Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 22:26:35 -0700 (PDT) From: Joseph Koshy <jkoshy> To: mfischer@2001ad.com Cc: dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu, freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: installation boot disk image Message-ID: <199807020526.WAA04444@hub.freebsd.org>
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Hi,
> I obtained the "installation boot dist image" from your server. It was
> supposed to be 1.4M, or 1457664 bytes. Instead, it is 1474560 bytes so
> it won't fit on the boot disk. What do I do about this?
This seems to be a common question so I'm thinking of submitting the
following Q. to the FAQ. Could the -doc list amd FAQ maintainer pl. review?
If OK, I'll commit it in a day or two.
Koshy
(nemesis) $ lcvs diff install.sgml
Index: install.sgml
===================================================================
RCS file: /home/ncvs/doc/FAQ/install.sgml,v
retrieving revision 1.3
diff -u -r1.3 install.sgml
--- install.sgml 1998/06/27 01:13:49 1.3
+++ install.sgml 1998/07/02 05:24:03
@@ -32,6 +32,32 @@
name="Handbook entry on installing FreeBSD.">
<sect1>
+ <heading>Help! The boot floppy image will not fit on a single floppy!
+ </heading>
+ <p>At 512 bytes per sector, 18 sectors/track, 80 tracks per side, and
+ 2 sides, a 3.5 inch (1.44MB) floppy can accomodate exactly 1474560
+ bytes of data. The boot image is also exactly 1474560 bytes in size.
+ <p>Common mistakes when preparing the boot floppy are:
+ <itemize>
+ <item>Not downloading the floppy image in <tt>binary</tt> mode when
+ using <tt>FTP</tt>.
+ <p>Some FTP clients default their transfer mode to <tt>ascii</tt>
+ and attempt to change any end-of-line characters received to match
+ the conventions used by the client's system.
+ This will almost invariably corrupt the boot image. Check the
+ size of the downloaded boot image: if it is not <em>exactly</em>
+ that on the server, then the download process is suspect.
+ <item>Using the DOS <tt>copy</tt> command to transfer the boot
+ image to floppy.
+ <p><tt>copy</tt> will not work as the boot image has been
+ created to be booted into directly. You have to transfer it to the
+ floppy ``raw'', by using one of the low-level tools (like
+ <tt>fdimage</tt> or <tt>rawrite</tt>) described in the
+ <url url="../handbook/install.html" name="installation guide to
+ FreeBSD">.
+ </itemize>
+
+ <sect1>
<heading>Where are the instructions for installing FreeBSD?</heading>
<p>Installation instructions can be found in the
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