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Date:      Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:06:09 -0500
From:      Michael Powell <nightrecon@hotmail.com>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: BTX Loader crashes -- Help wanted
Message-ID:  <he67nb$adt$1@ger.gmane.org>
References:  <4331.1258723456@tristatelogic.com>

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Ronald F. Guilmette wrote:

> 
> 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).

Try 8RC3 and see if any difference. I believe some work in this area may 
have occurred. In any event, these RELEASE versions are static and will not 
change. The only hope in this area would be if a fix from the 8.0 work has 
been MFC'd back to 7 STABLE.
 
> 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.

I don't believe you are the first to experience this.
 
> 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.

You can try disabling ACPI at boot, as well as toggling the BIOS between 
Enhanced and Legacy mode if this option is available. Probably your best 
approach will be to use a SATA hard drive while using a PATA CD-ROM. This is 
most likely what you will have to do if 8RC3 doesn't make any difference and 
you just want to get the box going. 
 
> 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.

If 8 does the same thing file a PR in order to bring the attention of the 
developers. There may be one, or more, already on the subject. Since the old 
releases are static the place to get the bits fixed is in the ongoing work.

-Mike
 








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