Subject: Re: Problem with 1.6 install
To: None <port-i386@netbsd.org>
From: Russ Walker <russ@iquest.net>
List: port-i386
Date: 09/17/2002 18:45:23
Here's my install story:

I'm preparing to upgrade a Toshiba Magnia 3000 with 1GB Ram, single 350Mhz 
processor. It usually uses an 18GB drive, but for testing purposes I wiped 
a 2GB drive (another instance of w2k sbs bites the dust). When defining the 
partition table, choosing 'standard' or 'standard with X' invariably 
yielded  'Your hard disk is too small for a standard install. You will have 
to enter the partitions size by hand.'

Specifically, sysinst states that:
	Standard requires at least 4176.0 MB
	Standard with X requires at least 5250.0 B

Under custom I defined the partitions as follows:

sd0a / 150MB
sd0b swap 128MB
sd0e /usr 1641MB

I can hear you now, "What? 128MB of swap on a 1GB machine?". I'm thinking, 
for my testing purposes, I'm never going to need _any_ swap space. 
Proceeding with the install yields an NMI which kicked into the kernel 
debugger in pmap_copy_page.

Well, to make a long story short, I pulled all but 64MB of ram from the 
machine and the install works fine.

Life's good, I think to myself, as I reinstall the 1GB. Machine boot, I 
configure X, it starts great, I start a compile of tcsh and BAM, NMI. I can 
replicate it at will. I pull the 1GB out and put the 64MB back, runs fine.

So, from my admittedly narrow perspective, it seems that there's a problem 
with big ram and little or no swap. Whenever it NMI's, it's invariably in a 
pmap function, sometimes pmap_zero_page, sometimes pmap_copy_page.

I would be more than glad to answer any specific detail questions that I can.

Russ

p.s. the last time I wrote the list with a problem was 28 Apr 1999 
concerning 1.4beta. In my opinion, an _outstanding_ testimony to the 
quality of this OS!