From owner-freebsd-stable Fri May 29 02:46:54 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id CAA29849 for freebsd-stable-outgoing; Fri, 29 May 1998 02:46:54 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from relay.ucb.crimea.ua (relay.ucb.crimea.ua [194.93.177.113]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id CAA29509 for ; Fri, 29 May 1998 02:45:08 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from ru@ucb.crimea.ua) Received: (from ru@localhost) by relay.ucb.crimea.ua (8.8.8/8.8.8) id MAA00967; Fri, 29 May 1998 12:44:27 +0300 (EEST) (envelope-from ru) Message-ID: <19980529124427.A29838@ucb.crimea.ua> Date: Fri, 29 May 1998 12:44:27 +0300 From: Ruslan Ermilov To: stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Problem installing 2.2.6 in dangerously dedicated mode Mail-Followup-To: stable@freebsd.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.91i X-Operating-System: FreeBSD 2.2.6-STABLE i386 Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Hi! Yesterday I tried to install FreeBSD 2.2.6-STABLE on the following hardware: Intel X-Series Deskside/MX Server (P90, 64Mb of ram) PhoenixBIOS(TM) E486 Version 1.00.19.AM0 aic7770 on-board SCSI (Bios v2.11 S3) Seagate ST32155N (2Gb, 2049/64/32 in Adaptec's >1G geometry translation mode) This machine intended for use only with FreeBSD and will act as an ip-router and dialup access server via ppp. So, as always, I started to install FreeBSD in `dangerously-dedicated' mode. The installation process was smooth, but after it has finished and rebooted, I got ``Read error'' message from FreeBSD bootblocks (start.S, I think?). At the end of it all I successfully installed FreeBSD in standard compatible mode. Of course, this mode wasted some space of my HD, about 0.5Mb ;-( Then I read the section 8.10 of the FAQ about dangerously dedicated mode, in particular, about HP Netservers' BIOS weirdness, then I read the README.386BSD and README.MACH from sys/i386/boot/biosboot, and now I have a few questions: 1. When ``sysinstall'' first runs, what disk geometry it detects? What the system bios tells or SCSI bios or ...? It saw me some weird geometry with 16 heads and 17 sectors, when I expected something like 2049/64/32 or even though magic/63/255. Well, maybe I need to follow FAQ advise and setup fake DOS partition first... 2. From what I've read in README.386BSD, when I install FreeBSD in DD mode: | Boot 1 also contains a compiled in DOS partition table | (in case it is at block 0), which contains a 386bsd partition starting | at 0. This ensures that the same code can work whether or not | boot1 is at block 0. What this table looks like, I wonder? Any good pointer to the source code in sys/i386/*boot will be satisfied ;-) Unfortunately, I have no more *re-installation* access to that server as it has to work now and it works fine (as always ;-), but it dos-fdisk-mode. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Reagrds, -- Ruslan Ermilov System Administrator ru@ucb.crimea.ua United Commercial Bank +380-652-247647 Simferopol, Crimea 2426679 ICQ Network, UIN To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message