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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!howland.erols.net!news.sprintlink.net!news-stk-200.sprintlink.net!mcsun!EU.net!usenet2.news.uk.psi.net!uknet!usenet1.news.uk.psi.net!uknet!dispatch.news.demon.net!demon!awfulhak.demon.co.uk!awfulhak.demon.co.uk!awfulhak.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail From: brian@awfulhak.demon.co.uk (Brian Somers) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: panic: can't mount root again!!! Date: 1 Sep 1996 04:00:19 +0100 Organization: Coverform Ltd. Lines: 112 Message-ID: <50au83$15q@anorak.coverform.lan> References: <3223BD46.3E17@sprynet.com> <322653B2.F6@sprynet.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost.coverform.lan X-NNTP-Posting-Host: awfulhak.demon.co.uk X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Dave Blizzard (dblizzar@sprynet.com) wrote: : Dave Blizzard wrote: : instead of : > entering boot: sd(1,a)/kernel. : Sorry, I meant that I usually boot from hd(1,a)/kernel as that was how : the system prompts one to boot from sd0 No it wasn't, it was how to boot from the second bios disk - in your case this happens to be the first scsi disk. : The hardware is Mylex 486 with 8mb of Ram. : The SCSI is an Adaptec 1505/1515 with a bios that says 4700 on it : The drive is a scsi 1042 mb Quantum Fireball 1080s that the system still : can't get the write geometry for so I have been using 1042/64/32. This : causes fdisk to think the drive is 380 mb larger than is really is so I : just set partitions to the known real size of the drive. : I have learned from many bad experiences to disable my ide drive since : FreeBSD trashes it during the install process. Only if you give it a bad drive geometry :( : Unfortunately this is real close the last straw for FreeBSD, I have : installed 2.1.5 now and I don't see too much different. It is a little : faster but now I have a new boot syntax which is (of course) not : documented in the release notes. After 5 tries I discovered that : hd(1,a)/kernel now has translated to 1:sd0(1,a)kernel (just go figure). This is a better way: <biosnumber>:<type>d<numberoftype>(<physpartition>,<logpartition>)<file> although is unfortunately not documented :( : Other problems that have cropped up so far include: : - no clear way to install kernel sources for a rebuild with xfree86 (do : I really have to install all the development sources?) Dunno - sorry. : Doesn't everyone : have to rebuild the kernel as a normal user? If you want this, chmod 777 /sys/compile/MYKERNEL and chmod 666 /sys/i386/conf/MYKERNEL. : Why can't I loop through : the install picking from a list like the packages menu before : committing? : - the packages install attempts to install packages which don't exist on : the cd The install proceedure allows you to install only commonly installed components. You're probably right, a selection of them all - and whether the sources are available (or must be downloaded) would be nice. Bear in mind, not all of the ports can be made without downloading the package from elsewhere - some companies won't allow distribution of their products :( : - the fixit documentation definately does not exist in the install docs Hmmm, shall I quote item 3.1: Repairing an existing FreeBSD installation? : Perhaps if one is privy to the hackers newsgroups and assorted secret : info which must be known to some users this could be a workable : operating system, If we're talking "workable" and not "installable", you havn't mentioned any cases of problems with the running of FreeBSD. As to installable, I've never had problems installing FreeBSD, but have had problems installing Windows NT and OS/2. NT I never installed, OS/2 I did eventually..... the documentation in both cases was there, but was useless. : but to trust an OS which cannot be updated except by a : complete reinstall to real data, you'd have to be nuts. What's wrong with that ? It may take a bit longer, but the only tricky thing that you have to do is merge a handfull of files in /etc. : These other questions still are unanswered : > : > Where can I learn what to do with the fixit floppy? Learn Unix. Once you've read the aforementioned paragraph in the INSTALL.TXT file, you'll need to understand unix, and start figuring out what went wrong. : > How do I attempt to salvage the drive when the one utility can't access : > it? What's the "one utility"? What did it say when it failed to access the drive? Why does the drive need "salvaging"? If it's the partition table, you'll need to remember how big your partitions were. : > Why doesn't the boot process properly fix these problems as it is : > supposed to? Probably because it was given bad information - as I said previously (for example), you must give the correct drive geometry ! : > Please, someone , recommend a book or procedure that can at least : > collect some info on what is happening to my drive. PC-Intern ? What specifically did you do to your drive. Did you pick a bad geometry? If so, you'll have to remember what size your partitions were - then write them back there (using the correct geometry). If you got the geometry wrong, there's a chance that you will have written FreeBSD over a part of your disk that "had" another OS :( -- Brian <brian@awfulhak.demon.co.uk> Don't _EVER_ lose your sense of humour....