*BSD News Article 8976


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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!hp9000.csc.cuhk.hk!saimiri.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!news.unomaha.edu!cwis!dosburn
From: dosburn@cwis.unomaha.edu (Don Osburn)
Subject: Help, Unable to install on Tandon Hardware
Message-ID: <dosburn.724562400@cwis>
Summary: Unable to install 386bsd on Tandon
Keywords: Hardware, Tandon, Architecture, install, boot
Sender: news@news.unomaha.edu (UNO Network News Server)
Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 03:20:00 GMT
Lines: 42

I have been attempting to boot my Tandon 386sx using the dist.fs image
and it will not work.  I did a binary download of the image from three
different places, and used rawrite.exe to write it to a 3.5" floppy
each time, but to no avail.  When I boot the system, it starts ok (I
guess), queries the A:\ drive, then just hangs leaving the A: drive
spinning infinitely.  I get a black screen with a flashing cursor, 
but nothing else.

I called the Tandon company long distance, and after waiting a LONG
time, I finally got to speak to a rather rude person that gave me the
following answers to my inquiries:

The Tandon 386 Option has a "standard 16 bit AT bus architecture," and
a "standard IBM compatible BIOS."  Here is the catch, when I asked about
the chipset on the board, I was told that it is a "Tandon  proprietary
chipset, made by Tandon."  I have 4 MB of memory installed, and a 105MB
IDE hardrive.

I would really like to work on porting the 386BSD to this machine, but
I am going to need some serious help.  I have relegated myself to
perusing the articles in DDJ to find some answers.  In one of the early
articles (sorry, I forgot the date), there is mention of some tools that
were created to "check out" a systems configuration, hardware, etc., to
determine any idiosyncracies that would need to be resolved with a
system in order to port the bsd to the machine.  Does anyone know 
anything about this?  Where can I get these tools, and how do I use
them?  The Tandon company does not seem to be very willing to give me
much information about the internal hardware of this machine!

I guess I should ask if anyone else has managed to port the bsd to
a Tandon machine.  Am I just being a total klutz, or is there something
different about this hardware?  I would be willing to spring for the
phone calls to Tandon if someone can tell me more specific questions 
that I should ask to resolve the problem.  I admit that I am rather
new to this, (I am a graduate student that has spent too much time
in the theory, and not enough in the applications), but I am willing 
to put in the effort if someone can point me in a direction. :-)

If anyone has any information that can help, PLEASE contact me soon.
Thanks in advance.  Take care.
Don