Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 07:07:34 +0800 From: "Joubert Uriarte" <xichrome@pacific.net.ph> To: <mm@i.cz>, <freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Booting Problems Message-ID: <000e01be01fe$95499120$c908a8c0@xichrome.asiansources.com>
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Martin,
Thank you very much for your reply and for helping me.
Yes, I couldn't agree with you more with these HP Vectra machines. I hate the HP
Vectra BIOS! Anyway, I tried what you suggested... it didn't work. Um... can I
clarify some items on your suggestion?
If I partition my hard disk using FreeBSD and I don't use the dedicated mode,
keeping it compatible with other operating systems, does it create the FDISK
table you are referring to?
Also, the operand 'size' in your dd command doesn't seem to be valid. I omitted
it since the default block size is 512 anyway. Do I perform the dd command
before or after I have installed FreeBSD?
Yes, I do get Missing Operating System when I install FreeBSD without using the
dedicated mode partition, but when I zeroed out the first sector, the computer
didn't want to boot at all -- not even with the floppy boot disk.
Incidentally, I erased the disk again using the DOS FDISK program and formatted
the drive to see if it would boot DOS at least. It did. When I re-installed
FreeBSD, the installation indicated an invalid geometry for the disk. FDISK for
DOS used the 2727 cylinders * 9 heads * 84 sectors geometry which according to
the hardware manual of the ST31200N is correct, but FreeBSD claims that the
valid geometry is 128 cylinders, etc. (sorry, I can't remember the rest)
* sigh * =8(
Thanks... I hope you can help me further.
Joubert
-----Original Message-----
From: Martin Machacek <mm@i.cz>
To: Joubert Uriarte <xichrome@pacific.net.ph>; freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG
<freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG>
Date: Tuesday, October 27, 1998 7:47 PM
Subject: RE: Booting Problems
On 27-Oct-98 Joubert Uriarte wrote:
> I hope someone can help me with my installation of FreeBSD v.2.2.6. I don't
> have problems installing the OS at home, but the hardware configuration in
> the
> office is very different.
>
> The installation pushes through successfully, but after restarting the
> machine,
> I end up with an error message saying,
>
> Read Error
>
> HP Vectra VE Series 2 5/75 upgraded to Pentium-133 Mhz
Aha, Vectra! Those machines up to Series 8 are pure shit. I've been struggling
with them for about a month.
I assume that you are installing FreeBSD in the so called "dangerously"
dedicated mode i.e. without FDISK table, is that correct? This unfortunately
does not work with Vectras. Their BIOS is too smart (stupid?) and it tries to
read something from the disk assuming that there is a FDISK table. So, If
FreeBSD is the only OS on your disk, you have to create FDISK table with a
single partition spanning the entire disk (except for the FDISK tabel itself).
There is one more gotcha! Before doing this, you have to zero out at least the
first sector on the disk. Otherwise you will get 'Missing operatig system' next
time you try to boot from it (again - too clever BIOS). So, do something like:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/rsd0 size=512 count=10
(one sector should be enough, but zeroing is cheap, so why not to zero couple
more).
This should make your FreeBSD boot. It worked at least in my case, however I've
been trying it on Vectras Series 3 and 4 and I have no clue how much different
Series 2 Vectras are. There were some substantial differences between Series 3
and 4, so ...
Good luck!
Martin Machacek
---
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[phone: +420 2 24245124 fax: +420 2 24245125]
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