*BSD News Article 73693


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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Please help: install problem-> 2.1.0-R
Message-ID: <1996Jul14.173951.82750@cc.usu.edu>
From: slrbd@mendon.declab.usu.edu (Tami Bennett)
Date: Sun, 14 Jul 96 21:40:47 GMT
Nntp-Posting-Host: slip8.nb2.usu.edu
Lines: 213

My husband asked me to post this for him.  He posted it but he says
it never got past his ISP.  I guess the school has a better link to 
the internet.  I can pass on any email answers to him.

Tami Bennett
slrbd@mendon.declab.usu.edu
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I guess every now and then we computer nuts need to be reminded that
we cannot solve all problems by ourselves.  

It is now my turn (Again!).

For Father's Day this year, I got (to order for myself) the FreeBSD
CDROM.  I decided on the 2.1.0-RELEASE for reasons I cannot remember.
I read the manual and did all the homework I could before installing
the operating system, but alas I am still having problems.  I called
Walnut Creek CDROM technical support and they recomended I post the 
problems to USENET and send them the same info.  So here I go.

The plan:

I have two EIDE Hard disks; one Maxtor 1.6GB, one Maxtor 540MB.  I
want to use the first (larger) to remain dedicated to DOS and Windows.
The second (smaller) hard disk will be dedicated to FreeBSD.  I want
a XWindow system, one that I can try writing BSD drivers and try some 
X programming.

The problem:

After reading the book that came with the CDs (twice), I was not 
surprised when I could not load FreeBSD directly from my ATAPI 4X 
Creative CDROM drive.  (I also tried the _atapi.flp_ created with the
VIEW program.)  I figured the best way would be to copy the files and 
directories needed to my large DOS disk and install from there.  Even 
after the copying, I still had plenty of space on the DOS hard disk.

I then booted with the _boot.flp_ (also created with VIEW).  Things 
went fine until soon after the screen that asks if you are CERTAIN you
want to load the system.  I then got an error message that said:

Failed to load the ROOT distribution.  Please correct this problem and
try again.

After trying the same NOVICE installation method several times with the
same results (I did try reloading the source files and change some of 
the directory structure on the DOS disk first) I tried the CUSTOM
installation.  I ran into problems with the EXTRACT directive.  Almost
all the transfers gave an error message that had:

Write failure on transfer...

From the way things looked, all the sources were being read correctly,
there seemed to be problems writing to the second disk.

Finally I tried putting a small DOS partition at the beginning of the
disk, as was recomended.  I still got the same results.

My system:

Motherboard: Intel P54C/PCI (Plato), Neptune chip set, AMI BIOS;
               Current BIOS installed: 1.00.06.1AX
CPU:         Intel Pentium 90MHz
Memory:      24MB 60ns w/ parity
Video:       Number Nine GXE64 Pro, 2MB VRAM
Monitor:     Nokia Multigraph 447X
1st OS:      Novell DOS 7 & MS Windows 3.1
Floppy:      1.44MB (A:), 1.2MB (B:); using motherboard controller
1st HD:      Maxtor 71626 AP; 1.6GB EIDE Jumpered as master device;
               using motherboard controller attached to PCI bus.
2nd HD:      Maxtor 7546 AT; 540MB EIDE Jumpered as slave device;
               using motherboard controller attached to PCI bus.
CDROM:       Creative 4X IDE (model CRE-JTB?), Jumpered as slave device;
               using motherboard controller attached to ISA bus.

Since I think disk geometry is the issue here, I list the following:

BIOS has the following settings (hard disks are auto detected):

            Cyln   Head  Sect   Size
Drive C:    3158    16    63    1554 MB
Drive D:    1060    16    63     522 MB

IDE Translation Mode:   LBA

However, FDISK gives the following parameters:

Partitions on 1st hard disk (1551.3 Mb, 788 cylinders):

No   Drive   Start   End     MB    Status    Type
 1     C:      0     787   1551.3    A      PRI DOS

Partitions on 2nd hard disk (520.7 Mb, 529 cylinders):

(No partitions defined yet.)

I know this has been a long post, I wanted to try to give all the
hardware information I could and an accurate discription of my
problem.  I might have gone overboard, but I think it is better 
than a skimpy report.  I am also going to give the full list of 
what FreeBSD comes up with when probing my system.  If anyone has
any ideas I am certainly willing try them.

Thanks for your time.

Brendt T. Bennett

PS. My internet service provider is going through a change.  If 
you email me at brendtb@n1.net and the message bounces, try 
brendtb@intele.net.  If you still cannot reach me, use my wife's
school account slrbd@cc.usu.edu.

Below is a what apears on my screen after a system reset.  I was
booting from FreeBSD _boot.flp_:

AMIBIOS (c) 1992 American Megatrends Inc.,
BIOS Version 1.00.06.AX1

024576 KB

Please Wait...

Keyboard.....Detected
Mouse........Not Detected

Hard Disk C: Installed Maxtor 71626 AP
Hard Disk D: Installed Mastor 7546 AT

>>FreeBSD BOOT @ 0x10000: 639/23552 k of memory
Use hd(1,a)/kernel to boot sd0 when wd0 is also installed.
Usage: [[fd(0,a)]/kernel][-abcCdhrsv]
Use ? for file list or press Enter for defaults

Boot:
Booting fd(0,a)/kernel @ 0x20c000
text=0xfc000 /

text=0xfc000 data=0x0 bss=0xa00 symbols=[+0x600+0x4+0x27c+0x4+0x1fb]
total=0x30947f entry point=0x20c000
Uncompressing kernel...done
Booting the kernel
BIOS basemem (639K) != basemem (640K)
Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1991, 1993
         The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.

FreeBSD 2.1.0-RELEASE #0: Sat Nov 18 10:21:19 1995
    jkh@westhill.cdrom.com:/usr/src/sys/compile/BOOTMFS
CPU: 90-MHz Pentium 735\90 (Pentium-class CPU)
  Origin = "GenuineIntel"  Id = 0x521  Stepping=1
  Features=0x1bf<FPU,VME,PSE,MCE,CX8,APIC>
real memory  = 25165824 (24576K bytes)
avail memory = 21540864 (21036K bytes)
Probing for devices on the ISA bus:
sc0 at 0x60-0x6f irq 1 on motherboard
sc0: VGA color <16 virtual consoles, flags=0x0>
edo not found at 0x280
ed1 not found at 0x300
sio0 at 0x3f8-3ff irq 4 on isa
sio0: type 16650A
sio1 at 0x2f8-2ff irq 3 on isa
sio1: type 16650A
sio2 not found at 0x3e8
sio3 not found at 0x2e8
lpt0 at 0x378-0x37f irq 7 on isa
lpt0: Interrupt-driven port
lpt0: TCP/IP capable interface
lpt1 not found at 0xffffffff
lpt2 not found at 0xffffffff
mse0: wrong signature ff
mse0 not found at 0x23c
fdc0 at 0x3f0-0x3f7 irq 6 drq 2 on isa
fdc0: NEC 72065B
fd0: 1.44MB 3.5in
fd1: 1.2MB 5.25in
wdc0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7 irq 14 on isa
wdc0: unit 0 (wd0): <Maxtor 71626 AP>
wd0: 1554MB (3183264 sectors), 3158 cyls, 16 heads, 63 S/T, 512 B/S
wdc0: unit 1 (wd1): <Maxtor 7546 AT>
wd0: 521MB (1068480 sectors), 1060 cyls, 16 heads, 63 S/T, 512 B/S
wdc1 not found at 0x170
bt0 not found at 0x330
uha0 not found at 0x330
ahc1 not found
ahb0 not found
aha0 not found at 0x330
aic0 not found at 0x340
nca0 not found at 0x1f88
nca1 not found at 0x350
sea0 not found
wt0 not found at 0x300
mcd0: timeout getting status
mcd0 not found at 0x300
mcd1: timeout getting status
mcd1 not found at 0x340
matcdc0 not found at 0x230
scd0 not found at 0x230
ie0 not found at 0x360
ep0 not found at 0x300
ix0 not found at 0x300
le0: noboard found at 0x300
le0 not found at 0x300
lnc0 not found at 0x280
lnc1 not found at 0x300
ze0 not found at 0x300
zp0 not found at 0x300
npx0 on motherboard
npx0: INT 16 interface
Probing for devices on the PCI bus:
chip0 <Intel 82434NX (Neptune) PCI cache memory controller> rev 17 on pci0:0
chip1 <Intel 82378ZB PCI-ISA bridge> rev 3 on pci0:2
vga0 <Display device> rev 0 on pci0:6
rootfs is 1000 Kbyte compiled in MFS
/stand/sysinstall running as init