Date: Mon, 29 Apr 1996 15:18:59 -0500 From: craigh@bugsoft.com (Craig A. Heilman) To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Q: Install prob. w/ 1 IDE & 1 SCSI drive Message-ID: <v02130501adaab7e0e57b@[205.213.64.30]>
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Hi all,
I finally jumped in and tried to install FreeBSD 2.1 on my system last
night. The install seemed to go fine but now I can't boot DOS or FreeBSD
except from a DOS or FreeBSD boot floppy (ie. the hard drives are somewhat
"broken"). I'm not sure how much system info is needed so I will probably
give more than is needed...
System Information:
Magitronic 486DX2-80 (GA-486VS motherboard)
16MB RAM
Award Modular BIOS version V4.50G
VI-711A VL-bus graphic card (Cirrus CL-GD5428 chip)
PTI-255W VL-Bus Super I/O Card
all default settings (ie. COM1=3F8h, COM2=2F8h, LPT1=378h, etc.)
520MB IDE hard drive (504MB formatted)
1.44MB 3.5" floppy (A:)
360k 5" floppy (B:)
Adaptec AHA-1542CP SCSI controller
base: 330h, IRQ: 11, DMA: 5, SCSI ID: 7, PnP: disabled, BIOS: enabled
Conner 1.08 GB SCSI hard drive (CFP1080S)
SCSI ID: 0
Plextor 4PlexPlus SCSI CD-ROM (PX-43CE)
SCSI ID: 3, parity: ON, term: ON, test: OFF, block: OFF, eject: OFF
SMC EtherCard Elite16C Ultra (8216C) (config. via EZSTART)
base: 280h, IRQ: 5, RAM Window: D800-DBFF, ROM Window: none
MS-DOS 6.22 installed on the IDE drive
Using FreeBSD 2.1 CD-ROM from Walnut Creek. Release message says:
FreeBSD 2.1.0-RELEASE #0: Sat Nov 18 10:21:19 1995
jkh@westhill.cdrom.com:/usr/src/sys/compile/BOOTMFS
I'd include all the boot information but don't want to type it all.
(1) Is there any way to capture the boot information to a file?
I would like to maintain the IDE drive as a DOS/Windows drive and dedicate
most of the SCSI drive to FreeBSD.
(2) Would it be a "good idea" to keep a small (20MB?) DOS partition on the
SCSI drive for storage of emergency utilities and the like?
I created a FreeBSD boot floppy and proceeded through the "Novice"
installation without too much trouble. I selected the SCSI drive (sd0) for
installation. I had previously created and used a DOS partition on the
SCSI drive so when I reached the "FDISK" part of the install it figured out
the disk geometry on its own. I then deleted the old DOS partition and
used the "All" option to let FreeBSD have the whole disk. I did select the
"maintain compatibility" option in case I want to later add a DOS partition
on the drive. I also checked the "install BootEasy" option (I think this
was a mistake!). I then let sysinstall put "Everything" on the SCSI drive
and it ran until the install was complete.
When I rebooted after the install, I see the following in succession:
- Award BIOS startup message (normal)
- Adaptec BIOS loaded / SCSI devices found message (normal)
- System Configuration screen (normal)
- blank screen with "PRESS A KEY TO REBOOT" in upper left hand corner (most
definately NOT normal)
I reboot with the FreeBSD boot floppy and type "sd(0,a)/kernel" and
variations on that to try and boot off the SCSI drive. I get a message
like "1049 > 1023 cylinders" (don't remember exact wording). Hmmm, I seem
to remember that it can't boot if root partition is higher than 500MB limit
of DOS BIOS.
(3) I assumed that if I installed BootEasy on wd0, then I would initially
boot off wd0 where BootEasy would take over, give me a choice of OS, then
boot FreeBSD no matter where it lives! (ie. above the 500MB BIOS limit).
Is this an incorrect assumption? Will BootEasy work for my situation and
which drive should it go on?
I reboot with a DOS floppy and check my C: drive - files are still there
(whew!). I think that maybe I somehow waxed the MBR on my IDE drive. I
try to run DOS's FDISK but it just dies with a "divide by 0" error. I even
copy FDISK to the boot floppy but still get the same error. Why?
I boot back into FreeBSD and go into the Partition editor (FDISK) for wd0.
The DISK Geometry shown is 1057 cyls/16 heads/63 sectors which agrees with
what my CMOS setup shows. I checkI then check the Disk Geometry for the
SCSI drive (sd0). FreeBSD shows 1030 cyls/64 heads/32 sectors which
appears just fine to me. I decide to try and create a bootable DOS
partition on sd0 but find I can only create FreeBSD partitions. I reason
that since the Adaptec BIOS is enabled, I should be able to boot DOS right
off sd0.
(4) If the Adaptec BIOS is enabled, will it boot DOS off the SCSI disk?
I disable the Adaptec BIOS thinking that it might be causing problems. I
try to reboot DOS off wd0 - no luck. I reboot the FreeBSD floppy and again
check disk wd0 in FDISK.
Offset Size End Name PType Desc Subtype Flags
0 63 62 - 6 unused 0
63 1032129 1032191 wd0s1 2 fat 6
1032192 33264 1065455 - 6 unused 0 >
Hmmmm - why doesn't FreeBSD show the wd0s1 partition with any Flags (ie.
"=" for correctly aligned and "A" for the active bootable partition)? I'm
too chicken to mess with the settings for this drive (don't want to lose
it) so I just exit. I make a "fixit" floppy but quickly realize I don't
know what I'm doing so I exit that as well.
OK, enough babbling. The final question is "How do I fix my system so that
I can boot into DOS or FreeBSD without trashing what's already on my wd0
drive".
Thanks,
Craig
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* Craig A. Heilman Bugaboo Software *
* craigh@bugsoft.com Software Engineering & Consulting *
* (608) 274-2003 http://www.bugsoft.com/ *
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