# Problem installing FreeBSD - Read Error: 0x20



## doublejay (Dec 13, 2010)

Hey Guys,

I'm trying to install FreeBSD 8.1 on a server (Sun Fire x4200, Dual Core AMD Opteron 2,6 GHz, 16 GB RAM, RAID 1 67 GB HDD).

When the server boots up, I get the message:


```
cd loader 1.2
building the boot loader arguments
looking up /boot/loader... found
read error: 0x20
```

And that's it, the server kind of chrashes after that message. I have no idea what to do, i'm totally new to FreeBSD. I googled and found this (http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=19291&highlight=read+error+0x20) which is not working for me.

Can anyone help me? If you need more information, please let me know.

Thanks so far
Jan


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## SirDice (Dec 13, 2010)

I'm guessing that the image you downloaded is corrupt. Did you compare the hashes before burning?


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## doublejay (Dec 13, 2010)

How can I do this?

I burned the image to a cd and booted my laptop with it. And the installation just started fine.

For testing, I downloaded the current fedora version and the installation wont start too. 


```
no root device found. boot has failed, sleeping for ever
```

Help!


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## doublejay (Dec 13, 2010)

I have checked the iso-file...it is ok.

I have to new harddrives. there is nothing on it. They came direct out of the box into the servers. Could that be a problem?


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## lockfile (Dec 14, 2010)

doublejay, I suspect you have a hardware problem with your server. Did you just flash your bios to a newer version? Getting ACPI errors? Linux halting abrutly after looking at the hardware? The system posts bios fine but any OS whether Linux, FreeBSD, or Windows will not work? Those are signs of BIOS issues. I recommend you troubleshoot your BIOS and then retry the installation using the same image.


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## doublejay (Dec 14, 2010)

I tried to install Windows Server 2008. It worked just fine. Now I'm doing a couple of tests with the Linix Suse installer. Seems like everything is ok.

I updated the bios to the latest version before I tried to install FreeBSD the first time. I also downgraded it in the meantime. I always got the same message:


```
cd loader 1.2
building the boot loader arguments
looking up /boot/loader... found
read error: 0x20
```

Any other suggestions? I would be very thankful.


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## Terry_Kennedy (Dec 14, 2010)

doublejay said:
			
		

> When the server boots up, I get the message:
> 
> 
> ```
> ...


You either have a bad CD (corrupted image download, burn problem, etc.) or you have some issue with the hardware you're trying to install on.

You can try booting the CD on some other PC (just to see if it gets any further - it won't write to any hard drives unless you proceed with the install process).

There are a large variety of hardware widgets, many of which have oddities that need to be worked around. This is particularly true of PC-type hardware not intended to run Windows, as it doesn't get the amount of least-common-denominator compatibility checking as commodity Windows boxes do.

It may be that the BIOS has read in the boot blocks from your CD, but when the driver on the CD tries to take control, it runs into a problem. I saw this with Linux on a Supermicro system a year or so ago - the install CD would start fine, but would fail with I/O errors during the install process. I worked around this by booting from a USB CD-ROM instead of the built-in drive. Perhaps something like that would also work for you.

There is also the possibility that there is something wrong with the hardware. But let's try the easy stuff first.


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## doublejay (Dec 14, 2010)

I booted my laptop with the FreeBSD install CD -> worked fine.

I'm now downloading the "boot-only"-iso and try that. If that not works, there is also a memory-stick version. But after that? I just don't know. But first I try.


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## lockfile (Dec 14, 2010)

Revert the BIOS. 



			
				doublejay said:
			
		

> I booted my laptop with the FreeBSD install CD -> worked fine.
> 
> I'm now downloading the "boot-only"-iso and try that. If that not works, there is also a memory-stick version. But after that? I just don't know. But first I try.


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## doublejay (Dec 14, 2010)

I'm finally able to install FreeBSD. Solution: Burn the ISO-image to a physical CD, run through the whole campus to the data center, put the CD into the servers drive and boot it up. FreeBSD is now installed on my server.

But I ran into a couple of errors during installation. But none of them abort the installation.

Now I wanna build a cluster with a second FreeBSD server. Does anyone know how to to that?

Btw: I'm doing all this to build a machine to use Netdisco. Perhaps anybody has experiences with that!?


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## doublejay (Dec 14, 2010)

I have an AMD 64-bit machine. But only the installation files for the i386 worked. With the amd64 files the installtion aborts. Which installation files do I have to use?


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## wblock@ (Dec 14, 2010)

doublejay said:
			
		

> I'm finally able to install FreeBSD. Solution: Burn the ISO-image to a physical CD, run through the whole campus to the data center, put the CD into the servers drive and boot it up. FreeBSD is now installed on my server.



In the future, you should probably mention that you weren't using an actual CD, but the CD image through some other method.  Maybe even in the first message.


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## DutchDaemon (Dec 14, 2010)

> Now I wanna build a cluster ...



Please ask follow-up questions that are not related to the actual topic in a new thread, please.


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## doublejay (Dec 15, 2010)

Yeah, that was my fault. I'm new to this FreeBSD stuff. But anyway, thanks for your help. I'm sure, I need your help in a few .


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