Cannot boot from livecd

[kodimar]

Hi i'm attempting to install pf on a computer.  The problem is that i'm getting the following error when trying to boot from the cd:

**Manual root filesystem specification:

Trying to Mount root from cd96660:/dev/iso9660/pfsense
<fstype>:<device>  Mount <device>using filesystem <fstype>eg. ufs:da0s1a
  ?                  List valid disk boot devices
  <empty line="">       Abort manual input

mountroot> ?

List of GEOM managed disk devices:

ad8 ad4
Manual root filesystem specification:
  <fstype>:<device>  Mount <device>using filesystem <fstype>eg. ufs:da0s1a
  ?                  List valid disk boot devices
  <empty line="">       Abort manual input

mountroot></empty></fstype></device></device></fstype></empty></fstype></device></device></fstype>**

The funny thing is i had pf running earlier but i replace the motherboard with an Asus A8V-XE because i needed more pci slots and now it won't even boot the live cd.   Other than the motherboard nothing has changed.  I've switched the motherboard to use AHCI mode and LBA.

As i'm writing this i just had a thought, is it trying to write to the hard drive and erroring out because it doesn't have a file system on it?

Any ideas?  Let me know if i left out any useful information.

Thank you,
Kodimar

[David_W]

If you're using pfSense 1.2-RELEASE, that's based around FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE, which is too old to understand AHCI.

Your best bet is to try the pfSense.iso.gz found at http://cvs.pfsense.org/~sullrich/testing_images/6/FreeBSD_RELENG_6_3/pfSense_RELENG_1_2/ - which is pfSense 1.2-RELEASE built on top of FreeBSD 6.3-RELEASE. That should be new enough to understand your hardware. (You will need to ungzip the image and burn it to a CD).

The forthcoming pfSense 1.2.1 will be pfSense 1.2 plus bugfixes on top of FreeBSD 6.3-RELEASE. I'm using the image mentioned in the last paragraph in production.

It might be that you have to switch out of AHCI even with an image based on FreeBSD 6.3-RELEASE, but I'd try this image in AHCI mode first.

[kodimar]

Ok, I'll give that a shot thanks.

[kodimar]

Still didn't work.  Any other ideas?

[David_W]

Switch the motherboard out of AHCI mode and try with the image I posted the link to. Any luck?

[kodimar]

Yeah I tried that too.  What i ended up doing was putting the hard drive in my work (dell vostro) pc, installed from there then moved the hard drive back to the original computer.

Thanks for the help.