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Date:      Mon, 18 Dec 1995 07:46:48 -0500 (EST)
From:      steve hovey <shovey@buffnet.net>
To:        Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Boot problems (was Re: Western Digital boot failures )
Message-ID:  <Pine.SCO.3.91.951218074342.27454D-100000@buffnet5.buffnet.net>
In-Reply-To: <199512180424.OAA06718@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au>

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On Mon, 18 Dec 1995, Michael Smith wrote:

> Marty Leisner stands accused of saying:
> > 
> > >
> > > > 	When I use the booteasy option, I keep hitting F1 over and over, 
> > > > nothing ever happens other than repeating the "BSD  F?" banner.
> 
> This is a classic symptom of incorrect installation geometry.
> 
> I can't count the number of times I've said this :
> 
> READ THE INSTALLATION NOTES!  SET THE GEOMETRY IN THE INSTALLER TO MATCH
> WHAT YOUR BIOS THINKS THE DISK IS.  DO NOT GUESS.  DO NOT PASS GO.  
> DO NOT COLLECT $200.  DO YOU UNDERSTAND?


Dont beat up the guy - you will continue to have to say this until there 
is a utility for this sort of thing.

It is not clear to most people (yes, that is a general sweeping 
statement) how one is supposed to divine the correct geometry.

In many instances Ive left the primary drive an IDE for lack of being 
able to get freebsd to not choke on scsi drives for which I was not 
clarvoyant enough to produce a 'correct' geometry.

Is there no way for a utility to ask the damn bios what it thinks it is, 
thus making it able to tell the user if no other damn thing is possible?



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