From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Oct 11 22:21:41 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from phnxpop4.phnx.uswest.net (phnxpop4.phnx.uswest.net [206.80.192.4]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 39DB937B503 for ; Wed, 11 Oct 2000 22:21:38 -0700 (PDT) Received: (qmail 77039 invoked by alias); 12 Oct 2000 05:21:36 -0000 Delivered-To: fixup-questions@freebsd.org@fixme Received: (qmail 76994 invoked by uid 0); 12 Oct 2000 05:21:35 -0000 Received: from phnx-6400-gw2poolg114.phnx.uswest.net (HELO system) (63.226.50.114) by phnxpop4.phnx.uswest.net with SMTP; 12 Oct 2000 05:21:35 -0000 Message-ID: <0c4301c0340b$e6430390$0200000a@system> From: "Kerry Davis" To: Subject: Install with DOS partition already in place Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 22:18:46 -0700 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.2106.4 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.2106.4 Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Can someone explain to me why the FreeBSD 4.1 install doesn't work properly if I already have a DOS partition in place? According to the readme.txt and the install.txt, keeping a small DOS partition in place is actually RECOMMENDED for use in "emergencies." And yet, each time I've tried to install with the DOS partition still in place, it doesn't work. Specifically, once the install is completed - apparently successfully, it says - my system won't boot again. It goes through the power-on, and then the floppy drive light comes on and STAYS on. Forever. Even changing the boot sequence in BIOS to "C: Only" doesn't change the results. I've tried the different boot-sector options, and none of those has any effect either. I'm never even shown an option of what to boot, when I restart the system after installing. It goes to the floppy drive, and STAYS there. When I remove the DOS partition and install, it works. (Although it's rather unstable until I compile a new kernel. For some reason the basic included kernel doesn't like my Gateway 486 system.) I'm installing from an "official" BSDi CD-ROM that came from a recent presentation/meeting by one of the BSDi honchos. So I kinda have to assume it's the best available, unless shown otherwise. Thank you in advance for any help that may be available. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message