Boot problem

[mike bueide]

On Wed, Nov 12, 2003 at 12:26:39PM -0600, RonMcCy wrote:
> Kent Oxley wrote:
> 
> >Hello all,
> >
> >Over the past two months I have been tinkering with various flavors of 
> >Linux and last week I decided to try FreeBSD.  [Yes, I know it isn't 
> >Linux]
> >
> >I installed FreeBSD last night for the second time on a Dell Dimension 
> >but when I restarted, the computer goes into a continual boot-loop and 
> >won't go past the "F1 Default" message before it restarts.  This 
> >problem occurred the first time I installed it also.
> >
> >While I have years of MS-DOS, Mac, and Windows experience, I'm new to 
> >Unix/Linux and don't know where to start troubleshooting this issue.
> >
> >Thanks for your help.
> >
> >Kent
>
> I'm new to FreeBSD as well but have installed it on 4 computers here at 
> work using 4.4 and 4.8. What version are you using? Is it sharring the 
> hard drive with another OS? The installer asks you to specify what type 
> of boot loader you'd like......which did you choose?  I sort of remember 
> what you are describing on one of my installs but can't remember how I 
> got around it....just tried again and it worked.  The FreeBSD installer 
> is very friendly for being text based and all.
> 
I think I had this problem when I first started
also.  Make sure that freebsd gets installed in
the ad0s2 slice (if using ide.)  It will not boot
otherwise.  At least it didn't for me.