Help!
Charlie Sorsby
crs at swcp.com
Mon Mar 28 12:46:06 PST 2005
I seem to have shot myself in the foot by trying to provide
*enough* information about both my system and what I'd tried to do
and what the results were. I've apparently buried the problem in
detail. Can't win.... :{
A few prefatory remarks so that we're talking more or less the same
language:
I should also have mentioned but did not that I'm essentially
totally ignorant about things microsoft -- explaining freeBSD
things in microsoft terms will only confuse me.
And that nothing microsoft remains on any of my disks.
And that when I say "partition" I mean a Unix partition; if I want
to refer to a "slice," that's what I'll say.
And now:
Since I seem to have buried everyone in detail, please let me
summarize the actual problem here with some background and then
address a few of the issues you raise. I'll also leave the details
at the end for anyone who wants to look.
The problem is that:
1. I'm trying to install the newer version of freeBSD on a
separate disk. 3.4 is on a different disk. /home is on another.
And leftovers from 2.1.5 (mostly /usr and /usr/local is on still
another. (Which is which is described below in the discription
of my hardware.)
2. I had, back in December, tried to install 4.5 on the subject
disk. That installation was from the Walnut Creek CDROM that I'd
received when I still subscribed.
3. The 4.5 installation seemed to work but when trying to boot
from it, I found that the partitions mounted on, e.g., /usr were
those of the disk containing 3.4, not those on that (supposedly)
containing 4.5. (I had provided other mount points for those
partitions in the disklabel phase (e.g. /usr.34); /usr *should*
have been a mount point on the disk to which I had attempted to
install 4.5. After a couple of attempts with the same results,
I put it on the back burner.
4. In looking through my notes from that abortive attempt, I find
the error message:
Unable to add /mnt/dev/da3s1b as a swap device: Invalid
Argurment.
5. It did the same thing this time. I'm thinking that maybe that is
key to the current problem.
Is there a limit to the number of swap partitions one can use? I
have one on each disk; this one would have been the fourth.
Can that be the reason that it tried to fetch everything into some
root partition? This is my first attempt at an ftp install so I'm
unfamiliar with what it actually tries to do. Do I remember
correctly that the swap partition is used for temporary storage
during installation?
6. The last time it seemed to have "thought" that it had successfully
installed; it just didn't work. This time it just tried to fetch
everything into the root partition -- *some* root partition -- and
ran out of space. That makes a certain amount of sense because
last time, everything was available to it on CDROM; this time it
was not.
Aside (regarding failure to boot from CDROM drive):
I discovered at that time that the system with the Intel m'board
will *not* boot from the CDROM drive although its predecessor with
the same hardware except a different m'board did reliably. I have
found no BIOS setting that will allow the system to do so.
One thought occurs to me but is not relevant to this discussion
since I've simply created the boot floppies and boot into the
installation from them.
That thought is that, when the old m'board died, by the time I got
the replacement, I'd forgotten the order that the two SCSI host
adapters had been in the PCI slots and interchanged them. Perhaps
the Adaptec (to which the CDROM drive) is connected, should be the
second of the two so that it's the one set up last.
Now to the points that Bob raised:
> Use your 3.4 FreeBSD system or a win system to download the mini.iso
> file for 4.11 and then burn it to cd.
As mentioned in my original post but possibly not made clear
enough, my system has a CDROM drive; not a CD-R or CD-RW drive.
> Boot your box from the 4.11 mini newly created cd and
I also mentioned that this system will not boot from the CDROM
although its predecessor did with the same drive. I haven't been
able to discover why.
> accept the default slice sizes,
I just used the entire disk as a freeBSD slice. Or tried to. As I
recall there was a small piece at the end that was marked unused.
> select not
> to install the ports collection. The ports collection is over 3000
> strong now and some are variations of same base port. You are being
> foolish to select all ports as that is unnecessary and a gross waist
> of disk space. After base install is complete then select the ports
> you want and install separately.
OK, point taken. But the problem is that I never got that far
other than answering the initial question about whether I wanted to
install the ports.
When it gets to the actual ports-installation phase, does it not
install them in /usr/ports after the OS has been installed and
configured?
> You are way back level and there has been great changes in the
> system and the sysinstall process. Read and follow this Install
> guide for step by step instructions for 4.11 release as it's the
> same as 4.10.
>
> http://freebsd.packards-home.net/index.php
Thanks, I'll take a look. I'm afraid that INSTALL.TXT, as fetched
from freebsd.org, by trying to be all things to all people turns
out to be less to anyone -- at least to anyone not already very
familiar with the procedure. I hope that this comment will be
taken as the constructive criticism it is intended to be.
The problem, as I see it, is that because it tries to describe
every possible approach, it is necessary to jump round in the
document to find the bits than any describe any one installation.
That also makes it quite large to print out.
> Yes FreeBSD CAN be installed on the fourth of four SCSI disk drives
> on the second of two SCSI cards,
Thank you! I thought that that should be so but was beginning to
have doubts.
> but if you have other operating
> systems on those other disks you will have to manual update the MBR
> (master boot record) multi boot program on the HD the PC bios point
> to for selecting which operating system you want to boot from.
Are you saying that simply allowing the installer program to
install the boot manager on *all* disks is not enough?
Thank you for taking the time to help.
Charlie
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org]On Behalf Of Charlie
> Sorsby
> Sent: Sunday, March 27, 2005 5:51 PM
> To: questions at freebsd.org
> Subject: Help!
>
> Every time I turn round, someone is telling me that I should update
> to a more recent version of freeBSD. Each time I try, I encounter
> nothing but trouble.
>
> Before I even begin: *CAN* freeBSD be installed on the fourth of
> four SCSI disk drives on the second of two SCSI cards?
>
> I know of no way to record the error messages other than with
> pencil and paper -- not a very efficient method in this computer
> age, especially when one is in the throes of frustration.
>
> I tried some time ago, updating to 4.5, the latest version for
> which I have a CDROM. When I encountered problems and queried this
> list, I received a message to the effect that the installer should
> quit working after X years. Perhaps that was tongue in cheek but
> it was singularly unhelpful.
>
> So, I continued to use 3.4 which, aside from the fact that I can't
> add anything new or update any ports or ... has stood me in good
> stead for years.
>
> Finally getting tired of using netscape 4.76 -- I've been
> unsuccessful
> at finding any "modern" browser that I can install under 3.4 --
> and having it crashed by "modern" web sites, I decided to try again.
> I fetched the floppy images for 4.11 -- I have no interest in 5.x,
> 4.x is far enough removed from real BSD that I wouldn't go that
> route it I had a choice.
>
> Busy with other things, I finally got round to trying an ftp
> install today.
>
> Before I proceed, I suppose that I'd best tell you what my system
> comprises:
>
> M'board: Intel D845WN
>
> CPU: P4, 2.4GHz, 478, 512K, 400MHz FSB
>
> Memory: Crucial 512MB, 168-pin, DIMM 64Mx64, PC133 SDRAM
>
> Case: Antec Sonata with Antec "TruePower" supply.
>
> SCSI cards (presently, the Adaptec is in the PCI slot closer to the
> CPU):
> Adaptec 2940
> Tekram DC-390U2W
>
> Ethernet; Intel PRO100S
>
> Disk drives (The first three are on the 2940, the fourth on the
> Tekram):
> IBM DORS-32160 WA0A, 2GB (from original system,
> with leftover freeBSD 2.1.5 stuff,
> no longer bootable.)
> Seagate ST34501N 0015, 4GB (with freeBSD 3.4)
> Seagate ST39216N 0010, 9GB (/home -- no OS)
> Seagate ST318517W 0105, 18GB (on which I tried
> to install 4.5 before and 4.11 today.
>
> CDROM drive: Plextor (don't recall specs.)
>
> Video card: Matrox Millennium G400, AGP4X, 32MB SGRAM
>
> Oh -- FWIW, I'm also running XFree86 4.1.0 although that should not
> be relevant to the installation problem but, like the feller says,
> for the sake of completeness...
>
> (I'll append -- at the end of this message -- dmesg from latest
> boot after unsuccessful installation to cover anything that I've
> forgotten. This system has simply evolved over the years.)
>
> I hope I won't forget any parts of this; I had to get back to 3.4
> in order to be able to do this e-mail. I got through the fdisk
> and disklabel (re)configuration of the fourth disk onto which I
> planned to install freeBSD 4.11 (having selected "Standard Install")
>
> Here's what I tried to set up as (Unix) partitions (remember this
> is on the 18GB drive):
>
> / 128MB # Thought this should be more than
> enough
> swap 512MB
> /usr 4196MB
> /var 512MB
> /usr/local 4196MB
> /tmp 512MB
> /spare # Everything else -- to be disposed of later.
>
> I then proceeded to choose the installation "package" or whatever
> it's called -- I chose "ALL" and then replied yes to the query
> about installing the ports collection.
>
> I believe that the next query was the choice of installation medium;
> I chose (the first) ftp and the first (ftp.freebsd.org?) server in
> the list and fetching the bits and pieces began.
>
> Within a very few minutes, the installer complained that it had run
> out of space on / -- why it would have tried to fetch everything to
> the root partition is beyond me but that's what it said. Oh --
> there was one previous complaint about not being able to create a
> swap partition that I'd requested as partition b. I don't
> understand that, either.
>
> Aside (just in case it may be relevant): Recently, I've not been
> able to boot the CDROM. I had no reason to try when I rebuilt the
> system some time ago with the Intel m'board and Antec case. I
> first noticed it some time ago when I tried to install 4.5. I had
> never had a problem with the old Gigabyte m'board system. As I
> said, I don't know if this is relevant but thought I'd better
> mention it just in case.
>
> Here's the dmesg output:
>
> Copyright (c) 1992-1999 FreeBSD Inc.
> Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
> The Regents of the University of California. All rights
> reserved.
> FreeBSD 3.4-RELEASE #6: Tue Jun 29 08:43:56 MDT 2004
> root at quail.sorsby.org:/usr/src/sys/compile/KERNEL.CRS
> Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz
> Timecounter "TSC" frequency 2392250892 Hz
> CPU: unknown (2392.25-MHz 686-class CPU)
> Origin = "GenuineIntel" Id = 0xf27 Stepping = 7
>
> Features=0xbfebfbff<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR
> ,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,<b19>,<b21>,<b22>,MMX,FXSR,<b25>,<b26>,<b27>
> ,<b28>,<b29>,<b31>>
> real memory = 536870912 (524288K bytes)
> config> di wdc1
> config> di wdc0
> config> q
> avail memory = 519696384 (507516K bytes)
> Preloaded elf kernel "kernel" at 0xc02e4000.
> Preloaded userconfig_script "/boot/kernel.conf" at 0xc02e409c.
> Probing for devices on PCI bus 0:
> chip0: <Host to PCI bridge (vendor=8086 device=1a30)> rev 0x03 on
> pci0.0.0
> chip1: <PCI to PCI bridge (vendor=8086 device=1a31)> rev 0x03 on
> pci0.1.0
> chip2: <PCI to PCI bridge (vendor=8086 device=244e)> rev 0x05 on
> pci0.30.0
> chip3: <PCI to ISA bridge (vendor=8086 device=2440)> rev 0x05 on
> pci0.31.0
> uhci0: <UHCI USB Controller (generic)> rev 0x05 int d irq 11 on
> pci0.31.2
> (New UHCI DeviceId=0x24428086)
> uhci1: <UHCI USB Controller (generic)> rev 0x05 int c irq 11 on
> pci0.31.4
> (New UHCI DeviceId=0x24448086)
> Probing for devices on PCI bus 1:
> vga0: <Matrox model 0525 graphics accelerator> rev 0x04 int a irq 11
> on pci1.0.0
> Probing for devices on PCI bus 2:
> ahc0: <Adaptec 2940 SCSI adapter> rev 0x00 int a irq 9 on pci2.10.0
> ahc0: aic7870 Single Channel A, SCSI Id=7, 16/255 SCBs
> ncr0: <ncr 53c895 fast40 wide scsi> rev 0x01 int a irq 11 on
> pci2.11.0
> fxp0: <Intel EtherExpress Pro 10/100B Ethernet> rev 0x0c int a irq
> 10 on pci2.12.0
> fxp0: Ethernet address 00:02:b3:eb:02:ba
> Probing for PnP devices:
> Probing for devices on the ISA bus:
> sc0 on isa
> sc0: VGA color <16 virtual consoles, flags=0x0>
> atkbdc0 at 0x60-0x6f on motherboard
> atkbd0 irq 1 on isa
> psm0 irq 12 on isa
> psm0: model Generic PS/2 mouse, device ID 0
> sio0 at 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0x10 on isa
> sio0: type 16550A
> sio1 at 0x2f8-0x2ff irq 3 on isa
> sio1: type 16550A
> fdc0 at 0x3f0-0x3f7 irq 6 drq 2 on isa
> fdc0: FIFO enabled, 8 bytes threshold
> fd0: 1.44MB 3.5in
> ppc0 at 0x378 irq 7 flags 0x40 on isa
> ppc0: Generic chipset (EPP/NIBBLE) in COMPATIBLE mode
> ppb0: IEEE1284 device found /NIBBLE/ECP
> Probing for PnP devices on ppbus0:
> ppbus0: <hp deskjet 5550> PRINTER MLC,PCL,PML,DW-PCL,DYN,DESKJET
> lpt0: <generic printer> on ppbus 0
> lpt0: Interrupt-driven port
> ppi0: <generic parallel i/o> on ppbus 0
> plip0: <PLIP network interface> on ppbus 0
> vga0 at 0x3b0-0x3df maddr 0xa0000 msize 131072 on isa
> npx0 on motherboard
> npx0: INT 16 interface
> usb0: <UHCI USB Controller (generic)>
> uhub0 at usb0
> uhub0: Intel UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
> uhub0: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
> usb1: <UHCI USB Controller (generic)>
> uhub1 at usb1
> uhub1: Intel UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
> uhub1: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
> uhub1: device problem, disabling port 2
> Waiting 15 seconds for SCSI devices to settle
> changing root device to da1s1a
> da3 at ncr0 bus 0 target 0 lun 0
> da3: <SEAGATE ST318417W 0105> Fixed Direct Access SCSI-3 device
> da3: 40.000MB/s transfers (20.000MHz, offset 31, 16bit), Tagged
> Queueing Enabled
> da3: 17547MB (35937500 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 2237C)
> da2 at ahc0 bus 0 target 5 lun 0
> da2: <SEAGATE ST39216N 0010> Fixed Direct Access SCSI-3 device
> da2: 10.000MB/s transfers (10.000MHz, offset 15), Tagged Queueing
> Enabled
> da2: 8761MB (17942584 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 1116C)
> cd0 at ahc0 bus 0 target 1 lun 0
> cd0: <PLEXTOR CD-ROM PX-32TS 1.03> Removable CD-ROM SCSI-2 device
> cd0: 10.000MB/s transfers (10.000MHz, offset 15)
> cd0: Attempt to query device size failed: NOT READY, Medium not
> present
> da1 at ahc0 bus 0 target 2 lun 0
> da1: <SEAGATE ST34501N 0015> Fixed Direct Access SCSI-2 device
> da1: 10.000MB/s transfers (10.000MHz, offset 15), Tagged Queueing
> Enabled
> da1: 4339MB (8887200 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 553C)
> da0 at ahc0 bus 0 target 0 lun 0
> da0: <IBM DORS-32160 WA0A> Fixed Direct Access SCSI-2 device
> da0: 10.000MB/s transfers (10.000MHz, offset 15), Tagged Queueing
> Enabled
> da0: 2063MB (4226725 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 263C)
>
>
> Thank you for any help you may be able to provide.
>
> Kindest regards,
>
> Charlie
> --
> Charlie Sorsby
> crs at swcp.com
> P. O. Box 1225
> Edgewood, NM 87015
> USA
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