Problems loading FreeBSD 5.2 on HP-RX2600

[Marcel Moolenaar]

On Wed, Jan 14, 2004 at 06:23:57PM +0100, Claus Guttesen wrote:
> > really do want to install to the disk I get the
> > following errors:
> > 
> > ERROR: Unable to write data to disk da0!
> > Couldn't make filesystem properly. Aborting.
> 
> I can't help you, I can only verify that I have the
> same error as you mention.

(Hi Mark :-)
 
The problem is very likely an uninitialized variable in the installer.
After the Protective MBR has been written to the disk (this should be
verifiable) the function bogusly returns a non-zero value which aborts
the operation. Unfortunately there's no work-around for it, other than
of course to pre-partition the disk. I have a fix in the pipeline, but
it also means I have to build a new snapshot and I really want to test
it first :-)

This is typically a bug that you normally catch by testing the BETAs and
release candidates (RCs). I didn't get any reports and I didn't had a
chance to test it myself (I didn't had a spare disk that I could clobber).

CALL TO ARMS: to avoid this in the future, we need people who can and
will test the BETAs and RCs. At a minimum it should be possible to do
an install and end up with a (sufficiently) functioning OS. It doesn't
take a lot of work to help out: keep an eye on announcements, download
the corresponding ISO image, burn it to CD and perform an install.

-- 
 Marcel Moolenaar	  USPA: A-39004		 marcel at xcllnt.net