Date: Wed, 3 Jul 1996 20:32:48 -0700 (PDT) From: Doug White <dwhite@riley-net170-164.uoregon.edu> To: Carlo Strati <cstrati@equalis.it> Cc: questions@freebsd.com Subject: Re: Help for FreeBSD review Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.91.960703202639.219E-100000@gdi.uoregon.edu> In-Reply-To: <2.2.32.19960703133255.0067c31c@equalis.it>
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On Wed, 3 Jul 1996, Carlo Strati wrote: > I'm a freelance technical editor working for PC Professionale (the italian > version of Ziff Davis' PC Magazine). Well, I'd like to write some articles > about FreeBSD, but I have some installation problems... Here's a chance to experience software support at it's best. :-) I want to add on to what Terry wrote earlier. > I have FreeBSD 2.0.5 on Walnut Creek's CD-ROM. I install it onto my second > hard drive with the FreeBSD boot manager; the installation goes well and the > PC boots right with the boot manager. But when I ask to boot with FreeBSD, > after the correct recognition of all the devices, I get the following > messages: "changing root device to wd1a" and "panic: cannot mount root". > > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > This is the current configuration of my system: > > = First disk (primary EIDE channel, master) = > Quantum FireBall 1280MB: 100% of space Primary DOS Partition (C:) > > = Second disk (secondary EIDE channel, master) = > Quantum FireBall 1280MB: - 800MB Extended DOS Partition > (200MB for D: and 600MB for E:) > - 480MB FreeBSD Partition > (250MB for /, 120MB for /usr and 90MB for swap) > > = CD ROM = > Plextor 6X SCSI controlled by Adaptec AHA2940 > > = VGA = > S3 based board (I can use NumeberNine Motion 771 with S3-968 or Diamond > Stealth 2000 3D with ViRGE, both with 2MB of memory) > > = CPU & Memory = > Intel Pentium 133 with 32MB of RAM > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > May be I can't install FreeBSD onto secondary EIDE channel? Or what else > goes wrong? I've tried to re-install FreeBSD, but nothing changes. I've also > tried to force the boot with "hd(2,a)/kernel" but it hangs... What can I do? Terry's advice of moving the disks around is the best. PCs weren't designed to boot from anything but the primary IDE channel, which is why you're having problems. Since you only have one disk on each bus and the CDROM is SCSI, why not put both disks on the primary channel and spare yourself the pain? :-) I guess you're buying yourself a little speed having the DOS partitions split between two spindles, but DOS performs so poorly that I doubt you'd see it. My system is very similar to yours (NCR SCSI instead of Adaptec) and I ran for several months on a 2 disk system, the first (a 1080MB WD) a DOS/OS/2 disk and the second (a 540mb Maxtor) dedicated to FreeBSD less 50mb for OS/2 swap. Never a problem (using OS/2's Boot Manager). > I'd really like to have FreeBSD on my PC to let the readers know the > advantages of Unix-like systems and FreeBSD itself as a good alternative to > Linux, so please help me as soon as possible. Is same day soon enough? :-) Hope this helps. Doug White | University of Oregon Internet: dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu | Residence Networking Assistant http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~dwhite | Computer Science Major
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