install cd not booting (Tecra A11-19[KM])

X

xibo

Hello,

I've got a Toshiba Tecra A11-19M laptop, and am trying to install FreeBSD on it. I tried using the Installation CD Image for 8.1 that I also used to install it on a different computers in the past, but the Laptop keeps rebooting when it should show the boot menu instead (I can't see any error message before it does so).
I've tried using Dragonfly's boot disk which managed to start booting and then crashed right after initializing the second processor core. Booting it without MP support works and DragonflyBSD runs stable, so i thought disabling the second core in the BIOS should fix the FreeBSD booting, however it does not.

I'm not exactly sure what info I should provide and whether i should be posting to the mailing list or bugzilla instead. Is Dragonfly's dmesg any good here? Or the message it issues before crashing with the MP kernel?

Also, is anyone else who also has that laptop encountering similar problems, or is it just me?

Alonso
 
Apparently this is due to a bug of the BTX loader present on the boot CD and DVD (if its output looks somewhat like reported in kern/125722). I found that analysis in the bugtracking database about the issue on some Lenovo machine the other day but can't find it again... The workaround is to install by booting from the network or by using the USB stick image.
 
No success either with the usb stick image: after pressing F12 at boot time, choosing boot from USB in the boot menu fails: it brings me back to my hard disk grub2 menu.\

Usually, I don't have any problem to boot from USB: I tried USB keys with knoppix and aptosid installed, and it works.

It seems that my Tecra A11-10T does not want to let me try FreeBSD!
 
Boot any disc (bootonly should probably be enough) from an older version, then switch discs with the disc1/dvd1 of your choice (in this case 8.1) once sysinstall has started.
By the way, 7.2 had a similar problem so this method might work for you.
 
I tried the bootonly ISOs for both 6.4 and 7.2 but still with no success. After booting on them, something is written on the screen for less than 1 second (too short to see what is written) and then the computer restarts.
 
My Tecra P10 has the same issue, however I can confirm that PXE booting does work. I followed these instructions. What I have not done is actually completed the install and booted into FreeBSD from the hard drive of the laptop.
 
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