PC-BSD 1.5.1 fails to install

[archp2008]

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Hello,

I have a system with two SATA2 drives and one IDE drive. I have taken an interest in multibooting over the past few months and now have Windows Versions as well as Ubuntu Feisty Fawn. Today I thought I would have a look at a Unix based system. I downloaded and burned PC-BSD version 1.5.1 Each time I boot the disk it reports, "Attempt to query device size failed. Not ready. Medium not present." After 3 tries it reboots and finally when it reaches this point in the boot process, it goes through the same failed attemts and reboots again. Any suggestions as to the possible cause would be much appreciated.

[Dazhelpwiz]

are you booting with acpi?, if so, try option 2, acpi disabled.

[archp2008]

Thanks for the reply. Although it still tried several times at "acd1:attempt to query, etc." and then "acd: failure." It did not restart, though, as it did previously but now I got to the boot screen and proceeded toward the install screen. I had been hoping to install it on a 50 gb partition on a 320 gb SATA2 hard drive. It listed two other 40 gb "drives." I forget the terminology it used. They were referred to as "remote" or "usb" or something like that, but I don't think they had to do with that drive, possibly the IDE drive, I'm not sure I am using another 50 gb partition for Vista64 and the rest of the drive for a backup image of the primary SATA2 hard drive. Unfortunately, the software only sees the whole drive as though it was a single partition (305 gb) I have no option to choose the smaller specific partition. I had only one sata drive connected because I planned to access it along with Vista 64 via BIOS. I know that's not the proper procdure but that's the way I've been doing it. Did I do something else wrong for it not to see the partitions I previously made?

[Dazhelpwiz]

Im not sure..to be honest, the only time Ive seen FreeBSD or OpenBSD fail during a boot to install is when they have an issue with your hardware.

[archp2008]

Hello again,
I have no doubt the install would have completed if I had had a full hard drive with a single partition.
I have a feeling that there may be problems with SATA drives as compared with IDE. I intend to erase one of the partitions on my IDE drive tormorrow and try that to see if it is any different in recognizing partitions. Is is pssible hat the partition I created on my Sata drive is not a primary partition? How can I tell after the fact?

[davidgurvich]

You might need to prepare the hard drive partitions before using the installer. I had an issue with installing 1.5.1 onto a partition with an os installed.

[Dazhelpwiz]

whether this is relevent or not: I have heard issues of vista and dual booting if u try to take control of the drive away from vista.. I cannot confirm. I am waiting on a new laptop to arrive (should have by friday, currently tuesday) at which point I will be installing pcbsd and dual booting vista x64.

[archp2008]

I noticed that the partition that it failed to see was not a primary one. I created a new primary partition inside it. I had anticipated having to do some work, to make it dual boot afterwards. I have many active partitions, so I have already opted to use BIOS to switch from one drive to another. I intend to leave only one drive connected when I do the install. I have family visiting the next two days, so Friday would be a better time.

[archp2008]

BTW, the version of Linus that I have on the other drive is Hardy Heron, not Feisty Fawn.

[archp2008]

Hello again,

I went ahead and did the install today. It recognized the partition now that I have made it a primary one and the installation completed nicely. When I boot, however, it fails to list Windows Vista 64bit as an option. It lists
F1 FreeBSD
F3 DOS
F5 Drive 1

F3 gives me the option to insert my Windows Vista 64 disk and do a Repair.

F1 and F5 both start FreeBSD. In either case I have to press 2 on the subsequent menu to load the OS.

Is repairing Windows going to erase the FreeBSD loader. Is there a quicker way to access my installed Vista?

Thanks in advance for your continued support ...

[TerryP]

Try using this for the bootloader: http://gag.sourceforge.net/

[archp2008]

Hello,

Thanks for the suggestion. Being that the only OS that presently boots from the drive I am using for this is FreeBSD (I disconnected the other two drives during installation of both the Vista 64 and now the FreeBSD) am I able to download and install GAG from inside the FreeBSD? I would prefer not to risk overwriting the MBR on either of the other two drives which already have multiple boot setups so I planned to disconnect them again and access the various drives through BIOS. Can you point me to the instructions for installing GAG? Thanks again.

[TerryP]

installing gag:

download the floppy boot disk image or iso cd-rom image, burn it to disk, boot off it, install directions are on screen ;-)

If you want something that can be tucked in the FreeBSD root partition, GRUB might be able to do it --> I've only used GRUB under GNU.

[archp2008]

I installed GAG to a floppy disk. I disconnected all but the drive with the Vista and FreeBSD on it, and rebooted to the floppy. It recognized the 3 partitions on this drive and the two operating systems, but when I tried to boot Vista with it, it still reported corruption of Vista and asked me to do a repair. I did this (startup repair only) and the Vista returned. I can choose to boot now from the GAG on the floppy by choosing from the numbers 1, 2 or 3, or simply boot from the hard drive and choose F1 for FreeBSD or F3 for Vista. I don't know what F5 is for being that the other partition is only an inactive logical partition In any case, the dual boot works both ways. Of course I have to choose the boot drive via BIOS.

Is it normal for FreeBSD to take 75 seconds with code scrolling down the screen each time it boots? Is is normal for it not to actually kill the power when you shut it down? Why do I still have to choose option 2 to boot FreeBSD (disable ACPI)? When I choose option 1 (default) it continues to reboot (same as when I tried to install it via option 1).

I'm impressed by GAG, although it didn't actually fix the Vista problem. Are there any limitations on what you can do with GAG? Are there any pitfalls that can cause you grief if you try to use to automate the booting of 9 OS's on two SATA drives and 1 IDE drive that were originally installed with only one drive connected at a time?

Thanks again.

[Dazhelpwiz]

Grub will be able to boot both OS's. You will however need to use vista's boot and chainload into freebsd.

As I mentioned earlier, Vista doesnt like it if you remove its control over the entire drive. (more reading since my last post has confirmed this)

Is it normal for FreeBSD to take 75 seconds with code scrolling down the screen each time it boots?

no.

Is is normal for it not to actually kill the power when you shut it down?

yes

Why do I still have to choose option 2 to boot FreeBSD (disable ACPI)?

add this to /boot/device.hints.

hint.acpi.0.disabled="1"


When I choose option 1 (default) it continues to reboot (same as when I tried to install it via option 1).

your machine probably doesnt support or has a broken acpi implementation.

I'm impressed by GAG, although it didn't actually fix the Vista problem. Are there any limitations on what you can do with GAG? Are there any pitfalls that can cause you grief if you try to use to automate the booting of 9 OS's on two SATA drives and 1 IDE drive that were originally installed with only one drive connected at a time?

Ive never used GAG, so I cant comment.

[archp2008]

Thank you for all those useful comments.

At this time, since I reconnected the other drives, I cannot access the FreeBSD any longer. I reaches the point where it says, "attempt to query device size failed. Device not ready. Media not present. Trying to mount root from ufs:dev/ad0s1a. Then it stops at the prompt mountroot> where I have no idea what to enter. I am guessing it is "trying" to boot from the other drive. I expect if I pulled out the two drives again, it would work again. I don't know. I will try that now. How can I troubleshoot the ACPI and ascertain what is wrong and what if anything can be done about it? I am able to use standby and hibernate in XP, but I don't think the WD Sata2 drives can use power management. I have no idea about what /boot/device.hints is or how to gp about adding hint.acpi.0.disabled="1" Is this a subfolder on the drive? Are you suggesting that I edit a text file?

Let me know how you make out with your laptop?

Thanks again.

[Dazhelpwiz]

I have no idea about what /boot/device.hints is or how to gp about adding hint.acpi.0.disabled="1" Is this a subfolder on the drive? Are you suggesting that I edit a text file?

Let me know how you make out with your laptop?


your welcome.

unfortunately my laptop has been delayed :( . The joys of ordering and not buying instore.

device.hints is a file under the /boot directory. edit this file and add the line I mentioned above.

As for power mgmt, this issue doesnt bother me (personally) whether it works or not.

The ability to save sessions and restore when you turn back on make this pointless really, IMO.

maybe another forum member can shed some light on that matter.

[archp2008]

I disconnected the two other drives so that only the single SATA drive with the Vista/FreeBSD on it is hooked up. As I expected the dual boot completes normally in this scenario as before. If someone can shed some light on the mountroot> prompt which comes up with the other drives connected and what needs to be entered here, it would be much appreciated. Also I am at a loss of what to do to avoid the long sequence of codes which appear on each startup of FreeBSD (more than a minute delay).

I was unable to figure out how to sign in as admin so that I could change the write permissions for device.hints

Although I installed with default QWERTY keyboard, I also have problems with getting " when I try to type @. Is there a way to change this?

Good luck with your laptop order Dazhelpwiz

[TerryP]

Is it normal for FreeBSD to take 75 seconds with code scrolling down the screen each time it boots? Is is normal for it not to actually kill the power when you shut it down? Why do I still have to choose option 2 to boot FreeBSD (disable ACPI)? When I choose option 1 (default) it continues to reboot (same as when I tried to install it via option 1).


This is usually an issue with hardware or hardware support from what I've seen -> ACPI ain't always a fun invention either.

[archp2008]

Thanks for the comment. I'm not too much concerned with not having ACPI, just the fact that I can't access FreeBSD except when I disconnect the other drives. Also it would be nice if it would remember and not require me to watch the boot process and be ready to hit the 2 key each time.

[archp2008]

I just logged into FreeBSD (only one drive onnected) and was in the process of installing a new desktop background. Suddenly the power failed. Pushing the power button did not restart. When I reconnected all three drives the computer was ok again. Anyone had this happen before or have any idea of what could have caused this.

[archp2008]

:) I am able to boot with the other drives connected if I enter ufs:/dev/ad1s1a at the mountroot> prompt. Now I need help to edit the /etc/fstab file to make the change permanent. I don't know how to secure admininstrative privilieges. I have no idea what caused the power loss that one time, evidently one of the connections to the drive must have worked loose.

[Dazhelpwiz]

I dont want to come across rude, but please..

Read the handbook and learn su.

[archp2008]

No problem. I'm an absolute newbie to BSD and am a bit bewildered of where to start at this point. I realize that some work on my part is needed. Would you be kind enough to point me to the handbook that you refer to so that I can get started on the section to which you refer.

[Carpetsmoker]

su
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/users.html

[archp2008]

One more thing. I'm not too impressed with the degree of beginner support here or elsewhere, neither with the OS itself. I've installed 3 of the games and neither works - jerky, slow, unplayable. I guess if I am ever to figure out how to get write permissions, etc., in PC-BSD it will be totally on my own.

[TerryP]

Remember archp2008, people who help do so because they wish to, not because they collect a $40,000 a year pay check for camping out on forums and making it senselessly easy ^_^.


Perhaps one thing that also sets a lot of BSD users apart, is we expect people to read the documentation and search the internet first ;-).


Last night, I set up mutt for the first time in ages. Read scottos page, searched the FAQ, the wiki, and the documentation and I had a configuration 10^2 of what I would have gotten without the effort.

2+2=4


The documentation for FreeBSD and OpenBSD is also far from lacking compared to a number of programs -- in my experience, Vim, OpenBSD, and Qt are three of the most well documented things in the software universe.




On my laptop, most games are jerkly, slow, unplayable, and really piss off the 4BSD scheduler. I know however that my graphics card has very poor 3D driver support when it comes to games that actually need it.


Thus in may case: XGalaga == yes; Chromium B.S.U. == no;


Does your card support suitable graphics capabilities under X to run the games correctly and are they suitably installed?



Write permissions are a realitive thing -- files, file systems, devices, etc. The permission model under unix is as simple as it gets without giving every tom dick and harry the ability to delete system files without a body block.

[archp2008]

I'm very persistent but I do have my frustration limit some days. I have downloaded the Nvidia LS7300 latest BSD driver but haven't reached the point yet where I know how to go to find the extracted files and enter at the prompt "make install" (I think that's what it is). As far as the write permissions all I had to do was use superuser terminal instead of the basic terminal. Similarly all the frustrations entering command prompts trying to fix my keyboard issues were unnecessary. All I had to do was go to click on keyboard layout and choose a different default. I find that looking around and trying things has achieved a lot more than reading incomprehensible and frequently overly advanced concepts. As an infant in BSD I hate being taught geometry for the purpose to tie up my "shoe laces."