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To: questions@freebsd.org
From: mishler@hughes.net (Barry Mishler )
Subject: Unable to boot from floppy
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 1996 16:52:32 -0700
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Hello,

Let me give you a quick history of what I've gone through so far:

I mailed questions@freebsd.org a couple of weeks ago concerning a problem I
have getting the FreeBSD boot disk to work at all on my computer.  When I
boot it, I get the normal four or five lines of header and usage information
followed by the "boot:" prompt.  But then about three seconds later, it goes
into a loop where it keeps printing
ERROR: C:0 H:0 S:0
infinitely.

I've got a Dell P100 with nothing special except an additional 1.6GB Western
Digital added to the primary EIDE controller.

I got a response that my disk could be imperfect or it could be that I'm
writing the boot disk on a Win95 computer which will screw it up unless I
actually boot from a DOS floppy first.

OK, I tried that but then I discovered that even when I wrote the disk using
the dd command on an SGI, I still got the same results.  I wrote several
floppies
using several different OSes; always the same result.  Also, when I try these
same boot disks on another PC, they work just fine.

Then I posted to news:comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc and I got a reply from Joerg
Wunsch saying:

> Basically means your bootstrap cannot read the floppy at all.
>
> Are you sure the machine's setup (in particular floppy drive setup) is
> okay?

I'm not really sure how to check this but here's what I did find:
When I create a Linux boot floppy I have no problems.  When I create a NetBSD
boot floppy I have no problems.  There's obviously something peculiar about
the FreeBSD boot that is causing my computer to choke.  What could it be?
I went through my bios and I can't find anything that could affect me.


What do I do next?  I'm really very serious about installing FreeBSD on my PC
and I'm not willing to give up yet.  I don't even know whether the "ERROR: .."
message is being created by my PC or the FreeBSD boot -- and I certainly don't
know how to find out.

If I could get FreeBSD installed on my PC, I would be more than willing to
return
the favor in whatever way I'm capable.  Even if that means some verification and
validation of software mods.

Well, I hope to hear back from you soon.  Like I said, I'm very willing to put
some serious work into this.  If only I knew where to start.

Thank you for your time,

Barry Mishler
mishler@mailhub.elan.af.mil