Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 21:08:16 -0700 From: "Kerry Davis" <kedavis@uswest.net> To: "Rick Hamell" <hamellr@heorot.1nova.com> Cc: <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: puzzlement Message-ID: <0af701c03338$e1f68ab0$0200000a@system>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
I tried installing Boot Manager originally, when I still had the DOS partition on. That's when it seemed to install okay (more or less), but refused to boot after that. SCSI drives don't have primary/secondary/master/slave. and I do have the SCSI boot drive as device 0, although this card is supposed to boot from whatever the lowest device number is, even if not 0. the CD drives are Master and Slave on the SECONDARY IDE channel. The Primary is EMPTY. And the BIOS settings for all four IDE devices are set to "not present," so I don't see how it could be trying to boot from any of those. (Or even if it did, why wouldn't I get "No Operating System" or something like that, rather than a hang with the floppy active? that's what happens if an IDE drive is unformatted or something, for example.) if I had the IDE controller(s) totally disabled, I wouldn't be able to install from the CD in one of the IDE CD drives. I've checked, the BIOS is the highest version available. The SCSI card is definitely supported. the bsd.org supported-hardware list said simply (last time I checked it, anyway) "all qlogic cards supported." (or somehting like that.) not even broken down by type or model or anything. to me, I think that says something rather good about qlogic. (and I like them better anyway, if only because when I contact their tech support about a question/problem I actually get an answer! unlike adaptec, for example.) later on in the start/boot process, it does show the card identified properly, as the 1080. it just frosts me a bit that it isn't recognized at all to start with, and all those things have to be removed as "conflicts" and on. what a pain. anyway, since then I've re-done the whole thing with the DOS partition removed (which again, the BSD docs say should NOT be needed - they actually RECOMMEND having a DOS partition also) and at least it's going now. although it has other problems that I described in a later posting. I've gotten a couple more emails already, maybe you or others is responding to those now as well. thanks for the help -----Original Message----- From: Rick Hamell <hamellr@heorot.1nova.com> To: Kerry Davis <kedavis@uswest.net> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Date: Tuesday, October 10, 2000 8:32 PM Subject: Re: puzzlement > > Please reply to the list also, not just me... others may be able >to pick up where I may have left off, and cover things I may have missed. > >> the problem isn't with booting off the floppies originally. I guess I >> wasn't clear about that. >> >> the problem is, AFTER I FINISH the install, and remove the boot floppies and >> the CD, my system won't boot. Even if I set the boot option in the BIOS to >> "C: Only" it STILL goes to the floppy after power-on, and STAYS THERE. >> floppy light on steady, etc. It doesn't appear to even LOOK AT the hard >> disk, where I just finished installing BSD, supposedly "successfully." > > Ahh..ok... did you install the Boot Manager then? It should come >up and give you an option of which partition to boot from. Also, double >check your jumpers on the drives. Make sure you're trying to boot off of >the primary master, you might want to pull out a MSDOS boot disk with >Fdisk and make the first partition active. > > >> The motherboard is a PCI board, with on-board IDE and Floppy. I have two CD >> drives connected to IDE, but the actual "storage" for the system is SCSI, >> using a Qlogic 1080 SCSI card. I'm using an IBM 2gig SCSI drive dedicated >> to the OS, and I have a Compaq/Seagate 36.4 gig drive for "mass storage." > > Ahh... I've had a similar problem with IDE and SCSI. Try >disabling the IDE controllers in the BIOS so that it can boot from the >SCSI. Right now the computer dosen't know which drive to boot off of. > >> But frankly, the whole installation process - booting from the floppies, >> anyway - seems pretty sloppy and half-baked to me. Even leaving aside the >> crashing-on-the-large-drive problem (what would I have done if that was the >> ONLY drive I had for my system?), once it gets to the "visual mode kernel >> configuration" screen, the floppy drive is spinning steadily until I get out >> of that. If I started the boot/install and then had to go off for an >> emergency or something, it's going to sit there and spin the floppy for 24 >> hours or whatever? Just what I need. > > I personally have never seen the problem you're describing. I'd be >pointing fingers at your hardware based upon what you've already told >us. You might think about a BIOS upgrade to your motherboard, that may fix >part of your problem. > >> Then the kernel configuration thing comes up with 4 SCSI interface options >> that I guess it "detected", NONE of which is what I actually have. (It >> shows Advansys Narrow SCSI, two Adaptec options - one of them being a sound >> card with SCSI interface for CD! - and a Buslogic.) As well as about 8 >> ethernet card options, again none of which actually matches what I have, and >> a PC Card (PCMCIA) interface, which also doesn't exist in this system. > > Those are the most common devices out there, they're loaded by >default as a sorta 'one fits all' option. You're supposed to use the >Visual installation part to remove them and/or modify the settings to >match what you may have. As for your SCSI card... it's possible that it's >not supported... merely because nobody has had the time or the inclination >to write a driver for that paticular card. > >> Sorry for the bitter tone, but I'm getting rather fed up with the whole >> thing. Any suggestions you can offer would be greatly appreciated. I've >> tried using two different sets of fresh floppies for the boot/setup thing, >> they both do the same thing. Maybe this CD I got isn't really any good. >> Although it came from some kind of demo thing held in Texas I think, >> supposedly they were passed out by actual high-end BSD honchos, so you'd >> think the CDs would be known-good too, but the way things have been going >> maybe I shouldn't assume that either... > > Like I mentioned before, I seriously doubt it's the CD itself. I >think it's more of a hardware thing. Your system is getting confused with >IDE and SCSI without the BIOS able to tell it what to do. (BTW, FreeBSD >will automatically see the IDE ports, even if disabled in the BIOS... I >used that once to keep Windows from touching one of my IDE >drives... :) It's also understandable to feel frustrated... I deal with it >day in and day out. :) Feel free to continue asking questions if none of >my suggestions work, somebody else may also have other suggestions. > > > Rick > >Rick's FreeBSD Help Site! http://www.1nova.com/freebsd >Ace Logan's Hardware Guide http://www.shatteredcrystal.net/hardware >***FreeBSD - The Power to Serve! http://www.freebsd.org > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?0af701c03338$e1f68ab0$0200000a>