Cpp internal compiler errors and weirdness

Andrew F. Nelson (nelson@cs.umn.edu)
Wed, 26 Jul 1995 22:57:45 -0500 (CDT)


This is a long one so bear with me. I have been dealing with
the Adaptec 289X Local bus SCSI card in two 486 DX2 66's up at the U.
They are very generic except for this controller. Linux has very
strange problems with this setup. For example, any large disk IO
tends to give random errors. When compiling the kernel it gets about
1/2 way through and then says cpp internal compiler error (output pipe
closed) or give parse error messages when the syntax is correct, or
syays that a file doesn't exist when it is sitting right there. The
first one is the characteristic error. I can minimize these errors by
kicking the machine down to a 33Mhz, but of course that is not the fix
I want. FYI I have used kernels from 1.2.8 -> 1.3.11 and no changes.

Second part. I recently upgraded my motherboard in my PC. I
went from a 486 DX2 66 Local bus (that worked like a dream in Linux)
to a 486DX4 100 Local bus. The only hardware that changed was the
motherboard and disk controller. I purchased a dual port IDE
controller made by Tekram. I now too get the same errors as above.
My simple debugging has brought me to a couple conclusions but no
solutions.
1 - Memory in both machines is fine, checked in a neutral box
that had Linux.
2 - Boards are fine under extensive DOS/Windows use. (I know
I wretch at the thought of it too.
3 - Either the disk controllers are not supported fully (or
correctly) yet, or the "Chipset" options in the BIOS is not correctly
configured.

Forgive me for the later. If you are familiar with AMI style
motherboards, they give about as much documentation as NetBSD does.
If any one can enlighten me as to guidelines for:
Local Ready delay: (1T 2T or 3T)
Signal LDEV# sample time: (T2 T3 T4 T5)
CPU ADS# Delay: (1T or Not)
LOWA20# Select (generated by Chipset or KB controller.
(These are for my board, the other machine is similar)
I have 24 meg of 70ns RAM and 256K cache, if that helps. I would like
to think it mightbe my BIOS settings. What is a good guideline to go
on to set those settings and what do they do.
Speculation is even welcome. (Just make sure you say you aren't sure either.)
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Andrew F. Nelson Systems Staff - University of Minnesota
Computer Science
nelson@cs.umn.edu
"Murphy's Law isn't just a saying, it is a way of life!"
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