From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Mar 2 23:18:51 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0BA2F16A420 for ; Thu, 2 Mar 2006 23:18:51 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from kdk@daleco.biz) Received: from ezekiel.daleco.biz (southernuniform.com [66.76.92.18]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 82C9543D45 for ; Thu, 2 Mar 2006 23:18:48 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from kdk@daleco.biz) Received: from [192.168.2.2] ([69.27.149.254]) by ezekiel.daleco.biz (8.13.4/8.13.1) with ESMTP id k22NHepK017016; Thu, 2 Mar 2006 17:18:01 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from kdk@daleco.biz) Message-ID: <44077D0A.9080406@daleco.biz> Date: Thu, 02 Mar 2006 17:17:30 -0600 From: Kevin Kinsey User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20060127 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "Bryan E. Henning" References: <004b01c63e47$86ecbde0$51ae2747@approved> In-Reply-To: <004b01c63e47$86ecbde0$51ae2747@approved> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: installation configuration X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 02 Mar 2006 23:18:51 -0000 Bryan E. Henning wrote: >Is there any way to install free bsd very easily >just by popping in a cd rom and following prompts? >I tried it and got nowhere fast. > >bryan@klumix.com > > May I ask if you donned your flame-retardant undies before pushing the SEND button? 'Cause you may be setting yourself up --- it's possible to view this question as "trolling". ;-) I would maintain that FreeBSD isn't terribly difficult to install. But if by "prompts" you mean 6.49 "Yes/No" type questions, the answer is, "of course not." It's a tad more like Christmas Eve: put the kids to bed, collect the tools, open the box, RTFM, and put it together before dawn..... The reason is, FreeBSD wouldn't be so flexible with only a dozen or so options for installation*. The fact is, you do a lot of configuration up front, and then "fire and forget" to a certain extent (insofar as a server is concerned). The very fine FreeBSD Handbook (www.freebsd.org/handbook) devotes a chapter to installation, and following these directions closely should allow you to install FreeBSD without too many headaches. With a little experience, one can install FreeBSD on CDROM from scratch in a "put together" system in much less than 15 minutes. Using a custom script, I can "clone" a system in about 3 seconds of machine/human interaction and a round of drinks wait time. There are a few projects that attempt to put FreeBSD into a more "user-friendly" container, with an installer more similar to what you might be used to from interaction with that "other OS". Google for "PCBSD" and "DesktopBSD". One of those is better than the other in design, by my understanding, but I can't remember which. You might pop into ##freebsd on irc://chat.freenode.net and get an opinon; IIRC, that's where I saw it discussed a few weeks ago. Also, IIRC, you can use the "FreesBIE" LiveCD to not only run the OS from CDROM, but also to install the system, but the installer is pretty much the same (in terms of questions/ options, though a good deal prettier) than FreeBSD's "sysinstall". Kevin Kinsey DaleCo, S.P. *Google a tad on the phrase, "tools, not policy"; it will help your understanding of this concept. -- The last good thing written in C was Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 9. -- Werner Trobin