Bug 32830

Summary: FreeBSD 4.4 install fails on Thinkpad 750
Product: Base System Reporter: Julian Wald <jmw>
Component: i386Assignee: freebsd-bugs (Nobody) <bugs>
Status: Closed FIXED    
Severity: Affects Only Me    
Priority: Normal    
Version: Unspecified   
Hardware: Any   
OS: Any   

Description Julian Wald 2001-12-14 16:50:00 UTC 
problems installing on a Thinkpad 750.

I created the three boot disks, and then tried booting from the first
(Kernel). This stops with the following messages:

Disk error 0x4 (lba=0c38)
Disk error 0x4 (lba=0c38)
No /boot/loader

Fix: 

Some equivalent way to the Linux "floppy=thinkpad" boot parameter so
the loader (?) finds the kernel
How-To-Repeat: Make a set of install disks, and use the first to try installing. 

After a few seconds, the install process halts waiting for input
Comment 1 Sheldon Hearn 2001-12-30 12:54:50 UTC 
On Fri, 14 Dec 2001 08:44:20 PST, Julian Wald wrote:

> problems installing on a Thinkpad 750.
> 
> I created the three boot disks, and then tried booting from the first
> (Kernel). This stops with the following messages:
> 
> Disk error 0x4 (lba=0c38)
> Disk error 0x4 (lba=0c38)
> No /boot/loader

I've never used an IBM Thinkpad, but this may help:

The boot_i386(8) manual page says that "Disk error" return codes are
taken directly from the BIOS return code.  Your code (0x4) is this:

	0x4   Sector not found

Are you sure those disks are good?  How did you create them?  Do you
have another BSD box you can use fdformat on?

You said "the three boot disks"?  Which floppy images did you burn, and
which one did you put on "the first" disk?  The first disk should be
kern.flp, the second should be mfsroot.flp.  You won't need fixit.flp
until the first two actually work. :-)

As I said, I don't know your hardware, so this may be a known niggle
with the Thinkpad, but in the absence of other advice, start with
verifying that your media are good.

Ciao,
Sheldon.
Comment 2 iedowse freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2002-12-01 20:55:26 UTC 
State Changed
From-To: open->feedback


Do more recent releases still fail on this machine?
Comment 3 iedowse 2002-12-07 04:59:00 UTC 
Adding to the audit trail:

In message <qsuouu49tudn4nugrc0mbsaqk9splm94id@elrond>, Julian Wald writes:
>Dear Ian Dowse
>On Sun, 1 Dec 2002 12:57:01 -0800 (PST), you wrote:
>> Do more recent releases still fail on this machine?

>Unfortunately, my old 750 is now used for research work by a relative
>in Wales ;) As a result I don't have easy access anymore.
>
>FreeBSD certainly works on the 600X that replaced it, though :)
>
>I certainly never got any version of *any* *BSD (Free/Net/Open) to
>boot on this old machine. The problem is the 2.88Mb floppy, with the
>reversed floppy-present indicator (don't ask why - IBM just seems to
>love doing things differently!). FWIW, Linux solves this problem with
>a kernel option ("floppy=3Dthinkpad") that can be passed at boot time,
>unfortunately none of the BSDs seem to have this possibility. This
>machine was too old to use a CDROM drive, so the only way to get
>anything on to it was boot from floppy, and then use ftp via a network
>connection (plip, ethernet etc).
>
>The result was always a failure at the initial boot stage (after the
>kernel loads, IIRC), asking for the floppy to be present, even though
>the disk was definitely present. I tried several different good
>floppies, so I don't think it was to do with bad floppys.
>
>If this could be fixed, it would be great, as 750s are still around
>cheaply, and I might even get my old 750 back one day ;)
>
>Best wishes
>
>
>-Julian
Comment 4 Jens Schweikhardt freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2003-08-02 21:20:28 UTC 
State Changed
From-To: feedback->closed

Submitter does not have the hardware any longer. 
In case it materializes again, we can reopen this PR.