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authorJohn Fieber <jfieber@FreeBSD.org>1995-04-28 16:19:59 +0000
committerJohn Fieber <jfieber@FreeBSD.org>1995-04-28 16:19:59 +0000
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The FreeBSD handbook finds a new home.
Notes
Notes: svn path=/head/; revision=2
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+<!-- $Id: troubleshooting.sgml,v 1.1.1.1 1995-04-28 16:19:59 jfieber Exp $ -->
+<!-- The FreeBSD Documentation Project -->
+
+<chapt><heading>Troubleshooting</heading>
+
+<p>The following tips and tricks may help you turn a
+ failing (or failed) installation attempt into a success.
+ Please read them carefully.
+
+<sect>
+ <heading>Hardware conflict or misconfiguration</heading>
+
+
+ <p><descrip>
+ <tag>Problem:</tag> A device is conflicting with
+ another or doesn't match the kernel's compiled-in IRQ or
+ address.
+
+ <tag>Cause:</tag> While most device drivers in
+ FreeBSD are now smart enough to match themselves to your
+ hardware settings dynamically, there are a few that still
+ require fairly rigid configuration parameters to be
+ compiled in (and matched by the hardware) before they'll
+ work. We're working hard to eliminate as many of these
+ last hold-outs as we can, but it's not always as easy as
+ it looks.
+
+ <tag>Solution:</tag> There are several possible
+ solutions. The first, and easiest, is to boot the kernel
+ with the <tt>-c</tt> flag. When you see the initial boot prompt
+ (from floppy or hard disk), type:
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+/kernel -c
+ </verb></tscreen>
+
+ This will boot just past the memory sizing code and then
+ drop into a dynamic kernel configuration utility. Type
+ `<tt>?</tt>' at the prompt to see a list of commands.
+ You can use this utility to reset the IRQ, memory
+ address, IO address or a number of other device
+ configuration parameters. You can also disable a device
+ entirely if it's causing problems for other devices you'd
+ much rather have work. Note that this only affects the
+ kernel being booted temporarily, it does not write out
+ the information to the kernel so that these settings are
+ permanantly altered (this would be actually rather hard).
+ If you reboot, you'll have to make the same changes
+ again. The goal of the <tt>-c</tt> utility is to get you
+ up far enough to be able to download the appropriate
+ sources and configure and rebuild a kernel more specific
+ to your needs.
+
+ Another solution is, obviously, to remove the offending
+ hardware or simply strip the system down to the bare
+ essentials until the problem (hopefully) goes away. Once
+ you're up, you can do the same thing mentioned
+ above---compile a kernel more suited to your hardware, or
+ incrementally try to figure out what it was about your
+ original hardware configuration that didn't work.
+
+ </descrip>
+
+<sect>
+ <heading>My floppy-tape drive isn't probed</heading>
+
+ <p>Cause: Last-minute problems with this driver caused it
+ to be disabled by default.
+
+ Solution: Boot with -c (described above) and set the
+ flags value of fdc0 to 1. This will re-enable the floppy
+ tape driver. Sorry, but it was causing problems for
+ other people!
+
+<sect>
+ <heading>When I boot for the first time, it still looks for
+ /386bsd!</heading>
+
+ <p>Cause: You still have the old FreeBSD 1.x boot blocks on
+ your boot partition.
+
+ Solution: You should re-enter the installation process,
+ invoke the (F)disk editor and chose the (W)rite option.
+ This won't hurt an existing installation and will make
+ sure that the new boot blocks get written to the drive.
+ If you're installing for the first time, don't forget to
+ (W)rite out your new boot blocks! :-)
+
+<sect>
+ <heading>I want to boot FreeBSD off the second drive. It
+ doesn't!</heading>
+
+ <p>Cause: FreeBSD will actually install just fine on a
+ drive other than 0 (the first drive), and the boot
+ manager will even allow you to select it, but the boot
+ blocks rather pathologically assume 0. This should be
+ fixed in 2.1.
+
+ Solution: Easy - follow these steps:
+
+ 1. Select the first (0) drive from the (F)disk editor
+ and write out the boot manager with the (B) option.
+ This will enable the boot manager that allows you to
+ actually boot off the other drive.
+
+ 2. Exit the fdisk editor for the first drive and and
+ re-enter it again for the drive you wish to install
+ on. Set up a partition on this drive, or select
+ (A)ll for the entire drive.
+
+ 3. Enter the disklabel editor and allocate space on
+ your second drive as normal. Proceed with the
+ installation.
+
+ 4. Once you've installed on the disk and are going to
+ reboot from the hard disk, enter the following at
+ the boot prompt:
+
+ hd(1,a)/kernel
+
+ This will ensure that you really boot from the second
+ drive. If you've actually installed on a drive other
+ than 1 (the 3rd or 4th drive?), substitute that number
+ in for the above. You will need to enter this EVERY
+ time you reboot from the hard disk. If you're feeling
+ brave and have a srcdist + the requisite experience,
+ you can hack the boot blocks in:
+
+ /usr/src/sys/i386/boot/biosboot
+
+ So that this drive you're booting from is hard-coded.
+ Recompile the boot blocks and reinstall them on your
+ drive with `disklabel -B ...' You can then have the
+ default Do The Right Thing.
+
+<sect>
+ <heading>Newfs crashes, requesting that blocksize be 32K</heading>
+
+ <p>Cause: You have your SCSI controller configured to
+ translate geometries for disks >1GB in size.
+
+ Solution: Turn such translation OFF in your controller's
+ BIOS setup! FreeBSD has no problems with disks >1GB just
+ so long as the root partition starts and ends BELOW
+ cylinder 1024. This is a PC hardware limitation.
+
+<sect>
+ <heading>FreeBSD won't boot off the hard disk</heading>
+
+ <p>Cause: Root partition does not start and end below
+ cylinder 1024.
+
+ Solution: See solution for newfs crashes, or move your
+ root partition. This limitation holds true for ANY
+ operating system you wish to boot from your hard drive.
+
+
+<sect>
+ <heading>FreeBSD still won't boot off the hard disk</heading>
+
+ <p>Cause: No boot code is installed in sector 1.
+
+ Solution: Chose the Write MBR (B)oot code in the FDISK
+ editor.
+
+<sect>
+ <heading>Nope, FreeBSD's still not booting from the hard
+ disk</heading>
+
+ <p>Cause: BIOS disk geometry different from that used when
+ installing FreeBSD.
+
+ Solution: With IDE drives, pay careful attention to the
+ geometry information that FreeBSD prints out when it's
+ first booting off the floppy. Use this geometry in your
+ BIOS setup or use the BIOS geometry when you install
+ FreeBSD. Either way, they have to match.
+
+ With SCSI drives, the values they report is most often
+ bogus and cannot be used. In this situation, the SCSI
+ controller is performing geometry translation and it's
+ probably wise to assume a default of 64 heads, 32 sectors
+ and 1MB/cylinder. Use these values when you install
+ FreeBSD. See above comments concerning newfs failures
+ for more info.