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From: sparkstp@gde.GDEsystems.COM (Timothy P. Sparks)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: FreeBSD 2.1.0-Release Install Problems. HELP!
Date: 19 Jun 1996 14:59:32 -0700
Organization: GDESystems Inc.
Lines: 67
Distribution: na
Message-ID: <4q9t84$ih@gde.GDEsystems.COM>
NNTP-Posting-Host: gde
Hello All.
I'm another home user/small business FreeBSD UNIX wannabe and I'm having
difficulty with the install. I've already read the hardware compatabilty,
release, pre-install...etc....notes, several reams of FAQ, worked via phone
with a friend running several FreeBSD systems(whose patience I may have
exhausted from 3000 miles away) and have even been monitoring this news
group for about a week now. I'm trying to load 2.1.0-RELEASE. Perhaps
someone out here in netnews land can shed some light on the problem. First
the hardware:
Generic(Probably China) PCI Motherboard(Built-in EIDE HDDC disabled)
Genuine Intel Pentium 100MHZ CPU
16MB RAM
Adaptec 2940UW PCI SCSI controller
Hewlett Packard C3725S SCSI-II 2.1G Hard Drive
3.5" NEC Floppy drive
SMC 8216 Ultra Elite Network card (280,10,D800)
Generic Monochrome adapter & Display
2 Serial, 1 Parallel ports(EIDE controller on Motherboard enabled)
All components except for the Mono adapter/display and NIC are right out
of the anti-static plastic bags.
I used an 80MB dos hard drive to verify all but the HP hard drive and
SCSI controler worked in a DOS environment first. I then disabled the IDE
hard drive controller and removed the drive, installed the SCSI controller
and drive and performed the NOVICE install procedures according to the menu
and instructions. I even boot the boot floppy with the "-c" option and
eliminate all drivers except for those associated with my hardware. These
components are successfully probed on bootup with or without the "-c" option.
I am allocating the entire hard drive to FreeBSD("A" under the fdisk like
partition maker), answering the "Dangerous Partition" queries according to
the install procedures, and move on to the disk labeling procedures.
sd01a 32M / UFS Y
sd01b 48M None SWAP
sd01e 32M /var UFS Y
sd01f 1935M /usr UFS Y
The above settings are not substantially different from the defaults and
the results turn out the same anyway.
I have made(correctly according to the instructions) floppies for boot,
root, fixit, distributions: bin, compat1x, compat20, des, dict, games and
manpages. I don't have a tape, CDROM drive or ISP yet. When I do the commit,
what happens next I guess depends on the alignment of the planets etc.
Sometimes I get a write error, "error mounting /mnt/dev/sd01e: Invalid
Argument", other times I get disk full messages and other times it just gives
a "Page Fault 12, Rebooting in 15 seconds". Once I even got through the
boot and root floppies and it started in bin.aa and then died.
I've also tried going through the custom install menu and doing writes
along the way.(Yes I know...bad boy!) The one consistency I see is that the
load always seems to have problems with the swap section.
I have also performed low level formats on the hard disk using the adaptec
controller software to make sure that the disk is clean from the start. Still
no go.
Does this scenario sound familiar to anyone? If more details are required
on the error messages, I can provide them. I just don't have them with me
at the moment.
Thanks andvance for your assistance.