cannot boot 5.3 after power failure - major bug?

[Danny Howard]

stheg olloydson wrote:

>
>Thanks for the reply. I had tried that and kept getting the
>"invalid format" error. I am puzzled by the fact that I can get
>a directory list, but the boot loader thinks the format is
>wrong. Also it seems to be looking in /kernel and not
>/boot/kernel/.
>
stheg,

Is this a system that has been upgraded?  My guess is that your boot 
loader was installed or configured for an earlier version of FreeBSD, 
where /kernel used to be the place to go ... and maybe you just don't 
reboot all the much, or something got knocked loose in the times before 
the power outage.  At any rate ... check the handbook for how to replace 
your MBR (typically needed after installing Windows) which might do the 
trick.  Otherwise, it is maybe missing some crucial hint from a file 
that got clobbered from the /boot or /kernel directories or something?  
I'd like to think that that will get fixed when you upgrade to 5.4. :)

(If you really want to know the answer, find a good resource on FreeBSD 
bootstrap process.  There have been changes these past few years, so I'm 
pretty sure people have been writing about this ...)

Best Wishes,
-danny

-- 
http://dannyman.toldme.com/