From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Nov 20 13:24:17 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 32F14106566B for ; Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:24:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rfg@tristatelogic.com) Received: from outgoing.tristatelogic.com (segfault.tristatelogic.com [69.62.255.118]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0B54C8FC1F for ; Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:24:16 +0000 (UTC) Received: from segfault-nmh-helo.tristatelogic.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by segfault.tristatelogic.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 728C9BDC46 for ; Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:24:16 -0800 (PST) To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:24:16 -0800 Message-ID: <4331.1258723456@tristatelogic.com> From: "Ronald F. Guilmette" Subject: BTX Loader crashes -- Help wanted X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:24:17 -0000 Who should I be talking to if the BTX loader is crashing on my specific hardware configuration, and what specific info do I need to be gathering for him/her in order to have hope of getting the problem rectified? I'd pulled stuff out of the system in question until there's practically nothing left and I'm at my wit's end with this problem. System: AMD Athlon 64 1640B CPU MSI K9VGM-V motherboard 1GB 667 DDR (Kingston) LG DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS50 - OEM floppy drive That's it. I've yanked out all the non-essential cards, _and_ I've even taken out the hard drive, and I'm still having BTX crashes. The problem(s) occurs with FreeBSD 6.3-RELEASE/i386 disk1 (CD), 7.0-RELEASE/i386 disk1 (CD), 7.2-RELEASE/i386 Live Filesystem (CD), and 7.2-RELEASE/amd64 Live Filesystem (CD). The symptoms are different depending on which of the above I'm trying to boot from. In the case of the first two, the crash results in a bunch of register values being displayed on my screen, after which the system is dead. In the case of the last two above, it appears that the BTX loader actually starts to load a kernel (well, anyway, the little twisty thing starts turning), but then the screen goes completely black, after which my monitor senses that the video signal has gone completely dead, and at that point the system is just frozen, and needs a power-cycle or hard reset to get going again. Curiously, with the same motherboard (_and_ the same boot CDs), I have no problems at all booting off of any of the above boot CDs, AS LONG AS I am using a different (PATA) CD/DVD drive. But I have tried two different recent vintage SATA CD/DVD drives (Optiarc & the LG mentioned above) and both result in the booting failures described above. I'm bumbed. I really had hoped to start moving my machines over to SATA, but so far things are just not working out smoothly at all.