From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Feb 12 08:26:19 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1857C16A4CE for ; Thu, 12 Feb 2004 08:26:19 -0800 (PST) Received: from rikers.spottydogs.org (rikers.spottydogs.org [66.93.82.162]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 8935143D1F for ; Thu, 12 Feb 2004 08:26:18 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from mnewell@newell.arlington.va.us) Received: (qmail 4390 invoked by uid 2010); 12 Feb 2004 16:26:18 -0000 Received: from localhost (sendmail-bs@127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 12 Feb 2004 16:26:18 -0000 Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 11:26:18 -0500 (EST) From: Mike Newell To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Subject: Boot loop in FreeBSD 5.2-RELEASE after install X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 16:26:19 -0000 I am trying to install FreeBSD on a Dell Precision 410 workstation. The system has two 18G SCSI drives (Seagate ST318203LW) on an Adaptec 7890 SCSI adaptor (BIOS V2.01.05). I've gone through the entire install and when the system tries to boot the first time the boot loader loads, then a huge amount of text scrolls VERY rapidly up the screen [I can see the word "Can't" but this is scrolling VERY fast], then the system resets (clearing the screen of course) and the process starts again. I've searched the archives and the only hint I've seen is using the install disk to boot then use sysinstall to install a boot manager (Configure...Fdisk...Select DA0...W). I did that and the problem persists. I do get the "F1...FreeBSD/F5...Disk1" prompt, but pressing "F1" again starts the boot process, which generates billions (all right, maybe just millions...) of lines then hard resets the machine and starts over. I've tried this install with various partition sizes, including the defaults and one signle huge partition. Same symptoms. I've installed FreeBSD 5.2 on other systems with IDE drives from this same CD with no problems. I've also loaned them to others who also have not had problems. Can anyone help? Is there any way to slow the bootup process so I can at least read the errors? Thanks, Mike