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Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 22:26:35 -0700 (PDT)
From: Joseph Koshy <jkoshy>
Message-Id: <199807020526.WAA04444@hub.freebsd.org>
To: mfischer@2001ad.com
Subject: Re: installation boot disk image
Cc: dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu, freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG
Sender: owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG
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X-Loop: FreeBSD.org

Hi,

> I obtained the "installation boot dist image" from your server.  It was
> supposed to be 1.4M, or 1457664 bytes.  Instead, it is 1474560 bytes so
> it won't fit on the boot disk.  What do I do about this?

This seems to be a common question so I'm thinking of submitting the
following Q. to the FAQ.  Could the -doc list amd FAQ maintainer pl. review?
If OK, I'll commit it in a day or two.

Koshy

(nemesis) $ lcvs diff install.sgml
Index: install.sgml
===================================================================
RCS file: /home/ncvs/doc/FAQ/install.sgml,v
retrieving revision 1.3
diff -u -r1.3 install.sgml
--- install.sgml        1998/06/27 01:13:49     1.3
+++ install.sgml        1998/07/02 05:24:03
@@ -32,6 +32,32 @@
       name="Handbook entry on installing FreeBSD.">

     <sect1>
+      <heading>Help! The boot floppy image will not fit on a single floppy!
+      </heading>
+      <p>At 512 bytes per sector, 18 sectors/track, 80 tracks per side, and
+      2 sides, a 3.5 inch (1.44MB) floppy can accomodate exactly 1474560
+      bytes of data.  The boot image is also exactly 1474560 bytes in size.
+      <p>Common mistakes when preparing the boot floppy are:
+      <itemize>
+      <item>Not downloading the floppy image in <tt>binary</tt> mode when
+       using <tt>FTP</tt>.
+       <p>Some FTP clients default their transfer mode to <tt>ascii</tt>
+       and attempt to change any end-of-line characters received to match
+       the conventions used by the client's system.
+       This will almost invariably corrupt the boot image.  Check the
+       size of the downloaded boot image:  if it is not <em>exactly</em>
+       that on the server, then the download process is suspect.
+      <item>Using the DOS <tt>copy</tt> command to transfer the boot
+       image to floppy.
+       <p><tt>copy</tt> will not work as the boot image has been
+       created to be booted into directly.  You have to transfer it to the
+       floppy ``raw'', by using one of the low-level tools (like
+       <tt>fdimage</tt> or <tt>rawrite</tt>) described in the
+       <url url="../handbook/install.html" name="installation guide to
+       FreeBSD">.
+      </itemize>
+
+    <sect1>
       <heading>Where are the instructions for installing FreeBSD?</heading>

       <p>Installation instructions can be found in the

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