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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