From owner-freebsd-questions Thu Feb 22 13:33:53 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id NAA20751 for questions-outgoing; Thu, 22 Feb 1996 13:33:53 -0800 (PST) Received: from mailgate.isltd.insignia.com (mailgate.isltd.insignia.com [193.112.16.21]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with SMTP id NAA20746 Thu, 22 Feb 1996 13:33:48 -0800 (PST) X-Address: Insignia Solutions plc., High Wycombe, Bucks, HP11 1JU, UK X-Telephone: +44 1494 459426 X-Fax: +44 1494 459720 Received: from ferrari.isltd.insignia.com by mailgate.isltd.insignia.com (5.65c8/UK-2.1.ISL) with SMTP id AA03817; Thu, 22 Feb 1996 21:33:38 GMT From: Kevin Quinlan Message-Id: <11739.9602222133@ferrari.isltd.insignia.com> Subject: Re: Kernel panic installing FreeBSD 2.1 To: dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 21:33:36 +0000 (GMT) Cc: gpalmer@freebsd.org, questions@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: from "Doug White" at Feb 22, 96 01:01:04 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org Precedence: bulk Hi, > I want to redirect this back into questions. Ok, so it may be a real problem then :-) > > I will check the RAM in the machine, it passes its self-test, but I > > will try and exercise it a bit more vigorously. > > That would be my guess. Well it has sailed through all of Norton Diagnostics so far, but I am still awaiting the comprehensive test results. But my guess is that the RAM is OK, and is set at 70ns in the BIOS so it is not being overdriven. > in that case we need to look at disk geometry being a problem; FreeBSD > has a horrid time reading the correct geometry. The recommendation is to > create a small DOS partition on the disk, then just delete it in the > fdisk editor during install. I think it could be having problems, the disk is a Seagate Hawk ST 31230N, the real geometry is 3992/5/103 we have tried 1010/64/32 (DOS likes this) and 998/40/51 with no success. Curiously, when the installer newfs's the partitions it gets the last parameter (sectors/cyl?) wrong and moreoever it makes the parameter for the last and largest partition /usr different to that for / and /var. But the crash is always the same, a page fault, which suggests somehow that the swap partition is not working too well, although does it ever swap when using 32Mb - or can the default kernel see 32Mb? I have also tried disabling the caches in the BIOS, but the results were similar in that the install failed, but it seemed to hang rather than generate a page fault that panics the kernel. I am unsure what to try next, DOS works fine, should I try FreeBSD 2.0.5? I have Linux available - is the installation process similar. I desire to get FreeBSD going in the end, but I would like to be able to narrow the problem down a little more. Regards Kevin Quinlan -- Kevin.Quinlan@isltd.insignia.com Kevin.Quinlan@insignia.co.uk