From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Aug 9 00:16:31 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 4C1571065675 for ; Sat, 9 Aug 2008 00:16:31 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx01.qsc.de (mx01.qsc.de [213.148.129.14]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C92338FC19 for ; Sat, 9 Aug 2008 00:16:30 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from r55.edvax.de (port-92-195-70-74.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.70.74]) by mx01.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5984251485; Sat, 9 Aug 2008 02:16:12 +0200 (CEST) Received: from r55.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r55.edvax.de (8.14.2/8.14.2) with SMTP id m790GB0Q002655; Sat, 9 Aug 2008 02:16:11 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 02:16:10 +0200 From: Polytropon To: acmeinc Message-Id: <20080809021610.53b7b1b3.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <18900779.post@talk.nabble.com> References: <18899421.post@talk.nabble.com> <6.0.0.22.2.20080808184707.0249b5d8@mail.computinginnovations.com> <18900779.post@talk.nabble.com> Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 2.4.7 (GTK+ 2.12.1; i386-portbld-freebsd7.0) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: no boot/loader X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Polytropon List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 09 Aug 2008 00:16:31 -0000 On Fri, 8 Aug 2008 17:00:54 -0700 (PDT), acmeinc wrote: > Check things? Which things should I be checking for? And where should I be > checking them, to be more specific, which optoin should I choose within > sysinstall to check the things? Be sure to write your settings. In the partition editor, make sure your desired FreeBSD slice is marked "active" and ensure you have selected to install the standard MBR loader. (If you want to be able to boot into more than one OS, you need to install the boot manager.) Afterwards, when creating the partitions within the slice, I assume you've done everything correctly, else no installation success would be able to happen. > I am reading on another forum the installation is incorrect and to try > again, however I have tried many times. There seems to be something you've missed, but at this point, I can't guess what it could be. > Do you think the minimun install is > not enough to allow for bootup? It is, if done correctly. To boot, a correct modification of the boot record is essential. As it has been mentioned, there are some BIOS variants that prohibit any modification of these hard disk areas. But that does not seem to be the problem. The message you gave seems to indicat that something is already in the boot area, but the loader itself cannot be run. The loader is placed into your FreeBSD slice (partition), it resides in /boot; if started, the loader invokes the kernel from /boot/kernel, but that's to be happing after you could solve the problem in question. This is what yould happen, summarized: 1. BIOS runs loader found in MBR (standard loader) 2. Standard loader runs /boot/loader 3. /boot/loader runs /boot/kernel/kernel (GENERIC) 4. Kernel initializes system, runs rc script 5. rc script controls system startup 6. System is up and running While number 1 is connected to the hard disk "infront of" any partitions, numbers 2 and 3 depend on the FreeBSD's slice and its partitions (usually /dev/ad0s1a). If the required content of this partition is not present, the error you mentioned is completely understandable. -- Polytropon >From Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...