*BSD News Article 53639


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From: zeno@serv.net (Sean T. Lamont)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Why doesn't FreeBSD install?
Date: 23 Oct 1995 03:38:50 -0700
Organization: ServNet Internet Services, Seattle, WA
Lines: 43
Message-ID: <46frbq$ad6@zebu.serv.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: zebu.serv.net

(All of the mentioned install attempts were done ftp-installing off of
freebsd.cdrom.com)

I installed a copy of freebsd 2.1.0 of 10/5 without a hitch onto a
P120 with a zappa motherboard. Now trying it on another system,
a P100 with  Award Modular BIOS v1.0a, it essentially completely fails.
 The following this have happened:

* It freezes on the menu
* It gets partially through the installation, core dumps cpio and reboots
* It claims to install, but gets to the boot manager and can't find /kernel
* It loads the software set with a completely screwed boot manager
  which says BSD: F1. If you hit other function keys (f5,f6, etc)
  it says BSD: f5. It doesn't get past this point.
* It gets part way through the install and says "Failed to write xxx bytes
  from network. aborting.

The only install that was even close to successful was when I used the
10/5 boot disk and tried to install the 10/20 distribution . I conclude that
either the 10/20 distribution has been completely screwed up (and the
perfectly functional 10/5 distribution erased...) or there's some
incompatibility going on here. 

Any hints would be appreciated. I was pretty sold on FreeBSD on my
first install of it since it installed so easily, but now I'm pretty convinced
it's just convoluted as linux, and so far less stable.












-- 
Sean T. Lamont, President / CEO, Abstract Software (ServNet)  
- Internet access * WWW hosting * TCP/IP * UNIX * NEXTSTEP * WWW Development -
email: lamont@abstractsoft.com              WWW:  http://www.serv.net
"...There's no moral, it's just a lot of stuff that happens". - H. Simpson