mark@intek01.uucp (Mark McWiggins) (11/08/90)
We've just added a couple of new machines to our Ethernet, and apparently this is too much for my 386 Unix system as currently configured. I've been getting regular panics like this latest one: PANIC: wdintr: bad nxtpkt value=0x000000FF and then a register dump. I've tried tweaking various kernel parameters to no avail. I'm using a Western Digital 8003; any suggestions would be MOST appreciated. Thanks in advance. -- Mark McWiggins Integration Technologies, Inc. (Intek) +1 206 455 9935 DISCLAIMER: I could be wrong ... 1400 112th Ave SE #202 Bellevue WA 98004 mark@intek.com Ask me about C++!
scottw@ico.isc.com (Scott Wiesner) (11/09/90)
From article <1990Nov8.002323.10142@intek01.uucp>, by mark@intek01.uucp (Mark McWiggins): > We've just added a couple of new machines to our Ethernet, and apparently > this is too much for my 386 Unix system as currently configured. I've > been getting regular panics like this latest one: > > PANIC: wdintr: bad nxtpkt value=0x000000FF This sounds like the standard 8/16 bit conflict between some VGA boards and some network boards. A VGA board has video memory from 0xa0000 - 0xbffff and a BIOS starting at 0xc0000 running for 16 or 32k. Your ethernet board probably has a data buffer somewhere in the range of 0xc0000 - 0xcffff. If your VGA board is setting up the bios to run with 16 bit access, it will force all memory in the range from 0xc0000 - 0xdffff to run with 16 bit access. This will make every other byte in your 8 bit network card's data buffer get corrupted. The easiest thing to try is putting the VGA card into an 8 bit slot. Some VGA's have switches and jumpers to set the card into 8 bit mode. If you have the option, the only thing you need in 8 bit mode is the VGA bios, not the video memory. Note that this kind of conflict can happen between any two cards, but I believe the most common is with a VGA. You can also have a problem if you have a 16 bit network card and use an 8 bit VGA. (If the VGA bios is referenced, you'll get garbage in every other byte.) There's a good write-up about why this happens in the Sept 25, 1990 PC Magazine. "Facing the Truth About 16-bit VGA Display Adapters" Scott Wiesner Interactive Systems X Development Group