Date: Sun, 30 May 1999 13:43:44 +0200 From: Kent Boortz <kent@erlang.ericsson.se> To: questions@freebsd.org Cc: kent@erlang.ericsson.se Subject: Some FAQ's..... Message-ID: <19990530134344Q.kent@erlang.ericsson.se>
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...or maybe not FAQ's but things that I spent hours to find out.
Could someone please correct the text below and maybe add it to the FAQ?
I'm sure it would save others time too.
/kgb
Q: I have one IDE disk as the boot disk and one SCSI disk with FreeBSD and
get "panic cannot mount root"?
The boot process (XXX: or who is confused?) gets confused by the fact
that you are mixing IDE and SCSI disks. This message comes as an
surprice because much of the boot is already done and why suddenly
fail to find the disk? The reason is that the boot manager and the
kernel finds the disk differently.
Manually you can do one of
Bypass the BTX boot by hitting space when the spinning \ | / -
shows up and type in
1:da(0,a)/kernel
Hit space when the BTX boot is starting and type
set root_disk_unit=0
boot
(XXX: I expected "set num_ide_disks=1" to work but it didn't)
To make this permanent you can put "1:da(0,a)/kernel" into
"/boot.config" or "set root_disk_unit=0" into "/boot/loader.rc"
(XXX: is this 3.X only?)
(XXX: Is the file renamed "/boot/loader.config" in later releases?)
Q: What boot manager *should* I use?
It depends. If we look at the free versions they all have limitations
boot0 Can't boot FreeBSD or any operating system that starts
above cylinder XXXX. Require more than one block
that in very rare occasions interfere with some
operating systems. (XXX: Why is this one better than
the old BootEasy?) (XXX: Add note that this is the
boot manager that ships with FreeBSD 3.X and up?)
(XXX: where to find it?)
BootEasy Can't boot FreeBSD or any operating system that starts
above cylinder XXXX. (XXX: Add note that this was the
boot manager that shiped with FreeBSD 2.X and below?)
(XXX: where to find it?)
OSBS 1.35 Can't handle multiple disks. Require more than one block
that in very rare occasions interfere with some
operating systems. This boot manager can be found in
the "tools" directory of the FreeBSD distribution.
OSBS Beta Can handle multiple disks. But note that
this is a beta version that never will go non beta.
Require more than one block
that in very rare occasions interfere with some
operating systems. This boot manager can be found in
the "tools" directory of the FreeBSD distribution.
LILO Linux boot loader. Require partition to put
some data on (XXX True? FAT16? ext2?)
(XXX: What can it do?) (XXX: where to find it?)
(XXX: Are there more free alternatives?)
Before you add any of these make sure you save the old MBR so if
something fails you can go back and access the disk as before.
This is often a function built into the boot manager installation
program or you can use (XXX: what?). You restore them (XXX How?)
(XXX: Maybe adding notes about how to install and administer them.
Can they be installed/administered from DOS and/or FreeBSD? Why not
install from Windows? Boot block Virus protection?)
(XXX References to man pages, other FAQ's, handbook etc....)
(XXX Some boot managers require that there are one boot manager on
each disk???)
(XXX If someone could clearify this mess with boot managers on
master boot block and sometimes on partition? How come one boot
manager sometimes pass on to the next?)
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