Subject: Re: Bootloader Failure
To: Patrick Lougheed <port-i386@netbsd.org>
From: Andrew Gillham <gillham@vaultron.com>
List: port-i386
Date: 03/23/2001 15:01:20
Make sure the geometry you are using is the same as the BIOS, or
DOS would use.  If you have a DOS floppy, make a small partition
with fdisk, then boot the NetBSD CD and run fdisk, and examine the
output.  Something like '1024 cylinders, 255 heads, and 63 sectors'
might be used.  Or 1024/32/63, etc.

-Andrew
----- Original Message -----
From: "Patrick Lougheed" <lougheed@techbc.ca>
To: <port-i386@netbsd.org>
Sent: Friday, March 23, 2001 2:27 PM
Subject: Bootloader Failure


> We're having a small problem, and for the life of us we can't figure out
why
> it's happening...
>
> We're currently using NetBSD on several systems, including a Mac and a
> couple of i386 machines with IDE drives. This time we're trying to install
> it on several i386 machines that have Ultra/160 SCSI drives as the only
> drives in the system.
>
> The install goes fine, and the bootselector is loaded into the MBR - gives
> no errors. As soon as you reboot, the bootselector gives the following
> output:
>
> F4 bsd
>
> and a countdown. There's only one OS setup in the bootselector. As the
> countdown ends, the output changes to:
>
> F4 bsd
> 3
>
> (3 being the partition number NetBSD is installed on by sysinst) and the
> system hangs.
>
> This setup works fine on the IDE drives, but blows up on the U160 drives.
>
> Does anyone have any knowledge about why this might happen? The machines
> aren't critical (they're test machines at this point) but it would be nice
> to know why it's happening.
>
> A little more info:
>
> OS: NetBSD 1.5 and i386 snapshot 20010206
> Controller: Adaptec AHA-29160 and AIC-7899
> Drives: Quantum Atlas2 18G and Seagate Cheetah 36G
>
> Any light that can be shed on this would be greatly appreciated =)
>
> Thanks,
>
> Pat Lougheed
> Network Services
> Technical University of BC
>