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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mira.net.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!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: Sat, 29 Jun 1996 10:11:43 -0700 Organization: Erols Internet Services Lines: 93 Message-ID: <31D563CF.44D5@www.play-hookey.com> References: <31D472A1.2781E494@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 > > Then the installation is halted and I get this message: > > Synching disks > > Panic: ffs_valloc: > dup alloc > 7 . 7 . 5 . 2 done > giving up > > After that I forced to reset the computer. > > I've searched FreeBSD's web site search engine for a possible answer, > but I really didn't seem to find a definite one. There are suggestions > that it may be a drive geometry problem, or a situation where there is > not enough space in the /usr directory. One posting said it was an > MS-DOS file incompatibility problem, while another said EIDE drives are > not supported in FreeBSD 2.1. I really don't know where to go from > here. Let me add something to my earlier posts on this topic. As a test, hit Alt-F2 as soon as the installation process begins. You should have no trouble watching the line-by-line description of the installation. If you start getting messages that part of the distribution files are being discarded as "junk," you know the error is beginning. It accumulates until something gets completely lost. The "wrote -1 bytes" message is another symptom of the same problem. Both of these conditions have always pointed to only one thing on any of my installations: cache RAM running too slowly for the system, as I've mentioned before. To verify this, disable the cache and try the installation again. It'll be a bit slower, but if it works this time, you can be sure you've identified the problem. You have three possible options for a final solution: disable the cache completely, install faster cache RAM, or slow down the motherboard's read access to the cache. Ken