Why won't any kernels boot on my 386SL board?
Wigs
I've got a PC/104 type system on-loan for a week or so to test somethings
out before I shell out big bucks to buy my own but so far it isn't going
well with linux (damn it!! *everything* should use linux!)...
I've got MS-DOS 6.22 up and running fine on it, even booting.
I would *really* like to use linux though and since this board is built
around an Intel 386SL-25 processor I figured it wouldn't be too much
trouble, I use to have an AMD 386-40 that ran linux fine.
I'll give you some more details on the chip components of the board, maybe
there is some incompatibility here that I don't know about...
Intel 386SL-25 processor
Intel 82360SL ISA Peripheral I/O chip with TrueFFD stuff
4Meg of RAM
SMC 37C65 floppy disk controller
NCR5380 SCSI controller
Intel 82595 ethernet controller
that seems to be the important chips or at least the ones that provide
functionality. I didn't give a model number for either the SCSI controller
or the ethernet card because there aren't any. Everything is on one board
and these are the chips on the board are responsible for those
functionalities.
there seems to a kernel device driver for the NCR5380 chip so I figured
that would work and I also guessed that the Intel EtherExpressPro driver
would work with the 82595 ethernet chip (not that I've gotten far enough to
test these yet).
now for my symptom... For now I'ld like to ignore the possibilities of
booting from the TrueFFD flash disk because I doubt linux can do that at
all, guess I'm stuck with a physical hard or floppy disk. So, for now, I
just wanted to use a 1.3.57 kernel and boot the redhat-3.0.3 installation
disks and then install redhat-3.0.3 to the harddisk over the on-board
ethernet from my desktop.
However, when I start the bootdisk and enter "linux load_ramdisk=1
prompt_ramdisk=1" I just get to
loading linux...............
and then the machine appears to hang. (by the way the cursor moves to the
next line after the loading.... if that is significant... i.e. it
seems to finish loading the kernel but then doesn't start executing it)
I have also tried a 1.3.90 raw kernel just to see if it would boot (and
then of course hang when it tried to find the root device which didn't
exist)
Any help on getting linux to boot this machine/board would be greatly
appreciated.
Thanks,
- Jeff Wiegley (Mr. spamming the newsgroups lately)
<wie...@usc.edu>
Elmar Haag
>
> I've got a PC/104 type system on-loan for a week or so to test somethings
> out before I shell out big bucks to buy my own but so far it isn't going
> well with linux (damn it!! *everything* should use linux!)...
>
>
>
> Intel 82360SL ISA Peripheral I/O chip with TrueFFD stuff
> 4Meg of RAM
> SMC 37C65 floppy disk controller
> NCR5380 SCSI controller
> Intel 82595 ethernet controller
>
>
Jeff, I think your problem are the 4 megs of RAM you have. I managed to install
linux on a 386 with 4 MB RAM, but it was a hack, as non of the precompiled
kernels that are delivered with the Linux distributions fit into memory. I got
further than you using the precompiled kernels, i. e. the kernel booted and
I even got to the login probpt, but I could't execute some commands
("ls" -> "segmentation fault", "no memory" or similar).
The distribution kernels are overloaded with drivers and so they are very big!
So what I did - and what I suggest to you - is to compile a kernel for your
system on an other computer where linux is already installed. If you don't
include too much drivers, it should boot. Then you have won, because then
you can set up a swap-partition and real RAM is not so important any more.
Good Luck and greetings,
ELmar
-------------------------------------------
Elmar Haag Medical Informatics at Fachhochschule Heilbronn, Germany
EMail: elh...@jupiter.rz.fh-heilbronn.de (preferred)
elh...@hermes.stud.fh-heilbronn.de
Phone/Fax: +49-7131-570499
BTX/DxJ: 07131-570499-001
*** God is REAL, as long as not declared as INTEGER ***
Rodney van den Oever
>Wigs wrote:
>>
>> I've got a PC/104 type system on-loan for a week or so to test somethings
>> out before I shell out big bucks to buy my own but so far it isn't going
>> well with linux (damn it!! *everything* should use linux!)...
>>
>>
>>
>> Intel 386SL-25 processor
>> Intel 82360SL ISA Peripheral I/O chip with TrueFFD stuff
>> 4Meg of RAM
>Jeff, I think your problem are the 4 megs of RAM you have. I managed to install
>linux on a 386 with 4 MB RAM, but it was a hack, as non of the precompiled
>kernels that are delivered with the Linux distributions fit into memory. I got
>further than you using the precompiled kernels, i. e. the kernel booted and
>I even got to the login probpt, but I could't execute some commands
>("ls" -> "segmentation fault", "no memory" or similar).
>The distribution kernels are overloaded with drivers and so they are very big!
You need to enable swap space (mkswap /dev/xxx xxx and swapon
/dev/xxx).
I use a 386/4Mb (1.3.91) with PPP, Network, SCSI, Masquerading,
Sometimes DNS & Proxy too, the works...it isn't fast, but works!
Wigs
Ok, let me clear up something before I get anymore of this type of
answer...
*READ THE PROBLEM I'M HAVING BEFORE YOU TRY TO DREAM UP AN ANSWER!!*
I have linux running on 8 machines ranging from a 386/40 to a P166 I know
about swap spaces and how to start linux. I'm *quite* sure there is either
a) a real problem with the linux kernel that prevents it from running on an
Intel 386SL-25Mhz processor (NOTICE *SL*), or
b) the megatel board has some oddity to it that prevents the starting of
the kernel.
This answer below is of no use because the respondent (who I am greatful
for taking the time to try and help me... none-the-less) didn't read what I
wrote...
namely: the kernel *never* even begins execution. It appears to get loaded
into memory but then *NOTHIN* else happens.
I do *NOT* get "Uncompressing Linux...done."
I do *NOT* get "Now booting the kernel"
I do *NOT* get "Console: colour..."
I do *NOT* get bogomips calculations
specifically I *DO* get *NOTHING*
So in reply to the answer given below... the kernel never even gets close
to the spot where it would normally think about enabling a swap space which
is after root has been mounted and init is running.
Also I have tried the kernel I am attempting, unsuccessfully, to boot with
on a different machine and I do get what I would expect which is...
Loading................................
Uncompressing Linux...done.
Now booting the kernel
Console: colour EGA+ 80x25, 1 virtual console (max 63)
Calibrating delay loop.. ok - 50.08 BogoMips
Serial driver version 4.11 with no serial options enabled
tty00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
tty01 at 0x02f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
Flopy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
FDC 0 is post-1991 82077
scsi : 0 hosts.
scsi : detected total.
Memory: 15412k/16384k available (416k kernel code, 384k reserved, 172k data)
This processor honours the WP bit even when in supervisor mode. Good.
Swansea University Computer Society NET3.019
Checking 386/387 coupling... Ok, fpu using exception 16 error reporting.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... Ok.
Linux version 1.2.13 (root@t) (gcc version 2.6.3) #1 Fri Apr 19 20:36:28
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 08:03
which is exactly what I would suspect I'ld get since I knew it wouldn't
find a root partition.
WHAT I GET ON THE MACHINE I REALLY WANT TO BOOT UP IS:
Loading................................
and nothing else.
What would prevent the uncompression of the kernel? I figure if I can get
past that part of the boot sequence then everything else might work.
thanks Rodney for at least bringing to my attention that I may have
mis-word my post in a misleading fashion as to what problem, specifically,
I am having.
- Jeff
In article <Dq6D...@tip.nl>,
Rodney van den Oever <Rodney.van...@tip.nl> wrote:
>Elmar Haag <elh...@fh-heilbronn.de> wrote:
>
>>Wigs wrote:
>>>
>>> I've got a PC/104 type system on-loan for a week or so to test somethings
>>> out before I shell out big bucks to buy my own but so far it isn't going
>>> well with linux (damn it!! *everything* should use linux!)...
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Intel 386SL-25 processor
>>> Intel 82360SL ISA Peripheral I/O chip with TrueFFD stuff
>>> 4Meg of RAM
>