Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 06:24:48 -0800 (PST) From: Jason Reynolds <jasondr1879@yahoo.com> To: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Subject: IBM A20m Message-ID: <20050319142449.42933.qmail@web54103.mail.yahoo.com>
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To Whom It May Concern: For the love of God - PLEASE help me I'm going completely INSANE! I have installed FreeBSD ver.5.3 (using FTP, I downloaded i386-bootONLY.iso, and i386-ver5.3.iso) onto my IBM A20m laptop. After using the boot CD, I installed FreeBSD using the Wizard-like interface, I included ALL of the available options (this may have sealed my fate). Anywhoo, everything appeared to be going fine, no errors, no warnings, then I came to reboot to complete the installation, I get the IBM screen (the one that tells you what BIOS version you have and what it is loading) this is what it says: IBM ThinkPad BIOS 4.0 Release 6.0.U Copyright 1985-1999 Phoenix Technologies Ltd. All Rights Reserved 640K System RAM Passed 127M Extended RAM Passed 256K Cache SRAM Passed System BIOS shadowed Video BIOS shadowed UMB upper limit segment address: I3P9 Mouse initalized Fixed Disk 0: HITACHI_ ATAPI CD-ROM: CD-2243 Press <F1> to enter SETUP Press <F12> to choose temporary boot device and thats it, after this screen it flashes a little, and goes blank. I have tried every function key, combined with every other key (FUNCT key, Alt key, Ctrl key, Backspace) you name it. I cannot enter setup, or view anything. I even tried using a desktop monitor, removed the hard drive and attempted to attach it to one of my desktop drive bays, it wouldn't fit using any of my existing CD, CD/RW and floppy plug-ins, although it did look like the pin patterns were the same, I didn't want to force anything. I looked all over the web, there seems to be a very serious compatibility issue with the A20m, as described here: A bug in early revisions of IBM’s BIOS on these machines mistakenly identifies the FreeBSD partition as a potential FAT suspend-to-disk partition. When the BIOS tries to parse the FreeBSD partition it hangs. I downloaded this http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4JWNTQ driver and followed the instructions, the screen is still blank, but I can hear the floppy drive working. So before I spend $$ on a new motherboard, or a "parts" laptop, can you think of another solution for me. I just wanted to try out FreeBSD. Show me some love. Jason --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site!
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