From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Jun 17 03:49:30 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id DAA10686 for questions-outgoing; Mon, 17 Jun 1996 03:49:30 -0700 (PDT) Received: from germany.it.earthlink.net (germany-c.it.earthlink.net [206.85.92.123]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id DAA10681 for ; Mon, 17 Jun 1996 03:49:28 -0700 (PDT) Received: from LOCALNAME (pool037.Max16.Washington.DC.DYNIP.ALTER.NET [153.37.5.165]) by germany.it.earthlink.net (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id DAA25095; Mon, 17 Jun 1996 03:48:03 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <31C56121.3A9@earthlink.net> Date: Mon, 17 Jun 1996 06:44:01 -0700 From: Mike X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.01 (Win16; U) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu CC: questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Problem installing FreeBSD References: Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="------------62FB4E563093" Sender: owner-questions@FreeBSD.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------62FB4E563093 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Doug White wrote: > > On Sun, 2 Jun 1996, Jill wrote: > > Try to wrap your lines at about 72-75 characters or so. Your lines are > going off the edge here. > > > from the boot image and then stop with a "Failed to create root distribution" message. > > This occurs when trying to install from a DOS drive or from floppy drive (after asking > > for the root floppy image). I have followed all "Preparing for installation from xxx" > > instructions. > > Take a look at the ALT-F2 debug output. That may help to isolate the > problem. Lots of things cause that error. > > It disturbs me that it died pulling from the floppy. That usually always > works unless the disk image was flawed. > > Hardware specifics would be helpful too. (hd, controllers, cpu, etc.) > > > Unfortunately, I think I already know what the problem is. I am using an EIDE > > controller card and an EIDE Western Digital 1.6G hard drive and the hardware text files > > do not state compatabiltiy with these components. It does not mention Enhanced IDE > > drives at all. > > They're supported just fine. The only limitation is trying to boot when > the root partition isn't all the way below 1024 cylinders (520MB). > > Doug White | University of Oregon > Internet: dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu | Residence Networking Assistant > http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~dwhite | Computer Science Major Doug White, I'm sorry I didn't respond earlier with a thank-you reply but I was so confident I knew what my problem was after your response that I immediately set out to accomplish the task. However, I'm right back to where I started from so unfortuneately this is more than a response of gratitude. I'm using a 486DX2-66, 20MB of RAM, 1.6G Western Digital EIDE-HD and EIDE I/O card, Stealth32 SVGA graphics card. My DOS primary partition, C:, was 350MB, and had logical drive, D:, 500MB in an extended partition. I was trying to install BSD with /-200MB, SWAP-40MB, /usr-500MB, and /var-20MB, starting after the extended partition. My thought after your response was that the BSD root (/?) was not below 1024 cylinders (520MB) so I set out to delete all partitions and start over. So, I made my new DOS primary partition 300MB, reinstalled C drive, and tried to load BSD immediately after that partition, this time with the slices /-200MB (so it should be under 520MB), SWAP-50MB, /usr-600MB, /var-50MB. But, i'm getting the same response, "Failed to create root distribution". This results after trying to install from floppy or from a DOS partition. I created my root.flp for the floppy install in the same manner I created the boot.flp as instructed in the docs. For the DOS partition install, the root.flp image is in the C:\freebsd\floppies directory. I attached the debug output, ALT-F2, for both installs (floppy and DOS partition). >From what I can tell, it's the root image that is causing a problem for both installations, but i can't imagine why. I've tried creating the root image every way possible, as instructed in the install.txt files etc. Except one file says to create the root image from the makeflp.bat program, but this file is on the CD-ROM which I obviously don't have and is not available to download from the ftp.freebsd.org site. I hope i provided enough information to get past this hurdle and get me up and running BSD. I'm very excited about being able to dump Microsoft and am already switching loyalties to UNIX. THANX for all your help --------------------------------------------- Damn the nay-sayers. Michael Kennedy --------------62FB4E563093 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline; filename="DEBUG.TXT" DEBUG from floppy install 14 blocks DEBUG: Command `cd /mnt/stand; find etc | cpio -pdmv /mnt' returns status of 0 DEBUG: Setting variable _runningOnRoot to yes DEBUG: Notify: Starting an emergency holographic shell on VTY4 DEBUG: Generating /etc/fstab file DEBUG: mkdir(/proc) DEBUG: mkdir(/proc..) DEBUG: Wrote out /etc/fstab file DEBUG: Attempting to extract root image from fd0 DEBUG: get RootFloppy on dev/fd0 yields fd of 6 DEBUG: Notify: Extracting root floppy.. gunzip: stdin: not if gzip format /stand/cpio: premature end of archive DEBUG: cpio returned error status of 1! DEBUG: switching back to VTY1 DEBUG from DOS filesystem DEBUG: Attempting to extract root image from wd0s1 DEBUG: mkdir(/dos) DEBUG: mkdir(/dos..) DEBUG: Mounted DOS device (/dev/wd0s1) on /dos DEBUG: Request for floppies/root.flp from DOS DEBUG: Notify: Loading root image from: wd0s1 gunzip: stdin: not if gzip format /stand/cpio: premature end of archive DEBUG: cpio returned error status of 1! DEBUG: Dummy [default] close called for wd0s1 with fd of 6. DEBUG: switching back to VTY1 --------------62FB4E563093--