Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 20:39:55 -0400 From: "Name" <pyriformus@hotmail.com> To: <freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org> Message-ID: <OE610Ux9J1a5yuESE4p00002b4b@hotmail.com>
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hello my name is william mccartin and i have at long last successfully installed free bsd onto my desktop computer for the very first time and i figure i might have perhaps a few valuable tidbits of information on how your online manual did and did not help me through my installation process i purchased the freebsd powerpak from compusa last summer (roughly may 2000) and after several unsuccessful attempts i gave up and returned to windows with my tail between my legs i left my freebsd package untouched for the rest of the summer and the following school year and i have just returned to it this past week and battled with it for the past five days this time i had a new computer to install to so my actuall desktop could remain usable and untouched while intalling leaving me the ability to consult the internet while installing (an option i did not have last year) for the past week i sifted through the fbsd manual that came with the package along with page after page of online information and came up with nothing that would solve my problem i moved back and forth in and out of every possible suggestion that seemed plausible from hardware to software solutions nothing worked i was enraged and half prepared to launch the uncooperative piece of shit out the window nevertheless i plodded on and refused to allow this thing beat me i tried every local installation method i could stomach save installing from floppies and was half prepared to attempt installing via ftp (floppies would have been faster being that i'm connecting through dial up at 28.8 but would have required more effort on my part) finally at long last i unraveled the mystery at the core of my difficulties it was perhaps the most ridiculously simple solution and time and again i had missed it and i have no clue why this simple little oversight never occured to me here's what it ended up being: on my final attempt to try to install i tried performing a custom installation rather than a standard one being that i had yet to try that option and i finally narrowed down my problem to the commit point because every time i installed i was getting no activity from the cd-rom drive i eventually came to the realization that the entire time i was trying to install freebsd that i had never selected a single item to install by checking it off with the space bar good god i wanted to jump out a window all that misery and anger and frustration over perhaps the simplest error to be imagined i couldn't believe it no i couldn't be that stupid siezed by that sort of involuntary nervous/maniacle laughter i decided to explore this newfound possibility with the mentality of a castaway who had sat stranded on a desert island for ten long years only to realize that there was a tropical resort and hotel just on the other side of the island after checking of all the items i wanted to install i selected "okay" on my "last chance" warning and hit enter sure enough this was the solution i had desperately been seeking over the past week elated i jumped up and down galloping through my house shrieking with joy finally i had been liberated from this horrible tyrrant who had been refusing to install finally the chains that had bound me to my computer refusing to releaseme until i had completed my objective had loosened freeing me from my prison and so now here i sit writing you this letter please PLEASE in your online documentation make mention of the fact that you have to select the items to be installed with the SPACE BAR and not the enter key please make a note of it in huge 72 point capital letters because undoubtedly you save at least one other idiot out there besides myself after rexamining the intall process i had realized how i had made such a simple yet unforgiving error because having been a student of interactive media for the past two year i had realized that throughout the entire process there were no error messages appraising me of the fact that i had not selected anything to intall so in turn the program wouldn't be intalling anything for me all i ever got was on single error message at the very end which read as follows: "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" on the next prompt and go back to the installation menus to try and retry whichever operations have failed." this message was nearly meaningless to me it meant nothing to me except that i had not been entirely successful in installing the program which was already obvious to me well at any rate thanks for the help you did give hopefully this information will be of some help To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message
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