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Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2011 01:05:14 +0000
From: Frank Shute <frank@shute.org.uk>
To: Chuck Bacon <crtb@cape.com>
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X-Operating-System: FreeBSD 8.2-RC2 amd64
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Cc: questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Why does my 8.2-RC3 dvd1 boot DOS?
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On Fri, Feb 04, 2011 at 04:53:15PM -0500, Chuck Bacon wrote:
>
> I downloaded it yesterday.  Here's the facts:
> 
> 1. md5 matches CHECKSUM.MD5
> 
> 2. When I boot off the BIOS, it takes a half minute or so, and
>    then: voila!  PC-DOS boots, and for all the world look as
>    though it will boot a larger system; except it doesn't have
>    a clue.
> 
> Here's the hypothesis: The FreeBSD-8.3-RC3 boot loader doesn't
> satisfy my BIOS, and the BIOS looks through the dvd until it finds
> one of the DOS boot loaders provided by some fdisk variant.
> Any ideas why?
> 
> If nothing else, I'll download disc1.  Praps that'll work!
> 
> Many thanks,

Your BIOS isn't clever enough to look through the DVD and find an OS
(an OS that's not shipped with FreeBSD AFAIK). The PC-DOS bootloader
must reside in the boot blocks of your HDD or DVD.

Sometimes manufacturers ship PC-DOS on the HDD if the machine comes
with "no OS"; maybe that's what you are seeing.


Regards,

-- 

 Frank

 Contact info: http://www.shute.org.uk/misc/contact.html