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


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