From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Tue Dec 22 19:47:10 2015 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4EF3CA4F9F0 for ; Tue, 22 Dec 2015 19:47:10 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from wonkity.com (wonkity.com [67.158.26.137]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (Client CN "wonkity.com", Issuer "wonkity.com" (not verified)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 043CC1031 for ; Tue, 22 Dec 2015 19:47:09 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from wonkity.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by wonkity.com (8.15.2/8.15.2) with ESMTPS id tBMJl8fY062278 (version=TLSv1.2 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NO); Tue, 22 Dec 2015 12:47:08 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from localhost (wblock@localhost) by wonkity.com (8.15.2/8.15.2/Submit) with ESMTP id tBMJl8f4062275; Tue, 22 Dec 2015 12:47:08 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2015 12:47:08 -0700 (MST) From: Warren Block To: John McDonnell cc: FreeBSD Questions Subject: RE: POS system trashing hard drives during install In-Reply-To: Message-ID: References: , User-Agent: Alpine 2.20 (BSF 67 2015-01-07) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.4.3 (wonkity.com [127.0.0.1]); Tue, 22 Dec 2015 12:47:08 -0700 (MST) X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2015 19:47:10 -0000 On Tue, 22 Dec 2015, John McDonnell wrote: > I just downloaded and booted from the NetBSD install disk and was presented with a screen I haven't seen in FreeBSD in some time. NetBSD was unable to match my hard drive to one detected by the BIOS. I remember when pretty much every install of FreeBSD would prompt me with that message about the reported geometry not matching. I can't recall why the prompt no longer shows up in FreeBSD, but perhaps it could be behind the issues I'm having? > > For comparision, here is what I have found about the geometry: > > NetBSD reports: > Cylinders: 1023 > Heads: 255 > Sectors: 63 > > The BIOS by default is set to autodetect the mode for the hard drive and reports these settings: > Cylinders: 19158 > Heads: 16 > Sectors: 255 None of this has really mattered since drives became larger than... I want to say 4G. The MBR spec said that partitions had to be specified in round CHS numbers, but that also is meaningless any more. Although gpart enforces that for compatibility, but it is rare that a BIOS cares. If an MBR partition layout created by bsdinstall does not work, I would clone the original drive partitioning with gpart (backup and restore). Then install FreeBSD bootcode and format the first partition with UFS. Then try to get bsdinstall to see that partition and install to it.