RE:: freebsd7 on older machines

------------------------------ Message: 7 Date: Fri, 09 May 2008 13:39:49 -0700 From: prad <prad@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: freebsd7 on older machines To: freebsd-questions@xxxxxxxxxxx Message-ID: <20080509133949.53b83c29@xxxxxxxx> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII i can't seem to boot the cdrom on older hardware (500MHz and down). i read somewhere that the older drives aren't supported by the installation cdrom. i want to create a series of 'dumb terminals' which can ssh -Y into a faster machine. if necessary i suppose i can floppy in and then install via nfs. or i can setup the hd on another machine that does support the install cdrom and then transfer to the older machine. here are the specific questions: 1. do older machines work better with older versions of freebsd? 2. if i dd a hd (with freebsd) onto another hd will i have a problem with the mbr and be unable to boot? 3. are there any other ideas for install?
-- In friendship, prad

I have with success installed 7.0 on a pentium 133 mhz laptop with 96 meg ram. compiled X and fluxbox from source. The whole installation took a week or so ;) Works like a charm, except firefox is heavy load for this ancient piece of machinery. Also use xfce compiled from source on old 350 - 450mhz machines nicely.
I usually use cdrom boot and then ftp install. On machines with no cd, or no working rom drives I use floppy boot versions of FreeBSD and then ftp the rest of the install. When wanting to use cdrom boot where I have no floppy, or bios doesn`t support cdrom boot (ie no bios upgrade to fix it either) I use a floppy tool called "smart boot manager" that when booted enables me to continue on most other media of my desire.( gives a new boot menu with among others cdrom driver loaded) I suggest this option for your convenience......


Kenneth Hatteland, Norway
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