On Sunday 15 April 2007 15:23, Bryan Vyhmeister wrote: > On Apr 15, 2007, at 3:08 PM, Siegbert Marschall wrote: > > Hi, > > > >>>> On the other hand, there seems to be a 'the alpha bug' around. I > >>>> don't > >>>> think it's solved yet, and it's been around for a long time. > >>>> Apparently, > >>>> it causes random crashes. > > > > only on some machines. > > Any idea if it surfaces on dual processor CS20 machines? I have the > opportunity to pick up three dual 833 Mhz CS20 machines. > > Bryan
I've been told the "alpha bug" has been with us since (at least) OpenBSD 3.0 and many people have tried to solve it. As one of the people who tried, and (miserably) failed, to find the alpha bug, I can say it is really an esoteric problem. A lot of information points to a rare race condition (i.e. software fault) on particular system under particular loads but no one has managed to prove it either way. Heck, for all I know it could even be an unknown hardware glitch that never received an errata because no one at DEC/Compaq/HP ever noticed it with supported operating systems. I've never seen the "alpha bug" on my DS20L (equivalent to the CS20) or my 500/500 but I have seen it on my PC* boxes. Other people have had the exact opposite experience. The only time I've hit the bug was during system builds and in contrast, others have reported hitting the bug at other times during normal operation. -- The trouble is, when you have a strange "mystery bug" floating out there, it may or may not be correctly blamed for any and all problems. -jcr
