Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2005 11:22:14 -0700 (PDT) From: Milscvaer <millueradfa@yahoo.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Failed installation of FreeBSD 5.4 Message-ID: <20050814182215.4863.qmail@web54501.mail.yahoo.com> In-Reply-To: <u864u85xch.4u8@mail.opusnet.com>
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--- "Gary W. Swearingen" <garys@opusnet.com> wrote: > Milscvaer <millueradfa@yahoo.com> writes: > > > I would like to try to boot the system on the hard > > driv e from a floppy. Maybe there is something > wrong > > with the boot record on the HD. Does anyone know > if > > this is possible and how I can do that? > > Sure, but you've left us in the dark as to what you > have to work with > there. Do you have FreeBSD or some unixy OS on > another system or on a > "live CD"? Or just a floppy "fixit"? Or what? Do > you have enough > hard disk space to leave your /usr/home out of the > picture until you > get FreeBSD going on another part of the disk? > (Maybe after deleting > unneeded parts of /usr/home's filesystem.) > I am sorry, I should explain the situation a more clearly. I have already run the FreeBSD 5.4 installation program, which seems to have completed successfully, to install FreeBSD on the hard drive. However, after I reboot the system after the installation program completes, I cannot boot FreeBSD from the F1 FreeBSD prompt. It just beeps when i press F1. I then booted into the fixit floppy, and it does appear that the FreeBSD system is there on the hard drive. Why I cannot boot the system I dont know. I thought it might be a boot record problem, so I wondered if I could use a floppy disk with a boot loader on it, which could then be used to start the system on the hard disk. I thought the install program would replace the boot records, in fdisk I have marked the partition active, and it prompted me to install the boot loader. I have several times gone into fdisk to try to get the boot records replaced. I tried using one of the boot floppies used to start the freebsd install, (kern1.flp), which if I boot off of that I get what appears to be a boot2 (boot:) prompt where I can type ad(0,a)/boot/kernel/kernel, to boot the FreeBSD system i have on the hard disk, however after doing so a lot of numbers and gibberish appear on the screen with the message "BTX Halted". I do have a fixit floppy so I can try to get in there and do some more things to fix this. > Anyway, if you can run a FreeBSD off a fixit or live > CD somehow, you > can "bsdlabel" to put /boot/boot = boot+boot2 on a > floppy so you > should be able to get a "boot2" prompt (the one > before the "loader" > prompt) and try to boot your 5.4 from there. Or you > could try using > "fdisk" and "boot0cfg" and "bsdlabel" to put new > boot records (MBR, > boot1, and boot2) on a floppy or on your hard disk, > too. > > If you can DL and burn a CD, get yourself a "live > CD" or CD-based > "fixit", else try to find room on your HD for a > fresh minimal FreeBSD > install, else get an old HD and install fresh to > that. Another thing > you could try is getting a Grub floppy off the > Internet and try > booting from the Grub command line. > > I suppose that your problem is related to the fact > that your "upgrade" > is reusing your old partition(s) and maybe old boot > records. > > BTW, if you can keep your /usr/home out of the > picture and then copy > it to your new system, you can end up with nice new > UFS2 filesystems. > > BTW, if that's your only copy of /usr/home, you > probably shouldn't be > trying to install a new OS on the disk anyway. You > should be able to > find another HD for a small FreeBSD (or a copy of > /usr/home) for VERY > little money these days. > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
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