IBM A20m

[Jason Reynolds]

To Whom It May Concern:
 
For the love of God - PLEASE help me I'm going completely INSANE!
I have installed FreeBSD ver.5.3 (using FTP, I downloaded i386-bootONLY.iso, and i386-ver5.3.iso) onto my IBM A20m laptop. After using the boot CD, I installed FreeBSD using the Wizard-like interface, I included ALL of the available options (this may have sealed my fate).  Anywhoo, everything appeared to be going fine, no errors, no warnings, then I came to reboot to complete the installation, I get the IBM screen (the one that tells you what BIOS version you have and what it is loading) this is what it says:
 
IBM ThinkPad BIOS 4.0 Release 6.0.U
Copyright 1985-1999 Phoenix Technologies Ltd.
All Rights Reserved
640K System RAM Passed
127M Extended RAM Passed
256K Cache SRAM Passed
System BIOS shadowed
Video BIOS shadowed
UMB upper limit segment address: I3P9
Mouse initalized
Fixed Disk 0: HITACHI_
ATAPI CD-ROM: CD-2243
 
Press <F1> to enter SETUP
Press <F12> to choose temporary boot device
 
and thats it, after this screen it flashes a little, and goes blank.  I have tried every function key, combined with every other key (FUNCT key, Alt key, Ctrl key, Backspace) you name it. I cannot enter setup, or view anything.  I even tried using a desktop monitor, removed the hard drive and attempted to attach it to one of my desktop drive bays, it wouldn't fit using any of my existing CD, CD/RW and floppy plug-ins, although it did look like the pin patterns were the same, I didn't want to force anything.  I looked all over the web, there seems to be a very serious compatibility issue with the A20m, as described here:
 

A bug in early revisions of IBM’s BIOS on these machines mistakenly identifies the FreeBSD partition as a potential

FAT suspend-to-disk partition. When the BIOS tries to parse the FreeBSD partition it hangs.

I downloaded this http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4JWNTQ driver and followed the instructions, the screen is still blank, but I can hear the floppy drive working.  So before I spend $$ on a new motherboard, or a "parts" laptop, can you think of another solution for me.  I just wanted to try out FreeBSD.  Show me some love.

Jason

 
 
 
 
  

		
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