The specific disk drive appears to be important. We have 4 systems that
have failed with a serial console. All have Seagate ST35401W disks. One
other system has been running since September with a serial console and no
problem. It has a  
ST32155W disk.

If I have a chance this next week, I'll try netbsd-current on some of the
systems and see what happens. Meanwhile, we're working with graphics
consoles and also with removing some printf's, both of which seem to
prevent the problem.


At 12:24 PM 2/21/98 -0800, Jason Thorpe wrote:
>On Fri, 20 Feb 1998 11:08:34 -0500 (EST) 
> romash@bbn.con wrote:
>
> > >Number:         5025
> > >Category:       port-alpha
> > >Synopsis:       System fails to boot without graphics console
> > >Confidential:   no
> > >Severity:       critical
> > >Priority:       high
> > >Responsible:    gnats-admin (GNATS administrator)
> > >State:          open
> > >Class:          sw-bug
> > >Submitter-Id:   net
> > >Arrival-Date:   Fri Feb 20 08:20:00 1998
> > >Last-Modified:
> > >Originator:     Cliff Romash
> > >Organization:
> > 	BBN Technologies/GTE Internetworking
> > >Release:        NetBSD-current 1-Aug-1997
> > >Environment:
> > 	NetBSD 1.2G, AlphaPC164 (EB164 motherboard) NCR83c875 SCSI controller
with Seagate ST35401W disk
>
>Hm, I am personally using an AlphaPC 164 + '875 + serial console, and
>have never experienced the problems you're seeing.
>
>I would encourage you to upgrade the system to NetBSD-current and see
>if it helps.
>
>Jason R. Thorpe                                       thorpej@nas.nasa.gov
>NASA Ames Research Center                            Home: +1 408 866 1912
>NAS: M/S 258-5                                       Work: +1 650 604 0935
>Moffett Field, CA 94035                             Pager: +1 415 428 6939
>