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Date:      Fri, 16 Jan 98 18:06:30 -0500
From:      jackson@msrce.howard.edu
To:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   easy install?  I think not! 
Message-ID:  <9801162306.AA17048@negril.msrce.howard.edu>

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Sorry for that.

Problem description:
I've been trying to install freebsd 2.2.5 on a packard bell 70Mhz pentium from 
the Walnut Creek CDROM for the past few days with no luck. This computer belongs 
to a friend who needs unix for class work, but she doesn't know anything about 
the hardware.  As far as I can tell it has 1 ide hard drive, 1 ide cd drive a 
pci video card and a modem. It boots fine, from a floppy, (after I disable all 
the devices with irq conflicts).  I can then repartition the hard disk set up 
the freebsd partitions and then select the install files (X-Developer) and the 
distribution media CDROM.  It then tells me this is my last chance to abort. 
After an ok, the installer makes all the file systems, puts booteasy on the MBR 
and then stops with an error saying that an emergency shell has been started on 
vty4.  Alt-f4 takes me to a shell with a '#' prompt, which I assume is run from 
the flopy since very few commands work.  Alt-f2, I think, takes me to a log 
window which doesn't appear to have any error messages. I then tried to copy the 
install files to the hard drive.  Running view I started the necessary program 
and configured it to copy the necessary files.  Even that gave me an error, 
something like 'x32bin.tgz not found'. I then deselected xf86, and the files 
were copied to the hard drive.  Trying the installer again, using the hard disk 
for the install media this time, gave the same results as noted above.  I also 
noticed that the installer goes into an infinite loop after an error from the 
first screen to the first partition screen and back to the first screen.

Questions:
Is this a hardware problem?  Is there another way to install freebsd without 
using the installer?  Is this a problem with the Walnut Creek CD?  What other 
distributions of freebsd are out there?  Has the freebsd web site been down for 
the past few days?

Thanks for any help, suggestions.

Aaron Jackson		jackson@msrce.howard.edu



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