Date: Mon, 17 Jun 1996 21:43:47 -0700 From: "Michael L. VanLoon -- HeadCandy.com" <michaelv@HeadCandy.com> To: "Eloy A. Paris" <Eloy.Paris@ven.ra.rockwell.com> Cc: "M.R.Murphy" <mrm@marmot.mole.org>, questions@freebsd.org, hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD works with Cy486DLC processors? Message-ID: <199606180445.VAA12553@MindBender.HeadCandy.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of Mon, 17 Jun 96 22:51:35 -0400. <2.2.16.19960617230901.3f870228@zeus.ven.ra.rockwell.com>
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>>> Cyrix Cy486DLC CPU
>>> 16 Megs. of RAM
>>> 1 GByte IDE hard drive
>>> FreeBSD 2.1.0-RELEASE
>I have one 16 MByte SIMM. I am not too sure but I think the speed is 70
>nanoseconds. I used a different 16 MByte SIMM and got the same segmentation
>faults.
70ns should be fast enough for this generation of hardware.
>There are some BIOS options (a couple of them) to introduce additional wait
>states. I think I tried them several days ago with no luck but I am going to
>try again.
You should try setting them to their most conservative (slowest)
settings. If you still get the same errors, your hardware is just
badly designed -- no amount of tuning will fix it.
>The faults are random. When the internal cache is enabled, I can easyly
>reproduce the fault with:
This just reconfirms my assertions. If it runs OK with the cache off,
it's almost definitely bad caching logic in the motherboard.
>I read in the INSTALL doc. that you should avoid using the "entire disk"
>option with IDE hard drives in the partitioning part of the installation. I
>am using my entire IDE disk for FreeBSD (no other OS's). Can this be the
>problem? I don't think so but who knows?
No, this is definitely a cache coherency or memory problem. It's
possible you just have a cheap motherboard that doesn't have good
enough cache circuitry to run something as demanding as unix. Have
you tried anything else demanding on it, like Windows NT or OS/2 (or
Linux or NetBSD)?
If it's truly a 486DLC, you already have two strikes against you.
And, you have to accept that there are some motherboards out there
that Just Don't Work with a demanding operating system, unless you
turn all the features off.
My advice would be to send the motherboard back ASAP and buy something
a little higher quality. If you're going to stick with a 486, get an
ASUS motherboard (well, get an ASUS no matter what). Make sure the
motherboard you buy takes a real 486, and not a DLC. Then you can
plug in a 486 or one of the new 5x86 chips, and things should still
work with FreeBSD.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael L. VanLoon michaelv@HeadCandy.com
--< Free your mind and your machine -- NetBSD free un*x >--
NetBSD working ports: 386+PC, Mac 68k, Amiga, Atari 68k, HP300, Sun3,
Sun4/4c/4m, DEC MIPS, DEC Alpha, PC532, VAX, MVME68k, arm32...
NetBSD ports in progress: PICA, others...
Roll your own Internet access -- Seattle People's Internet cooperative.
If you're in the Seattle area, ask me how.
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