7-STABLE bootloader not working on Asus TR-DLS

[Greg Byshenk]

I'm piggybacking this onto the previous bootloader thread because I have
a suspicion that my problem may be related to the 'fix' for the prveious
problem.

I've got a machine (old-ish) that will not boot with the changes to
src/sys/boot/i386 in March.

It it a dual-p3 system running on an Asus tr-dls motherboard (with most
recent -- from 2002, but that is the most recent) BIOS updates:

   Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0
   CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) III CPU family      1266MHz (1266.72-MHz 686-class CPU)
     Origin = "GenuineIntel"  Id = 0x6b1  Stepping = 1
     Features=0x383fbff<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,MMX,FXSR,SSE>
   real memory  = 2147463168 (2047 MB)
   avail memory = 2091913216 (1995 MB)
   ACPI APIC Table: <ASUS   TR-DLS  >
   FreeBSD/SMP: Multiprocessor System Detected: 2 CPUs
    cpu0 (BSP): APIC ID:  3
    cpu1 (AP): APIC ID:  0

When I install the most recent world (for example, a build of 7-STABLE from
01-04-2008), it simply fails to boot.  No panic, no crash, but just stops.

I get to:

   [...]
   BTX loader 1.00  BTX version is 1.02
   Consoles: internal video/keyboard
   BIOS drive A: is disk0

   ... and then nothing ... just hangs permanently

If I change back to 7-RELEASE, or to 7-STABLE as of 18-03-2008, there is 
no problem at all. If I run the system with 01-04-2008 world, but copy
back in the contents of /boot from 18-03-2008, then there is again no
problem. I can copy in the 01-04-2008 kernel and run under that, and there
is no problem (it is running like that now).  But I have to use the old
version of the booloader.

I'm not a coder, and haven't looked more deeply, but it appears that 
something in here:

   i386/src/sys/boot/i386/btx/btx/Makefile
   i386/src/sys/boot/i386/btx/btx/btx.S
   i386/src/sys/boot/i386/libi386/biosmem.c
   i386/src/sys/boot/i386/libi386/biossmap.c

...has broken booting on this machine.


Any advice gladly accepted.


-- 
greg byshenk  -  gbyshenk at byshenk.net  -  Leiden, NL