Re: 10.0 - Installer newfs segfaults on SS2

[vom513 <vom513%gmail.com@localhost>]

> On Sep 6, 2024, at 12:14 PM, David Brownlee <abs%absd.org@localhost> wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 6 Sept 2024 at 00:01, vom513 <vom513%gmail.com@localhost> wrote:
>> 
>>> On Sep 2, 2024, at 9:13 AM, David Brownlee <abs%absd.org@localhost> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Random likely non relevant thoughts.
>>> 
>>> Does adding -d to the newfs command run without issues? (I'd expect
>>> so, but probably worth a quick check).
>>> Could test newfs on a smaller partition not starting at 0 (not
>>> expecting any different behaviour)
>>> Could test newfs_msdos instead (again, not expecting anything
>>> different... but maybe).
>>> 
>>> (A small voice in the back of my mind is saying "floating point", but
>>> I think we're probably best off all ignoring it :)
>> 
>> I should have mentioned this earlier… :/
>> 
>> So this machine was purchased so I could extract the Weitek PowerUP to put in my IPX.  After that was successful, I figured “hey I’ll put the old 40mhz Weitek back in this SS2 and see if I can get it running nicely…”
>> 
>> The cache is an AT&T chip, the FPU a TI.  Are there issues mixing and matching CPU/FPU/Cache in this platform ?
>> 
>> I have another SS2 that I should have this weekend that looks to have LSI CPU + Cache and TI FPU.  So there’s always a total mainboard swap, but if there is any value in swapping these 3 chips around into a kosher arrangement please let me know.
> 
> OK, so there could potentially be "other issues" here :)
> 
> How much free space do you have on your bootable install image, can you run
> 
> dd if=/dev/zero of=temp bs=100k count=1
> newfs -F temp
> 
> Out of curiosity, does the system run fine if you run it diskless
> across NFS, or alternatively if you swap in an already installed disk
> from the IPX or similar?

Thanks again for the reply and ideas.

I finally got the other SS2 this weekend and it was in much better condition than I had thought.  I swapped the mainboard, PROM, rejiggered some RAM, and modified the original NVRAM with a glitchwrks top PCB/battery.

I’m happy to report newfs didn’t segfault and it’s installing normally as I type this.

Another possibly interesting data point.  With the old mainboard, when I would tweak partitions to give it more swap, it seemed to let me put the partitions “right next to / touching each other”.

This time with the new mainboard, it offset my swap by ~ 8mb ?  Basically I have been making a: 7168mb and b: (swap) 512mb.  Before I am pretty sure it was letting me land swap starting at 7169 but this time it padded that to 7177 I think.

So while I did change a few variables at once (I know I know not the best troubleshooting…) - I really do believe the old mainboard / CPU (although this was happy in the IPX) / FPU / Cache are ill.  I’m going to keep this old machine around and if/when I ever have enough SS2 flavored parts to troubleshoot some more I will so that I can salvage as much as possible from it.