Date: Sun, 24 Nov 1996 12:18:44 +0100 From: "Stein M. Sandbech" <stein@wopr.ife.no> To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: TI 4000WinDX notebook install, with Q's Message-ID: <199611241118.MAA16249@wopr.ife.no>
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Hi, freebsd'ers. Just a couple of weeks ago I completed a FreeBSD 2.1.5 install on a Texas Instruments TM 4000 WinDX2 50MHz notebook. It has a 810MB AIDE disk and 8MB RAM. It works like charm now, but I had some problems during the install phase that I thought I would share, and some questions arise. 1'st the install phase. I made the boot disk on my Dual Pentium (IX) off the 2.1.5 WC CD. The TI booted OK. I proceeded to configure the disk (all disk space allocated to FreeBSD). In the meantime I had connected the TI to my network, with an interlink cable, to the PPro200 (DUNE). The plan was to access IX over the network, which had the SCSI CD-ROM at the time. I have used this procedure with several other brands of notebooks earlier, with success. I went through the process of configuring the parallel port device (lp0) on the TI with DUNE's IP address and got an instant error message: "Cannot configure device lp0", even if the boot process had reported the parallel port as "TCP/IP capable interface". I tried several times, even doing an "ifconfig lp0 <TI-address> <DUNE-address>" had no effect. I then proceeded to make the bin floppy distribution on MS-DOS formatted diskettes. After the dismal process of producing the diskettes, I began the installation anew. The TI notebook booted OK, but when I inserted the first floppy, the machine just hung on the floppy disk seek indefinitely. When I released the BIN floppy, I got a prompt reply that the install program had detected that the floppy had been removed. I got NO other error messages on the debug screen, or on the console. I repeated this a couple of times, and checking that all the files was on the floppies and that the catalog structure was right. It was. I must admit that I nearly gave up at the time, but I figured I just test a DOS partition install, which I had not used before. I set the disk up with 50MB and DOS 6.22 and the rest to FreeBSD, loaded the BIN floppies to "C:\FREEBSD\BIN". Proceeded to boot on the same FreeBSD boot floppy, specified a DOS partition install in the MEDIA menu, and presto, I had an operative FreeBSD on the TI notebook! And wonders of wonders, when I tested the "laplink" connection to DUNE, it also worked, so I proceeded to fetch the rest of the distribution with a standard NFS install over lp0. To conclude, the infamous floppy disk on the TI works as a charm now :->>> So, to the questions: 1. Is there something I have missed in the 2.1.5 install procedure related to "laplink" installs over lp ports? (I forgot to mention that all the other "laplink" installs I have done was with FreeBSD 2.0.5 and 2.0) 2. Is there any known problems with floppy disks "going to sleep on you" during the install phase? Comments on this, anyone? Best regards, Stein M. Sandbech steinms@sn.no | stein@wopr.ife.no FreeBSD enthusiast. http://www.sn.no/~steinms/
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