From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Dec 28 10:46:14 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8139A16A4CE; Tue, 28 Dec 2004 10:46:14 +0000 (GMT) Received: from kenmore.kozy-kabin.nl (fia148-72.dsl.hccnet.nl [62.251.72.148]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DA71943D54; Tue, 28 Dec 2004 10:46:12 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from colin@kenmore.kozy-kabin.nl) Received: from localhost (colin@localhost) by kenmore.kozy-kabin.nl (8.11.6p2/8.11.6) with ESMTP id iBS012706732; Tue, 28 Dec 2004 01:01:08 +0100 (CET) Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 01:01:01 +0100 From: "Colin J. Raven" To: Ted Mittelstaedt In-Reply-To: Message-ID: References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed cc: Dinesh Nair cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org cc: Dan Thomas Subject: RE: Minimal system installation X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 10:46:14 -0000 On Dec 28, Ted Mittelstaedt launched this into the bitstream: > > Your just not going to be able to do this one as it is, > you need to boot into FreeBSD in order to write a FreeBSD > boot selector or boot loader on the hard disk. > > Borrow another laptop and temporairly move the hard drive from > the first laptop to the second, then load FreeBSD onto it > and move the disk back. > > Have you tried looking for a floppy for this laptop on > Ebay? > > In theory if you had a copy of Norton Ghost you could ghost > an image of the laptop hard disk running FreeBSD (obviously > you would need another identical working laptop) then > on your laptop you could dialup with a modem and download > a packet driver and try running it under win98 DOS using a > 3com 3c89 pcmcia card (which is one of the few pcmcia cards > that will run a packet driver without card services) then > running the ghost client, than pulling the image over the > network. > > Incidentally you probably can't get the pcmcia slot to work > because with a laptop that old, it's a 16 bit pcmcia card > slot, and all the pcmcia cards sold today are 32 bit cardbus > ones. That 3c589 3com pcmcia card is your friend. It's not > in production anymore but there's tons on Ebay. > > Ted > >> How about this one...a laptop with the CD inoperable and the floppy >> missing. The PCMCIA controller may/may_not be fried because no known >> PCMCIA network card will work, but owing to the vagaries of Win98 who >> knows for sure. All we know presently is that the serial port works. >> Disk is OK and it has 40MB of memory. Add to that the fact that for >> ridiculously sentimental reasons I am reluctant to part with the darn >> thing, so as a last ditch effort I'd sure like to put *some* BSD on it. >> The question is....how? Ted, Thanks for an enormously helpful response, greatly appreciated. I think I'll leave the laptop on it's shelf for another few weeks/months and go hunt up a 3C589 PCMCIA card, then try yanking the H/D and proceeding as you outlined above. Somewhat tangentially I have a suspicion that the PCMCIA controller may well be cooked because if memory serves, I had one of those cards back when which worked and then abruptly failed. Wondering if the card itself had fried I popped it into a recent laptop and it immediately passed packets...at least that's my recollection. Nonetheless despite that gloomy outlook I'll still give this a shot with another card of the heritage you described. Thanks for taking the time to explain the why's/how's on this, I have a clearer view of the upcoming task now. Warm Regards & Thanks, -Colin