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Date:      Fri, 07 Mar 2003 19:39:20 +0100
From:      Charlie Clark <charlie@begeistert.org>
To:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Getting started with FreeBSd on a notebook
Message-ID:  <20030307193920.3401.4@.1047055199.fake>
In-Reply-To: <5.2.0.9.1.20030307182900.019cdc48@postamt1.charite.de>
References:   <5.2.0.9.1.20030307182900.019cdc48@postamt1.charite.de>

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Hi,

I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to BSD but I thought I'd install it on=20
my notebook so that I can do my Zope + PostgreSQL development on it: BeOS=20
doesn't yet have have select() and windows 2k + cygwin isn't so much fun=20
either.

I've got FreeBSD 4.6, 4.7 and 5.0 nad have problems with all three. I've=20
checked the FAQs and searched the web but haven't really round anything=20
useful.

I was hoping 5.0 would have the best support for my notebook (Sony VAIO=20
GR1114 EK) but I can't even boot properly as the boot hangs on the the=20
cardbus driver. I've been told I can't comment out or bypass the driver as=20
it's hard-coded in the kernel so I'd like to know what I can do. In BeOS we=20
have somethign called failsafe mode which disables pretty much everything=20
except VGA, keyboard and mouse and is quite useful when tracking hardware=20
problems. Is there something similar for FreeBSD? Will I need to recompile=20
the kernal and if yo how do I do this before I can install the OS?

I also received 4.6 and 4.7 and tried them. Both boot and install but 4.7=20
seems to struggle with my Toshiba DVD meaning that it takes about one=20
minute longer to boot each time than 4.6. So I decided just to install 4.6.=20
I'm not after bells and whistles after all. The install runs fine apart=20
from the fact I cannot find drivers for my graphics card (Radeon mobility)=20
for XFree86. I've read somewhere that the ATI drivers didn't make it into=20
the distribution so I tried just a VESA setup. But I get an error when=20
trying to start X-Windows that no monitor can be found. I realise that this=20
is an XFree86 error but having tried all the various approaches and=20
crashing the system with the "autoconfigure" option I thought it was time=20
to ask the experts.

By the way: this is a high traffic list. Is it possible to get it as digest?

Thanx very much

Charlie Clark

--=20
Charlie Clark
Helmholtzstr. 20
D=FCsseldorf
D- 40215
Tel: +49-211-938-5360
GSM: +49-178-782-6226

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