From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jul 3 12:30:29 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D4FA516A4CE for ; Sat, 3 Jul 2004 12:30:29 +0000 (GMT) Received: from sccmmhc92.asp.att.net (sccmmhc92.asp.att.net [204.127.203.212]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 82AEC43D75 for ; Sat, 3 Jul 2004 12:30:29 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from david.fleck@mchsi.com) Received: from grond (12-216-14-105.client.mchsi.com[12.216.14.105]) by sccmmhc92.asp.att.net (sccmmhc92) with SMTP id <20040703123028m9200jg8gje>; Sat, 3 Jul 2004 12:30:28 +0000 Date: Sat, 3 Jul 2004 07:30:28 -0500 (CDT) From: David Fleck Sender: dcf@grond.sourballs.org To: FreeBSD Questions Message-ID: <20040703071525.T19350@grond.sourballs.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Subject: Install errors on old HP machine X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 03 Jul 2004 12:30:29 -0000 Fishing for insight here. Trying to install FreeBSD on an HP Pavilion 7050 from around 1996 or so. Here's what I've tried so far: Boot from 4.9 install CD, burned from ISO. I've used this CD successfully on other machines, so I assume it's OK. The HP ignores it completely and only boots from floppy or harddisk. (I thought, well, that's strange - and discovered that I can't boot from a Knoppix or SuSE install CD either, no matter what the BIOS settings. Something strange here.) Boot from a 4.9 boot floppy, created from the above-mentioned CD: grond# dd if=kern.flp of=/dev/fd0c 2880+0 records in 2880+0 records out 1474560 bytes transferred in 49.180326 secs (29983 bytes/sec) looks OK, right? When I try to boot the machine with this, I get: [...bunch of ok-looking stuff...] load /kernel /kernel text=0x258c5c zf_read: unexpected EOF zf_read: unexpected EOF elf32_loadexc archsw.readin failed load: can't load file '/kernel': input/output error So I downloaded kern.flp from ftp://ftp14.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/5.2.1-RELEASE/floppies/, used a different floppy disk, and tried again - same error. I'm pretty much at a standstill here. My current working hypothesis is that my main machine's floppy drive is writing crap, or the HP's floppy drive is reading crap. I can live with that, but is there any other way to get something useful onto this box? (It does have a FreeBSD-supported ethernet card in it.) -- David Fleck david.fleck@mchsi.com