7.0BETA3 + Dell Latitude XPi : Disk problem

freebsd-mobile@,
( bcc'd [email protected] for info )
Suggestions please to help escape nightmare (below) of 7.0BETA3 installer
repeatedly failing on a Dell Latitude XPi, (which runs 4.11 no problem).
It seems the 5,6,7 FreeBSD Installer wont work on this laptop.
All I can think of now for this laptop is:
   Reinstall 4.11
   Abandon FreeBSD installer for this laptop
   Hand allocate an Fdisk S2
   Hand partition disklabel ad0s2
   Hand install boot sectors
   Hand newfs ad0s2a & f (but UFS2 or 1 ?)
   Hand cross install a complete 7.0BETA3 operational tree
   Hand edit /boot/loader.conf
   Test. & tune boot & loader.conf till disk & pcmcia ep0 work.
   Report back to re@ more conservative values
   (by which time they may well have shipped release).
Other ideas ?

Note I have installed 7.0BETA3 on other hosts.

Detail with 7.0BETA3 below (previous history with 6.2 here:
   	http://www.berklix.com/~jhs/hardware/laptops/#dell	)
===========================

   After continuously failing to persuade 7 installer to do any of
   	- install to hard disk OK,
   	- recognise & use pcmcia ep0	OR
   	- recognise & use pcmcia cdrom card & avoid deathly timeouts
   (& each failure each time needing 7 floppy changes. )
   
   So I gave up on pcmcia ep0 & pcmcia cdrom to install from, and
   Deleted all fdsik partions
   Installed 4.11 fresh on first 1.5G partition,
   copied 4.11 CD to /usr/cd
   Booted 7 floppies (yet Again)
   set hw.ata.ata_dma=0
   boot
   	( About 5 mins wait after it says toot@logan ... sys/GENERIC
   	   before "real memory" )
   `A' utomatic disklabel fails, (thinks 2.5G insufficient for /usr),
   Manually
   	300G root
   	leave 90M swap found from 4.11
   	Rest of space for /usr
   	Mount old partions as /4 /4/var /4/tmp /4/usr
   Install from filesystem /4/usr/cd
   Finished with no errors.
   Reboot
   F2 refused, so push F1 to boot 4.11 to look:
   # disklabel ad0s2
   
   # cd /dev ; ./MAKEDEV ad0s2a
   fsck ad0s2a
   	BAD SUPER BLOCK: MAGIC NUMBER WRONG
   	LOOK FOR ALTERNATE SUPERBLOCKS ? [yn]
   y
   
   # fsck -b 32 /dev/ad0s2a
   Alternate super block location: 32
   ** /dev/ad0s2a
   BAD SUPER BLOCK: MAGIC NUMBER WRONG
   
   # uname -a
   FreeBSD norb.js.berklix.net 4.11-RELEASE FreeBSD 4.11-RELEASE #0: Fri Jan 21 17:21:22 GMT 2005     [email protected]:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  i386
   
   # dmesg
   Copyright (c) 1992-2005 The FreeBSD Project.
   Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
           The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
   FreeBSD 4.11-RELEASE #0: Fri Jan 21 17:21:22 GMT 2005
       [email protected]:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC
   Timecounter "i8254"  frequency 1193182 Hz
   CPU: Pentium/P54C (133.64-MHz 586-class CPU)
     Origin = "GenuineIntel"  Id = 0x52c  Stepping = 12
     Features=0x1bf<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,MCE,CX8>
   real memory  = 58720256 (57344K bytes)
   config> di bt0
   config> di aic0
   config> di aha0
   config> di adv0
   config> q
   avail memory = 51699712 (50488K bytes)
   Preloaded elf kernel "kernel" at 0xc055c000.
   Preloaded userconfig_script "/boot/kernel.conf" at 0xc055c09c.
   Intel Pentium detected, installing workaround for F00F bug
   md0: Malloc disk
   npx0: <math processor> on motherboard
   npx0: INT 16 interface
   pcib0: <Host to PCI bridge> on motherboard
   pci0: <PCI bus> on pcib0
   isab0: <PCI to ISA bridge (vendor=1066 device=8002)> at device 6.0 on pci0
   isa0: <ISA bus> on isab0
   pci0: <NeoMagic model 0001 VGA-compatible display device> at 7.0 irq 15
   atapci0: <Generic PCI ATA controller> port 0xfe00-0xfe0f irq 14 at device 8.0 on
    pci0
   ata0: at 0x1f0 irq 14 on atapci0
   ata1: at 0x170 irq 15 on atapci0
   orm0: <Option ROM> at iomem 0xc0000-0xcbfff on isa0
   pmtimer0 on isa0
   fdc0: <NEC 72065B or clone> at port 0x3f0-0x3f5,0x3f7 irq 6 drq 2 on isa0
   fdc0: FIFO enabled, 8 bytes threshold
   fd0: <1440-KB 3.5" drive> on fdc0 drive 0
   atkbdc0: <Keyboard controller (i8042)> at port 0x60,0x64 on isa0
   atkbd0: <AT Keyboard> flags 0x1 irq 1 on atkbdc0
   kbd0 at atkbd0
   psm0: <PS/2 Mouse> irq 12 on atkbdc0
   psm0: model Generic PS/2 mouse, device ID 0
   vga0: <Generic ISA VGA> at port 0x3c0-0x3df iomem 0xa0000-0xbffff on isa0
   sc0: <System console> at flags 0x100 on isa0
   sc0: VGA <16 virtual consoles, flags=0x300>
   pcic0: <Vadem 469> at port 0x3e0 iomem 0xd0000 on isa0
   pcic0: Polling mode
   pccard0: <PC Card 16-bit bus (classic)> on pcic0
   pccard1: <PC Card 16-bit bus (classic)> on pcic0
   sio0 at port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0x10 on isa0
   sio0: type 16550A
   sio1: configured irq 3 not in bitmap of probed irqs 0
   ppc0: <Parallel port> at port 0x378-0x37f irq 7 on isa0
   ppc0: Generic chipset (ECP/PS2/NIBBLE) in COMPATIBLE mode
   ppc0: FIFO with 16/16/8 bytes threshold
   plip0: <PLIP network interface> on ppbus0
   lpt0: <Printer> on ppbus0
   lpt0: Interrupt-driven port
   ppi0: <Parallel I/O> on ppbus0
   ad0: 3909MB <TOSHIBA MK4006MAV> [7944/16/63] at ata0-master WDMA2
   Mounting root from ufs:/dev/ad0s1a
   pccard: card inserted, slot 1
   ep0: <3Com Etherlink III 3C589> at port 0x240-0x24f irq 3 slot 1 on pccard1
   ep0: Ethernet address 00:60:97:90:fe:93
   
   # fdisk
   ******* Working on device /dev/ad0 *******
   parameters extracted from in-core disklabel are:
   cylinders=7944 heads=16 sectors/track=63 (1008 blks/cyl)
   
   Figures below won't work with BIOS for partitions not in cyl 1
   
   parameters to be used for BIOS calculations are:
   cylinders=7944 heads=16 sectors/track=63 (1008 blks/cyl)
   
   Media sector size is 512
   Warning: BIOS sector numbering starts with sector 1
   Information from DOS bootblock is:
   The data for partition 1 is:
   sysid 165,(FreeBSD/NetBSD/386BSD)
       start 63, size 2999745 (1464 Meg), flag 80 (active)
           beg: cyl 0/ head 1/ sector 1;
           end: cyl 1023/ head 15/ sector 63
   The data for partition 2 is:
   sysid 165,(FreeBSD/NetBSD/386BSD)
       start 2999808, size 5007744 (2445 Meg), flag 80 (active)
           beg: cyl 1023/ head 255/ sector 63;
           end: cyl 1023/ head 15/ sector 63
   The data for partition 3 is:
   <UNUSED>
   The data for partition 4 is:
   <UNUSED>
   
   Next Attempt Failed too, as above, but with changes:
      Not manually typing	set hw.ata.ata_dma=0
      	(else as on other laptops, 7 thinks whole disk is free)
      but more comprehensively
      	"Safe Boot"	(also does hw.ata.wc
      	Ref my http://www.berklix.com/~jhs/hardware/laptops/#loader.conf )
      In fdisk delete S2 & 'C' recreate & 'S' mark bootable & 'Q'
      This time not "Leave MBR untouched" but "Install the FreeBSD Boot Manager"
   
      After succesfull install with no errors, reboot, & again both F1 & F2
      boots fail, beeping.

Ideas ?

Julian
--
Julian Stacey. Munich Consultant: BSD Unix Linux. http://berklix.com
        Ihr Rauch=mein allergischer Kopfschmerz. Dump cigs 4 snuff.
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