*BSD News Article 83499


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From: Ken Bigelow <kbigelow@www.play-hookey.com>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: FreeBSD 2.1.5 and WIN95 install problems
Date: Sat, 23 Nov 1996 19:14:15 +0000
Organization: Erol's Internet Services
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Message-ID: <32974D07.7189@www.play-hookey.com>
References: <32914239.40DE@sk.sympatico.ca> <87viax2rrs.fsf@mirriwinni.cse.rmit.edu.au>
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Phillip Musumeci wrote:
> 
> >>>>> "Groo" == Groo the Wanderer <kuzko@sk.sympatico.ca> writes:
> 
>     Groo> I am trying with limited success to install Win95 and FreeBSD on
>     Groo> my computer.  I have a 1.6G and an 800 MB hardrive.  Drive
>     Groo> Geometry 3148/16/63 & 1647/16/63
> 
> Your BIOS must be treating these disks as NORMAL or LARGE but definitely
> *not* LBA --- this is good.
> 
>     Groo> I try to create a 100MB slice for WIN95, then a 96MB slice for
>     Groo> FreeBSD then 1100MB for WIN95 then the rest for FreeBSD with all
>     Groo> of the second disk for FreeBSD.
> 
> This should be OK as the first two partitions are at cylinders <1024 so an
> operating system executable can be loaded (via the BIOS disk access calls)
> to get your system up and running.
> 
> You will have noticed disk cylinder numbers when slicing up the disk with
> freebsd.
> 
>     Groo> Install goes fine but then on boot when I select F2 (the first
>     Groo> FreeBSD slice) it does nothing (it may spin up the hard drive but
>     Groo> that's it).  WIN95 (F1) boots fine.

Just my 2 cents worth -- My most common drive configuration is 255 MB
for DOS, the rest of 1.2, 1.6, or 2 GB for FreeBSD. I do not run Win95.
When installing FreeBSD 2.1R, I have always found that the installer
assumes LBA geometry by default. I can change this manually. However,
whichever way I install FreeBSD and the Boot Manager, it wants LBA mode
to boot FreeBSD.

There's no trouble with DOS either way, but if I disable LBA and request
BSD, I just get a F? response. Enable LBA and all is happy once more.

> 
> Weird... if that first BSD partition was damaged in some way (like by a DOS
> format that thought it was formatting a slice larger than 100MB), then the
> first BSD slice would be missing and that would mean that the boot manager
> might be attempting to do the impossible --- load in a non-existing /kernel
> file from the 4th disk slice (2nd BSD slice) at a cylinder way beyond 1024.
> 
> It might be worth manually using FDISK to delete and then recreate the
> first DOS disk slice.  I once observed a DOS-5 format utility that, when
> used to format the first DOS slice of a disk, seemed to happily ignore the
> disk partition info and just use the whole disk!  We eventually found that
> if you used DOS's FDISK to delete and then recreate the DOS slices, then
> format got its act in order (and you didn't kiss your other partitions
> goodbye).  If this is happening to you, I'd like to get a confirmation.
> 
>     Groo> After partitioning the disk with FreeBSD I then install WIN95
>     Groo> which trashes booteasy so I have to reinstall FreeBSD.  Any
>     Groo> advice on this and can I just reinstall booteasy without
>     Groo> installing FreeBSD?
> 
> You can rewrite your booteasy without a reinstall of FreeBSD --- one way is
> to fire up the freebsd install boot floppy and when you again see your disk
> slice info, use the W command to write it back to disk and then you'll be
> asked to write the boot manager and then you can quit.  Alternatively, look
> on the CD in the tools area --- you'll see a DOS bteasy17.zip file.
> 
>     Groo> I have a NEC IDE CDROM (made for DELL).  Once I get FreeBSD up, I
>     Groo> can configure the kernel and it works fine but I've tried Master
>     Groo> and slave combos with no luck to install from the NEC.
> 
> I understand that with 2.1.x freebsd, an IDE CD drive has to be the second
> device on your first controller.  Also, you'll probably have to recompile a
> kernel which doesn't probe the CD during the bootup (some CDs don't like
> being probed as if they were disks).  Worry about this once you've got the
> install sorted out.
> 
> I have some "getting old" help info that touches on this at
>         ftp://pm.cse.rmit.edu.au/pub/FreeBSD/misc/*notes
> (grab the files with names ending in "notes").
> 
> Good luck,
> phillip
> 
> --
>                            __  /\
> Dr. Phillip Musumeci      /  \/ ~\   Dept. of Computer Systems Engineering,
> mail:phillip@rmit.edu.au /        \  RMIT,  GPO Box 2476V,
> Tel:+61 3 96605340(fax) /         /  Melbourne 3001,  AUSTRALIA.
>     +61 3 96605317(w1)  \   __   / http://pm.cse.rmit.edu.au/~phillip
>     +61 3 96605383(w2)   `-'  \*/  Level 2, 410 Elizabeth Steet. [87.2.15G]
>                                .
> UNIX _IS_ user friendly.  It's just selective about who its friends are.
>                                                                   --unknown

-- 
Ken

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