RE: A3000, hardware troubles with NetBSD1.3.2 (with new info!)

["B. Bogart" <bbogart%iname.com@localhost>]

On 10-Nov-98, Michael L. Hitch wrote:
> > Hello,
> > I am running on an Amiga 3000, with 4MB Fastram (I have removed my
> Microbotics
> > card), EGS Card, 2.1GB Seagate HD. NetBSD1.3.2, GENERIC Kernel

>   First, a comment about the Microbotics card:  neither the Microbotics 8-UP
> card or the GVP Hardcard memory will work on my A4000 as kernel paged
> memory.  The memory works just fine as a mapped disk buffer, but results
> in strange errors when processing memory faults.  It's my guess that the
> design of the bus interface on the A4000 [and probably the A3000] is
> incompatible with the MMU fault processing done by NetBSD.

It could very well be, most people have told me to get rid of it and i am
considering a Simmfonie board so i can uze Simms in my a3000. 

> > the startup sequence. The error I got was: 
> > 
> > loadbsd: failed malloc 1771656
> > : Undefined error
> > 
> > this error is not produced when i run loadbsd without running the
> > startup-sequence, also previously netbsd would not boot when i tried
> starting
> > it from the bootblock, and now that does work. 

>   This looks like you have something in your startup-sequence that either
> takes up quite of bit of memory, or results in fragmented memory such that
> there is no longer 1.7M of free contiguous memory.  If you run the avail
> command before running loadbsd, I think it should indicate the largest
> segment of fast memory available.  You could look through the startup
> file and see if there's anything that you don't really need, or if there's
> something that runs briefly that might take up a lot of memory and then
> exit, leaving the memory fragmented.

Thats fine, I was always hoping to get more memory anyhow, I just don't want
to spend $100+ on memory and find out that NetBSD still does not work
perfectly.
I figure my a3000's future is as a NetBSD only machine and i am upgrading 
accordingly.

> > After taking out the card did not solve my kernel compile problem I
thought
> > reinstalling netbsd might work, as the card is no longer causing a problem
> but
> > the exact same crash occurs. 

>   What kind of crash are you seeing?  Is it a kernel panic, or does the
system
> just hang?  If the system is just hanging, you might want to verify that
> you have swap space available:  the "swapctl -l" command should display
> current swap usage.  A 4MB system is going to be very tight on memory,
> particularly with the GENERIC kernel, and insufficient swap space is almost
> certainly going to cause the kernel to hang.  When NetBSD switched to not
> automatically adding the first swap device on boot, I had a little problem
> remembering to add the swap device when booting up in single user mode.
> I'd try doing a kernel compile and the system would hang.  [And I had at
> least 16M!]  Also, how big is your swap device?

When i try to install NetBSD with the install script the system conpletely
hangs
and no longer processes input. When i try to compile my own kernel the Kernel
panics. I have tried the swapctl command but it seems that its not availible
on
the miniroot. My swap device is 24MB.

>   This could also explain the problem you were having when trying to install
> the system.  With only 4MB, you probably don't have a whole lot of memory
> available, and booting the miniroot from the swap partition would not
> have any swap space configured.  I think you should be able to add the
> swap space by exiting the install procedure, adding the swap device with
> "swapctl -A /dev/sd0b", and then running the install script again.

I just don't want it to be another problem, spend all this money on memory and
still not have it work.


> > Board Address:  Board Size: Board Type: Product:    Manufacturer:  
Serial#
> > $40000000       16384K      ZORRO III   1           2193            0

>   The Spectrum video memory.

> > $00E90000       64K         ZORRO II    2           2193            0

>   The Spectrum I/O and control registers.
> > $00200000       4096K       ZORRO II    8UP RAM     MICROBOTICS     0
> > $00600000       4096K       ZORRO II    4           MICROBOTICS     0

>   And the two segments of the Microbotics memory.

> > According to AmigaOS and the RAM screen in sysinfo I only have 4 meg on
the
> > motherboard, what is this mention of 16M of something? what is the 2193

>   The motherboard memory is "builtin" and doesn't have any configuration
> entries to display, so won't show up with sysinfo.

So what is this 16384K that i don't have anywhere? I would love to know what
the
2193 number means... 

> Michael
> ---
> Michael L. Hitch                        mhitch%montana.edu@localhost
> Computer Consultant,  Information Technology Center
> Montana State University, Bozeman, MT     USA

Thanks for your time!
Ben