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Date:      Wed, 30 Aug 1995 12:48:47 -0700 (PDT)
From:      Julian Elischer <julian@ref.tfs.com>
To:        partek@iquest.net
Cc:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: FreeBSD and the Promise 2300+ EIDE controller
Message-ID:  <199508301948.MAA00372@ref.tfs.com>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.3.91.950830140317.5069A-100000@system1.indecent.com> from "David Anderson" at Aug 30, 95 02:08:53 pm

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> 
> (Please send replies to partek@iquest.net)
done
> 
> After using Linux for 4 months, and learning more about FreeBSD, I 
> decided to give it a try. (The main thing that convinced me was the 
> kernel configure that's almost identical to SunOS 4.1.3)
> I tried 5 times yesterday to install FreeBSD 2.1.0-950726-SNAP. Each time
> the install over FTP went fine,(even though it took forever over my 28.8k
> modem) but when it came to booting the system from the HD, it would lock
> up looking something like this: 
> 
> ------------- 
> >> FreeBSD [Stuff I don't remember deleted]
> 
> Boot:
> |
> --------------
> 
> Then the computer was completely frozen. I was told on #FreeBSD that the
> problem sounded like it originated with my hard drive controller. I've
> tried every setting, and every configuration on the controller and it
> still did the same exact thing when trying to boot from the HD.. Is this
> controller just incompatable with FreeBSD, or am I doing something
> horribly wrong? I tried setting it up with the boot manager AND the
> standard MBR also.. 

well the boot uses the BIOS to do it's work, so it's unlikely that it
was unable to read anything...
The bios got that far; it's unlikely to fail at that point..

possibilities..
your BIOS might use some non-standard memory location (e.g. just below 640K)
that might be getting over-written in the boot.. (unlikely as we
have cleared up most of those problems)

the MBR (block 0) might have inconsistant data in it..

the disklabel might be incorrect

> 
> Also, when installing I ran into another problem. When sysinstall went to 
> write the fdisk info to wd0, it would crash saying something like this:
> ------
> sysinstall: read input/output error
> panic: running away without my init!
> ------
> It then would force a reboot.
> I don't know what caused it, but if I erased the partition table and 
> started over, it seemed to work. Could this be related to the HDC too?
> 
> I refuse to go out and spend $80+ on a new EIDE controller, so I'm 
> willing to help out in any way I can on getting this to work. 
from the install, if you do it a second time,
does it find the partitions etc, from the previous attempt?
(it won't know where to mount them, but it should at least find them..)

> 
> (Please send any replies to partek@iquest.net)
> 
> 




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