Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 22:49:49 -0800 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> To: <jpaetzel@hutchtel.net>, "'John'" <papalia@udel.edu> Cc: <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: Install hangs on older system Message-ID: <002701c085d1$d9328640$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> In-Reply-To: <3A6DF39D.29657.58F82E@localhost>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
I remember running into this sort of thing during the transition from the 2.1 series to the 2.2 series, but not on a Packard Bell, on other hardware. Other people during that time also had similar problems. I don't think there was any consensus on this, but I have a guesstimate theory on it. During that time there was a change in the compiler version, and I suspect that the newer version of GCC generated code that does some operation which has some problem with either certain hardware or certain CPU versions. The most likely candidates in my mind are the caching hardware, because bugs in the motherboard CPU cache were a known issue with systems of that era, even with other operating systems like OS/2 and NT. CPU bugs aren't entirely unknown with Intel CPU's either. I do remember vividly having a 386 system which would crash on a kernel recompilation with 2.2.x and run fine with a kernel compilation with 2.1.x I exchanged the 386 CPU in that system with another system I happened to be working on one day and the problem vanished. Of course the old CPU worked fine in the other hardware. The only differences between the CPU's is the location they were manufactured at, otherwise they were the same stepping level. This surprised me quite a bit because there were no known CPU bugs that even the Intel Secrets site knew about with those CPU stepping levels. We probably will never know the truth but I suspect that over the years there have been a number of CPU bugs in Intel products that were quietly fixed with mask changes and such and that were never publicized. Ted Mittelstaedt tedm@toybox.placo.com Author of: The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide Book website: http://www.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com >> > >Hmmm...It just so happens that I have one of those, and am able >to duplicate the problem. I can install 2.1.5 just fine, but 4.2 >chokes. I even went to far as to put a buslogic SCSI controller and >a 400 meg drive in it, and it still hung. No error message. I think >that you are SOL. > >Josh > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?002701c085d1$d9328640$1401a8c0>