From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Mar 11 2:15: 5 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from andrsn.stanford.edu (andrsn.Stanford.EDU [171.66.112.163]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A7AE837B402 for ; Mon, 11 Mar 2002 02:15:01 -0800 (PST) Received: from localhost (andrsn@localhost.stanford.edu [127.0.0.1]) by andrsn.stanford.edu (8.9.3/8.9.1) with ESMTP id CAA18377; Mon, 11 Mar 2002 02:00:49 -0800 (PST) Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 02:00:49 -0800 (PST) From: Annelise Anderson To: Perry Hutchison Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Can't do a clean reinstall? In-Reply-To: <10203110538.AA04599@pluto.rain.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Sun, 10 Mar 2002, Perry Hutchison wrote: > > If you installed XFree86 from the CD you have version 3.3.6. I strongly > > recommend uninstalling that and installing version 4 ... > > In order to clean up both this and the "faith0" mess, I attempted to do > a clean reinstall (by which I intend that the install should "newfs" > all filesystems). I thought the disklabel screen indicated that it was > going to do that, but after I said Yes to the "are you sure" screen it > popped up something about using an existing root partition. There was > no apparent way at that point to say "NO! WRONG! NEWFS EVERYTHING!". > I hit ESC instead of cr or space, but it still went ahead; and after it > had finished: > > * It remembered its formerly-set hostname (which is OK, but provides > a further indication that it did *not* do a clean install). > > * It tried to config XFree again *even though I had been very careful > NOT to select it this time*. > > What does it take to remove all traces of the first installation and > start completely over? Do I have to replace the drive, or use some > third-party utility to wipe it? Just boot from the installation CD or floppies for the system you want to install, delete the existing slice or slices, and create a new one (in FDISK editor). Just be sure you don't delete the slices (DOS-style partitions) for any other operating systems you may have installed. Annelise -- Annelise Anderson Author of: FreeBSD: An Open-Source Operating System for Your PC Available from: BSDmall.com and amazon.com Book Website: http://www.bittreepress.com/FreeBSD/introbook/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message