# FreeBSD 7.0 on Pentium 3, Is it possible?



## vaclinux (Jan 28, 2009)

Halllo,
Recent FreeBSD and old Intel Processor make problem for me,
I want to install the FreeBSD 7.0 in pentium3, but it is failed to boot up.
Select option 1: *Boot FreeBSD [Default]*
as shown below





> /boot/kerne/acpi.ko text=********** data=********** syms=[********]
> \


*****= numbers and chars

Is pentium3 compatible?Releases notes says:*Yes, it is*


Any idea?
Thanks


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## SirDice (Jan 28, 2009)

I have a P2 running fbsd 7.1-stable perfectly..

Try booting without ACPI..


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## morbit (Jan 28, 2009)

It is ACPI kernel module problem, not CPU related. I have at home PIII-S 1.4Ghz box with FreeBSD 7-STABLE (had 750Mhz, 1000Mhz), for best desktop performance choose some lightweight environment.


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## jemate18 (Jan 28, 2009)

I have a Pentium 3 500Mhz with just 196MB of RAM. I have installed only the base and ProFTP.

It works fine and it serves its purpose as an FTP server in our office. I think its not CPU related. ACPI may be....


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## jemate18 (Jan 28, 2009)

I installed FreeBSD 7.0-stable on that P3


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## vaclinux (Jan 28, 2009)

So, most people dont have problem with FreeBSD 7.0 in Pentium3.
even sirDice used pentium2 successfully,(good for u man)
Options that i have:
1).Boot without acpi?
Done,with different output, like below


> |


and hang forever.
Basically all options in FreeBSD bootloader menu, have been tried. without any good result,
either hang in acpi.ko or just "|".

Yes, i believe it is realted with acpi(obvious in the acpi.ko error) of my hardware, but how to debug it. or may be to solve it?

Thank for quick respond.


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## morbit (Jan 28, 2009)

Try posting in acpi-freebsd mailing list, with detailed specifications of your hardware, and specific messages you get. You can try changing some options in BIOS, and/or updating BIOS altogether. 

For further research, check http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/acpi-debug.html


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## vaclinux (Jan 28, 2009)

@morbit, 
Thanks, i will try that link first, n see what i can do with it.
Thanks again,


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## hitest (Jan 28, 2009)

I'm experiencing no problems running FreeBSD 7.1 on a Plll 667 MHz with 256 MB RAM (previously this unit ran 7.0).  I'm running KDE 3.5.10 on the unit.
I'm also running FreeBSD 7.1 on a Celeron 850 MHz with 768 MB RAM.  FreeBSD runs very well on older hardware.


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## morbit (Jan 28, 2009)

hitest said:
			
		

> I'm experiencing no problems running FreeBSD 7.1 on a Plll 667 MHz with 256 MB RAM (previously this unit ran 7.0).  I'm running KDE 3.5.10 on the unit.



Well, KDE 3.5.10 with PIII is considerably less responsive than Windows XP. I would opt for something lighter, LXDE is promising.


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## tingo (Jan 28, 2009)

The FreeBSD 7.1-release CD (disc1) even boots on this old laptop: Compaq Armada 1580DMT. The new dmesg isn't there yet - I'll update the page later.
It has a Pentium P54C and 32 MB RAM.


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## vaclinux (Apr 22, 2009)

Hai, guys,
it is quite old thread already, but i need to continue this.
The link was suggested by morbit, and i joined ACPI mailing list for freeBSD after that.


But,I still cant find bright light for my problem,
I would try to give other information that may be usefull:
-My Pentium3 Specification:
-This machine working with FreeBSD 4.8 RELEASE,
-And it is not working with FreeBSD 6.2, 7.0, 7.1.vr.

Really looking forward for information?


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## mickey (Apr 22, 2009)

Does the machine have the latest BIOS installed, that is available from the motherboard manifacturer? If not, updating the BIOS as a first step is highly recommended.

Does it run with ACPI disabled?

You could also try googling if someone has already come up with a fixed ACPI DSDT for this mainboard. I remember, some time ago, there used to be a searchable index for fixed DSDTs related to some Linux stuff. If you find one, you could try overriding the BIOS DSDT with it. For this you need to set the following in /boot/loader.conf:


```
acpi_dsdt_name="/PATH_TO_YOUR_FIXED_DSDT.aml"
acpi_dsdt_load="YES"
```

Since the machine in it's current state does not boot, i presume that this would involve connecting the harddisk to some other FreeBSD machine, mounting it, and making the required changes.

In general, there is absolutely no problem with running FreeBSD on older hardware. I am successfully running FreeBSD on a P3/750 and a dual processor P1 233MMX. But broken ACPI code on the other hand, is quite common. I have at least two machines, where i had to fix and override the BIOS ACPI code for one reason or the other.


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## vaclinux (Apr 22, 2009)

Tq for the reply,
I will make sure with the up-todate of the motherboard, and hope can found a fixed ACPI DSDT for this motherboard.

But, for your information, i have tried to boot the FreeBSD(6.2/7.0/7.1) with ACPI disable, n all failed.
Thanks


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## richardpl (Apr 23, 2009)

This looks more like loader problem than acpi or anything other related with kernel.

Does it pass loader prompt?


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## vaclinux (Apr 23, 2009)

Okay, what do you mean by loader prompt?
can you give me  example of the prompt?
Thank for the reply


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## richardpl (Apr 23, 2009)

Read boot(8), loader(8) is third boot stage where kernel and modules are loaded into system memory.


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