From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Aug 27 06:48:46 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E6B9016A4BF for ; Wed, 27 Aug 2003 06:48:46 -0700 (PDT) Received: from remt24.cluster1.charter.net (remt24.cluster1.charter.net [209.225.8.34]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F0AB143FBF for ; Wed, 27 Aug 2003 06:48:45 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from chowse@charter.net) Received: from [66.168.145.25] (HELO moe) by remt24.cluster1.charter.net (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 4.0.6) with ESMTP id 137368305 for freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org; Wed, 27 Aug 2003 09:48:39 -0400 From: "Charles Howse" To: Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2003 08:48:32 -0500 Message-ID: <004401c36ca1$e8172030$04fea8c0@moe> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.2616 In-Reply-To: <3F4C804E.6FAE1D56@mindspring.com> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1165 Importance: Normal Subject: RE: Looking for detailed documentation: Install to existing filesystem X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2003 13:48:47 -0000 > This is fairly easy. What you do it copy the files to a directory > on a second disk drive on the machine, and point sysinstall to that > partition/directory during the install. >=20 > 8-). (tongue in cheek) Thank you! ;-) OK, here's what I did. Remember, I just want to install from scratch, not upgrade or anything too complicated. I copied the entire contents of CD 1 to /dev/ad3s1e/freebsd which I mount as /disk2/freebsd. I used Midnight Commander to do this, selecting each directory and telling it to dive into subdirectories if they exist. I booted from the CD, worked my way as usual to the Media Selection menu and chose Install from an existing filesystem. I *did* set the mount point for ad3s1e to /disk2 and did not toggle NewFS (preserve files). I entered /dev/ad3s1e/freebsd as the location. It failed with "can't copy from /mnt/dev/ad3s1e/freebsd" Try again? Y Failed. Etc., etc., etc. I tried the whole thing again, entering /mnt/dev/ad3s1e/freebsd this time as the location. Failed again. I looked at the debug output with ALT + F2, and the only thing I remember was that it said it couldn't open some file for writing. This is the exact same error that I see so many people posting about when I Goolge for a solution to this question. The most frequent thing they ask is, "Do I have to mount the partition on which the distfiles are located before I install? If so, how?" Any suggestions (careful! )? >PPS: I've posted detailed instructions on doing this at least >three times in the past three years, since I needed to upgrade >over NFS to a machine without anything but a local copy of >FreeBSD that could be booted; start looking around June of 2001 >in the -current and -hackers archives. I searched a while and didn't find anything, probably gave up too soon, decided to just wing it. I'm off today and don't mind fiddling around trying to figure this out.