Subject: Re: Looking for other people with this problem
To: Colin Wood <ender@is.rice.edu>
From: Daniel M. Lipton <photo@northstar.antistatic.com>
List: port-mac68k
Date: 01/06/1997 19:23:18
On Mon, 6 Jan 1997, Colin Wood wrote:

> > Since it is quite a common problem, I thought it would be a good idea
> > for all the people who are experiencing the booter freeze to try and see
> > what they all have in common in their systems to try and find the
> > problem. I'm having this problem myself. The booter freezes just after
> > displaying the 'so i sez to him' quote. My system:
> > Mac II
> > 4MB ram
> > 160MB internal hard drive
> > external CD-ROM
> > Daystar powercache030
> > Apple High Res video card
> 
> Alex-
> 
> I don't mean to be belligerent, by why do you think that this is a common 
> problem?  To tell you the truth, I haven't seen too many posts to the 
> list with this problem that weren't solved by a quick look through the 
> FAQ.  

Actually, I had this exact same problem, jsut a day or two ago, made a
post about it, to which no one responded, then I just figured I would
try every possible combination of Options in the Booting menu.  

I have read every FAQ I could find on NetBSD/mac68k (I am still a
little unclear of the difference between NetBSD/mac68k and MacBSD) and
there was nothing even mentioning the crash at "So I sez..."

So I tried this combination:

[X]  Single User		( I am still trying to install... )
[X]  Extra debugging info	( To see all the mistakes I have made. )

[X] No env dumps
[ ] Don't disable VBL interrupts on video card
	( I don't need this, and I am not sure if you do )
[X] Don't bug me about untested machine
	( I think yours has been tested, but am not sure again
	  for a definitive answer check out www.macbsd.com )
[X] Show dialog & wait for OK before booting
	( I don't think you have to do this, just my pref. )
[X] Half boot on non-fatal errors
	( I think this is what is allowing me to see as far into 
	  the boot that I can see.  I will try booting without 
	  this and let you know.  *musical voice of Data* Life 
	  forms...where are you *end music* Nope, doesn't seem to make
	  a difference but I still suggest it.  Someone tell me if I 
	  am wrong. )

RAM (#MB) [ 4 ]
[X] Auto-size RAM


This works for me, don't know if it will work for you, but I thought I
would add my two cents in since I just had this problem.  Let me know
if this helped.   

> Anyway, assuming that the Daystar board is functioning correctly 
> (don't worry, they seem to work fine without the cache under NetBSD), a 
> problem such as the one you describe are usually the result of an 
> extensions conflict (since the rest of your hardware is pretty standard ;-)
> 
> As for the possible conflict, the one I most often see causing trouble is 
> having some kind of networking software running (like AppleTalk or 
> MacTCP).  Also, I've had some trouble booting with any extensions enabled 
> under MacOS 7.5.5.  So, my recommendations for things to try would be:

Make sure you do the following.  Although I don't think #3 is
necessary, try it if the other options don't work.  I have a teeny
system to boot off of in case of emergency, but I have had no need to
do so so far.
 
> 1) Turn off all of your extensions except MODE32 (which you'll need since 
> you have 32-bit dirty ROM's)
> 2) Make sure that you are in 32-bit mode before you turn off the rest of 
> the extensions
> 3) If you are using 7.5.5, try making a small 7.0.1 system on another 
> drive instead if at all possible and boot from it (don't make it a 
> minimal system though, as the booter chokes on those if I remember 
> correctly).
> 
> Hopefully, one of these things will fix the problem.  If you're still 
> having trouble after this, please let us (or at least me) know.

Same here.  I am curious too, so let me know too.
 
> Later.
> 
> -- 
> Colin Wood                                      ender@is.rice.edu
> Consultant                                        Rice University
> Information Technology Services                       Houston, TX
> 
> P.S. You might consider getting some more RAM, 4MB is a bit small, even 
> if you have allocated a lot of swap.  Check out http://www.memory.net/ 
> for some relatively cheap prices on the older 30 pin SIMM's.  You can 
> probably get 2 MB SIMM's for less than $20 (US) quite easily.  In fact 
> they are probably quite a bit less expensive than that.


Hehehe.  Thanks for the tip.  I am trying to find memory for my
PowerBook.  I have some friends at Paragon, so if anyone needs some
weird or out of the ordinary memory, I may be able to help you.

Daniel