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Date:      Fri, 28 Jun 1996 20:41:00 -0400 (EDT)
From:      Tim Vanderhoek <hoek@freenet.hamilton.on.ca>
To:        Jamil Weatherbee <john_b@netvision.net.il>
Cc:        questions@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: Problem with FreeBSD (fwd)
Message-ID:  <Pine.SOL.3.91.960628193926.1478A-100000@james.freenet.hamilton.on.ca>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSI.3.93.960628121522.9766H-100000@mother.cdrom.com>

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On Fri, 28 Jun 1996, Jamil Weatherbee wrote:

> Dear Reader...

"Reader" in this instance is a mailing list which resends your message to 
very many people.  Walnut Creek CDROM does provide support for FreeBSD 
(or, so I'm lead to believe, at least); rather, technical support is 
provided by volunteers reading the newsgroups, or the freebsd-questions 
mailing list (questions@freebsd.org).

> 	I bought FreeBSD from your site (www.cdrom.com) & I tryed to install it
> 	after I hade linux for about 1 year I wanted to see FreeBSD any way...

Our site is really www.freebsd.org.  www.cdrom.com is Walnut Creek's 
site.  I think www.freebsd.org is provided c/o Walnut Creek, but they are 
two different groups.


> 	The problem is when the kernel (at boot time!) starts to look for
> hardware the screen gose blank!! simply BLANK!. & that's it I can't do
> anything, I tryed to go deep & see what is the problem, ok, I hade an
>  old ISA Trident SVGA, I installed it & every thing went gr8!.

Sounds like the problem with ATI Mach 64 cards described in the FAQ.


> 	hmm .. I tryed almost everything (Even removing ALL the cards EXCEPT
> the Graphic card & again nothing, the card is (very strangly) ATI
> Graphics Xpression 2DRAM, I even tryed it with my friends computer that
> hade an ATI 2VRAM nothing .. .it worked gr8! 

Ahh, yes!  It is the ATI Mach 64 com 3 conflict!  The FAQ has the 
following to say:


     _________________________________________________________________
                                      
7.11. When I boot FreeBSD with my ATI Mach 64 videocard the following happens:
when the system probes the hardware during boot the screen goes black and
synchronization is lost and I'm not even using X! What's the problem?!

   The problem is that the ATI Mach 64 uses address 2e8, and the fourth
   serial port does too. Due to a bug (feature?) in the sio.c driver it
   will touch this port even if you don't have the fourth serial port,
   and even if you disable sio3 (the fourth port) which normally uses
   this address.
   
     _________________________________________________________________
                                      
     _________________________________________________________________
                                      
7.12. What's the solution or workaround for this problem?

   Until the bug has been fixed, you can use this workaround:
   
    1. Enter -c at the bootprompt.
       [ the kernel goes into configuration mode ]
    2. Disable sio0, sio1, sio2 and sio3 (all of them). This way the sio
       driver doesn't get activated -> no problems.
    3. Type exit to continue booting.
       
     _________________________________________________________________
                                      
     _________________________________________________________________
                                      
7.13. The workaround works fine, but now I want to use my serial ports.

   You'll have to build a new kernel with the following modification: in
   /usr/src/sys/i386/isa/sio.c find the one occurrence of the string
   0x2e8 and remove that string and the preceding comma (keep the
   trailing comma). Now follow the normal procedure of building a new
   kernel.
   
     _________________________________________________________________
                                      


> 	any way, I relly want to run the FreeBSD, couse I'm sick of linux, it's
>  ok but it's full of securety holes & bugs!, but it's not bad AT ALL!,
>  any way please help me out!. if you wold like me to send you any other
>  info about my hardware please tell me. 

I realize you're in Israel, but I would like to make a couple of requests...

point #1.  I (and probably most other people, too) try to limit the 
amount of time I spend reading one message.  When that message is 
less-well written, I am more tempted to skip over it to save time (poorly 
written messages take exponentially longer to read).

request #1.  Always try to insert a newline every 60, 70, or so columns.  
When people finally realize that html is the best format to send mail in, 
this will no longer be necessary, but until then...

request #2.  Some spelling mistakes are unavoidable.  Ty;0s happen, 
memory fails, etc..  However, had you used `had', `goes', and `really' 
instead of `hade', `gose', and `relly', I would have been able to read 
you message much more easily.  Little things such as `securety' don't 
really matter (I even let some people get away with `color' ;), but it 
took me a couple seconds to realize that you weren't talking about hell, 
geese, or bikes because of the mentioned three.

request #3.  The following is not a sentence:
> 	any way, I relly want to run the FreeBSD, couse I'm sick of linux, it's
>  ok but it's full of securety holes & bugs!, but it's not bad AT ALL!,
>  any way please help me out!.
	
	It's not a sentence...it's at least two sentences, and should be 
three or more sentences!  I'm tempted to rewrite it for you, but that'd 
probably be a little rude... :)

Anyways, I'm honestly not trying to pick apart your question.  The three 
things are just things that would honestly enable me to read your message 
quickly and clearly (in addition to telling me that you are interested 
enough in getting an answer to put the effort into writing a good 
question).  It's quite possible that I'm totally alone in that, but I 
wouldn't gamble too much on it.  ;)

I hope the quoted sections of the FAQ answer your question.  The FAQ, 
IMHO, is getting a little clunky in the section listing the questions is 
very hard to read...sorta fat and overgrown...

--
Outnumbered?  Maybe.  Outspoken?  Never!
tIM...HOEk






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