From owner-freebsd-questions Thu Jan 23 02:07:20 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id CAA11939 for questions-outgoing; Thu, 23 Jan 1997 02:07:20 -0800 (PST) Received: from narcissus.ml.org (brosenga.st.pitzer.edu [134.173.120.201]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id CAA11932 for ; Thu, 23 Jan 1997 02:07:16 -0800 (PST) Received: (from ben@localhost) by narcissus.ml.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id CAA03454; Thu, 23 Jan 1997 02:07:06 -0800 (PST) Date: Thu, 23 Jan 1997 02:07:06 -0800 (PST) From: Snob Art Genre To: Tyler Schutjer cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Please help... In-Reply-To: <32E5DFA7.6BDD@xmission.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-questions@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Wed, 22 Jan 1997, Tyler Schutjer wrote: > I'm an average DOS/Windows user in the process of trying to pick up > UNIX, and I'm DYING to put FreeBSD on my machine. I spent long hours > trying to install from the boot floppy, but couldn't get it to work (I > can't get past the dialing out to my ISP part), so I am thinking about > purchasing the CD. I want to be able to select a partition from which to > boot when I turn on my PC, and I'm thoroughly confused as to whether > installing from a CD will achieve the same kind of configured disk as > will the downloading methods. Basically, I want UNIX to EXIST ON MY HARD > DRIVE, as though my PC were a workstation - I don't want to have to > stick a CD in my machine every time I want to run FreeBSD. Now I have to > confess a whole lot of ignorance with regards to UNIX and hardware > stuff, but it seems to me from reading the documentation that this is > what I would be doing - "mounting" the CD every UNIX session. Is that > right? Or am I misunderstanding totally? The latter. :) An install from CD is a complete installation to your hard drive, and you thereafter do not need a CD in your drive to run Unix. There are options during the installation to allow you to choose an OS at boot time. > Something else - > I wanted to try to download a distribution from your web site, but > couldn't figure out for the life of me which files to begin with, or > where to put them. I was interested in the "X developer distribution" > and am wondering which files correspond to that set. The other issue > would be, I can save the files to C:, but so what? It's the section of > my disk that Windows CAN'T see that needs the files, right? Assuming I > downloaded all the files I needed to C:, how would I get them where they > need to go - my FreeBSD partition? I am guessing there is some kind of > DOS compatible "batch" file that moves the stuff over? > I don't know.... See http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/install.html. > Any info relevant to any of these questions that you folks could give me > would be most appreciated. I would offer cash, but alas - I'm a grad > student... That's ok, we're volunteers. I speak only for myself, but if you want to give back to FreeBSD, there is a simple way for newbies such as you and me. Lurk on this list and use FreeBSD until you know the answers to some of the questions that show up; then answer those so that more experienced folks can spend their time answering more difficult questions. > Thanks > tschutj@xmission.com > or tds0050@wcslc.edu > Ben The views expressed above are not those of the Worker's Compensation Board of Queensland, Australia.