On Tuesday 04 March 2003 08:26 am, Anne Wilson wrote: > On Tuesday 04 Mar 2003 3:05 pm, et wrote: > > On Tuesday 04 March 2003 09:29 am, Anne Wilson wrote: > > > I have tried without success to install onto a very old box, IBM/Cyrix > > > cpu. It really isn't worth fighting too much, but I'd like to have one > > > more go at it. > > > > > > All I have got, so far, is as far as the initial screen, F1, and first > > > try, typed 'linux nopentium noapic'. This brought just a blank screen. > > > > > > I then tried to run one of the alternative kernels(?), but putting alt1 > > > into the same statement, but this was obviously wrong, because just > > > before the blank screen I saw that it was loading the alt0 kernel. > > > > > > a) What is the correct syntax for trying the alternatives? > > > b) Is there anything else worth trying - before I kick the box out? > > > <g> > > > > > > Anne > > > > also if it has an onboard video card, giving the "mem=xxxM" statements > > where xxx= the amount of installed memeory minus the amount "shared" with > > the video. as well as remembering to turn off Plug and play aware OS? > > The on-board video is turned off - I have always preferred separate sound > cards, though I believe on-board audio is improving. > > I'm beginning to suspect that Mark is right, and it simply doesn't support > the cpu. > > Anne
Actually the 6x86 is fully i586 compatible.... But remember.... The Pentium had the f00f bug The AMD K6 had a bug which had no linux kernel workaround The Cyrix had the coma bug (the two execution units could be bus-locked in a loop each waiting for the other to complete, and both masking ALL interrupts) Note that his is a hardware/microprogramming/architecture flaw, not a kernel limitation. When certain code hits the processor at the right time and gets split between the two execution units in the wrong way, a logic interlock occurs. Most likely the newest kernel is not set up to avoid the coma bug--it is subtle and cannot be avoided in compiled languages, only by inspecting the assembly or machine output could we see if it is invoked, and that is a LOT of machine code to examine. I have used Cyrix processors extensively. They were all 6x86 or M series and all performed well on most tasks though they had a tendency to run hot. The non-i686 compliant Chips one might be thinking of is the continutaion of the IDT Winchip series -- the VIA C3 which is actually emulated by the Transmeta. There We DO have a problem with the kernel not properly identifying the processor (i686 when it is only i586) but only the 9.0 kernel and there is a workaround. Yes an earlier kernel (alt1,alt2) is certainly worth trying. You do not need "nopentium" which is a dodge for the K6/K7 to avoid a memory paging error. Civileme
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