From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Sep 26 20:58:43 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 013D61065695 for ; Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:58:43 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bahamasfranks@gmail.com) Received: from wf-out-1314.google.com (wf-out-1314.google.com [209.85.200.175]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BEB528FC12 for ; Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:58:42 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bahamasfranks@gmail.com) Received: by wf-out-1314.google.com with SMTP id 24so1236074wfg.7 for ; Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:58:42 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:reply-to :sender:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type :content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references :x-google-sender-auth; bh=ym+ylYg0MlZfs5HKTXeCjdn08m+ULpMgqnRSuEE8M78=; b=hRikuMu4xCEGc/1ci3VK2zknXJb10Giw992fNpzoNy5MvKcdXIruULgCo8qGibRvv/ LKfSN4MC7hlkDJgtiA0PFqMb0Of2n+x88lGtISdW9A1OoTPGo/DUS6m8a2tP3cvSvcO1 Gl1QWR9hlwPDB0b35Wdo4na5Lt2EQ3Cs8f+4c= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:reply-to:sender:to:subject:in-reply-to :mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding :content-disposition:references:x-google-sender-auth; b=Dj5FmfHCdnWa2qr3lVnXfmnagEfEuTF/1DIYYI4y3v68DXLBD62Z5rHOJEhBJMvhbT sMuUjEeKB6dwqrFaHLu9r57HFxBOM8JMK4tj5Ec/teoMUZhrYpAZDfL0LgXBdj0MrrhT 7ZMeOEZG1ParqtfEy5v5rNkBksnHVa4hWeqbI= Received: by 10.142.128.6 with SMTP id a6mr793585wfd.236.1222462721984; Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:58:41 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.142.44.17 with HTTP; Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:58:41 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <539c60b90809261358u3733c531w27acf1f1878b784e@mail.gmail.com> Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:58:41 -0700 From: "Steve Franks" Sender: bahamasfranks@gmail.com To: "FreeBSD Mailing List" In-Reply-To: <539c60b90809261358u259c743bg435d3fb591e25b38@mail.gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <539c60b90809261358u259c743bg435d3fb591e25b38@mail.gmail.com> X-Google-Sender-Auth: bf809c8ea259d98c Subject: Re: FreeBSD 7.0 installation problems.Please help! X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: stevefranks@ieee.org List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:58:43 -0000 > "Write failure on transfer! > (wrote -1 bytes of 1425408 bytes)" > "Unable to transfer the GENERIC distribution from acd0" I'm a bit of a n00b too. There's a whole host of things that have given me that issue - bad cd drive, scratched disk, etc. More importantly, I've seen sysinstall never actually format the disk, so then it can't write to it. The way I fixed it is by hitting "w" (write) before "q" (quit) in both the fdisk and partition pages of sysinstall. I've seen this behavior on both 6.2 and 7.0, and I've never paid enough attention to repeat it or figure out what I did wrong - I just use the write command manually and things seem happier. Make sure you see a box pop up on the partition/label page when you hit write that mentions something about "doing newfs ....", otherwise just start over. I think that's the magic step. Hope this helps, Steve