From owner-freebsd-questions  Mon Dec 18 09:22:18 1995
Return-Path: owner-questions
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id JAA08227
          for questions-outgoing; Mon, 18 Dec 1995 09:22:18 -0800 (PST)
Received: from mail-e1b.gnn.com (mail-e1b.gnn.com [204.148.101.57])
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with ESMTP id JAA08217
          for <questions@FreeBSD.ORG>; Mon, 18 Dec 1995 09:22:14 -0800 (PST)
Received: from www-4-131.gnn.com. (www-4-131.gnn.com [205.188.4.131]) by mail-e1b.gnn.com (8.7.1/8.6.9) with SMTP id MAA16554 for <questions@FreeBSD.ORG>; Mon, 18 Dec 1995 12:22:04 -0500 (EST)
Message-Id: <199512181722.MAA16554@mail-e1b.gnn.com>
X-Mailer: GNNmessenger 1.2
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 11:25:02
From: SDalal@gnn.com (Sanjay Dalal)
To: questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Installation problems, etc.
Sender: owner-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Precedence: bulk

Well, I downloaded the "bin", "compat1x", "compat20", "dict", "floppies", 
"info", "manpages", and "proflibs" directories and their contents (all of 
them), from the FreeBSD/2.1.0-RELEASE/ directory
from the "ftp.cslab.vt.edu" site.  I had previously downloaded the 
"boot.flp" image, and using "rawrite.exe" created the installation boot 
disk.  I have a Pentium 100/16MB RAM/1.6 GB generic IDE/etc, IBM APTIVA M55 
computer.  I copied all the downloaded directories in C:\FREEBSD directory.  
Thus, I have now C:\FREEBSD with subdirectories c:\FREEBSD\BIN, 
C:\FREEBSD\COMPAT1X, .... C:\FREEBSD\PROFLIBS.  Next, I used "FIPS" utility, 
(before which I had defragmented the hard disk using the defragmentation 
tool from within Windows 95), and allocated about 400 MB for a new partition 
and created a new partition.  FIPS created the new partition without any 
errors.  Now, I am trying to install FreeBSD using the installation disk.  
Everything goes well (most of my devices are configured correctly - 
including the main ones like hard disk controllers, floppy disk, cdrom, 
mouse, serial and parallel ports, etc.);  I go for the Novice installation, 
and create the new partition, use "none" boot manager, Auto defaults for 
various sub-partitions (like /, /usr, /var, /swap), and choose "MS-DOS 
partition" for media.  Now, I had copied over the directories using FTP from 
the mirror site as described before, and thus created the c:\freebsd and 
sub-directories;  is this the same as copying them from CD-ROM as described
in the installation guide.  Well, when I go ahead for installation, I either 
get "Failed to load root distribution; correct this problem" error, or when
the installation does proceed I get "Write Failure on transfer ! Wrote -1 
bytes of 10240 bytes".  The Write failure occurs while/during creating 
"bin", "dict", "compatxx", etc.   Thus, the installation does not proceed, 
and I go back to square one.

Well, should I be using CD-ROM instead (was trying to avoid spending money 
for it) ? or am I doing something wrong ? or should I have copied all the 
directories on floppy-diskettes and then done the installation ? or the 
files I have downloaded are corrupted (when I observe the screen using 
ALT-F2 I see that when it's reading stuff it complains of bad checksum 
header, corrupted data, etc.  however, when I downloaded the files I never 
got any errors).  Your inputs will be greatly appreciated.

I downloaded the files using a  28.8 Modem/GNN Web Browser/running Windows 
95/ftp protocol;  the files were saved to the disk directly.


Thanks,

Sanjay Dalal