Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 23:51:52 -0000 From: "Peter Hutchinson" <ph@phutch.demon.co.uk> To: <questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: FreeBSD newbie looking for tips Message-ID: <E0y2332-0006vW-00@post.eng.demon.net>
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Hi Having worked with successive MSDOS and various embodiments of Windows at a high level for many years, I would now really like to get started with UNIX. I have some slight experience of an old XENIX box, although more in terms of use rather than setup/administration. What I would ideally like to do is install freebsd onto a new partition on an existing MSDOS/Win95/FAT16 disk, and would appreciate any tips/annecdotes/important considerations before beginning. I've read a lot of docs and readme-type stuff at www.freebsd.org, and what I've seen so far looks encouraging. What I would really like to know is: - what would you consider a reasonable partition size for a mid-range freebsd installation ? (I have a 1.2GB IDE drive that is already pretty full but am considering purchasing a second unit that I would probably run exclusively as a single DOS partition, with the boot portions of DOS and freebsd in its entirity remaining on the existing disk). The machine is an AST P133 (Intel) with 24mb RAM, ATAPI CDROM, SiS video and ESS1788 soundblaster-compatible soundcard. - is the FIPS utility available on the ftp sites really any good at shrinking an active, primary DOS partition without reformatting or reinstalling ? Does Win95 cope with it and if so how well ? (I've heard it can screw entire filesystems at boot on a bad day). What are the chances of screwing the drive completely ? Is there a boot manager set up/provided by either fips or the freebsd install ? - is installing via ftp a practical possibility over a 28.8 analogue modem line, or am I going to be paying the phone bill off for the next 20 years ? - any good books or online resources you would recommend for someone in my position :-) Thanks for any help/advice you can give. Also, sorry if this would be better posted/mailed elsewhere ! -- Peter Hutchinson ph@phutch.demon.co.uk Cheshire <Win95, Access/VBA & Psion PDA programming> United Kingdom <Demon Internet Beta Testing Group> "Who is Fatal Error, and why is he reading my drive ?" To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe questions" in the body of the message
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