From owner-freebsd-questions Thu Sep 11 15:04:36 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id PAA24690 for questions-outgoing; Thu, 11 Sep 1997 15:04:36 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ozemail.com.au (server3.syd.mail.ozemail.net [203.108.7.41]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id PAA24683 for ; Thu, 11 Sep 1997 15:04:30 -0700 (PDT) Received: from oznet02.ozemail.com.au (oznet02.ozemail.com.au [203.2.192.124]) by ozemail.com.au (8.8.4/8.6.12) with ESMTP id IAA12299; Fri, 12 Sep 1997 08:04:27 +1000 (EST) Received: from richard (slmel57p29.ozemail.com.au [203.108.203.237]) by oznet02.ozemail.com.au (8.8.4/8.6.12) with SMTP id IAA08726; Fri, 12 Sep 1997 08:04:26 +1000 (EST) Message-Id: <199709112204.IAA08726@oznet02.ozemail.com.au> From: "Richard Lyon" To: "Greg Lehey" , Cc: Subject: Re: Bummer... Trying to install WITHOUT DOS Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 08:03:25 +1000 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.71.1008.3 X-MimeOle: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE Engine V4.71.1008.3 Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Yes I wonder also. I use floppies to install FBSD, X86Free, emacs, tex, latex, octave ... FBSD (2.1.5, 2.2.1 & 2.2.2) appears to have problems with about 10% of floppy disks. I have tried different hardware for both reading and writing. The problem only happens with disks with all tracks loaded. The disks have been formatted using FBSD, WIN95 or WINNT. I generally stick to verbatim. There have been no problems with the boot disk ever. After reading about the various problems people have had over the years I follow the following procedure to create a boot floppy. 1. Use the WINNT box and use WS-FTP to download the image with binary mode set. 2. Format a floppy and check it for errors on the WINNT box. If any track errors are found, I throw the floppy away. 3. Use rawrite2.exe (from ftp.debian.org) to copy the image onto the floppy. There is no issue with using NT to create the boot floppy. I use rawrite2 as it is fast and reliable. There is no problems if NT is running a lot of other application while rawrite2 is doing its stuff. Yes I have a big box of disks, but it all works. -----Original Message----- From: Greg Lehey To: rfg@monkeys.com Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Date: Thursday, 11 September 1997 19:51 Subject: Re: Bummer... Trying to install WITHOUT DOS Yup. It happens so often that I wonder if we don't have a bug in the floppy driver. But it *does* go away with a new floppy. In case of doubt, format it first. Greg