*BSD News Article 17344


Return to BSD News archive

Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.development
Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!agate!doc.ic.ac.uk!pipex!warwick!uknet!comlab.ox.ac.uk!comlab.ox.ac.uk!blt
From: blt@comlab.ox.ac.uk (Brian Thompson)
Subject: Installing 386BSD on a machine with only a 1.44MB floppy
Message-ID: <1993Jun20.180455.22871@demo1.comlab.ox.ac.uk>
Originator: blt@demo1.comlab
Sender: blt@comlab.ox.ac.uk (Brian Thompson)
Organization: Oxford University Computing Laboratory, UK
Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 18:04:55 GMT
Lines: 31

At the moment I am trying to install 386bsd on a Compaq Prolinea 3/25sz,
which only has a single 1.44MB 3.5" floppy. I have tried using rawrite to
write the tiny 386bsd image, which completes with no errors. On trying to
boot the disc the machine just sits there forever with the drive light on
and a flashing cursor at the top left of an otherwise clear screen.

The machine currently has Linux installed experimentally on it, although
this has to go - I absolutely *must* have slip support so I am swapping to
386bsd if I can get it running.

If anyone has any ideas, help would be much appreciated. An alternative would
be to take the machine apart and temporarily install a 5.25" drive, but this
isn't a practical proposition long term - the cabinet is far too small for
such a drive and indeed has no spare bay for one.

My own guess is that the image expects to be loaded onto a 5.25" floppy (as
suggested by its size), and that the tracks are in the wrong place due to the
different number of sectors when loading the image onto 3.5" instead.

Thanks in advance,
Brian Thompson
Computer Officer
Graduate Common Room
Christ Church
Oxford OX1 1DP
United Kingdom

Email: blt@prg.ox.ac.uk

(Eventually root@chch.ox.ac.uk if I can get this d***ed thing working! :-) )