From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Feb 12 15: 3:12 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mailout2-0.nyroc.rr.com (mailout2-1.nyroc.rr.com [24.92.226.165]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 91F9937B491 for ; Mon, 12 Feb 2001 15:02:50 -0800 (PST) Received: from rochester.rr.com (roc-24-169-206-37.rochester.rr.com [24.169.206.37]) by mailout2-0.nyroc.rr.com (8.11.2/RoadRunner 1.03) with ESMTP id f1CMx3m17588; Mon, 12 Feb 2001 17:59:05 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <3A886B7A.D0537619@rochester.rr.com> Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2001 18:02:18 -0500 From: "David M. Heller" X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.76 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.2.12 i386) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Odhiambo Washington Cc: "questions@FreeBSD.ORG" Subject: Re: Installing FreeBSD without floppies & without CD-ROM References: <20010212220447.A41439@poeza.iconnect.co.ke> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Odhiambo Washington wrote: > > Hello, > I am not a newbie but please lemme ask a newbie-type question. > A friend of mine wants to cross the floor from M$ to FreeBSD. She has a > laptop (God knows where this thing came from) called @Book. Yes, that is > the brand name on it. > It was given her by a friend without a floppy drive. I do not have a > CD-ROM with FreeBSD. For one this laptop's BIOS does not allow a setting > where one can boot from a CD-ROM - I looked at it throroughly but it did > not have, I swear. > Now in the absence of a floppy drive I am in a dilemna on HOWTO install > FreeBSD on this thing. > I can borrow an PCMCIA Ethernet card from a friend but still I am not sure > how that will help me. The laptop has Win 98 running. > Is there a way I can connect it to the LAN, copy the FreeBSD files into > it, mangle the boot loader then kill Win98 and have it boot FreeBSD > exclusively? Or will I be committing suicide? > And just in case she gets bored with FreeBSD and wants to return to M$ > Windows, is there a way to ensure that all this is taken into account, so > that it will be a painless process?? > > TIA > > -Wash > > -- > Odhiambo Washington Inter-Connect Ltd., > wash@iconnect.co.ke 5th Flr Furaha Plaza > Tel: 254 11 222604 Nkrumah Rd., > Fax: 254 11 222636 PO Box 83613 MOMBASA, KE. > > It is wonderful to be here in the great state of Chicago... -Dan Quayle, US > Vice President > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Part 1.2Type: application/pgp-signature I think you will have to actually pull the hard drive out of the laptop attach a 2.5 to 3.5 ide cable adapter to it and attach to a computer with an ide controller on it. And install FreeBSD as you normally would. I had to do this recently with a NoteStar Laptop computer. If you need to add software later you can setup a FreeBSD PPP server(I assume the laptop has a serial port?) And go from there. You might actually be able to install from the PPP server. I know you can do that w/Linux with a dos program called loadln.exe that will boot up linux, but I don't know if loadln.exe can boot up FreeBSD. You can download loadln.exe from Redhat.com or about any other linux site. -- David Heller dheller1@rochester.rr.com http://www.mbcrep.com/?47353 http://teraformahealth.com/tfh/57601.html To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message