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From: dillon@best.com (Matt Dillon)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: 2.0.5-ALPHA install
Date: 8 Jun 1995 19:21:58 -0701
Organization: Best Internet Communications, Inc. (info@best.com)
Lines: 54
Distribution: best
Message-ID: <3r8b8n$dtn@shell1.best.com>
References: <87hh69ixsc.fsf@interbev.mindspring.com> <87u4a8jbx7.fsf@interbev.mindspring.com> <3qqugq$93j@agate.berkeley.edu> <3qtvv2$qev@gazette.engr.sgi.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: shell1.best.com
:In article <3qtvv2$qev@gazette.engr.sgi.com>,
:Michael Minakami <minakami@carenath.engr.sgi.com> wrote:
:>In article <3qqugq$93j@agate.berkeley.edu>, jkh@violet.berkeley.edu (Jordan K. Hubbard) writes:
:>|> >The kernel gets farther now, but there's a new symptom: it either
:>|> >hangs at the "npx" status line or hangs after saying "changing root
:>|> >device to sd0a". Nothing works after that point. It looks like all
:>|> >the device probes before that succeed.
:>|>
:>|> Hmmmm. Several things to look for now:
:>|>
:>|> 1. Is another device conflicting with you?
:>|> To find out: Boot with -c and disable all but the devices you need.
:>|>
:>|> 2. Is the geometry set correctly?
:>|> To find out: Boot sysinstall and look at the geometry in the
:>|> Partition editor.
:>|>
:>|> 3. Do you have both IDE and SCSI? If so, you need to boot with:
:>|> boot: sd(0,a)/kernel
:>
:>I'm having exactly the same problem. System is a 386 DX/40 with 8MB, Adaptec
:>1542B, Etherlink III, and a modem w/16550 UART. The disk is entirely devoted
:>to FreeBSD and is a 540MB CP30540. The hang is always after the changing root
:>message.
:>
:>--
:>Michael Minakami http://reality.sgi.com/employees/minakami_engr
:>Interactive Systems Division minakami@engr.sgi.com
:>Silicon Graphics Computer Systems (415) 390-3893
We had this problem too... turned out that the etherlink III card was
still in plug-'n-play mode (which the NCR SCSI card really hates, not
to mention the ethernet not working). The mode had to be turned off.
I also changed the etherlink III's IRQ to 11 and it's I/O address
to 280.
My suggestion is that if it be something similar, try ripping out
your non-SCSI peripherals (such as ethernet) and see if it is
able to boot.
Another possibility: Your root partition, containing /kernel, MUST
be less then 30MB or the bios bootloader will not be able to access
some of the sectors... well, it *thinks* it can access the whole
/kernel, but any sector above that demark is 'lost'. This causes
/kernel to get corrupted while it is being loaded and I've seen
it do everything from crash instantly to actually get through
part of the boot sequence before going south.
-Matt
--
Matthew Dillon VP Engineering, BEST Internet Communications, Inc.
<dillon@best.com>, <dillon@apollo.west.oic.com>
[always include a portion of the original email in any response!]