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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!munnari.OZ.AU!news.mel.connect.com.au!news.mira.net.au!inquo!news.seinf.abb.se!nooft.abb.no!Norway.EU.net!nntp.uio.no!news.cais.net!news.mathworks.com!hunter.premier.net!news1.erols.com!newsmaster@erols.com From: Ken Bigelow <kbigelow@www.play-hookey.com> Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Boot floppy problem Date: Fri, 28 Jun 1996 08:29:59 -0700 Organization: Erols Internet Services Lines: 33 Message-ID: <31D3FA77.6AB5@www.play-hookey.com> References: <4qvmsi$nc9@pegasus.odyssee.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: kenjb05.play-hookey.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.02 (Win16; I) Trudel Regis wrote: > > When booting with the boot floppy I get the following: > ............................ > rootfs is 1000 Kbyte compiled in MFS > /stand/sysinstall running as init > panic: page fault > > syncing disks...done > Automatic reboot in 15 seconds - press a key to abort > > The floppy is not at fault because I get the full menu on another > computer with the same floppy. Any idea what might cause this? > Many thanks from a former Linux. First round jump-at-conclusions guess, based on a similar experience of mine: your motherboard's cache RAM isn't keeping up with the FreeBSD installation kernel. I've seen a wide range of variations in randomly-timed system crashes that were totally cured by either disabling the cache or slowing down the motherboard's cache operations. Try disabling the external cache first. If the problem goes away, you've identified it. You can then try enabling the cache but adjusting the timing used by the onboard chipset. Alternative: install faster cache RAM chips. I suspect that the main problem has to do with settling in the cache RAMs. Perhaps the FreeBSD code is compact enough to require reading from thye cache faster than is required by MeSsy-DOS -- I can't be sure. I hope this helps! Ken