From: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly)
Organization: The Man With Ten Cats
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 03:45:09 GMT
Reply-To: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly)

In article <1992Dec27.211524.17910@netcom.com> messina@netcom.com (Tony Porczyk) writes:
>
>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
		 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Which translation mode did you tell it to use for the Adaptec controller?

Are you using the Adaptec as a floppy controller or do you have a separate
one?

>Disk            340 MB SCSI Maxtor
>Video           Oak 512 + VGA B&W monitor
>Keyboard        Northgate Omni Key 101
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is the keyboard that I use and it works fine.

>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

This could be a symptom of using the wrong translation mode for the
Adaptec controller.

>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)

The kernel was quite unhappy.  Do you have any good memory diagnostics?
Have you verified that your memory is the correct speed?

>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.


Have you run MSDOS and/or Windows 3.x on this machine?

I don't believe that your problem is Coherent.

One problem may be memory chips that are bad or the wrong speed ( too slow ).

Which translation mode did you pick for the Adaptec controller?

If the Adaptec controller is set up for synchronous operation, then you
must reset it for asychronous.

I believe that your hardware is sick or misconfigured.

-- 

Rick Kelly	rmk@rmkhome.UUCP	merk!rmkhome!rmk	rmk@frog.UUCP