Intel SVR4 Boot BUG

Steve Pattinson steve at lewis.OZ
Wed Nov 21 19:37:20 AEST 1990


I have a problem concerning the booting of Intel SVR4 V2.0 Unix.
Perhaps someone else has seen the same bug.

Last thing you see is :-

"......... cartridge tape controller found at address 00000300H."
(or a warning if it's not present & turned on)

It SHOULD go on to setup RAM disks, but it hangs at this point.  
(Using ST506/ESDI boot disk)

I believe it may have something to do with the mapping of the
384K of RAM between 640K and 1Meg.  My machine includes this
with EXTENDED memory giving :- 
				Base Memory  :  640K
				Extended "   : 3456K

totalling 4096K or 4 Megs which corresponds to the actual amount
of memory installed.

I have tried it on two other 386's, one of which just ignores
the memory between 650K and 1Meg and another that maps this
memory as Shadow Bios.  Both these machines report 3072K (i.e.
3Meg) of extended memory BUT the Unix loads OK.

My theory is that the RAM disk setup is confused by the
discontinuity in memory between the 3072K of memory above 1M and
the re-mapped 384K.  

I have had this problem with both the AMI & Phoenix Bios.

Other suggestions for the source of the problem have included
the memory cache or the operation of the memory mapping in
protected mode.

System config is :  - Techpower TP 386/25 Mother Board
		      (Licensed clone of AMI apparently)
		    - AMI 386 1989 BIOS
		    - 386 25Mhz processor - no 30387
		    - 64k memory cache
		    - 4Meg RAM

Q1. Has any one seen Intel SVR4 hang at this point?

Q2. Does Intel SVR4 boot OK on other machines that include the
    memory between 640K & 1Meg in Extended Memory?


Thanks Steve

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
Stephen Pattinson. | Computer Operations Manager  | Lewis Construction Company
15 Batman St., West Melbourne 3003., Victoria, Australia, Ph =>  +61 3 320 4700
A division of the Concrete Constructions Group.   | ACSnet => steve at lewis.oz.au  



More information about the Comp.unix.sysv386 mailing list