Hello, all out there.

I'm a recent PC-owner (having until now absolutely refused PCs... ;-)

Now that I got that piece of hardware here, I'd like to run something
decent on it, apart from playing games, so naturally I want to install
NetBSD.

My background is that I've played with NetBSD/vax and NetBSD/pmax for
several years, apart from playing with BSD2, and all sorts of old DEC
computers.

So I figured that NetBSD/i386 shouldn't be such a big problem, and of
course I was wrong. Now I'm really hoping for someone out there to help me
out.

First of all, I have a DELL Dimension XPS R400.

Problems so far:

1) I have an 3COM 3c905B-TX. Reading though documentation it's a little
unclear if this is supported. In the MII-page it says that it is
supported, but other places say it isn't. The boot-floppy don't seem to
support it, which would mean I'm in big trouble, unless someone can cut me
a new boot.

2) There seem to be some kind of problem with my serial port. I can use it
perfectly fine under Win98, but NetBSD don't even seem to see it. I've
also tried FreeBSD, which sees it, but as soon as I try to use it, the
whole system freeze up, so something isn't right here. I've checked
addresses and IRQ, and they seem to be correct. Anyone know anything here?

3) I have a 12.5G disk on the system, and install really can screw the
geometry up. This needs addressing ASAP. I did manage to get around the
problems, but it took some real fighting.

4) sysinst bombs out with a /: device full message, as others also have
reported.

I attach the /kern/msgbuf at the end, for others to look at, if it might
help.

Anything else I can do to help? I really need to get something sensible
running on this machine!

-----------
NetBSD 1.3I (INSTALL) #7: Mon Feb  1 15:43:15 MET 1999
    he@hugin.runit.sintef.no:/usr/src/sys/arch/i386/compile/INSTALL
cpu0: family 6 model 5 step 2
cpu0: Intel Pentium II (686-class)
real mem  = 66707456
avail mem = 58208256
using 839 buffers containing 3436544 bytes of memory
mainbus0 (root)
pci0 at mainbus0 bus 0: configuration mode 1
pci0: i/o enabled, memory enabled
pchb0 at pci0 dev 0 function 0
pchb0: vendor 0x8086 product 0x7190 (rev. 0x03)
ppb0 at pci0 dev 1 function 0: vendor 0x8086 product 0x7191 (rev. 0x03)
pci1 at ppb0 bus 1
pci1: i/o enabled, memory enabled
vendor 0x10de product 0x0020 (VGA display, revision 0x04) at pci1 dev 0 function 0 not configured
pcib0 at pci0 dev 7 function 0
pcib0: vendor 0x8086 product 0x7110 (rev. 0x02)
pciide0 at pci0 dev 7 function 1: Intel 82371AB IDE controller (PIIX4)
pciide0: bus-master DMA support present
pciide0: primary channel wired to compatibility mode
wd0 at pciide0 channel 0 drive 0: <Maxtor 91296D6>
wd0: drive supports 16-sector pio transfers, lba addressing
wd0: 12360MB, 16383 cyl, 16 head, 63 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 25313904 sectors
wd0: 32-bits data port
wd0: drive supports PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2, Ultra-DMA mode 2
pciide0: secondary channel wired to compatibility mode
atapibus0 at pciide0 channel 1
cd0 at atapibus0 drive 0: <TOSHIBA CD-ROM XM-6302B, , 1017> type 5 cdrom removable
cd0: 32-bits data port
cd0: drive supports PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2
wd0(pciide0:0:0): using PIO mode 4, Ultra-DMA mode 2 (using DMA data transfers)
cd0(pciide0:1:0): using PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2 (using DMA data transfers)
vendor 0x8086 product 0x7112 (USB serial bus, revision 0x01) at pci0 dev 7 function 2 not configured
vendor 0x8086 product 0x7113 (miscellaneous bridge, revision 0x02) at pci0 dev 7 function 3 not configured
ex0 at pci0 dev 13 function 0: can't map i/o space
vendor 0x12eb product 0x0002 (audio multimedia, revision 0xfe) at pci0 dev 14 function 0 not configured
isa0 at pcib0
isapnp0 at isa0 port 0x279: ISA Plug 'n Play device support
npx0 at isa0 port 0xf0-0xff: using exception 16
pc0 at isa0 port 0x60-0x6f irq 1: color
pc0: console
fdc0 at isa0 port 0x3f0-0x3f7 irq 6 drq 2
fd0 at fdc0 drive 0: 1.44MB, 80 cyl, 2 head, 18 sec
isapnp0: no ISA Plug 'n Play devices found
biomask c040 netmask c040 ttymask c042
md0: internal 1587K image area
boot device: fd0
root on md0a dumps on md0b
root file system type: ffs

--------


	Johnny

Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                  ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt@update.uu.se           ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol