Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 09:43:23 -0400 From: Nathan Vidican <webmaster@govital.net> To: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: something strange about FreeBSD 4.1-STABLE booting? (on an IBM laptop) Message-ID: <39D34AFB.625012F4@govital.net>
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Has anyone got FreeBSD running, successfully on an IBM ThinkPad A20M, (24U - PII 500/128megs Ram/6Gig HD) ? I have attempted to install twice now, both times have resulted in my having to replace the hardisk with a new one from IBM. Here's what happens: I boot off of the kernel disk (floppy), insert the MFSroot disk (also floppy), everything seems normal. I create a 4gig MSDOS partition, and set it bootable, I then create a FreeBSD partition with the remaining space on the disk. I then told it to use the BootBGR. The install goes fine, (installed over FTP to a local machine; laptop has Intel 'fxp0' PCI ethernet on-board). Everything seems well, then I reboot, and the trouble begins. The system runs it's ram test, scans the floppy, spins the cdrom, then halts. I cannot get into the bios, nor can I boot off of a floppy or bootable cdrom. If I remove the hardrive, then it still hangs, but I can at least get into the bios. The computer store tried replacing the drive with one from another identical machine... works fine, can enter/exit the bios, system boots up fine, (running win98se that is). They then tried putting my drive into another laptop, and it causes the same problem on the other laptop; system halts. The computer store then came to the conclusion that the hardrive was no good, (which is what I told them when I came...before they spent two hours trying to figure it out). It seems almost as if the BIOS maintains something in the MBR of the disk. The system works fine with Win98SE, as it came pre-installed, and it works fine if I use the IBM recovery cd-rom to install Win98SE with. I can't imagine that the machine is incapable of running FreeBSD. I suspect that it may have something to do with the way the system goes into 'hybernation' mode, (wherein it writes it's current status to hardisk, and shuts off; so as to resume operations when turned back on... similar to suspend mode, except that it's automatic when the lid is closed). This might explain why it wouldn't boot from the hardisk, as it may be looking for a 'last-left' image or something; but it doesn't produce any errors, and will not boot from floppy or cdrom either. IBM then sent out a brand new replacement drive. The computer store installed it, and made sure the system booted from a floppy; they did not touch the partitioning on the drive. I took it home, ran the FreeBSD install (again over LAN), and rebooted. Same problem, black-screen; no functions. I called IBM tech support directly this time, and after spending about an hour trying to tell their technician that his solutions, (eg boot of a floppy and run 'diskzap' utility), would not work, they opted for me to send the machine back for them to look at. The machine is currently in the mail somewhere, they should receive it tonight or tomorrow morning. They say there's a 3-5 working day return time, but somehow I doubt that it will come back fixed. Any ideas, comments, suggestions, or otherwise would be greatly appreciated at this point. I don't think it'd be something with FreeBSD, but just in case, should I try to install a different version maybe? (was trying to install FreeBSD 4.1-STABLE-20000924 I believe, or round the 24th's snapshot anyhow). -- Nathan Vidican webmaster@wmptl.com Windsor Match Plate & Tool Ltd. http://www.wmptl.com/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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