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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!news.primenet.com!slip146.phx.primenet.com!peteh From: peteh@primenet.com (Pete Hernandez) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions Subject: Help needed in FreeBSD 1.1.5.1 installation Date: Tue, 22 Nov 1994 23:22:43 UNDEFINED Organization: Primenet Lines: 100 Distribution: world Message-ID: <peteh.12.00569E09@primenet.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: slip146.phx.primenet.com Summary: Help needed in FreeBSD 1.1.5.1 installation Keywords: FreeBSD 1.1.5.1 installation disk problem X-Newsreader: Trumpet for Windows [Version 1.0 Rev B final beta #1] I have some DOS software and hardware installation experience, but none whatsoever with UNIX or *BSD. As I'm coming to my wits' end, with no apparent answer in sight I'm asking you *BSD gurus for some help. I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to install FreeBSD for about a month now. I get "CANNOT READ BLK 16" when I boot from the hard disk in one of the installation phases, in spite of many MANY ***MANY*** different attempts around it. I originally posted a message on 11/17/94, and I followed the suggestion given to me to use the BSD fdisk utility. (details of the software and hardware are below). I did the fdisk command with every option specified (I had no manual to refer to). The -i option allowed me to change the starting cylinder from 0 to 1 (which the FAQ mentioned might be a problem. And yes, I've been looking this type of stuff in the FAQ, but have not found an answer). When I changed the starting cylinder to 1, with FreeBSD being the ONLY thing in the disk drive, of course I couldn't boot from the hard drive, so I installed from floppy again, only to find out that it installed on cyl 0 again without asking me. I then tried to create a small DOS partition at the beginning so BSD wouldn't try to use cyl 0. However, as in the past, whenever I've installed a DOS partition with FreeBSD, FreeBSD will refuse to boot from hard disk ("no boot record found" message or something like that from the boot manager software). This never happens if FreeBSD is the only thing installed in the drive. I also tried downloading a new copy of the ditribution diskettes (in case the first ones had been downloaded with some mysterious combination of dropped bits...), but the result is the same. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I could overcome this problem? Your help would be appreciated. Details follow: Hardware: Gateway2000 486/33 8M, 2- 1G IDE WD Caviar31000 drives, 2 floppies, tape, 4 COM, 2 LPTs, Ethernet card. FreeBSD partially installed on the 2nd hard drive, with the BSD partition taking up the entire drive. ************** Prior to the above message, the following is what I had posted on 11/17/94: (please note that the message is STILL the same, referencing BLOCK 16) I (finally) got the thing to boot from the hard disk (using a boot selector program). Now, after it checks the adapters, etc, it issues the message "wd1: can't handle 256 heads from partition table (controller value 16 restored)" (note: disk geometry was correctly detected by FreeBSD, and I accepted the default values, which agreed to the disk documentation and to the CMOS setup values) When it gets to the "automatic reboot" message, it gives me some read error: "Automatic reboot in progress... /dev/rwd0a: 401 files, 4916 used, 9675 free (83 frags, 1199 blocks, 0.6% fragmentation) /dev/rwd0e: CANNOT READ BLK 16 /dev/rdw0e:UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY: RUN fsck MANUALLY The follow ing file system had an unexpected inconsistency: /dev/rwd0e (/usr) Automatic file system check failed ... help! erase ^h, kill ^U, intr ^C #" At this point I entered fsck as the message suggested. When it finally came up with "CANNOT READ BLK 16. CONTINUE? [yn]" I replied y It then said "The following disk sectors could not be read: 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 ,28, 29, 30, 31. Look for alternate superblocks? [yn]" I said "y". It replied: "Search for alternate super-block failed. You must use the -b option of fsck to specify the location of an alternate super-block to supply the needed information; see fsck(8). #" I believe it rebooted at this time. I then tried fsck -b 32 (I remembered seeing 32 as one of the alternate superblocks in the installation screen) after the "cannot read blk 16 ..." message appeared. This time, it gave me a bunch more disk sectors that it could not read. This went on for a few iterations until I ran out of hours in the week to try and see how far it would go. I've tried re-installing a bunch of times, reformatting the disk with DOS and running Norton Uts. to have it correct any possible disk errors, etc, but nothing has been flagged by Norton as bad. ********* PS. I never get to use the third (CPIO) floppy. The problem happens before then. I also have no help or man pages installed at the time of the error, so I have nothing to refer to. To quote the message issued by FreeBSD: "...help!" (please!) Pete peteh@primenet.com