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Date:      Mon, 12 Jun 2000 09:24:53 -0700 (PDT)
From:      John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.ORG>
To:        =?big5?q?Leung=20Henry?= <hwhleung@yahoo.com>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   RE: FreeBSD Boot Manager - Not accepting F2
Message-ID:  <200006121624.JAA12073@server.baldwin.CX>
In-Reply-To: <20000611005337.24989.qmail@web905.mail.yahoo.com>

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On 11-Jun-00 Leung Henry wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have successfully installed FreeBSD 3.4 in my PC,
> which has 2 partitions for Windows 98 and FreeBSD 3.4.
> However, when I booted up my PC and when FreeBSD Boot
> Manager came up and asked me to select:
> 
> F1 DOS
> F2 FreeBSD
> Default F1
> 
> I have pressed F2 but it had no response.  I could
> however, pressed F1 and it started Windows 98 right
> away.  Why does it only work for F1 key?  I wonder if
> there is something wrong with the key mapping.

Your disk is larger than 8.4 gig, correct?  In that case,
the BIOS partition table cannot use an LBA-adjusted
CHS addressing mode for partition entries, but must
instead use the true geometry of the drive.  Well, the IDE
standard limits drives to having 16 heads, and with 63
sectors/cylinder (aka track), that puts the 1024 cylinder
mark at 528 MB.  Thus, it can't boot FreeBSD because your
windows partition is probably larger than 528MB. :)  Here's
the solution.  This assumes you have the CD's.  If you don't
you can do somethign similar with the fixit floppy:

1) Boot the installation CD.
2) Select 'Fixit' from the main menu.
3) Choose the 'use 2nd CD' option.
4) Insert CD #2 when it tells you, then switch to tty3 when it
   tells you by pressing Alt-F4.  You should be sitting at a
   shell prompt.
5) # /dist/usr/sbin/boot0cfg -o packet ad0
6) # exit
7) Hit Alt-F1 to get back to sysinstall.
8) Exit out of the menus and reboot the machine.  It should
   now work.

Final notes:  it is on my todo list to figure out a way to
automagically enable support for packet mode (which uses the
EDD extensions), but since there have been problems in the
past, I wouldn't expect it until release 4.2 at the earliest.
Slim chance it might be in 4.1, but I probably won't have
enough testing time by then.
  
> Please advise.  Thanks.

-- 

John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> -- http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/
PGP Key: http://www.cslab.vt.edu/~jobaldwi/pgpkey.asc
"Power Users Use the Power to Serve!"  -  http://www.FreeBSD.org/


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