Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 13:27:31 -0500 From: Derek Ragona <derek@computinginnovations.com> To: Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu> Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Installing on IBM Z61t Message-ID: <6.0.0.22.2.20060822132629.0263fc40@mail.computinginnovations.com> In-Reply-To: <200608221806.k7MI6FHN004887@clunix.cl.msu.edu> References: <6.0.0.22.2.20060822081043.02606690@mail.computinginnovations.com> <200608221806.k7MI6FHN004887@clunix.cl.msu.edu>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Yeah I have seen that happen before, like the boot area didn't burn cleanly
or the error correction on the drive isn't as good as on other drives.
-Derek
At 01:06 PM 8/22/2006, Jerry McAllister wrote:
>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
> > > > >
>
>--
>This message has been scanned for viruses and
>dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
>believed to be clean.
>MailScanner thanks transtec Computers for their support.
--
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.
MailScanner thanks transtec Computers for their support.
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?6.0.0.22.2.20060822132629.0263fc40>