Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 21:33:32 -0800 From: "Aaron Burke" <aburke@nullplusone.com> To: <adaml@visimation.com>, <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: RE: BTX Halted and Fatal Trap 12 errors on older machine Message-ID: <AMEMKJNMFLJCJDLFIEDBKEKLCLAA.aburke@nullplusone.com> In-Reply-To: <018001c2eaa9$8d19b500$6501a8c0@5adam5>
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> I've got this spare machine, and I thought it would be perfect as a > FreeBSD box to play with. It's a P-100mHz, with 32MB RAM, floppy, video > card, two PCI NICs, 50X CDROM, 40GB Western Digital hard drive, and one > IDE controller. > > However, I can't boot at all from any bootable FreeBSD ISO (tried > 4.5,4.6,4.7, and 5.0). I can boot RedHat, Windows, and NetBSD cds > though. When I try to boot from CD, I get a BTX Halted error message > right away, before the hardware even gets probed. I tried changing > every BIOS setting possible, but the FreeBSD ISO's just don't work on > this system. Anyone have any ideas why I would get this error? > > So, I then used the bootable floppies and successfully started > sysinstall. Each of about 25 installation attempts failed at different > points with "Fatal Trap 12" errors. Installations failed during > sysinstall extracting files, and during Gnome or KDE installation, > either installing from CD or FTP. Sometimes installation would > successfully complete, I would reboot, login, do some stuff, and then > another Fatal Trap 12 error would appear. This occurred while > installing various packages, while upgrading ports tree with cvsup, and > during compiling/installation of various ports. > > The only thing that seems to be a common thread is that the Fatal Trap > 12 errors occur during heavy disk read/write periods. Memtest-86 showed > no memory errors at all, and I ran a disk utility to check for badblocks > on hd, and the drive is healthy. > > I'm pretty sure that the BTX errors and the Fatal Trap 12 errors are > probably not related... They could be. > > Before I spend more time on this dang machine, does it sound like there > is something that I can work around these problems with? Or should I > just forget about this miserable thing? There are a few things that might be causing this. To me, allthough I am not a motherboard expert, sounds like you may be having some difficulties with your motherboard. There are a few things that you can try before giving up on FreeBSD. Avoid overclocking your CPU. You may also try underclocking it and seeing if that fixes your BTX halted messages. Also, the fact that you have tried FreeBSD 4.x and 5.x shows me that its not specific to any version of FreeBSD. For example FreeBSD 5.0 accesses parts of the mainboard differently by using ACPI. Since this is an older mainboard, you may have to look up some settings and move some jumpers around on the mainboard for this. There are a few other mainboard things that could be affecting the installation (or lack there of). One of them is RAM, are your memory sticks showing signs of errors? I have had Windows 2000 install but run poorly in the past, whereas FreeBSD failed. After replacing the RAM in the system, FreeBSD installed and worked fine. I have not run Windows 2000 on that box since, so I am not sure if that fixed some of Windows 2000's problems. Also, you can try to load the failsafe configuration settings in your bios. (if they are available) I am sure some other people on this list can offer some other, and perhaps better advise. > > Thanks, No problem, thats what some of us are here for. > > Trying hard to use freebsd... > Adam > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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