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Date:      Thu, 14 Jun 2001 22:19:46 -0600
From:      "Brad Morgan" <B-Morgan@concentric.net>
To:        <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Problems installing FreeBSD on a Dell Dimension 4100
Message-ID:  <NABBJOOEOFODEALNMJAJKEGFDMAA.B-Morgan@concentric.net>

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I've been trying for a couple of days but I've run out of ideas...

I have a Dell Dimension 4100 (933 MHz P-III) with 256MB of memory.

I have an nVidia GeForce2 GTS/GeForce2 Pro video card (32MB memory), a 3Com
EtherLink XL 10/100 PCI NIC (3C905C-TX), an Adaptec 2930B (AIC-7860) PCI
SCSI controller, a U.S Robotics 56K Fax PCI modem, and a Creative SB Live!
Value sound card.

I have both Windows ME and Redhat Linux 7.1 successfully installed and
running.

I've have a 4.3GB SCSI disk (along with an Iomega Jaz 2GB and a TLZ07 4mm
DAT) connected to the Adaptec controller which is where I am attempting to
install FreeBSD.

I purchased BSD Power Pak version 4.2 and attempted to install it.  After
eliminating all the conflicts in the Kernel Configuration Menu, the system
hangs during the device probes.  I also noticed at this point that my
Ethernet card
isn't listed as one of the network devices.  I believe I should have an xl
device for this card.

I then downloaded the 4.3 ISO image and tried that.  Same problem.

I then tried the 5.0-current from the FreeBSD Toolkit CD which has February
2001 on the label.  I believe the 5.0-current is from December 2000.

This install gets past the device probe but I still don't have an Ethernet
device driver, it can't find packages on the first CD and I can't figure out
how to change CDs to one in the Toolkit labeled Packages.  If I attempt to
configure X windows, I don't find my video card listed and using the Generic
VGA card, the system hangs when it tries to start the X-server.

I tried a development installation without X because I noticed the XF86402
directory on the CD, but after booting to the new installation, copying the
XF86402 files to the disk, the sh Xinstall.sh fails because extract and
extract.exe don't run.  The error is something about lib.so.4 not found (I
don't remember the exact message and it takes a while to get there again).
I also tried to read some man pages but it complained about that too.

It appears that I don't have a good development environment installed. I'm
guessing that I have to build a custom kernel to get the Ethernet driver
included, and I'm not sure I've got enough stuff to accomplish that.

I'd also like to get emacs installed because vi and I don't get along and
I'm afraid I'd struggle to get the custom kernel configuration file created.

Clearly Murphy has gotten a firm grip on my situation.  Can anybody suggest
what simple steps I'm obviously missing?

Thanks,

Brad Morgan


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