From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun May 4 19:06:44 2008 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 899671065683 for ; Sun, 4 May 2008 19:06:44 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cb@lim.nl) Received: from lim.nl (78-27-3-26.dsl.alice.nl [78.27.3.26]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 369B98FC23 for ; Sun, 4 May 2008 19:06:43 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cb@lim.nl) Received: by venus (Postfix, from userid 80) id 1344A5C1F; Sun, 4 May 2008 21:06:34 +0200 (CEST) To: FreeBSD Mailing Lists MIME-Version: 1.0 Date: Sun, 04 May 2008 21:06:34 +0200 From: Colin Brace In-Reply-To: <20080504201503.H21598@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> References: <4a89d1190805040335r18ecc433ie6631a64866fd99a@mail.gmail.com> <20080504201503.H21598@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> Message-ID: X-Sender: cb@lim.nl User-Agent: RoundCube Webmail/0.1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Cc: Wojciech Puchar Subject: Re: server (partly) fails: hardware? 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: Sun, 04 May 2008 19:06:44 -0000 On Sun, 4 May 2008 20:14:45 +0200 (CEST), Wojciech Puchar wrote: > disk I/O hangs while everything else works. > check with smartmontools if your disk report problems, if not - check > cables. Thanks for the tip. This sounds promising. > FreeBSD runs fine on pentium 90 with 16MB RAM (with slightly cutdown > kernel), without changes on 32. Wow, maybe there is hope for the old 33 MHz 486SX Thinkpad I have in my closet. IIRC, it has a whopping 32MB. It may be slow but it is built like a tank. On Sun, 4 May 2008 20:16:18 +0200 (CEST), Wojciech Puchar wrote: > > If you can connect a monitor to the server and actually see what happens > > also if it still accepts keystrokes and stuff, that would probably help in > > diagnosing the problem. > > yes it will. i had such problem many times. it's always > disk/cables/controller problem. OK, I am connecting a serial cable and will monitor the FreeBSD box from my Linux desktop. But what should I be looking for? On a semi-related note, I have been thinking of popping a SATA card and and big SATA drive in this box and removing the 30 GB IDE drive. Is there any reason why it shouldn't be possible to boot directly from the SATA drive given that SATA is not on the motherboard? Thanks. -- Colin Brace Amsterdam http://lim.nl