So, you would like to try out FreeBSD on your system? This section is a quick-start guide for what you need to do. FreeBSD can be installed from a variety of media including CD-ROM, floppy disk, magnetic tape, an MS-DOS partition and, if you have a network connection, via anonymous ftp or NFS.
Regardless of the installation media you choose, you can get started by creating the installation disk as described below. Booting your computer into the FreeBSD installer, even if you aren't planning on installing FreeBSD right away, will provide important information about compatibility between FreeBSD and your hardware which may, in turn, dictate which installation options are even possible. It can also provide early clues to any compatibility problems which could prevent FreeBSD running on your system at all.
If you plan on installing via anonymous FTP then this installation floppy is all that you will need to download and create - the installation program itself will handle any further required downloading directly (using an ethernet connection, a modem and ppp dialup #, etc).
For more information on obtaining the latest FreeBSD distributions, please see Obtaining FreeBSD in the Appendix.
So, to get the show on the road, follow these steps:
Review the supported configurations section of this installation guide to be sure that your hardware is supported by FreeBSD. It may be helpful to make a list of any special cards you have installed, such as SCSI controllers, Ethernet adapters or sound cards. This list should include relevant configuration parameters such as interrupts (IRQ) and IO port addresses.
If you're installing FreeBSD from CDROM media then you have several different installation options:
If the CD has been mastered with El Torrito boot support and your system supports direct booting from CDROM (and many older systems do not), simply insert the CD into the drive and boot directly from it.
If you're running DOS and have the proper drivers to access your CD, run the install.bat script provided on the CD. This will attempt to boot into the FreeBSD installation straight from DOS (note: You must do this from actual DOS and not a Windows DOS box). If you also want to install FreeBSD from your DOS partition (perhaps because your CDROM drive is completely unsupported by FreeBSD) then run the setup program first to copy the appropriate files from the CD to your DOS partition, afterwards running install.
If either of the two proceeding methods work then you can
simply skip the rest of this section, otherwise your final option
is to create a boot floppy from the floppies\boot.flp
image - proceed to step 4 for instructions on how to do
this.
If you don't have a CDROM distribution then simply download the installation boot disk image file to your hard drive, being sure to tell your browser to save rather than display the file. Note: This disk image can only be used with 1.44 megabyte 3.5 inch floppy disks.
Make the installation boot disk from the image file:
If you are using MS-DOS then download
fdimage.exe or get it from tools\fdimage.exe
on the CDROM and then run it like so:
E:\> tools\fdimage floppies\boot.flp a:
If you are using a UNIX system to create the floppy image:
% dd if=boot.flp of=disk_device
/dev
entry for the floppy drive. On FreeBSD systems, this
is /dev/rfd0 for the A: drive and
/dev/rfd1 for the B: drive.
With the installation disk in the A: drive, reboot your computer. You should get a boot prompt something like this:
>> FreeBSD BOOT ...
Usage: [[[0:][wd](0,a)]/kernel][-abcCdhrsv]
Use 1:sd(0,a)kernel to boot sd0 if it is BIOS drive 1
Use ? for file list or press Enter for defaults
Boot:
When the booting process is finished, The main FreeBSD installation menu will be displayed.
If something goes wrong...
Due to limitations of the PC architecture, it is impossible for probing to be 100 percent reliable. In the event that your hardware is incorrectly identified, or that the probing causes your computer to lock up, first check the supported configurations section of this installation guide to be sure that your hardware is indeed supported by FreeBSD.
If your hardware is supported, reset the computer and when
the Boot: prompt comes up, type -c. This puts
FreeBSD into a configuration mode where you can supply
hints about your hardware. The FreeBSD kernel on the
installation disk is configured assuming that most hardware
devices are in their factory default configuration in terms
of IRQs, IO addresses and DMA channels. If your hardware
has been reconfigured, you will most likely need to use the
-c option at boot to tell FreeBSD where things are.
It is also possible that a probe for a device not present
will cause a later probe for another device that is present
to fail. In that case, the probes for the conflicting
driver(s) should be disabled.
Do not disable any device you will need during installation,
such as your screen (sc0).
In the configuration mode, you can:
While at the config> prompt, type
help for more information on the available
commands. After adjusting the kernel to match how you have
your hardware configured, type quit at the
config> prompt to continue booting with the new
settings.
After FreeBSD has been installed, changes made in the configuration mode will be permanent so you do not have to reconfigure every time you boot. Even so, it is likely that you will want to build a custom kernel to optimize the performance of your system. See Kernel configuration for more information on creating custom kernels.