Subject: Problem with fpem.o

From: Chris Coe <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 19:48:11 +0100 (BST)

Hi all,

Ok, first of all I'm an ARM Linux newbie so please be patient with
me if possible! Right, onto the problem...

After the thrills and spills of installing ARM Linux 2.0.31 from the
Clan CD and a glut of files from ftp.arm.uk.linux.org, I've now got
my system booting from the hard disk, but there is a problem. It
always crashes unrecoverably (cursor stops flashing etc.) when trying
to execute the line:

    insmod /lib/modules/misc/fpem.o
    
in /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit (I think that's where it was, anyway). I guess
this installs floating point support, but unfortunately it causes a
postmortem and then freezes the machine completely, requiring a hard
reset to get control back. Commenting out this line allows the system
to boot all the way to the login prompt, but after a successful login
the prompt immediately respawns. By booting from the installation
disk, I changed root's default shell in /etc/passwd to ash (instead of
bash). Now I can login, albeit with the error "ulimit: not found"
before the shell prompt appears. Trying to start another shell, such
as bash or zsh, and certain programs like adduser, causes the error
"Illegal instruction". I assume this is caused by the ARM trying to
interpret FP opcodes or some similar thing, so I suspect all the
problems are related to my initial problem with fpem.o. It installs
ok (automatically) when booting with the installation disks, and
appears in the lsmod list as you would expect.

All I know about UNIX so far is what I've read on this list and from
various things off the web, plus the ARM Linux installation notes.
Oh, and poking around myself of course. So, if you can offer any
advice, try to avoid the use of big technical words ;-) Thanks!

Cheers,

Chris.

-- 
Chris Coe                           Phone: (01603) 868707 Mon-Sun 4pm-10pm
Norsoft Productions                   Fax: (01603) 868707 Mon-Fri 9am-4pm
PD software for Acorn computers     Email: mailto:[email-masked]
                                    AX.25: M0AZW @ GB7TLH.#35.GBR.EU