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Date:      09 Jun 1998 10:10:59 -0500
From:      sfarrell+lists@farrell.org
To:        Ben Compton <peabody@naxs.com>
Cc:        freebsd questions <questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: Booting Problems
Message-ID:  <87k96qd30c.fsf@couatl.uchicago.edu>
In-Reply-To: Ben Compton's message of "Mon, 08 Jun 1998 23:31:24 -0400"
References:  <3.0.5.32.19980608233124.0093d100@mail.naxs.com>

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Ben Compton <peabody@naxs.com> writes:

> I just installed FreeBSD 2.2.6 on my Dell P-II 300MHz machine and I
> really found the install to be painless.  I am having a problem
> however when I try to boot.  I have installed BSD on my second hard
> drive and am using Windows NT's OS Loader to boot BSD (I was able to
> do this thanks to a handy little program called Bootpart) The system
> appears to boot just fine it chefcks all my drives and so forth but
> the stops with this message "Panic can't mount root" the system then
> reboots.  Has anyone got any ideas?  I didn't use and of the
> bootmanagers that came with my BSD CDs and I chose the option to
> leave my MBR untouched since I would be using the NT OS Loader on my
> primary drive to boot BSD on my secondary drive.  Any and all help
> would be appreciated.


The kernel needs to know where to find its root.  This can be
specified at the command line--here's my boot.help file which
specifies how to do so:

Usage: bios_drive:interface(unit,partition)kernel_name options
    bios_drive   0, 1, ...
    interface    fd, wd or sd
    unit         0, 1, ...
    partition    a, c, ...
    kernel_name  name of kernel, or ? for list of files in root directory
    options      -a (ask name) -C (cdrom) -c (userconfig) -D (dual consoles)
                 -d (debug early) -g (gdb) -h (serial console) -P (probe kbd)
                 -r (default root) -s (single user) -v (verbose)
Examples:
    1:sd(0,a)mykernel  boot `mykernel' on the first SCSI drive when one IDE
                       drive is present
    1:wd(2,a)          boot from the second (secondary master) IDE drive
    1:sd(0,a)?         list the files in the root directory on the specified
                       drive/unit/partition, and set the default bios_drive,
                       interface, unit and partition
    -cv                boot with the defaults, then run UserConfig to modify
                       hardware parameters (c), and print verbose messages (v)

Additionally you might put a file called /boot.config whch looks
something like:

1:wd(2,a)kernel

to tell it where to find root in the future.  


--

Steve Farrell


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