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To: questions@FreeBSD.org
From: Charles Sidwell <csidwell@ix6.ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Installation woes
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        I hope someone can help.  I've been trying to install UNIX of some
type for a while with no success.  Upon buying a new computer I took my old
one, an IBM Valuepoint 486/DX2, 24mb Ram, 2 hard drives - not all that
shabby, and began preparing it for UNIX.  
I first bought a RED HAT Linux OS, but was completely unable to get it to
recognize my cd-rom. Someone told me about FreeBDS.  I bought a copy and
have began trying to get it installed.
I've tried every reasonable install option in the view menu-install from dos
w/ide cd-rom, install from floppy w/ide cd-rom, install.bat, nothing works.
The problem is that, after what I assume is building a kernel, it goes to a
screen - Welcome to FreeBSD - with a list of options:Usage, DOC, and all of
the various install options:express, novice, etc.  The problem is that at
this point my system seems to lock up - no keyboard, no mouse, nothing. I
can't even soft boot.
Any ideas?

My configuration is:
one ide hard drive with a single dos partition (including the primary)
one ide hard drive with a partition for dos, and a large unused space which
I hope to use for UNIX. Just for this install I bought a tape backup, backed
up the drive, reformatted it, leaving the large unused, unpartitioned
segment for UNIX, and reloaded.
The keyboard is Enhanced, the mouse is PS/2
my cd-rom is a Reveal GCD-R420

If anyone has any ideas on how to get this thing to work, I'd be grateful.


Thanks
Joe Sidwell