SuperMicro P6DNF Issues...

[Andrew Hornback]

Hey everyone,

Got a problem with a SuperMicro P6DNF motherboard and 5.2-RELEASE.
Actually, not just 5.2-R, but every version of FreeBSD that I've ever tried
to install on this machine.

Every time it goes to probe the clock chip, (i8254), the machine halts dead.
I've tried to install with booting the floppies, with booting from CD,
neither works.  I've taken the drive out, put it in a different machine,
done an install and put it back.  Halts at the same place.  I even went as
far as flashing the BIOS to the latest one available from SuperMicro, still
nothing.  

I've done some looking around with Google, and tried a few things
(debug.acpi.disable, kern.timecounter.hardware knobs from the boot loader
console), and nothing seems to work.  Doing debug.acpi.disable="timer"
allows the machine to boot further, but at a VERY slow pace, taking 20-30
minutes to do anything and then it hangs when the APIC is polled.  

I've been messing with this motherboard and pair of Pentium Pro 200s for the
past 7 months (on and off), and now that I'm starting to make a little
progress, it's becoming more of a thorn in my side.  

This machine isn't super mission critical, but now that I'm devoting some
time to it, I'd rather not have the hardware beat me.  *Grin*  Any and all
help is appreciated.

--- Andy