Subject: Re: Can't boot from NetBSD-1.4.2 Release CD.
To: None <wqiu@webcombo.net>
From: Steven M. Bellovin <smb@research.att.com>
List: port-i386
Date: 05/12/2000 14:28:24
In message <200005121813.NAA02404@erato.webcombo.net>, wqiu@webcombo.net writes
:
>I set the HD to "NONE" in CMOS setting and it let me boot 
>from the NetBSD CD. Then I "exit" from the NetBSD 
>sysinstall. When I did "fdisk -i wd0", I got error message 
>"fdisk: /dev/rwd0d: Device not configured"( I have only one 
>HD). When I did "shutdown -r now" and tried to reboot from 
>the CD, I got "Read err" and dead machine again even I did 
>not add HD back in CMOS yet.
>
>I guess the "corrupted MBR" is the right direction to work 
>at, we just have not got it right yet. Fredrick, could you 
>give me some tips on how to "zero out the corrupted boot 
>sector"?

The problem, I think, is that you told the BIOS you have no hard drive.
The right thing is to say, instead, that you want to boot preferentially 
from the CD-ROM before the hard drive.  Failing that, make a boot floppy
and boot from it instead.

		--Steve Bellovin