Quick installation In this chapter: for yourself with free space Microsoft In this chapter: for yourself with free space Microsoft In Chapters 4 to 6 we’ll go into a lot of detail about
Trang 1Quick installation
In this chapter:
for yourself
with free space
Microsoft
In this chapter:
for yourself
with free space
Microsoft
In Chapters 4 to 6 we’ll go into a lot of detail about how to install the system Maybe this
is too much detail for you If you’re an experienced UNIX user, you should be able to get
by with significantly less reading This chapter presents checklists for some of the more usual kinds of installation Each refers you to the corresponding detailed descriptions in Chapters 4 through 6
On the following pages we’ll look at the simplest installation, where FreeBSD is the only system on the disk Starting on page 49 we’ll look at sharing the disk with Microsoft, and on page 50 we’ll look at how to install XFree86 You may find it convenient to photocopy these pages and to mark them up as you go along
Making things easy for yourself
It is probably easier to install FreeBSD than any other PC operating system, including Microsoft products Well, most of the time, anyway Some people spend days trying to install FreeBSD, and finally give up That happens with Microsoft’s products as well, but unfortunately it happens more often with FreeBSD
Now you’re probably saying, ‘‘That doesn’t make sense First you say it’s easier to install, then you say it’s more likely to fail What’s the real story?’’
As you might expect, the real story is quite involved In Chapter 2, Before you install, I
went into some of the background Before you start, let’s look at what you can do to make the installation as easy as possible:
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• Use known, established hardware New hardware products frequently have undocu-mented problems You can be sure that they work under Microsoft, because the manufacturer has tested them in that environment In all probability, he hasn’t tested them under any flavour of UNIX, let alone FreeBSD Usually the problems aren’t serious, and the FreeBSD team solves them pretty quickly, but if you get the hardware before the software is ready, you’re the guinea pig
At the other end of the scale, you can have more trouble with old hardware as well It’s not as easy to configure, and old hardware is not as well supported as more recent hardware
• Perform a standard installation The easiest way to install FreeBSD is by booting from a CD-ROM and installing on an empty hard disk from the CD-ROM If you
proceed as discussed in Chapter 5, Installing FreeBSD, you shouldn’t hav e any
difficulty
• If you need to share your hard disk with another operating system, it’s easier to install both systems from scratch If you do already have a Microsoft system on the disk,
you can use FIPS (see page 52) to make space for it, but this requires more care.
• If you run into trouble, RTFM.1I’ve gone to a lot of trouble to anticipate the problems you might encounter, and there’s a good chance that you will find something here to help
• If you do all this, and it still doesn’t work, see page 17 for ways of getting external help
FreeBSD on a disk with free space
This procedure applies if you can install FreeBSD without first having to make space on disk Perform the following steps:
Boot from CD-ROM Most systems support booting from CD-ROM, but if yours doesn’t:
• Create two boot floppies by copying the images /cdrom/floppies/kern.flp and
/cdrom/floppies/mfsroot.flp to 3½"diskettes Refer to page 89 for more details
• Insert the CD-ROM in the drive before booting
• Boot from the kern.flp floppy After loading, insert the mfsroot.flp floppy when
the system prompts you to do so, then press Enter.
If you have a larger floppy, such as 2.88 MB or LS-120, you can copy the image
/cdrom/floppies/boot.flp to it and boot from it In this case you don’t need to change
disks.
1 Hackerspeak for ‘‘Read The Manual’’—the F is usually silent.
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Select theCustominstallation Refer to page 60
What you do in the partition editor depends on whether you want to share the drive with another operating system or not:
• If you want to use the drive only for FreeBSD, delete any existing slices, and allocate a single FreeBSD slice that takes up the entire disk On exiting from the
partition editor, select the Standard MBR Refer to page 66.
• If you want to share the disk with other systems, delete any unwanted slices and
use them for FreeBSD On exiting from the partition editor, select the BootMgr
MBR Refer to page 66
In the disk label editor, delete any existing UNIX partitions Create the file systems manually If you don’t hav e any favourite layout, create a root file system with 4
GB, a swap partition with at least 512 MB (make sure it’s at least 1 MB larger than
the maximum memory you intend to install in your system) Allocate a /home file
system as large as you like, as long as it can fit on a single tape when backed up If you have any additional space, leave it empty unless you know what to use it for
See page 68 for the rationale of this approach, which is not what sysinstall
recommends
Install the complete system, including X and the Ports Collection This requires about 1 GB of disk space Refer to page 75 if you want to limit it
Select CD-ROM as installation medium Refer to page 76
Give final confirmation The system will be installed Refer to page 77
After installation, set up at least a user ID for yourself Refer to page 144
FreeBSD shared with Microsoft
If you have a disk with Microsoft installed on only part of the disk, and you don’t want to change the partition layout, you can proceed as in the instructions above This is pretty unusual, though: normally Microsoft takes the whole disk, and it’s difficult to persuade it otherwise To install FreeBSD on a disk that currently contains a single Microsoft partition taking up the entire disk, go through the following steps:
Make a backup! There’s every possibility of erasing your data, and there’s
absolutely no reason why you should take the risk
If you have an old machine with an IDE disk larger than 504 MB, you may run into problems Refer to page 32 for further details
Boot Microsoft and repartition your disk with FIPS Refer to page 52.
Insert the CD-ROM in the drive before booting
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Shut the machine down and reboot from the FreeBSD CD-ROM If you have to boot from floppy, see page 48 for details
Select theCustominstallation
In the partition editor, delete only the second primary Microsoft partition The first
primary Microsoft partition contains your Microsoft data, and if there is an extended Microsoft partition, it will also contain your Microsoft data
Create a FreeBSD slice in the space that has been freed Refer to page 63
On exiting from the partition editor, select the BootMgr MBR Refer to page 66.
In the disk label editor, delete any existing UNIX partitions Create the file systems manually If you don’t hav e any favourite layout, create a root file system with 4
GB, a swap partition with at least 512 MB (make sure it’s at least 1 MB larger than
the maximum memory you intend to install in your system) Allocate a /home file
system as large as you like, as long as it can fit on a single tape when backed up If you have any additional space, leave it empty unless you know what to use it for
See page 68 for the rationale of this approach, which is not what sysinstall
recommends
Before leaving the disk label editor, also select mount points for your DOS partitions
if you intend to mount them under FreeBSD Refer to page 74
Install the complete system, including X and the Ports Collection This requires about 1 GB of disk space Refer to page 75 if you want to limit it
Select CD-ROM as installation medium Refer to page 76
Give final confirmation The system will be installed Refer to page 77
After installation, set up at least a user ID for yourself Refer to page 144
Configuring XFree86
You can configure XFree86 during installation or after reboot
Make sure your mouse is connected to the system at boot time Depending on the hardware, if you connect it later, it may not be recognized
If you have already rebooted the machine, log in asrootand restart sysinstall Select the sysinstall Configuration menu, XFree86 and then xf86cfg, and follow the instructions See page 102 for further details
Select theDesktopmenu and install the window manager of your choice See page
108 for further discussion
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