From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Oct 20 03:56:43 2010 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 7863D106564A for ; Wed, 20 Oct 2010 03:56:43 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bdsfbsd@att.net) Received: from nm19-vm0.bullet.mail.ne1.yahoo.com (nm19-vm0.bullet.mail.ne1.yahoo.com [98.138.91.59]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 3F5598FC0A for ; Wed, 20 Oct 2010 03:56:43 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [98.138.90.57] by nm19.bullet.mail.ne1.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 20 Oct 2010 03:56:42 -0000 Received: from [98.138.89.197] by tm10.bullet.mail.ne1.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 20 Oct 2010 03:56:42 -0000 Received: from [127.0.0.1] by omp1055.mail.ne1.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 20 Oct 2010 03:56:42 -0000 X-Yahoo-Newman-Id: 337340.31060.bm@omp1055.mail.ne1.yahoo.com Received: (qmail 45565 invoked from network); 20 Oct 2010 03:56:42 -0000 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=att.net; s=s1024; t=1287547002; bh=AgFV15DGkOq1ogewZxNlkuTgUinX0Lo4X3PgrI8g51I=; h=Received:X-Yahoo-SMTP:X-YMail-OSG:X-Yahoo-Newman-Property:Content-Type:To:Subject:References:Date:MIME-Version:Content-Transfer-Encoding:From:Message-ID:In-Reply-To:User-Agent; b=Aa5YMYIyN8C6q4Gx+/Ck+zln+aIrp2Eg4TA3Mc5jTa5Wnuc4Urw78ozNaoeyD8yM/5aykSZ+Ek3nji1lXZAyzKwAeLRe6lAFdPCQm994gW9DwiI075+xrudi6qixPWbm9vfbiIxAZ9mQsFyZbZdxcDQN6AVNo0z6yYahZ6I9YW0= Received: from galileo (bdsfbsd@99.36.54.154 with login) by smtp103.sbc.mail.ne1.yahoo.com with SMTP; 19 Oct 2010 20:56:41 -0700 PDT X-Yahoo-SMTP: d5tX3UiswBBe7eAro3WwBCIcMc7tMmv23kUXyA-- X-YMail-OSG: jBD3uCkVM1kncmWQeF4yylS.78R2b8D.sTi7yvxoX4qhemO CMWGWbrYCg9S6U4n3AFBigLd12.tJPMuEO8EKTVRsDEyIwwZRXODz88gt0HQ PnnpelZPGLvs67y6HeT6W9Vs5X6dqAJssGxqZCAWDx_OZxIiP.kGjmpqyzJY Q_RpIYAudaUUPimsM5A2UmHk._YI0Lv944D_pXYf5o7iLJ.te8zKBgiC0bkq X2VZURK1n.7t51v6K7w55JZwVKcbReFEorFYTZ4ZkPJrQFcFC43mTEkOcHho XdTrc X-Yahoo-Newman-Property: ymail-3 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed; delsp=yes To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <20101004233302.GA62267@takino.homeftp.org> <20101020022946.GA23035@thought.org> <201010192250.06485.mike.jeays@rogers.com> Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2010 23:56:14 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: bdsfbsd@att.net Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <201010192250.06485.mike.jeays@rogers.com> User-Agent: Opera Mail/10.62 (Linux) X-Mailman-Approved-At: Wed, 20 Oct 2010 04:04:49 +0000 Subject: Re: Netbooks & BSD 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, 20 Oct 2010 03:56:43 -0000 On Tue, 19 Oct 2010 22:50:05 -0400, Mike Jeays wrote: > On October 19, 2010 10:29:46 pm Gary Kline wrote: >> >> $150 is seriously in my price range [!] But what about the >> optical drive? If I can buy one on sale and install FBSD from a >> CD or DVD, do all optivcal drive fit all notebooks? >> >> (( I remember seeing ads on amazon.com saying that "people who >> purchased this notebook have also bought:) >> >> With a few things that I probably will buy. An optical, a 16 or >> 32G SSD ... &c.) So if there is a fire-sale at Costco or >> <> for an HP 9" or 10 Atom notebook, will I be able >> to use another vendor's optical drive? >> >> gary >> >> PS: I really _was_ current on hardware stuff. Back in the VAX >> 780 days :-) >> >> > _______________________________________________ >> > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list >> > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions >> > To unsubscribe, send any mail to >> > "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" > > I would expect a USB optical drive to work. I plugged an old DVD drive > into > one of those boxes that hold an IDE hard disk and plug into a USB port, > and it > worked fine on my (Linux) ASUS EeePC 1000. It looked pretty amateurish, > but it > did work. > BTW, if you're thinking of getting the optical drive just for the install, it isn't necessary. Memstick install is really the way to go with these devices: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/install-pre.html#INSTALL-BOOT-MEDIA To be honest, though, getting FreeBSD running properly on one of these is really more of a hobbyist project at the moment, and requires some research, time, and experimentation. Yes, I have mine mostly running like I want, but I'd be a bit pressed to describe in detail all the steps I took, but it was more than a few, and my requirements were minimal. I could not give a solid reason for using FreeBSD on my netbook other than I felt like it, and because all things being equal I prefer *BSD. Maybe with lots of community participation enough documentation could be generated to make it more straightforward, but that is not the current state of affairs. Brian