Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 09:23:32 -0800 (PST) From: "Justin T. Gibbs" <gibbs@estienne.CS.Berkeley.EDU> To: rdugaue@netcom.com (SACBBX) Cc: questions@FreeBSD.org, rdugaue@sacbbx.com Subject: Re: FreeBSD Install Problems Message-ID: <199501301723.JAA15557@estienne.cs.berkeley.edu> In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.89.9501292207.A15260-0100000@netcom20> from "SACBBX" at Jan 29, 95 10:51:57 pm
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> > On advise of some friends I recently decided to switch a linux > network of 3 computers over to FreeBSD. I'm currently running > into several problems, which so far has left me with a network > that's unusable. Mainly, I'm having problems with installing > even the base package and getting controllers (both SCSI and > Ethernet) to function properly. > > The system I'm currently having troubles with is a Pentium 90 (Plato P54c/PCI) > motherboard. It has a PCI-SC200 controller which is the NCR53C810 > chipset which is on the supported list. The ethernet controller > is a 3com 3c509 also on the supported list. So far I have not > been able to get the PCI SCSI controller setup with a bootable > partition. Invaribly the setup fails when it starts to map > out superblocks on the disk. I've tried using a 200 meg HD > split into a 20 meg root, 32 meg swap, and the rest as /usr. > When I did this I got past the superblock, but upon rebooting > the system was unable to boot off the HD (yes I but a boot manager > block on it). A 4 gig drive so far has been unusable as the > superblock mapping fails everytime upon startup, doesn't even > get to the point of printing block numbers. There are two problems you may be running into here. The controller may be using some kind of extended translation that you need to tell FreeBSD about (I don't have an NCR, so I can't say more) and, in the case of the 4gig drive, you need to give newfs different parameters to handle such a large drive. The first problem was known about for 2.0R, but there was not enough time to handle it gracefully, but hopefully it will make 2.1. For you to manually handle the problem, you must know the geometry your controller wants, and use the G)eometry option in the Fdisk phase to tell FreeBSD. Problem two was an oversight for 2.0R, and I think that there may even be code in the new sysinstall to do this properly. Jordan or phk will know for sure, but my guess is that this will be fixed for the next snapshot. > Deciding it was probably something strange with the PCI controller > I went out and picked up an IDE drive and popped that into my > on board IDE PCI controller. After figuring that that boot > slice for FreeBSD must start with something other then 1 I finally > at least got the system to boot with the IDE/HD combo. > > However, when I boot into the packages install and specify > an NFS machine (which is still on linux, running named, and > working fine) I get an error message that appears as if the > ethernet card is having problems getting out on the net. The > card is plugged into a concentrator, and I see the port > blinking periodically, but never a consistent 'turned on' > light like the other systems that are connected to it do. > Finally I get an error message with something about unable > to obtain host_ip and mount_NFS failing. If I drop down > into a shell, setup the ethernet port with the proper > values, the light on the concentrator still does not go > on (it's not an activity light, it's a connection established light). > I'm unable to ping any of the other machines, though the light > does blink a few times when I start the ping. > > So now it looks like the ethernet board is also having problems. > Both the SCSI PCI, and the 3com board are on the supported lists, > they both appear in the autoconfiguration on startup with > values that are normal defaults and seenby FreeBSD, but for > the life of me I have no idea what's going on. A 2 hour > install from what my friend told me it took for him to go > from linux->freeBSD has turned into a weekend of confusion. > I know these boards are fine as they worked with linux. Okay, the problem you have here is that you need to specify the "link2" flag in /etc/hostname.ep0 (it is a flag to ifconfig). This is assuming that you have a 10base-10 or thicknet installation. Emample: 129.52.41.147 netmask 0xffffff00 link2 > > Where should I go from here? Any ideas? I have the latest > kernal boot disks and cpio. I've also tried the CDROM > distribution. Both give me the same results. > > One other thing that seems odd. Everytime I reboot I get > a different MHz rating for my Pentium 90. I've seen > it fluxuate from as low as 71 Mhz to 90 Mhz in the report. > What gives with this???? > > Any help or response that can get me beyond this initial > hump and allow me to get to work with restoring my network > would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! > -- Justin T. Gibbs ============================================== TCS Instructional Group - Programmer/Analyst 1 Cory | Po | Danube | Volga | Parker | Torus ==============================================
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