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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.uwa.edu.au!classic.iinet.com.au!swing.iinet.net.au!news.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.msfc.nasa.gov!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!startide.ctr.columbia.edu!wpaul From: wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu (Bill Paul) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: INSTALL problem due to 2 IDE controllers? Date: 11 Oct 1995 19:11:20 GMT Organization: Columbia University Center for Telecommunications Research Lines: 84 Message-ID: <45h4sp$7nd@sol.ctr.columbia.edu> References: <45eguk$h89@cnj.digex.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: startide.ctr.columbia.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Daring to challenge the will of the almighty Leviam00se, Peter Grina (grina@cnj.digex.net) had the courage to say: : I believe that I'm having a device naming problem that's preventing FreeBSD : 2.0.5 from booting properly. Any help would be greatly appreciated. No, you're having a problem understanding how the PC BIOS works (or, in this case, fails to work). : My son's PC has one disk on each of his two IDE controllers... the first one : for his DOS/MSWIN stuff; the second for FreeBSD is on the second controller. Bzzzt!! I'm sorry, you can't do it that way. Let me be clear: the first controller is for drives 0 and 1. The second controller is for drives 2 and 3. The BIOS can only boot from drive 0 or 1: you cannot make the system boot from drives 2 or 3. Please understand the distinction: FreeBSD can _USE_ drives on the second controller (wdc1), but it cannot _BOOT_ from there. Not no way, not no how. So stop trying. : The FreeBSD installation works just great. The post-install stuff works : great. The problems appear during the post-install reboot. The boot manager : fails to take control (I selected the first of the 3 boot manager choices : during the install), and then DOS/MSWIN boots up from the C: drive. : When I boot with the FreeBSD floppy inserted, I am able to boot (sort of) : from the second IDE controller using the command: : Boot: wd(1,a)/kernel This is not the second IDE controller. wd(1,a) is drive 1, which is on the _first_ controller. I repeat: you CANNOT boot from drives on the second controller. : The problem is that the boot fails when it tries to mount wd1a as root. : During the install, I did a "df" on the Alt-F4 screen and it showed the : root filesystem as /dev/wd2a. The /etc/fstab indicates root should come from : /dev/wd2a... why/where is wd1a coming from? : I tried playing with the boot device name, but wd(2,a)/kernel immediately : spews a stream of C:0 H:0 D:0 (the letters may be wrong) messages. You can't boot from wd(2,a). The BIOS only has support for drives 0 and 1. : Is this a boot config thing? Do I have to muck with the /dev directory after : the install? I could use a hint. I'm all but beating you over the head with hints here. :) : If there is no clean solution, then I'll try configuring the second disk as a : slave of the first controller. Is this the cleanest solution? Will the boot : manager work then? Will my root mount up properly? Yes, yes and yes. I don't know why you have two controllers if you only have two drives in the first place (unless you have two disks that don't get along well as master and slave -- no pun intended :). Another possible solution is to make room for a root filesystem on a disk on the primary controller. Remember: the kernel itself doesn't care about the BIOS because it has its own disk drivers to deal with things, but to bootstrap the kernel requires help from the BIOS, which has this two drive limitation. If you put the root fs (/) on one of the disks on the primary controller, you can boot the kernel from there and then mount the other disks however you please. : HAAAAALP! : Regards, : Pete Grina (grina@cnj.digex.net) -Bill -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~T~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -Bill Paul (212) 854-6020 | System Manager Work: wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu | Center for Telecommunications Research Home: wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu | Columbia University, New York City ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Møøse Illuminati: ignore it and be confused, or join it and be confusing! ~~~~~~ "Welcome to All Things BSDish! If it's not BSDish, it's crap!" ~~~~~~~