Re: Failed installation of FreeBSD 5.4

From: Greg Barniskis (nalists_at_scls.lib.wi.us)
Date: 08/12/05

  • Next message: Chris Ryan: "Mambo CMS on freeBSD5.4" 
    Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 11:01:54 -0500
To: Milscvaer <millueradfa@yahoo.com>

    Milscvaer wrote:
    > I am attempting to install FreeBSD on a Pentium system
    > (133 Mhz Intel). The system already had 4.6 on it so I
    > wished to delete the 4.6 system from the filesystem
    > and install 5.4 onto the same UFS filesystem, while
    > keeping /usr/home in place. I deleted everything
    > except /usr/home (which I want the installer to leave
    > in place anything inside there) (and except for the
    > kernel perhaps, but that will get overwritten anyway
    > right by the new install?), and then booted from 5.4
    > boot disks to install FreeBSD. I figured that this
    > should work ok since I have done it before when
    > upgrading from 4.6 to 4.9 on another system and
    > everything went fine.

    You should have no problem with this basic approach, except that
    your migrating file system won't get upgraded to UFS2. I'd guess
    that your P-133 is not a production server and that lacking UFS2
    features on your home directory will be no great loss.

    > The install program seem to complete successfully, I
    > then rebooted the system, but the boot process stopped
    > at the boot prompt, making beeping sounds. I tried the
    > installation process again but with same result.

    Which boot prompt? The disk selector (F1, F2, ..., Fn to choose a
    disk to boot from) or the new boot menu where you can select
    different ways of booting (safe mode, etc.), or at the kernel's
    "boot:" prompt? Does it beep of its own accord, or whenever you
    strike keys?

    If it's beeping at the disk selector when you strike keys, then
    somehow your partition scheme is wonky -- possibly you've got
    multiple disks and have installed the boot menu on each one, which
    can get rather messy. Since you are manually creating a partition
    scheme, rather than doing something like "Auto Defaults", are you
    remembering to make your FreeBSD slice bootable (active)?. Do you
    have enough RAM to run 5.4 (24 MB minimum)?

    > I have heard about the lapse in quality and useability
    > since 5.x, and now I am more inclined to believe it.

    Some (more than a few) folks have had specific hardware
    compatibility issues that I would not describe generally as a lapse
    in quality of the FreeBSD code, though the affected users may surely
    have another opinion. In my case, I've been testing 5.4 on about 10
    different motherboard/disk combinations and have experienced zero
    defects. In my opinion, usability and general quality is definitely
    raised, not lowered, in the latest releases.

    It can be argued (and has been, a lot) whether the hardware problems
    that some folks clearly do have are the fault of the hardware or of
    the new FreeBSD architecture. Myself, I think it's probably a little
    of each. Even though the hardware in question often "works fine"
    with other operating systems, that's not in my view conclusive
    evidence that the new FreeBSD code is bad. Make up your own mind, by
    all means, but jumping to conclusions is rarely going to help you
    actually resolve a problem. 

    -- 
Greg Barniskis, Computer Systems Integrator
South Central Library System (SCLS)
Library Interchange Network (LINK)
<gregb at scls.lib.wi.us>, (608) 266-6348
_______________________________________________
freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"
  • Next message: Chris Ryan: "Mambo CMS on freeBSD5.4"

    Relevant Pages

    • Re: Boot Problem
      ... see a red X next to something, but it either won't boot or works perfectly. ... On reboot, BIOS screens all run normally, then there is a 50/50 ... Install Service Pack 2 and instead of going into Hiberation, ... so I don't see how it can be a hardware problem. ...
      (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
    • Re: new case and motherboard
      ... evesham will provide a clean install. ... drivers, else you need to get a copy of XP and do a fresh install, you ... damage hardware around 3 out of 4 times out of all the links I read; ... windows boot sequence except as a malicious trojan process. ...
      (uk.comp.homebuilt)
    • problem installing 4.10, boot hangs after PLIP0
      ... I am having a problem getting FreeBSD 4.10 installed on my machine. ... After exiting that, it starts to boot, but stops at the "PLIP0" ... different hardware and installing a different version of FreeBSD, ...
      (freebsd-questions)
    • Re: Using the boot-easy boot loader..
      ... > I am currently running FreeBSD 5.2.1, installing of OS'es is really not ... > a hard task for me, except this one time and it has to do with WINDOWS ... > Windows XP on my primary C drive, and I goto install the FreeBSD boot ... > freebsd boot loader... ...
      (freebsd-questions)
    • Problems trying to boot from an 80GB Seagate
      ... My first attempt at installing FreeBSD (using the bootable CDROM images ... The BIOS CMOS is configured to "Auto" detect the drives on boot, ... Next, I created a NTFS partition on the drive with an XP install CD, ...
      (freebsd-questions)