From owner-freebsd-questions Sun Oct 19 22:55:32 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id WAA00152 for questions-outgoing; Sun, 19 Oct 1997 22:55:32 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions) Received: from freebie.lemis.com (gregl1.lnk.telstra.net [139.130.136.133]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id WAA00145 for ; Sun, 19 Oct 1997 22:55:25 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from grog@freebie.lemis.com) Received: (from grog@localhost) by freebie.lemis.com (8.8.7/8.8.5) id PAA14299; Mon, 20 Oct 1997 15:25:15 +0930 (CST) Message-ID: <19971020152515.57945@lemis.com> Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 15:25:15 +0930 From: Greg Lehey To: Doug Jolley Cc: FreeBSD Questions Subject: Re: SCSI - Getting Started References: <199710200338.UAA16369@neptune.neptune.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.84e In-Reply-To: <199710200338.UAA16369@neptune.neptune.net>; from Doug Jolley on Sun, Oct 19, 1997 at 08:38:09PM -0700 Organisation: LEMIS, PO Box 460, Echunga SA 5153, Australia Phone: +61-8-8388-8286 Fax: +61-8-8388-8725 Mobile: +61-41-739-7062 WWW-Home-Page: http://www.lemis.com/~grog Fight-Spam-Now: http://www.cauce.org Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Sun, Oct 19, 1997 at 08:38:09PM -0700, Doug Jolley wrote: > Hi -- > > I'm getting started with my first installation of FreeBSD using a > SCSI harddrive. I am using an Adaptec 1522 controller. I have > first setup up a small (64 MB) dos partition. I have used DOS > FDISK to setup the partition and make it active. I used DOS to > format it with the /S option to make it bootable. The system > will not boot from the hard drive. I get the error: > > NO ROM BASIC > SYSTEM HALTED > > This seems to be the error message that is presented when there > is no bootable media available. Correct. Obviously the BIOS doesn't find the drive. > The system boots DOS fine from the floppy drive and I'm able to > access the hard drive (C:) just fine (doing things like dir, etc.). There was something funny about the 1522. Does it have a BIOS? If so, is it turned on? > Can anyone suggest what might be the problem here? BTW, I have > the second set of pins on J5 jumpered (which according to my > understanding is supposed to enable booting from the harddisk). > > Thanks for any input. > > ... doug > > P.S. - Please excuse me if this seems a bit off-topic; but, I've > found that the only real value DOS has is in setting up FreeBSD. > I've generally found it beneficial to get the hardware working > under DOS before starting with FreeBSD (or any other OS for that > matter. - ddj) Sure. DOS stands for "Diagnostic Operational Support" :-) You probably don't need a DOS partition, though. It looks to me as if something on the DOS floppy (SCSI driver?) recognizes the disk and thus allows you to access it if you boot from floppy. Possibly the same would work with FreeBSD. If you can install FreeBSD (without the DOS partition, unless you need it for something else) on the hard disk, you will probably be able to boot it from the installation floppy. To do so, boot the floppy, and when the "Boot: " prompt comes, enter: Boot: hd(0)kernel Greg