From owner-freebsd-questions Mon May 8 16:13:36 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from watson.ficsgrp.com (watson.ficsgrp.com [194.74.111.3]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B7AFB37B614 for ; Mon, 8 May 2000 16:13:25 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from harry.woodward-clarke@s1.com) Received: from mail.au.ficsgrp.com ([194.74.111.35]) by watson.ficsgrp.com (Netscape Messaging Server 3.6) with ESMTP id AAA385A for ; Tue, 9 May 2000 01:13:12 +0200 Received: from S1.com ([172.16.48.219]) by mail.au.ficsgrp.com (Netscape Messaging Server 3.6) with ESMTP id 741; Tue, 9 May 2000 09:17:19 +1000 Message-ID: <39174A35.7FC8F4B6@S1.com> Date: Mon, 08 May 2000 23:13:57 +0000 From: Harry Woodward-Clarke X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en] (X11; I; Linux 2.0.36 i386) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Michael MacKinnon Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Install Hell... References: <000f01bfb8be$67490940$92597318@rct1.bc.wave.home.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG G'day Michael, > > Thanks for the quick response. > > As I mentioned below, I've already tried three different HDs, > though. > (10GB, 4GB, and 400MB) > > Are you familiar with Award BIOS (circa 1998)? Is there some > funky > setting that has to be shut off before Linux or FreeBSD can put > their > file system on it? Not personally ;') but something you might like to check for is "Virus Protect" or "Read Only Boot Sector" or something like that. During the early to mid 90's there was a spate of Boot Virii doing the rounds, and one of the 'simple' methods of slowing them down (it never really stopped them) was to add a switch in the BIOS to 'write protect' the boot track. This assumed that all writes to that area of the disk would go via the BIOS calls, which OS installs usually do. Thus, the nasty stuff out there knows about this, and bypasses the BIOS calls and heads directly for the disk controller, whereas the Install programs remain as generic as they can and go via the BIOS calls. There may also be a setting for 'Plug-and-P[r|l]ay Operating System', turn this 'off'. Another option that might be there is "DOS OS or Non-DOS", set to non-DOS. > Is there a particular geometry that I have to use (LBA, CHS (or > normal), > or Large settings) for the hard drive? FreeBSD Install seems to > find the > normal settings > just after kernel configuration but displays the LBA settings in > the screen > that partitions the disk. As best I can see, FreeBSD doesn't really care. So long as the root partition is within the first 1024 cylinders of the first drive, it will start. Once it's up and running, it 'ignores' pretty much what the BIOS tells it about the disks and relys on the disks themselves to tell it about them (well, that's as I understand it - I'm open to correction ;') Of course, there are some limitations with this, viz. old 386/486 BIOSs with large (>>8GB) drives. But even then, it's not all lost. Failing all that, it's entirely possible that your disk controller is stuffed, although before I chucked it, I'd put in a different (brand new) cable. You've already done some hardware checking, the drives - unless all three are stuffed - appear to probably be ok. That leaves the BIOS (which we're playing with above), the disk-controller and the cable connecting them all together. Change one thing at a time and eventually you'll find it. Best of luck, Harry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message