From owner-freebsd-questions Sat Jul 20 00:48:42 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id AAA24234 for questions-outgoing; Sat, 20 Jul 1996 00:48:42 -0700 (PDT) Received: from godzilla.zeta.org.au (godzilla.zeta.org.au [203.2.228.19]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id AAA24229; Sat, 20 Jul 1996 00:48:31 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from bde@localhost) by godzilla.zeta.org.au (8.6.12/8.6.9) id RAA22789; Sat, 20 Jul 1996 17:33:00 +1000 Date: Sat, 20 Jul 1996 17:33:00 +1000 From: Bruce Evans Message-Id: <199607200733.RAA22789@godzilla.zeta.org.au> To: Andries.Brouwer@cwi.nl, dwhite@riley-net170-164.uoregon.edu Subject: Re: installation fails Cc: freebsd-bugs@freebsd.org, jkh@time.cdrom.com, questions@freebsd.org Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk >> One point in the installation procedure consisted of the question >> whether a boot manager should be installed. I have a rather >> delicate setup with 3 IDE and 3 SCSI disks, and as far as I can >> see there is no information at all about the precise properties >> or configuration of this boot manager, so I answered No. >> >> But now I find that I have no means to boot this installed system! >Well, you didn't install a boot manager! :-) The existing one (whatever is used to boot all those disks) might work. It needs to load the secondary bootstrap in the usual place (0x7c0:0 (?)) from the partition with FreeBSD on it, then load the %dl register with the drive number, then execute the secondary bootstrap. If this doesn't work, then any bootable disk, including the install floppy, can be used to boot almost any disk: hit the space bar to make the boot pause, then stare at the prompt to figure out or remind yourself of the syntax, then type the destination, which should look something like 5:sd(2,a)/kernel for the BIOS drive 5 of 0-5 and SCSI drive 2 of 0-2. Bruce