Kernel panics running 5.4-RC3 and 5.4-STABLE on an AMD-64 with 8GB RAM

[Diomidis Spinellis]

David O'Brien wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 26, 2005 at 09:25:05PM +0400, Diomidis Spinellis wrote:
>>David O'Brien wrote:
>>
>>>On Mon, Apr 25, 2005 at 08:48:26PM +0400, Diomidis Spinellis wrote:
>>>
>>>>I am trying to make a Tyan S4882 (K8QSPro) motherboard with two 2.2GHz 
>>>>Opterons and 8GB RAM to work with FreeBSD.  Both the 5.4-RC3 
>>>>installation boot disk, and Thursday's 5.4-STABLE code panic.  The 
>>>>system works fine with 4GB of RAM (it can run make buildworld), either 
>>>>by physically removing the memory, or by adding "set hw.physmem = 4GB" 
>>>>in boot/loader.rc.
>>>
>>>What BIOS version are you using, and what are your BIOS settings for
>>>memory related things?  Do you have "Hardware memory hole" or "Software
>>>memory hole" enabled?  Can use the full 8GB fine if you use "Failsafe
>>>defaults"?  If you use "Optimial defaults"?
>>
> [...] upgrade to the latest BIOS.

I have now upgraded to the latest BIOS:

Phoenix ServerBIOS 3 Release 6.0
Tyan S4882 Bios Version : S4882_Rev E 1.00

In case anyone else has a problem with the BIOS flashing procedure, we 
had to use a command given to us by Tyan's support:

phlash16 4882E100.rom /bbl /mode=3

I also downgraded the memory speed to 333, and set the memory hole to 
automatic (manual 64 does not boot the kernel, and there is no disable 
option).  Furthermore, I also the memory interleave and the speculative 
TLB reload.

I am still getting panics at various (late) stages of the boot process 
(for example when starting the ntpd).  Setting hw.physmem to 4GB brings 
things back to normal.

Fedora Linux works fine from a CD, and now a colleague will install it 
on a separate set of disks to ensure this is not a hardware problem.  If 
it works, we may end-up living with it, though I'd really hate to 
abandon FreeBSD on this nifty machine.

Diomidis - dds at FreeBSD.org