FreeBSD 9.3 stopped writing to log file

[Starz]

From /var/log/messages

Mar 19 23:23:48 localhost kernel: ugen2.2: <Lexar> at usbus2
Mar 19 23:23:48 localhost kernel: umass0: <Lexar USB Flash Drive, class 0/0, rev 2.00/11.00, addr 2> on usbus2
Mar 19 23:23:48 localhost kernel: umass0:  SCSI over Bulk-Only; quirks = 0x0100
Mar 19 23:23:48 localhost kernel: umass0:4:0:-1: Attached to scbus4
Mar 19 23:23:48 localhost kernel: da0 at umass-sim0 bus 0 scbus4 target 0 lun 0
Mar 19 23:23:48 localhost kernel: da0: <Lexar USB Flash Drive 1100> Removable Direct Access SCSI-4 device
Mar 19 23:23:48 localhost kernel: da0: Serial Number AAGLZOPFBE4I5UCL
Mar 19 23:23:48 localhost kernel: da0: 40.000MB/s transfers
Mar 19 23:23:48 localhost kernel: da0: 7652MB (15671296 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 975C)
Mar 19 23:23:48 localhost kernel: da0: quirks=0x2<NO_6_BYTE>

It is now 10:32 local time Mar 20. After 23:23:48 last night my freebsd FreeBSD system stopped writing to the log file when I mounted a USB stick
mount -t msdosfs -o -m=644,-M=755 /dev/da0s1 /mnt/terry
(something I've done many times before). I've done plenty of stuff since then such as a pkg upgrade which ought to have been logged. When something goes wrong I usually check the log file. I'm not sure what to do when the log file stops.

I checked to make sure syslogd is still running
root@localhost:/etc # ps aux | grep -i syslogd

root  639  0.0  0.0  12080  1452 ??  Ss  11Mar15  0:01.71 /usr/sbin/syslogd -s
root  66677  0.0  0.0  16316  1700  1  S+  10:29AM  0:00.00 grep -i syslogd

and it is.

My system is fully updated.
root@localhost:/etc # freebsd-update fetch

Looking up update.FreeBSD.org mirrors... 5 mirrors found.
Fetching metadata signature for 9.3-RELEASE from update6.freebsd.org... done.
Fetching metadata index... done.
Inspecting system... done.
Preparing to download files... done.

No updates needed to update system to 9.3-RELEASE-p12.

A reboot might be a temporary fix but I would like to understand and fix whatever the underlying problem might be.

 

[Greg Quinlan]

Is /var or /var/log a separate mount point?

 

[junovitch@]

That's a pretty odd one. A service syslogd restart would be the quickest fix and certainly easier than a shutdown -r now. However, I agree about understanding the root cause. Usually syslogd(8) is dead simple and just works unless it's a very obvious issue like the partition filling up as hinted by Greg Quinlan above. Has the issue fixed itself since you posted and what actions did you take? If you did take action, has the issue happened again?