From nobody@FreeBSD.ORG  Thu May 18 14:03:04 2000
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Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 14:03:04 -0700 (PDT)
From: ancipital@hotmail.com
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To: freebsd-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org
Subject: Install kernel freezes on startup
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>Number:         18664
>Category:       alpha
>Synopsis:       Install kernel freezes on startup
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       critical
>Priority:       high
>Responsible:    freebsd-alpha
>State:          closed
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:  
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Thu May 18 14:10:00 PDT 2000
>Closed-Date:    Mon May 22 10:51:26 PDT 2000
>Last-Modified:  Mon May 22 10:53:57 PDT 2000
>Originator:     ancipital
>Release:        4.0 (mar 20th 2000)
>Organization:
The Inedible Buddhas
>Environment:
Not possible, freebsd will not start.

Hardware is a DEC alphaserver 400/166, standard ncr on-board scsi (listed as supported by FreeBSD), type NCR53C8xx. Video card is DEC 21030 TGA 8-plane PCI device. Hard drives stardard SCSI, as supplied by DEC. CPU= ev4, sys type="Avanti". System has 128 megs of factory supplied memory. Raid controller removed for simplicity. Latest SRM revision, machine is an ex OSF-1 box.

System found to function under OSF/1 and linux.

There is more info online at: http://www.compaq.com/alphaserver/archive/400/400_tech.html

I hope I didn't omit anything too vital.
>Description:
At SRM, I boot the installer with either:

>How-To-Repeat:
Attempt to boot the install kernel from SRM...
>Fix:


>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:

From: Wilko Bulte <fo@bar.com>
To: freebsd-gnats-submit@freebsd.org, ancipital@hotmail.com
Cc:  
Subject: Re: alpha/18664: Install kernel freezes on startup
Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 23:16:23 +0200

 TGA video is not supported for the console. Try a simple PCI VGA card or
 a
 serial console and check what happens.
 
 Wilko
 
 

From: "Inedible Buddhas" <ancipital@hotmail.com>
To: wkb@chello.nl
Cc: freebsd-gnats-submit@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: alpha/18664: Install kernel freezes on startup
Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 05:58:26 PDT

 >TGA video is not supported for the console. Try a simple PCI VGA card or
 >a
 >serial console and check what happens.
 
 Oddness. It's the standard video card in the Alphaserver 400 as
 shipped, as I recall. Probably my fault for assuming that since it
 was listed as supported, that I didn't have to check each component
 individually against the list, too. Moral: RTFM.. :)
 
 I have found an old ET4000, and some fairly common cirrus logic card,
 I just hope that they are members of that subset of devices which work
 with the alpha.
 
 Thanks for the help, and the fast response! I will tinker tonight, and see 
 if I can't get a little further.
 
 Regards,
 
 -a-
 
 (apologies for the crappy wrapping/formatting. For various reasons,
 I must use hotmail for now!)
 
 
 
 ________________________________________________________________________
 Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
 
 

From: Wilko Bulte <wilko@freebsd.org>
To: freebsd-gnats-submit@freebsd.org, ancipital@hotmail.com
Cc:  
Subject: Re: alpha/18664: Install kernel freezes on startup
Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 19:02:07 +0200

 FWIW: I have used an ISA ET4000 succesfully on an Alpha. I *think* I
 also
 had a Cirrus Logic working sometime ago. Other cards that are generally
 known to work are the S3 cards.
 
 Wilko
 
 
 
State-Changed-From-To: open->closed 
State-Changed-By: wilko 
State-Changed-When: Mon May 22 10:51:26 PDT 2000 
State-Changed-Why:  
PR submitter acknowledged that using the unsupported TGA 
as the console caused the problem. Morale: read alpha/HARDWARE.TXT 
carefully ;-) 
Wilko 

>Unformatted:
 >>> boot dva0
 
 (for floppy boot)
 
 or 
 
 >>> boot dka400
 
 (for CD boot)
 
 Kernel and ramdisk are loaded. The loader says "Entering kernel at [large addr in hex]". The machine goes no further.
