From: ed@invid.mwc.com (Ed Bravo)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: Re: Is there any hope left?
Date: 5 Jan 93 17:56:45 GMT
Reply-To: "Coherent operating system" <COHERENT@indycms.bitnet>

What revision of Coherent do you have?  Call! Tech support! at this point
it is worth the call.       Ed MWC Tech Support



>
> 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
>