On Sat, 8 Jul 2006 22:57:42 +0100
George Harvey <fr30@dial.pipex.com> wrote:

> On Tue, 4 Jul 2006 23:47:27 +0100
> George Harvey <fr30@dial.pipex.com> wrote:
> 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I'm trying to install 3.0 on an R5000/180 Challenge S and have a
> > couple of questions. I'm netbooting the install kernel, it starts to
> > load then hangs hard at:
> > 
> > haltwo0 at hpc0 offset 0x58000
> > 
> [ snip ]
> 
> I thought of a work round, install the disk in a standard Indy,
> rebuild the kernel then move the disk into my Challenge S. So, I tried
> netbooting 3.0 on an R4600/133 Indy and, sure enough, it gets past
> 'haltwo'. BUT, it then fails on the SCSI probe. The system
> automatically reboots before I can write down all the messages but it
> starts something like:
> 
> MSGOUT Failed!
> wd33c93_intr: LCI asr:c0 csr:1f
> probe(wdsc0:0:1:0): wdsc0: timed out;

[ snip ]

Well, I finally got NetBSD 3.0 running on my R5000 Challenge S but it
wasn't easy and required a 2nd machine to build a custom kernel. The
SCSI timeout problem I ran into on my R4600 Indy has been reported here
before but I couldn't find any definitive cure. One suggestion was to
try a different drive so I did and found an old Seagate 1GB that worked.
The drives I tried were:

IBM DNES-309170 - timeout errors
Seagate ST32550N (Barracuda) - timeout errors
Seagate ST31051N - works!

That got me into sysinst where the next problem was a flood of "int0:
unexpected local0 interrupt" messages which rendered the install menus
unusable. Again, these have been reported before and the work-round is
to switch to a serial console.

After that, I was able to successfully install 3.0 on my 4600/133 Indy.
I could then build a custom kernel, without 'haltwo', for my Challenge
S. Did that, swapped the disk over, and it boots! However, I'm stuck
with a 1GB drive unless anyone has a fix for the SCSI timeout bug.

It would be really helpful if the NetBSD/sgimips FAQ could be updated to
cover some or all of the above issues, it would save a lot of grief for
new users trying to install on Indy / Challenge S hardware.

George