FreeBSD 7.x hang-on-boot on Dell 1950

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 9:09 PM, Zaphod Beeblebrox <zbeeble at gmail.com>wrote:

>
>
> On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 9:44 PM, Jeremy Chadwick <freebsd at jdc.parodius.com
> > wrote:
>
>>
>> > This 1950 may predate that a bit, but I'm not sure how to nail it down
>> > exactly, other than by it's hardware components.  Anyways, 7.0 does the
>> same
>> > thing --- still wedged.
>>
>> I haven't seen anyone recommend this as a test method yet -- disabling
>> fdc prior to the kernel booting via the loader prompt:
>>
>> - Press 6 at the menu,
>> - At the loader prompt, type:
>>
>>  set hint.fdc.0.disabled="1"
>>  boot -v   (or without -v; your choice)
>>
>> You shouldn't need to set hint.fd.0.disabled="1", since fd0 would
>> normally bind to fdc0; disable the latter and you disable the lesser.
>>
>> The intention here is to rule out the device attachment failures from
>> fdc as the source of the deadlock.
>>
>
> Entertainingly, it does not.  Aparently that hint doesn't stop the code
> from trying to attach fdc0 when acpi says so.  I suppose I need to know the
> console command to disable acpi and fdc.
>
> but it still wedges at "device_attach: fdc0 attach returned 6" with the
> above.
>
>
OK.  With both floppy and acpi disabled, it dies calling "start_init"
several times, the last being /stand/sysinstal (which should work).  I don't
see it "starting" the other CPUs.  It hangs hard... no keyboard working (ie:
no caps lock).