From owner-freebsd-questions Sat Dec 11 10: 0:19 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from cc942873-a.ewndsr1.nj.home.com (cc942873-a.ewndsr1.nj.home.com [24.2.89.207]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 944EB14F6B for ; Sat, 11 Dec 1999 10:00:13 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from cjc@cc942873-a.ewndsr1.nj.home.com) Received: (from cjc@localhost) by cc942873-a.ewndsr1.nj.home.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) id NAA67844; Sat, 11 Dec 1999 13:04:33 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from cjc) From: "Crist J. Clark" Message-Id: <199912111804.NAA67844@cc942873-a.ewndsr1.nj.home.com> Subject: Re: I would like to install FreeBSD on my Compaq 486-DX2 In-Reply-To: from Michael Suozzo at "Dec 10, 1999 11:58:50 am" To: michael.suozzo@telops.gte.com Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1999 13:04:33 -0500 (EST) Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Reply-To: cjclark@home.com X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL54 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Michael Suozzo wrote, > I have tried a number of times to read the installation materials and > determine how I can download and install FreeBSD and have been unsuccessful. > > I have a Compaq 486-DX2 with 8 meg of memory. I have two drives, a 200 meg ^^^^^ Ooh. That might be trouble. The FAQ claims 4 MB is the minimum (8 MB minimum if you run X), but I seem to recall people finding this is no longer true for 3.x. I also vaguely recall that there might be an issue that FreeBSD will run with only x MB, but you need (x+y) MB in order to run the install. > and a 400 meg. I do not have a CDROM attached, but I do have a modem. > The machine is loaded with Windows 3.1, but I will re-install DOD 6.22 before > trying to install FreeBSD. I don't believe my A drive can handle 1.44meg disks. Ouch. > I do have another machine with a CDROM running Windows 98 and I have a copy > of Laplink. > > Another option might be to partition my Windows 98 machine and load FreeBSD > in the new partition. To do this I would have to purchase a copy of Partition > Magic or System Commander, so I can partition the drive without losing the > Windows partition. As someone else mentioned, there are plenty of freeware and shareware tools to repartition DOS drives without loosing info. I personally like using FreeBSD to make "legacy hardware," like 486s, useful (a 486 can be a good firewall, dialup machine, etc.), but the particular machine you seem to have there is pushing the limit. -- Crist J. Clark cjclark@home.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message