Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2003 15:05:25 -0500 From: Brad Zimmerman <bzimmer@megavision.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Problems with SMP on IBM Intellistation with 2 Pentium 2s Message-ID: <1B07F1D3-686B-11D7-81A3-00306549B92C@megavision.com>
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I'm running an IBM intellistation 6898-18U with 128MB of RAM installed and two Intel P2s running at 333MHz. I recently upgraded the box from a single P2 266MHz. The box had been running great with the single 266MHz processor, so, for the geek factor and the fact that processors are so cheap, I decided to spend the $20 and buy two new processors and "max the box out." Well, I installed both processors, upgraded the BIOS when prompted, and allowed the box's BIOS to essentially automatically set up the two processors. The BIOS thinks everything is fine with both processors (for what little that is worth). I did change the dip switches so that the box is configured for 333Mhz. Now, the box still runs great under the GENERIC kernel (no SMP enabled), or pretty much every other revision I have tried -except- for when I enable SMP in the kernel. I turn on the three SMP options listed in the kernel (and they were the only three I could find in the LINT config). I compile and install the new kernel, reboot and... the box freezes up hard shortly after I get the message about it (FreeBSD) enabling processor 1. I've run through this several times and with several versions of FreeBSD (4.7, 4.8 release candidates, and 4.8). They all wedge up, although now, with FreeBSD 4.8, it actually wedges earlier than before. 4.8 release candidates locked up about 5 minutes after the box was done booting. I could log in on the console and everything, but after I tried to do much of anything, the box would freeze and that was that. I'm open to suggestions. I can't guarantee that SMP even works properly on this box, as FreeBSD is the only OS I've run on it since installing dual processors. If there is a way to test this that I don't know about, that would certainly help narrow it down to either a HW problem or OS problem. Now, on that front, I did take both processors out, re-seated them - same problem. I went down to one processor and put the "blank" back into the 2nd processor slot. The box ran fine. I pulled that processor out and put the 2nd one into the slot 0. The box ran fine. Both processors seem to work _individually_ but not with SMP. I did search through the archives of -questsion and -smp and didn't find anything too relevant. I've avoided 5.0 since it seemed to me that, with only two processors, I shouldn't need 5.0's SMP features. I also use the box for things every day and would like it to be relatively stable. Honestly, I can live without SMP on the box, I just wanted to get it working if I could. Thank you. If I've left out relevant information, I'll be happy to provide it. bz
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