Subject: Re: cannot boot 1.0 kernel for upgrade or install
To: Scott Redmon <redmons@sredmon.nawc-ad-indy.navy.mil>
From: Duncan McEwan <duncan@Comp.VUW.AC.NZ>
List: netbsd-bugs
Date: 11/14/1994 14:08:10
> After inserting the uprade disk (or install disk for that matter) I see about
> 10 lines of text and then my PC starts rebooting ... It reminds of a bug that
> my PC had with 386bsd.  Upon booting with the 386bsd, my PC would hang and
> the screen would become multi-colored.

I believe this is exactly the same bug.  The fix (kludge) in i386/machdep.c
that dealt with this problem (motherboards that reported 639 rather than 640
for their memory size) got lost somewhere between 0.9 and 1.0.

I reported this back in June/July, but never got any reponse (I confess that
I may not have used "send-pr", so my report may have gone unnoticed).  Then I
lost interest in the problem when I retired the PC that was affected by it.

Here is the source patch (not much use to you though) that I used to fix
the problem.

*** machdep.c.orig	Mon Nov 14 13:58:16 1994
--- machdep.c	Mon Nov 14 13:57:56 1994
***************
*** 1157,1163 ****
  #define	BIOS_BASEMEM 640
  #endif
  
! 	if (biosbasemem == 0 || biosbasemem > 640) {
  		printf("warning: nvram reports %dk base memory; assuming %dk\n",
  		    biosbasemem, BIOS_BASEMEM);
  		biosbasemem = BIOS_BASEMEM;
--- 1157,1163 ----
  #define	BIOS_BASEMEM 640
  #endif
  
! 	if (biosbasemem == 0 || biosbasemem > 640 || biosbasemem == 639) {
  		printf("warning: nvram reports %dk base memory; assuming %dk\n",
  		    biosbasemem, BIOS_BASEMEM);
  		biosbasemem = BIOS_BASEMEM;

> This used to be in the 386bsd FAQ.  I had to manually
> hex edit the kernel and change some values before I could boot up
> with 386bsd.

If no one else has already done it for you, I could generate a kernel from the
1.0 sources, with the above "fix" applied...

Duncan