From: messina@netcom.com (Tony Porczyk)
Subject: Is there any hope left?
Organization: Messina Software
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1992 21:15:24 GMT


I mailed the info below to MWC Support, but maybe someone else will be
able to give me some advice (I really hope I am overlooking
something).  I have been rather unlucky in the installation and usage
of Coherent so far, which I blamed on the flaky hardware.  So, I just
purchased a new computer, especially to run COH on it.  Here are the
specs:

Motherboard     Micronics Gemini 486/33 w/16 MB of memory
BIOS            Phoenix 80486 ROM BIOS Plus Version 0.10 G17-2
Disk Controller SCSI Adaptec 1542B
Disk            340 MB SCSI Maxtor
Video           Oak 512 + VGA B&W monitor
Keyboard        Northgate Omni Key 101

Since I wanted to be sure that it would work this time, I purchased
(as you can see) all brand name components this time (at a
considerable extra expense).

This machine was to be used as a serial terminal server, so video was
pretty much irrelevant.

Yesterday and today I attempted 8 installations, all failed at various
points.  Here is the story of the 7 aborted installations last night:

1. While attempting to create a filesystem in the root partition (1):

   cr2=c399fce eax=ffc3a0d8 ebx=7 ecx=ffc3a0c8 edx=0 esi=ffc3a0c8
   edi=ffc3a0dc ebp=fffffc18 esp=fffffbe8 err #14 eip=ffc05c42 uesp=7
   cmd=     efl=11097 sigcode=#11 User Trap

2. During copying files from the first diskette.  I did not jot down
   the register dump.

3. During copying files from the first diskette:

   eax=fe70e8 ebx=ffc39cc8 ecx=ffc390e8 edx=0 esi=ffc390e8
   edi=ffc38f18 ebp=fffffac0 esp=fffffa90 cs=81 ds=21 es=13 fs=0 gs=0
   err #6 eip=ffc05bed uesp=ffc39cc8 cmd=cpdir efl=11002 sigcode=#14
   User Trap /nefl=41796 No Single Stepping the Kernel

   42040f 1 2b3d7508 1 1 41ed 3 0
   0 2a0 5a5 87b 0 0 0 0
   0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2b3d7508
   2a 75b0 7d 2a75b07d 0 560d01 0 2bsd74cb 0 0

   eax=1046 ebx=ffc40278 ecx=1246 edx=1246 esi=1246 edi=c ebp=fffffc20
   esp=fffffc04 cs=81 ds=21 es=13 ss=8f08 fs=0 gs=0 err #1
   eip=ffc0b2db uesp=ffc4026c cmd=cpdir efl=41696 bad kval ffc1f23c,
   11(2)

4. While building the kernel.  Floppy light was on for a while, the
   hard disk, then floppy, then newline was output to the screen, all
   disk activity stopped but floppy light was on.  Machine was frozen.

5. While building the kernel.  Floppy light was on for a while, the
   hard disk, then floppy, then newline was output to the screen, all
   disk activity stopped but floppy light was on.  Machine was frozen.

6. While building the kernel.  Floppy light was on for a while, the
   hard disk, then floppy, then newline was output to the screen, all
   disk activity stopped but floppy light was on.  Machine was frozen.

7. Didn't get as far as in the previous 3.  During the question "where
   do you want to mount it (regarding partition 2):

   eax=1c ebx=ffc394e8 ecx=21 e x=21 esi=ffc39394 edi=1286
   ebp=fffffc0c esp=fffffbe0 cs=81 ds=21 es=21 ss=13 fs=0 gs=0 err #6
   eip=ffc01fef ue p=1286 cmd=sh err #6 eip=ffc01fef uesp=1286 cmd=sh
   efl=11212 sigcode=#4 User Trap

   /etc/build: command "/bin/cho
   eax=0 ebx=4007d0 ecx=40115c edx=4 esi=0 edi=0 ebp=7ffffa2c
   esp=fffffce4 cs=b ds=13 es=13 ss=13 fs=0 gs=0 err #6 eip=7c21
   uesp=7ffffa1c cmd=build efl=11206 sigcode=a4 User Trap

   eax=ffc38ee4 ebx=4 ecx=ffc3900c edx=0 esi=ffc39004 e

Today I tried the eight installation, this time without virtual
consoles.  It got to the point where it created the system and told me
to take the floppy out.  It started to throw registers on the screen
and resetted computer.  I proceeded with installation of remaining
floppies after rebooting.  While attempting to create passwords for
user root I got message: "Cannot find passwd" "/etc/passwd: Command
"passwd root" failed".  Then, a moment later, while attempting to
create a new user, I got another message, "Cannot find sort".  Then,
while uncompressing the dictionary, the whole machine froze (no drive
lights of any kind, no register dump). 

Does anyone have any ideas???  I am beginning to give up on Coherent.

Thanks,

Tony

Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent