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Date:      Sat, 6 May 2000 11:11:48 +1000
From:      Jonathan Michaels <jon@welearn.com.au>
To:        Aleksey <caspy@masterhost.ru>
Cc:        stable@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: problem bootimg [free|pico]bsd at 386sx
Message-ID:  <20000506111147.A73985@phoenix.welearn.com.au>
In-Reply-To: <39131CDD.AD659FC1@masterhost.ru>; from Aleksey on Fri, May 05, 2000 at 11:11:25PM %2B0400
References:  <39131CDD.AD659FC1@masterhost.ru>

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aleksey,

piece de camera, this is not a bash freebsd oiece, i am
offering so of the alternatives that have just recently became
available for people looking to develop on a budget or for
computers with limited hardware "budgets".

On Fri, May 05, 2000 at 11:11:25PM +0400, Aleksey wrote:
> Greetings!
> 
> I have a 386sx with 4mb of mem, floppy.
> trying to boot from freebsd 3.? install floppies and/or picobsd.
> 
> when freebsd - system reading kern-disk, then mfsroot, and exactly after
> prompt "press [enter] to boot" going to reboot ;(
> 
> when pico - system freeze after kernel loaded (seems where init must
> start).
> 
> any ideas ?

it depends on the real reason you are trying to run free or
pico bsd.

if you are looking to do (hard) realtime (scada, etc) systems
development with a unix a like operating system and cannot
afford the outragious prices charged by the american systems
development houses then try,

qnx, http://www.qnx.com and signup for the cd or downlaod the
system kit when it becomes available soon. qnx will work on a
386sx with as much as 1 mb of dram .. the four that you have
will make a good development platform.

or,

microware os-9, http://www.digitalasphyxia.com this is where
you will be able to get a "personal os-9 for intel" licence
development kit. sadly this unix a like operating operating
system need a minimum of 386sx with 2 mb of dram (grin).

qnx, has its own windowing/gui as well as port xfree (x11r6 from
memory). os-9 has x11r5 or 6 as well as its own native gui, but
this may not be part of teh "personal" licence kit, an optional
extra.

both gui versions do add thier own processor and dram overhead
to the base systems hardware requirements, but if your
requirements can be meet by text mode development then 4 mb
will be more than enough.

these operating systems have histories that strech back at
least 20 years and both are importing bsd code, sady qnx has
allied itself with the linux movement, this may imporve linux
code and eventually the linux kernel .. but, it will take time
.. grin.

in terms of deployment, both of these operating systems are as
stable as freebsd claims to be, and now that the push is on
for marketshare in the embeded processor marketplace using the
open source vehicle keep on the lookout for more and more of
the 'traditional' "small computer" or embeded appliences
developers releasing code (qnx has already done this) to the
open source movement in order to support development and of
cource the hope of making money from support contracts. on
anohter note, if you can learn qnx (or os-9) then you will be
able to go to these places and get a reasonably well paying
job.

anyway's it means a bonanza of good stable reliable tools for
all of us in teh 'open source' movement for the development of
code and a plethora of operating systems to chose from, guified
if we really really must have a ms windowified world, or
straight text console for the more traditional amongst us ..
good hunting.

you mentioned having changed your hardware because it may have
been faulty. i would like to humbly sugest that the only
"hardware" probelm you had was the fact that freebsd is moving
on and it is not your hardware that is at fault, it is freebsd
that is not supporting your hardware any more. given that qnx
or os-9 are not going to cost any more than the freebsd cdroms,
maybe its time to think about what it is that you are trying to
achieve and maybe get some better tools for the job. 

in case you are wodering, i wa originally a microware os-9
developer, in teh early 1980's. made a big mistake and moved to
ms dos becaue two of my major clients went that way. i then
tried to redeem myself by attempting to move to qnx (early
90's), cost and my health got me in the end. i've been
struggling with freebsd for 5 years now (since the
v2.0.5-release cds were available here in australia).

i'm having the same problems with freebsd as i did with the
move to qnx, financial and health related shortcomings are
protracting the "learning process". i am now seriously looking
at moving back to os-9, with my already invested intellectual
capital and the "poor man's" vehicle in the form of the 'personal'
licence i may have some hope of doing something positive fro
myself and my community.

warm regards

jonathan (part time human, full time disabled)

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