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#! rnews 1689 bsd Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!garnet.bmr.gov.au!como.dpie.gov.au!news.gan.net.au!act.news.telstra.net!vic.news.telstra.net!news.mira.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!nntp.coast.net!news.kei.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!uwm.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!csn!news-1.csn.net!news-2.csn.net!csn!nntp-xfer-2.csn.net!roper.uwyo.edu!roper.uwyo.edu!nntp Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Failure to boot after installation Message-ID: <1996Mar26.200625.21968@roper.uwyo.edu> From: glass@stanford.edu Date: 26 Mar 96 20:06:25 MST Reply-To: Brett_Glass@infoworld.com Distribution: world Nntp-Posting-Host: 129.72.251.3 X-Newsreader: IBM NewsReader/2 v1.4 Lines: 20 I've just installed FreeBSD on an EISA machine with 20 MB of RAM, an Ultrastor 24F SCSI controller, and a DEC DSP5200 2 GB hard drive. The installation produced no error messages (though, oddly, I had to specify an I/O port and a DMA channel for the SCSI controller when it uses neither; it's a bus mastering board that accesses RAM directly and uses IRQs to notify the CPU that something has happened). In any event, the system now will not boot. This is the third time this has happened, with two different disk controllers. What is wrong? I've seen a few messages in various newsgroups stating that having a 2 GB drive might cause a problem, but the controller is set to translate that geometry to 969 cylinders, 64 heads, and 63 sectors per track, so the drive SHOULD look to the system as if it has less than 1024 cylinders. I'd appreciate all answers, but especially answers from the FreeBSD developers who might understand the root cause of this problem. --Brett Glass