OSR504 boot STOPS after "Loading kernel ... .text"

From: Carol Saah (csaah_at_cox.net)
Date: 07/16/03 

Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 10:51:50 -0400

Hi,

I replaced an Intel P4 D845PESV motherboard
with an Intel P4 D865PERL motherboard -- as a
result of lightning that ended up going through
a working APC Smart-UPS 700 and knocking out the
motherboard/memory.

I had SCO OSR504 installed in that machine on an
Adaptec 29160 with 2 Seagate LVDs, which were
NOT affected by the hit.

/dev/boot is on hd0a and
/dev/root is on /dev/hd24. (Another HD off the 50-pin
port on the 29160 had been installed BEFORE the 2nd
LVD drive - so that's why OSR504 root is on /dev/hd24.)

I am using the ad160 driver that is for
OSR505 since there was none for OSR504 and it worked on OSR504. The system
was bootable both
from floppies and the hard disk with the Intel P4
D845PESV motherboard before the hit.

Solaris 9 is installed on the same hd as OSR504 root
and boots just fine with the new motherboard.
Microsoft Small Business Server is also on the 1st hd and
it also boots just fine.

Now, I cannot boot OSR504 from hd(40)unix nor from
fd(60)unix. I have tried 2 SCO OSR504 boot/root
floppies and here are the results:

When booting with fd(60)unix, boot consistently STOPS
at the 1st dot after the line:

Loading kernel fd(60)unix.Z .text
. [stops here]

If I boot from the floppy but use the following bootstring
hd(40)unix swap=hd(161) dump=hd(161) root=hd(162),
then boot stops with 1 complete line of dots and about
half-way through the next line of dots after the following
line:

Loading kernel hd(40)unix.Z .text

If I boot from the hard disk, boot consistently stops after
4 complete lines of dots plus half of the 5th line.

If I try to BOOT ONLY from an SCO OSR505 boot
floppy withOUT the ad160 driver and with an OSR505
kernel from a Pentium 100 PC, the boot completes to
the root filesystem diskette request. I do NOT go any
further since the controller driver is NOT ad160 on the
OSR505 system and it isn't the same OS version.

If I disable cache in the bootstring, boot still stops
after the "Loading... .text" msg.

When I remove the Adaptec 29160 and the 2 LVD
drives and hook to a new Dell P4 Dimension 8250,
I have no problem booting/rooting from the hard drives.

The D865PERL motherboard is running with:

DDR333 -> single channel dynamic paging mode

Memory is 512 Mb (DDR400) single channel (setup)

Two serial-ATA ports are also available on this
motherboard, but not being used.

If I try to change the ATA/IDE config to legacy mode --
up to 2 IDE devices max, booting from the hd stops
sooner after the "Loading... .text" line.

Under chipset configuration, the following is set on the
Intel motherboard:

ISA Enable Bit - Enable
PCI Latency Timer 32
Extended config:
   SDRAM Frequency Auto
   CPC Override Auto
   SDRAM Timing Control AUTO
   SDRAM RAS Act. to Pre. 7
   SDRAM CAS# LATENCY 2.5
   SDRAM RAS# to CAS# delay 3
   SDRAM RAS# Precharge 3

On the OSR504 system, I have many patches and
rs504c: oss470a,oss485a,oss471f and
oss469d,oss496a,oss621b,oss644b,oss642a,
oss480a,oss601a,oss472a,oss475a,oss459b,oss473a,
oss481a,oss605a,oss644b

If there is anything I can do to change the kernel (while
the disks are hooked to the Dell machine) or a bootstring
option to boot the SCO OSR504 on the new motherboard, please let me know.

I would prefer to work on the P4 rather than the Pentium
100.

I understand that I need to upgrade to OSR507 and
maybe that would solve my problem, but I need an
interim solution if possible.

Thanks in advance.

Carol Saah

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