9fans archive / 2006 / 09 / 331 prev next
From: John Stalker <stalker@mat...>
Subject: venti+fossil problems on new install
Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 18:30:35 +0100
> 1. what were the results with dma on?
I first tried to install with dma on. I got errors
on disk writes and reads, though certainly not on all
of them. It seemed safer to start again with dma off.
> 2. how does fmtarenas fail? what is the error message?
fatal venti/fmtarenas error: can't initialize /dev/sdC0/arenas, writing block
0 failed: can't write partition='/dev/sdC0/arenas': i/o error
done with /dev/sdC0/arenas
fatal venti/fmtisect error: can't initialize /dev/sdC0/isect, writing block 0
failed: can't write partition='/dev/sdC0/isect': i/o error
done with /dev/sdC0/isect
There were errors formatting the indices and arenas.
> 3. how do you verify that the disk driver is hosed?
disk/fdisk claims it can't read the mbr:
The disk you selected HAS NO master boot record on its first sector.
(Perhaps it is a blank disk.)
You need a master boot record to use the disk.
Should we install a default master boot record?
Install mbr (y,n)[no default]:
The mbr was written earlier by disk/fdisk and is read by FreeBSD without
problems. It was read by disk/prep a few minutes before, also without
problems.
> i would try installing with just fossil on a laptop.
I may do that, but I am reluctant to continue without figuring out what
went wrong. From my point of view the error message above means at least
one of the following must be true:
1) my hard disk is bad, or
2) my bios is setting it up incorrectly on boot, or
3) there is a bug in the disk driver
Any of these would be bad and could turn around later and bite me in some
other, worse, way later. I would like to fix this while the problem is
repeatable and the consequences are not too scary.
> - erik
--
John Stalker
School of Mathematics
Trinity College Dublin
tel +353 1 896 1983
fax +353 1 896 2282