# hang at POST



## zerathule (Aug 21, 2010)

i installed freebsd 8.1 from the PCBSD dvd because the cd fails to create partitions
and the pc hangs at POST
it is an 2600+ AMD Sempron on a Foxconn 6100K8MB-RS
i tried the following
using an ATA 40GB samsung HDD
using an ATA 40GB seagate HDD
using an SATA 320GB seagate HDD
using another CD drive
flashing the latest BIOS
doing the acpi thingy http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/install-trouble.html#Q2.11.3.1.
it just wont work, but the EVIL os on the drive there's no problem
i have successfully installed FreeBSD 8.1 on my 3400+ AMD Athlon64 with a ASUS K8N-E Deluxe, on my Intel Pentium4 2.4 Ghz with a Gigabyte mobo and on my Pentium4 2.5GHz with an unknown mobo
the HDD's and CD drives are okay only that stupid mobo/proc combo is the problem
does anyone have any suggestions?


----------



## wblock@ (Aug 21, 2010)

There's too many variables to narrow it down much.  If it were me, I'd connect only one drive and try again.  When editing slices, choose Set Bootable for the FreeBSD slice.


----------



## zerathule (Aug 21, 2010)

oh sorry i was a bit vague about the hdds, i tried at a time with each drive, then changed the cd drive and tried again with each hdd


----------



## wblock@ (Aug 21, 2010)

zerathule said:
			
		

> oh sorry i was a bit vague about the hdds, i tried at a time with each drive, then changed the cd drive and tried again with each hdd



At least you know the problem isn't in the drive...

Here's some ideas:

Some people report certain hard disk controllers take a long time, as in minutes, to boot.  I think these were server machines, but it's worth just waiting for ten minutes or so.

Does a USB memstick image (i386/amd64) boot?  If it does, you know that FreeBSD can boot on that system, and then you can use file -s on the hard drive device to see if it has an MBR, and the fdisk -B if needed.

Disable the IDE controller in the BIOS and boot from SATA.  Or the other way around, in case it's one of the controllers that's a problem.


----------



## zerathule (Aug 21, 2010)

okay i will try and post here what happened but can you explain why the cd installer can't create partitions but the PCBSD dvc can?


----------



## wblock@ (Aug 21, 2010)

zerathule said:
			
		

> okay i will try and post here what happened but can you explain why the cd installer can't create partitions but the PCBSD dvc can?



No idea.  I've never had that problem.  This sounds like a problem from another thread.  Could you give more detail on what happens?


----------



## zerathule (Aug 21, 2010)

```
Unable to find device node for /dev/ad2s1b in /dev!
The creation of the filesystems will be aborted.
```
and

```
Couldn't make filesystems properly. Aborting.
```
i use the default layout proposed by the installer


----------



## wblock@ (Aug 21, 2010)

That appears right after you leave the disklabel editor by pressing "Q"?






Interesting that it errors on s1b, the swap partition.  So s1a (/) was created, but then it couldn't go on.

When you try to install again on that drive, are the slices and partitions already present?


----------



## jb_fvwm2 (Aug 22, 2010)

The first section of posts in this thread 
I thought, "irq conflict, remove something
in the bios" then later "geom_label.ko,
geom_bsd.ko and geom_mbr.ko not loaded" 
(v8 difficulty in sysinstall where works
in v7)...


----------



## zerathule (Aug 23, 2010)

i have abandoned trying to install on that pc FreeBSD and installed linux
i think it's about the FreeBSD MBR, filesystem or the BIOS doesn't give up control on the HDD


----------



## zerathule (Aug 24, 2010)

sorry for double posting but i wanted to bump the thread
so i tried again to install it with the 8.1 CD
i select the geometry of the disk then when i use the fdisk to create slices i see this :O
http://fotoimagehost.ro/vezi-imagine-7532/imagine0186.jpg
about the hdd and what is on it: it is a seagate 40GB drive with one 20GB NTFS partition on it and the rest is unused space
when i try to create a 15GB slice it says
http://fotoimagehost.ro/vezi-imagine-7531/imagine0185.jpg
is it okay to show me that weird partition scheme with just one NTFS partition on it?
ps: sorry for the bad pics but the monitor is in a bad shape


----------



## wblock@ (Aug 24, 2010)

Photo 1 shows a GPT.  I don't think Windows creates those, but you may have used some other tool to repartition the drive.  It could be that the controller or BIOS is confused or lying (maybe an "antivirus" setting in the BIOS?), but the numbers look right.  Was that disk in a Mac?

Photo 2 is reasonable, FreeBSD still does calculations by track, even though actual disk tracks have been variable size for ages.

What to do?  Well, I'd say back up the NTFS partition, delete all those partitions, and start from scratch.  You might have to use a live CD to wipe out the GPT with dd.

Then let sysinstall create a normal MBR.


----------



## zerathule (Aug 25, 2010)

okay the hdd was wiped and installed xp on it so the partition was created with windows, no 3rd party tool
to see what actually is on the drive i made a picture of windows installation
http://fotoimagehost.ro/vezi-imagine-7533/imagine0187.jpg
the NTFS and windows on it doesn't matter because this is now a spare computer, it was intended to be a FreeBSD router but a duron with fedora 13 took its place
do you have any idea why FreeBSD sees that weird partition scheme?


----------



## wblock@ (Aug 25, 2010)

zerathule said:
			
		

> okay the hdd was wiped and installed xp on it so the partition was created with windows, no 3rd party tool
> to see what actually is on the drive i made a picture of windows installation
> http://fotoimagehost.ro/vezi-imagine-7533/imagine0187.jpg
> the NTFS and windows on it doesn't matter because this is now a spare computer, it was intended to be a freebsd router but a duron with fedora 13 took its place
> do you have any idea why freebsd sees that weird partition scheme?



No idea, sorry.  But I know how to cure it.  With a FreeBSD fixit live image, or any of the Linux bootable tools like the System Rescue CD, dd zeros to the first one or two sectors of the drive.  For FreeBSD:
`# sysctl kern.geom.debugflags=16; dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ad2 bs=512 count=2`

For Linux, you don't need the sysctl, and the hard drive could be hda or sda or something else:
`# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=2`
You could also use cfdisk as a simple interactive MBR editor, which has no equivalent in FreeBSD AFAIK.  Well, sade(8), but it's not as simple or as effective, has ambiguous curses selections, and it likes to overwrite fstab.


----------



## zerathule (Aug 25, 2010)

so you think if i delete the 0x55 and 0xAA bits it would see the right partitions?
this is what the fedora installer sees
http://fotoimagehost.ro/showoriginal-7552/imagine0188.jpg
i think it's more a freebsd defect than the MBR or BIOS/hardware problem


----------



## wblock@ (Aug 25, 2010)

zerathule said:
			
		

> so you think if i delete the 0x55 and 0xAA bits it would see the right partitions?



Maybe.  Before you do that, save the MBR as it is now.  Using dd in Linux:
`# dd if=/dev/sda of=weirdmbr.bin bs=512 count=2`

Then put it somewhere downloadable and file a PR so it can be fixed.


----------



## phalax (Feb 2, 2011)

*Fix*

Found a workaround for this on my buggy bios.

http://forum.nginx.org/read.php?23,120424


----------

