Re: Install problems on Sony VAIO PCG-GR300

On Wed, 2002-03-27 at 18:05, Chip Marshall wrote:
> Hello everybody, I just got a shiny new VAIO PCG-GR300 yesterday with
> Windows XP Home installed, so naturally the first thing I tried to do
> was install FreeBSD 4.5-R from the FreeBSD Mall CD's. The laptop
> shipped with a FAT partition and an NTFS partition (latter in an
> extended partition.) I used Partition Magic to cut the NTFS partition
> in half, creating a third primary unformatted partition.
> 
> At this point, I can reboot and everything seems happy.
> 
> I then pop in the FreeBSD install CD, and go though the install
> procedure. I install onto the new 3rd primary partition, and tell it
> not to install a boot loader, intending to use WinXP's loader. The
> install goes fine and everything seems happy. However, when I reboot
> I'm greeted by a nice and friendly "Missing operating system" message.
> 
> I've been through this twice today. The first time I popped in the
> Sony Recovery CD's, and did a full restore. I tried a partial restore
> first, but it didn't work, same error message. It seems that the
> partition table is wonky, since the restore program complains that D:
> is missing.
> 
> Any ideas?

You're not going to be happy with this, but I bought a GR-370, and ended
up getting rid of it since I never did get things working very well.  I
was able to install 4.5-RELEASE, -stable, and -current on the laptop
(4.4-REL does _not_ work).  I was not able to get sound working at all. 
I could only get X working on -stable, but it may work on -current now.

I first installed on the whole disk.  Then, I blew everything away, and
restored just the C: drive from the Sony disks.  After that, I installed
FreeBSD on the remaining partition.  I used the Standard boot manager
selection.  The laptop booted, and was pretty fast, but I wanted sound
for my DVDs.

If you think the boot sector might be corrupt, try an fdisk /mbr from a
boot diskette.  You can also use sysinstall from the install floppy to
set the XP partition to be active.

Joe

> 
> -- 
> Chip Marshall <[email protected]>               http://www.chocobo.cx/chip/
> GCM/CS d+(-) s+:++ a20>? C++ UB++++$ P+++$ L- E--- W++ N@ o K- w O M+ V--
> PS+ PE Y+ PGP+ t+@ 5 X R@ tv+() b++>+++ DI++++ D(-) G++ e>++ h->++ r++ y-

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