Very descriptive non-descriptive error messages
A quick lesson I just re-learned... "just because it says it will do what it says it does on the tin, doesn't mean it's the only thing that the contents of the tin can be used for" or some such...
...this had me confused for a couple of hours: there I was about to install Solaris 10 on to an Ultra 5, when up comes the following error at the OBP:
"fast data access mmu miss"
Ahah! - "that sounds like a nice descriptive error message, something a quick search on Google will help me resolve" thought I. How wrong I was. Apparently this error can be because:
- the CPU is blown;
- the RAM is corrupt;
- something's amiss with the IDE bus;
- something's amiss with the SCSI bus;
- something's amiss with the PCI bus;
- something else is amiss..;
- the installed OS or some other software is somehow corrupt;
- the CD media can not correctly be read.
Now I can understand that the last two are essentially the same thing (corrupt media = corrupt software), but why have the same message for all of these options? I spent a good couple of hours testing the CPU, RAM and searching around to see if I could swap in replacements.
In the end all I had to do was re-burn the .iso images with a different burner (an external LaCie - bootiful bit 'o kit). Maybe I should have tried this first, but hey you live and learn;)
...this had me confused for a couple of hours: there I was about to install Solaris 10 on to an Ultra 5, when up comes the following error at the OBP:
"fast data access mmu miss"
Ahah! - "that sounds like a nice descriptive error message, something a quick search on Google will help me resolve" thought I. How wrong I was. Apparently this error can be because:
- the CPU is blown;
- the RAM is corrupt;
- something's amiss with the IDE bus;
- something's amiss with the SCSI bus;
- something's amiss with the PCI bus;
- something else is amiss..;
- the installed OS or some other software is somehow corrupt;
- the CD media can not correctly be read.
Now I can understand that the last two are essentially the same thing (corrupt media = corrupt software), but why have the same message for all of these options? I spent a good couple of hours testing the CPU, RAM and searching around to see if I could swap in replacements.
In the end all I had to do was re-burn the .iso images with a different burner (an external LaCie - bootiful bit 'o kit). Maybe I should have tried this first, but hey you live and learn;)
