Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2004 21:08:53 +0000 From: anubis <anubis357@optusnet.com.au> To: Raphael Dinge <raphael.dinge-lists@ohmforce.com>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Big troubles running FreeBSD on a Shuttle nForce2 Message-ID: <200401202108.53652.anubis357@optusnet.com.au> In-Reply-To: <400C91D7.30809@ohmforce.com> References: <400C91D7.30809@ohmforce.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 02:26 am, Raphael Dinge wrote: > Hi, > > I've installed a long ago FreeBSD 5.1 on my mother's > computer which is a shuttle with nvidia nforce2 > motherboard. > The computer crashes for reasons I can't explain. > Since 5.2 was out, I installed it, and the problems > are still consistent. > > The problem is that the computer is crashing (freezing or > suddenly rebooting). The problem occurs on both 5.1 and > 5.2. > > - In console vga text mode, the computer did not ever crash, > and I was available to 'make install' via ssh from my home > a big variety of different programs, > - When I launch X, the problems comes, what ever window > manager I used, namely WindowMaker and KDE 3. > - Crash can occurs when moving a window, launching an > application, clicking on a link in a web browser, > - The computer is stable running with X if I don't do > anything with the GUI. I can still use ssh to administrate > from my home flawlessly. > - Crashes are very likely to freeze the computer or to make > it reboot suddenly. Sometimes it will just crash X, > - Sometimes when X crash, I can see that KDE did catch > a "Bad drawable" error (this is all the local machine, no > distributed X), > - Sometimes when moving windows, I can see small horizontal > lines as if the screen was not refreshed well, > - I was thinking that it did come from the kernel modules, > so I tried : > - with or without acpi.ko (in 5.1 since acpi > won't run on 5.2 on this computer now) didn't change, > - with various X card driver, namely 'vesa', 'nv' and > 'nvidia' from the ports, didn't change > - I didn't enable sound kernel module for now > - Enabling nvidia.ko in loader.conf always stall computer > startup after keyboard probe (did not try on 5.2) > - I don't use the onchip network controller (not supported > in 5.1), and did bought a network controller running > with sis, flawlessly. > > I must admit I'm completely lost with that problem, since > I have the same computer at home, but my mother's computer > was bought 1 year later after mine. > > I don't know from where to start, (hardware test, bios > params, bios revision, nforce2 motherboard support) since it > seems I can't find panic log (and I don't know if they exist > anyway). Googling and searching list archive did not > give me more informations. > > Any advice will be greatly apreciated. > > Many thanks, > There are a number of issues with this kind of machine and they arent limited to freebsd. We have a number of these machines running windas at work. 1 works perfectly and the others are a bit flakey. We had a long look at this problem and what it comes down to is these machines have shared memory for the video. They are very fussy about what kind of ram they use. This is why when you start using the video heavily there is problems. Our good machine used "good" ram and the other funky ones use unsupported ram. There are 2 possible solutions. One solution is to look at the nvidia site and only use the ram they suggest for igp boards. Second solution is put in a seperate video card. Note that there have been revisions on these boards so the one bought 1 year later may have significant changes to the bios and the chips such as the on board nics. The nforce 2 boards are great feature wise but they are a bit temperamental. I want to beat them like a red headed step child sometimes.
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200401202108.53652.anubis357>