Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2011 14:29:39 -0800 From: Cy Schubert <Cy.Schubert@komquats.com> To: Cy Schubert <Cy.Schubert@komquats.com> Cc: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Subject: Re: HP 8440p Will Not Bot Message-ID: <201111262229.pAQMTd4i009201@slippy.cwsent.com> In-Reply-To: Message from Cy Schubert <Cy.Schubert@komquats.com> of "Sat, 26 Nov 2011 11:01:34 PST."
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Cy Schubert writes: > Hi everyone, > > A little background before I describe the problem. > > I'm currently looking to replace my Acer 3623NWxMI laptop. It's been a > reliable machine running FreeBSD 5.something to -CURRENT. It currently has > 8.2 on it with 9.0-CURRENT (not -RC, it's pretty old) and XP on separate > partitions/slices, and a spare FreeBSD partition (was 7.4 but currently > unused). No problems here. (A 250 GB disk is pretty small when you have > four operating systems on it.) > > I've managed to extend the life of this Acer 3623 through numerous disk, > memory, and CPU upgrades, and have disassembled it a few times to clean out > the heat sink of dust, dog and cat fur. But the old laptop's time has come > and it's time to look for a replacement for this six year old laptop. It's > getting pretty long in the tooth and I need something that supports VT-x or > AMD-V, which the Pentium M does not. > > As I'll be shopping around for a replacement I've cloned my FreeBSD 8.2 > partitions and whatever I need from my ZFS zpool to an external USB drive. > No problems here. I've booted the external drive on my Acer and FreeBSD > works fine. I've been doing this for years as it's my DRP (I use the term > disaster in the broadest sense) recovery solution, as I have other external > USB drives which I've booted my prod server downstairs from to recover the > system disk. I've also used this process to upgrade system disks on my > laptop and my servers downstairs. The process works and this particular > drive boots FreeBSD on my Acer (df -h shows the USB is mounted as root not > the internal IDE drive). All is well here. > > I unplug the USB drive and plug it into an HP elitebook 8440p. It's my > employer's laptop with Windows 7 Enterprise installed on it. The BIOS is > locked down and I don't know the BIOS password. However I can select the > option to boot from USB disk, which it does in the broadest sense of the > word. The problem is that it loads the FreeBSD MBR on the USB drive. It > then loads the FreeBSD stage 2 boot on the USB drive and hangs. > > Act 2: Not to be outsmarted by this HP laptop, I try again. This time when > the stage 2 boot loader spinner displays the boot: prompt, I hit space and > enter > > 0:da(0,a)/boot/loader > > This gets me a little further. It now hangs at Loading > /boot/defaults/loader.conf. > > It may very well be that there is some kind of BIOS setting that might fix > this but since it's not my laptop and since the BIOS is locked down I have > no way to resolve this issue, or it may be that the HP elitebook 8440p just > doesn't work with FreeBSD. Or, there may be something I could do to in my > loader.conf that might bypass this problem. > > Any ideas? > > If I can get it to work and test out FreeBSD 8.2 on this laptop I'll > consider buying one to replace my Acer. > > In the mean time I'll try to boot this USB drive on an Acer 5560G (the > label says 5560-sb410) with a four core AMD A6-3400 processor (1.4-2.3 > GHz), 6 GB of DDR3, 640 GB drive, etc., at a store I walked into yesterday. > The $499 price tag caught my eye. Maybe I'll have better luck there. > > Any and all help would be appreciated. Excuse my replying to myself. I managed to get FreeBSD to boot on the HP. 0:ad(0,a)/boot/kernel/kernel did the trick. I think with access to the BIOS I should be able to change a setting, maybe the SATA setting to IDE instead of AHCI and loader should boot. It sees the NIC and wireless NIC. X has a problem with the display. I think this would be a minor problem. I also tried FreeBSD out on a number of Acer laptops, including the 5560G and a 5745. It didn't see the Acer wireless NIC. I hear it's a newer Atheros chipset. This is more of a problem than what I see with the HP. I recall reading somewhere that somebody managed to get wifi working on an Acer Nplify card. I'm in the process of migrating to 9.0, so I'll give that a try on the USB drive. -- Cheers, Cy Schubert <Cy.Schubert@komquats.com> FreeBSD UNIX: <cy@FreeBSD.org> Web: http://www.FreeBSD.org The need of the many outweighs the greed of the few.
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