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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!simtel!news.kei.com!news.mathworks.com!gatech!news.emf.net!overload.lbl.gov!gracie.lbl.gov!jin From: jin@gracie.lbl.gov (Jin Guojun[ITG]) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Why FreeBSD cannot boot from fdisk partition 4 Date: 23 Aug 1995 19:18:50 GMT Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Lines: 41 Message-ID: <41fuuq$hrj@overload.lbl.gov> References: <41dppg$q2t@overload.lbl.gov> <412jv8$232@sentinel.synapse.net> <41fmss$fdl@overload.lbl.gov> <41fs9i$gua@overload.lbl.gov> NNTP-Posting-Host: gracie.lbl.gov In article <41ekqh$3r@gate.sinica.edu.tw>, > <ywliu@beta.wsl.sinica.edu.tw> wrote: >>Jin Guojun[ITG] (jin@gracie.lbl.gov) stands accused of saying the following on 22 Aug 1995 23:38:24 GMT: >>: I just discovered that FreeBSD cannot boot from physical partition 4 (wd0s4, >>: not something like wd03d). It can boot from wd0s1, wd0s2, and wd0s3. >>: If partition 3 (wd0s3) is a FreeBSD partition, then installation will give >>: an error message: >>: "This region cannot be used for your root partition ..." >> >>How large is your hard disk ? I believe the root partition exceeds 1024 >>cylinder limit. >> > >Your are right. If I start the 4th partition before 540MB, then it will be >bootable. I wonder if this can be fixed in Release 2.1. Oops, the number is wrong. It is not before 540MB, it is before 265MB. Any physical partition 2-4 (I would say virtural disks 2-4 to avoid confusion with UNIX partition) if allocated before 240MB, the FreeBSD won't boot from it. I had three types of disks, and they are all 850MB -- Western Digital, Maxtor, and Conner. The physical specs are same: 1654 Cylinders, 63 sec., and 16 heads When I moved FreeBSD to third virtural disk (wd0s3), it actually started at 240MB. After I delete all virtural disks, created a DOS partition on virtural disk 1 (FreeBSD calls it wd0s1) with 240 MB, and created a second virtural disk for FreeBSD. The FreeBSD boots OK. It can boot until the previous partition (virtual disk) size reaches 265MB. At this point, the cylinder is under 540. So, is Boot Manager or FreeBSD problem? It looks like a FreeBSD problem. I made wd0s1 for Linux and uses 280 MB space. Then, I created second partiton wd0s2 by using the rest space 537MB. DOS installed on the second partiton boots fine. However, If installing FreeBSD on the second partiton, then it won't boot. That is, FreeBSD cannot boot after 265 MB on a hard disk. -- /-------------- Jin Guojun ------------ v ---- Internet: g_jin@lbl.gov ----\ | Imaging & Distributed Computing | Usenet: ucbvax!g_jin@lbl.gov | | Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory | Bitnet: -- | | 50B-2239, Berkeley, CA 94720 - jin%george.lbl.gov@Csa3.LBL.Gov |