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Date:      Tue, 2 Jan 1996 11:08:31 +1030 (CST)
From:      Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au>
To:        tarbet@swaa.com (Margaret Tarbet)
Cc:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: 2.1 install problem
Message-ID:  <199601020038.LAA02514@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au>
In-Reply-To: <MAPI.Id.0016.006f6d63617420203733324630303033@MAPI.to.RFC822> from "Margaret Tarbet" at Jan 1, 96 06:52:23 pm

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Margaret Tarbet stands accused of saying:
> Got my copy of the 2.1 cd and tried to install it on my dev
> machine.  Didn't work.  The (novice) install appeared to go
> successfully, but my dos boot block was clobbered without
> obviously being replaced by the bsd boot. After i fixed the

In context, it's more likely that the bootblock was replaced with
a vanilla bootblock that pointed to the BSD slice.

> boot block so that dos would run again, i tried the install
> again, same result.  In both cases, because i want to use
> System Commander to manage the boot selection, i chose to
> have a simple boot block installed rather than the bsd boot
> manager.  That shouldn't be significant, but y'never know.

It is; you shouldn't be installing any bootblock at all, as it
will override your current (I presume "System Commander")
bootblock, which is not what you want.

> Micropolises (devs 0 and 1), 2x 1GB Fujitsus (devs 2 and
Micropoli? 8)

> 3), an old 200Mb Connor (dev 4), a Archive Viper 250Mb tape
> drive (dev 5) (what makes that a "known rogue" btw?), and

It deviates from the SCSI spec, requiring special handling.

> Device 0 has DOS 6.2.2 and Unixware 2.0, managed by System
> Commander. Device 1 continues with an extended DOS part and
> a Unixware part.  Device 2 has an extended DOS part in the
> front half, and the back half is where i attempted to
> install fbsd.  Device 3 is dedicated to DOS, and device 4
> to Unixware.

Unless you have a hoopy BIOS here, you're SOL; booting from 
anything other than the first two disks is more or less
impossible under the PC-AT BIOS model.  If you shrink the 
DOS partition on the first disk by about 50M you can put a
BSD root filesystem there and then mount from the third.

> Far's i can tell, source to the installer isn't included so
> i'm pretty much on the beach with this.  Any ideas?

/usr/src/release/*

> I'd like to help with the project, if there's any perceived
> need for my field of expertise which is product
> usability/human factors/ergonomics/whatever.  Unlike most
> folk in this field, i'm also a techie, tho as you might
> suppose i prefer working up at the human end of the food
> chain rather than at the kernal-and-device-driver level.  I

You should get in touch with Frank Durda 
(bsdmail@nemesis.lonestar.org); this is one of his fields too, 
and I'd wager the two of you can offer an awful lot in the way
of suggestions that would help us human-hostile programmers 8)

>                                 =margaret

-- 
]] Mike Smith, Software Engineer        msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au    [[
]] Genesis Software                     genesis@atrad.adelaide.edu.au   [[
]] High-speed data acquisition and      (GSM mobile) 0411-222-496       [[
]] realtime instrument control          (ph/fax)  +61-8-267-3039        [[
]] "Who does BSD?" "We do Chucky, we do."                               [[



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