Trouble installing FreeBSD on a Dell Precision 210?

[Gerard Seibert]

Derek Ragona wrote:

> If you have nothing of value on the hard drive, I would suggest low-level 
> formatting the drive, then verify the boot order is CD first.
> 
>          -Derek
> 
> 
> At 04:22 PM 5/26/2006, Jason Curole wrote:
> >Hello all,
> >
> >I am a newbie to FreeBSD, though I currently use Mac OS X and am
> >reasonably comfortable with the unix side.  I am trying to install
> >FreeBSD on a Dell Precision 210 machine (scrounged it up recently and
> >it has a huge hard drive, otherwise I don't know much about it).  I
> >have tried installation with FreeBSD Release 6.0 and 6.1 (both the
> >full cd and boot-only cd for 6.0; just the boot-only cd for 6.1).
> >The machine boots and I get to the screen where I can select my boot
> >option.  I select 5, (boot with detailed messaging) and the machine
> >goes through some SMAP messages, a couple of Copyrights and a Free- BSD 
> >claimer with an email address.  It pauses here for a good
> >10-15min.  Then I get messages regarding preloading of "elf kernel",
> >"mfs_root" and "elf module", followed by tables 'FACP' and 'APIC',
> >"MADT: Found table at ...", "APIC: Using the MADT enumerator", then:
> >
> >MADT: Found CPU APIC ID 0 ACPI ID 1: enabled
> >MADT: Found CPU APIC ID 1 ACPI ID 2: disabled
> >
> >It has remained at this point for at least a half-hour (through
> >lunch, etc.), no lights flashing and does not respond to the enter
> >key.  Is this normal?  I should mention that between the attempt at
> >installing 6.0 (about 4 weeks ago) and 6.1 I had installed OpenBSD
> >and it appeared to install and work fine, so I think the machine is
> >okay.
> >
> >Jason

I did not think it was possible to low level format a modern HD.


-- 
Gerard Seibert
gerard at seibercom.net


"Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."

     Anonymous