From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Jun 17 21:51:46 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id VAA26084 for questions-outgoing; Mon, 17 Jun 1996 21:51:46 -0700 (PDT) Received: from MindBender.HeadCandy.com (root@[199.238.225.168]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id VAA26062; Mon, 17 Jun 1996 21:51:37 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost.HeadCandy.com (michaelv@localhost.HeadCandy.com [127.0.0.1]) by MindBender.HeadCandy.com (8.7.5/8.6.9) with SMTP id VAA12553; Mon, 17 Jun 1996 21:45:03 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199606180445.VAA12553@MindBender.HeadCandy.com> X-Authentication-Warning: MindBender.HeadCandy.com: Host michaelv@localhost.HeadCandy.com [127.0.0.1] didn't use HELO protocol To: "Eloy A. Paris" cc: "M.R.Murphy" , questions@freebsd.org, hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD works with Cy486DLC processors? In-reply-to: Your message of Mon, 17 Jun 96 22:51:35 -0400. <2.2.16.19960617230901.3f870228@zeus.ven.ra.rockwell.com> Date: Mon, 17 Jun 1996 21:43:47 -0700 From: "Michael L. VanLoon -- HeadCandy.com" Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk >>> 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. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------