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To: Doug White <dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu>
cc: A Rosina Bignall <bignall@aros.net>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Installing FreeBSD 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Tue, 25 Feb 1997 11:29:49 PST."
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Date: Tue, 25 Feb 1997 17:57:54 -0700
From: A Rosina Bignall <bignall@aros.net>
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> > Specifically, the last time I tried a Novice install (before that I
> > had tried custom installs with the same problem) and the problem
> > occured when it got to the Samba setup.  It then hangs.  Bouncing over
> > to the TTY on F2 I found the following message and continuous beeping:
> > 
> > Debug: Unexpected signal 11 caught. That's bad!
> > 
> > I can exit the install by hitting Ctrl-C, but it leaves me without a
> > workable system.
> 
> Your system should work.  Have you tried starting by booting the floppy
> and typing
> 
> wd(1,a)/kernel
> 
> to the Boot: prompt?

I tried it, but it did not work.  I got the message:

Invalid Format!

And then the boot prompt again.  

I tried to install again today, again without success.  However, this
time it did not run into that same error.  It seemed to go through the
installation fine (though never having successfully installed FreeBSD
before, I can only guess what `fine' is), although I did not hear much
additional disk activity.  Beyond the basic installation, I did not
install any extra packages, etc, I wanted to get a working system
first.  However, I did install Xwindows and when I got to the
configuration for it, it seemed to think that X was not installed. 

Is there somewhere else that I should look for problems that may be
occurring or something I should watch for during the install?  I'd
like to get a working system soon :/


> 
> > What does this error mean and what can I do about it?  Where do I
> > proceed from here?
> 
> Either something was misconfigured or you have some bad memory and/or
> processor cache in your system.  You should be able to boot from the boot
> floppy though.

What might be misconfigured?  The only thing I've changed recently is
RAM and that was in December.  The entire system has been working fine
since then and up until I started trying to install FreeBSD, so I am
at a loss about what could be wrong.

> 
> > When you boot the floppy and do the configuration, isn't it supposed
> > to save those settings for the next time you boot?  That was my
> > understanding at least, but each time I boot from it, I have to make
> > the changes again.
> 
> They are saved to the kernel on the hard disk, not the floppy.  
> 

Ah, okay, thanks for the clarification.

> > Also, is there a digest form of any of the mailing lists?  I'd like to
> > follow some of them if I'm to use FreeBSD, but I prefer digests for
> > high traffic lists.
> 
> I believe there is, try asking majordomo@freebsd.org 'lists' and look for
> freebsd-questions-digest or something like that.

Thanks, found them ;)

Thanks for your help

Rosina