Date: Tue, 04 Nov 1997 02:59:48 -0600 From: Mike <mike@icorp.net> To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Virtual Terminal snafu in 2.1.5 and 2.2.2 gripes Message-ID: <3.0.1.32.19971104025948.00a82d50@icorp.net> In-Reply-To: <19971104181210.64257@lemis.com> References: <3.0.1.32.19971103214514.00b44100@mail.icorp.net> <199711032038.PAA17352@sumter.awod.com> <199711040105.BAA126634@out2.ibm.net> <3.0.1.32.19971103214514.00b44100@mail.icorp.net>
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At 06:12 PM 11/04/97 +1030, Greg Lehey wrote: >On Mon, Nov 03, 1997 at 09:45:14PM -0600, Mike (mlbsd) wrote: >> >> I'm running FreeBSD 2.1.5 on a PPro 200 Intel system. I have a little >> problem in that during boot-up, if I don't repeatedly hit "ScrollLock", the >> console will freeze and the only way to access the system is remotely. I >> narrowed this down to some bug in the virtual terminal software - my >> question is - is there a way to disable this "feature" from the >> boot/start-up process? Is there an upgrade? Can I load the virtual >> terminal process manually later? Is it configured in the Kernel? I'd >> prefer to not have to re-compile the kernel since I haven't done that >> before and I'm otherwise happy with the system's performance. > >The virtual terminals are what you talk to. Even if you only have one >of them, you have them. By default, you have the sc driver, but you >can change to vt if you think this would make a difference. Look in >this part of the config file: I have not rebuilt the kernel, so I'm not sure what file you're talking about. Pardon my ignorance of the nomenclature, but I'm referring to whatever software handles the console (alt F1-F3). If I don't start hammering scroll lock after the SCSI device check, the console locks up - it's pretty darn weird. Are you telling me the kernel needs to be recompiled to fix this? >Personally, I suspect some latent hardware problem. If you have built >your own kernel, this could conceivably be a kernel build problem, but >I can't even hazard a guess where. I've never built my own kernel. I selected the hardware and software so I could avoid having to mess around with those things. And my first installation of FreeBSD was so painless that I've never had to - maybe I was spoiled? The system has been incredibly reliable under major traffic loads. >> This is a pretty generic system set up (Intel VS-440 PPro system with 64MB >> Ram, Adaptec 2940uw, Seagate Barricudas, 3Com 3c509). I recently purchased >> FreeBSD 2.2.2 and was dismayed to find that the damn thing wouldn't >> recognize my SCSI CD-ROM. I could boot to the CDROM but after >> installation, the OS wouldn't recognize the drive!! I was in a critical >> situation and needed to get the system back online so I threw 2.1.5 back >> online. > >I think you're jumping to conclusions here. This is definitely not >standard behaviour. You don't say what your CD-ROM is, but I haven't >heard of any problems with any SCSI CD-ROM, and the Adaptec 2940 is >also well-known and used. How do you determine that the OS doesn't >recognize it? I'm not sure what the brand of the CDROM is, but it's name-brand, on the SCSI interface. I wish it were as simple as a jumped conclusion, but to me it's pretty simple - either the CDROM drive works or it doesn't. Funny thing: I install 2.1.5 - it works perfectly; I install 2.2.2, it doesn't work - it isn't recognized; it can't be mounted using any recognizeable device identifiers; I went thru the entire hardware list and couldn't get anything to work. At the time, I had my 2.1.5 system crash - the hard drive was bad. This was an unforseen disaster so I didn't have the luxury of spending a day or two to find out what was wrong - not when my web server was averaging about 3M hits a day when it died. I had 2.2.2 so I thought this was an opportunity to install it - unfortunately the installation was not as smooth as 2.1.5. I tried three times, re-configured everything over and over and still couldn't get it to work. I even replaced the 2940uw with a newer version which supported the bootable CDROM - I could boot from the damn CDROM and install 2.2.2, but when FreeBSD booted, it refused to recognize the CDROM and I couldn't install any ports - and of course, cdrom.com is so blazingly fast [sic] that it wasn't economical to download what I needed. So I stuck the 2.1.5 CDROM back in, and without any troubles, without any configuration problems or kernel rebuilding, it installed flawlessly. How do you explain that? As a result.... >> From my perspective, 2.2.2 sucks The one time I needed to take advantage of the WONDERFUL ease of installation of FreeBSD in a mission critical environment, it failed on me, so that probably explains my cynacism - although I'm still a huge fan of FreeBSD - but all I can recommend at this time is 2.1.5 - even with its bugs, it's a workhorse. >I think that this says more about your perspective than 2.2.2. Maybe so. I use the OS to get work done and don't have time to figure out why a newer version doesn't seem to support the same hardware configuration as its predecessor. Maybe it is possible to get it working, but I couldn't figure it out soon enough and I don't think it should have been that difficult.
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