Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2000 10:03:31 -0800 (PST) From: bero@redhat.de To: freebsd-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org Subject: i386/16132: FreeBSD doesn't install on Notebook w/ SystemSoft MobilePRO BIOS 1.01 Message-ID: <20000115180331.9DEC114E31@hub.freebsd.org>
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>Number: 16132
>Category: i386
>Synopsis: FreeBSD doesn't install on Notebook w/ SystemSoft MobilePRO BIOS 1.01
>Confidential: no
>Severity: serious
>Priority: medium
>Responsible: freebsd-bugs
>State: open
>Quarter:
>Keywords:
>Date-Required:
>Class: sw-bug
>Submitter-Id: current-users
>Arrival-Date: Sat Jan 15 10:10:01 PST 2000
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator: Bernhard Rosenkraenzer
>Release: 4.0-20000114-CURRENT, 3.4-RELEASE
>Organization:
Red Hat
>Environment:
n/a
>Description:
Trying to install FreeBSD (same with 3.4-RELEASE and 4.0-20000114-CURRENT) on a Gericom 3xC notebook fails; the install kernel doesn't come up. I suspect a timer interrupt problem (very probably a BIOS bug, but one that can be worked around; Linux [Red Hat 6.2b1] works). When doing boot -v, the kernel hangs after printing "Calibrating clock(s) ..." (sys/i386/isa/clock.c). At this point, nothing works (keyboard LEDs and stuff). Pushing the suspend button (off button in suspend mode -> NMI) leads to an infinite beep rather than a short beep followed by suspend-to-disk. Pushing the suspend button again [generating another NMI] suspends the box. When resuming from suspend, booting proceeds to the kernel configuration menu; at this point, nothing works (suspending/resuming a couple of times doesn't fix anything - the kernel waits for keyboard input, but the keyboard is dead).
Prior to entering the kernel configuration menu, two more messages are printed; they scroll by too fast to be read entirely (and with a dead keyboard, there's nothing to do about it); one says something about a timer differing from default by more than 1 percent, the other identifies the timer ("Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz"; booting without -v gets up to this point before the first hang).
Some details on this notebook: Mobile Celeron 400 CPU Revision 7, 128 MB SDRAM, Intel PIIX4 chipset, IDE harddisk/DVD drive, normal floppy drive and keyboard (no internal USB or such), SystemSoft MobilePRO BIOS 1.01(R1.12) (current)
>How-To-Repeat:
My current guess is the problem is related to the BIOS, so trying to install FreeBSD on any notebook using SystemSoft MobilePRO BIOS 1.01 should do. I might be wrong about the reason though...
>Fix:
no idea yet. My first guess is that the writertc() calls in clock.c
are causing the trouble.
Btw: Where can I download the BOOTMFS kernel config file? I'd like to play with
this bug.
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted:
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