From owner-freebsd-questions  Sat Mar 23 20:30:28 1996
Return-Path: owner-questions
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id UAA26643
          for questions-outgoing; Sat, 23 Mar 1996 20:30:28 -0800 (PST)
Received: from godzilla.zeta.org.au (godzilla.zeta.org.au [203.2.228.19])
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with SMTP id UAA26623
          Sat, 23 Mar 1996 20:30:20 -0800 (PST)
Received: (from bde@localhost) by godzilla.zeta.org.au (8.6.12/8.6.9) id PAA28510; Sun, 24 Mar 1996 15:27:39 +1100
Date: Sun, 24 Mar 1996 15:27:39 +1100
From: Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>
Message-Id: <199603240427.PAA28510@godzilla.zeta.org.au>
To: jkh@time.cdrom.com, randy@zyzzyva.com
Subject: Re: IDE install
Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, freebsd-install@freebsd.org
Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org
X-Loop: FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

>> Error: C:6292878 > 1023 (BIOS Limit)

>After much hair tearing I figured out that I needed to have the 1.2MB
>floppy drive configured into the BIOS in order to successfully boot
>from the install floppy. Even when there is not a 1.2MB floppy available
>as I discovered later due to problem mentioned below.

>BIOS is an Award rev4.51PG
>Onboard Floppy
>Onboard PCI IDE controllers for primary and secondary.
>Secondary controller is disabled.

Perhaps you are using the Award BIOS option to swap A: and B:.

>I attempted to install a new set of boot blocks to FORCE_COMCONSOLE
>with 'disklabel -B wd0' after recompiling the boot code from
>FreeBSD-stable. The result nuked my partition table and MBR on
>the drive forcing me to reinstall. When I installed the first time,
>I chose the option to use "ALL" and to not be compatible with
>future OS installs. The net effect seemed to be that the FreeBSD
>partition begins with the first cylinder instead of an offset of
>1 cyl. What did I do wrong here? Guidance appreciated.

You used the "all" option, so you didn't "remain cooperative with any
future possible operating systems on the drive(s)", including FreeBSD :-).
FreeBSD-current has more details about the dangers of using "all":
"This precludes the existance [sic] of any boot manager or other stuff
in sector 0, since the BSD boot strap will live there".  "other stuff"
included the partition table in FreeBSD-2.1.

Bruce