Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2004 11:58:25 -0700 From: "White, Sean" <sean.white@attws.com> To: <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>, <freebsd-config@freebsd.org> Cc: rikai@speakeasy.net Subject: problem installing 4.10, boot hangs after PLIP0 Message-ID: <2A5E0F7D50A37341BB53B6C4E6E0C0397332AE@WA-MSG01-BTH.wireless.attws.com>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Help! (please...) =20 I am having a problem getting FreeBSD 4.10 installed on my machine. Strangely, I have two almost identical boxes, and the problem exhibits itself on one but not the other. Any help as to why this is happening would be greatly appreciated. I have googled, searched list archives and poured over the handbook multiple times, and the only error report I can find that comes close (link below) does not seem to have been resolved... =20 Synopsis: =20 ASUS P2B motherboard, PII-350, 256 Meg RAM, 8 Gig UDMA33 IDE drive and ATAPI IDE CDROM, and 3COM 3c905 NIC. Booting from the 4.10 CDROM, I am able to get into the kernel config and play with what drivers get installed, but nothing I do there seems to help alleviate what happens next. After exiting that, it starts to boot, but stops at the "PLIP0" line and hangs indefinately. This list poster, although apparently using different hardware and installing a different version of FreeBSD, seems to be having the exact same issue, although the mailing list does not seem to have provided him with an answer. Link: http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/htdig/freebsd-config/2003-June/000007.h tml <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/htdig/freebsd-config/2003-June/000007. html>=20 =20 Detail: =20 Failing at the PLIP line led me to believe that perhaps (for what reason I cant imagine) there might be a problem with the parallel port or parallel driver, so disabling that driver in the kernel config, it then starts to boot but stops and hangs after probing/config-ing the serial ports (just like the poster above). In answer to the question at the end of his post, according to the handbook's example boot, the next thing in the boot sequence would seem to be probing for hard drives. So then I am thinking that there is something wrong with the drive or controller or the kernel probing for same. However, I am 99% sure that this drive and controller are working fine, as this hard drive currently boots just fine into Redhat 9 (which I am trying to replace). I can also successfully boot this machine via CDROM into any of a host of other "liveCD" distros such as Knoppix, SentryCD, Phlak, Smoothwall, etc. with no problems whatsoever (I realize that these are all linux kernel distros, so not a totally fair comparison...). So but the upshot is that this box does not seem to have any hardware issues that prevent it from booting to anything (via CDROM or hard drive) besides FreeBSD. =20 What is extra strange is that I also have a nearly identical box (only difference is 128 Meg RAM instead of 256, and 3 x 3COM 3c905 NICs instead of just one, otherwise, completely identical hardware), which seems to work perfectly. It boots from the FreeBSD CDROM (same disc), I dont even have to change or disable a single thing in the kernel config, and it successfully boots, proceeds into sysinstall, and allows me to go through the complete install process with no problems at all. I cant imagine what is different between these two boxes and they have never exhibited any hardware problems before. =20 So can anyone tell me what might be going on here, or what I might try next to troubleshoot it? Any help or pointers would be appreciated. If other logs or hardware info is required just ask, I will be glad to provide. This hardware is all relatively old (I mean old as in well-supported, not old as in crusty), so I wouldnt think there should be issues with unsupported, bleeding-edge craziness. And the fact that two nearly identical hardware configs are sporting different behavior would seem to indicate an actual hardware failure on the part of the one that doesnt work, but as I said, this box doesnt seem to have any problems booting other OS's, so I am confused. =20 I will disclaim in advance that, as with almost all computer problems, the issue is probably me doing something stupid or forgetting something. =20 Please reply via the list and/or my email address below. =20 Thanks! Sean White skw@speakeasy.org =20 =20 =20 =20
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?2A5E0F7D50A37341BB53B6C4E6E0C0397332AE>