Return to BSD News archive
Xref: sserve comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.announce:7 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.announce:8 comp.answers:9555 news.answers:36489
Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msunews!uwm.edu!news.moneng.mei.com!hookup!solaris.cc.vt.edu!insosf1.infonet.net!cynjut.infonet.net!cynjut.infonet.net!not-for-mail
From: burgess@s069.netins.net (Dave Burgess)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.announce,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.announce,comp.answers,news.answers
Subject: [comp.unix.bsd] NetBSD, FreeBSD, and 386BSD (0.1) FAQ (Part 4 of 10)
Supersedes: <386bsd-faq-4-793868411@cynjut.infonet.net>
Followup-To: comp.unix.bsd.misc
Date: 13 Mar 1995 01:00:26 -0600
Organization: Dave's House in Omaha
Lines: 1395
Sender: burgess@cynjut.infonet.net
Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu,cgd@sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu
Distribution: world
Expires: 03/31/95 01:00:10 CDT
Message-ID: <386bsd-faq-4-795078010@s069.netins.net>
References: <386bsd-faq-1-795078010@s069.netins.net>
Reply-To: burgess@s069.netins.net (386bsd FAQ Maintainer)
NNTP-Posting-Host: cynjut.infonet.net
Keywords: FAQ 386bsd NetBSD FreeBSD !Linux
X-Posting-Frequency: Posted on/about the 13th and the 27th of every month.
Posted-By: auto-faq 3.1.1.2
Archive-name: 386bsd-faq/part4
Section 3. (Kernel Building and Maintenance)
3.0 System Internals
One of the interesting aspects of *BSD is the fact that it comes
with the complete source. This allows you to make changes to the
system, recompile, and test out your new ideas. This section of
the FAQ describes many of the different aspects of this endeavor
and common problems and pitfalls that are encountered. Kevin Lahey
provided the substantial portion of this section. You can contact
him via E-Mail at (kml@rokkaku.atl.ga.us) or contact Dave Burgess
(burgess@cynjut.infonet.net).
3.1 Kernel
3.1.1 How do I build a kernel?
The kernel can be compiled in a variety of ways to support different
devices and configurations. Compilation is controlled by a config
file that specifies the characteristics of the kernel. A set of
different config files is located in /sys/i386/conf or
/sys/arch/i386/conf. The configuration file names are in upper case.
To build a particular kernel (in this example, we use the GENERICISA
configuration file in NetBSD or FreeBSD):
% cd /sys/i386/conf
% config GENERICISA
% cd /sys/compile/GENERICISA
% make depend
% make
If you are using 386bsd 0.1, you'll need patch 1 from the patchkit
to get the compilation to work, because the version file isn't
correctly included in the Makefile.
In NetBSD, since there are multiple architectures supported, there
is an architecture line in the middle of the path to these files.
See the build.kernel script in section 3.8 for more information.
3.1.2 I want to do one of the following things:
* add a device not in the distributed kernel (third com
port, additional disk or tape, line printer driver, etc).
* use a patch from the net or the patchkit to fix a kernel bug.
* add another swap device.
* recompile the kernel to remove extraneous devices so that
it takes up less space.
* configure more pseudo-terminals to allow for more xterms
or network logins.
You're going to have to recompile the kernel after you modify the
config file. See section 3.2 below for more information about the
config file in general.
3.1.3 I don't have the source distribution -- how can I rebuild the
kernel?
There are reference sites available, as well as the 'good
net-neighbor' policy, whereby you could make arrangements
with a net neighbor to use a large local machine as a Network
File System (NFS), or allow you to compile a new kernel on
their machine and transfer it to yours. You can also ask for
help from comp.os.386bsd.questions if you get stuck and cannot
make any headway.
3.1.4 Now that I have a kernel, how do I install it?
Your kernel is called /386bsd or /netbsd. Copy the new kernel
from /sys/compile/GENERICISA/386bsd to /, assuming that it is
in that directory. This is relatively straightforward; there
are a couple of things to remember, though. First, if you
really screw up the new kernel, you want to have something to
fall back on, so be sure to save /386bsd to /386bsd.old before
copying in a new kernel. Second, if you just copy the new
kernel over the currently running kernel, funny things can
happen. Be sure to move aside the currently running kernel
before copying over the new one.
There are folks that have reported that overwriting their
current kernel has never caused them any real problems. On the
other hand, if the old kernel was working and the new one
doesn't, and you have made changes that require that old
kernel, it should be available to the system, and saving it
to /386bsd.alt or /386bsd.old are reasonable things to do.
If you are really paranoid, you can mount a new fixit floppy
and replace its kernel with the one you just built, and then
boot from the fixit floppy to make sure everything will work.
This is a pretty good idea if you are making radical changes or
if you are unsure about your changes.
3.1.5 After installing the patchkit and recompiling the kernel with the
option "WD8013", I am no longer able to reboot the machine. A
cold boot (power on) runs fine, but after a reboot no boot drive
is found by the BIOS. Besides having a 16-bit WD/SMC Ethernet
card installed the machines try to boot using either a Adaptec
1742 or 1542 SCSI board to boot from.
This answer was provided by Hellmuth Michaelis (hm@hcshh.hcs.de)
and by Rodney Grimes (rgrimes@acacia).
Remove "option WD8013" from the config files and recompile and
reinstall the kernel.
The reason that option WD8013 often causes this reboot problem is
this:
There is a requirement that all memory within a 128k bank in the
0xA0000 to 0xFFFFF region be either 16-bit or 8-bit. On a cold
boot, the WD8013 boards are reset to 8-bit mode, the POST
(Power On Self Test) passes without error. 386bsd comes up, the
if_we.c driver places the WD8013 in 16-bit mode. Now on a soft boot
when the BIOS runs some quick POST tests it finds a problem in the
0xA000 to 0xF000 region. You probably get a "beep-beep" when this
happens. It means you have a memory size conflict.
The machine has been mis-configured.
This is a little known fact about 16-bit vs 8-bit option cards.
It has caused more than one person to go crazy tracking down
what they swear is a bug in the program. It is not, it is a
flaw in the design of the ISA bus. The signal MEMCS16- must be
returned the same for every 128k block of memory:
A0000-BFFFF Must all be either 8-bit or 16-bit.
B0000-CFFFF Must all be either 8-bit or 16-bit.
D0000-FFFFF Must all be either 8-bit or 16-bit.
In your particular configuration (WD8013 @ cc000) I suspect that
you have another board in the B0000-CFFFFF region that is 8-bit,
i.e. your Adaptec has an 8-bit BIOS on it!
Try moving the board to the 0xD0000 region and see if it works
there, you may still have a problem as many modern system BIOSes
are now 8-bit. If your system BIOS is 8-bit, try shadowing the
system BIOS region at 0xF0000 to 0xFFFFF, this effectively turns
it into a 16-bit BIOS.
Do not attempt to shadow the WD8013, it will cause you many
headaches. In fact, it sometimes helps to turn on BIOS shadowing.
Some BIOSes allow to copy ROM contents to unused RAM pages for
selected 16KB-regions. While it is generally a good idea to turn
BIOS shadowing off, I have also observed that sometimes it helps to
turn shadowing of true ROM regions on.
3.1.6 My system is complaining about stray interrupt 7. Is my machine
going to explode or anything?
No. They are caused by lots of things. They are, as far as
anyone that should be expected to know about this stuff, harmless.
There are ramifications on them being there, but for MOST users
they do not pose a real threat to your operations. For those of
you that are doing REALLY interrupt intensive stuff, you may want
to grab a technical reference and figure out why the 8259 is not
getting reset correctly.
In spite of the number of times this has come up (and people have
even referenced this section) there are still at least two
questions on the net about this. A memorable one was a guy who
was just vehement that the stray int 7 was what was keeping his
system from booting. In fact, he went so far as to say that this
document was practically worthless because I didn't tell him how
to fix it. Of course, once he configured his hard drive controller
so that it was on the right interrupt, his booting problem went
away. I have said it before and I will say it again. For MOST
users they do not pose a real threat to your operations.
I have heard of three people (out of at least 2000) that have
actually have problems so bad that they couldn't proceed. They
bought new computers, and the problem went away.
These stray interrupts are caused by something in the PC.
I have yet to see a convincing explanation of precisely what,
but they are definitely caused by something. There are four
ways to deal with this problem.
1) Ignore them. They are spurious and do not effect the
operation of your computer.
2) Implement the lpt driver. This way, the driver traps
(the lpt driver expects IRQ 7) and then quietly discards them.
That is why when folks implement the lpt driver the 'problem'
goes away. The computer is taught how to ignore them.
3) Do what the original 386bsd code did. Comment out the
diagnostic and associated code that tries to deal with them so
you don't see the error message.
4) Buy a new computer that doesn't cause this problem. It is a
known hardware problem with the 8259 being reset incorrectly in
hardware.
Kalevi Suominen (jks@geom.helsinki.fi) offers this technical
explanation of the 'stray interrupt 7' phenomenom.
In the section of the Intel Peripheral Handbook dealing with
the 8259A there is a description of the 6-step interrupt
sequence for an 80x86 system (and 7-step for an MCS-80/85),
and then the following paragraph:
"If no interrupt request is present at step 4 of either sequence
(i.e., the request was too short in duration) the 8259A will
issue an interrupt level 7. Both the vectoring bytes and the CAS
lines will look like an interrupt level 7 was requested."
This explains how some transient disturbances or improperly
functioning adapter cards could trigger a stray interrupt 7
in a system operating in the *level* interrupt mode (such as
a PS/2 with MCA): An interrupt request will disappear as soon
as the interrupt line goes inactive.
That such interrupts may also occur in a system operating in
the *edge* triggered mode (such as an ordinary PC/AT with ISA)
is a little harder to see. Yet it is possible - even without
malfunctioning hardware - because masking an interrupt request
will hide its presence from the 8259A as well:
1. The interrupt flag (IF) of the 80x86 is reset either
directly (e.g., by a "cli" instruction) or because an
interrupt handler is entered. In the latter case the
corresponding in-service (IS) bit of the 8259A is set
(effectively blocking interrupts of lower priority).
2. The 8259A receives an unmasked interrupt request (IRQn),
and, in case an interrupt is being served and has higher
priority than IRQn, the IS bit of the 8259A is reset by
an end of interrupt (EOI) command. (These steps may occur
in either order.) If IRQn has higher priority (e.g. IRQ0),
no EOI is necessary.
3. The 8259A activates the interrupt (INT) line to the 80x86
(which will ignore it - for the moment).
4. The interrupt mask (IM) bit of the 8259A for IRQn is set.
(A little late, though. The sequence has already started.)
5. The interrupt flag (IF) of the 80x86 is set (either
directly, or as a consequence of e.g. an "iret" instruction).
6. The 80x86 will now acknowledge the INT request by activating
the INTA line of the 8259A.
7. The 8259A will not see the masked IRQn and will continue
by issuing a spurious interrupt of level 7 instead.
The original interrupt request (IRQn) will not be lost, however.
It is preserved by the associated edge sense latch of the 8259A,
and will be acted on after the IM bit has been reset again.
The net result is that a single interrupt request will be
delivered *twice* to the 80x86: first as a stray interrupt 7
and later as the proper interrupt. In particular, it is perfectly
safe to ignore the stray interrupt (other than sending an EOI).
It is just the ghost of an aborted interrupt sequence: the system
was not prepared for it yet.
3.1.7 I keep getting "wd0c: extra interrupt". What does it mean?
It means that the drive was already processing a command
(active) when it recieved an interrupt from the system telling
it to see if it had anything to do. This is mostly harmless
but could indicate that the drive/controller is having problems
if the message appears often.
3.1.8 I found a bug in the kernel. How do I report it?
Both NetBSD and FreeBSD include a facility called 'bugfiler'.
While the instructions are included in both system, there is
still some apparent confusion about when to use (and when to
NOT use) bugfiler.
Jordan K. Hubbard (jkh@whisker.lotus.ie) provides us with this
short article for FreeBSD.
To send bug reports, you want to use the sendbug(1) command.
The entire package for sending and filing these bugs is known
as "the bugfiler", which is where the confusion stepped in,
but sendbug is definately the command you want to use.
Second, it doesn't take a "net connection" to use sendbug,
since all it does is package up your "bug report form" and mail
it to us; no direct internet connectivity is required, just mail.
So if you can send internet mail you can use sendbug, or you can
also send mail to the `FreeBSD-bugs@freefall.cdrom.com' address
(do NOT send it to FreeBSD.cdrom.com since it will BOUNCE, this
is not the place to send bugs to, just to ftp stuff from!).
NetBSD has a similar facility, but has a different program and
host for bug reports. The program for NetBSD is called send-pr
and is slightly different in several respects. It is
recommended that NetBSD users see the man page on send-pr
before filing bug reports.
3.1.9 Can someone please give a reasonably clear set of instructions
as to how to get a "current" version of NetBSD running?
Marc Wandschneider <marcwan@microsoft.com> provided this
description of what he did to upgrade to the (then) current
version of NetBSD:
1. Delete the old source tree, saving what I wanted to (a bunch
of files moved around, and just unpacking the new one over the
old will cause some problems)
2. Unpacked the new source tree.
3. ran the following sequence of commands:
cd /usr/src/share/mk; make install
cd /usr/src/include; make && make install
setenv LDSTATIC -static
setenv NOPIC
cd /usr/src/lib/libc; make && make install
cd /usr/src/gnu/lib/libmalloc; make && make install
cd /usr/src/gnu/usr.bin/gas; make && make install
cd /usr/src/gnu/usr.bin/ld; make && make install
# You'll probably get some barfage from the above because
# ld.so won't build yet. Ignore it and install ld anyway.
cd /usr/src/gnu/usr.bin/gcc; make && make install
unsetenv NOPIC LDSTATIC
cd /usr/src/lib ; make && make install
cd /usr/src/gnu/lib ; make && make install
cd /usr/src/gnu/usr.bin/ld; make && make install
cd /usr/src; make && make install
At some point during the installation, your system will be
fixed enough that many of these steps will no longer be required.
For example, the new 'make' defines the variables OBJDIR and
MACHINE_ARCH for you, so you will not need those once you get to
that point. Until then, the following procedure may suit your
needs better.
#! /bin/csh
unsetenv NOPIC LDSTATIC
setenv MACHINE_ARCH i386
# Pick one of these three setenv lines.
# setenv MAKE "make clean "
# setenv MAKE "make obj "
setenv MAKE
cd /usr/src/share/mk
make install
cd /usr/src/include
$MAKE
make && make install
setenv LDSTATIC -static
setenv NOPIC
cd /usr/src/usr.bin/make
$MAKE
make && make install
cd /usr/src/usr.bin/rpcgen
$MAKE
make && make install
cd /usr/src/lib/libc
$MAKE
make && make install
cd /usr/src/gnu/lib/libmalloc
$MAKE
make && make install
cd /usr/src/gnu/usr.bin/gas
$MAKE
make && make install
cd /usr/src/gnu/usr.bin/ld
$MAKE
make && make install
cd /usr/src/gnu/usr.bin/gcc2
$MAKE
make && make install
#
unsetenv NOPIC LDSTATIC
cd /usr/src/lib
$MAKE
make && make install
cd /usr/src/gnu/lib
$MAKE
make && make install
cd /usr/src/gnu/usr.bin/ld
$MAKE
make && make install
cd /usr/src
make && make install
NOTE: At some point, you might very well come across an
unresolved external __DYNAMIC in crt0.o. If this happens, edit
the makefile for crt0.o (lib/csu/i386) and remove the -DDYNAMIC
flag) make && make install. Then put the flag back in the
makefile (but don't rebuild it until the natural order of things
dicates that it happen)
And Theo Deraadt provides this guidance when you get an error
like "init_main.o: Undefined symbol _pdevinit referenced from
text segment."
You need to
(1) install new config
(2) make clean
(3) re-config your kernel
then this goes away
3.2 What exactly is this config file, anyway? What are all of these
cryptic notations?
I've annotated the distributed 386bsd GENERICISA file; my comments
are delineated by the '--' symbols.
THIS IS NOT A COOK-BOOK. YOU WILL NEED TO DO THE RESEARCH (LIKE
LOOKING AT THE 20 OTHER CONFIG FILES) TO SEE WHAT IS CURRENT AND
WHAT YOU WILL NEED IN YOUR CONFIG FILE.
#
# GENERICISA -- Generic ISA machine -- distribution floppy
#
-- BSD can be compiled for different hardware platforms, so it is important to
-- define the hardware types. 386bsd can only be built for 386 or
-- compatible machines, so this is sort of superfluous, but maintains
-- compatibility with standard BSD config files.
machine "i386"
cpu "i386"
-- The ident describes the machine for which this kernel is to be built.
-- It is usually the system name -- "ROKKAKU", "REF", or whatever.
-- This can be used for conditional compilation, so that kernel changes
-- can be compiled in only for one machine.
ident GENERICISA
-- This should indicate the timezone of the system relative the
-- Greenwich. 8 is PST; 4 is EST. A fuller explanation is provided
-- below.
timezone 8 dst 7
-- maxusers isn't strictly checked; it is just used to size several
-- system data parameters.
maxusers 10
-- The options control the conditional compilation of features into the
-- kernel. The options can be listed all on a line separated by commas.
-- They are #define'ed when the kernel is compiled, so that #ifdef's
-- will work. An option can be given a value by appending an equals sign
-- and a value (enclosed in double quotes) to the option name.
-- Hopefully the names are at least somewhat self-explanatory. To
-- discover what everything does, you'd have to go through the kernel
-- looking for all of the appropriate #ifdef's.
-- [Perhaps somebody else could list the *exact* meanings of these
-- options and some of the other possible options?]
options INET,ISOFS,NFS
options "COMPAT_43"
options "TCP_COMPAT_42"
-- The config line controls the location of the root, swap, and dump
-- devices. Anything not specified is defaulted. This is where you add
-- support for multiple swap devices. Just list 'em, separated by 'and'.
-- The config line below identifies the root drive as wd0 and the
-- swap drives as wd0 and as0. See the section on swap devices in FAQ_02
-- for additional information.
config "386bsd" root on wd0 swap on wd0 and as0
-- A 'controller' is a device or bus controller. 'isa' is obviously for
-- the ISA bus. 'wd0' is for regular disk controllers, 'fd0' is for the
-- floppies, and 'as0' is for SCSI disk controllers.
controller isa0
-- The fields work as follows:
-- a. What do you call this device?
-- b. What controller is this on? As you can see, the disk controller
-- talks to the ISA bus, and the disks talk to the disk controller.
-- c. Where are the registers for the controller mapped into memory?
-- This is #defined in /sys/i386/isa/isa.h.
-- d. What IRQ is this device set up for?
-- e. What routine should be called on an interrupt from the device?
-- a b c d e
-- vvv vvv vvvvvvv vv vvvvvv
controller wd0 at isa? port "IO_WD1" bio irq 14 vector wdintr
-- You need a 'disk' entry for every disk on the controller. In the
-- config file originally shipped with 386bsd, both hard disks were
-- incorrectly identified as wd0. Be sure to change the second occurrence
-- to wd1, as I have done in below.
disk wd0 at wd0 drive 0
disk wd1 at wd0 drive 1
controller fd0 at isa? port "IO_FD1" bio irq 6 drq 2 vector fdintr
disk fd0 at fd0 drive 0
disk fd1 at fd0 drive 1
-- The 'drq' specifies the channel used for bus-mastering DMA.
controller as0 at isa? port 0x330 bio irq 11 drq 5 vector asintr
disk as0 at as0 drive 0
disk as1 at as0 drive 1
-- Define other physical devices. pc0 is the keyboard, npx0 drives the
-- math coprocessor, and com* controls the com ports.
device pc0 at isa? port "IO_KBD" tty irq 1 vector pcrint
device npx0 at isa? port "IO_NPX" irq 13 vector npxintr
device com1 at isa? port "IO_COM1" tty irq 4 vector comintr
device com2 at isa? port "IO_COM2" tty irq 3 vector comintr
-- Ethernet drivers of various sorts and the particular configuration
-- information they require. For most installations, only one of these
-- devices would normally be defined.
device we0 at isa? port 0x280 net irq 2 iomem 0xd0000 iosiz 8192 vector weintr
device ne0 at isa? port 0x300 net irq 2 vector neintr
device ec0 at isa? port 0x250 net irq 2 iomem 0xd8000 iosiz 8192 vector ecintr
device is0 at isa? port 0x280 net irq 10 drq 7 vector isintr
-- Tape driver
device wt0 at isa? port 0x300 bio irq 5 drq 1 vector wtintr
-- The TCP/IP loop-back device, ethernet interface, slip interface, log
-- device, and pseudo-terminals.
pseudo-device loop
pseudo-device ether
pseudo-device sl 2
pseudo-device log
pseudo-device pty 4
-- Devices required by VM.
pseudo-device swappager
pseudo-device vnodepager
pseudo-device devpager
Normally, there is an annotated configuration file called ALL which
gives a list of all of the options for the configuration file.
The configuration file that was used to create the list above
was for a 386BSD system. Many things have changed in the
config files for NetBSD and FreeBSD. As an example, the
psuedo-devices swappager, vnodepager, and devpager are now full
fledged devices. Like it said up at the top, use the config
files that come with your system as a basis for your own
experiments in kernel building.
3.2.1 Okay, fine. Why shouldn't I just add every device I can find to
the kernel, so I'll never have to recompile this again?
Because it takes up space. The kernel is wired into memory, so
every byte it uses comes out of the pool of memory for everything
else. It can't page out sections that aren't in use. If your
kernel is larger than 640K, then it can't be loaded. You'll need
to use Julian Elischer's bootblocks to put it in high memory, which
seem to be fairly complex. Installing them (once they are
compiled) is as easy as using disklabel.
Newer versions of the *BSD kith provide the capability to build
a kernel that is larger than 640K. Complete instructions are
provided in the appropriate systems.
3.2.2 What should I remove from the kernel?
What do you need? If you only have an SCSI controller, you don't
need the wd0 device; if you have another kind of disk controller,
you don't need as0. Unless you actually HAVE more than one Ethernet
controller, you should comment out all but one of them. If you don't
have an ethernet controller, you don't need any of the controllers or
NFS compiled in. Without a CD-ROM, ISOFS is kind of pointless. Just
look at what you have and think about what you really need.
3.2.3 I can't get enough remote login sessions or xterm sessions. I also
can only get four sessions working at a time. What can I do?
Increase the count of pseudo-terminals --
pseudo-device pty 12 # or whatever
Every pseudo terminal should have a /dev/pty* entry. If you have 12
pseudo terminals, you should also have at least 12 pty devices in the
/dev directory. The MAKEDEV script in /dev will create as many pseudo-
terminals as you tell it to.
3.2.4 How do I get ddb, the kernel debugger, compiled into the kernel
and running?
If you are using older versions of the 386BSD family, you will
need to add a line in your config file that looks like this:
device-pseudo ddb
If you are using a more recent version (the division is pretty
unclear about when the switch was made) and do not have any
device-pseudo entries, you will need to add the line:
options DDB
to your config file.
Build the kernel, then run dbsym on it:
% dbsym ./386bsd
Install it and go for it. Ctl-Alt-Esc drops you into the debugger.
Note: DDB as shipped originally is a memory hog, and it is very
difficult to get a kernel small enough with enough fun things in it
to debug in 640K
On the NetBSD-sparc system, the L1-A is used by the the DDB
routines to drop you into the debugger.
3.2.5 Can I patch the current running OS image?
In general, I think, the answer is no. The prevailing philosophy
seems to be that one should use sysctl for such things, but that
requires that one has already compiled in the ability to change
the specific variable in question. (I discovered this when I
wanted to patch tickadj at runtime; I added it to kernfs, and
when I offered the patches (which are quite small) I was told
sysctl was the `correct' way. What's incorrect about /kern was
never quite explained; the closest anyone came was to invoke
internationalization concerns. Of course, using /kern also
requires having compiled in support for tweaking the variable
you want to change.)
Besides, unless you've patched securelevel, I don't think there
is any good way to twiddle variables in the running kernel.
/dev/{,k}mem are, I believe, read-only once init sets securelevel
to 1.
Der Mouse
(mouse@collatz.mcrcim.mcgill.edu)
3.2.6 Can I have more than one config file? Should I rename it to something
else? Any other hints?
You can create as many (or as few) config files as you desire. The
system, once the patchkit is applied, will have between 10 and 15,
each of which implements certain functions or features. In addition,
the normal place for the patchkit to make changes to the config files
is in the GENERICISA file. Since this file should remain unchanged
and available, it is always a good idea to copy this file to a
meaningful name and modify that file. In other words, change every
reference in 3.1.1 from GENERICISA to HAL (or whatever you call your
system).
One final note. Every /sys/compile directory takes up 800K or so;
you might want to watch to see how big these all get.
3.2.7 What is the meaning of the trap codes I get in panic messages?
Sometimes this message appears in the form "trap type nn".
That message means that the system received an unexpected (and
unwanted) trap that probably indicates some form of kernel bug.
These traps, are usually received from the kernel, in which case
the trap.h definitions should be used.
The number (which appears in place of "nn" above) is *NOT* the
i386 or i386 trap type, it is a BSD-defined trap type number.
The definitions of the various trap types can be found in
/usr/include/machine/trap.h.
two of the more common ones are:
9 T_PROTFLT protection fault
(The kernel tried executing code
which was not noted as "executable".
This happens if the kernel jumps to
a bogus location.)
12 T_PAGEFLT page fault
(The kernel tried to access a bogus
area of memory. This can happen if
an invalid pointer is dereferenced.)
This is a list of i386 trap codes (just to confuse the issue).
Trap 0 Divide Error
The DIV or IDIV instruction is executed with a zero denominator
or the quotient is too large for the destination operand.
Trap 1 Debug Exceptions
Used in conjunction with DR6 and DR7, The following flags
need to be tested to determine what caused the trap:
BS=1 Single-step trap
B0=1 AND (GE0=1 or LE0=1) Breakpoint, DR0, LEN0, R/W0
B1=1 AND (GE1=1 or LE1=1) Breakpoint, DR1, LEN1, R/W1
B2=1 AND (GE2=1 or LE2=1) Breakpoint, DR2, LEN2, R/W2
B3=1 AND (GE3=1 or LE3=1) Breakpoint, DR3, LEN3, R/W3
BD=1 Debug registers not available,
in use by ICE-386
BT=1 Task Switch
Trap 2 NMI Interrupt
On PC/AT systems, the NMI input to the CPU is usually
connected to the main memory parity circuit. By the time the
error signal is generated, the data may have already been
used in an instruction, so it isn't possible to reliably
recover.
And some not-so-common causes (from various sources):
PS50+ : I/O channel check, system watch-dog timer
time-out interrupt, DMA timer time-out interrupt
parity errors on any 8-bit or 16-bit board pulling the
IOCHCK* line low
first generation of auto-switching EGA cards used NMI to trap port
access for CGA emulation (e.g., ATI's EGA Wonder)
Zeos Notebook low battery (perhaps other battery-based
computers)
Trap 3 Breakpoint
The result of executing an INT 3 instruction. MS-DOS and
Windows and some other non-386 systems use this for debugging.
Code specific to the 386 and later processors should use
the debugging features tied to Trap 1.
Trap 4 INT0 Detected Overflow
Occurs if an INT0 instruction is executed and the overflow
flag (OF) is currently set.
Trap 5 BOUND Range Exceeded
Occurs if the BOUND instruction is executed and the array
index points beyond the area of memory containing the array
being tested.
Trap 6 Invalid Opcode
The value read at CS:IP is not a valid opcode.
Trap 7 Coprocessor Not Available
This occurs if the processor fetches an instruction that is
for the coprocessor and no coprocessor is present.
Trap 8 Double Exception (Fault)
An exception occurred while trying to execute the handler
for a prior exception. Example, an application causes a
General Protection Fault (13) and the area of memory where
the GPF handler should be is flagged not-present (paged-out?).
The double-fault handler is invoked in these conditions.
If a fault occurs while trying to run the double-fault handler,
a triple-fault occurs and the CPU resets.
The rules for deciding if a double-fault should occur or
if the two faults can be handled serially are discussed in
more detail in the Intel song book.
Trap 9 Coprocessor Segment Overrun
A page or segment violation occurred while transferring
the middle part of a coprocessor operand to the NPX.
Trap 10 Invalid Task State Segment
During a task switch, the new TSS was invalid. Here is
a table of conditions that Invalidate the TSS:
TSS id + EXT The limit in the TSS descriptor is < 103
LTD id + EXT Invalid LDT selector or LDT not present
SS id + EXT Stack segment selector is outside table limit
SS id + EXT Stack segment is not a writable segment
SS id + EXT Stack segment DPL does not match new CPL
SS id + EXT Stack segment selector RPL <> CPL
CS id + EXT Code segment is outside table limit
CS id + EXT Code segment selector does not refer to
code segment
CS id + EXT DPL of non-conforming code segment <> new CPL
CS id + EXT CPL of conforming code segment > new CPL
DS/ES/FS/GS id + EXT DS, ES, FS or GS segment selector is
outside table limits
DS/ES/FS/FS id + EXT DS, ES, FS, or GS is not readable
segment
Trap 11 Segment Not Present
Occurs when the "present" bit of a descriptor is zero.
This can occur while loading any of these segment registers
CS, DS, ES, FS, or GS. Loading SS causes a Stack fault.
Also occurs when attempting to use a gate descriptor that is
marked "not present", and if attempting to load the LDT with
an LLDT instruction. Note that loading the LDT during a
task switch causes an "invalid TSS" trap.
Trap 12 Stack Fault
A limit violation relating to an address referenced off
the SS register. Includes POP, PUSH, ENTER and LEAVE
opcodes, as well as references such as MOV AX,[BP+8]
(which has an implied SS:).
Also causes by loading SS with a descriptor that is marked
"not present".
Trap 13 General Protection Fault (GPF)
Americas Favorite, in the Windows 3.0 world, it is known as
the UAE error. The instruction tried to access data out of
the bounds designated by the descriptors. The access that
failed can be a read, write or instruction fetch. There are
15 classifications of GPFs:
1. Exceeding segment limit when using CS, DE, ES, FS or GS.
2. Exceeding segment limit when referencing a descriptor
table.
3. Transferring control to a segment that is not executable.
4. Writing into a read-only data segment or into a code
segment.
5. Reading from an execute-only segment.
6. Loading the SS register with a read-only descriptor
(unless the selector comes from the TSS during a task
switch, in which case a TSS exception occurs.)
7. Loading SS, DS, ES, FS or GS with the descriptor of a
system segment.
8. Loading, DS, ES, FS or GS with the descriptor of an
executable segment that is not also readable.
9. Loading SS with the descriptor of an executable segment.
10. Accessing memory via, DS, ES, FS or GS when the segment
register contains a null selector.
11. Switching to a busy task.
12. Violating privilege rules.
13. Loading CR0 with a PG=1 and PE=0.
14. Interrupt or exception via trap or interrupt gate from
V86 mode to privilege level other than zero.
15. Exceeding the instruction limit of 15 bytes (this can
only occur if redundant prefixes are placed before an
instruction).
To determine which condition caused the trap, you need
the instruction, the contents of all associated registers,
particularly the segment registers involved, then the various
LDT, GDT and page control tables. Lots of common coding
errors cause the GPFs. Even a stack imbalance will usually
show up as a GPF. Even MOV AX,7 MOV ES,AX or
MOV AX,5 PUSH AX POP DS will get a GPF error. You can't
use a segment register for "temporary storage" of any
old value the way you could on the 8086. The values loaded
into the segment registers are checked in protected mode.
Trap 14 Page Fault
The page directory or page table entry needed for the address
translation has a zero in the present bit, or the current
procedure does not have sufficient privilege to access the
indicated page.
Trap 15 (reserved)
Trap 16 Coprocessor Error
The coprocessor asserted the ERROR# input pin on the 386
(internal on the 486)
Trap 17 Alignment Check (486 and later)
If enabled, this trap will occur if a data fetch does not
occur on a word boundary. I don't know of any software that
activates this feature yet. I have seen SCO UNIX get this
error on early Cyrix processors, even though SCO had not
enabled the feature.
Trap 18-32 (reserved)
[answered by Frank Durda IV <uhclem@nemesis.lonestar.org> and
jim mullens jcm@ornl.gov -or- mullens@jamsun.ic.ornl.gov]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.2.8 I have been getting a lot of "virtual memory exhausted" errors when
I am compiling a program with a really big static array. I have
128Meg of memory and 8Gig of swap. How can this be happening?
If you are using Csh, you can simply unlimit your processes in
your system level /etc/csh.cshrc file or your personal .cshrc
file. You can also modify your kernel so that the
amount of memory available is less limiting. J"org Wunsch
(j@tcd-dresden.de) provides us with this brief description:
From a recent posting i just made, regarding the problem how much
virtual memory one could get.
| On the other hand, i've also changed the definitions you
| mentioned. But i didn't like to modify the header files, and
| actually, modifying the values is as easy as:
|
| options "DFLDSIZ='(16 * 1024 * 1024)'"
| options "MAXDSIZ='(64 * 1024 * 1024)'"
|
| Include the above lines into your kernel's config file, reconfig
| and rebuild it.
|
This is just a hint for those people poking around with compiling
large source files. Especially, due to some gcc problems with large
static arrays, compiling X applications with huge bitmaps would
cause virtual memory trouble. Increasing the limits (o'course, as
long as the h/w resources suffice) could help there.
The default definitions for the above parameters are found in
/usr/include/machine/vmparam.h.
3.2.9 Where can I learn more about all this?
We've skipped over a lot of details here; the straight dope comes from
"Building Berkeley UNIX Kernels with Config", by Samuel J. Leffler and
Michael J. Karels.
3.2.10 Does anyone have a system building script that takes things like
building a new config and multiple config files into account?
This is the program that I use to rebuild my kernel. See the note
in the file about my 'test' program. You may elect to build a
new config every time, or not, depending on your requirements.
#! /bin/sh
#
# Script to rebuild the kernel.
#
if [ `whoami` != 'root' ] ; then
echo 'You must be root to successfully proceed from this point'
exit 1
fi
#
# Set up the environment
#
if [ X$MACHINE_ARCH = "X" ] ; then
MACHINE_ARCH=i386
fi
if [ -f /netbsd ] ; then
ARCHDIR='/arch'
fi
#
# Rebuild Config
#
# I am using a modified test(1) that allows for file date comparisons.
# You can either get my patches (if they aren't already included),
# modify test() yourself, or get the GNU ShellUtils test(1) program.
#
if [ /usr/src/usr.sbin/config -ot /usr/sbin/config ] ; then
echo "Config Up To Date"
else
cd /usr/src/usr.sbin/config
make clean
make depend
make
make install
fi
cd /sys
make
make install
#
# Modify the local Configuration File
#
echo `tput clr`
cd /sys$ARCHDIR/i386/conf
if [ "X$CONFIG_NAME" = "X" ]; then
CONFIG_NAME=GENERIC
fi
if [ "X$1" = "X" ]; then
echo "Configuration Files available:"
ls [A-Z]*
echo " "
echo -n "Enter the name of the config file to use: "
read CONFIG_NAME
echo
else
CONFIG_NAME=$1
fi
if [ ! -f $CONFIG_NAME ]; then
cp GENERIC $CONFIG_NAME
fi
echo "Modifying $CONFIG_NAME config file"
echo -n "Press return to continue (q to quit) "
read ans
ans=`echo $ans | cut -c1 | tr 'QqYy' 'qqqq'`
if [ "X$ans" = "Xq" ] ; then
exit 0
fi
vi $CONFIG_NAME
#config.new $CONFIG_NAME
config $CONFIG_NAME
COMPILE_DIR=/sys$ARCHDIR/i386/compile/$CONFIG_NAME
cd $COMPILE_DIR
make depend
make
if [ $? -ge 1 ] ; then
echo "Errors encountered"
else
if [ -f netbsd ] ; then
PROGNAME=netbsd
else
if [ -f freebsd ] ; then
PROGNAME=freebsd
else
PROGNAME=386bsd
fi
fi
echo `tput clr`
echo ""
echo " Manual Installation is recommended. The following files should be"
echo "copied/linked/moved to the root directory. The following steps are"
echo "suggested:"
echo ""
echo " mv /$PROGNAME /$PROGNAME.old"
echo " mv $COMPILE_DIR/$PROGNAME /$PROGNAME"
echo " reboot"
echo ""
echo "Remember that the new kernel changes will not take place until you "
echo "re-boot the system."
fi
3.3 X11/XFree86/XS3
3.3.1 What options should I define to get the X extensions included?
Once you have applied the patch kit, the only thing left to do is to
modify the config file to include the following line:
options XSERVER, UCONSOLE
recompile the kernel and the kernel should support X.
3.3.2 Where can I get the FAQ for 'X'?
Steve Kotsopoulos' general 'X on Intel-based Unix' FAQ
available by anonymous ftp from export.lcs.mit.edu in
/contrib/Intel-Unix-X-faq.
3.3.3 Why does X drop characters when using xdm? When I run xdm
from the console, it keeps losing keystrokes and the shift keys
don't always work. Why?
You need to run xdm with the -nodaemon flag. The reason is
xdm normally detaches from the keyboard. This allows other
processes (like getty) to return to reading from the keyboard.
A race condition results, where some keystrokes are sent to
xdm and others are sent to other processes. Using the
-nodaemon flag causes xdm to stay attached to the keyboard
so no other process can use it. This answer comes from Michael
C. Newell (root@wanderer.nsi.nasa.gov)
This bit of trivia is also covered in detail in the X FAQ and
the README that accompanies XFree86.
3.4 Compiler and Library routines
There are several questions that could probably be included
here. See also Section 4 for some of the more common 'missing
modules' that also happen to be library routines.
3.4.1 Which C compiler is shipped with my 386BSD derived system?
The standard compiler released with 386bsd 0.1 is GCC 1.38. This
version is considered by many people to be the most stable of
the GCC versions. All other Net/2 derived BSD systems have both
1.38 and 2.4+ available. NetBSD 0.9, for example, is completely
compilable using GCC 2.4.5, which is included as the default
compiler. FreeBSD also ships with the same compiler.
3.4.2 Where is libcompat.a?
The library libcompat.a is (working from memory here) completely
deprecated in 386bsd. The only exceptions might be the re_comp
and re_exec routines, which are discussed in detail in section 4.
In addition, things will be added to libcompat.a as they are
deprecated in the newer versions of NetBSD and FreeBSD. The
getreuid() and setreuid() stuff may be heading that way (if they
aren't there already.
The easiest way around not having a libcompat.a is to simply link
it to a small library, since virtually every other function that
is expected in libcompat.a is already include libc.a.
3.5 You promised to talk about timezones below. Are you going to?
>I've seen lots of stuff about timezone's being a bit dodgy,
>especially with most European timezones changing over to DST on
>the 27th March. I must say that that was NOT the case for me -
>pumpy (the author's system) is running off the
>/usr/share/zoneinfo/GB-Eire timezone file, (symbolically) linked
>to /etc/localtime, the CMOS clock is running off GMT, and the
>kernel is compiled with "timezone 0".
I use /usr/share/zoneinfo/MET as /etc/localtime and have the
kernel configured as
timezone -1 dst 4
(My wife is running DOS on this machine for doom sometimes ;-)
I set this strange dst value after diging in some old ultrix(?)
man pages. There were several dst-changing-method listed and 4
was the code for the central europe one.
This gave me an idea... I use an Ultrix box every day, so why not...
Now, I don't know how closely this applies to NetBSD since
Ultrix is based on a much older version of BSD, and this isn't
for the kernel config, but for an envar of timezone values, but
it's at least somewhat enlightening on possible meanings for
these things. Could someone in the know shed light on how
accurately this models the timezone stuff in the kernel config?
When I did "man timezone" this is what I got (portion of this
quoted from the DEC MIPS Ultrix 4.3a timezone(3) manpage,
slightly hacked by me (Michael L. VanLoon (michaelv@iastate.edu))
STD offset [DST [offset][,start[/time],end[/time]]]
the components of the string have the following meaning:
STD and DST Three or more characters that are the
designation for the standard (STD) or
summer (DST) time zone. Only STD is required;
if DST is missing, then summer time does not apply
in this locale. Upper- and lowercase letters are
explicitly allowed. Any characters except a
leading colon (:), digits, comma (,), minus (-),
plus (+), and ASCII NUL are allowed.
offset Indicates the value to be added to the local
time to arrive at Coordinated Universal Time. The
offset has the form:
hh[:mm[:ss]]
The minutes (mm) and seconds (ss) are optional.
The hour (hh) is required and may be a single
digit. The offset following STD is required. If
no offset follows DST, summer time is assumed to
be one hour ahead of standard time. One or more
digits may be used; the value is always
interpreted as a decimal number. The hour must
be between 0 and 24, and the minutes (and
seconds) - if present - between zero and 59. If
preceded by a "-", the time zone is east of the
Prime Meridian; otherwise it is west (which may
be indicated by an optional preceding "+").
start and end Indicates when to change to and back from summer
time. Start describes the date when the change
from standard to summer time occurs and end
describes the date when the change back
happens. The format of start and end must be
one of the following:
Jn The Julian day n (1 < n < 365). Leap
days are not counted. That is, in all
years, including leap years, February
28 is day 59 and March 1 is day 60. It
is impossible to explicitly refer to
the occasional February 29.
n The zero-based Julian day (0 < n <
365). Leap days are counted, and it is
possible to refer to February 29.
Mm.n.d The nth d day of month m (1 < n < 5,
0 < d < 6, 1 < m < 12). When n is 5 it
refers to the last d day of month m.
Day 0 is Sunday.
time The time field describes the time when,
in current time, the change to or from
summer time occurs. Time has the same
format as offset except that no leading
sign (a minus (-) or a plus (+) sign)
is allowed. The default, if time is not
given, is 02:00:00.
As an example of the previous format, if the TZ environment
variable had the value EST5EDT4,M4.1.0,M10.5.0 it would describe
the rule, which went into effect in 1987, for the Eastern time
zone in the USA. Specifically, EST would be the designation for
standard time, which is 5 hours behind GMT. EDT would be the
designation for DST, which is 4 hours behind GMT. DST starts
on the first Sunday in April and ends on the last Sunday in
October. In both cases, since the time was not specified, the
change to and from DST would occur at the default time of 2:00 AM.
The timezone call remains for compatibility reasons only; it is
impossible to reliably map timezone's arguments (zone, a
`minutes west of GMT' value and DST, a `daylight saving time in
effect' flag) to a time zone abbreviation.
3.5.1 How do you change the timezone on NetBSD (FreeBSD also?)?
Relink /etc/localtime. This will correct the difference from
GMT (or its trendy equivelant) to your local timezone. In
addition, the kernel needs to be modified to take the clock
time in your CMOS into account. Since most folks that run DOS
prefer to have their clocks set to local time, the timezone
hack was introduced to allow the kernel to adjust the CMOS
clock time to GMT. Once GMT has been computed, the
/etc/localtime file can be referenced to determine the
corrected local time.
All generic kernels are built using the offset from California
(why is anyone's guess:-) so just about everyone's clock will
be off by their timezone offset from Berkeley.
Also, it may pay to actually copy the correct timezone file
rather than link it. That way, you clock will be correct even
in single users mode (when the /usr partition is not even
mounted. The disadvantage of this is that anytime the timezone
file gets updated, you will need to make certain that the file
is copied into the /etc directory.
3.5.2 The translation between seconds-since-the-epoch and date
differs by about 18 seconds between BSD and other Unixes when
running ntp; why?
See ntp FAQ. Apparently, the time correction takes leap seconds
into account twice. The timezone files in our system take the
leap seconds into account in the kernel, and nntp takes the
same 18 leap seconds into account when syncing the time.
Because of that, the time will appear to be off by eighteen
seconds. (Henning Schulzrinne)
3.6 Optional Op-codes for NetBSD, FreeBSD, and other systems.
MNEMONIC INSTRUCTION
----------------------------------
AAC Alter All Commands
AAR Alter At Random
AB Add Backwards
AFVC Add Finagle's Variable Constant
AIB Attack Innocent Bystander
AWTT Assemble With Tinker Toys
BAC Branch to Alpha Centauri
BAF Blow All Fuses
BAFL Branch And Flush
BBIL Branch on Blown Indicator Light
BBT Branch on Binary Tree
BBW Branch Both Ways
BCIL Branch Creating Infinite Loop
BDC Break Down and Cry
BDT Burn Data Tree
BEW Branch Either Way
BF Belch Fire
BH Branch and Hang
BOB Branch On Bug
BOD Beat On the Disk
BOI Bite Operator Immediately
BPDI Be Polite, Don't Interrupt
BPO Branch on Power Off
BRSS Branch on Sunspot
BST Backspace and Stretch Tape
BW Branch on Whim
CDC Close Disk Cover
CDIOOAZ Calm Down, It's Only Ones and Zeros
CEMU Close Eyes and Monkey with User space
CH Create Havoc
CLBR Clobber Register
CM Circulate Memory
CML Compute Meaning of Life
COLB Crash for Operators Lunch Break
CPPR Crumple Printer Paper and Rip
CRASH Continue Running After Stop or Halt
CRB Crash and Burn
CRN Convert to Roman Numerals
CS Crash System
CSL Curse and Swear Loudly
CU Convert to Unary
CVG Convert to Garbage
CWOM Complement Write-Only Memory
CZZC Convert Zone to Zip Code
DBZ Divide By Zero
DC Divide and Conquer
DMNS Do what I Mean, Not what I Say
DMPK Destroy Memory Protect Key
DPMI Declare Programmer Mentally Incompetent
DPR Destroy Program
DTC Destroy This Command
DTE Decrement Telephone Extension
DTVFL Destroy Third Variable From Left
DW Destroy World
ECO Electrocute Computer Operator
EFD Emulate Frisbee Using Disk Pack
EIAO Execute In Any Order
EIOC Execute Invalid Opcode
ENF Emit Noxious Fumes
EROS Erase Read-Only Storage
FLI Flash Lights Impressively
FSM Fold, Spindle and Mutilate
GCAR Get Correct Answer Regardless
GDP Grin Defiantly at Programmer
GFM Go Forth and Multiply
IAE Ignore All Exceptions
IBP Insert Bug and Proceed
ISC Insert Sarcastic Comments
JTZ Jump to Twilight Zone
LCC Load and Clear Core
MAZ Multiply Answer by Zero
MLR Move and Lose Record
MWAG Make Wild-Assed Guess
MWT Malfunction Without Telling
OML Obey Murphy's Laws
PD Play Dead
PDSK Punch Disk
PEHC Punch Extra Holes on Cards
POCL Punch Out Console Lights
POPI Punch Operator Immediately
RA Randomize Answer
RASC Read And Shred Card
RCB Read Command Backwards
RD Reverse Directions
RDA Refuse to Disclose Answer
RDB Run Disk Backwards
RIRG Read Inter-Record Gap
RLI Rotate Left Indefinitely
ROC Randomize Opcodes
RPB Read, Print and Blush
RPM Read Programmer's Mind
RSD On Read Error Self-Destruct
RWCR Rewind Card Reader
SAI Skip All Instructions
SAS Sit and Spin
SCCA Short Circuit on Correct Answer
SFH Set Flags to Half mast
SLP Sharpen Light Pen
SPS Set Panel Switches
SPSW Scramble Program Status Word
SQPC Sit Quietly and Play with your Crayons
SRDR Shift Right Double Ridiculous
STA Store Anywhere
TARC Take Arithmetic Review Course
TPF Turn Power Off
TPN Turn Power On
UCB Uncouple CPU and Branch
ULDA Unload Accumulator
UP Understand Program
WBT Water Binary Tree
WHFO Wait Until Hell Freezes Over
WI Write Illegibly
WSWW Work in Strange and Wondrous Ways
XSP Execute Systems Programmer
ZAR Zero Any Register
If you have gotten this far, you deserve some humor.
--
TSgt Dave Burgess | Dave Burgess
NCOIC, USSTRATCOM/J6844 | *BSD FAQ Maintainer
Offutt AFB, NE | Burgess@s069.infonet.net