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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!news.eng.convex.com!newshost.convex.com!news.duke.edu!news.mathworks.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!tfs.com!mailhub.tfs.com!julian From: julian@mailhub.tfs.com (Julian Elischer) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: BootEasy Problem (Seagate ST15230N geometry ?) Date: 7 Feb 1996 13:16:34 GMT Organization: TRW Financial Systems, Oakland, CA Lines: 58 Message-ID: <4fa8ni$mge@times.tfs.com> References: <4en78l$mpq@mars.efn.org> <DMDv6E.2pJ@ml.csiro.au> NNTP-Posting-Host: mailhub.tfs.com Keywords: Seagate, BootEasy The trick is to know that the geometry you need to use is the geometry that the BIOS is using. This may have NO RESEMBLANCE to reality to see what it is, boot your install floppy with the -v option and if it goes off the top of the screen, use <scroll-lock> to freeze the screen and th eup-arrow to go back up.. (<scroll-lock> toggles) on/off this will print out what the BIOS thinks it is using, but FreeBSD doesn't know which drives those geomotries correspond to as it doesn't know which drive the BIOS calls C: another trick is to zap the drive and put a small DOS partiton on it.. then boot FreeBSD. The kernel can use the DOS partition to figure out the BIOS geometry when booting. You can wipe the DOS partition off when installing as the figures have been read in.. One of the early versions of freeBSD got the Bios figures off by one in one place.. not sure which one.. In article <DMDv6E.2pJ@ml.csiro.au>, Peter Billam <pjb@ml.csiro.au> wrote: :In article mpq@mars.efn.org, Michelle Brownsworth <michellb@efn.org> writes: :> After it was installed, I booted :> the computer for the first time, got the BootEasy menu, and chose F2 :> (FreeBSD). But instead of booting FreeBSD, the menu kept reappearing :> with F? as the default. :> :> I went back to the documentation, in particular, the hardware :> troubleshooting docs, which addressed this very problem. It stated that :> the problem was most likely wrong disk geometry, and that the solution :> was to reinstall FreeBSD, taking care to ensure the geometry was :> correct. So I did that. The partitioning editor correctly recognized :> the drive geometry (3148 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors/track) and I :> proceeded to the label editor, and so forth through the rest of the :> install, which went fine. :> :> But when I rebooted and selected F2 from the BootEasy menu--uh oh--same :> problem. I went back and doublechecked everything--and I do mean :> everything--again, but no joy. :> :> So, I'm stymied. What should be a fairly straight-forward install has :> turned into quite a thrash... Anybody have any ideas? :> :I'm wrestling with this too, and it's really frustrating because there :are no error messages and each iteration is such a terribly long process. :If it's really a disc geometry issue, could some kind soul please tell me :what the magic numbers are for a Seagate ST15230N 4Gb Hawk 4 drive ? :I've been using 3992/19/12 which I got from the Seagate Installation Guide. : :E-Mail to pjb@ml.csiro.au preferred ... : :TIA, Peter Billam : >