Sorry if I missed finding this in a previously-covered topic, but I looked, and it didn't jump out at me. Anyway...
My MSI motherboard with VIA Unichrome graphics died a week or so ago. The computer would no longer send any information to the monitor even during the pre-boot sequence, the hard drive wasn't making the normal bootup sounds, and the power supply voltages checked out fine (in fact, that power supply is currently working fine in *this* PC). So, I've ordered another motherboard/CPU/Fan combo, but this one has the nvidia Nforce3 graphics chipset. What steps to I need to take in preparation for trying to get my system going again with the hard drive that held my PCBSD settings and data on the new motherboard?
Basically none, just plug in your hard drive and PC-BSD should just boot normally.
There are a few things to consider:
o Make sure you have your hard disk in the same slot (e.g. primary master), if you use a different slot the device numbers will change and PC-BSD will no longer be able to find the root drive (In this case you can still boot and edit /etc/fstab, but this is more complicated).
o I'm not sure how drivers/modules are loaded in PC-BSD, but you may need to change things like the sound driver -- Again, I'm not sure how PC-BSD handles this.
o You can't run the amd64 version on a i386 (vice versa should work).
You'll probably need to regenerate an (/etc/X11/)xorg.conf file for the new graphics card at a minimal. When the system boots you should have an option for setting up the display in the menu (where it has the stuff like booting w/ acpi disabled, safe mode, etc)
Assuming the same NIC(s) and other then what Carpetsmoker pointed out I doubt you'll have any problems unless you had to modify things from the defaults to get your old hardware working (loader.conf, device.hints, etc).
Someone like DragnLordd or Antik would know better then I would if there are any hidden 'gotchas' tucked away that I've never seen.
It should boot as long the hard drive is in the same position as the with the old motherboard.
You may have to edit /boot/loader.conf after it boots to change drivers for sound device.
If it does not boot, post back about it with a different topic. If it goes well, post about that in this topic, we'd like to know that also.
__________________
add [SOLVED] to topics with solutions
psearch: use it, love it
Copyright 2005-2010, The PC-BSD Project. PC-BSD and the PC-BSD logo are registered trademarks of iXsystems. All other content is freely available for sharing under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.
changing motherboards
Linear Mode
