Date: 23 Aug 2000 12:17:11 -0000 From: "G. Rob Burgess" <norse@chek.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: alpha noritake install extremely slow Message-ID: <20000823121711.816.qmail@viebrock.chek.com>
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I have an alpha 1000A 4/233 (ev4) that has been sitting around as a backup that I've been playing with and am currently trying to put freeBSD on. I'm installing from CD (freebsd 4.1). The install goes great up to the waiting 15 seconds for SCSI drives to settle (not verbatim) and then it waits about 12 minutes, then it goes on to probing the system and waits many hours. I don't know how long for after glancing at it now and then for three hours I went home and when I got back it was at the install menu. I zipped through the menu and started formatting the disk and that's where it is now, it has taken overnight and it is still writing superblock backups. I read of the cntrl+f2 console trick but I see no complaints (at least none in this attempt). I have received "isp0: watchdog timeout" and other warnings on various other attempts. Ive tried grabbing the latest two snapshot floppies and starting the install from that, same thing, tried floppies made from the cd, same things. Thinking that it may be something with the CD-ROM or the tape drive I removed them and tried again, same really long time out, tried removing all but one of the hard drives, tried switching 3COM 3c509b for the original tulip card DECchip 21140 (that worked great with Digital OSF but I never got to work with Linux), same timeouts. I suspect the SCSI card, maybve something with the termination, this machine has a qlogic isp SCSI, the cable that runs through the CDROM and tape drive is terminated (although when I tried it w/o these two I just unplugged the whole cable. I don't know if the 'cable' that runs through the drive bays needs termination. A bit more history, a few months ago this machine ran Digital OSF 4.? unpatched like a charm (I don't know if CD or tape worked), after weeks of wrestling I was able to get it to run Debian linux but only if the kernel was built for a mikasa (1000), not a noritake, or even generic. I even learned the trick where it does not boot unless there is a tape in the tape drive. Running linux, it seemed to pause for four seconds or so every now and then, I figured maybe it longed for BSD. A last note, I upgraded to the latest firmware (5.7-8?) right before putting linux on it, I have since reinstalled the firmware and verified it, maybe downgrade the firmware? Any help would be appreciated. --rob Chek.com has partnered with the Literary Guild to bring you this great offer! Pick one Best Seller for FREE now, and get 4 later for $1! http://www.directleads.com/ad.html?o=872&a=cd15684 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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