*BSD News Article 9728


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From: corcoran@valhalla.cs.wright.edu (Michael P. Corcoran)
Subject: 386BSD install problem -- can't mount /
Message-ID: <1993Jan11.022758.10164@cs.wright.edu>
Sender: corcoran@cs.wright.edu (Michael P. Corcoran)
Organization: Wright State University
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 02:27:58 GMT
Lines: 64

Help!  I'm having problems with the installation of 386bsd.
I've noticed at least 3 other postings in this group with
the same problem but no solutions.  Here's a little more info:

Both the dist.fs and fixit.fs boot disks boot fine.  I then run
install which also runs without complaints; but, when I try to 
reboot after it installs files on the hard disk, the system goes
into an infinite reboot with a panic:"can't mount root."

After investigating with disklabel on the fixit.fs disk, I found 
that the hard disk label was corrupted.  ok, so I ran disklabel -e wd0
and corrected it.  I then read it back with disklabel -r and all 
was fine, further I was able to mount /dev/wd0a on /mnt and the
filesystem was in good shape.  fsck also passed on it without errors.

Now the weird part.  When I reboot, the disk label gets corrupted
again.  Even if I reboot on the fixit.fs disk, the hard disk label
is restored to some default incorrect values, wrong #cylinders, sectors, 
etc.  When this happens, I am unable to mount /dev/wd0a /mnt so it's
not surprising that the system can't.

I went so far as to create a new /etc/disktab entry in case that
was involved somehow -- No luck.

Now an even more weird part.  If I tell the install program to 
use the entire disk (after deleting all partitions on the disk)
everything works great and the system boots off the hard disk.
I don't really want to do this as I still need to boot dos for
some programs and would like to keep it in a separate partition.

The steps I've taken:
	-- delete all hd partitions
	-- boot dos 5.0 off floppy
	-- create 80MB primary dos parition, format c:, install dos 5.0
	-- boot tinybsd, install
	-- create 263MB 386bsd partition, allow installation to proceed.
 	-- try to reboot off hd, fail.

Another attempt:
	-- delete all hd partitions
	-- boot tinybsd, install
	-- bug?  The system only gives me the choice of installing
		on the entire disk (which works) but does not allow me
		to create a 386bsd partition of the size of my choice.
		Only if a dos parition exists does it ask me what size
		bsd partition I want.

Help! Help!

Configuration:
	Maxtor 8380E 360MB ESDI disk with 512 byte sectors.
	Data Technology DTC6282-24 ESDI controller set for 63 sector
		per track mapping mode which is recommended for Novell,
		OS/2 and UNIX.

Please email replies to corcoran@valhalla.cs.wright.edu.

Any ideas will be appreciated; thanks in advance.:

-- 
_____________________________________________________________________________
 Michael P. Corcoran, Computer Systems Engineer (corcoran@cs.wright.edu)
 College of Engineering and Computer Science	FAX  :(513) 873-5009
 Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio.  	VOICE:(513) 873-5157