Date: Tue, 7 Mar 1995 15:44:39 -0800 (PST) From: nwestfal@indigo.csci.csusb.edu (Neal Westfall) To: terry@cs.weber.edu (Terry Lambert) Cc: rdugaue@netcom.com, questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: bootup error? Message-ID: <9503072344.AA06839@indigo.csci.csusb.edu> In-Reply-To: <9503071721.AA24996@cs.weber.edu> from "Terry Lambert" at Mar 7, 95 10:21:20 am
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If you have a disk controller that has an onboard bios you can get this message. I was getting it at some point when trying to use the Promise 2300 Plus controller I just got. I think I got it when I booted the install floppy, because before I disabled the onboard controller bios the FreeBSD partition wouldn't boot at all. It was kind of weird. The install floppy booted ok and started installing the base system, but when it came time to reboot during the install, it refused to boot and I had to go back to using my old controller. I figured out yesterday that I could disable the controller's onboard bios. Now my new controller works fine, using the system bios. (I have the newer AMI WinBios) > > > > > When my P90 system comes up, just before the 'testing memory' function > > from BSD (not the startup test mem) I get an error/warning that says > > something like BIOS base mem (639k) != RTS base mem (640k). > > > > Anyone know what's up? > > > > Your CMOS claims that there is only 639k. > > BSD thinks this is ridiculous, and is warning you that it is assuming > that the CMOS really meant to say 640k, and that it thinks your CMOS > is senile. This is just in case it isn't ridiculous. > > Probably a better message would be: > > CMOS claims base memory size is 639k; assuming that it meant to say 640k. > > This has the advantage of not scaring people, while still presenting > the same information. > > This used to be critically important when 386BSD used to be loaded into > lower memory, since it would mean that the 640k that was supposed to > be there didn't but up next to the 384k that usually follows the 640k > and so you couldn't expect to safely load BSD. 386BSD also had a nice > bug when this wasn't 640k that resulted in what was known as "the blinky > screen of death". > > > Terry Lambert > terry@cs.weber.edu > --- > Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present > or previous employers. > -- # $Id: dot.signature,v 1.1 1995/02/11 02:28:11 nwestfal Exp $ Neal Westfall nwestfal@csci.csusb.edu FreeBSD 2.1.0-Development #0: Fri Feb 10 23:31:36 1995 root@darkside.csci.csusb.edu:/usr/src/sys/compile/DARKSIDE CPU: i486DX (486-class CPU) Id = 0x435 Origin = "GenuineIntel"
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