*BSD News Article 91830


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From: Slater@cris.com (Rick Slater)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Kernel config problem
Date: 24 Mar 1997 00:33:47 GMT
Organization: Concentric Internet Services
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Message-ID: <5h4i5b$djg@chronicle.concentric.net>
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Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:37660

I recently purchased a Dell Dimension XPS M200s.  It is
a 200 MHz pentium with EIDE drive and an IDE cdrom drive.


I was able to boot directly from the FreeBSD 2.1.0 cdrom
and install FreeBSD without any difficulties.  However,
the generic kernel which is installed doesn't support
IDE cdrom drives, and so I rebuilt the kernel to include
that support.  I used a configuration file from another
machine (based on a 486 chip and with only ISA slots),
but something very strange happened:  The screensaver
not only blanked the screen; it also "blanked" the
keyboard!

Once the screen blanked, none of the keys which should
have lit an l.e.d. did anything (Num lock, Caps lock,
...) and I couldn't get control back without hitting the
reset switch (ctl-alt-del failed too).

I switched back to the generic specification file and
added the IDE cdrom support to it.  The new kernel
handles a blanked screen correctly.

I have no scsi devices on the machine, but when I start
removing them from the kernel, I get right back into the
keyboard problem.

This is driving me nuts.  Has anyone run into this kind
of behavior before?  If you can point me in the right
direction, you'd save me an awful lot of time.

Right now, it appears that I may have no choice but to
remove one scsi device at a time, rebuild the kernel,
and test the screen blanker after each build.

That's about as much fun as watching grass grow.

Thanks for any assistance.

Regards,
Rick Slater

Correct email address:  Rslater@concentric.net

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