OpenBSD Installation advice

[virgule]

I have searched and read lots (if not all) threads containing the faint mention of BSD in them and did not find the advice or answer I am searhcing for, so thus this thread. I am at this moment running FreeBSD 5.1 and I am trying to install OpenBSD 3.3 (Orig. CD not downloaded) and it's just not getting past the boot sequence. This is the maschine I am trying to install upon:

P4 2.66 GHz
512 DDR
2x80GB HDs
Megatrends Board
CD-ROM/CD-RW + DVD Player
all aother stuff is not worth the mention.

Now this is the error msg I am getting
wd0(pciide0:0: timeout
type: ata
C_bcount: 512
C_skip: 0
pciide0:0:0: bus-master DMA error: missing Interrupt, status=0x61

I have tried lots(not everything) and searched, read(even outdated literature) and nothing turned up a possible answer to get around this. I have also tried deacvtivating pcibios by entering "boot -c" and then "UKC" this did not help. I know someone out there has an answer, atleast a logical/feasable one that may help.

Ohh: Megatrends bios does not allow deactivating DMA, you can only switch betwenn PnP/ISA.

[ammo]

Well, as much as I'd like to help, I don't have an answer for you.

The best thing to do would be to (register and) e-mail the misc mailing list of openbsd (misc@openbsd.org, http://www.openbsd.org/mail.html). Gotta warn you though, misc@ can be a rought crowd at times, but as long as you do your homework first they're usually very helpful.

You might want to search the misc@ archives first though (http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=openbsd-misc&r=1&w=2).

Good luck!

Ammo

[draziw]

Ok... which boot disk are you using? And what TYPE of harddrives? Sounds like you might be using one which is incompatible with the controller? (did you check the "supported hardware list" on the boot disk you are trying to use?)

...then again, I always just tended to do network installs for OpenBSD.

[ammo]

If he's doing the install with the CD, and booting from the CD, I believe the CD already has all the drivers (while the 3 availible install bootdisks have subsets of the drivers for more specific platforms (like laptops...))

Ammo

[draziw]

Originally posted here by ammo
If he's doing the install with the CD, and booting from the CD, I believe the CD already has all the drivers (while the 3 availible install bootdisks have subsets of the drivers for more specific platforms (like laptops...))

Ammo

*grumble* You may be right... not sure how the kernel's configured on the bootable CD, though -- particularly on the newer versions. As far as I know, many of the drivers (particularly for HDs) won't co-exist... and the wd* driver is the old "Western Digital" IDE interface, if memory serves.

...may or may not be useful to have the rest of the bootup sequence, etc, as well as some specifics on the hardware. Me, I've honestly yet to move to 3.3...

[sweet_angel]

Originally posted here by virgule


Now this is the error msg I am getting
wd0(pciide0:0: timeout
type: ata
C_bcount: 512
C_skip: 0
pciide0:0:0: bus-master DMA error: missing Interrupt, status=0x61



Ohh: Megatrends bios does not allow deactivating DMA, you can only switch betwenn PnP/ISA.

To solve this problem you need to turn off your DMA setting on your BIOS but unfortunately your Megatrends bios does not allow deactivating DMA ( are you sure? ). Try second option BIOS APM turned off, I am not really sure if this is will works cause you have problem with your DMA but most of BSD installation problem on laptops/PC desk usually solved the problem by one of theese (BIOS setting) : turn off APM, turn of ACPI, turn of DMA, Device Config= All Devices.
Try again play around with your BIOS setting.

Cheers

[virgule]

Thanks for the advice guys. will pop over at misc, yes, the bios does not allow it, checked thorughly, but i'll try again with APM and ACPI maybe that would work. Just for thought i am booting from a CD-ROM. thanks again.

cheers

[Guus]

Does your current Megatrends BIOS not allow you to deactivate DMA, or won't any Megatrends BIOS allow you to deactivate it? Did you try to update your BIOS? Maybe you could even consider downgrading BIOS if you find an older version that -does- allow it.

[virgule]

My current bios does not allow me to deactivate DMA, I can only switch between PnP and ISA/EISA which is strange, because this is a new box, but i've decided to get an bios upgrade and see if this would help.

[virgule]

Well after shuffling through misc@archives, upgrading my bios, downloading a very useful product uata100 and reading countless error results from google's news i've come up with the closest possible answer to my problems (I guess).

draziw wd* driver is the old "Western Digital" IDE interface, if memory serves while this is true for some inexplicable reason this is what's being recognized by bootup.

guss Does your current Megatrends BIOS not allow you to deactivate DMA, or won't any Megatrends BIOS allow you to deactivate it? Did you try to update your BIOS? Maybe you could even consider downgrading BIOS if you find an older version that -does- allow it. this was the last thing I did before finding my answer (I believe) in the man pages for i386. Upgraded my BIOS and switched disks and cables.


For proper operation of UltraDMA 3 (44 MB/sec), 4 (66 MB/sec), or 5 (100
MB/sec), a 40-pin, 80-conductor cable must be used. On some controllers,
the pciide driver can probe the chip and see if it detects that an
80-conductor or 40-conductor cable was used. If not, it will down-grade
to UltraDMA 2 mode.
This is where I found the possible explanation. While under windows (PIO or UDMA) and with that useful utility http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/di...ra_ata_66.html (explanation) ftp://ftp.seagate.com/techsuppt/seag...s/uata100d.exe (utility), provided by seagate I could have changed my UDMA settings from 5 (100MB per sec) - 0(16 MB per sec) and this was not helping. I have read in almost all the possible suggestions on misc@archives that these are the culprits for these errors

1. Disk corruption Advice = Change disk
2. Wrong Cable Advice = Change cable
I say not really, if I just bought a new disk (which I did) I definitely won't run off and do it in a hurry again just because some horny mailinglist subscriber is to full of it to lend a helping hand . Which brings me to the second one, this is where the problem lies. How do I know? well, in the last 26 Hours i've gathered so much information about this I can write an article about it, no really... I have recognized by booting that the system was always showing DMA 2 instead of 5, so the problem lies (presumably) in my cables, but this is where i'm kinda confused. These cables were delivered with the Hardware (yes, I sound nieve) and they should be capable if not compatible, but I guess that's too much to ask.

So that's it, the cable luke, I think i'll just get myself a sparc (wanted to anyway) and save myself some gray hair. Thanks for all the suggestions and tips which were embedded in your questions, if there is anything anyone might want to add, share please do, it may be much more usefull than the jumble I wrote here as an explanation (atleast I understood it).

cheers