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From: conrads@neosoft.com (Conrad Sabatier)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: DOS FAT FS support in FreeBSD fixed ?
Date: 24 Dec 1996 23:52:52 GMT
Organization: NeoSoft, Inc.
Lines: 54
Message-ID: <59pqck$foi@uuneo.neosoft.com>
References: <59g13d$hh@herald.concentric.net>
<32BC0B2B.2781E494@FreeBSD.org> <32C00B59.1B8D@uabdpo.dpo.uab.edu>
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To: Mpsy013@uabdpo.dpo.uab.edu
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:33225
[ posted and mailed ]
In article <32C00B59.1B8D@uabdpo.dpo.uab.edu>,
JF <Mpsy013@uabdpo.dpo.uab.edu> writes:
>
> Are you saying that in 2.1.6, you CAN'T install from a DOS partition? If
> so, then how would a DOS user install the DISTs without going by
> floppies. I do not have another FreeBSD system, and would really like to
> install FreeBSD. So far I spent 2 days trying to install it to no avail.
> In the FreeBSD install's "FDISK", I have to delete the DOS partition to
> make the FreeBSD partition, and then it says "cannot find distributions:
> bin, manpages" etc. but they were on my DOS partition. I have also tried
> making an extended DOS partition, then using the Primanry as FreeBSD,
> but then I don't know where to tell it the FreeBSD dists are. I would
> really like to use FreeBSD, but I am getting frustrated. Any help would
> be appreciated.
I installed 2.1.0 (my first FreeBSD install) from my DOS partition. It
worked fine. Let me see if I can remember the steps:
1) I assume you're wanting to *repartition* your DOS disk? If so, you
should try the "fips" utility to do it non-destructively (you most
certainly do *not* want to destroy your DOS partition!). It worked
great for me. Only problem I encountered with it was that I had to
decompress (had Drivespace 3 compression) and defrag first.
A possibly easier way to do the same would be to spend the $40 or whatever
and get The Partition Magician (a product that well lives up to its name).
Besides doing non-destructive repartitioning, it can also do other nifty
tricks like changing your cluster sizes. Unfortunately, it doesn't know
anything about FreeBSD partitions (although it does understand Linux), so
it cannot be used to do any magic on an existing FreeBSD partition.
2) OK, once you've done the partitioning from DOS, you need to setup a few
things:
a) A boot install floppy for FreeBSD.
b) A directory tree (on your DOS drive) of whatever distributions you
want to install. You *must* mimic the same directory structure as
the CD (or ftp site, if you will), i.e., "dists" branching off your
root directory, and the necessary subdirs under dists (bin, src, etc.).
3) Now, with any luck at all, you can boot the install floppy, choose
"DOS partition" as your install media (after setting up the necessary
"slice" information for the FreeBSD partition), select the distributions
you copied there, and away you go!
Hope this helps somewhat.
--
Conrad Sabatier |
conrads@neosoft.com | Eschew obfuscation.
http://www.neosoft.com/~conrads |