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Date:      Thu, 9 Oct 2003 09:17:50 -0700 (PDT)
From:      Doug White <dwhite@gumbysoft.com>
To:        Michael Grant <mg-fbsd3@grant.org>
Cc:        freebsd-stable@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: problem booting after install of 5.1
Message-ID:  <20031009090642.I56326@carver.gumbysoft.com>
In-Reply-To: <20031009064415.GB4364@grant.org>
References:  <20031009064415.GB4364@grant.org>

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On Thu, 9 Oct 2003, Michael Grant wrote:

> I just did a fresh install of 5.1-release.  I'm using the freebsd
> bootloader to choose between 2 disks.  Freebsd is on the second (da1)
> disk and windows on the first (da0).  The first time I booted the
> machine, I got this:
>
> F1  FreeBSD
> F5  Drive 1
>
> Default: F1
>
> If I pressed F1, it just beeped.

This means that the geometry setup on your FreeBSD disk is wrong, and the
BIOS can't find the right blocks.  To fix it:

0) Get a Win98 boot floppy image, or some other sort of dos boot floppy
with fdisk.exe on it.
1) Boot CD 1 and get into the fixit environment.  Use 'CDROM' and mount
disc 2 so you get a full userland.
2) Zero off the front end of the disk with:

/dist/usr/bin/dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/da1 bs=1024 count=512

Note: da1 had better be your freebsd disk or it'll wipe xp instead.  If
you're not sure, hit scroll lock at the sysinstall screen and scroll up
and check the boot messages for which disk is which.

3) Exit the fixit environment and reboot to your DOS floppy.
4) Use DOS FDISK and create a priamry partition on the disk.  We're going
to erase this anyway so don't get too attached to it.
5) Boot Disc 1 and install as normal. In the fdisk editor delete the slice
you just created and then put BSD on as desired.

That should fix your boot problems.  I think this is in the FAQ if you
need a review.

-- 
Doug White                    |  FreeBSD: The Power to Serve
dwhite@gumbysoft.com          |  www.FreeBSD.org



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