weird, just as I upgraded it back to Patch 5, it finally spat out the 100 diag debugs I requested earlier (was still using Patch 1, when it spat it out):
 
 
 id=36871 trace_id=97 msg=" Find an existing session, id-000006c7, original direction" 
 id=36871 trace_id=97 msg=" enter fast path" 
 id=36871 trace_id=97 msg=" SNAT 192.168.1.10->x.x.x.231:42051" 
 id=36871 trace_id=98 msg=" vd-root received a packet(proto=6, 192.168.1.10:50383->x.x.x.75:80) from internal." 
 id=36871 trace_id=98 msg=" Find an existing session, id-000006c7, original direction" 
 id=36871 trace_id=98 msg=" enter fast path" 
 id=36871 trace_id=98 msg=" SNAT 192.168.1.10->x.x.x.231:42051" 
 id=36871 trace_id=99 msg=" vd-root received a packet(proto=6, 192.168.1.10:50380->x.x.x.179:80) from internal." 
 id=36871 trace_id=99 msg=" Find an existing session, id-000006c5, original direction" 
 id=36871 trace_id=99 msg=" enter fast path" 
 id=36871 trace_id=99 msg=" SNAT 192.168.1.10->x.x.x.231:29760" 
 id=36871 trace_id=100 msg=" vd-root received a packet(proto=6, 192.168.1.10:50398->x.x.x.48:80) from internal." 
 id=36871 trace_id=100 msg=" Find an existing session, id-000006d2, original direction" 
 id=36871 trace_id=100 msg=" enter fast path" 
 id=36871 trace_id=100 msg=" SNAT 192.168.1.10->x.x.x.231:42066" 
 write config file success, prepare to save in flash
 zip config file /data/./config/sys_vd_root.conf.gz success!
 Connection to 192.168.1.99 closed by remote host.
 
 Unfortunately, I still cannot run a diag debug successfully in patch 5...