Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 15:03:24 -0800 (PST) From: "JULIAN Elischer" <julian@ref.tfs.com> To: cmetz@inner.net (Craig Metz) Cc: freebsd-bugs@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Random FreeBSD things Message-ID: <199602222303.PAA04326@ref.tfs.com> In-Reply-To: <199602221958.OAA00987@inner.net> from "Craig Metz" at Feb 22, 96 03:29:15 pm
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> > > I just ran into a place where Linux made me *very* unhappy (a wierd > bug in the LANCE driver in modern experimental kernels = every OTHER LANCE > board works...), so I figured I'd give FreeBSD a try on one of my scratch > 386s to see if modern versions felt like working. Older versions really > DIDN'T feel like working, but they were also recognized as having wierd > problems. The scratch 386 is a 386/25 with 387, 8MB RAM, 340MB Caviar, 3.5" > floppy, AT1500BT, Paradise VGA, and Intel motherboard -- nothing at all wierd. > > Ok, so I boot the 2.2 snapshot floppies. The menu program doesn't work, > period. It'll ask you lots of questions, it also won't actually suceed in > anything. Not much of a surprise. So I go to the shell (I'm a crank; I WANT a No that IS a surprise... it works just fine on this configuration as far as I remember... > shell for an OS install). ls? No, you mean reboot! Turns out any program > execution from the shell leads to a soft reboot. Not cool. have you tried it withthe cache disabled? > > So I go to the 2.1-release floppies. The menu program still doesn't > work, no surprise. I go to the shell. The good news is that program executions > don't reboot the machine, which is a good sign. The bad news is that every > program execution requires loading the program off the floppy. Uh, where's > the buffercache?! Not on the floppy, that's for sure. Painful as it became, > I was able to partition and label the hard drive and make the filesystem. Odd, > not as many superblock backups as I would expect, but anyway. Then I bring > up the interface and try a ping. Well, I tried, but someone apparently forgot > /etc/protocols. Ugh. So I try FTP, and get "network down". ?? Subsequent > painful debugging yields that it didn't actually decide to add the automatic > route table entry. So I add that, and the problem persists. It really doesn't > want to ARP anything. No ideas why. Are you SURE the kernel's seeing 8MB of ram? evn with 4MB it sholdn't be going near the floppy.. it doesn't know it exists, the root filesystm is inthe kernel.. you are just using a single floppy right? the 'boot.flp'? > > So, conclusions: > > 1. Could someone please make an install floppy that works like the > one in NetBSD or BSD/OS? I want a simple shell script and > a quick and easy way to a prompt. The menu program never worked for me, You should be able to use the FIXIT floppy for this. boot off the original floppy, then select the 'fixit' option. It'll ask for the fixit floppy.. insert it. you should then get a shell and a reasonable selection of tools to play with.. While I agree in some respects, the new install has been generally better than the old scripts. but we should have probablt kept them somewhere :) > doesn't work now, and is too cute anyway. > I'm sure there's more than one crank like me out there. I think that we are to worried about why it doesn't work! Once it's loaded it should not have any dependencies ! what EXACTLY do you do to get this far....? I've never seen an install floppy fail like you mention.. the 2.2 or 2.1.. (2.2 was a bit better) > 2. Did something magically change from standard 4.4/4.4-Lite to > FreeBSD as far as interface and route configuration that > would cause these problems or is something just broken? > The kernel is properly finding the board. how sure are you of this? > 3. Something's fubar with the buffercache. Not caching the floppy > is really, really painful for installs. MFS = ramdisk, > right? Then why is it trying to load everything off the > floppy anyway if most of the utils are in that big > all-in-one binary on the ramdisk? I don't get it. neither do I, it shouldn't be accessing the floppy at all unless you said to install off floppy.... after booting you can usually remove it.. > > -Craig > > >
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