Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2001 09:25:09 -0400 From: "Christopher T. Jewett" <ctjewett@zdnetonebox.com> To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Thanks to all -- A couple of suggestions Message-ID: <20010806132509.CARP18626.mta08.onebox.com@onebox.com>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
There are a few things that you should beware of before trying to install FreeBSD that I'm not so sure you've considered, judging from your email. 1. You're ISP being AOL is not compatible with FreeBSD. You won't be able to connect to their system through normal dial-up protocols, therefore you will not have an internet connection. This would make it impossible to install FreeBSD from FTP (which would be downright slow anyhow, over dialup.) My suggestion is burn a CD from the ISO image if you can get access to a CDR and a fast connection. 2. It appears as if you are attempting to install FreeBSD on a hard drive that is partitioned for Windows 98 to use the entire hard disk. The additional 2MB of disk space is something the FAT file system couldn't fill up, due to limitations of the file system architecture. It would be possible to use your existing hard disk for the OS installation, however it would require that you back-up the contents of your hard drive and use DOS's fdisk utility to repartition your hard drive into two equal partitions. (or however you prefer.) After that, you will find it necessary to re-install Windows 98 first, followed by FreeBSD second. 3. It sounds like you don't have a whole lot of experience working with Unix. I know you're probably sick of hearing this, but it's *SO* true. READ, READ, READ, READ as much as you possibly can before going in both feet forward. You want to at least be sure you can login, logout, reboot, shutdown, move in and out of directories, copy files, understand permissions, and know how to start and kill X. It may sound like a lot, but really it won't take long to discover all that, and it'll save you *a LOT* of headache after you install the system. 4. While I *DEFINATELY* prefer FreeBSD as a Unix system over Linux, might I suggest that Red Hat 7.2 or Mandrake Linux be a better starting point to learn Unix while still having the comfort of a GUI. FreeBSD will certainly *FORCE* you to learn Unix in a much cleaner, more organized environment, but it's certainly a *LOT* more intimidating. Just some suggestions before you begin. Welcome to Unix! It's such a FANTASTIC collection of code that just requires a little patience and learning. :-) Chris ---- DAlSault@aol.com wrote: > I want to thank everyone for answering my questions and responding > so > quickly. I've gone carefully through the install procedures using the > > kern.flp and mfsroot.flp disks and it is clear that Windows 98 takes > the > entire disk. It left a mere 2 Meg for the install! ha. It was difficult > to > determine because instead of showing disk space in Mb, it showed it > in "ST" > and I had to cycle through the different units to get info I could > interpret > easily. I looked at the FIPS program info after I downloaded it, but > it looks > like a nightmare, full of places to go wrong and destroy my comp. All > in all, > i've decided the best thing to do would be to buy a new disk and install > > directly to it, leaving my windows disk completely alone. Thanks again. > David > ___________________________________________________________________ To get your own FREE ZDNet Onebox - FREE voicemail, email, and fax, all in one place - sign up today at http://www.zdnetonebox.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20010806132509.CARP18626.mta08.onebox.com>