[rescue] OpenBSD on Intel (actually)

[Sheldon T. Hall]

Curtis H. Wilbar Jr. said ...
> "Sheldon T. Hall" <shel at cmhcsys.com> said ...
> >
> >So ... sometimes it boots, sometimes it doesn't.  It boots if I
> leave it off
> >for a while, like overnight, but not if it's been on already.
> >
> >When it hangs, it hangs right after "ne3", but when it boots,
> there _is_no_
> >"ne3" if I "find ne" in config.  There is, however, an /etc/hostname.ne3
> >file ... and when it boots, it runs fine.
> >
> >ne0 is reported to be on irq 9 if I "find ne" in config
> >ne1 is reported to be on irq 10 if I "find ne" in config
> >ne2 is reported to be on irq 9 if I "find ne" in config
> >ne3 is reported to be on irq 15 when it hangs during the boot
> process, and
> >doesn't show up in "find ne" if the machine boots.
>
> Isn't IRQ 15 one of the IDE channel IRQs ???  Might explain the hang... ?
> If your not useing IDE, disable the onboard IDE controller... (although
> that is not the right solution, but maybe it will help)

IRQ 15 is usually the secondary IDE controller, and this machine _seems_
only to have a primary IDE controller, on IRQ 14.  It won't boot from SCSI;
there's no SCSI boot BIOS.  It's a bit odd; as delivered, the SCSI is only
for the 6x caddy-style CD-ROM drive.

> >There's only one actual NIC in the machine, a "LINKSYS EtherPCI LAN card
> >II".  When it hangs after the "ne3" line, "ne3" claims to be
> something like
> >"LinkSys Winbond" ... and the LinkSys does have a Winbond chip on it.
> >
> >The irqs actually in use are the regular PC set, plus 5 for the
> soundcard,
> >11 for the SCSI controller, and whatever the NIC uses.  An old
> MS-DOS tool
> >indicates that something is on irq 9, and I expect that's the NIC.
> >
> >Question #1:  If I have one NIC, how many "ne" devices should I have in
> >"find ne"?  Are the names significant?
>
> you should have one.. I'd imagine ne0

Makes sense to me ... but how do I get rid of the others?

> >Question #2:  Does OpenBSD put the stuff on the screen _before_ it probes
> >for the device, or afterwards?
>
> hmmm.. I'm not sure myself... maybe someone else here knows... I'm not
> running an OpenBSD box that I can tinker with right now...
>
> >
> >If it puts it on the screen before, then "ne3" would seem to be
> the problem.
> >If, however, it puts it on the screen only after it probes and finds
> >something, then whatever-is-after-"ne3" would be it, right?
>
> not necessarily... lets say it thinks it detects an ethernet card on the
> same IRQ as your hard disk... it might display the detect, the probe may
> leave your hard disk subsystem hosed, and it hangs when it goes to run
> the next program that the startup script runs... the system can't run it
> because it can't read it from teh disk subsystem...

That certainly sounds plausible ... but how can I prevent it from happening?

> >Question #3:  If OpenBSD probes first, then displays after
> probing, how do I
> >fingure out what it's looking for after "ne3", i.e. the thing
> it's actually
> >hanging on.  Is the order of things at boot time the same as the order of
> >things in "UKC" or "config -ef"?
> >
> >FWIW, I've done the "boot -c" trick and disabled "pcibios" ...
> still hangs.
> >
> >Clues solicited.
>
> Wish I had more insight... but the fact that the box sees more than one
> ethernet controller is where I'd start looking.

Seems that way to me, too.

> I'd make sure you have plug and play OS turned off in the BIOS (this will
> make the BIOS do any plug and play resource assignment).  If you have an
> option in your bios to reset the "remembered" plug and play data (can't
> recall what this was called), change that to yes and reboot.. .maybe that
> data is hosed).

Heh.  If I could get into the BIOS.  No key combo I've tried will do it.  I
scoured the Dell website, and the ones there didn't help.  I even _called_
Dell, and they couldn't give me one that would work.  It's Phoenix BIOS, but
none of the usual Phoenix sequences work.  I've tried F2 (and all the other
F-ing keys), Del, Ctrl-Alt-Enter, Ctrl-Alt-Ins, Ctrl-Alt-Esc, Alt-Esc,
two-elbows-on-the-keyboard, Esc-Meta-Alt-Ctrl-Shift .... No joy in any case.

-Shel