freebsd-dev/release/texts/TROUBLE.TXT

===============
Troubleshooting
===============

 Table of Contents:

   Repairing an Existing FreeBSD Installation

   Common Installation Problems, Q&A

   Common Hardware Problems, Q&A

Repairing an Existing FreeBSD Installation
------------------------------------------

FreeBSD releases 2.2.1 and later feature a "Fixit" option in the top
menu of the boot floppy.  To use it, you will also need either a
fixit.flp image floppy, generated in the same fashion as the boot
floppy, or the 2nd CDROM from Walnut Creek CDROM's FreeBSD
distribution.

To invoke fixit, simply boot the kern.flp floppy, choose the "Fixit"
item and insert the fixit floppy or CDROM when asked.  You will then
be placed into a shell with a wide variety of commands available (in
the /stand and /mnt2/stand directories) for checking, repairing and
examining file systems and their contents.  Some UNIX administration
experience *is* required to use the fixit option!

Common Installation Problems, Q&A
---------------------------------

Q: I go to boot from the hard disk for the first time after installing
   FreeBSD, the kernel loads and probes my hardware, but stops with
   messages like:

     changing root device to wd1s1a
     panic: cannot mount root

   What is wrong?  What can I do?

Q: What is this 'bios_drive:interface(unit,partition)kernel_name' thing
   that is displayed with the boot help?

A: There is a longstanding problem in the case where the boot disk is
   not the first disk in the system.  The BIOS uses a different numbering
   scheme to FreeBSD, and working out which numbers correspond to which
   is difficult to get right.

   In the case where the boot disk is not the first disk in the system,
   FreeBSD can need some help finding it.  There are two common situations
   here, and in both of these cases, you need to tell FreeBSD where the 
   root filesystem is.  You do this by specifying the BIOS disk number, 
   the disk type and the FreeBSD disk number for that type.

   The first situation is where you have two IDE disks, each configured as
   the master on their respective IDE busses, and wish to boot FreeBSD from
   the second disk.  The BIOS sees these as disk 0 and disk 1, while 
   FreeBSD sees them as wd0 and wd2.

   FreeBSD is on BIOS disk 1, of type 'wd' and the FreeBSD disk number
   is 2, so you would say:

     1:wd(2,a)kernel

   Note that if you have a slave on the primary bus, the above is not
   necessary (and is effectively wrong).

   The second situation involves booting from a SCSI disk when you have
   one or more IDE disks in the system.  In this case, the FreeBSD disk
   number is lower than the BIOS disk number.  If you have two IDE disks
   as well as the SCSI disk, the SCSI disk is BIOS disk 2, type 'da' and
   FreeBSD disk number 0, so you would say:

     2:da(0,a)kernel

   To tell FreeBSD that you want to boot from BIOS disk 2, which is
   the first SCSI disk in the system.  If you only had one IDE disk,
   you would use '1:' instead.

   Once you have determined the correct values to use, you can put the
   command exactly as you would have typed it in the /boot.config file
   using a standard text editor.
   Unless instructed otherwise, FreeBSD will use the contents of this
   file as the default response to the 'boot:' prompt.

Q: I go to boot from the hard disk for the first time after installing
   FreeBSD, but the Boot Manager prompt just prints `F?' at the boot menu
   each time but the boot won't go any further.

A: The hard disk geometry was set incorrectly in the Partition editor when
   you installed FreeBSD.  Go back into the partition editor and specify
   the actual geometry of your hard disk.  You must reinstall FreeBSD
   again from the beginning with the correct geometry.

   If you are failing entirely in figuring out the correct geometry for
   your machine, here's a tip:  Install a small DOS partition at the
   beginning of the disk and install FreeBSD after that.  The install
   program will see the DOS partition and try to infer the correct
   geometry from it, which usually works.

   The following tip is no longer recommended, but is left here
   for reference:

     If you are setting up a truly dedicated FreeBSD server or work-
     station where you don't care for (future) compatibility with DOS,
     Linux or another operating system, you've also got the option to use
     the entire disk (`A' in the partition editor), selecting the
     non-standard option where FreeBSD occupies the entire disk from
     the very first to the very last sector.  This will leave all geometry
     considerations aside, but is somewhat limiting unless you're never
     going to run anything other than FreeBSD on a disk.


Known Hardware Problems, Q & A
------------------------------

Q: mcd0 keeps thinking that it has found a device and this stops my Intel
   EtherExpress card from working.

A: Use the UserConfig utility (see HARDWARE.TXT) and disable the probing of
   the mcd0 and mcd1 devices.  Generally speaking, you should only leave
   the devices that you will be using enabled in your kernel.


Q: FreeBSD claims to support the 3Com PCMCIA card, but my card isn't
   recognized when it's plugged into my laptop.

A: There are a couple of possible problems.  First of all, FreeBSD does
   not support multi-function cards, so if you have a combo
   ethernet/modem card (such as the 3C562), it won't work.  The
   default driver for the 3C589 card was written just like all of the
   other drivers in FreeBSD, and depend on the card's own configuration
   data stored in NVRAM to work.  You must correctly configure FreeBSD's
   driver to match the IRQ, port, and IOMEM stored in NVRAM.
       Unfortunately, the only program capable of reading them is the
   3COM supplied DOS program.  This program must be run on a absolutely
   clean system (no other drivers must be running), and the program will
   whine about CARD-Services not being found, but it will continue.
   This is necessary to read the NVRAM values.  You want to know the
   IRQ, port, and IOMEM values (the latter is called the CIS tuple by
   3COM).  The first two can be set in the program, the third is
   un-settable, and can only be read.  Once you have these values, set
   them in UserConfig and your card will be recognized.


Q: FreeBSD finds my PCMCIA network card, but no packets appear to
   be sent even though it claims to be working.

A: Many PCMCIA cards have the ability to use either the 10-Base2 (BNC)
   or 10-BaseT connectors for connecting to the network.  The driver is
   unable to 'auto-select' the correct connector, so you must tell it
   which connector to use. In order to switch between the two
   connectors, the link flags must be set.  Depending on the model of
   the card, '-link0 link1' or 'link0 -link1' will choose the correct
   network connector.  You can set these in sysinstall by using the
   'Extra options to ifconfig:' field in the network setup screen.


Q: The system finds my ed network card, but I keep getting device 
   timeout errors.

A: Your card is probably on a different IRQ from what is specified in the
   kernel configuration.  The ed driver does not use the `soft' configuration
   by default (values entered using EZSETUP in DOS), but it will use the
   software configuration if you specify `?' in the IRQ field of your kernel
   config file.  

   Either move the jumper on the card to a hard configuration setting
   (altering the kernel settings if necessary), or specify the IRQ as
   `-1' in UserConfig or `?' in your kernel config file.  This will
   tell the kernel to use the soft configuration.

   Another possibility is that your card is at IRQ 9, which is shared
   by IRQ 2 and frequently a cause of problems (especially when you
   have a VGA card using IRQ 2! :).  You should not use IRQ 2 or 9 if at
   all possible.


Q: I have a Matsushita/Panasonic drive but it isn't recognized by the
   system.

A: Make certain that the I/O port that the matcd driver is set to is
   correct for the host interface card you have.  (Some SoundBlaster DOS
   drivers report a hardware I/O port address for the CD-ROM interface
   that is 0x10 lower than it really is.)

   If you are unable to determine the settings for the card by examining 
   the board or documentation, you can use UserConfig to change the 'port'
   address (I/O port) to -1 and start the system.  This setting causes the
   driver to look at a number of I/O ports that various manufacturers
   use for their Matsushita/Panasonic/Creative CD-ROM interfaces.
   Once the driver locates the address, you should run UserConfig again
   and specify the correct address.  Leaving the 'port' parameter set to -1
   increases the amount of time that it takes the system to boot, and
   this could interfere with other devices.

   The double-speed Matsushita CR-562 and CR-563 are the only drives
   that are supported.
   

Q: I booted the install floppy on my IBM ThinkPad (tm) laptop, and the
   keyboard is all messed up.

A: Older IBM laptops use a non-standard keyboard controller, so you must
   tell the keyboard driver (atkbd0) to go into a special mode which works
   on the ThinkPads.  Change the atkbd0 'Flags' to 0x4 in UserConfig and
   it should work fine.  (Look in the Input Menu for 'Keyboard'.)


Q: When I try to boot the install floppy, I see the following message 
   and nothing seems to be happening.  I cannot enter anything from
   the keyboard either.

     Keyboard: no

A: Due to lack of space, full support for old XT/AT (84-key) keyboards 
   is no longer available in the bootblocks.  Some notebook computers may
   also have this type of keyboard.  If you are still using this kind of 
   hardware, you will see the above message appears when you boot from 
   the CD-ROM or an install floppy.

   As soon as you see this message, hit the space bar, and you will see
   the prompt:

     >> FreeBSD/i386 BOOT
     Default: x:xx(x,x)/boot/loader 
     boot:

   Then enter `-Dh', and things should proceed normally.


Q: I have a Matsushita/Panasonic CR-522, a Matsushita/Panasonic CR-523 or
   a TEAC CD55a drive, but it is not recognized even when the correct I/O
   port is set.

A: These CD-ROM drives are currently not supported by FreeBSD.  The command
   sets for these drives are not compatible with the double-speed CR-562
   and CR-563 drives.
   
   The single-speed CR-522 and CR-523 drives can be identified by their
   use of a CD-caddy. 


Q: I'm trying to install from a tape drive but all I get is something like:
        sa0(aha0:1:0) NOT READY csi 40,0,0,0
   on the screen.  Help!

A: There's a limitation in the current sysinstall that the tape MUST
   be in the drive while sysinstall is started or it won't be detected.
   Try again with the tape in the drive the whole time.


Q: I've installed FreeBSD onto my system, but it hangs when booting from 
   the hard drive with the message: ``Changing root to /dev/da0a''.

A: This problem may occur in a system with a 3com 3c509 Ethernet adaptor.
   The ep0 device driver appears to be sensitive to probes for other
   devices that also use address 0x300.  Boot your FreeBSD system by power
   cycling the machine (turn off and on).  At the ``Boot:'' prompt specify
   the ``-c''.  This will invoke UserConfig (see Section 1. above).  Use
   the ``disable'' command to disable the device probes for all devices
   at address 0x300 except the ep0 driver.   On exit, your machine should
   successfully boot FreeBSD.


Q: My system hangs during boot, right after the "fd0: [my floppy drive]"
   line.

A: This is not actually a hang, simply a very LONG "wdc0" probe that
   often takes a long time to complete on certain systems (where there
   usually _isn't_ a WD controller).  Be patient, your system will boot!
   To eliminate the problem, boot with the -c flag and eliminate the wdc0
   device, or compile a custom kernel.


Q: My system can not find my Intel EtherExpress 16 card.

A: You must set your Intel EtherExpress 16 card to be memory mapped at
   address 0xD0000, and set the amount of mapped memory to 32K using
   the Intel supplied softset.exe program.


Q: When installing on an EISA HP Netserver, my on-board AIC-7xxx
   SCSI controller isn't detected.

A: This is a known problem, and will hopefully be fixed in the future.
   In order to get your system installed at all, boot with the -c
   option into UserConfig, but _don't_ use the pretty visual mode but
   the plain old CLI mode.  Type

        eisa 12
        quit

   there at the prompt.  (Instead of `quit', you might also type
   `visual', and continue the rest of the configuration session in
   visual mode.)  While it's recommended to compile a custom kernel,
   dset(8) now also understands to save this value.

   Refer to the FAQ topic 3.16 for an explanation of the problem, and
   for how to continue.  Remember that you can find the FAQ on your
   local system in /usr/share/doc/FAQ, provided you have installed the
   `doc' distribution.


Q: I have a Panasonic AL-N1 or Rios Chandler Pentium machine and I find
   that the system hangs before ever getting into the installation
   now.

A: Your machine doesn't like the new i586_copyout and i586_copyin code
   for some reason.  To disable this, boot the installation boot floppy
   and when it comes to the very first menu (the choice to drop into
   kernel UserConfig mode or not) choose the command-line interface
   ("expert mode") version and type the following at it:

        flags npx0 1

   Then proceed normally to boot.  This will be saved into your kernel,
   so you only need to do it once.


Q: I have this CMD640 IDE controller that is said to be broken.

A: Yes, it is.  There's a workaround available now and it is enabled
   automatically if this chip is used on your system.
   For the details refer to the manual page of the disk driver (man 4 wd).


Q: On a Compaq Aero notebook, I get the message "No floppy devices found!
   Please check ..." when trying to install from floppy.

A: With Compaq being always a little different from other systems, they
   do not announce their floppy drive in the CMOS RAM of an Aero notebook.
   Therefore, the floppy disk driver assumes there is no drive configured.
   Go to the UserConfig screen, and set the Flags value of the fdc0 device
   to 0x1.  This pretends the existence of the first floppy drive (as a
   1.44 MB drive) to the driver without asking the CMOS at all.


Q: When I go to boot my Intel AL440LX ("Atlanta") -based system from the
   hard disk the first time, it stops with a "Read Error" message.

A: There appears to be a bug in the BIOS on at least some of these boards,
   this bug results in the FreeBSD bootloader thinking that it is booting
   from a floppy disk.
   This is only a problem if you are not using the BootEasy boot manager.
   Slice the disk in 'compatible' mode and install BootEasy during the
   FreeBSD installation to avoid the bug, or upgrade the BIOS (see Intel's
   website for details).

Q: When installing on an Dell Poweredge XE, Dell proprietary RAID controller
   DSA (Dell SCSI Array) isn't recognized.

A: Configure DSA to use AHA-1540 emulation using EISA configuration utility.
   After that FreeBSD detects DSA as Adaptec AHA-1540 SCSI controller, with
   irq 11 and port 340. Under emulation mode system will use DSA RAID disks,
   but you cannot use DSA specific features such as watching RAID health.


Q: My Ethernet adapter is detected as an AMD PCnet-FAST (or similar) but
   it doesn't work.  (Eg. onboard Ethernet on IBM Netfinity 5xxx or 7xxx)

A: The 'lnc' driver is currently faulty, and will often not work correctly
   with the PCnet-FAST and PCnet-FAST+.  You need to install a different
   Ethernet adapter.


Q: I have an IBM EtherJet PCI card, it is detected by the 'fxp' driver 
   correctly, but the lights on the card don't come on and it doesn't
   connect to the network.

A: We don't understand why this happens.  Neither do IBM (we asked them).
   The card is a standard Intel EtherExpress Pro/100 with an IBM label
   on it, and these cards normally work just fine.  You may see these
   symptoms only in some IBM Netfinity servers.  The only solution is to
   install a different Ethernet adapter.


Q: When I configure the network during installation on an IBM Netfinity
   3500, the system freezes.

A: There is a problem with the onboard Ethernet in the Netfinity 3500
   which we have not been able to identify at this time.  It may be
   related to the SMP features of the system being misconfigured.  You
   will have to install another Ethernet adapter and avoid attempting
   to configure the onboard adapter at any time.

Q: When I install to my Mylex RAID controller and reboot, I get a register
   dump, or the system is extremely slow in booting.

A: Due to incompatibilities between the Mylex BIOS and the FreeBSD
   bootloader, the Mylex BIOS must be disabled.  This means that you 
   cannot boot from a RAID array at this time.

Q: When I install to my AMI RAID controller and reboot, the kernel 
   cannot mount root, even though the AMI controller was detected.

A: On some systems, the AMI controller doesn't work as the driver expects
   when it has been booted from.  This results in the array being
   unreadable.  The only current workaround is to boot from another disk.

[ Please send hardware tips for this Q&A section to jkh@freebsd.org ]