FreeBSD 5.0 hard disk geometry problem at install
Jerry McAllister
jerrymc at clunix.cl.msu.edu
Tue Sep 2 05:48:06 PDT 2003
>
> I am attempting to install FreeBSD 5.0 (from a CD supplied with FreeBSD
> Unleashed, second edition - good book) onto my P4 system. The first
> drive is a 40Gb Fujitsu ATA-100 which Windows XP Pro is sitting on. The
> second disk is a 14Gb Western Digital ATA-66 which I intend to devote to
> FreeBSD if it ever wants to accept me as a host.
>
> However, Sysinstall says the probed reading of the geometry of ad0 is
> obviously wrong and sets it to something else. When I set it to what my
> BIOS says [19623/16/255], it tells me this is obviously wrong too. When
> I tell it what pfdisk reports it as [4981/254/63], sysinstall is happy
> with the values and carries on. The installation seems to go fine, but
> when I try to boot my machine, Boot Manager offers me:
Read the handbook about disk geometries. They are not what they
seem on "modern" disks with "modern" controllers.
////jerry
>
> F1: ??
> F5: disk 1
>
> If I hit F5 I am offered
>
> F1: disk 0
> F5: freebsd
>
> I hit F5 and then get a boot: prompt from FreeBSD telling me that
> /boot/loader and /kernel are not available.
>
> Sometimes a bad install like this will kill XP's ability to load
> properly. I got right up to the login screen before XP froze, the first
> time. But booting the XP installation CD and running fixmbr (?) to reset
> the MBR, then going all through the install seems to restore XP without
> loss of personal files. Other times, selecting ?? at the Boot Manager
> will allow Windows XP to run perfectly fine. (I'm doing so now.)
>
> So I don't know what to try next. I even swapped the IDE cables around
> in my box because originally the HDDs were on the secondary channel, but
> I still get the same problem, so that cannot have been the cause.
>
> Any suggestions? I've already ordered new hardware to dedicate to
> FreeBSD, and I'm dreading getting the same problem there.
> ---
> Bob
More information about the freebsd-bugs
mailing list