Installation troubles for installing FreeBSD 6.0

[technossomy]

I am installing FreeBSD on a PI-64MB-4GB machine. It is a test machine, attempting to try out FreeBSD before it will be distributed across all my computers. I have gone through the first installation stage to the point where a reboot was required. I believe this was somewhere after partitioning the HDD.

After loading BIOS it mentions the following:

Verifying DMI Pool Data .........
Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM :  Failure ...
No /boot/loader

FreeBSD/i386 boot
Default 0:ad(0,a)/boot/kernel/kernel
boot:
No /boot/kernel/kernel

FreeBSD/i386 boot
Default 0:ad(0,a)/boot/kernel/kernel
boot: ad(0,d)/loaderNo /loader

I have set the CD-ROM to master and the HDD to slave, but to little avail. There is highly unlikely any hardware failure and the CDs have been burned correctly. There is no data on the HDD other than the first few files that the FreeBSD installer has placed there.

If I type '?', the response is:

. .. .snap dev tmp usr var stand etc cdrom cdrom1 dist

right after the '?'.

Can anyone explain how I can remedy this situation?

Thanks in advance

Tech

[ThoughtVelocity]

Hate to ask a stupid question, but did you install a boot loader?

[technossomy]

Hate to ask a stupid question, but how do I know a boot loader is installed?

If it is of any importance:
I am installing FreeBSD only, there is no other OS and it replaces Ubuntu.
All drives (HDD and CD-ROM) are set to auto-detection in BIOS.
In BIOS power management is disabled and memory hole at 15M-16M is disabled too.
The HDD is primary master and the CD-ROM is secondary master.

No matter which CD is in the CD-ROM player or which device is primary/secondary or master/slave/cable-select, nothing will keep the machine from indicating there is no boot/loader. Only if I unplug all devices will it ask for a system disk, a not-so welcome variation to the theme.

[technossomy]

There appear to be a few hardware problems, but it is unsure which those precisely are. Firstly I have swapped the CD-ROM and placed it in secondary master. That worked in combination with PuppyLinux, the result being it is no longer asking for a boot/loader.
Subsequently I have inserted the FreeBSD disks and it is still in its boot sequence, largely because there is no partition scheme it will swallow.

Thanks in advance


Tech

[Darkbackwardz]

There are three options for boot loaders during the install: None, Standard, and Boot Manager. Boot manager keeps a record of all bootable partitions and doesn't always work on really old hardware, Standard loads FreeBSD by default, and none doesn't do anything. If you chose "none" you would have a problem like that, try downloading a copy of FreeDOS (ftp://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-s...2/fdos1440.img) and boot from the floppy. Choose option 2 ("Smart Boot Manager") and then select the hard disc where you installed FreeBSD. If that doesn't work, it could be a hardware problem.

[technossomy]

Thanks for the information. I have since come to the conclusion that using hardware this old is hardly worth it: other distributions yield an unacceptably slow machine.

Tech

[techieMoe]

Thanks for the information. I have since come to the conclusion that using hardware this old is hardly worth it: other distributions yield an unacceptably slow machine.

Tech

There comes a time in every geek's life when we must make the hard decision to put that old computer out to pasture. Have a drink for all the PCs that couldn't be here. (Jolt Cola would probably be appropriate.)