On Wed, May 17, 2000 at 06:58:09PM +0200, Bernd Sieker wrote:
> On 17.05.00, 12:40:10, Johnny C. Lam wrote:
> > I'm having trouble with the install floppy on an Acer TravelMate 342T,
> > Intel Pentium III 500MHz with lots of Acer hardware.  I could get the
> > INSTALL kernel to boot by using wscons instead of pccons.
> > 
> > Anyway, the question is: is there an overriding reason why the INSTALL
> > floppy uses pccons?  The GENERIC kernel defaults to wscons, so why
> > doesn't the INSTALL kernel?
> 
> The reason probably was that pccons is smaller, since it does not
> support multiple virtual consoles and, since it is i386-specific, also
> saves the hardware abstraction layer that wscons needs.
> 
> But since the standard installation set does not longer fit on a
> single 1.44-floppy, even with pccons, the need to make the kernel
> smaller is not that pressing any more.
> 
> But as to which console is chosen: I know at least one system (an
> oldish AMD Am5x86) that does not work with wscons at all, but only
> with pccons or pcvt.

I am in fact running into this on a 486 PCI board as well. I am currently
leaning towards the keyboard controller code, since the machine is 
sufficiently quirky to refuse to boot without a keyboard attached.[1]

If someone wants to suggest ways where I can diagnose this or even
a patch that might help, I'm about to put this board back into service and
so can play with it some.

David

[1] In case you're interested, it will get past the BIOS initialization,
but the booter won't start.

-- 
David W. Rankin, Jr.     Husband, Father, and UNIX Sysadmin. 
   Email: drankin@bohemians.lexington.ky.us   Address/Phone Number: Ask me.