*BSD News Article 10665


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Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!destroyer!cs.ubc.ca!unixg.ubc.ca!ucla-mic!MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU!IZZYPI9
From: IZZYPI9@MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU (Alexander Burchell)
Subject: Help request: can't boot dist.fs floppy on Micronics 486
Message-ID: <19930201134953IZZYPI9@MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU>
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Date: 1 Feb 93 13:50:07 PST
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I wonder if anyone can help me with this frustrating problem.  Having
purchased a machine to run 386BSD and ignoring the advice to pre-test it
with the "dist.fs" floppy (a mistake), I now find that my system will
not boot this floppy!  It is the only disk that will not work on my
machine; all DOS disks work, and so does the SLS Linux release.  I have
the following hardware installed:
Micronics 486/66 DX2 ISA MB w/8MB, 256K cache
TEAC floppy drives (1.2 MB & 1.44 MB)
On-board "local bus" (VESA VL-BUS) IDE HD/FD controller
"local bus" ET4000 based SVGA card
Phoenix BIOS
I have tried swapping the ET4000 SVGA for a standard (640x480) VGA card,
and have used a 16-bit IDE controller in place of the local bus
controller for both HD & FD.  I also have tried all available BIOS
options to disable external & internal cache memory, slow down the CPU,
don't cache certain ranges of memory, block transfer mode on HD
disabled, etc., and nothing works.  I have used all versions of
"dist.fs" and "debug.fs" that I have been able to find, including those
from the patched directory on AGATE.BERKELEY.EDU which contain
"boot-tracing" code.  I have seen these floppies boot on other 486
machines, but not mine: on my machine, after the memory test message,
the floppy spins forever and nothing appears on screen.  Can anyone help
me with this frustrating problem?
Alexander Burchell (IZZYPI9@MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU)