From owner-freebsd-newbies Sat May 22 18:31:45 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Received: from smtp11.bellglobal.com (smtp11.bellglobal.com [204.101.251.53]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A69B21514C for ; Sat, 22 May 1999 18:31:41 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from vanderh@ecf.toronto.edu) Received: from localhost.nowhere (Hamilton-ppp44836.sympatico.ca [206.172.76.29]) by smtp11.bellglobal.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id VAA21899; Sat, 22 May 1999 21:34:21 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from tim@localhost) by localhost.nowhere (8.9.3/8.9.1) id VAA01562; Sat, 22 May 1999 21:32:14 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from tim) Date: Sat, 22 May 1999 21:32:14 -0400 From: Tim Vanderhoek To: Sue Blake Cc: Kenny Felton , freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Floppy boot Message-ID: <19990522213214.A1330@mad> References: <19990523091357.22759@welearn.com.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.95i In-Reply-To: <19990523091357.22759@welearn.com.au>; from Sue Blake on Sun, May 23, 1999 at 09:13:57AM +1000 Sender: owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Sun, May 23, 1999 at 09:13:57AM +1000, Sue Blake wrote: > 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 > > For example, if you sent the above question as is, you would likely get back: > > - how to find out about running PicoBSD [...] > - someone saying "That happened to me, my memory needed replacing" Hehe. Someone would surely point out /etc/disktab. Just to help a little here, there's a reason the handbook doesn't tell you how to put a kernel onto a floppy (there's always a reason for things like that! :). Have a look at the size of your kernel (ls -l /kernel) and then consider the size of your standard floppy. A kernel's not enough to boot from a floppy, either. In this case, what you might be trying to ask is, "How do I use a floppy to boot my FreeBSD 3.2R machine? I can't/won't install a boot manager or any other wierd funky things like booteasy onto my hdd, so I need to boot using a floppy." [Caveat: Of course, there's always the _slim_ chance that this is not what you are really asking... ;-] What you should also do is, rather than just saying "the handbook says I can put a kernel on a floppy", say "the handbook, section x.y, says I can put a kernel on a floppy". Readers can then quickly check and say "Oh, now I see what he's talking about...". Not only that, but some reader might even check the handbook reference and say "Hmm... I think I'll go and add my answer to his question to the handbook", thus saving future newbies even more trouble. :-) Anyways, this is more likely to get a useful answer, too (probably the eighth item from Sue's list and the /etc/disktab reference are what you want). > 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. Hopefully nothing in my email has helped answer your question in any possible way. ;-) -- This .sig is not innovative, witty, or profund. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message