*BSD News Article 72353


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From: Brian Bayorgeon <riff_one@athenet.net>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: FreeBSD install problems.....write error
Date: Fri, 28 Jun 1996 19:03:03 -0500
Organization: Athenet Internet Services
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Message-ID: <31D472B7.446B9B3D@athenet.net>
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CC: mmatt@athenet.net

Hello.  Is there anybody who could help me with this problem I'm having
installing FreeBSD 2.1

I prepare for a custom installation from a DOS partition by
downloading the FreeBSD 2.1 distribution from FreeBSD's ftp site.  I
used WS_FTP95. I put the files and directories on my master drive
(Quantum Fireball 1080 MEG EIDE with one huge primary partition devoted
to Windows 95) like this:

c:\freebsd\bin
c:\freebsd\dict
c:\freebsd\floppies
c:\freebsd\games
c:\freebsd\info
c:\freebsd\manpages
c:\freebsd\proflibs
c:\freebsd\src
c:\freebsd\tools
c:\freebsd\xf86312

(I made sure all files were in the proper directories)

I am installing FreeBSD to my slave drive (a Seagate ST3290A 261.3 MEG
IDE) I intend to use the entire drive in one big partition for FreeBSD.

I used IDE_CONF.EXE found in the /tools directory on the ftp site to
confirm the drive geometry of the Seagate drive.  It reported the same
results as FDISK and my hardrive's manual reported:

cyl - 1001
Heads - 15
Sectors - 34
Size - 261.3 MEG

I proceed with a Novice install selecting a custom install.
I let the installation program automatically set the following
directories on the Seagate slave drive:

part            mount           size            newfs
wd1s1a          /               32 MB           UFS Y
wd1s1b          <none>          43 MB           SWAP
wd1s1e          /var            30 MB           UFS Y
wd1s1f          /usr            144 MB          UFS Y


 I get a

"Write failure on transfer! (wrote -1 bytes of 10240 bytes)"

when the installation gets as far as /bin

This happens during every retry also.....ie: it doesn't seem to be one
bad file.  The same error message then occurs in /dict and in /games

Then the installation is halted and I get this message:

Synching disks

Panic: ffs_valloc:
 dup alloc
                        7 . 7 . 5 . 2 done
giving up

After that I forced to reset the computer.
 
I've searched FreeBSD's web site search engine for a possible answer,
but I really didn't seem to find a definite one. There are suggestions
that it may be a drive geometry problem, or a situation where there is
not enough space in the /usr directory.  One posting said it was an
MS-DOS file incompatibility problem, while another said EIDE drives are
not supported in FreeBSD 2.1.  I really don't know where to go from
here.

Here is my Hardware setup:

Dell XPS P133c
16 MEG EDO RAM
Intel Triton PCIset

Intel PIIX PCI IDE CONTROLLER
Two drives on the Primary IDE

master: 1.01 GIG Quantum Fireball EIDE (windows 95)(one partition)

slave: 261.3 MEG Seagate ST3290A (one partition for FreeBSD) (used
FIPS)(1001 cyls) (15 heads) (34 sectors)


I can give more details if asked.  I appreciate any help you guys can
give me.

Thanks,

Brian