4.0.3 ccom core dumping?!?

[Mark Hastings]

We have a Sun 3/280 server that was recently upgraded to SunOS 4.0.3 (from
3.4) After the upgrade, the C-compiler (actually /lib/ccom) started to
dump core (bus error) non-deterministically!  It looks like this:

	cc: Fatal error in ccom: Bus error (core dumped)
	*** Error code 1
	make: Fatal error: Command failed for target `foo.o'

It fails this way about 1 of every 3 attempts to compile a file,
independent of the compile options, the actual file being compiled, and
the user doing the compile!  Furthermore, the server's Sun3 clients (all
diskless) have been compiling flawlessly with the same binaries mounted
via NFS!  Sun conveniently strips /lib/ccom, so the core file is not very
informative.

Part of the upgrade was the installation of an Interphase 4400 controller/
NEC 2363 disk as the boot devices.  Since this problem only occurs on the
server, we assumed it might be due to a faulty device driver for the ufs
code (although other disk related functions work fine).  After booting
Sun's generic 4.0.3 kernel (with the 4400 emulating a xy451), the bus
errors continued, so it's hard to blame the Interphase device drivers (we
are using their version 2.2).  Interphase says they haven't tested this
configuration under 4.0.3, so I am hoping someone else might have dealt
with this.  If anyone wants more details, I'd be happy to provide them.

Thanks!
	Mark Hastings				(415) 642-9542
	hastings at ernie.berkeley.edu		..!ucbvax!ernie!hastings

PS:  Here is an "ls -l /lib/ccom" and a "sum /lib/ccom" for quick comparisons:

% ls -l /lib/ccom
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root       245760 Apr 24 18:15 /lib/ccom
% sum /lib/ccom
30867   240