On Fri, Jun 20, 2003 at 10:27:05AM +0300, fulcrum@mbnet.fi wrote:
> I've got this old Compaq Presario 7220 from a friend of mine, and I was 
> supposed to install NetBSD on it. The problem is that it won't install. 
> The installation stops in the following message, when newfs is about to 
> create the partitions;
> 
> === clip ===
> wd0: no disk, Failed: command failed
> Command: /sbin/newfs /dev/rwd0a
> 
> newfs: /dev/rwd0a: open for read: Device not configured
> === clap ===

Hum, this could be that disklabel failed to create the partitions. What does
fdisk and disklabel says ?

> 
> I have been trying different methods, but none of them seem to work. 
> E.g. I installed and tested NetBSD on another computer successfully, 
> then put the working harddrive in the Compaq with no success (kernel 
> was loaded, but the boot process stopped saying it couldn't read 
> root-filesystem).

This is, however, strange. What is the exact error message ?

> 
> My theory is that Compaq protects some part of the harddrive (MBR?) 
> where it stores its information (this computer is one of those with no 
> real BIOS). Windows/DOS/Linux are however installed correctly.

What's your disk layout ? It's possible that the BIOS reserve some space
(probably at end of disk) for deep sleep.

-- 
Manuel Bouyer <bouyer@antioche.eu.org>
     NetBSD: 24 ans d'experience feront toujours la difference
--