I've had some problems getting NetBSD (1.3.3 dist., 1.4 dist., 1.4D current
kernel) to run on my notebook.
It crashed every (multiuser) boot shortly before or directly after login.
(changing the notebook configuration or bios settings had no effect)

This is one possible kernel output I got (using the current generic kernel
with the 1.4 distribution)
(I typed this in, so there may be mistakes):

[...]
>setting tty flags
>starting network
>configuring network interfaces:.
>dmesg: kvm_read: kvm_read: Bad address (0x6)
>starting system logger
>checking for core dump...
>savecore: can't find device 1760/1025362
>starting rpc daemons:.
>creating runtime link editor directory cache.
>ldconfig: /usr/pkg/lib: No such file or directory
>ldconfig: /usr/X11R6/lib: No such file or directory
>checking quotas:Jul  2 15:37:01  savecore: can't find device 1760/1025362
> done.
>building databases...
>clearing /tmp
>updating motd.
>standart daemons: update cron.
>starting network daemons: inetd.
>starting local daemons:.
>Fri Jul  2 15:37:09 PDT 1999
>uvm_fault(0xf2653630, 0x0, 0, 3) -> 1
>kernel: page fault trap, code=0
>Stopped in portmap at   _uvm_pagealloc_strat+0x131:    movl    %eax,0x4(%edx)
>db>

I also got this one:

>panic: pmap_transfer_ptes: attempt to overwrite active entry
>Stopped in portmap at   _Debugger+0x4:  leave

Sometimes it crashes in "login" after I was prompted for the login name.


The notebook is an IPC Subnotebook (that's what the manual says - I bought it
used), manufactured by Arima, equipped with an Intel 486DX4-75, DSTN color
display controlled by an C&T 65545, ESS 688 sound (which happens to be not
supported by NetBSD), 20 meg RAM, 700 meg HD (shared with Win95 until NetBSD
runs fine...)
(btw: does someone have the pin assignment of the expansion port?)


After some testing I found out that the "BOAT_ANCHOR" kernel worked on this
machine, so I began to strip down the generic (current) kernel until it became
more and more like the anchor kernel. One of the last things I changed (after
2 days of compiling and testing...) was the "MAXUSERS" entry, but after I
changed it from 32 to 10 the resulting kernel worked!

(After some more testing i found out that the maximum of THIS (stripped down)
kernel was 26, but the value seems to change with the kernel config)

(On the machine I used for compiling (P133, 64 meg) every kernel I produced
worked, regardless of "MAXUSERS") 

Not that I couldn't live with a lower maxusers value, but there must be
something wrong (in the kernel or my notebook) and maybe some of you have an
idea why.

Regards,
  Thomas



(below is the output of a working (27 users...) 1.4-generic-kernel)

NetBSD 1.4 (GENERIC-27) #0: Sun Apr  5 08:35:51 PDT 1998
    root@:/usr/src/sys/arch/i386/compile/GENERIC-27
cpu0: family 4 model 8 step 0
cpu0: Intel 486DX4 (486-class)
real mem  = 20578304
avail mem = 15544320
using 276 buffers containing 1130496 bytes of memory
mainbus0 (root)
isa0 at mainbus0
com0 at isa0 port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4: ns16550a, working fifo
wdc0 at isa0 port 0x1f0-0x1f7 irq 14
wd0 at wdc0 channel 0 drive 0: <IBM-DBOA-2720>
wd0: drive supports 32-sector pio transfers, lba addressing
wd0: 689MB, 1400 cyl, 16 head, 63 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 1411200 sectors
wd0: drive supports PIO mode 3, DMA mode 1
vga0 at isa0 port 0x3b0-0x3df iomem 0xa0000-0xbffff
wsdisplay0 at vga0: console (80x25, vt100 emulation)
lpt0 at isa0 port 0x378-0x37b irq 7
pckbc0 at isa0 port 0x60-0x64
pckbd0 at pckbc0 (kbd slot)
pckbc0: using irq 1 for kbd slot
wskbd0 at pckbd0: console keyboard
opms0 at pckbc0 (aux slot)
pckbc0: using irq 12 for aux slot
pcppi0 at isa0 port 0x61
midi0 at pcppi0: <PC speaker>
sysbeep0 at pcppi0
isapnp0 at isa0 port 0x279: ISA Plug 'n Play device support
npx0 at isa0 port 0xf0-0xff: using exception 16
fdc0 at isa0 port 0x3f0-0x3f7 irq 6 drq 2
fd0 at fdc0 drive 0: 1.44MB, 80 cyl, 2 head, 18 sec
pcic0 at isa0 port 0x3e0-0x3e1 iomem 0xd0000-0xd3fff: using irq 3
pcic0: controller 0 (Intel 82365SL Revision 1) has sockets A and B
pcmcia0 at pcic0 controller 0 socket 0
pcmcia1 at pcic0 controller 0 socket 1
isapnp0: no ISA Plug 'n Play devices found
biomask 4040 netmask 4040 ttymask 50ca
wscons: wskbd0 glued to wsdisplay0 (console)
boot device: wd0
root on wd0a dumps on wd0b
root file system type: ffs

-- 
Thomas Bieg  ***  eMail tbieg@rzws.fh-aalen.de