bareta@ihuxv.ATT.COM (Benyukhis) (03/01/88)
Good afternoon, I desperately need help with installing the System V/AT DosMerge on my PC's Limited 286 machine. It seems to blow up at the later stages in the installation. After the Dos Image is or may be is being created it cannot boot of of the hard drive. I followed the installation manual to the letter twice and could not get the install to complete. Is it a disk, drive controller? If anyone has a clue or the answer please respond. Edward Benyukhis AT&T Bell Laboratories
rolfe@w3vh.UUCP (Rolfe Tessem) (03/02/88)
In article <2495@ihuxv.ATT.COM>, bareta@ihuxv.ATT.COM (Benyukhis) writes: > > I desperately need help with installing the System V/AT > DosMerge on my PC's Limited 286 machine. It seems to blow up > at the later stages in the installation. After the Dos Image is or > may be is being created it cannot boot of of the hard drive. I followed > the installation manual to the letter twice and could not get the > install to complete. Is it a disk, drive controller? If anyone has > a clue or the answer please respond. I had the same problem with my clone. It turns out that while Unix doesn't really use the BIOS, DOSMerge (as you might expect) is *very* BIOS sensitive. I switched to a Phoenix BIOS and all was well. Contact your friendly clone parts dealer -- should cost about $35.00. -- UUCP: {uunet}!w3vh!rolfe | Rolfe Tessem ARPA: w3vh!rolfe@uunet.UU.NET | P.O. Box 793 PACKET RADIO: W3VH@WA2PVV | Great Barrington, MA 01230
jhs@actnyc.UUCP (John Spicer) (03/03/88)
In article <2495@ihuxv.ATT.COM>, bareta@ihuxv.ATT.COM (Benyukhis) writes: > Good afternoon, > > I desperately need help with installing the System V/AT > DosMerge on my PC's Limited 286 machine. It seems to blow up > at the later stages in the installation. After the Dos Image is or > may be is being created it cannot boot of of the hard drive. I followed > the installation manual to the letter twice and could not get the > install to complete. Is it a disk, drive controller? I have a PC's Limited 286/8 running Dosmerge. You may need to get a bios upgrade and a keyboard controller upgrade. I used to have the revision numbers that you need - but I can't find them right now. If you call Microport, they can tell you what you need to run Dosmerge on your system. Then call PC's Limited and say "I need the bios upgrade version xxx and the keyboard controller upgrade version xxx so that I can run Microport Dosmerge". When I did this, they sent me the upgrade at no cost. With the upgrades, I had no difficulty running Dosmerge. If you already have the correct versions of the bios and keyboard controller, then -- I don't know what's wrong. John Spicer InterACT Corporation uunet!actnyc!jhs
clewis@spectrix.UUCP (Chris R. Lewis) (03/03/88)
In article <2495@ihuxv.ATT.COM> bareta@ihuxv.ATT.COM (Benyukhis) writes: >Good afternoon, > >I desperately need help with installing the System V/AT >at the later stages in the installation. >... it cannot boot of of the hard drive. I followed >the installation manual to the letter twice and could not get the >install to complete. Is it a disk, drive controller? People should be aware that Microport V/AT, UNIX 386 and ISC 386/ix do have problems with *some* controllers and some motherboards. Should have remembered this before. For example, The ubitquitous Western Digitial AT controller model WD1003 will *sometimes* not work (at all, or sporadic failures) on a Intel AT386 motherboard (other boards too presumably) if the controller is rev. "x4" (I think) or earlier. x6 works fine. Sometimes if it doesn't work for UNIX, it will still work for DOS. Some other controllers (sorry, cannot remember their names) cause problems too - which is why Microport (and other vendors) are so quick to blame them. Take this as a warning: when assembling a UNIX system for AT or 386 based systems, try to make sure that you can exchange the controller if it doesn't work properly. The UNIX vendor may be in a position to be able to recommend trustworthy controllers to you. Another gotcha: On 386 systems there is an "Intel-approved method" for discovering whether you have a floating point chip (287 or 387) which requires some cooperation from the BIOS. Some BIOSes do not do this properly and falsely claim that a 287/387 exists. When the UNIX is booting and trying to figure out whether you have a FPU, and the BIOS lies and tells UNIX one is there, the system will crash on the first FPU instruction because the kernel hasn't configured itself for FPU emulation. Last I heard (approximately 4 months ago): - AMI BIOS causes this problem. - Don't know about AWARD. - Phoenix BIOS works correctly. It is possible for the UNIX to get around this problem. 386/ix had this problem, but I think it has a workaround now. Don't know about uPort 386 UNIX. The crash's diagnostics are a little hard to interpret, so if you think you might be having this problem, borrow a FPU and try again. If this fixes it, sqawk at your UNIX and/or BIOS vendor. -- Chris Lewis, Spectrix Microsystems Inc, UUCP: {uunet!mnetor, utcsri!utzoo, lsuc, yunexus}!spectrix!clewis Phone: (416)-474-1955
kennedy@tolerant.UUCP (Bill Kennedy) (03/04/88)
In article <308@w3vh.UUCP> rolfe@w3vh.UUCP (Rolfe Tessem) writes: >In article <2495@ihuxv.ATT.COM>, bareta@ihuxv.ATT.COM (Benyukhis) writes: >> >> I desperately need help with installing the System V/AT >> DosMerge on my PC's Limited 286 machine. It seems to blow up >> at the later stages in the installation. After the Dos Image is or >> [ ... ] > >I had the same problem with my clone. It turns out that >while Unix doesn't really use the BIOS, DOSMerge (as you >might expect) is *very* BIOS sensitive. I switched to a >Phoenix BIOS and all was well. Contact your friendly clone >parts dealer -- should cost about $35.00. I mailed a reply on this one but Rolfe posted his and he's only part way correct. I was not successful, at all, getting it to install with an Award BIOS or a Phoenix BIOS and the problem turned out to be the EGA card. Given the motherboard I had and the EGA card (uPort said that *each* was OK but unsure about the combination) it wouldn't work with the Ahead EGA or a true blue IBM EGA. To be more accurate it _did_ work but there was no video display... I switched to a monographics card and all was well. Further the "premerge" kernel still worked OK which pretty well narrowed it down to the video card. There are plenty of things that must coexist peacefully for Merge/286 to work correctly and the BIOS is only one of them. In my case monochrome was an acceptable substitute but be ready to try a couple of EGA's to find one that will work every time. Bill Kennedy {rutgers,cbosgd,ihnp4!petro}!ssbn!bill or bill@ssbn.WLK.COM (Tolerant lets me use their equipment while I'm here)
joel@intelisc.UUCP (Joel Clark) (03/05/88)
In article <481@spectrix.UUCP> clewis@spectrix.UUCP (Chris R. Lewis) writes: >Another gotcha: On 386 systems there is an "Intel-approved method" for >discovering whether you have a floating point chip (287 or 387) which >requires some cooperation from the BIOS. Some BIOSes do not do this >properly and falsely claim that a 287/387 exists. When the UNIX is booting >and trying to figure out whether you have a FPU, and the BIOS lies and tells >UNIX one is there, the system will crash on the first FPU instruction because >the kernel hasn't configured itself for FPU emulation. > >The crash's diagnostics are a little hard to interpret, so if you think >you might be having this problem, borrow a FPU and try again. If this >fixes it, sqawk at your UNIX and/or BIOS vendor. >-- >Chris Lewis, Spectrix Microsystems Inc, >UUCP: {uunet!mnetor, utcsri!utzoo, lsuc, yunexus}!spectrix!clewis >Phone: (416)-474-1955 We had this problem for a while. The following command always reproduced it: `awk '{print}' nonexist_file` The problem only occured after a soft reset of the system. After a power cycle the problem did not occur. The Bios was not resetting the 387 thus the ERROR pin was not set and the 386 decided there was a 287 instead of a 387 present. The system would hang. Phoenix Tech. Ltd's BIOS v1.00 fixed this for us. Joel Clark Intel Scientific Computers joel@intelisc.UUCP 15201 S.W. Greenbrier Pkwy. {tektronix}!ogcvax!intelisc!joel Beaverton, Or 97006 (503) 629-7732
ajohnson@killer.UUCP (Andy Johnson) (03/05/88)
In article <2495@ihuxv.ATT.COM>, bareta@ihuxv.ATT.COM (Benyukhis) writes: > I desperately need help with installing the System V/AT > DosMerge on my PC's Limited 286 machine. It seems to blow up > at the later stages in the installation. After the Dos Image is or > may be is being created it cannot boot of of the hard drive. I followed > the installation manual to the letter twice and could not get the > install to complete. Is it a disk, drive controller? If anyone has > a clue or the answer please respond. I am sure this has been mentioned before, but just in case, I will mention this again... There is a very short "yes" list of compatible bios's that have been "certified" to work with dos merge. This is because of the fact that the context switch between the protected mode (which is what UNIX runs in) and the "real" mode (in which dos runs) is very tricky. Not every bios handles this fast enough or does it properly. the final part of the install invokes this mechanism and those bios's that won't run correctly will abort or have some kind of a problem in that step. Use the Phoenix Bios. It is certified to work. Andy Johnson ----------------- {inhp4!codas!}killer!ajohnson