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Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.hawaii.edu!ames!sun-barr!olivea!uunet!news.encore.com!idequesa From: idequesa@encore.com (Ivan Dequesada) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Subject: Compaq's incompatability. Can't boot dist.fs. Summary: dist.fs can NOT boot due to early switch to protected mode Keywords: can not boot Message-ID: <Byoso4.MMB@encore.com> Date: 3 Dec 92 14:09:39 GMT Sender: news@encore.com (Usenet readnews user id) Organization: Encore Computer Corporation Lines: 14 Nntp-Posting-Host: houligan.encore.com BSD's early switch to protected mode, and initialization at the register level, causes Compaq systems (Systempro, Deskpro 386/20e, 486 EISAs, etc) to loop-back into the BIOS-POST over & over in an infinite loop. I believe TI's TM4000 has a similar problem. This problem does not excist in LINUX's dist.fs because Linux does not switch to protected mode until much later in the initilization process, and probably uses some BIOS calls instead of register level video initialization. My thanks to Dr Holger Veit of the University of Duisburg for pointing out the differences between Linux and 386BSD as it pertains to the boot sequence.