From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Feb 15 00:08:44 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 540251065672 for ; Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:08:44 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kline@thought.org) Received: from thought.org (plato.thought.org [209.180.213.209]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 35CBB8FC12 for ; Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:08:42 +0000 (UTC) Received: by thought.org (Postfix, from userid 1001) id 7DC88E805DE; Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:08:41 -0800 (PST) Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:08:41 -0800 From: Gary Kline To: FreeBSD Mailing List Message-ID: <20120215000838.GA26583@thought.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Organization: Thought Unlimited. Public service Unix since 1986. Of_Interest: With 25 years of service to the Unix community. User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) Cc: Subject: fixit disc for 7.3 #1? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:08:44 -0000 guys, is there still a way of fixing something i did to my existing installation? it does nothing but continually cycle e and try to reboot into the old release i had from feb 2011. i thought editing out /etc/fstab would do it. but nope, it throws me into the lowest level manual config and then hangs. i cannot even install release 9.0 which is the only other path. either some stable distro of debian, or getting past release8 and going to 9. first, tho, i need to get rid of this [[messed up]] 7.3. let me share a story from when i was visiting a favorite cousin who put up about half of NASA's huge antennas. long retired, he lives out where not even god could find him. he wanted to see proof of my beloved freebsd. so, using a new set of discs that i bought, i started the installation. { FWIW, --this was in july, 2000. } I happened to mention that freebsd had trouble configuring the printers. or that that could get hairy. he stopped what he was doing and asked me to get back to his windows toys and games. i had a floppy w ith the mystery file "MBR" that removed that single file. my hunch is that since i never mess with anything but freebsd, i left it configure itself by default and that the same thing that stalled me for ten minutes back in 2000, might be what's stopping me from installing anything over my 7.3 in 2012. any wizards how how to fix this? gary -- Gary Kline kline@thought.org http://www.thought.org Public Service Unix Journey Toward the Dawn, E-Book: http://www.thought.org The 8.57a release of Jottings: http://jottings.thought.org Twenty-five years of service to the Unix community.