Re: bus-master DMA error (was: stability of Cobalt Qube 2)

[kenneth.westelinck%telenet.be@localhost]

Yes, I can imagine you can strip a lot of things from the kernel and make it 
small. When I was young, I used to strip Linux kernels to run on a 486, but 
creating a custom kernel for a netbsd machine seems a little more difficult.
I think I have 2 problems:
1) I don't have another BSD machine, so I would need to build the new kernel on 
the Qube. For this to work, I need some more space and I don't have a lot of 
free space left on the CF (the CF is only 1 GB). I also think this might take a 
long time (?).
2) Suppose I manage to build a custom kernel, will this solve my "bus-master 
DMA error". As far as I know, the GENERIC kernel is similar to a Linux kernel 
with all of the modules compiled in it (right?). So, even if I strip stuff out, 
I am not sure if this will make my problems disappear.
Since there are some people on this list owning a Qube 2, would it be possible 
to "borrow" a kernel (kernels seem quite small), just to try if my problems go 
away?
I am now running 5.1.3, also tried 6.0_BETA, still same issue :(

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Hebel" <nimitz%nimitzbrood.com@localhost>
To: "kenneth westelinck" <kenneth.westelinck%telenet.be@localhost>
Cc: "Erik Berls" <cyber%netbsd.org@localhost>, 
port-cobalt%netbsd.org@localhost, cleivas%cox.net@localhost
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2012 2:14:38 PM
Subject: Re: bus-master DMA error (was: stability of Cobalt Qube 2)


Voices on the wind brought me a message from: 
kenneth.westelinck%telenet.be@localhost
> Below are the results:
>
> cobalt# uname -a
> NetBSD cobalt 5.1.2 NetBSD 5.1.2 (GENERIC) #0: Thu Feb  2 13:33:26 UTC
> 2012
> builds%b7.netbsd.org@localhost:/home/builds/ab/netbsd-5-1-2-RELEASE/cobalt/201202021012Z-obj/home/builds/ab/netbsd-5-1-2-RELEASE/src/sys/arch/cobalt/compile/GENERIC
> cobalt
>
> Hmmm, seems he's indeed using the GENERIC kernel. Strange, since I can
> only find -INSTALL in /ext2/boot/ (but I guess this has nothing to do with
> it)


I would _highly_ suggest learning how to make a custom kernel.  There's
quite a number of things that can be pulled out of the kernel if you're
never going to use them.  (SCSI for example) And a smaller kernel takes up
less resources on the system.  I have a custom kernel in my Qube2 that is
running simh and has been running for quite some time.  (Though I suppose
that's a bad example because I just tried to ssh to it and it's down. ^_^
Have to really get my X10 control stuff working again...)

Anyway the custom kernel thing is not that hard to do and really can make
a difference.  Just make sure your serial console is working properly for
that inevitable time when you screw up and have a kernel that won't boot. 
(Yes...it'll happen...)

-- 
Mike

If the universe is a giant stage production then it's Sweeney Todd and
we're all meat-pies.