CF install, BSODS… Nothings working
-
My CF->IDE adapter arrived today, and I cant get anything to work correctly. Im using a CF sandisk 64MB from 2004, I know this things works perfectly (ive used it in my handheld off and on). I also have a lexar brand CF. Ive even ran a disk check using my seagate utility disk, and it found no problems with it.
My router pc is a SIS530 micro-atx based K6-500. Ive downloaded the embedded .img file. My problem with this, is it seems the only program in existance which can write these files to anything correctly is physdiskwrite. Physdiskwrite, for some reason, only works under windows… That means I had to tear into another pc and hook up the CF adapter. A few hours into googling, I turned up some email archive from monowall I beleive, saying something about rawrite... Rawrite complained that it couldnt figure out the sector size.
The windows computer crashes right and left, even in DOS when trying to format this CF card. I dont know why, but it just wont work in my pc at all. Ive been messing with it for nearly 9 hours and ive managed to crash my pc 5 times in the past half hour (not an exageration). The sandisk seems to work on the K6-500 without problems, I have a feeling the issues with the newer pc might be due to BIOS/drive controller. Either way, the adapter isnt broken and the CF card itself is in great condition, hardly used.
Is there any possible way I can write the darn image to the CF card in dos?
-
You need at least a 128 MB cf-card for the embedded image of pfSense. See http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Installing_pfSense how to write the embedded image from various Operating Systems.
-
You need at least a 128 MB cf-card for the embedded image of pfSense. See http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Installing_pfSense how to write the embedded image from various Operating Systems.
Is there any possible way I can write the darn image to the CF card in dos?
-
http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Installing_pfSense#Windows
-
From http://m0n0.ch/wall/physdiskwrite.php :
This is a small Windows NT/2000/XP command line tool that makes it possible to write disk images onto raw disks, like CF cards. It currently has a few rough edges, most notably in the selection of the device to be written – you have to decide which device is the right one by looking at the C/H/S values (though if the CF card was the last device to be connected to the system, it usually shows up as the last one in the list). Note that the C/H/S values may be incorrect for CF cards – looks like this is a bug in Windows. There is some protection against accidentally overwriting your hard disk, but then again, I CAN'T TAKE ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR LOST DATA – YOU USE THIS PROGRAM ON YOUR OWN RISK.
physdiskwrite won't work under dos.
-
You don't need to format the card. Like said above you need a 128mb card. To make life easier get yourself a usb compact flash card adapter. Just plug it in use the physdiskwrite program in windows and your good to go.
-
all I was looking for, is a way to write the image to the CF disk in dos. And, im not looking to spend money on a usb CF adapter, since its something I will use once… I consider that a waste of money.
Ill just install windows NT4 or 95 on the thing, looks like that might be the easiest way to go.
-
all I was looking for, is a way to write the image to the CF disk in dos. And, im not looking to spend money on a usb CF adapter, since its something I will use once… I consider that a waste of money.
Ill just install windows NT4 or 95 on the thing, looks like that might be the easiest way to go.
Why not use a knoppix or freesbie which are live cds. Just stick it in, reboot and you can use dd to write the image.
Also how do you figure this is a one time procedure. Updates don't always go as expected and I will tell you that it gets to be a pain to have to crack open the computer case to write the image when you can just do it on the fly from windows. I guess I find 10 bucks well worth saving the effort of swapping cables around.
-
I installed windows and got the pfsense-embedded image onto the CF, but now its either taking a very long time to boot, or something is wrong. It gets to the part where it loading the config file (this is seconds after it starts to load freebsd), and just sits there doing absolutley nothing after several minutes. the computer isnt locked up, I can hit control alt delete, turn the numlock on/off.
-
The embedded image forwards the console output to the serial port. If you are using a monitor your not going to see anything after it starts to load freebsd.