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Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997 07:17:12 -0800
From: "Jin Guojun[ITG]" <jin@george.lbl.gov>
Message-Id: <199701101517.HAA17363@george.lbl.gov>
To: bcs@afn.org, chuckr@glue.umd.edu
Subject: Re: Natoma PPRO freezes with 2.1.6R.
Cc: hardware@freebsd.org, questions@freebsd.org
Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org
X-Loop: FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

>> I just unpacked a SuperMicro P6DNF (Natoma, 440FX) with 1 PPRO 180Mhz
>> CPU, 64M EDO RAM, 2940UW SCSI, SMC8432BTA ethernet.
>> 
>> I installed 2.1.6R and began to compile a custom kernel.  At various
>> stages -- either during "make depend" or "make" -- the system simply
>> freezes.  No errors on the console or in /var/log/messages.
>> 
>> Is there a problem with this motherboard or with Natoma/440FX boards?
>
>There isn't any generic Natoma problem, I have one working the SMP kernel,
>it's running fine, and I've had it nearly non-stop compiling for days.
>You have to go looking for other causes (bad memory, disk, motherboard,
>whatever).  I know, that's the last thing you wanted to hear ...

Possibly, it is this kind of motherboard (typically, the 440FX chipset)
problem. I have proved some of this kind of motherboards are defective.
Most vendor will use DOS as their testing base, which will not find the
problem. I made great effort to convince the motherboard is bad so that
they replaced me another one and everything goes smoothly.

So, you need to use same environment with any other Pentinum Pro motherboard
to see if it works. If the result is yes, then the motherboard is bad.
Otherwise, check the memory, and make sure it is 60 ns and the memory works
under other environment (different FreeBSD version).
Do not test things under DOS which will NOT use many functions in chipset.

Good Luck!

-Jin