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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.mel.connect.com.au!news.mira.net.au!inquo!news.seinf.abb.se!nooft.abb.no!Norway.EU.net!nntp.uio.no!news.cais.net!news1.erols.com!newsmaster@erols.com From: Ken Bigelow <kbigelow@www.play-hookey.com> Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: FreeBSD install problems.....write error Date: Fri, 28 Jun 1996 09:46:07 -0700 Organization: Erols Internet Services Lines: 69 Message-ID: <31D40C4F.4A20@www.play-hookey.com> References: <31D4726D.41C67EA6@athenet.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: kenjb05.play-hookey.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.02 (Win16; I) Brian Bayorgeon wrote: > > Hello. Is there anybody who could help me with this problem I'm having > installing FreeBSD 2.1 > > I prepare for a custom installation from a DOS partition by > downloading the FreeBSD 2.1 distribution from FreeBSD's ftp site. I > used WS_FTP95. I put the files and directories on my master drive > (Quantum Fireball 1080 MEG EIDE with one huge primary partition devoted > to Windows 95) like this: > > c:\freebsd\bin > c:\freebsd\dict > c:\freebsd\floppies > c:\freebsd\games > c:\freebsd\info > c:\freebsd\manpages > c:\freebsd\proflibs > c:\freebsd\src > c:\freebsd\tools > c:\freebsd\xf86312 > > (I made sure all files were in the proper directories) > > I am installing FreeBSD to my slave drive (a Seagate ST3290A 261.3 MEG > IDE) I intend to use the entire drive in one big partition for FreeBSD. > > I used IDE_CONF.EXE found in the /tools directory on the ftp site to > confirm the drive geometry of the Seagate drive. It reported the same > results as FDISK and my hardrive's manual reported: > > cyl - 1001 > Heads - 15 > Sectors - 34 > Size - 261.3 MEG > > I proceed with a Novice install selecting a custom install. > I let the installation program automatically set the following > directories on the Seagate slave drive: > > part mount size newfs > wd1s1a / 32 MB UFS Y > wd1s1b <none> 43 MB SWAP > wd1s1e /var 30 MB UFS Y > wd1s1f /usr 144 MB UFS Y > > I get a > > "Write failure on transfer! (wrote -1 bytes of 10240 bytes)" > > when the installation gets as far as /bin > > This happens during every retry also.....ie: it doesn't seem to be one > bad file. The same error message then occurs in /dict and in /games [ snip... ] This is the same behavior I had when the cache RAM on the motherboard was not responding fast enough for FreeBSD, even though all tests said it was there and good. Try disabling the cache and then re-install. If that works, you may be able to re-enable cache and then slow down its operation in the BIOS setup. Or, you could replace the cache RAM chips with faster versions. If you don't do something with the cache, you'll get random crashes even if you get the system installed. I hope this helps! Ken