5.3 Loader Too Fragile

[Roger L. Beeman]

First, thanks for your reply.

My complaint about fragility was actually directed at the Loader's
inability to usefully indicate what it was unable to deal with. I
realize that there is precious little code space for elaborate error
messages, but it's inability to keep the console directed at the
serial port, thus preventing capture of the error messages that were
generated, seemed worthy of attention.

> Yes, at first glance it appears your BIOS is completely braindead.

Yet no so braindead that FreeBSD 4.10 fails to find it serviceable.

+ BIOS 509kB/130048kB available memory

> Those memory numbers don't make sense.  How much physical RAM is in
> the system?

They're exactly the same numbers reported for memory when booting
FreeBSD 4.10. There is one stick of 128MB memory on the system.

> Dunno. Either the BIOS in that machine is completely whacked out or
> you have more serious hardware problems. Based on the age of the
> machine and the fact that DEC is dead I'd probably give up on this.

Pretty much any other 440LX based mother board would be around the
same age. There is no indication that the 440LX chipset has been
deliberately desupported. The fact that DEC was acquired, twofold,
also seems irrelevant as HP has the same level of support, i.e., old
BIOS files and manuals available on their web site, that can be found
for 440LX based motherboards whose manufacturer has managed keep the
same name.

The machine is quite functional with respect to FreeBSD 4.10 and ran
March 25th 5-Current fine as well. I was unfortunately over optimistic
and wrote over that installation but hope to recover to that state.

I guess I'll have to embark on a binary search to find what lines of
code raised the BIOS requirements for FreeBSD 5.

Here is the serial console capture for a FreeBSD 4.10 boot:

Console: serial port
BIOS drive A: is disk0
BIOS drive C: is disk1
BIOS 509kB/130048kB available memory

FreeBSD/i386 bootstrap loader, Revision 0.8
(root at perseus.cse.buffalo.edu, Tue May 25 21:22:31 GMT 2004)
Loading /boot/defaults/loader.conf 
/kernel text=0x338df5 data=0x4b7a4+0x34a50 syms=[0x4+0x46970+0x4+0x4f611
]

Hit [Enter] to boot immediately, or any other key for command prompt.
^MBooting [kernel] in 9 seconds... ^MBooting [kernel] in 8 seconds... ^M
Booting [kernel] in 7 seconds... ^MBooting [kernel] in 6 seconds... ^MBo
oting [kernel] in 5 seconds... ^MBooting [kernel] in 4 seconds... ^MBoot
ing [kernel] in 3 seconds... ^MBooting [kernel] in 2 seconds... ^MBootin
g [kernel] in 1 second... ^MBooting [kernel]...               
Copyright (c) 1992-2004 The FreeBSD Project.
Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
        The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved
.
FreeBSD 4.10-RELEASE #0: Tue May 25 22:47:12 GMT 2004
    root at perseus.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC
Timecounter "i8254"  frequency 1193182 Hz
CPU: Pentium II/Pentium II Xeon/Celeron (333.05-MHz 686-class CPU)
  Origin = "GenuineIntel"  Id = 0x650  Stepping = 0
  Features=0x183fbff<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PG
E,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,MMX,FXSR>
real memory  = 134217728 (131072K bytes)
config> di bt0
config> di aic0
config> di aha0
config> di adv0
config> q
avail memory = 125054976 (122124K bytes)
Preloaded elf kernel "kernel" at 0xc0551000.
Preloaded userconfig_script "/boot/kernel.conf" at 0xc055109c.
Pentium Pro MTRR support enabled
md0: Malloc disk
Using $PIR table, 13 entries at 0xc00fdef0
npx0: <math processor> on motherboard
npx0: INT 16 interface
pcib0: <Intel 82443LX (440 LX) host to PCI bridge> on motherboard
pci0: <PCI bus> on pcib0
agp0: <Intel 82443LX (440 LX) host to PCI bridge> mem 0xf4000000-0xf7fff
fff at device 0.0 on pci0
pcib1: <Intel 82443LX (440 LX) PCI-PCI (AGP) bridge> at device 1.0 on pc
i0
pci1: <PCI bus> on pcib1
pci1: <VGA-compatible display device> at 0.0 irq 9
isab0: <Intel 82371AB PCI to ISA bridge> at device 7.0 on pci0
isa0: <ISA bus> on isab0
atapci0: <Intel PIIX4 ATA33 controller> port 0xecd0-0xecdf at device 7.1
 on pci0
ata0: at 0x1f0 irq 14 on atapci0
ata1: at 0x170 irq 15 on atapci0
uhci0: <Intel 82371AB/EB (PIIX4) USB controller> port 0xece0-0xecff irq 
11 at device 7.2 on pci0
usb0: <Intel 82371AB/EB (PIIX4) USB controller> on uhci0
usb0: USB revision 1.0
uhub0: Intel UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub0: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
chip0: <Intel 82371AB Power management controller> port 0x9000-0x900f at
 device 7.3 on pci0
ahc0: <Adaptec 2940 Ultra2 SCSI adapter> port 0xe800-0xe8ff mem 0xfedff0
00-0xfedfffff irq 9 at device 11.0 on pci0
aic7890/91: Ultra2 Wide Channel A, SCSI Id=7, 32/253 SCBs
pcib2: <DEC 21152 PCI-PCI bridge> at device 13.0 on pci0
pci2: <PCI bus> on pcib2
dc0: <Intel 21143 10/100BaseTX> port 0x7c00-0x7c7f mem 0xfbfff800-0xfbff
f87f irq 10 at device 7.0 on pci2
dc0: Ethernet address: 00:00:f8:7a:6c:af
miibus0: <MII bus> on dc0
dcphy0: <Intel 21143 NWAY media interface> on miibus0
dcphy0:  10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, auto
pcib3: <DEC 21154 PCI-PCI bridge> at device 14.0 on pci0
pci3: <PCI bus> on pcib3
orm0: <Option ROM> at iomem 0xc0000-0xc7fff on isa0
pmtimer0 on isa0
fdc0: <NEC 72065B or clone> at port 0x3f0-0x3f5,0x3f7 irq 6 drq 2 on isa
0
fdc0: FIFO enabled, 8 bytes threshold
fd0: <1440-KB 3.5" drive> on fdc0 drive 0
atkbdc0: <Keyboard controller (i8042)> at port 0x60,0x64 on isa0
atkbd0: <AT Keyboard> flags 0x1 irq 1 on atkbdc0
kbd0 at atkbd0
psm0: failed to get data.
psm0: <PS/2 Mouse> irq 12 on atkbdc0
psm0: model Generic PS/2 mouse, device ID 0
vga0: <Generic ISA VGA> at port 0x3c0-0x3df iomem 0xa0000-0xbffff on isa
0
sc0: <System console> at flags 0x100 on isa0
sc0: VGA <16 virtual consoles, flags=0x100>
sio0 at port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0x10 on isa0
sio0: type 16550A, console
sio1 at port 0x2f8-0x2ff irq 3 on isa0
sio1: type 16550A
ppc0: <Parallel port> at port 0x378-0x37f irq 7 on isa0
ppc0: Generic chipset (EPP/NIBBLE) in COMPATIBLE mode
plip0: <PLIP network interface> on ppbus0
lpt0: <Printer> on ppbus0
lpt0: Interrupt-driven port
ppi0: <Parallel I/O> on ppbus0
Waiting 15 seconds for SCSI devices to settle
Mounting root from ufs:/dev/da0s1a
da0 at ahc0 bus 0 target 0 lun 0
da0: <SEAGATE ST39103LW 0001> Fixed Direct Access SCSI-2 device 
da0: 80.000MB/s transfers (40.000MHz, offset 15, 16bit), Tagged Queueing
 Enabled
da0: 8683MB (17783240 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 1106C)
cd0 at ahc0 bus 0 target 3 lun 0
cd0: <PLEXTOR CD-ROM PX-40TS 1.03> Removable CD-ROM SCSI-2 device 
cd0: 20.000MB/s transfers (20.000MHz, offset 15)
cd0: Attempt to query device size failed: NOT READY, Medium not present 
- tray closed
swapon: adding /dev/da0s1b as swap device
Automatic boot in progress...
/dev/da0s1a: FILESYSTEM CLEAN; SKIPPING CHECKS
/dev/da0s1a: clean, 133226 free (714 frags, 16564 blocks, 0.5% fragmenta
tion)
/dev/da0s1h: FILESYSTEM CLEAN; SKIPPING CHECKS
/dev/da0s1h: clean, 784041 free (9 frags, 98004 blocks, 0.0% fragmentati
on)
/dev/da0s1g: FILESYSTEM CLEAN; SKIPPING CHECKS
/dev/da0s1g: clean, 554398 free (14 frags, 69298 blocks, 0.0% fragmentat
ion)
/dev/da0s1e: FILESYSTEM CLEAN; SKIPPING CHECKS
/dev/da0s1e: clean, 151173 free (21 frags, 18894 blocks, 0.0% fragmentat
ion)
/dev/da0s1f: FILESYSTEM CLEAN; SKIPPING CHECKS
/dev/da0s1f: clean, 2020562 free (6994 frags, 251696 blocks, 0.3% fragme
ntation)
/dev/da0s1d: FILESYSTEM CLEAN; SKIPPING CHECKS
/dev/da0s1d: clean, 151041 free (25 frags, 18877 blocks, 0.0% fragmentat
ion)
Doing initial network setup: hostname.
dc0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
        inet 67.100.223.250 netmask 0xfffffff8 broadcast 67.100.223.255
        inet6 fe80::200:f8ff:fe7a:6caf%dc0 prefixlen 64 tentative scopei
d 0x1 
        ether 00:00:f8:7a:6c:af
        media: Ethernet autoselect (none)
        status: no carrier
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
        inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128 
        inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x3 
        inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000 
add net default: gateway 67.100.223.249
Additional routing options: TCP keepalive=YES.
Routing daemons:.
Additional daemons: syslogd.
Doing additional network setup:.
Starting final network daemons:.
ELF ldconfig path: /usr/lib /usr/lib/compat
a.out ldconfig path: /usr/lib/aout /usr/lib/compat/aout
Starting standard daemons: inetd cron sshd sendmail sendmail-clientmqueu
e.
Initial rc.i386 initialization:.
Configuring syscons: blanktime moused.
Additional ABI support:.
Local package initialization:.
Additional TCP options:.

Thu Dec  2 13:53:21 PST 2004

Roger L. Beeman