# Dell Studio 15 (1555) Wont boot (bootloader problem) in Freebsd 7.2 or 8.0



## chenxiaolong (Aug 27, 2009)

I just got a Dell Studio 15 (the 1555 model) and I was hoping to install FreeBSD on it, but both FreeBSD 7.2-STABLE or FreeBSD-8.0-CURRENT won't boot. I'm trying to install the 64 bit edition because I have 4 GB of RAM. I tried messing with some BIOS settings and it still won't work. If I change the SATA type to IDE, it just reboots when I try to boot the CD. If I set it to AHCI (default) then it shows this:


```
CD Loader

Building the boot loader arguments
Looking up /BOOT/LOADER... Found
Relocating the loader and the BTX
Starting the BTX loader

BTX loader 1.00  BTX version is 1.02
Consoles: internal video/keyboard
panic: free: guard1 fail @ 0xbd197074 from /usr/src/sys/boot/i386/loader/../../common/console.c:94
--> Press a key on the console to reboot <--
```

I have no idea why this happens. Is it trying to load a 32 bit file? The panic message says "i386". This happens with the net install, cd install, and dvd install images. Here are my computer specs:


```
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 2.1 GHz
WLAN: Dell Wireless 1397 WLAN Mini-Card (Broadcom 4312 Rev 01 14e4:4315)
LAN: Broadcom Netlink Gigabit Ethernet(14e4:1698)
VIDEO: Mobile Intel 4 Series Express Chipset Family
DVD: Optiarc DVD+-RW AD-7640S ATA Device
AUDIO: Intel Integrated Audio
HDD: Seagate ST9320320AS ATA Device
```

I hope somebody can help me with this problem. I'll have to use linux and Windows 7 until this works.


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## iceberg101971 (Aug 31, 2009)

the 64bit version will not work with a core 2 duo (lt. hardware notes) i suggest to try the i386 version and compile the PAE in the GENRIC-KERNEL... thats what i did on a 2x2 core amd-opteron (for compatibility reasons) and it works well.

yours ICE-B


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## chenxiaolong (Aug 31, 2009)

Thanks, I'll try that. Could you give me some information about why the 64bit version doesn't with the Core 2 Duo?


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## aragon (Aug 31, 2009)

Erm, the 64 bit version _does_ work on a Core 2 Duo.  In fact, it should work on older CPUs like Pentium 4s too.

Chenxiaolong, you didn't specify which ISO you loaded.  You need the AMD64 ISO.


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## roddierod (Aug 31, 2009)

aragon said:
			
		

> Erm, the 64 bit version _does_ work on a Core 2 Duo.  In fact, it should work on older CPUs like Pentium 4s too.



There is a 64bit P4?


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## chenxiaolong (Sep 1, 2009)

I did use the amd64 iso. I downloaded it from ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/7.2/ and verified the MD5 before I tried it. When I boot, it comes up with the error in my first post, whether I use the Boot-Only cd, the 3 CD iso's, the the DVD iso. My specs are also in my first post. This also happens in the 8.0_CURRENT. Do I need to modify the bootloader somehow?


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## aragon (Sep 1, 2009)

roddierod said:
			
		

> There is a 64bit P4?


Yea...

http://developer.intel.com/products/processor/pentium4/specs.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64#History_of_Intel_64

chenxiaolong, maybe your optical drive is misbehaving, or maybe you can change the ATA mode in the BIOS to something that works better.  Otherwise, try boot with a USB flash disk instead.


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## chenxiaolong (Sep 1, 2009)

I tried changing my drive to ATA mode, but when I try to boot, it just automatically reboots, so fast that I can't read the error message. I can try using a USB. I have a 8GB one. How would I go about doing that? Can I use Unetbootin like with linux? 

Thanks for the quick responses. This forum is great.


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## aragon (Sep 1, 2009)

Unetbootin might work, but FreeBSD also publish USB flash images now on their FTP mirrors (since 8.0 I think).  Probably easier to grab one of those and dd it to your drive.


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## chenxiaolong (Sep 1, 2009)

Is this the right ftp directory: ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/snapshots/200906/ ? I can't find a .img file there. By the way, I just tried the x86 version of 7.2 and it has the exact same error message as the x64 version.


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## aragon (Sep 1, 2009)

ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/8.0/


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## chenxiaolong (Sep 1, 2009)

Thanks. I'll try that


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## chenxiaolong (Sep 2, 2009)

The USB boot image has the exact same error message. Is there anything else I can try?


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## aragon (Sep 3, 2009)

Only other thing I can think of is to check for BIOS updates.


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## chenxiaolong (Sep 3, 2009)

The bios is already the latest version. Look at the attachments. Is there anything else that I can do?


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