[H-GEN] Configuring a Kernel

[Frank Brand]

[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and ]
[ Unix-related topics.  Please observe the list's charter.          ]

On Mon, 01 May 2000, you wrote:
> [ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and ]
> [ Unix-related topics.  Please observe the list's charter.          ]

> I am fairly confident in figuring out kernel for my IBM Thinkpad i Series
> 300.  The problem I have is the understanding of how to rescue the machine
> back to the kernel.old.  Could someone please give me the pathway to follow
> after the panic message or possibly give me instructions on how to create a
> boot disk that will get me back to login of the kernel.old.

I am not quite sure what you mean here. All the kernel panics I have seen have
proved fairly terminal.

If I understand you correctly you had Linux on your machine and installed
FreeBSD to it. Did you use a second partition, did you use lilo or did you make
a boot disk?

If you made a boot disk you should be able to just put it in and boot the
machine and it will boot off the disk if your boot sequence is A then C. You
should not need to mount the disk at the boot stage. It sounds like maybe you
have some corrupted files or unusual pathways. Just make sure that the machine
will boot off the A: drive first. If you have the C: drive set before the A:
drive you may run into a few problems. If you have used separate partitions and
not destroyed the old Linux (I presume it is Linux) partition then once you can
boot up you will be able to edit the lilo.conf file and then run lilo or
/sbin/lilo or whereever your lilo is


> After using FreeBSD for under a week I have got a fair way and I just don't
> want to loose it.
> 
> Also on pressing in the command 'mount /fd0' I am always getting an error
> saying no file type set.  How do I access my floppy in UNIX, can someone
> help?

Generally the mount command is run after bootup and for a floppy drive in most
distributions is

mount -type (if necessary) /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

presuming you have the floppy mounted on the /mnt/floppy mount point.

eg if you are mounting a DOS floppy it will be

mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

If you are mounting a floppy already set up in your fstab file then

mount /mnt/floppy should do the trick. The latest distributions use automount
so if you just cd to the /mnt/floppy directory it should mount OK anyway.

Maybe if you can elaborate a bit more on your setup I might be able to bemore
helpful if I have missed your point.

  -- 
Frank Brand
E-mail:- fbrand at uq.net.au
Home Page:-http://www.uq.net.au/~zzfbrand

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