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Date:      Thu, 22 Feb 1996 21:33:36 +0000 (GMT)
From:      Kevin Quinlan <Kevin.Quinlan@isltd.insignia.com>
To:        dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu
Cc:        gpalmer@freebsd.org, questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Kernel panic installing FreeBSD 2.1
Message-ID:  <11739.9602222133@ferrari.isltd.insignia.com>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.91.960222125830.1275C-100000@riley-net170-164.uoregon.edu> from "Doug White" at Feb 22, 96 01:01:04 pm

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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



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