Can't Install FreeBSD

I've been trying to install FreeBSD 5.0 RELEASE on an old Pentium 200 MHz, but i cannot get the installer to start.

I cannot get the disk to boot up i should say.

I've changed the startup settings in the BIOS a million times, nothing helps there.

I ran an Md5 checksum and everything was ok.

Downloaded Mandrake 9.1 and burned, did a checksum and everything was ok. Stuck that disk in and it would not boot either. (Did this as a test to see if it was only the BSD disk that wasn't working) However, Mandrake's boot problem was easy to fix with an easily make boot disk using rawwritewin.

I downloaded FreeBSD's kern.flp and mfsroot.flp and put them on floppies using fdimage. I insert kern.flp and everything goes fine and it askes me to insert mfsroot. I do, and it works for a little while, but then it seems to freez. It doesn't seem like its reading the floppy, the cd doesn't seem like it spinning, i don't hear anything from the box...

So, i found boot.flp in the floppies directory of the FreeBSD downloads, but it's too big to be made into a floppy.

Any ideas on how to get my system to start up? Is there a way to make a disk that will force a cdboot up? Is there something about that boot.flp that i'm missing?

THanks so much!!!!

~SonicDragon

Never had this problem try hitting Alt+F4 to see what is going on.

did you burn it as an .ISO cd.. ??

Acquire the Boot Floppy Images

The boot disks are available on your installation media in the floppies/ directory, and can also be downloaded from the floppies directory for the i386 architecture and from this floppies directory for the Alpha architecture.

The floppy images have a .flp extension. The floppies/ directory contains a number of different images, and the ones you will need to use depends on the version of FreeBSD you are installing, and in some cases, the hardware you are installing to. In most cases you will just need two files, kern.flp and mfsroot.flp. Additional device drivers may be necessary for some systems. These drivers are provided on the drivers.flp image. Check README.TXT in the same directory for the most up to date information about these floppy images.

Important: Your FTP program must use binary mode to download these disk images. Some web browsers have been known to use text (or ASCII) mode, which will be apparent if you cannot boot from the disks.

Prepare the Floppy Disks

You must prepare one floppy disk per image file you had to download. It is imperative that these disks are free from defects. The easiest way to test this is to format the disks for yourself. Do not trust pre-formatted floppies.

Important: If you try to install FreeBSD and the installation program crashes, freezes, or otherwise misbehaves, one of the first things to suspect is the floppies. Try writing the floppy image files to some other disks and try again.

Write the Image Files to the Floppy Disks

The .flp files are not regular files you copy to the disk. Instead, they are images of the complete contents of the disk. This means that you cannot use commands like DOS' copy to write the files. Instead, you must use specific tools to write the images directly to the disk.

If you are creating the floppies on a computer running DOS/Windows, then we provide a tool to do this called fdimage.

If you are using the floppies from the CDROM, and your CDROM is the E: drive, then you would run this:

E:\> tools\fdimage floppies\kern.flp A:
Repeat this command for each .flp file, replacing the floppy disk each time, being sure to label the disks with the name of the file that you copied to them. Adjust the command line as necessary, depending on where you have placed the .flp files. If you do not have the CDROM, then fdimage can be downloaded from the tools directory on the FreeBSD FTP site.

If you are writing the floppies on a Unix system (such as another FreeBSD system) you can use the dd(1) command to write the image files directly to disk. On FreeBSD, you would run:

# dd if=kern.flp of=/dev/fd0
On FreeBSD, /dev/fd0 refers to the first floppy disk (the A: drive). /dev/fd1 would be the B: drive, and so on. Other Unix variants might have different names for the floppy disk devices, and you will need to check the documentation for the system as necessary.

You are now ready to start installing FreeBSD.


Source :- http://www.nl.freebsd.org/doc/en_US....STALL-FLOPPIES

Yup, it was from a downloaded iso

FreeBSD 5 is bugged. The installation failed here aswell. Get 4.8, its tested and its ok.

I would wait with 5 until its fixed.

Cheers.

MemorY : Thanks for the post, but i have already read, and reread that a million times trying to see if i did anything wrong. i've tried different floppies to see if they were defective, but that was also of no help.


instronics: I just might have to :(

Reiterating what Instronics said, FeeBSD 5 is buggy beyond reality, I wouldn't use it and I'm a big FreeBSD lover.

4.8 is the way to go. Good luck.

Good news: 4.8 installer started

Bad news: i can't get past the kernal configuration screen :(

There were no driver conflicts listed, to i quit (q) and then saved (y) and then it showed the system probing for hardware. It fills about 3/4 of the screen and then stops :( The disk stops spining and nothing works.

I've spent all day on this, just when i thought i had cought a break, i couldn't be so lucky ;)

Quote:

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Originally posted here by SonicDragon
Good news: 4.8 installer started

Bad news: i can't get past the kernal configuration screen :(

There were no driver conflicts listed, to i quit (q) and then saved (y) and then it showed the system probing for hardware. It fills about 3/4 of the screen and then stops :( The disk stops spining and nothing works.

I've spent all day on this, just when i thought i had cought a break, i couldn't be so lucky ;)

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I believe you choose " start kernel configuration in full-screen visual mode" on "Kernel Configuration Menu".

I think you should choose " skip kernel configuration and continue with installation" and then just do installation follow the instructions.
Cause this is what I've done to my computers/laptops and I don't have problem with that ( I've tried FreeBSD 4.5,4.6,4.7,4.8 and 5), I am using FreeBSD 4.8 on my laptop and FreeBSD 5 on my pc desk.

Hope that's help you out


Cheerss

Skip the kernel config as sweet_angel said.

What other hardware is in this machine?
I know there are some troubles with CMD IDE chipsets.

Quote:

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" skip kernel configuration and continue with installation"

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I've tried that :( No luck :(