Date: Sun, 23 May 1999 09:13:57 +1000 From: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> To: Kenny Felton <kenny@kazan.com> Cc: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Floppy boot Message-ID: <19990523091357.22759@welearn.com.au> In-Reply-To: <BB1F90192A0AD311934F00A0CC26B9F60187AB@HENDRIX>; from Kenny Felton on Sat, May 22, 1999 at 05:28:19PM -0500 References: <BB1F90192A0AD311934F00A0CC26B9F60187AB@HENDRIX>
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On Sat, May 22, 1999 at 05:28:19PM -0500, Kenny Felton wrote:
> I am the newest of newbies and I'm trying to find out how to boot FreeBSD
> from a floppy. The handbook says I can load the kernel on a floppy and boot
> from it, but it doesn't say how. Is there any place I can look this up
> (i.e. a FAQ or mailing list archive). I'm sure this is a common question
> and I don't want to get flamed in FreeBSD-Questions because I didn't do
> enough research, but I need some other places to look.
When you do write to freebsd-questions, one thing you'll pick up real
quick is that if there is any way to misread your question, they will.
For example, if you sent the above question as is, you would likely get back:
- how to find out about running PicoBSD
- how to boot from a floppy and stipulate which partition to use
- how to make your machine unbootable except from the floppy
- how to use the floppies for emergency system repairs
- how to create a custom boot floppy
- how using a boot manager is better than floppies
- a comment on the death of floppies
- a reply that contains only "RTFM boot(8)"
- a comment on your writing or mail formatting style
- someone asking why, is this best for what you are trying to achieve
- a long answer so full of mumbo jumbo that you feel afraid to speak
- someone saying "That happened to me, my memory needed replacing"
- a request for version information
- a warning about using web browsers to download boot images
and probably quite a few others.
Your task would be to pick out the one that answers the question that
you should have asked. It'll be in there, somewhere :-)
On the other hand, if you were able to target your question more
acurately at the outset, you'd get just one or two replies that gave
exactly what you needed, with a possible followup if another reader
wanted to correct something given in the first response.
When coming from a point of little knowledge it's often hard to know
what to say. Give as much information as you can, whether or not you're
sure that it's relevant. For example, it's not always relevant to say
which version of FreeBSD you're using, but always say that anyway. It
doesn't hurt to mention you're a newbie either. Most people tend to go
light on the basic details, assuming you know a few things and would be
insulted by the newbie approach, and relying on you to come back if you
need more detail. If you say "I'm new to FreeBSD but not (or and) unix"
that too will help them to help you.
If you do write a question that is slightly ambiguous to others,
someone might ask you to provide particular information. Always be sure
to respond to freebsd-questions rather than just privately. The person
who asked for details might not be around to give individual support,
but over a thousand others on the list will be.
Once you've sorted out what your question is, send it to
freebsd-questions. If you need more help formulating it, you can get
that here, but get your answers from freebsd-questions only.
Also, once your question is clearer you might be able to go straight to
the answer by searching the freebsd-questions archives on the web site.
If not, post your question so that the next person does find it when
they do a search.
--
Regards,
-*Sue*-
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