On Fri, 17 May 1996 10:25:28 +0100  "Paul Hollow (3Y0)" wrote:

> Hi everybody.
> 
> I'm fairly new to UNIX administration, and having just setup NetBSD-1.1 on my
> 386sx i have a problem.  Using the generic kernel (ie. the one straight from
> the installation set) the console *occasionally* locks up (it seems to crash
> everything, and you get to a point where you can't even turn the NUMLOCK key
> on on the keyboard).
> 
> Having played about abit, i decided to recompile the kernel, but the new
> version
> now CONSISTENTLY locks up within a minute of logging in, sometimes even locki
ng
> up while you try to log on to the console.
> 
> Is this because i am currently running the kernel unpatched and straight out 
of
> the distribution?
> 
> I am running NetBSD-1.1 on simple hardware (just a plain AMD-386SX with 8meg
> RAM, 1 GIG HD (800meg UNIX partition) and et4000 graphics card).  I have a
> friend who is also running the same hardware and also experiences occasional
> system lockups with the (unmodified) distribution set on more-or-less the sam
e
> hardware.
> 
> Any ideas appreciated...

A real longshot, but on my old 386 motherboard, the keyboard controller
must have been slightly knackered, and the keyboard would lock up quite
often.  Unplugging and plugging the keyboard in fixed the problem.  I
recently swapped to a 486 motherboard (everything else the same,
including keyboard) and the problem went away.  I ended up with one of
those keyboard extender cables, so I could unplug/plug without reaching
behind the box...

  Simon.
--
Simon Burge						simonb@telstra.com.au
UNIX Support, CPR Project, Telstra.			+61 3 9634 3974
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