*BSD News Article 66304


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From: daz@smartlink.net (Richard)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Install on WDC 2.1GB IDE Drive
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 19:28:53 GMT
Organization: SmartLink.net Premier ISP 805-294-1273
Lines: 31
Message-ID: <4l3hji$t8r@frodo.smartlink.net>
Reply-To: daz@smartlink.net
NNTP-Posting-Host: pm82-52.smartlink.net
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82

This can't be an  uncommon problem, but I don't see it discussed anywhere in the FreeBDS handbook.
I am trying to install FreeBSD 2.1 from CD-ROM (SCSI) to a WDC Caviar 31200 IDE drive.
I am using an ASUS P/I-P55TP4XEG motherboard/ 32MB-60ns RAM, 512K PBSRAM cache,
Award BIOS. The C/H/S of the WD drive is 2484/16/63.

The BIOS CMOS Setup gives you the choice of "NORMAL', 'LBA' and 'LARGE' as
hard disk types. I know about the >1024Cyl restriction on boot partitions. I have tried
the following BIOS setups without any success:

2484/16/63  NORMAL
2484/16/63 LBA   (which results in CMOS of 621/64/63)
2484/16/63 LARGE
1024/16/63 NORMAL

In all of the above cases, I then boot from a FreeBSD floppy, and proceed to the Novice
install option. Partitioning is done with drive geometry set to 2484/16/63 which is the same
geometry that the kernel found during the boot process. I created two partitions, one of 527 MB
and the other of the remaining space on disk. Partition 1 (boot partition) was set up with 
the "A" default configuration, and the second partition set up as a UFS mounting at "/public".
The install starts OK, but either I get an error of the SWAP device not being configured, or
that the calculated cylinders do not match the disk label. In either case the install does not complete
normally, and will not boot from the HD.

Any suggestions (other than to install to a SCSI drive)?

Thanks in advance.

Richard Daszkowski
<rjd@unionsoft.com>