Very Computer

by **Shimen Chen** » Mon, 22 Apr 1996 04:00:00

Dear all,

In last three month, I have found the SunSparc station always
display an error:

"zs0:ring buffer overflow"

The system will hang a few mintus when this messages display.
How it cause and which patch to short it out.
The version of OS I use is Solaris 2.3 (an old O/S :> )

Thanks for you help!

Regards / Shimen

by **Brett Helb** » Tue, 23 Apr 1996 04:00:00

> Dear all,

> In last three month, I have found the SunSparc station always
> display an error:

> "zs0:ring buffer overflow"

> The system will hang a few mintus when this messages display.
> How it cause and which patch to short it out.
> The version of OS I use is Solaris 2.3 (an old O/S :> )

I have no idea what causes this but I've seen it also. My machine is running
Solaris 2.4, so it isn't confined to 2.3. It only happened to me once, so I'm
not too worried about solving it.

You don't, by chance, have an FDDI interface card in your machine do you? We do,
and I thought maybe it had something to do with that. (Just a thought.)

--

Systems Engineer
GORCA Systems, Inc.
Cherry Hill, NJ

by **Isaac Oje** » Thu, 25 Apr 1996 04:00:00

: > Dear all,
: >
: > In last three month, I have found the SunSparc station always
: > display an error:
: >
: > "zs0:ring buffer overflow"
: >
: > The system will hang a few mintus when this messages display.
: > How it cause and which patch to short it out.
: > The version of OS I use is Solaris 2.3 (an old O/S :> )

: I have no idea what causes this but I've seen it also. My machine is running
: Solaris 2.4, so it isn't confined to 2.3. It only happened to me once, so I'm
: not too worried about solving it.

: You don't, by chance, have an FDDI interface card in your machine do you? We do,
: and I thought maybe it had something to do with that. (Just a thought.)

I have the same problem with an UltraSparc running 2.5 and open window
It happens once every minute.

Isaac

by **Fletcher.Gl..** » Thu, 25 Apr 1996 04:00:00

>: > Dear all,
>: >
>: > In last three month, I have found the SunSparc station always
>: > display an error:
>: >
>: > "zs0:ring buffer overflow"
>: >
>: > The system will hang a few mintus when this messages display.
>: > How it cause and which patch to short it out.
>: > The version of OS I use is Solaris 2.3 (an old O/S :> )

>: I have no idea what causes this but I've seen it also. My machine is running
>: Solaris 2.4, so it isn't confined to 2.3. It only happened to me once, so I'm
>: not too worried about solving it.

>: You don't, by chance, have an FDDI interface card in your machine do you? We do,
>: and I thought maybe it had something to do with that. (Just a thought.)

>I have the same problem with an UltraSparc running 2.5 and open window
>It happens once every minute.

>Isaac

zs0 is the device that handles serial I/O for the tty ports A and B. You can
get this sort of message if there is an unshielded cable connected to either
of those ports (flat cable is the worst). The message indicates that there
is data being input, but no process is collecting the data. This can also
be an indication of a bad serial port chip.

by **Kevin Leighto** » Fri, 26 Apr 1996 04:00:00

Hello,

To give you a general area of this problem, it has something
to do with STDIN (keyboard) and "zs" chip on the motherboard.
If I am not mistaken, the chip is supposed to handle communications, and
sometimes gets overwhelmed.

Generically speaking....

Kev

by **Mike Fris** » Sat, 27 Apr 1996 04:00:00

>I have no idea what causes this but I've seen it also. My machine is running
>Solaris 2.4, so it isn't confined to 2.3. It only happened to me once, so I'm
>not too worried about solving it.

I have consistently been able to get these overflow errors when I
am running with a terminal as the console. If the power on the console is
cut, the SPARC drops into boot PROM, when the power is put back on and I
type "c" (for continue) at the boot PROM, I get a ring buffer overflow
error (yet the machine continues normally). I know this isn't a regular
situation, but it does cause these errors.

Mike.

======================================================================

Northstar Technologies WWW: http://www.io.org/~mfrisch
Newmarket, Ontario, CANADA Compuserve: 76620,2534

by **Eric Chandl** » Fri, 03 May 1996 04:00:00

I just got one just a couple of minutes ago. Here's a cut & paste:

NOTICE: zs3:ring buffer overflow

Just before it happened, the terminal hung for about 1 minute. I
am running 2.5 on a Sparc 2 with 64 meg on board. I am running from
home with just a modem on port b, and no network, using a monitor rather
than a terminal. It has something to do with the modem, but I'm only
speculating. Everything except the mouse freezes when it happens. It
does it once during each call (including this one) and it never happens
again until I call again.

Any ideas? Suggestions? So far, this problem is no big deal, but is a
curiosity to me, nevertheless.

Eric Chandler
Bell Communications Research

by **Tomas Stephans** » Mon, 06 May 1996 04:00:00

>NOTICE: zs3:ring buffer overflow

Since I uppgraded to Solaris 2.5 I get it quite frequently on my
machine (4 to 5 times a day). The symptoms are that the mouse
frezes for a few seconds and then the overflow message comes.
The only serial devices I have on the machine is a mouse and
a keyboard. The error messages seems to appear every time
I use the SunVideo board (it takes a snapshot every 15 minutes)
If I am using the mouse when the snapshot is being taken the
serial ring buffer overflows (this did not happen under earlier
releases of Solaris). I guess it is a bug somewhere in the
scheduling/priorities of the OS.

/Tomas