FreeBSD 5.0 panic on Gateway 400 using Distribution CD

[Kevin Oberman]

> Date: Tue, 01 Jul 2003 21:21:21 -0700
> From: Bryce Alexander <bryce at xanthworld.com>
> Sender: owner-freebsd-mobile at freebsd.org
> 
> I just got a Gateway 400VTX Notebook and when I try to install FreeBSD I 
> crash before the distribution CD can finish loading. The results will vary, 
> but the most common failure is as follows:
> FD messages
> .
> .
> SIO messages
> .
> .
> ACPI_CPU CPU Throttle enabled, 8 steps from 100% to 12%
> Fatal Double fault:
>          EIP = 0xc0440588
>          ESP = 0xcce1a008
>          EBP = 0xcce1bce8
> Panic: Double fault
> 
> And the laptop hangs.
> 
> Sometimes it just hangs after the ACPI_CPU message.
> 
> Any ideas what may be causing this?
> It doesn't have floppy drive, but it does have a "memory card reader 
> reader" that is capable of reading various memory cards like microdrive, 
> compactFlash, Memory Stick, Multimediacard, secure digital, and Smartmedia. 
> I am wondering if it is choking on this reader, and if someone can think up 
> a hack to get me past this.

First, 5.0 has a LOT of issues with laptops. Try at least 5.1. The
ACPI code is significantly improved, even though it still has lots of
issues (not the least of which are flawed BIOS implementations which
work with the Microsoft ACPI but not with the Intel code used by most
Unix type systems.

You might also try running without ACPI. (Use APM if your system
supports it.)
1. Add hint.acpi.0.disabled="1" to /boot/device.hints.
2 Change the value for hint.apm.0.disabled from 1 to 0 in the same
file.
3. add the line apm_load="YES"
4. Make sure that apm_enable="YES" is in rc.conf. (You probably want
this even if you run ACPI.)
-- 
R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)
Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
E-mail: oberman at es.net			Phone: +1 510 486-8634