From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Aug 27 23:15:39 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id XAA10733 for questions-outgoing; Wed, 27 Aug 1997 23:15:39 -0700 (PDT) Received: from junior.apk.net (root@junior.apk.net [207.54.158.15]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id XAA10728 for ; Wed, 27 Aug 1997 23:15:36 -0700 (PDT) Received: from steelr (pm1-16.ravenna.apk.net [207.54.136.35]) by junior.apk.net (8.8.6/8.8.5) with ESMTP id CAA09774 for ; Thu, 28 Aug 1997 02:16:10 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <34051533.E30D8A40@apk.net> Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 02:05:41 -0400 From: Jason P Reply-To: steelr@apk.net Organization: apk.net X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.0 [en] (Win95; I) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: installation X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Hi, I'm going to warn you upfront that I do not posess a great deal of knowledge in command line or computer's in general. But I really want to install bsd. I think its something that can really help me to broaden my horizon's (per say). All of the following questions I will ask will be based on the documentation read at ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/2.1.7.1-RELEASE/INSTALL.TXT. I want you to know that I am not one of those who doesn't read anything and then expects everything to be done for me. The current status is this: I did d/l the 2 files needed for the boot and I ran the image file as shown. I tried it once and it aborted with a *cannot read error* (i'm running 486dx4/100 win95. But then I formatted another disk and ran again and I pretty sure that it copied ok. I'm afraid to run the boot disc as a result of compatibility problems that I may encounter and that is basically what I wrote for in the first place. So, here it goes. 1)I read about using a boot manager included in the installation. So does this mean that I don't have to partition my drive in order to run bsb? 2)I have a 1.24 gig ide h/d and I have about 500 megs left. This is where i'm stuck. I was told that I would have to partition my h/d so that bsb and win95 dont collide. I have never partitioned a drive before and I do not have a way to backup the 800megs used on the drive. So I'm thinking either A: i have to buy another h/d to run bsd or B: I have to buy an external backup device just to backup the files to partition. I've been told by alot of people that if i tried to make a partition using the dos fdisk that all of my data would be erased and that is why I have to backup the whole drive. Additionally I was told that I would have to reinstall win95 again. This sounds like an awful lot of work 2)I have to keep win95 on my pc (girlfriend will kill me if I delete it) So I'm just trying to find the best way for bsd and win95 to coexist. 3) the floppy that I made from the boot and the fimage files. I dont wanna use this until i resolve the issue of where bsd is going to run right??? Because right now I'm scared to boot with the disk until I either get a new h/d or figure out how to partition my disk. 4) Is there just one nice and simple clear cut file to use for installing. Instead of downloading all of the gzar files?? I'm so used to installing windows applications where you just click on the icon...I suppose thats the problem(subjected to win too long) thats why I want to use the bsb os to get more/some knowledge of computer's and not just clicking on pretty little icon's. 5) I read all about the fips utility and that sounds like something for me to utilies. But do I have a dos partition currently?? i dont know. I says that if you dont have alot of space to use this but I have plenty of h/d space. From what I can tell I think the fips will help me out. But what worries me is the line that says just delete the partition by examining the size. 6) Last one, promise :) Re: Installation: I have a normal dialup connection to the net tcp/ip ppp. i also could access ftp server's so does that mean that when I do resolve the space issue (partition vs new h/d) that all I will need is the boot floppy?? The installation will happen directly from the ftp server?? Then It would automatically get the files I need for the download/installation because thats another thing I dont understan I followed the example given and downloaded all of the files in the info directory. I cant find anywere any documentation that say's for 2.1..etc get such and such files and for this version get such and such files. From what I can see all I have to download is all the files in the bin directory huh?? Well, if you reading this line right now chances are you'v read all of this rederick of mine and for that I am TRULEY grateful. Any help would be greatly appreciated. thank you in advance....Jason Place.