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Date:      Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:10:10 -0500 (EST)
From:      doug@safeport.com
To:        Sergio de Almeida Lenzi <lenzi.sergio@gmail.com>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Can't install freebsd/pcbsd
Message-ID:  <alpine.BSF.2.00.1111281451240.66833@fledge.watson.org>
In-Reply-To: <1322508308.13740.23.camel@z6000.lenzicasa>
References:  <CAHv-ELjYcAYWhnNWeV61_kPXevgnOWr6Jwf4v-kqn7bVeKSFmA@mail.gmail.com> <1322508308.13740.23.camel@z6000.lenzicasa>

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  On Mon, 28 Nov 2011, Sergio de Almeida Lenzi wrote:

> Em Seg, 2011-11-28 ?s 18:53 +1030, Andreas Junius escreveu:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'm trying to install freebsd on a notebook for quite some time. It is an
>> Acer Aspire 9302AWMSi with a
>> AMD Turion 64 Mobile CPU.
>> I tried freebsd 8.2, pcbsd 8.2 and pcbsd 9.0 .
>>
>> Unfortunately the installation routine gets trapped in some kind of endless
>> loop. Version 8.2 starts up and restarts again as soon the kernel gets
>> loaded. With version 9.0 I come to a menu and when I select any of the
>> choices, the computer restarts again. Any advice what I could do? Or is it
>> simply impossible to install freebsd on this kind of notebook?
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Andy
>> _______________________________________________
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>> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
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>
>
> Hello.
>
> I do now know about the other persons, but I swear to NEVER EVER
> buy an ACER product again....
>
> Their bios is buggy, (does not map pci devices...),
> the dma is broken, the memory dumps core,  and
> they do not care about the users....
>
> I bought a Lenovo with AMD vision (very cheap and good notebook)  and I
> it works very well.

Check out the compatibility list: http://laptop.bsdgroup.de/freebsd/index.html

I would be very surprised if you can not install FreeBSD 8.2. Xorg is 
unfortunately another matter. If you can easily reinstall windows (I assume you 
want to dual boot) you can try to install only FreeBSD and see if that works. 
Windows 7 uses a different scheme that makes dual booting more of an issue than 
it used to be. If you google that or have access to questions archive there are 
instructions and/or experience on doing that. I use a Dell 17" inspiron which 
works fine but Xorg does not yet support the video or the wifi card (both 
Intel). What I did to get dual boot working does not track with most of the 
other experiences with windows 7. I assume that is Dell related.

I forget what the exact term is, but if you use the built-in partition manager 
to split the disk and then make a restore disk set, you can easily get back to 
that configuration. I found that installing 8.x at worst takes away the MBR so 
that only FreeBSD will boot. Take the standard install, accept the geometry, 
take the default slice definitions, the minimum footprint, and no ports. That 
should take 10-15 mins or so. If the ethernet card is supported use csup or 
freebsd-update to get to the 8.2_release.

I have no experience with FreeBSD 9.0 (has a new GUI install) or pcbsd. 
Following the above should be straight forward unless the compatibility tells 
you your hardware is not supported.

I hope this helps,

DougD



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