Date: Tue, 4 Aug 1998 07:06:45 +0200 From: J Wunsch <j@uriah.heep.sax.de> To: "Robert D. Keys" <bsdbob@seedlab1.cropsci.ncsu.edu> Cc: freebsd-install@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: How to get 2.2.7 or stable or current on a 4 meg ram box? Message-ID: <19980804070645.27588@uriah.heep.sax.de> In-Reply-To: <199808031935.PAA00348@seedlab1.cropsci.ncsu.edu>; from Robert D. Keys on Mon, Aug 03, 1998 at 03:35:09PM -0400 References: <199808031935.PAA00348@seedlab1.cropsci.ncsu.edu>
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As Robert D. Keys wrote: > I have an older decstation 4 meg ram toy that I would like to get some sort > of FBSD on so that I can use the box for a portable ftp install machine. Well, you're approaching the wrong list. freebsd-install was meant as a forum for developers on the FreeBSD installation tool, but as of now, it's basically dead and should probably rather go away. Better resort to freebsd-questions@freebsd.org in future. > I have tried 386BSD, FBSD 1.1, and FBSD 2.0.5, and the 1.1 cyclically > rebooted (bad bios chipset) while the 2.0.5 diskset gave me read errors > (my 2.0.5 archive disks may be going bellyup) and the 386BSD installed > fine. 2.1.7.1 ran out of memory, apparently. So, this got me to thinking > that it ought to be possible to manually install using the fixit disk. Sorry, that's not possible. The problem is that the boot floppy contains a gzipped kernel which needs to be expanded after loading. This requires a bunch of memory, for the gzipped copy and for the expanded copy. Also, the boot floppy already contains the full installation tool (sysinstall, which is running in place of init, the mother of all processes), so regardless of whether you're going to use it or not, it will occupy the space in memory. Your only chance is to create a `classic' boot/root floppy pair, where the boot floppy contains just the kernel, and a separate root floppy all the tools required to install. Even the latter will require a `crunched' binary (see crunchgen(1)) in order to fit all the tools into only 1.3 MB of filesystem space. Needless to say, you need a working FreeBSD installation on a larger machine, quite some confidence with the FreeBSD tree and the way the installation files are laid out, plus you can't use the floppy drive for a root filesystem *and* as the installation source simultaneously. If you can temporarily install the machine's disk in another computer, install it there, and remount it in the portable, that's probably going to be the easiest way for you. -- cheers, J"org joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de -- http://www.sax.de/~joerg/ -- NIC: JW11-RIPE Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-install" in the body of the message
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