Ian Moote to LEONARD ERICKSON <=-

 LE> I *think* the problem is because the files in question are graphics
 LE> files, an PMView store "thumbnails" of them as extended attributes.
 LE>
 LE> Does this sound like it might be right?
 LE>
 LE> If so, any suggestions beyond "don't run those programs at the same
 LE> time"?

 IM> Don't forget that PMView only stores the "thumbnails" (as icon info, 
 IM> IIRC) if you have saved the file using PMView to begin with. Do you
 IM> know  for a fact that each file has its thumbnail (or icon info)
 IM> written? 

it's quite easy to tell, because when I first open a directory
containing files that PMview hasn't seen before, all the icons are
"creating thumbnail".

If I open one that's had new files added to it, the "old" files have
the thumbnails pop up immediately, while the new ones get the "creating
thumbnails" icon. 

And merely opening the directory in either of the above cases causes
*heavy* disk activity, even if I don't do anything else.

 IM> Does the system crash without an error message?

I think the message the last time was something about a page fault error.

 IM> The only thing that I can think of here is to suggest that you make
 IM> sure  that you have the OS/2 namespace installed. I think that's the
 IM> part that  manages the OS/2 extended attributes. If you do have it
 IM> installed,  double-check it. If it's installed and you still think that
 IM> you're on  the right track, install it again! [:)

Both Mac and OS/2 namespaces are installed. And trying to re-load
OS2.NAM gets an "already loaded" message.

I'f pretty sure that I'm on the right track as those two activities are
the *only* thing all those crashes have in common.

 IM> Another diagnostic
 IM> thing that you  might try is to split all of the EA's from the suspect
 IM> files. You can  always merge them back later if need be. (Using
 IM> "eautil", I mean.) 

How exactly do I do that?

 IM> Other than "a week ago", you didn't mention at what point this problem
 IM> popped up. Have you "always" been using this combination of software 
 IM> together? Have you always performed these simultaneous copies in the 
 IM> past without problem? If so, why do you think they would begin to be a
 IM> problem now?

I think it's been there for months. But I usually don't do both things
at once. But I had a friend over and while I was processing new files
I wanted to go over the old ones to see if there were any he wanted. 

The server crashed doing much the same thing 6-8 months back (again
while he was visiting), and then did this all those times now, because
I was trying to get the files organized to ship over to his system.

I after the second recent crash I was getting more and more careful
about what else was running, and the last couple of times those were
the only things actively accessing the server.


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