From owner-freebsd-questions Thu May 9 21:47:27 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from vms1.rit.edu (vms1.isc.rit.edu [129.21.3.8]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8E16737B408 for ; Thu, 9 May 2002 21:47:15 -0700 (PDT) Received: from Sonic.rit.edu ([24.169.199.185]) by ritvax.isc.rit.edu (PMDF V5.2-32 #40294) with ESMTPA id <01KHJL5ICQMOI6D5GR@ritvax.isc.rit.edu> for questions@FreeBSD.org; Fri, 10 May 2002 00:47:09 EDT Date: Fri, 10 May 2002 00:44:47 -0400 From: Matt Penna Subject: Re: Small install In-reply-to: X-Sender: mdp1261@vmspop.isc.rit.edu To: questions@FreeBSD.org Cc: jacob@sheehy.ca Message-id: <5.1.0.14.2.20020510002027.02fc4e80@vmspop.isc.rit.edu> MIME-version: 1.0 X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Content-type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG At 08:58 PM 5/9/02 -0700, Jacob Sheehy wrote: >Hello, > >I just recieved an old laptop with Windows 3.1 installed. It's a >386, with only a floppy drive and about 200MB on the hard drive. >I'd like to kill Windows and install FreeBSD (just the basics; no >applications, no X window system, etc). And it needs to be installed >though floppies. > >Where can I download a version of FreeBSD that's just the basics? >Can FreeBSD be installed by a couple of floppy disks? Hello, Jacob! You can install from floppy, though I have never tried this myself. It's not exactly a common install method, these days. Also, the statement, "If you must install from floppy disk (which we suggest you do not do)" from the documentation is a bit of a deterrent. :) You can find information about how to do this in section 2.13.2 of the Handbook on this page: http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/install-diff-media.html Also, you don't mention how much memory is in that machine - in order to successfully run through an install with 4.5-Release, you must have 16MB. Less may work, but it's not guaranteed. After installation, the system should run well with less than 16MB, though it helps to have a custom kernel that's been pared down. I've had machines that ran perfectly well with only 8MB, and I believe it's possible to run in still less if you really know what you're doing. Others may be able to comment further. Good luck with it! Matt P.S. Depending on circumstances, you may find it more convenient to do some kind of network install, or even install from a CD if you can attach a drive, somehow. If there's any way to get the machine talking to the outside world, even if through a parallel port, you might be a happier man in the end. More details on how to do other kinds of installs are available at the URL above. -- Matt Penna mdp1261@rit.edu ICQ: 399825 S0ba on AOLIM "The trouble with computers, of course, is that they're very sophisticated idiots." -Dr. Who To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message