FLOPPY INSTALLATION NOTES
Welcome to FreeBSD! This document has been put together in an effort
to make initial installation of the system from floppy as easy as possible.
1. To install FreeBSD you will need 3 (or 4 if you choose to add the optional
DOS floppy) floppies, as well as the bulk of the distribution on some
other medium (floppy, tape, CD, etc). If you've retrieved this release
from the net, you'll first have to make the floppies yourself using
Due to the differences in PC configurations, we've found it necessary
to provide multiple initial boot images that provide kernels for
different types of systems.
If your disk controller is one of:
Then please use the disk image: kcopy-ah-floppy
to construct your boot floppy.
If your disk controller is one of:
Then please use the disk image: kcopy-bt-floppy
to construct your boot floppy.
Next, make a second floppy from the disk image: filesystem-floppy
You'll need this for the second stage of the boot process.
Finally, make a third floppy from the disk image: cpio-floppy
You'll need this for the last stage of the boot process.
If you want to use any of the optional tools in the tools
subdirectory of the ftp distribution site, these should be
copied directly to a DOS formatted disk (using, either mcopy
or mount -t pcfs). This disk is referred to later as the
If installing more than one operating system on a disk, then
it is recommended that the dos floppy at least include the
os-bs boot manager. If downloading files via a modem and SLIP
is not available, then the dos floppy should include kermit.
You'll have the option of loading the programs that are on
the dos floppy in the last stage of the boot process.
2. Boot the first floppy. When it asks you to insert the file system floppy,
insert the second floppy ``filesystem-floppy.'' Follow the instructions
that floppy gives you. If partitions already exist on the hard disk,
then by default FreeBSD attempts to install itself at the end of these.
Before rebooting, note the type of disk it says to copy the kernel
to: ``sd0a'' or ``wd0a'' (``sd0a'' is for SCSI systems, ``wd0a'' is
for all others.) When the system halts, go on to the next step.
3. Boot the first floppy again, but this time when it asks
you to insert the file system floppy, just press the return key.
Follow the instructions that the floppy gives you. When you see
the ``kc>'' prompt, type ``copy'' (without quotes). At the next prompt,
``copy kernel to>'', type either ``sd0a'' or ``wd0a'' as given in
the previous step. When the system halts, go on to the next step.
4. Making sure that there's no floppy in the drive, press return to boot
from the hard disk. After it has booted and is asking what drive the
cpio floppy is in, insert the third floppy ``cpio-floppy'' into a
floppy drive and answer the question about what drive it is in.
Note that 0 is the same as DOS drive A:, and 1 is the same as DOS
5. After the cpio-floppy has been copied to the disk, remove it from the
drive. If there are programs on the dos-floppy that you would like
installed, then insert this disk in a floppy drive, again specifying
6. After the cpio (or optional dos) floppy has been copied to the disk,
enter `halt' at the command prompt.
7. When the system asks you to press the return key to reboot, first
remove the floppy and then press the return key to boot from the hard
8. At this point you will get 4 errors from the fsck on boot, these
are normal and are caused by files that were open when the
/dev entries were built - just ignore them. The system will
correct these errors and then halt, after which you should press
the return key again to reboot with a clean system.
9. Congratulations, you've got the mini FreeBSD system on your disk!
10. Follow the instructions about set_tmp_dir and extract that
will come on your screen after you've pressed the return key.
11. You will get the following errors while extracting the bin
distribution, which you can safely ignore:
/tmp/tar: Could not create file bin/sh : Text file busy
/tmp/tar: Could not create file sbin/init : Text file busy
/tmp/tar: Could not link .profile to root/.profile : File exists
12. Run the configure command to set up some of the /etc files by
typing ``configure''. You will have to edit /etc/netstart after
this if you have a networking interface.
13. Reboot so that the system comes up multiuser by typing ``reboot''.
14. You are now running FreeBSD! Congradulations! You may now continue
with installing the source distribution, or stop here for now.
Should you decided to postpone further installation, you should
probably save the ``installing profile'' for possible future use by
saving it and linking a default profile into place.
mv /.profile /.profile.install
ln /root/.profile /.profile
15. If your disk has several operating systems, you may want to
install the Thomas Wolfram's os-bs boot manager for selecting
which system to boot. This works well with DOS, OS/2, FreeBSD
and other systems. To install it, boot the system with MS-DOS
and insert the dos-floppy of the FreeBSD install suite in
floppy drive A:. Then enter the DOS commands:
A menu should now appear on the screen. Use the cursor keys
to highlight the install option and hit ENTER. Simply follow the
For more information about the ob-bs program, including its
capabilities and limitations, see the file `readme.1st' in the
If you choose not to install os-bs, then fdisk can be used to
change the boot system. This is done by making the primary
partition for the boot system active. FreeBSD has an fdisk
command that can be used for this purpose as well.
16. In addition to the FreeBSD source and binary distributions, many
additional packages, such as X11 and TeX, may be obtained from
freebsd.cdrom.com - please have a look around! You may also find
this a good time to read the release notes in RELNOTES.FreeBSD.
End of $Id: floppy.install_notes,v 1.11 1993/10/16 12:22:45 rgrimes Exp $
projects / unix-history / blob