Date: Sun, 10 May 1998 01:45:41 -0400 (EDT) From: CyberPeasant <djv@bedford.net> To: Webmaster@Web-Choice.com Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Should I take the risk? ot use my 386? Message-ID: <199805100545.BAA13014@castor.loco.net> In-Reply-To: <3554FA4B.3E0B@Web-Choice.com> from Mike J Schoonbrood at "May 10, 98 01:52:27 am"
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Mike J Schoonbrood wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am running MS Windows 98 BETA 3, but want to setup a Web Server for
> FTP, E-mail, HTTP, Gopher etc. I was reccomended Red Hat Linux 5, so I
> got a GNU Version for $5, when I installed it, it really messed up my
> hard drive partitions!! In fact, 1 gig of my data is still in NON-DOS
> Format, and it won't change back!
aargh. As a last resort, try changing the partition type with MSDOG's
fdisk. I really think the disk might be hosed, though. Methinks RH
sometimes gets confused over disk geometries, but this problem strikes
all over.
> Here's the major thing.....I want to see what a UNIX System is like, but
> after what happened with Linux, I am afraid of the results, here's what
> I though I might do....find a way to install it to my old 386 Computer,
> it doesn't have a modem, only s floppy drive and 175 Meg Hard
> Drive....how do I install it? Can I get FreeBSD from the net and onto
> Floppy?
Get 5 or more megs of ram in the old gentleman. Beg, borrow, or
steal, or even [shudder] buy an IDE CDROM or one of the antique
proprietary clunkers that FreeBSD mercifully supports. Drop the
$25 at a flea market or whatever. Hey, how about borrowing that
one off your newer machine? This will /really/ ease the pain. You
don't need the 48X DVD model for this job. 1X and a mean time to
self-destruct of about two hours will be plenty. Stick up a note
on your office coffee-mess bulletin board, "Will give $10 for
working CDROM drive, IDE or whatever". Ask around. These things
are everywhere. You don't need any DOS driver or multi-media
tools.
I'll assume that the drive is an IDE and not ESDI or MFM. If the
latter, you will have non-trivial grief with bad block mapping.
Taking care of this will probably give you a major headache, if
you're not into some of the arcane aspects of admining old hardware
under Unix, and only heartburn if you are. Some ESDI's do their
own bad mapping, so are easy to deal with. If it's MFM, stick up
another postit note, "Will give $20 for working 200MB IDE drive
and interface card. No questions asked :)" For $20 they'll probably
throw in the whole computer.
In your mind's eye, write off the whole contents of that 175MB
disk.
Then install from the CDROM, which should be a fairly straightforward
matter of accepting all the defaults. For that size harddisk, do
"Novice" and "Minimal Install". Minimal Install is a darn full-featured
system, BTW, not some toy demo or a zen-samurai "I am Boot. Savor
the oneness of the prompt" system. You can add stuff later to suit
your fancy. The CDROM will be /real/ handy for this. Why, if you
get the whole 4 disk caboodle from <plug> Walnut Creek delivered-by-an
-official-agent-of-the-US-govt for ~$40 </plug>, you can run a lot
of programs from the live filesystem cunningly pressed into CD#2.
THe probability of that old floppy drive reading forty or so flops
without a checksum error is, well, nonzero, I suppose, but I wouldn't
make book on it. I will guarantee that you will question your most
basic beliefs, if not your sanity, before the process is over,
though.
Before proceeding with any of the preceding, just download the boot
floppy, and boot the 386 with it. Having written off the disk, go
do the install until it chokes for want of data. You'll learn
whether F'BSD is recognizing your hardware, whether that hardware
is healthy, and other pearls of great value.
Dave
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