# Flag this message FreeBSD 7.0 Installation error



## tom (Jan 13, 2009)

Hi people,
I am Tom and I have been attempting to install FreeBSD 7.0 from dvd.
I put the dvd in the drive and boot, the boot screen appears with the options default, acpi disabled, safe mode, etc, I then select default.
The hardware probing/detecting scrolls by and then comes to a halt with the following line:

GEOM_LABLE: Lable for provider acd0 is is09660/FreeBSD 7.

I have also on other boot attempts tried acpi disabled, safe mode with the same outcome.
Have selected single user on another attempt and sysinstall program boots, after going through setting up the hard drive and paritions durring the install of the os the following error occurs numerous times:

Write failure on transfer!
(write 0 bytes of 1425408 bytes) 100%

Just wondering if this has occured to any one else and how they got around it.
Look forward to replys, thanks

Tom


----------



## tangram (Jan 13, 2009)

Did you check if the downloaded image was ok? You can use the md5 checksums.

And please provide more info regarding the hardware (mother board chipsets namely).

You can also use Memtest to check if your Ram is ok (never rule out hardware problems).


----------



## tom (Jan 13, 2009)

Yes, I should have given more information, so here goes...
I did not check the downloaded image as I did not download it, it has already been written to disc, the disc came with a magazine I purchased (BSDmag), have had a look at the contents of the disc on my macbook - it contains what I would expect.
Should I find away of verifying this disc?

Hardware:
Motherboard: A7N8X-E Deluxe
socket A (462)
Chipset: Northbridge: NVIDIA nforce2 spp ultra400
Southbrdige nvidia nforce2 MCP-T

memory ddr 184pin (maximum of 3x184)
I have kingston kvr400x64c3ak 512mb pc3200 (two pieces)  ram installed.

on board audio: mcp-t southbridge + realtec alc50 6channel audio codec

networking: Marvell 88e8001 gigibit, mcp-t southbridge controller mac + realtec 8201BL phy

1394: mcp-t southbridge ieee 1394a controller + realtec 8801BL phy

internal connectors: usb2 connectors, games/midi, 2 ide, 20pin atx power, 2 sata, 2 1394, 5 pci, 1 asus propriety wi-fi slot and a couple others.

Hard drive is a Western Digital WD2000jb ide caviar 200GB

optical drive: asus drw-1604p

Graphics card is an asus A9600 series AGP ati 

From what I remember seeing fly by on the screen last night the majority of the motherboard parts were detected including the rear panel connectors which I did not list (if you want me to list those, let me know).

Hope this helps.
Thanks
Tom


----------



## tom (Jan 13, 2009)

Just regarding the disc drive, I think the jumper cap is on cable select at the moment.
However there are five rows of pins, three are cable select, master and secondary, no idea what the other two are.


----------



## tangram (Jan 14, 2009)

Do try to download the ISO, check through md5 and burn it at low speeds.

You problem seems similar to http://forums.pcbsd.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=8447.


----------



## tom (Jan 14, 2009)

tangram said:
			
		

> Do try to download the ISO, check through md5 and burn it at low speeds.
> 
> You problem seems similar to http://forums.pcbsd.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=8447.



Ok, thanks.
I will download an iso (most likely 7.1 -comments?) and try.
I will more than likely download and burn the iso from my mac (comments?).

Regarding the the similarity to the pcbsd forums - If I exit from the install at the FreeBSD boot options screen to the command line and type those same commands this will rectify this?

Thank you!


----------



## randux (Jan 17, 2009)

I also get the same message (GEOM_LABLE: Lable for provider acd0 is is09660/FreeBSD 7.) occasionally but it retries a few times and the installation always works. Happens on more than one box.


----------



## danger@ (Jan 18, 2009)

```
GEOM_LABEL: Label for provider acd0 is iso9660/FreeBSD7
```

this message is *not* harmful by any means...


----------



## tom (Jan 20, 2009)

danger@ said:
			
		

> ```
> GEOM_LABEL: Label for provider acd0 is iso9660/FreeBSD7
> ```
> 
> this message is *not* harmful by any means...



It may not be harmful, but what do you do when the system hangs at that line?
Reboot?


----------



## tom (Jan 20, 2009)

tom said:
			
		

> Ok, thanks.
> I will download an iso (most likely 7.1 -comments?) and try.
> I will more than likely download and burn the iso from my mac (comments?).
> 
> ...



I have downloaded iso disc 1 from the FreeBSD website and written to disc at low speed and attempted installation.

Boot works ok.
Boots straight past this error most occasions other times it hangs:
GEOM_LABEL: Label for provider acd0 is iso9660/FreeBSD7

After partitioning /disk setup etc, during the install I get many errors such as the following:

Write failure on transfer!
(wrote -1 bytes of 1425408 bytes)

Unable to transfer the base distribution from acd0
Do you want to try again?

(I select yes, with same errors occuring)

Add of package kbproto-1.0.3 aborted, error code 0 -

(that message also occurs with all other packages)

loading / starting network interfaces fails and it says that it fails.

While adding a user the following error occurs:

The 'pw' command exited with Signal 6

Setting the root password also fails

Any ideas?

Thank you

Tom


----------



## tom (Jan 20, 2009)

What should I do now with it?


----------



## tingo (Jan 20, 2009)

tom said:
			
		

> It may not be harmful, but what do you do when the system hangs at that line?
> Reboot?



Yes.
And then you try every boot option on the boot menu, starting with verbose boot.


----------



## tingo (Jan 20, 2009)

tom said:
			
		

> What should I do now with it?



On a few machines (very few) I have during various points in FreeBSD history (read various releases) come across some machines that for some reason or other does not like the cd-rom during install.
As long as a network card is detected and working on the machine in question, you can always do a ftp install. If you don't have internet access but do have a local network with another machine on it, you can always mount the install CD ona local ftp serve and install from it.

Lastly, remember the scroll lock key. After pressing this, you can use pageup and page down to scroll through the console buffer. This lets you review the boot messages (dmesg) straight from the install CD / dvd.


----------



## trev (Jan 22, 2009)

tom said:
			
		

> Boots straight past this error most occasions other times it hangs:
> GEOM_LABEL: Label for provider acd0 is iso9660/FreeBSD7



This is not an error. This is an _informational_ message which should appear every time the system boots from the CDROM.

That it doesn't always appear and that it sometimes hangs after that message would indicate that the system is having trouble with the disc and/or the optical drive.



> After partitioning /disk setup etc, during the install I get many errors such as the following:
> 
> Write failure on transfer!
> (wrote -1 bytes of 1425408 bytes)



Which confirms there's a problem with the disc or optical drive, or possibly the chipset.

Ok, it seems you've already tried a different disc. Have you 

1) verified the disc ISO before burning it?

2) tried burning it on another system (maybe a friend's) ?

3) tried a different optical drive on your system (again friends come in handy if you don't have a large box of parts) ?

Is the optical drive on its own cable or is it sharing with a hard disk? If it's sharing, try putting it on its own cable as the master device rather than as a slave.

Check for any BIOS options for the optical drive IDE channel. Fiddle if necessary


----------



## tom (Jan 25, 2009)

trev said:
			
		

> This is not an error. This is an _informational_ message which should appear every time the system boots from the CDROM.
> 
> That it doesn't always appear and that it sometimes hangs after that message would indicate that the system is having trouble with the disc and/or the optical drive.
> 
> ...



Sorry for the delay in reply.

I have checked the md5, which matches the the md5 at the FreeBSD website.
When verified /checked the iso does not give any errors or indicate problems.
I will be checking and comparing this on another system as well.
Also I will be burning the iso on another system.
Yes I have tried several optical drives with this disc on this system, same problems etc.
The drive is on its own cable as master, jumper cap is on cable select, I will try this on the master pins.

I have attempted to do an ftp install, the network interfaces seems to be detected - well it says it does, but then when the installation program goes to initialize them it says it fails without any further information, just that it fails.
So no working network  ports.

I decided to try installation of another os, OpenBSD 4.4, it installs recognizes the hardware - network ports etc no problems during installation.

Tom


----------



## randux (Jan 25, 2009)

Yeah 4.4 is a super nice OS. It may even overtake FreeBSD in desktop land one day! Keep up the great work guys!


----------



## tom (Jan 26, 2009)

> Sorry for the delay in reply.
> 
> I have checked the md5, which matches the the md5 at the FreeBSD website.
> When verified /checked the iso does not give any errors or indicate problems.
> ...



I have written the iso to disc on two other machines at the lowest speed setting available, one written at 4x and the other at 10x (which isn't all that slow).
I will try these discs out tomorrow.


----------



## tom (Jan 26, 2009)

tom said:
			
		

> I have written the iso to disc on two other machines at the lowest speed setting available, one written at 4x and the other at 10x (which isn't all that slow).
> I will try these discs out tomorrow.



I have now attempted all this again with the two new discs I had written yesterday previously mentioned.
Same problems at the same time as previously.
Have also booted other os installation discs in this drive and they seem to work with no problems.
So it may be something to do with the chipset.
Considering alternative os.

Thank you for your assistance


----------



## tom (Jan 26, 2009)

Just for information, I have tried a NetBSD dvd install disc I found in my collection when it goes to unpack and install the sets it reports an input/output error, non media hardware failure.
what dvd drive brands do people suggest /recommend?


----------



## randux (Jan 27, 2009)

Maybe borrow a known good drive and try again? Any new name brand drive should work fine and shouldn't cost much.


----------



## trev (Jan 31, 2009)

tom said:
			
		

> Yes I have tried several optical drives with this disc on this system, same problems etc.
> The drive is on its own cable as master, jumper cap is on cable select, I will try this on the master pins.



I would rule out the optical drive then and not waste money purchasing another. This sounds more like an i/o chipset issue or motherboard BIOS.

Have you upgraded the motherboard to the latest BIOS ? 

(I always do this as a last resort, and have been amazed at the number of times it has solved an issue. My last instance was having upgraded from XFree86 to Xorg, the system would hard lockup in X. After two weeks of hell, I upgraded the ASUS A8V BIOS and, lo, it all worked.)


----------



## tom (Feb 3, 2009)

trev said:
			
		

> I would rule out the optical drive then and not waste money purchasing another. This sounds more like an i/o chipset issue or motherboard BIOS.
> 
> Have you upgraded the motherboard to the latest BIOS ?
> 
> (I always do this as a last resort, and have been amazed at the number of times it has solved an issue. My last instance was having upgraded from XFree86 to Xorg, the system would hard lockup in X. After two weeks of hell, I upgraded the ASUS A8V BIOS and, lo, it all worked.)



So I enter the Award Flash BIOS utility and it tells me source not found.


----------

