From owner-freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Feb 24 16:51:17 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CD88516A402 for ; Sat, 24 Feb 2007 16:51:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wb@freebie.xs4all.nl) Received: from smtp-vbr3.xs4all.nl (smtp-vbr3.xs4all.nl [194.109.24.23]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6968913C4B5 for ; Sat, 24 Feb 2007 16:51:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wb@freebie.xs4all.nl) Received: from freebie.xs4all.nl (freebie.xs4all.nl [213.84.32.253]) by smtp-vbr3.xs4all.nl (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id l1OGdp3Z081789; Sat, 24 Feb 2007 17:39:51 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from wb@freebie.xs4all.nl) Received: from freebie.xs4all.nl (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by freebie.xs4all.nl (8.13.8/8.13.3) with ESMTP id l1OGdpGj081275; Sat, 24 Feb 2007 17:39:51 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from wb@freebie.xs4all.nl) Received: (from wb@localhost) by freebie.xs4all.nl (8.13.8/8.13.6/Submit) id l1OGdoVG081274; Sat, 24 Feb 2007 17:39:50 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from wb) Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2007 17:39:50 +0100 From: Wilko Bulte To: Steven Moix Message-ID: <20070224163950.GA81261@freebie.xs4all.nl> References: <61C5538C-0560-4577-8C08-8ED99F839BA4@axianet.ch> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <61C5538C-0560-4577-8C08-8ED99F839BA4@axianet.ch> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.11 X-Virus-Scanned: by XS4ALL Virus Scanner Cc: freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Installing on a PC164LX X-BeenThere: freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the Alpha List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2007 16:51:17 -0000 On Sat, Feb 24, 2007 at 04:57:24PM +0100, Steven Moix wrote.. > Hi all, > > I'm relatively new to FreeBSD and have a serious installation problem > on my PC164 box: I can't slice/label my disk. > > At boot I can see that my disk is recognized (a SCSI disk on a > Symbios Logic controller, nothing special here): > ... > da0 at sym0 bus 0 target 0 lun 0 > da0: Fixed Direct Access SCSI-3 device > da0: 20.000MB/s transfers (20.000MHz, offset 16) > da0: 8761MB > ... > > When I follow the standard FreeBSD installation procedure as > explained in the handbook I simply can't initialize my disk. As I > understand, there is no fdisk-step on the alpha architecture, so I > should directly use disklabel to create my partitions. The problem is > that my disk doesn't show up in the usual disklabel selection > area...any clue why? The disk is perfectly visible on a RedHat/Gentoo > Linux installation so it isn't a hardware problem. Most likely there is an old disklabel of some sort (can be Tru64, VMS, or Linux) already on the disk. Try zero-ing the beginning of the disk, something like 'dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/da0 count=10 bs=1m' will typically do it. If you subsequently boot from the FreeBSD install CD you will most likely have better luck. -- Wilko Bulte wilko@FreeBSD.org