Very Computer

Hi all. I am not sure if someone out there can help me with this problem.  I
did do a search on past bug reports and did discover a number of people with
this exact same problem in 1999 that wasn't resolved.

The problem is that top, vmstat, etc. shows my cpu idle, system and user all
as zero.  If I do a systat -v, I get the message:  "The alternate system
clock has died!  Reverting to ``pigs'' display."

I'd like to be able to poll the computer to get its CPU usage.  Is this a
known problem?

The system is pretty old and generic.  Here's the startup info, in case it
helps:

Feb 10 08:15:22 Femeref /kernel: Copyright (c) 1992-2000 The FreeBSD
Project.
Feb 10 08:15:22 Femeref /kernel: Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988,
1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
Feb 10 08:15:22 Femeref /kernel: The Regents of the University of
California. All rights reserved.
Feb 10 08:15:22 Femeref /kernel: FreeBSD 4.2-RELEASE #0: Mon Nov 20 13:02:55
GMT 2000
Feb 10 08:15:22 Femeref /kernel:

Feb 10 08:15:22 Femeref /kernel: Timecounter "i8254"  frequency 1193182 Hz
Feb 10 08:15:22 Femeref /kernel: CPU: Pentium/P54C (132.63-MHz 586-class
CPU)
Feb 10 08:15:22 Femeref /kernel: Origin = "GenuineIntel"  Id = 0x52c
Stepping = 12
Feb 10 08:15:22 Femeref /kernel:
Features=0x1bf<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,MCE,CX8>
Feb 10 08:15:22 Femeref /kernel: real memory  = 33554432 (32768K bytes)
Feb 10 08:15:22 Femeref /kernel: config> di lnc0
Feb 10 08:15:22 Femeref /kernel: config> di ie0
Feb 10 08:15:22 Femeref /kernel: config> di fe0
Feb 10 08:15:22 Femeref /kernel: config> di ed0
Feb 10 08:15:22 Femeref /kernel: config> di cs0
Feb 10 08:15:22 Femeref /kernel: config> q
Feb 10 08:15:22 Femeref /kernel: avail memory = 28553216 (27884K bytes)
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: Preloaded elf kernel "kernel" at
0xc0436000.
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: Preloaded userconfig_script
"/boot/kernel.conf" at 0xc043609c.
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: Intel Pentium detected, installing
workaround for F00F bug
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: md0: Malloc disk
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: npx0: <math processor> on motherboard
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: npx0: INT 16 interface
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: pcib0: <Host to PCI bridge> on motherboard
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: pci0: <PCI bus> on pcib0
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: isab0: <PCI to ISA bridge (vendor=10b9
device=1513)> at device 2.0 on pci
0
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: isa0: <ISA bus> on isab0
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: atapci0: <CMD 646 ATA controller> port
0x7050-0x705f at device 3.0 on pci
0
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: ata0: at 0x1f0 irq 14 on atapci0
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: ata1: at 0x170 irq 15 on atapci0
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: pci0: <ATI Mach64-CT graphics accelerator>
at 4.0
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: xl0: <3Com 3c905-TX Fast Etherlink XL> port
0x7000-0x703f irq 5 at device
 14.0 on pci0
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: xl0: Ethernet address: 00:60:97:d4:26:64
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: miibus0: <MII bus> on xl0
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: nsphy0: <DP83840 10/100 media interface> on
miibus0
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: nsphy0:  10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX,
100baseTX-FDX, auto
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: pci0: <Cirrus Logic GD5434 SVGA controller>
at 15.0
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: fdc0: <NEC 72065B or clone> at port
0x3f0-0x3f5,0x3f7 irq 6 drq 2 on isa0
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: fdc0: FIFO enabled, 8 bytes threshold
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: fd0: <1440-KB 3.5" drive> on fdc0 drive 0
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: atkbdc0: <Keyboard controller (i8042)> at
port 0x60,0x64 on isa0
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: atkbd0: <AT Keyboard> flags 0x1 irq 1 on
atkbdc0
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: kbd0 at atkbd0
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: vga0: <Generic ISA VGA> at port 0x3c0-0x3df
iomem 0xa0000-0xbffff on isa0
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: sc0: <System console> at flags 0x100 on
isa0
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: sc0: VGA <16 virtual consoles, flags=0x300>
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: sio0 at port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0x10
on isa0
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: sio0: type 16550A
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: sio1 at port 0x2f8-0x2ff irq 3 on isa0
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: sio1: type 16550A
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: ppc0: <Parallel port> at port 0x378-0x37f
irq 7 on isa0
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: ppc0: Generic chipset (EPP/NIBBLE) in
COMPATIBLE mode
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: plip0: <PLIP network interface> on ppbus0
Feb 10 08:15:23 Femeref /kernel: lpt0: <Printer> on ppbus0
Feb 10 08:15:24 Femeref /kernel: lpt0: Interrupt-driven port
Feb 10 08:15:24 Femeref /kernel: ppi0: <Parallel I/O> on ppbus0
Feb 10 08:15:24 Femeref /kernel: ad0: 1222MB <QUANTUM FIREBALL_TM1280A>
[2484/16/63] at ata0-master WDMA2
Feb 10 08:15:24 Femeref /kernel: acd0: CDROM <685A> at ata1-master using
PIO3

On Tue, 13 Feb 2001 22:35:04 -0700, "Darren Gamble"

Maybe you got a bad Timer IC onboard, depends on your chipset. Such
things happend...

I see that you have a 4.2 kernel. Do you have also a 4.2 userland?
Because if not top etc. will not work. Another cause of trouble:
do you boot your kernel through /boot/loader or directly through the boot
blocks? In the latter case you will have the same problem.

--
Michel Talon

Yes, as stated, the machine had just been installed.  It has never been
CVSupped, etc.

 Another cause of trouble:

Quote:> do you boot your kernel through /boot/loader or directly through the boot
> blocks? In the latter case you will have the same problem.

Through the standard /boot/loader.

If it helps any, the internal clock time on the computer is OK.

Is there anything that I could supply that might help troubleshoot this?

Quote:

> --
> Michel Talon

In this case i have never seen this problem - sorry. I read regularly the
newsgroup and the freebsd-stable mailing list and don't remember having seen
it mentioned. Perhaps you have strange hardware.
It may be rewarding to try Linux on the box and see if it has problems.

Quote:

>> --
>> Michel Talon

--
Michel Talon