As you may have read in earlier threads on this list the SMP functionality 
of NetBSD isn't really stable yet. Even if you get a kernel that boots, 
you should expect the occational hang... If you're interested in trying 
Tru64 Unix which is supported contact me off list and I'll make CD images 
and the necessary PAK's available.

Cheers,
Anders

On Tue, 10 Apr 2007, Gianluca Bonetti wrote:

> Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 13:21:54 +0000
> From: Gianluca Bonetti <gl@decadence.it>
> To: port-alpha@netbsd.org
> Subject: Could run NetBSD 3.x or 4.0 on AlphaServer 2100 ?
> 
> Hello, World!
>
> Yesterday I tried to install NetBSD 3.0 on an AlphaServer 2100 equipped with 
> 2 CPUs 5/300 and 512 MB RAM.
> I first tryied to boot 3.0 by CDROM, then to netboot 3.0 but always failed.
> Also unsuccesful were my attempts to netboot 3.1 and 4.0.
>
> I was sure that the booting procedure was good since I used many times on 
> AS4100s so I looked around and found that AS2100 is not on the list of 
> supported models for NetBSD.
> I did a mistake because once I spotted AS2100 on FreeBSD list and got 
> confused my memory :)
>
> More specifically, when booting 4.0 here is the console output for 
> uniprocessor kernel:
>
> ###
> NetBSD 4.0_BETA2 (GENERIC) #0: Sun Mar 18 22:12:04 UTC 2007
> 	 builds@b3.netbsd.org:/home/builds/ab/netbsd-4/alpha/200703180000Z-obj/home/builds/ab/netbsd-4/src/sys/arch/alpha/compile/GENERIC
> AlphaServer 2100 5/300, 291MHz, s/n
> 8192 byte page size, 2 processors.
> total memory = 512 MB
> (2120 KB reserved for PROM, 509 MB used by NetBSD)
> avail memory = 493 MB
> mainbus0 (root)
> cpu0 at mainbus0: ID 0 (primary), 21164-5
> cpu1 at mainbus0: ID 1, 21164-5
> cpu1: processor off-line; multiprocessor support not present in kernel
> ttwoga0 at mainbus0
> ttwopci0 at ttwoga0 hose 0: T2 Gate Array rev. 1
> sableio0 at ttwopci0 bus 0: Sable STDIO module
> pckbc0 at sableio0 port 0x60
> fdc1 at sableio0 port 0x3f0
> fdc1: interrupting at T2 irq 7
> com0 at sableio0 port 0x3f8: ns16550a, working fifo
> com0: console
> com0: interrupting at T2 irq 15
> com1 at sableio0 port 0x2f8: ns16550a, working fifo
> com1: interrupting at T2 irq 8
> lpt0 at sableio0 port 0x3bc
> lpt0: interrupting at T2 irq 9
> pci0 at ttwopci0 bus 0
> pci0: i/o space, memory space enabled
>
> halted CPU 0
>
> halt code = 6
> double error halt
> PC = 190ec
> starting console on CPU 0
> halt code = 7
> machine check while in PAL mode
> PC = 81a0
> impure area for CPU 0 (at 4200)
> 4200: 0000000000000001
> ... error repeats ...
> ###
>
> The machine is left in unworkable state, and the CPU0 is marked as failed, so 
> I had to clear the error log by ">>> clear_error" to be able to boot the 
> machine again, and even getting to SRM prompt required a few power cycles.
>
> When booting 4.0 SMP-enabled kernel, this is the console output:
>
> ###
> NetBSD 4.0_BETA2 (GENERIC.MP) #0: Sun Mar 18 22:11:52 UTC 2007
> 	 builds@b3.netbsd.org:/home/builds/ab/netbsd-4/alpha/200703180000Z-obj/home/builds/ab/netbsd-4/src/sys/arch/alpha/compile/GENERIC.MP
> AlphaServer 2100 5/300, 291MHz, s/n
> 8192 byte page size, 2 processors.
> total memory = 512 MB
> (2120 KB reserved for PROM, 509 MB used by NetBSD)
> avail memory = 493 MB
> mainbus0 (root)
> cpu0 at mainbus0: ID 0 (primary), 21164-5
> cpu1 at mainbus0: ID 1, 21164-5
> ttwoga0 at mainbus0
> ttwopci0 at ttwoga0 hose 0: T2 Gate Array rev. 1
> sableio0 at ttwopci0 bus 0: Sable STDIO module
> pckbc0 at sableio0 port 0x60
> fdc1 at sableio0 port 0x3f0
> fdc1: interrupting at T2 irq 7
> com0 at sableio0 port 0x3f8: ns16550a, working fifo
> com0: console
> com0: interrupting at T2 irq 15
> com1 at sableio0 port 0x2f8: ns16550a, working fifo
> com1: interrupting at T2 irq 8
> lpt0 at sableio0 port 0x3bc
> lpt0: interrupting at T2 irq 9
> pci0 at ttwopci0 bus 0
> pci0: i/o space, memory space enabled
>
> halted CPU 0
> CPU 1 is not halted
>
> halt code = 6
> double error halt
> PC = 190ec
>
> P01>>>START
> P01>>>
> starting console on CPU 0
> halt code = 7
> machine check while in PAL mode
> PC = 81a0
> impure area for CPU 0 (at 4200)
> 4200: 0000000000000001
> ... error repeats ...
> ###
>
> And the situation doesn't change.
>
> My question is whether is it possible to run a version of NetBSD on a SMP 
> configured AS2100.
>
> I got some confusing information by google search.
> It seems that AS2100 is not officially supported but someone got it to boot 
> at least with older kernel.
>
> Maybe someone got a custom build of the kernel to boot on the machine and 
> could gently provide me a config file for rebuild on another machine (or a 
> binary build).
>
> I will be very happy to help in testing on AS2100 (and debugging, if possible 
> to my skills)
>
> Any help or information would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks
> Bye
> gl
>

--
This mail was sent on Tue 04/10/07 at 9:49AM PDT


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