I downloaded the 4.9-i386-disc1.iso file, verified its md5 fingerprint, burned it to CD, copied the CD back into a file, verified that this file was the same as the 4.9-i386-disc1.iso file, booted the CD, and noticed a little problem. The CD will not boot correctly. Instead it displays: 1. FD 2.88MB System Type-(0f) Then it waits a few seconds and boots the first FreeBSD slice on my first hard disk. After retrying this a few times to make sure it was not a fluke, I made kern/mfsroot floppies from the CD and used them to boot the installation system. Then I was able to do a successful 4.9 installation using the CD. Is it just me? Has anyone else yet burned and booted the 4.9-i386-disc1.iso CD image? Can anyone explain the message about the 2.88 MB floppy disk? Dan Strick strick@covad.net
It turns out that 4.9 CD, which produces the message 1. FD 2.88MB System Type-(0f) and fails to boot correctly, does this on only one of my systems, a very new machine with an ATAPI CD drive on a Gigabyte 8KNXP motherboard and AWARD BIOS. It is the only bootable CD of perhaps a dozen that I have tried on this PC that has failed. For example, the FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE CD boots correctly on this new machine. The 4.9 CD boots correctly on one of my older machines that has a SCSI CD drive connected to an Adaptec 2940AU. I did not attempted to burn and boot any of the 4.9 pre-release CDs or any older FreeBSD release on either machine. Dan Strick strick@covad.net
On Thu, Oct 30, 2003 at 06:58:03PM -0800, Brandon Fosdick wrote:> Bob Willcox wrote: > >Seems that they should be able to create the floppy disks and boot from > >them still. Not ideal, but should work. > > Floppies are an endangered species. At work we just bought a large > number (thousands) of new machines and not a single one came with a > floppy drive. Now that I think of it, neither of my home machines has a > floppy either. Although I do have one drive sitting on the shelf, just > in case.Well, considering how cheap they are, I always include a floppy drive in my systems for the same reason. Though I must admit that I find that I have to boot MSDOS to update MB BIOSes more often than anything with them. :-) Bob -- Bob Willcox If your happiness depends on what somebody else does, bob@immure.com I guess you do have a problem. Austin, TX -- Richard Bach, "Illusions"
On Thu, Oct 30, 2003 at 06:58:03PM -0800, Brandon Fosdick wrote:> Bob Willcox wrote: > >Seems that they should be able to create the floppy disks and boot from > >them still. Not ideal, but should work. > > Floppies are an endangered species. At work we just bought a large > number (thousands) of new machines and not a single one came with a > floppy drive. Now that I think of it, neither of my home machines has a > floppy either. Although I do have one drive sitting on the shelf, just > in case.But most likely these machines are now enough to understand booting from the new style CDs ;-) -- | / o / /_ _ wilko@FreeBSD.org |/|/ / / /( (_) Bulte
On Thu, Oct 30, 2003 at 06:58:03PM -0800, Brandon Fosdick wrote:> Bob Willcox wrote: > >Seems that they should be able to create the floppy disks and boot from > >them still. Not ideal, but should work. > > Floppies are an endangered species. At work we just bought a large > number (thousands) of new machines and not a single one came with a > floppy drive. Now that I think of it, neither of my home machines has a > floppy either. Although I do have one drive sitting on the shelf, just > in case.Given that the PC population is evolving from old machines that don't support the new bootstrap standard to new machines that support only the new bootstrap standard and given the growing tendency to configure new machines without floppy drives, it might be best to make the new bootstrap mechanism the default for FreeBSD distribution CDs. Over time, the set of old machines that can't boot the new CDs will fade away and it is precisely those older machines that are more likely to have the floppy drives needed for the floppy-bootstrap-workaround. I don't think it should be necessary for vendors to always distribute both flavors of CDs together. They might just stick a note in the box explaining the floppy-bootstrap-workaround and offering an alternative old-style CD via mail for those few customers who need them. Remember when the world was transitioning from 5.25" floppies to 3.5" floppies? Perhaps an alternative new-bootstrap 4.9 iso image should be built and distributed to the FreeBSD ftp sites and the issue should be explained in a companion README file so that downloaders can make an intelligent choice. The important thing is that new FreeBSD users should not be caught by surprise and have no workaround. Dan Strick
> > Floppies are an endangered species. At work we just bought a large > > number (thousands) of new machines and not a single one came with a > > floppy drive. Now that I think of it, neither of my home machines has a > > floppy either. Although I do have one drive sitting on the shelf, just > > in case. > > Well, considering how cheap they are, I always include a floppy drive > in my systems for the same reason. Though I must admit that I find that > I have to boot MSDOS to update MB BIOSes more often than anything with > them. :-) > > BobMy current systems lack a CD ROM as I use the space in a 1U for another drive. I FTP from a local system and the hard drives seems to work faster without a CD. Leland