From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jul 3 15:15:23 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 8602B16A4CE for ; Sat, 3 Jul 2004 15:15:23 +0000 (GMT) Received: from nekulturny.org (S0106004001438e5b.cg.shawcable.net [68.144.47.89]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B635743D1D for ; Sat, 3 Jul 2004 15:15:22 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from flowers@nekulturny.org) Received: from nekulturny.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by nekulturny.org (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id i63FFKak001060; Sat, 3 Jul 2004 09:15:21 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from flowers@nekulturny.org) Received: (from flowers@localhost) by nekulturny.org (8.12.10/8.12.10/Submit) id i63FFISS001059; Sat, 3 Jul 2004 09:15:18 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from flowers) Date: Sat, 3 Jul 2004 09:15:18 -0600 From: Danny MacMillan To: David Fleck Message-ID: <20040703151518.GB1011@procyon.nekulturny.org> References: <20040703071525.T19350@grond.sourballs.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20040703071525.T19350@grond.sourballs.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i cc: FreeBSD Questions Subject: Re: Install errors on old HP machine 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: Sat, 03 Jul 2004 15:15:23 -0000 On Sat, Jul 03, 2004 at 06:30:28AM -0600, David Fleck wrote: > > ... > > I'm pretty much at a standstill here. My current working hypothesis is > that my main machine's floppy drive is writing crap, or the HP's floppy > drive is reading crap. I can live with that, but is there any other way > to get something useful onto this box? (It does have a FreeBSD-supported > ethernet card in it.) I came across almost exactly this same problem recently. There's a really old Dell at work that doesn't have the option in the BIOS to boot from CD. It has an external floppy drive that it should be able to boot from, but the cable has been misplaced. If you have another laptop, you can: 1. Put the hard drive in the other laptop. 2. Install a boot manager on it that will allow you to boot from CD. 3. Put the hard drive back in the HP. 4. Boot the HP from the FreeBSD and proceed as normally. That's what I did. Here's the boot manager I used: http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/ You can install the standard boot manager during FreeBSD installation if you want, or choose "None" to keep the fancy one. -- Danny MacMillan