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Using a machine based on a "SuperMicro" P5MMA (Rev.
2) motherboard I am experiencing intractable problems with booting Debian 2.2
("Potato") using the 2.2.17 kernel.
The machine is equipped with an AMI bios (Rev 1.4)
and has PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports. The mouse and keyboard in use are
"Logitech" and are brand new.
The floppy drive in use is a "TEAC" , also brand
new.
The machine will load and run Windows NT4 and
FreeBSD 4.1 without any problems , however Linux is another matter.
Booting , whether from CD or floppy disk works
until some point after booting the kernel , at which point the screen fills with
line after line of
"pc_keyb: controller jammed (0xFF)"
eventually , "keyboard timed out"
and then , after the hard disks are detected
,
"Floppy drives - unrecognised type 15 ...." and
other mention that it thinks the floppy is a USB device.
In time a prompt is reached but with the keyboard
inoperative little can be done and it is impossible to prevent the messages
scrolling up before they are read.
The kernel 2.2.17 does provide more information
than earlier kernels as to the possible problem , they simply appear to hang
after starting the kernel swap daemon.
Adjusting "shadowing" , "cacheing", etc. in the
bios setup doesn't clear the problem. Using the "boot command" "reserve=" around
the addresses for the keyboard (obtained from NT4 on the machine) doesn't clear
it , nor does disabling PCI probing.
I had thought the problem was due to an older
keyboard and floppy drive , which is why new ones were acquired but failed to
clear problems.
Have you heard of this type of problem previously
with these boards? It is the first time in 6 years I have found a machine which
will not boot Linux.
Any ideas as to a possible solution would be
very greatly appreciated.
Arthur Turrington.
turrington@computerweekly.net
(United Kingdom).
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