Failed installation of FreeBSD 5.4

[Milscvaer]

After trying unsuccessfully to boot FreeBSD 5.4
installed onto an existing filesystem that held 4.6,
but after the installation completing not being able
to get past the F1 FreeBSD prompt, I decided to wipe
out the filesystem and start with a new filesystem,
thinking this might be the problem! But after doing
that and installing it, it still wont boot!!! It just
sits there at the F1 FreeBSD prompt and makes a
beeping noise!

This sucks big time. There must be something wrong
with FreeBSD here, 4.6 **ran fine** on this computer,
and how 5.4 wont run at all!!! I tend to suspect
FreeBSD 5.x has introduced a lot of new bugs and
incompatabilities.

--- Milscvaer <millueradfa at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 
> 
> --- "Gary W. Swearingen" <garys at opusnet.com> wrote:
> 
> > Milscvaer <millueradfa at yahoo.com> writes:
> > 
> > > I would like to try to boot the system on the
> hard
> > > driv e from a floppy. Maybe there is something
> > wrong
> > > with the boot record on the HD. Does anyone know
> > if
> > > this is possible and how I can do that?
> > 
> > Sure, but you've left us in the dark as to what
> you
> > have to work with
> > there.  Do you have FreeBSD or some unixy OS on
> > another system or on a
> > "live CD"?  Or just a floppy "fixit"? Or what?  Do
> > you have enough
> > hard disk space to leave your /usr/home out of the
> > picture until you
> > get FreeBSD going on another part of the disk?
> > (Maybe after deleting
> > unneeded parts of /usr/home's filesystem.)
> > 
> 
> I am sorry, I should explain the situation a more
> clearly. I have already run the FreeBSD 5.4
> installation program, which seems to have completed
> successfully, to install FreeBSD on the hard drive.
> However, after I reboot the system after the
> installation program completes, I cannot boot
> FreeBSD
> from the F1 FreeBSD prompt. It just beeps when i
> press
> F1. I then booted into the fixit floppy, and it does
> appear that the FreeBSD system is there on the hard
> drive. Why I cannot boot the system I dont know. I
> thought it might be a boot record problem, so I
> wondered if I could use a floppy disk with a boot
> loader on it, which could then be used to start the
> system on the hard disk.
> 
> I thought the install program would replace the boot
> records, in fdisk  I have marked the partition
> active,
> and it prompted me to install the boot loader. I
> have
> several times gone into fdisk to try to get the boot
> records replaced.
> 
> I tried using one of the boot floppies used to start
> the freebsd install, (kern1.flp), which if I boot
> off
> of that I get what appears to be a boot2 (boot:)
> prompt where I can type ad(0,a)/boot/kernel/kernel,
> to
> boot the FreeBSD system i have on the hard disk,
> however after doing so a lot of numbers and
> gibberish
> appear on the screen with the message "BTX Halted". 
> 
> I do have a fixit floppy so I can try to get in
> there
> and do some more things to fix this.
> 
> > Anyway, if you can run a FreeBSD off a fixit or
> live
> > CD somehow, you
> > can "bsdlabel" to put /boot/boot = boot+boot2 on a
> > floppy so you
> > should be able to get a "boot2" prompt (the one
> > before the "loader"
> > prompt) and try to boot your 5.4 from there.  Or
> you
> > could try using
> > "fdisk" and "boot0cfg" and "bsdlabel" to put new
> > boot records (MBR,
> > boot1, and boot2) on a floppy or on your hard
> disk,
> > too.
> > 
> > If you can DL and burn a CD, get yourself a "live
> > CD" or CD-based
> > "fixit", else try to find room on your HD for a
> > fresh minimal FreeBSD
> > install, else get an old HD and install fresh to
> > that.  Another thing
> > you could try is getting a Grub floppy off the
> > Internet and try
> > booting from the Grub command line.
> > 
> > I suppose that your problem is related to the fact
> > that your "upgrade"
> > is reusing your old partition(s) and maybe old
> boot
> > records.
> > 
> > BTW, if you can keep your /usr/home out of the
> > picture and then copy
> > it to your new system, you can end up with nice
> new
> > UFS2 filesystems.
> > 
> > BTW, if that's your only copy of /usr/home, you
> > probably shouldn't be
> > trying to install a new OS on the disk anyway. 
> You
> > should be able to
> > find another HD for a small FreeBSD (or a copy of
> > /usr/home) for VERY
> > little money these days.
> > 
> 
> 
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