From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Mar 30 08:17:32 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id IAA25901 for freebsd-questions-outgoing; Mon, 30 Mar 1998 08:17:32 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from abby.skypoint.net (abby.skypoint.net [199.86.32.252]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id IAA25896 for ; Mon, 30 Mar 1998 08:17:27 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from rpj@fep.hirshfields.com) Received: (from uucp@localhost) by abby.skypoint.net (8.8.7/jl 1.3) with UUCP id KAA23292; Mon, 30 Mar 1998 10:15:17 -0600 (CST) Received: (from rpj@localhost) by fep.hirshfields.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) id JAA23020; Mon, 30 Mar 1998 09:23:34 -0600 (CST) From: "Roger P. Johnson" Message-Id: <199803301523.JAA23020@fep.hirshfields.com> Subject: Re: "Read error" on bootup....... To: andre.albsmeier@mchp.siemens.de (Andre Albsmeier) Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 09:23:33 -0600 (CST) Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <199803291748.TAA28591@intern> from Andre Albsmeier at "Mar 29, 98 07:48:36 pm" X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL22 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Heh. You're not the only one with this problem. After 6 months of battling this problem off and on, here's what I have found as your only solution. I have to assume you are trying to dedicate the whole drive to FBSD like I was. It has something to do with the BIOS (and/drive ?). The only way to get your "beast" to boot up naturally, is to install a DOS partition on your drive. Do this so when you get into the FBSD fdisk editor, you can record the geometry reported. This is the geometry to use for your disk. While in the fdisk partion editor, zap that DOS partion outta there, and say you want the whole disk used for FBSD, remaining cooperative with other OS's. If you choose to dedicate the whole drive to FBSD w/o being cooperative, you will get the "Read error" message again. If you don't have a DOS disk, try this for the geometry: Mbtyes/64/32. ie. 1010/64/32 for a 1.1 GB disk; even though the FAQ recommended that I use 128/63/255. fdisk didn't like this! It was recommending that I use 128/255/63, and I'd still get "Read error". Ugh. I say it is a BIOS/HD problem because given the EXACT same machine, controller, RAM etc, if I install a 1GB SCSI HD I get the "Read error". If I put a 2GB SCSI HD in, I can dedicate the whole drive to FBSD and get this -- IT WORKS! Go figure. Good Luck, ya gotta have the standard fdisk setup in this case :( Roger > > Greetings............ > > > > I've just installed FreeBSD 3.0 on a machine with 2 Pro's and 256 MB > > ram, on a SCSI disk. When attemping to boot, I simply receive the > > following error: > > > > Read error > > > > That's it. If I put the 3.0 boot floppy into the drive, I can send the > > boot options to be: > > > > 0:sd(0,a)kernel > > > > And all is well, I can boot up with no problems. However, I'd like to > > be able to boot off the harddisk (The partiton is active) without any > > user intervention. Could anyone tell me why this is happening, and > > possibly on how to fix it? > > I had this on a Siemens machine (Phoenix BIOS). When installing 2.2.5 > in the "not dangerously dedicated mode (or how is it called)" the > problem went away. All other (non Siemens machines) machines work great. > > -Andre > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message