From owner-freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Nov 11 15:11:54 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 10D2E10656A8 for ; Thu, 11 Nov 2010 15:11:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from wonkity.com (wonkity.com [67.158.26.137]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C63588FC0A for ; Thu, 11 Nov 2010 15:11:53 +0000 (UTC) Received: from wonkity.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by wonkity.com (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id oABFBqwN005971; Thu, 11 Nov 2010 08:11:52 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from localhost (wblock@localhost) by wonkity.com (8.14.4/8.14.4/Submit) with ESMTP id oABFBq3g005968; Thu, 11 Nov 2010 08:11:52 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2010 08:11:52 -0700 (MST) From: Warren Block To: Markus Hoenicka In-Reply-To: <20101111132141.49592qovwxlndt4w@webmail.df.eu> Message-ID: References: <20101111132141.49592qovwxlndt4w@webmail.df.eu> User-Agent: Alpine 2.00 (BSF 1167 2008-08-23) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.2.6 (wonkity.com [127.0.0.1]); Thu, 11 Nov 2010 08:11:52 -0700 (MST) Cc: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Acer Travelmate 8371 bricked by installing FreeBSD? X-BeenThere: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Mobile computing with FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2010 15:11:54 -0000 On Thu, 11 Nov 2010, Markus Hoenicka wrote: > components of the laptop. Next I put in the FreeBSD 8.1 netinstall CD and > rebooted. The installation of the basics went fine and showed no problems. I > was bold enough to use the entire hard drive as the FreeBSD slice. This may > be important as this may have removed any magic that Acer had put onto this > drive (there were a bunch of partitions and non-assigned areas, only two of > them NTFS partitions). Can't recall whether it was a netbook or mid-size Extensa, but at least one Acer I've used with FreeBSD had a first partition that was required for the BIOS. Don't know if it was loading the entire BIOS from the disk like Compaq in the old days, or whether it's just some other data. The net effect was that wiping out the first partition caused it to stop at boot. It's been long enough now that I can't recall how I restored the drive; may have taken it out and connected to another machine. The restore was just an original image of the drive, which I always do (and suggest) before allowing the system a first boot. Clonezilla is great for this. Besides the first partition, there was a restore partition and a working partition, both NTFS.