From owner-freebsd-questions  Thu Jan 16 00:37:42 1997
Return-Path: <owner-questions>
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.4/8.8.4) id AAA10646
          for questions-outgoing; Thu, 16 Jan 1997 00:37:42 -0800 (PST)
Received: from gatekeeper.barcode.co.il (gatekeeper.barcode.co.il [192.116.93.17])
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.4/8.8.4) with ESMTP id AAA10641
          for <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>; Thu, 16 Jan 1997 00:37:37 -0800 (PST)
Received: (from smap@localhost) by gatekeeper.barcode.co.il (8.7.5/8.6.12) id KAA24700; Thu, 16 Jan 1997 10:36:41 +0200 (IST)
X-Authentication-Warning: gatekeeper.barcode.co.il: smap set sender to <nadav@barcode.co.il> using -f
Received: from localhost.barcode.co.il(127.0.0.1) by gatekeeper.barcode.co.il via smap (V1.3)
	id sma024687; Thu Jan 16 10:35:29 1997
Message-ID: <32DDE82C.591B@barcode.co.il>
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1997 10:34:52 +0200
From: Nadav Eiron <nadav@barcode.co.il>
X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (X11; I; SunOS 5.5 sun4m)
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Daniel Reid <dreid@execulink.com>
CC: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: Boot switches (init levels?)
References: <199701160517.AAA03611@execulink.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Sender: owner-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
X-Loop: FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

Daniel Reid wrote:
> 
> To whom it may consern,
> 
> After setting up Freebsd on a 486dx2 Machine. I played around with the
> sysconfig file in an attempt to get the Machine to boot without hanging
> when the network was not present. I was totally unsuccessful. When BSD
> boots without the network attached; it hangs at loading the mail deamon.
> I know that system V has init levels and I could start it using single
> user mode. Is this true for FreeBSD? All I've read on BSD indicates to
> me that I can not. Other suggestions for changing paramaters for booting
> FreeBSD attached to 1 nothing, and/or 2 a LAN (using only a HUB and one
> other computer) would be appreciated.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Daniel
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> + Daniel Reid                   English / Computer sci
> + dreid@execulink.com           B.Ed program at Western
> + dreid@edu.uwo.ca              Graduate of York U.
> ----------------------------------------------------------

FreeBSD does support single-user mode. Just type "-s" at the Boot:
prompt. However, I guess single-user mode is not what you'd like.
Sendmail hangs probably due to DNS problems. Try pressing ^C when it
hangs. Depending on how you use the system you should either:
1. Not start sendmail at all (if that's the only problem).
2. Configure name resolution so that everything you need is
self-contained.
3. Press ^C when you boot without the Net.
4. Let the DNS query (if that's indeed what's stopping you) time out.
Note: DNS can take a long time to timeout!

Nadav