Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 21:57:18 -0800 From: Brian Sobolak <sobolak@mindspring.com> To: "Anthony Atkielski" <anthony@atkielski.com> Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re[2]: Tiny starter configuration for FreeBSD Message-ID: <1707396365.20011029215718@mindspring.com> In-Reply-To: <006101c160cb$6619f7d0$0a00000a@contactdish> References: <00a301c1606e$bc00e990$0a00000a@contactdish> <20011029134404.A92609@roman.mobil.cz> <006101c160cb$6619f7d0$0a00000a@contactdish>
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Hello Anthony, Monday, October 29, 2001, 2:45:21 PM, you wrote: >> Solaris is free for use on up to 8-CPU >> machines AFAIK. AA> I thought Solaris was a proprietary flavor of UNIX sold commercially by Sun, and AA> only available for Sun-supported platforms (??). You can get a copy of Solaris for Intel hardware. I did this and had a lot of problems getting it to work - the list of supported drivers is minimal to say the least. Yes, you're better with FreeBSD, IMHO. AA> One concern I have is booting and installing. All the machines I've looked at AA> have DVD drives in them; nobody seems to be providing plain old CD-ROM drives AA> any more. Is it possible for a machine to boot from a CD in a DVD drive? If AA> so, can I install directly from the CDs that way? Yes - that's how I installed my BSD machine. AA> The Wind River CD set documentation is not clear on whether or not the four CDs AA> contain everything to boot and install FreeBSD on a single machine from AA> scratch--does anyone know? This is 4.3, dated April 2001, and there are four AA> CDs in the jewel case, plus a little brochure. They absolutely contain everything you need. Just pop the first CD in the drive and you're ready to go. AA> I need some assurances on this AA> before I try to buy a machine, although I should think (and I hope) that just AA> about any new machine should be able to boot from a CD these days (or from a CD AA> in a DVD drive--right?). Yes. AA> Note that creating a bootable floppy would be a AA> problem, as my only other machine is Windows NT, with no MS-DOS in sight, and I AA> don't even remember if I can create a bootable DOS floppy from within NT. Yes - you can create bootable floppies for installing FreeBSD, and you can do it on NT. I've done it loads of times before. You'll find the instructions on FreeBSD.org, and you can download the DOS tools you'll need to do it as well as the floppy images. It's very easy. AA> Most of the configurations I've seen have junk like speakers and CD burners and AA> fancy sound cards and stuff that I really couldn't care less about, but I assume AA> that if I don't plan to use them, having them on the machine isn't going to AA> bother FreeBSD (?). In contrast--and this is equally irritating--all these AA> machines seem to have a cheap modem (useless to me), but no network card. So AA> I'll have to buy a nice 10/100 Ethernet card, but at least those are cheap (even AA> a 3Com full-duplex 10/100 card isn't very expensive). Most cheap machines come with a WinModem, which is useless in general and even more useless on FreeBSD. But they shouldn't bother FreeBSD... AA> I'm going to see if I can find a place that has keyboard switches so that I can AA> use one keyboard for two machines (mainly out of space limitations, not budget AA> limitations), and I'm going to try to get a tiny flat-panel display for the new AA> machine (more expensive, but again it saves space on my crowded desk). I think AA> I can skip a mouse for now, and in any case I have mice lying around all over AA> here (plus a couple of extra keyboards, for that matter). I'm short on desk real estate. I turned off my windows machine, got the BSD machine they way I wanted it (about 2 hrs of installing, configuring, etc.) and then rebooted it without a keyboard or mouse and did everything via ssh. Works wonderfully. AA> Still another question: Most of these configurations come with Windows, whether AA> you want it or not. Step 1 for me is to blast the disk clean, then. Will the AA> installation for FreeBSD give me the option of deleting all partitions and AA> starting with a completely empty disk, or will a preexisting Windows AA> installation pose a problem? Also, will FreeBSD let me use an entire 20 GB disk AA> as a single partition, or at least let me get past the old constraints that AA> Windows had on partition size? It will give you the option to wipe the disk. I would recommend using the defaults that FreeBSD suggests - it'll take care of the disk layout and is generally a good way to use the disk. HTH brian To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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