Urgent FreeBSD Boot question! -- Almost there!

[Kevin Oberman]

> Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 18:43:04 -0600
> From: Benjamin Sher <delphi123 at zebra.net>
> 
> Dear Kevin:
> 
> You sure know your stuff, Kevin. No question about it. I am almost 
> there. The only problem is that when I boot up to the new FreeBSD system 
> (CD unselected and hardrive selected in boot sequence), I get a kind of 
> login that says:
> 
> FreeBS/i386 boot
> Default: 1: ad (1,a) default
> No /boot/kernel/kernel
> 
> Then
> 
> Default: 1: ad(1,a)/ boot/kernel/kernel
> boot: default No default
> 
> There are no root hash marks or whatever. It's just as it appears above.
> 
> What does this mean, please?
> 
> By the way, I checked my Windows. Everything is fine.

Lots of folks know this stuff a lot better than I do.

Let me get this clear. You start the boot and get the:
F1  DOS
F5  Drive 1

Default: F1 

You press F5. Do you see this? Or the loader prompt noted in your message?
F1  FreeBSD
F5  Drive 0

Default: F1

The loader prompt is telling you that the loader is not finding your
kernel. Did you transcribe the second message exactly? Is there really a
space after the first slash?

Default: 1: ad(1,a)/ boot/kernel/kernel
or is it really
Default: 1:ad(1,a)/boot/kernel/kernel

Try entering:
1:ad(1,a)/boot/loader

This is what SHOULD be the default.

I fear that something in your FreeBSD installation is broken, but I am
not sure what.

I am going off-line for the night, so I won't see any further messages
until tomorrow morning. 

By the way, the date on your messages are wrong.
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 18:43:04 -0600 (16:43 PST)
PST is -0800, not -0600.  I received the message at 15:40:50 -0800 (PST).
-- 
R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)
Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
E-mail: oberman at es.net			Phone: +1 510 486-8634