From owner-freebsd-questions Thu Feb 22 17:13:22 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id RAA06286 for questions-outgoing; Thu, 22 Feb 1996 17:13:22 -0800 (PST) Received: from genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au (genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au [129.127.96.120]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with ESMTP id RAA06280 Thu, 22 Feb 1996 17:13:16 -0800 (PST) Received: from msmith@localhost by genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au (8.6.12/8.6.9) id LAA20829; Fri, 23 Feb 1996 11:40:38 +1030 From: Michael Smith Message-Id: <199602230110.LAA20829@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> Subject: Re: Kernel panic installing FreeBSD 2.1 To: Kevin.Quinlan@isltd.insignia.com (Kevin Quinlan) Date: Fri, 23 Feb 1996 11:40:38 +1030 (CST) Cc: dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu, gpalmer@FreeBSD.ORG, questions@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <11739.9602222133@ferrari.isltd.insignia.com> from "Kevin Quinlan" at Feb 22, 96 09:33:36 pm MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk Kevin Quinlan stands accused of saying: > > > I will check the RAM in the machine, it passes its self-test, but I > > > will try and exercise it a bit more vigorously. > > > > That would be my guess. > > Well it has sailed through all of Norton Diagnostics so far, but I am > still awaiting the comprehensive test results. But my guess is that > the RAM is OK, and is set at 70ns in the BIOS so it is not being > overdriven. I would actually be suspecting your RAM, your cache or your motherboard chipset. There isn't a DOS-based RAM diagnostic worth spit, and the good ones admit this. They will detect serious RAM errors, but timing issues are beyond anything that can be casually tested. > I think it could be having problems, the disk is a Seagate Hawk ST > 31230N, the real geometry is 3992/5/103 we have tried 1010/64/32 (DOS > likes this) and 998/40/51 with no success. Which disk controller are you using? > But the crash is always the same, a page fault, which suggests somehow > that the swap partition is not working too well, although does it ever > swap when using 32Mb - or can the default kernel see 32Mb? Swapping has nothing to do with the problem. > I have also tried disabling the caches in the BIOS, but the results > were similar in that the install failed, but it seemed to hang rather > than generate a page fault that panics the kernel. Definitely a hardware problem. I'm coming in on this late, so a quick list of CPU, motherboard, chipset, disk controller would be helpful. If you're only going to have FreeBSD on the machine, use the 'all disk, no' option to avoid any geometry issues at all. > Kevin Quinlan -- ]] Mike Smith, Software Engineer msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au [[ ]] Genesis Software genesis@atrad.adelaide.edu.au [[ ]] High-speed data acquisition and (GSM mobile) 0411-222-496 [[ ]] realtime instrument control (ph/fax) +61-8-267-3039 [[ ]] Collector of old Unix hardware. "Where are your PEZ?" The Tick [[