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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!simtel!oleane!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!news.mathworks.com!europa.chnt.gtegsc.com!news.umbc.edu!haven.umd.edu!ames!cronkite.cisco.com!jwampler From: jwampler@cisco.com (Jim Wampler) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Disklabel can't write to sd0? Date: 24 Jul 1995 19:10:30 GMT Organization: cisco Systems Lines: 48 Message-ID: <3v0r76$qqu@cronkite.cisco.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: terrapin.cisco.com X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Hi, I named my machine ecstasy, but I may have to change it to agony! :-) This is yet another appeal for FreeBSD installation advice. I am having two problems. o I can't boot my hard disk even from the floppy. o The boot manager is not being installed on sd0's mbr. The FreeBSD installation appears to go ok, but upon reboot I'm dropped back into OS/2's boot manager. I'm installing on my third scsi hard disk, sd2. I discovered the disk geometry by installing a DOS partition on the disk (then later deleting it), and FreeBSD seems happy with the geometry. I've tried to boot the floppy and load the kernel on sd0 by typing "sd(2,a)/kernel" at the floppy boot prompt. I get the message "Error: C:0 H:0 S:0" repeated rapidly and endlessly. Shouldn't I be able to boot this way? What does the error message mean? After doing an installation I can use the shell running in screen four. I've tried to use disklabel to install the boot programs sdboot and bootsd (the boot manager?), but disklabel is unable to even read sd0. If I try "disklabel sd0" I get an error. If I try "disklabel /dev/rsd0" I get a minimal disk label, but if I try to force a read of the actual disk rather than the in core copy of the disk label with "disklabel -r /dev/rsd0" I get the error message "Bad pack magic number (label is damaged, or pack is unlabeled)." I get the same message if I do "disklabel -B /dev/rsd0." Why can't disklabel read or write sd0? Is this why the installation program doesn't install the boot manager? I have DOS and OS/2 Warp on sd0, DOS data on sd1, and I'd like to dedicate sd2 to FreeBSD. Any clues for me? I've read the docs, the web site, and usenet, but of course I may have (probably have) missed something. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, -jim Jim Wampler jwampler@cisco.com