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Date:      Sun, 20 Jun 2010 16:12:30 -0400
From:      Paul Mather <paul@gromit.dlib.vt.edu>
To:        freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: 8.1-RC1 fails to boot on iBook G4
Message-ID:  <375212BA-21BF-4E05-B138-BDC4349A8C21@gromit.dlib.vt.edu>
In-Reply-To: <4C1E65A0.9030800@freebsd.org>
References:  <ACC43406-4175-40E5-A974-A72A54EF55E8@gromit.dlib.vt.edu> <4C1A253C.7040905@freebsd.org> <1D327CFF-291D-4AC1-89F4-24A689303475@gromit.dlib.vt.edu> <4C1E65A0.9030800@freebsd.org>

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On Jun 20, 2010, at 3:01 PM, Nathan Whitehorn wrote:

> On 06/19/10 10:29, Paul Mather wrote:
>> On Jun 17, 2010, at 9:38 AM, Nathan Whitehorn wrote:
>>=20
>>  =20
>>> On 06/16/10 21:13, Paul Mather wrote:
>>>    =20
>>>> I just tried to book the 8.1-RC1 disc1 ISO on an iBook G4 but it =
failed to boot into FreeBSD.  I was left at the Open Firmware prompt.  =
Is FreeBSD known not to work on an iBook G4?  I was able to boot =
successfully into the FreeBSD installer using this same disc on a =
PowerBook G4.
>>>>=20
>>>>      =20
>>> That should work perfectly fine. I have a G4 iBook of the same model =
running FreeBSD.
>>>=20
>>>    =20
>>>> Decrementer exception at   %SRR0: 00100100   %SRR1: 10003030
>>>>=20
>>>>      =20
>>> This is a very rare race during early initialization that happens on =
some machines and that no one has been able to track down. A timer seems =
to have gone off in the middle of the OF->kernel transition. It's =
possible that if you wait a different amount of time at the boot prompt =
it won't happen.
>>>    =20
>> I tried waiting a different amount of time during a couple of boot =
attempts, but it made no difference.  Some of the times I waited until =
different points during the countdown to boot before pressing the return =
key, and at least once I pressed space to go to the boot prompt and let =
it sit there for a while before issuing "boot."  Every time, it failed =
to boot FreeBSD.
>>=20
>> Almost always, I get the "Decrementer exception" error above, but =
once I got something akin to a "Memory access error" reported, with the =
same %SRR0 and %SRR1 values.  I even reset the iBook's PRAM via =
Command-Option-P-R, but to no avail.
>>  =20
> That's very strange -- 0x00100100 is the very first instruction in the =
kernel, so it hasn't even had a chance to run yet. Maybe there is a =
hardware problem with your CD drive? Can you check that the MD5 of the =
disc matches the one on the FTP site when read from your iBook?

The exact same disc will boot without issues on a PowerBook G4, so I =
suspect the disc itself is okay.

Today, I downloaded and burned the NetBSD/macppc 5.0.2 install ISO.  I =
was able to boot successfully into the NetBSD installer from Open =
Firmware using that disc.  So, I guess the CD hardware is probably okay, =
and whatever the NetBSD boot loader is doing, it is able successfully to =
boot on this iBook G4 whereas the FreeBSD one can't.

Cheers,

Paul.




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