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From: "Peter Korsten" <pkorsten@XS4All.nl>
To: <questions@freebsd.org>, <hackers@freebsd.org>
Subject: How to install without a CD-ROM and without an existing installation
Date: Sat, 10 Jan 1998 00:34:00 +0100
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This question probably belongs only on 'questions', but my experience (from
the time that I read both lists) tells me that I get a faster answer from
'hackers', and I'd really like to know the answer fast.

I recently got a laptop from my new employer (BT) and want to install
FreeBSD 2.2.5 on the second partition. (People who remember me from earlier
occasions will laugh their heads off by now, but it's really handy with all
the Suns lying around at my job.)

The trouble is, I don't have a CD-ROM. I do have an Internet connection, but
I don't really feel like downloading many megabytes over a 28k8 line.
Therefore, at my job I copied the files from the bin directory in the
2.2.5-RELEASE tree, but those are Unix files. A copy of the CD can't be
found on the website (well, that figures) and you need those files if you
want to install from an MS-DOS file system.

Though the installation floppy can read the MS-DOS file system, I can't do
that from the holographic shell and there aren't other means to access that
file system. To install the Unix files, I first need - right, a FreeBSD
installation.

Is there a simple solution or should I just wait, buy the CD (whereever I
can spot it here in Amsterdam) or download it for a couple of hours?

- Peter