From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Sep 27 19:55:59 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 5378D1065687 for ; Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:55:59 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd-questions@m.gmane.org) Received: from ciao.gmane.org (main.gmane.org [80.91.229.2]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0CA798FC16 for ; Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:55:58 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd-questions@m.gmane.org) Received: from list by ciao.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.43) id 1KjftS-0004o7-MI for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:55:54 +0000 Received: from pool-138-88-43-89.res.east.verizon.net ([138.88.43.89]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:55:54 +0000 Received: from nightrecon by pool-138-88-43-89.res.east.verizon.net with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:55:54 +0000 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org From: Michael Powell Date: Sat, 27 Sep 2008 15:59:38 -0400 Lines: 36 Message-ID: References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: pool-138-88-43-89.res.east.verizon.net Sender: news Subject: Re: Installation Question X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: nightrecon@verizon.net List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:55:59 -0000 Ray Madigan wrote: > I am trying to move a couple of machines from Suse Linux to FreeBSD and I > am > having an installation issue on the first machine. I have a 1.8GHZ > Pentium > on an ASUS mainboard. DUring installation I give the geometry of the > drive on the machine, a Western Digital WD8000JB, the drive geometry that > I find > on their website 16383/16/63 in FDisk. The disk was used for the Suse > installation so the partitions are correct. So I press Q on the keyboard. > I go through the installation until I get to DiskLabel and the drive > doesn't > show up on the top of the screen. The screen is blank except for the > options section. > > Does anyone know what could be going wrong here. [snip] You need to completely wipe the disk of whatever was on it before. On machines with a floppy sometimes I boot from Dos and use it's fdisk, but really any fdisk will do this. Just delete and write back to the drive and start over. I have a WD800JB here and as far as specifying drive geometry that is generally not required. Just make sure you have LBA mode activated in the BIOS. A quick note about sysinstall: many times it will display an error screen complaining about CHS values being wrong immediately prior to going into fdisk. This is really an error in sysinstall and most people just totally ignore it. So don't pay that screen any attention, it is bogus. -Mike