From owner-freebsd-net Tue Oct 27 15:10:10 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id PAA08530 for freebsd-net-outgoing; Tue, 27 Oct 1998 15:10:10 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from mars.mds.com.sg (mars.mds.com.sg [203.127.216.145]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id PAA08522 for ; Tue, 27 Oct 1998 15:10:04 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from xichrome@pacific.net.ph) Received: from zeus.asiansources.com (root@zeusfr [203.172.0.46]) by mars.mds.com.sg (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id HAA07143; Wed, 28 Oct 1998 07:16:14 +0800 Received: from ph.asiansources.com (IDENT:mta@ph-2.asiansources.com [203.172.0.3]) by zeus.asiansources.com (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id HAA30878; Wed, 28 Oct 1998 07:29:54 +0800 Received: from xichrome ([192.168.8.201]) by ph.asiansources.com (post.office MTA v2.0 0906 ID# 50-42442U500) with SMTP id AAA5134; Wed, 28 Oct 1998 07:09:22 +0800 Message-ID: <000e01be01fe$95499120$c908a8c0@xichrome.asiansources.com> From: "Joubert Uriarte" To: , Subject: Re: Booting Problems Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 07:07:34 +0800 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3110.1 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3110.3 Sender: owner-freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Martin, Thank you very much for your reply and for helping me. Yes, I couldn't agree with you more with these HP Vectra machines. I hate the HP Vectra BIOS! Anyway, I tried what you suggested... it didn't work. Um... can I clarify some items on your suggestion? If I partition my hard disk using FreeBSD and I don't use the dedicated mode, keeping it compatible with other operating systems, does it create the FDISK table you are referring to? Also, the operand 'size' in your dd command doesn't seem to be valid. I omitted it since the default block size is 512 anyway. Do I perform the dd command before or after I have installed FreeBSD? Yes, I do get Missing Operating System when I install FreeBSD without using the dedicated mode partition, but when I zeroed out the first sector, the computer didn't want to boot at all -- not even with the floppy boot disk. Incidentally, I erased the disk again using the DOS FDISK program and formatted the drive to see if it would boot DOS at least. It did. When I re-installed FreeBSD, the installation indicated an invalid geometry for the disk. FDISK for DOS used the 2727 cylinders * 9 heads * 84 sectors geometry which according to the hardware manual of the ST31200N is correct, but FreeBSD claims that the valid geometry is 128 cylinders, etc. (sorry, I can't remember the rest) * sigh * =8( Thanks... I hope you can help me further. Joubert -----Original Message----- From: Martin Machacek To: Joubert Uriarte ; freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG Date: Tuesday, October 27, 1998 7:47 PM Subject: RE: Booting Problems On 27-Oct-98 Joubert Uriarte wrote: > I hope someone can help me with my installation of FreeBSD v.2.2.6. I don't > have problems installing the OS at home, but the hardware configuration in > the > office is very different. > > The installation pushes through successfully, but after restarting the > machine, > I end up with an error message saying, > > Read Error > > HP Vectra VE Series 2 5/75 upgraded to Pentium-133 Mhz Aha, Vectra! Those machines up to Series 8 are pure shit. I've been struggling with them for about a month. I assume that you are installing FreeBSD in the so called "dangerously" dedicated mode i.e. without FDISK table, is that correct? This unfortunately does not work with Vectras. Their BIOS is too smart (stupid?) and it tries to read something from the disk assuming that there is a FDISK table. So, If FreeBSD is the only OS on your disk, you have to create FDISK table with a single partition spanning the entire disk (except for the FDISK tabel itself). There is one more gotcha! Before doing this, you have to zero out at least the first sector on the disk. Otherwise you will get 'Missing operatig system' next time you try to boot from it (again - too clever BIOS). So, do something like: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/rsd0 size=512 count=10 (one sector should be enough, but zeroing is cheap, so why not to zero couple more). This should make your FreeBSD boot. It worked at least in my case, however I've been trying it on Vectras Series 3 and 4 and I have no clue how much different Series 2 Vectras are. There were some substantial differences between Series 3 and 4, so ... Good luck! Martin Machacek --- [ICZ a.s., Zirovnicka 6/3133, 106 00 Prague 10, Czech Republic] [phone: +420 2 24245124 fax: +420 2 24245125] [PGP KeyID 981EB320]] To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-net" in the body of the message