"...Booting the BeOS Kernel"

Situation:

BIOS options have gotten more and more technical to accommodate the many uses for and demands on a computer. Some of these options can be troublesome to the BeOS.

Dual processor motherboards are becoming very popular. Until Release 3.2, the BeOS simply asked the BIOS how many processors are installed and continued based on this information. The BIOS, in theory, should know this. However, as not everyone with a DP based motherboard installs a second processor, this information may not always be accurate. Some motherboards and BIOS' do not return accurate information, or instead of returning the number of installed processors, return the number of processors supported. Even worse, some BIOS' do not have an option for the number of installed processors, or base the setting on a jumper, as do some Tyan boards.

Bad floppy disks happen. In some instances, the boot process could halt here based on a bad boot floppy. This is an easy item to fix, see the instructions here.

Believe it or not, we have seen very, very few BeOS incompatible cards, meaning their presence in the computer does not let the BeOS boot. Even then, there seem to be no patterns to these cards. However to cover all your bases and if you're feeling adventurous, try only a standard mouse and keyboard, only the hard drive and CD-ROM on the primary IDE bus, nothing on the secondary bus, and only the video card installed. If you have secondary or piggyback video cards, disconnect them as well.

Things to try:

Try disabling Plug-and-Play OS, Power management, USB support, and any other BIOS options you feel might affect the addressing of the hardware. This includes any on-board extras, like SCSI, video, audio, coffee makers, etc. There are some BIOS' with a "Fail-Safe" or "More-Compatible" setting that can be restored for testing. Some users have been able to install the BeOS with this setting in place and restore their normal settings afterward. If you have a setting like this, definitely try it. As always, be absolutely sure you're using the latest BIOS from the manufacturer.

Other operating systems have simply worked around this, and since Release 3.2 we have too. If you're still having problems, one quick fix is to (oh, darn) fill the second processor slot, and as always keep up to date with the BeOS.

Information we're collecting:

Please go to the support form and include the output of a serial debug:

1. Hook up a null modem cable from the serial 1 port on the Intel machine to any serial port on another computer.

2. Using any terminal program (Z-Term or other) on the non-Be machine, set the rate to 19,200, handshaking off, 8:1 with no parity, no error correction.

3. Hold down F1 on the BeIntel machine as soon as you see "Starting the BeOS Boot Sequence" to capture the debugging information.

We can't tell you much without this information. This is a log of what the BeOS kernel is up to while booting and can tell us what's happening in there that's wrong.