Date: Tue, 13 May 97 23:05:38 From: "mefoster" <mefoster@computek.net> To: "questions@freebsd.org" <questions@freebsd.org>, "support@cdrom.com" <support@cdrom.com> Subject: Problem installing FreeBSD 2.1.7 - Read error on booting Message-ID: <199705140403.AAA09038@axp.cmpu.net>
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This is my first attempt to install and run FreeBSD. I have been trying to get 2.1.7 installed on a system that has an Adaptec 2940UW (bios 1.23) and a Quantum 2GB disk. This system has 3 other SCSI disks, each with its own OS, and I am using System Commander as a boot manager. FreeBSD seems to install OK and System Commander sees it and adds it to its boot menu, but when I try to boot, I get a "Read error". I have attempted to determine what the problem is by reading newsgroups, the FreeBSD WEB site, files on the CDROM, and the System Commander manual. I have made several attempts to correct this problem. I have installed FreeBSD as the only operating system on the disk and let it auto-size the partitions. I have installed it using a separate 100MB partition for the root filesystem so that it would be within the 1024 cylinder limit. I have installed it with a separate 10MB DOS partition so that it would automatically detect the drive geometry as suggested in one of the files on the CDROM. In all of these cases I have selected the option of writing a normal MBR to the disk. I also tried letting the installation put FreeBSD's boot manager on, but it would not let me select this option. At this point I am uncertain what the problem is. There seems to be an indication from the information that I have read that it is a drive geometry translation problem. fdisk reports the drive geometry as 255 heads, 256 cylinders, 63 sectors. I checked the Quantum web site and the actual physical geometry is 6810 tracks, and 4 heads (the sector count was not exactly specified). fdisk refuses to accept this information. I cannot disable bios translation in the SCSI controller without destroying the ability to boot the other operating systems I have installed. I believe I have exhausted all of the means I have of figuring out what the problem is and correcting it. I would really like to install and use FreeBSD, and I would appreciate any help you can provide. Marvin Foster
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