From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Aug 22 18:06:27 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: questions@freebsd.org 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 1928516A4DA for ; Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:06:27 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu) Received: from clunix.cl.msu.edu (clunix.cl.msu.edu [35.9.2.10]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9FBA643D62 for ; Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:06:22 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu) Received: from clunix.cl.msu.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by clunix.cl.msu.edu (8.13.6+Sun/8.13.6) with ESMTP id k7MI6G8o004888; Tue, 22 Aug 2006 14:06:16 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from jerrymc@localhost) by clunix.cl.msu.edu (8.13.6+Sun/8.13.6/Submit) id k7MI6FHN004887; Tue, 22 Aug 2006 14:06:15 -0400 (EDT) From: Jerry McAllister Message-Id: <200608221806.k7MI6FHN004887@clunix.cl.msu.edu> To: derek@computinginnovations.com (Derek Ragona) Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 14:06:15 -0400 (EDT) In-Reply-To: <6.0.0.22.2.20060822081043.02606690@mail.computinginnovations.com> X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL7] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Installing on IBM Z61t X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:06:27 -0000 Problem solved - partly anyway. It is apparently a marginal CD burn. > You can go to bootdisk.org or freedos.org and download an iso image to make > a bootable CD. I think you need to first get your system actually booting > a CD of any OS, then move on to installing FreeBSD. OK. I scrounged up another boot CD I had around. It booted OK. So, I checked this CD some more. It booted on some machines and not on others. I had the person in the next office burn the same file and it works on the IBM notebook. > It may be your BIOS isn't booting the CD or you simply have a CD with a bad > boot image. So getting a CD that does indeed boot is the first step. > > Being able to read a CD is not sufficient. Bootable CD's have a strict > format that must be in place or the boot fails. What was throwing me off was that I had tried it on a couple of machines with no problem, but then I hit the notebook machine and it failed. Then, when I was checking further, it failed on another machine that already had FreeBSD installed - using a different CD. So, I got someone to burn one on a different machine and it works. I wonder, though if there is something different with how burncd works in FreeBSD 6.0 or 6.1. First of all, the device name I had to use used to be acd0c and now that isn't there and I tried to use acd0 - without the 'c'. It seemed to try and burn, but always failed in the fixate step. Previously I was using FreeBSD 4.9 and this is the first time I have tried it in 6.1 and then got the same failure on another machine in 6.0. So, might I be missing something? I have done lots of burns (successfully) on the one on the 6.1 machine so am not totally surprised that it may have died. But, I hardly expect that that other machine running 6.0 would have worn out the burner because I probably haven't done more than one or two burns on it since getting it. By the way, none of this explains why I was unable to boot from the boot floppy installation set. It just kept scrolling up junk on the screen. It worked fine on all the desk machines I have handy, but not the notebook machine. ////jerry > -Derek > > At 08:14 PM 8/21/2006, Jerry McAllister wrote: > > > > > > I would check that you have the IDE interface enabled that the CD plugs > > > into. Have you tried booting other bootable CD's like a WinXP CD just to > > > see if you get it to boot from CD. > > > >I don't happen to have any other bootable CDs handy. > >But, I was able to read CDs on that drive in XP. > >They were just videos, etc. > >They were not bootable, though, so I didn't attempt to boot with them. > > > >////jerry > > > > > > > > -Derek > > > > > > At 05:20 PM 8/21/2006, Jerry McAllister wrote: > > > >Hi All, > > > > > > > >I am trying to set up a notebook computer for someone (I only have > > > >towers and rackmount servers running FreeBSD myself). > > > > > > > >The machine is an IBM Z61t Lenova with 2 GHz Intel CPU, 1 GB memory > > > >The BIOS version is 1.06 (7FET46WW) of 2006-04-27 > > > > > > > >I has an: ATAPI CD0:MATSHITADVD-RAM UK-842-(PM) cd/dvd reader/burner. > > > > > > > >I got a USB floppy and put it on too. > > > > > > > >The boot order in BIOS is currently CD, Floppy Hard disk > > > > > > > >I have switched floppy and CD a couple of times and removed > > > >a number of other thing from the boot order - mostly things > > > >that are not actually on the machine. > > > > > > > >I was able to boot Partition Magic with the USB floppy and fix up > > > >the hard disk to make room. I added a FAT32 (#3) slice and an > > > >undesignated slice (#4). I hoped to add FreeBSD to the undesignated > > > >slice and use the FAT32 for communication between WinXP and FreeBSD > > > >since the XP slice was NTFS. > > > > > > > >But, it will not boot the FreeBSD 6.1 installation CD - it completely > > > >ignores it and boots WinXP, even though it looks like it is enabled > > > >in the BIOS. It doesn't even seem to try booting the CD and fail. > > > >The BIOS doesn't appear to talk to it at all. > > > > > > > >That CD worked fine in another (deskside) machine - a Dell, by > > > >the way. I had no trouble doing an install with it on that machine. > > > > > > > >So, I made a set of 6.1 install floppies. > > > >Although the Partition Magic (several years old copy) floppies booted > > > >just fine, when I started to boot from the boot.flp floppy it read it > > > >and then started repeatedly dumping some message on the screen. It > > > >just kept scrolling up too fast to read. It looked like it might > > > >be 5 or 6 lines long. > > > > > > > >Just in case it was telling me to put in the kern1.flp, I did that > > > >and hit enter, but it did not stop scrolling what appeared to be > > > >the same message, nor did it appear to read that floppy at all. > > > > > > > >I have rummaged through the BIOS setup and not found anything that > > > >jumps out at me that I should turn on or off. I did not find > > > >anything that looked like 'plug n play'. > > > > > > > >So, my obvious question is: (questions are:) > > > >Is there any hope of installing FreeBSD on this notebook computer? > > > >Is there something I can turn on or off to make it work? > > > >Why will the old Partition Magic floppy work, but the new FreeBSD 6.1 not? > > > >Why doesn't the BIOS even attempt to check the CD for a boot sector, > > > >but just ignore it completely and boot the HD? > > > > > > > >Thanks for any clues or solid informatino, > > > > > > > >////jerry > > > >