Date: Wed, 26 Jun 1996 10:02:40 -0400 From: "Eloy A. Paris" <Eloy.Paris@ven.ra.rockwell.com> To: questions@freebsd.org, hardware@freebsd.org Cc: Gary Chrysler <tcg@ime.net>, "Lenzi, Sergio" <lenzi@cwbone.bsi.com.br>, "M.R.Murphy" <mrm@marmot.Mole.ORG>, "Michael L. VanLoon -- HeadCandy.com" <michaelv@HeadCandy.com>, sos@freebsd.org, Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org>, Didier Derny <didier@aida.org>, Alex Nash <alex@fa.tdktca.com>, "Andrew V. Stesin" <stesin@elvisti.kiev.ua>, "Brant M. Katkansky" <bmk@fta.com>, "David Alderman" <dave@persprog.com>, "Jacob M. Parnas" <jparnas@jparnas.cybercom.net> Subject: (SOLVED!) My Cyrix microprocessor/motherboard problems Message-ID: <2.2.16.19960626100546.362f66d6@zeus.ven.ra.rockwell.com>
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Hello everyone. Well, finally the problems with my Cyrix 486DX4/100 and my motherboard seem to be solverd. As you know, I was under severe attack of signals 10 (bus error) and 11 (segmentation fault) - almost all of them are, and this made my system too unstable to work as a dedicated server. In my last message I made a plan to find out the causes of my problem. These are the results: > 1) Replace the Cyrix 486DX4 with a genuine Intel DX4. OK, I got a genuine Intel 486DX4-100. I set up the jumpers of my motherboard accordingly and guess what? I got the segmentation fault when executing "man -a /usr/local/bin/*| col -b > /tmp/junk_test". This took me to the next step of my plan: >2) ... I am going to take my IDE harddrive with FreeBSD to another machine with an >Intel DX2/66 with a motherboard I know that works (it's a Digital computer, like one >that has been running Linux for about a year now with no problems - very good quality). I took the IDE hard drive with FreeBSD to a Digital DECpc LPx 466d2, with 16 Megs. of RAM and a 486DX2-66. Again, when trying "man -a ..." I got the segmentation fault. This really confussed me and made me suspect the problem was not hardware since I really trust the Digital mother board. The third step was not needed since step #2 failed: > 3) Get a different motherboard, one of good quality. I'll try to test the Cyrix DX4 on > it just to know if the problem is the microprocessor or the motherboard. I decided to made a final test to be sure the problem was not hardware: I repeated the same "man -a /usr/local/bin/* ..." test on my Dell Latitude XPi notebook with a genuine Intel Pentium @ 90 MHz. I had been running FreeBSD 2.1.0-RELEASE on this machine for more than 6 months with no problems. Initially I did not get the segmentation fault but when I looked at the /usr/local/bin directory I saw the Elm files were not there, as compared to the FreeBSD in the installation I was problems with. I installed Elm in the notebook and I GOT THE SEGMENTATION FAULT. I upgraded to -stable and I still was getting the fault. Finally, I determined that the command "man -a elm" was causing the faults. Summarizing, I found two causes for the segmentation faults: 1) I was using to test my configuration a command ("man -a elm") that has some kind of bug (I guess). 2) I was configuring the jumpers of the mother board for a Cyrix DX4-100, as is my case. If I do this I get more segmentation faults than ever, beginning with the modload command that loads the screen saver module. To overcome this situation I configured the jumpers for a genuine Intel DX4-100. After I did this my system is stable!!! :-) I know this does not make sense (to have a Cyrix working in a mother board set up for an Intel) but it works. Well, I hope this helps people having the same problems I had. Thank you all people that helped me with suggestions and fresh ideas. See ya! E-loy.- -- Eloy A. Paris Global Technical Services Rockwell Automation de Venezuela Telephone: 58-2-9432311 Fax: 58-2-9430323
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