Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 15:34:20 -0400 From: Lee Cremeans <lcremean@tidalwave.net> To: Bill Paul <wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu> Cc: mike@smith.net.au, current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: 'fatal trap 12' on boot (smp and up) Message-ID: <19980701153420.16822@st-lcremean.tidalwave.net> In-Reply-To: <199807011503.LAA06760@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu>; from Bill Paul on Wed, Jul 01, 1998 at 11:03:14AM -0400 References: <19980630201717.09849@st-lcremean.tidalwave.net> <199807011503.LAA06760@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu>
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On Wed, Jul 01, 1998 at 11:03:14AM -0400, Bill Paul wrote: > Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, Lee Cremeans > had to walk into mine and say: > > > On Tue, Jun 30, 1998 at 05:38:04PM -0400, Bill Paul wrote: > > > I don't know if this is something to do with the BIOS or something > > > peculiar about how the x86 CPUs work, but with these three bytes, > > > it loads the FreeBSD boot floppy fine. I'm sure Bruce Evans will > > > jump in eventually to explain everything, except why nobody thought > > > to do this in the first place. > > > > It sounds like the BIOS to me; this is the first time I've ever seen a PC > > that checks for a short jump and a NOP at the beginning of sector 0. What > > kind of BIOS is this? > > It's an AMI BIOS. It says: > > AMIBIOS MOBILE '96 256KB BIOS OPTI FIRESTAR, 82c814 DOCKING > C8T 65554 VGA, TI 1151 CARDBUS, ESS 1878/690/938 07/03/97 R1.06 > > If you press DEL for setup, you get this mouse-driven setup screen. Ewww, WinBIOS. :( Personal preferences aside, I think someone at AMI put in some rather overzealous boot-sector virus checking...I get the feeling that someone there forgot that there are non-Microsoft OSes in this world. :( Check the setup program--if there's an option for it, turn boot-sector virus and modification checking off. > > (and does that FCC certification sticker have an ID on > > it? YOu can find the manufacturer using that, get the first 3 chars and go > > to http://www.fcc.gov/oet/fccid. > > Ooo... good idea. The FCC ID is: L4PK7000S13. According to this page > (which insists on using secure communications that don't work with > Mozilla, I'll have you know), Its only downside IMO...I have no idea why they require it, seeing that it *is* public information. > it's made by a company called Kapok > Computer Co. in Taiwan. The form indicates that the original grant > was mailed to a 'Sporton International Inc.' Wow...never heard of them. In any case, it's an AMI BIOS, and I know AMI has added a bunch of virus-checking routines to their BIOS. It appears that they check to see if the boot header on the drive is 0xEB foo 0x90, and if it doesn't match that profile, it cries wolf and won't boot. PS: AMIBIOS was good UI-wise until WinBIOS came out. And I don't like the AMI-based BIOS used on Intel motherboards, either--not configurable enough. I'm a fan of the old AMI Hi-Flex text-mode setup, and of Award BIOS. -- Lee C. -- Manassas, VA, USA (WakkyMouse on WTnet #watertower) A! JW223 YWD+++^ri P&B++ SL+++^i GDF B&M KK--i MD+++i P++ I++++ Did $++ E5/10/70/3c/73ac/95/96 H2 PonPippi Ay77 M | lcremean@tidalwave.net FreeBSD/Linux/Unix hacker...Win95 and M$ evil! (go see www.freebsd.org) My home page: http://st-lcremean.tidalwave.net/~lee | finger me for geek code To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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