Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!sco!paulz
From: paulz@sco.COM (W. Paul Zola)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix.sco
Subject: Re: Bootable floppy
Message-ID: <12951@scorn.sco.COM>
Date: 24 Dec 90 03:21:55 GMT
References: <1990Nov18.223343.564@cjbsys.bdb.com> <12176@scorn.sco.COM> <4096.2753b671@cc.helsinki.fi>
Sender: news@sco.COM
Organization: The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
Lines: 60


In article <4096.2753b671@cc.helsinki.fi> stickler@cc.helsinki.fi writes:
}In article <12176@scorn.sco.COM>, paulz@sco.COM (W. Paul Zola) writes:
}> In article <1990Nov18.223343.564@cjbsys.bdb.com> 
}> 		cliffb@cjbsys.bdb.com (cliff bedore) writes:
}> 
}>     [detailed problems with creating an emergency boot floppy deleted]
}> 
}> .. 
}> .. SOLUTION: Move the video adapter to an 8 bit slot.
}> .. 
}> 
}> Note that this is a *hardware* problem, and cannot be worked around by any
}> software fix.  
}> 
}> 	-p
}> 
}
}OUCH!
}
}What about if the video adapter is built into the motherboard! :-(

Then you're in trouble.  :-{

One thing I did not make clear in my original posting: this problem is
not inherent in 16-bit VGA, and this is not an problem with all 16-bit
VGA cards.  Instead, this is only a problem with a particular
implementation of particular model of a particular manufacturer's VGA
card.  Unfortunately, this particular chipset has been licensed to a lot
of OEM's, so you may see virtually any brand name on the card (which is
why I am not going to mention the manufacturer's name).

}
[deleted]
}
}I guess that this would make it sort of a software problem seeing as the
}hardware *cant* be "fixed".

Unfortunately, your discomfiture doesn't make it any less of a hardware
problem.  :-{

According to our best kernel engineer, this problem can't be worked
around in software.   The actual problem (as I understand it) is that
the card's address-decoding logic does not work properly under certain
circumstances, so it "thinks" it's being accessed even when the kernel is
actually addressing another device.  The VGA manufacturer has been made
aware of the problem, and is working on a hardware fix.  

}
}
}//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
}  Patrick Stickler  University of Helsinki   stickler@cc.helsinki.fi
}//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////


-
Paul Zola			Software Support Engineer 
				paulz@sco.COM 
We only know in theory what we are doing.   - Kate Bush
    DISCLAIMER: I speak for myself, and not for SCO.