Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 14:08:04 -0800 From: John L <jpl@olywa.net> To: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: A 'not quite a newbie' install note.. Message-ID: <36B382C3.61DB5C9F@olywa.net>
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Well the guide said to actually write you so-
I previously gave up on a very bad redhat5.1 release, with more
UPDATE downloads than the entire FBSD system (and still I didn't know
how to configure and recompile the kernel). After this I was very
impressed with freebsd, and look forward to giving you some money for
some product after it gets going.
My difficulties with an FTP install- the 'novice installation' could
not recognize my USRobotics modem on COM4. This was tough to figure
out, as it would work somewhat by forcing the port location from Term.
But ultimately, to set both the interrupt and port, one must work from
the 'expert' mode- but there are NO device descriptions here! So,- you
guess or go back and forth and boot over and over. I also booted over
and over to get in the 'Term' mode while figuring this out, and this
involves re-inputing all the setup data every time. Very time
consuming. Once setup, it did download at least 50 meg over a 33.8Kbps
ppp connection, and fully install, (in spite of some missing components
at FTP site 6. It switched smoothly to the main site, but that's bad for
your traffic.).
My complements overall on this very ambitious function. The
RedHat folks long ago abandoned the idea of realistically being able to
do this with a modem- the way I just did it!
I had a very experience with redhat LILO, because I just left it
installed when I reformatted over the redhat partition. When Linux went
away, LILO broke, and I couldn't boot windows or Linux. I had to
reinstall win95 OSR2 (which I did), or try to figure out if LILO could
be configured from a Linux floppy. To AVOID this, I specifically choose
NOT to alter the MasterBootRecord during the FBSD install. Maybe this
was a big mistake, but it was a valid menu option option. To save the
worry, I would just boot FBSD from a floppy, and switch around the drive
numbers if I ever decided to boot windows by floppy instead.
To my dismay, FBSD install just plain corrupted the MBR and
windows wouldn't start even from a DOS floppy boot- 'partiton data
corrupted'- a very bad sign on powerup. Fdisk would read the partitions
after an start up error, but would not make changes. (Once again,
reinstall windows and sit there and hit 'don't replace newer files' for
over an hour during the install. It's amazing that I could reinstall
just win95 without losing a byte of data or even altering the desktop
AND that it fixed a corrupt MBR, which has little to do with an OS
install). I can't get FBSD up either, because apparently this install
disk doesn't work as a normal boot disk, and though there is an option
to list some file and boot specifying the kernel name, the list scrolls
off screen. I can't find any way to <cntrl>S or break the listing to
actually view it. It's way too fast on this machine, which is only
running at 75Mhz. Simply using '1:wd(1,a)' from the install disk isn't
enough to boot the hard drive! Isn't there a default kernel
name/location? Now I'm looking for an ordinary floppy boot image, if
there is such a thing for FBSD. Also I find the references to 'boot
disk' a bit confusing coming from the DOS world. 'Boot' means just boot
the operating system or hard drive. This is a 'bootstrap install',
that's a little different. You wouldn't boot FBSD with this only this
disk, I hope, because I found no way to go to a prompt or exit the
installation without rebooting.
I write because I really want to help make this already good
product even easier to understand. Redhat was so horrid that I just
decided that though it was somewhat working, it was just plain
unpleasant to work in. And the FBSD install was really MUCH less
painful even with my fatal error.
anyway, thanks- john leclerc jpl@olywa.net
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