Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 10:27:07 +1000 From: Jerahmy Pocott <quakenet1@optusnet.com.au> To: Maude User <maudeuser@yahoo.com> Cc: talk@lists.nycbug.org, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Newbie needs help setting up rackmount server Message-ID: <0560DA09-CB0B-48BC-95C8-DDD9FA469E8D@optusnet.com.au> In-Reply-To: <20050811202345.30032.qmail@web31611.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <20050811202345.30032.qmail@web31611.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
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On 12/08/2005, at 6:23 AM, Maude User wrote: > > Hello -- > > I recently installed FreeBSD 5.3 on my laptop and now I want to > install it > onto a rackmount server (hardware specs below). > > I hate to ask a silly question but here goes: Do I need to get a > USB CD-ROM > drive (and keyboard and monitor) for the server in order to install > FreeBSD... > or is there some way I can install onto the rackmount server from > the laptop? > (There's no CD-ROM on the rackmount server, but the laptop has a CD- > RW/DVD+-RW.) It is possible your BIOS will actually direct display to a serial console.. I'm not sure if yours does, so if it doesn't you will probably need a keyboard/ monitor if you want to configure your BIOS, of course if you are happy with the defaults you should be able to do it all with a laptop or other system.. You will want to set your boot floppies to use the serial console, which you can read about doing here: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install- advanced.html You will need a null modem cable to do this, also you will need to make sure the cable is plugged into si0 on the server (com1).. I noticed that the server has an LCD display which is possibly driven via a serial port, this could occupy si0 already.. Getting it to boot the serial console on a different port to si0 is more complex, so hopefully you won't have to.. From this point on the laptop will act like the keyboard and monitor for the system and you can install.. I would recommend using an NFS mount on your local network to install the files from since it would be the fastest (without installing a CD drive), otherwise use ftp, which will be pretty slow (depending on your internet connection) but the only other viable method for you really.. Let me know if you have any queries, it is usually pretty straight forward though =)
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