Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2007 23:09:29 -0600 From: Chad Perrin <perrin@apotheon.com> To: FreeBSD Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: repair a FreeBSD install Message-ID: <20070604050929.GA68979@demeter.hydra> In-Reply-To: <20070604013536.GB66002@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> References: <20070603191700.GC66889@demeter.hydra> <20070604013536.GB66002@gizmo.acns.msu.edu>
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On Sun, Jun 03, 2007 at 09:35:36PM -0400, Jerry McAllister wrote: > On Sun, Jun 03, 2007 at 01:17:00PM -0600, Chad Perrin wrote: > > > Someone I know tried installing Slackware on a Thinkpad R52 to create a > > triple-boot system (MS Windows and FreeBSD 6.2 as the other two, already > > present on the system). The Slackware install didn't get very far (the > > installer is less than helpful -- wouldn't recognize a swap partition at > > all), but apparently it got far enough to break the FreeBSD install. > > > > Any tips, hints, and suggestions about how exactly to go about fixing > > the FreeBSD install (without overwriting the home partition and losing > > the installed system configuration to minimize time lost getting things > > back to "normal") would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. > > Well, you don't say very much about just what you did and where, > so it leaves only wild guesses. But one guess is that your other > install wiped out the MBR on the disk. > > To fix that, you can boot up the install CD and select running > the fixit. From the fixit use fdisk to install the FreeBSD MBR > or I think it also has boot0config. Then try rebooting. If that > doesn't help, then we'll have to have some more detailed inf0 -- > like the slices and their layout, what order you installed things > and maybe some other stuff. After talking more with the person who owns the laptop and doing some more investigation, I've come to the conclusion that the actual source of the problem was QtParted. The system was booted with a Slackware installer and an attempt was made to create a swap partition using fdisk from there, but the Slackware installer didn't recognize it (yes, after rebooting). It was attempted again by booting from a Knoppix CD, using QtParted. Once that was done the Slackware installer was booted again, and still did not recognize the existence of a Linux swap partition. After that, booting into FreeBSD was attempted, and it hung after selecting F3 (the option for FreeBSD), thus bringing us to the point where a problem was noticed. We used QtParted to check out the partition setup, after re-identifying the FreeBSD slice as such using fdisk from a Knoppix root shell. It appears that QtParted automatically classifies the FreeBSD partition (or "slice" if you prefer -- QtParted calls it a partition) as a Linux swap partition, and thus thinks there are *two* Linux swap partitions on the drive. I think that writing a new partition table to disk after telling it to add a new swap partition for Slackware caused it to also change the identification of the FreeBSD partition to a swap partition. Having already changed its label to identify it as a FreeBSD partition, I guess the next step is to make it bootable -- not using QtParted, of course. I'm frankly stunned that it supports NTFS but not UFS. Am I the only one that thinks that's just not right, somehow? -- CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ] Rudy Giuliani: "You have free speech so I can be heard."
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