From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 19 21:48:11 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 384F916A4CE for ; Wed, 19 Jan 2005 21:48:11 +0000 (GMT) Received: from kane.otenet.gr (kane.otenet.gr [195.170.0.27]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 143ED43D1D for ; Wed, 19 Jan 2005 21:48:08 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: from gothmog.gr (patr530-a030.otenet.gr [212.205.215.30]) j0JLm1lA022071; Wed, 19 Jan 2005 23:48:04 +0200 Received: from gothmog.gr (gothmog [127.0.0.1]) by gothmog.gr (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id j0JKSZwN001116; Wed, 19 Jan 2005 22:28:35 +0200 (EET) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: (from giorgos@localhost) by gothmog.gr (8.13.1/8.13.1/Submit) id j0JKSZOs001115; Wed, 19 Jan 2005 22:28:35 +0200 (EET) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 22:28:34 +0200 From: Giorgos Keramidas To: Anthony Atkielski Message-ID: <20050119202834.GA1041@gothmog.gr> References: <1498696253.20050119202447@wanadoo.fr> <20050119194228.7248.qmail@web51004.mail.yahoo.com> <515597134.20050119211009@wanadoo.fr> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <515597134.20050119211009@wanadoo.fr> cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD I LOVE YOU X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 21:48:11 -0000 On 2005-01-19 21:10, Anthony Atkielski wrote: > I'm gradually migrating legacy aps off my older NT server and I think > it might be extremely interesting to install FreeBSD on that machine > once it is free--if only I could persuade it to boot from diskette > (for some reason, the diskette drive no longer seems to be recognized > by the OS). It's an old HP Vectra, but like all vintage HP high-end > machines, it still works perfectly, after nearly a decade of > continuous use. Hi Anthony, I've seen Windows machines "lose" CD-ROM or floppy drives, on perfectly working systems. You may find that booting the installation CD-ROM of some FreeBSD version locates the floppy drive just fine. > Can anyone tell me how to install FreeBSD on a machine that is running > Windows NT and refuses to boot from CD or from diskette? I don't > suppose there's any magic program I could run from NT that would start > a FreeBSD installation, is there? Your best choise may be to install by physically moving the disk to an other system. Then you can return the disk to the Vectra system and let it boot. If you are a bit careful during the installation process _not_ to make configuration changes that depend on the particular sort of hardware the 'install' system has, you shouldn't face any show-stoppers when you move the disk back to the Vectra. When the Vectra boots into FreeBSD, you can configure the network locally and you're set to go :-) - Giorgos