Diana,
You know, I was once in the very same position. I have been running a
FreeBSD 4.1 server since about September. It is surprising how much there
is to know, and how much I don't know yet.
Let's start with the hardware... My experience with my own installation is
on a Pentium 90 with a 2 Gb drive and 40 mb of memory. This is about the
least I have seen FreeBSD run successfully with. Your P166 should be more
than sufficient, however the memory might not be enough for good
performance. Especially if you are running a cable modem or DSL and want
this machine as a gateway.
I am curious what custom kernel configuration you deem necessary. I would
suggest starting with none at all and then compiling a custom kernel after
you have FreeBSD running in a stable fashion with the GENERIC kernel. You
will want to copy the GENERIC kernel source file anyways for a control when
your are debugging more vexing issues.
The next with I would do is take the defaults when partioning the disk. Use
the whole thing and don't screw around. I would also start with a good
install of MS Windows 98 on the machine first. You will want to go to the
devices and carefully record all of the information regarding the video
chipset, refresh rates, etc. and sound card info (if you want to use one, I
would advise against it) on paper. You will need this info to set up X,
Gnome or KDE.
The rest looks all good. This should get you a clean install, ready for
more serious configuration.
Let me know if you need anymore help.
Mike
mgruver@carolina.rr.com
<Diana wrote:>
Hi all,
I'm trying to install FreeBSD 4.0 (March 2000) on a PC (1.66MHz Pentium
processor, 1.6GB hard drive, 16MB RAM)... and it's not going well. I've
gone over the manual, and looked for installation information at a few web
sites, but I still can't figure out what to do.
The following is what happens when I go through the installation. I'm
sorry this is so long, but I'm not sure what information is relevant.
Aside from knowing a little teeny bit about getting around in UNIX, I'm
new to non-MS operating systems (but want to learn). If you need more
information in order to help me, please let me know.
1) At the "Kernel Configuration Menu" I choose "Start kernel configuration
in full screen mode." I do what I *think* I need to do here and move on.
If, given the rest of this message, you can tell that my problem is most
likely related to this step/ hardware/ drivers, please
let me know.
2) At the "/stand/sysinstall Main Menu" I choose the "Standard"
installation.
3) At the "FDISK Partition Editor" I choose "A - Use Entire Disk"
When asked "Do you want to do this with a true partition entry [...] ?
[...]" I choose "No."
4) At the "FreeBSD Disklabel editor" I've tried using "A - Auto Defaults
for all!" which gave me:
Part Mount Size Newfs
ad0s1a / 50MB UFS Y
ad0s1b swap 85MB SWAP
ad0s1e /var 20MB UFS Y
ad0s1f /usr 1858MB UFS Y
And I've tried using manually generated labels:
Part Mount Size Newfs
ad0s1a / 65MB UFS Y
ad0s1b swap 85MB SWAP
ad0s1e /usr 1864MB UFS Y
5) At "Choose Distributions" I choose "All"
6) At "Choose Installation Media" I choose "CDROM"
7) The "User Confirmation Requested" ("Last Chance! [...]") window comes
up, and I choose "Yes" to continue with the installation. Then I wait
about a minute for it to install.
8) The "Select the distribution you wish to install" menu appears; I
choose "All."
9) Then, I get this message:
Message
Installation completed with some errors. You may wish to scroll through
the debugging messages on VTY1 with the scroll-lock feature. You can also
choose "No" at the next prompt and go back into the installation menus to
try and retry whichever operations have failed.
[OK]
[Press enter to continue]
I press enter, and I end up back at "/stand/sysinstall Main Menu."
I've tried using alt-F2 here, but I don't understand any of the debugging
messages on VTY1.
10) If I take the disk out now, and restart the computer, these are the
last few lines of text that come up:
No /boot/loader
>> FreeBSD/i386 BOOT
Default: 0:ad(0,a)/kernel
boot:
No /kernel
>> FreeBSD/i386 BOOT
Default: 0:ad(0,a)/kernel
boot:
So... that's where I'm at. Like I said, I'm new to this, and I would
really appreciate any help or suggestions.
Thanks for your time (and Happy Holidays!),
-Diana
To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message