Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 12:18:44 +1100 From: david schanzer <davids@nswcc.org.au> To: <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Problem during floppy installation from 2.0 to 2.2.8: "Couldn't extract the following distributions. This may be because they were not available on the installation media you've chosen" Message-ID: <D0D9AB571768D211AA150008C74CF8E4027BB5@MERCURY>
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I am attempting to upgrade 3 old FreeBSD boxes from v2.0 to v2.2.8, and I
have to use a floppy installation in the absence of any other hardware and
the presence of a firewall. I have carefully read all of the available
documentation, but I can't find any mention of the problem I'm experiencing.
Having booted from the Installation Boot Floppy, selected "Upgrade" and
"Floppy Installation", I get the message "Couldn't extract the following
distributions. This may be because they were not available on the
installation media you've chosen" when I insert the first floppy of the BIN
distribution. I'm trying to install the BIN and MANPAGES distributions.
The first time I tried this, I was using DOS-formatted floppies and on which
DOS COPY had been used to copy the files, 5 to a disk, with the "bin.inf"
file on the first floppy. When I got the above message, I tried Plan B: I
re-formatted all of the diskettes as UFS using:
fdformat -f 1440 fd0.1440
disklabel -r -w fd0.1440 fd1440
newfs fd0.1440
mount /dev/fd0.1440 /floppy
and then copying 5 to a disk, with "bin.inf" again on the first floppy. This
gave identical results, ie. the same error message at the point in the
installation procedure where the first diskette of the distribution needs to
be inserted.
The light on the diskette drive goes on for a few seconds before the error
message is given, so it is obviously looking on the correct device. Since
they are UFS diskettes, I didn't know whether they had to be somehow mounted
before being used.
I would appreciate any help or advice you can give, as I'm basically stumped
at this point about how to upgrade these machines.
Please reply to: davids@nswcc.org.au
Thanks for any help you can give!
David Schanzer
NSW Cancer Council
Sydney, Australia.
'''
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+-----oOO----(_)--------------+
| David Schanzer |
| NSW Cancer Council |
| Tel: (02) 9334-1832 |
| Fax: (02) 9334-1741 |
| Email: davids@nswcc.org.au |
+--------------------oOO------+
|__|__|
|| ||
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