*BSD News Article 32790


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From: jaitken@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (Jeff Aitken)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: I'm going to SHOOT SOMEONE!
Date: 13 Jul 1994 11:08:46 -0400
Organization: Virginia Tech Computer Science Dept, Blacksburg, VA
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Of all the things I was thinking might be causing the problems
installing FreeBSD, never did it enter my mind to double check the work
of the people who assembled the computer.  Not until I experienced the
same error with the Linux installation, that is.  At this point, I started
unplugging, checking jumpers, etc.  And, lo and behold, the answer
reached out and smacked me.  The A: drive and B: drives were wired
BACKWARDS! and then jumpered to be reversed (so I never noticed).  The B
drive was connected to the (twisted) end of the floppy cable, and the A:
drive was connected in the middle.  I fixed this (changing NOHING else,
not even the disks), and it WORKED!

sort of...  FreeBSD does not come with /dev/rwd1* on the filesyst
floppy, so I cannot install it onto drive D:, which is frustrating,
but after I go blow up the factory where the PC was assembled, I'll
feel better.

Just a suggestion to people who experience weird problems - double check
everything you did not do!  Chances are it was done wrong.  (Am I the
only idiot who forgot this? ;)


Seriously, does anyone know how I can install onto drive wd1 without the
necessary files in /dev?  MAKEDEV fails because mknod, chown, and chgrp
are not present - why was this done this way?  

Jeff
-- 
Jeff Aitken						 jaitken@vt.edu

   A witty saying proves nothing, but saying something stupid gets
                          peoples' attention