HULK SMASH RECALCITRANT LAPTOP.
Mar. 16th, 2004 11:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reddragdivaI have just spent three hours carefully reinstalling the laptop with FreeBSD 4.9. Restart for its first boot ... and it won't. It sits there at
F1 DOS F2 FreeBSD Default: F2
and seems to consider the keyboard beneath its notice. Odd, since the caps lock light goes on and off as expected. But nothing will get it off this screen.
(The DOS partition is a 20 meg partition for IBM system tools, as yet not installed.)
Please tell me what to do to get this to work without spending a few more hours installing. (With as much detail, or pointers to such, as you can manage.) Else it's BIG HAMMER TIME. Nearly.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-16 04:41 pm (UTC)IME 4.9 installs and runs without a problem (which can't quite be said for 5.2.1). You could try posting in the
(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-16 04:47 pm (UTC)I certainly thought I did.
Now it's deciding it will SOMETIMES select 'F1' - which partition of course has nothing installed on it, so it reboots. If I start bashing function keys with various combinations of the 'function' shift. Nothing I've worked out how to get responding consistently yet. ARGH.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-16 05:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-16 05:09 pm (UTC)you could try installing a basic DOS on the F1 (although is it needed at all, ie could you use a floppy-DOS for the purpose when needed and use FreeBSD for the rest (have never found the need to retain a dos partition myself on any linux/bsd box
Hrmm.
Date: 2004-03-16 07:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-16 11:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-17 01:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-17 02:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-17 03:35 am (UTC)Also, I think the FreeBSD boot blocks -may- have some problems dealing with an XT keyboard; does this laptop emulate an AT keyboard or does it actually behave as if it has an XT keyboard to the OS? If it has an XT keyboard, try the external keyboard route already suggested.
You can also try to boot from floppy, then use the boot loader that is loaded from the floppy to boot the hard disc - if this works your disc boot blocks or the data they work from (disc geometry, etc) is fux0red.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-17 05:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-17 05:28 am (UTC)Dig around www.freebsd.org to find out about the new Forth-based loader, etc.
I would try booting from a floppy and trying to use that boot loader (5.2.1 or 4.9) to run the OS from disc first of all.
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Date: 2004-03-17 06:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-17 06:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-17 07:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-17 02:38 pm (UTC)-roy
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Date: 2004-03-17 04:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-18 08:57 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-18 09:03 am (UTC):-*
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Date: 2004-03-18 08:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-19 02:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-19 02:29 am (UTC)