From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Apr 12 20:55:45 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BB18316A4CE for ; Mon, 12 Apr 2004 20:55:45 -0700 (PDT) Received: from lakermmtao06.cox.net (lakermmtao06.cox.net [68.230.240.33]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 23EBC43D54 for ; Mon, 12 Apr 2004 20:55:45 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from bob89@bobj.org) Received: from mail.bobj.org ([24.250.218.207]) by lakermmtao06.cox.net (InterMail vM.6.01.03.02 201-2131-111-104-20040324) with ESMTP id <20040413035543.JYBB29661.lakermmtao06.cox.net@mail.bobj.org> for ; Mon, 12 Apr 2004 23:55:43 -0400 Received: from bobj.wb4jcm.org ([192.168.132.167]) by neti.bobj.org with esmtp; Mon, 12 Apr 2004 23:55:43 -0400 From: Bob Johnson To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2004 23:55:39 -0400 User-Agent: KMail/1.6 References: <20040409174919.GJ4404@neverwhere.in-flux.org> <20040413002147.GA30156@neverwhere.in-flux.org> In-Reply-To: <20040413002147.GA30156@neverwhere.in-flux.org> X-Source-System: Bob's Laptop MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <200404122355.40699.bob89@bobj.org> cc: "10,000 Screaming Monkeys" Subject: Re: SOLVED - 5.2.1-RELEASE boot problem X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 03:55:45 -0000 On Monday 12 April 2004 08:21 pm, 10,000 Screaming Monkeys <"10,000 Screaming Monkeys" > wrote: > Nobody has been able to help me here or elsewhere, but I did discover > one strange thing that seems to have taken care of things. > > The way I usually build my systems, since they're strictly FreeBSD > machines, is to "dangerously dedicate" the drive. When the system was > installed that way, regardless of what I did in /boot.config, > regardless of which IDE channel I had the drive connected to, and > regardless of BIOS settings tweaked to hell and back, it refused to > boot from the IDE drive and the boot loader would default to > 22:fd(22,a)/kernel. > > On a lark, I reinstalled the system using a "true" partition and the > FreeBSD bootmgr. When I rebooted the system after the install, it > prompted me for the partition to boot (F1 for FreeBSD) and booted > successfully without any trickery. > > When I installed the system yet another time using a "true" partition > and chose the "standard" option (for just a standard MBR, rather than > a boot manager or "none"), the system booted completely normally > without any intervention on my part at all. > > So, while I have no explanation for why it acts differently depending > on whether or not the drive is DD'd or given a "valid" partition, > that's what fixed the problem for me. I thought I would make a > follow-up post just in case this ever happens to anybody else and > they need some place to start. > > - Jamie > > On 04/09, 10,000 Screaming Monkeys rearranged the electrons to read: [...] To reiterate for anyone tempted to use "dangerously dedicated" mode: it has that name for a reason. It is not only incompatible with other operating systems, but it is incompatible with some BIOSes, I suppose because they see it as an unformated disk. Some computers refuse to even attempt to boot from a DD disk. It would appear that yours is willing to attempt to boot, but then passes bogus information to the FreeBSD boot loader. - Bob