Date: Sat, 21 Jun 1997 14:30:30 -0700 From: "David E. Tweten" <tweten@ns.frihet.com> To: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: NEC 6030X, FreeBSD 2.2.2, and the CDROM Message-ID: <199706212130.OAA08118@ns.frihet.com>
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I have a small problem after a generally uneventful FreeBSD 2.2.2 installation on my NEC 6030X. The CD arrived in the mail yesterday, so last night, the project began. NEC's Versa series, one of which is the 6030X, has a little drawer in the front of the laptop, into which you can insert a floppy drive or a CD drive or a carriage to hold a second hard disk (the internal one is modular and easily removable), or a second battery. With the CD drawer installed, the FreeBSD 2.2.2 install disk booted perfectly. Installation onto my dedicated (ie, no fdisk table) FreeBSD disk went very smoothly. I bought a second hard disk to avoid NEC's unenlightened attitudes toward Windows95 sharing space with another OS (as documented previously on these lists). Besides, I think I can find a way productively to use 1.4 gig just for FreeBSD and XFree86. So why do I write? A possible reason the CD booted so cooperatively is it seems installation of the CD causes the hard disk to become /dev/wd1, while the CD acts as /dev/wd0. That gives me two choices. I always leave the CD drawer in -- and always boot from the CD, or I can boot the first time into single user mode, change /etc/fstab to refer to /dev/wd0 instead of /dev/wd1 and never install the CD drawer again under FreeBSD. Other strategies produce a panic, immediately after the kernel gets through probing devices. The cause is inability to mount the root partition (because /etc/fstab points to the "wrong" device). For the moment, I haven't been able to come up with a good idea of how best to detect the CD drawer in /etc/rc before it gets to "swapon -a." If I could, that would let me use one version of /etc/fstab with the CD drawer and another without. Changing drawers will always require a reboot; a small label on the bottom of the machine says that power must be off to change "Versa Bay" devices. Anybody have any good ideas? -- David E. Tweten | 2047-bit PGP fingerprint: | tweten@frihet.com 12141 Atrium Drive | E9 59 E7 5C 6B 88 B8 90 | tweten@and.com Saratoga, CA 95070-3162 | 65 30 2A A4 A0 BC 49 AE | (408) 446-4131 Those who make good products sell products; those who don't, sell solutions.
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