docs/72082: Updates to the FAQ chapter 3
Gavin Atkinson
gavin.atkinson at ury.york.ac.uk
Sat Sep 25 16:10:24 UTC 2004
>Number: 72082
>Category: docs
>Synopsis: Updates to the FAQ chapter 3
>Confidential: no
>Severity: non-critical
>Priority: low
>Responsible: freebsd-doc
>State: open
>Quarter:
>Keywords:
>Date-Required:
>Class: doc-bug
>Submitter-Id: current-users
>Arrival-Date: Sat Sep 25 16:10:24 GMT 2004
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator: Gavin Atkinson
>Release: FreeBSD 5.3-BETA2 i386
>Organization:
>Environment:
System: FreeBSD buffy.york.ac.uk 5.3-BETA2 FreeBSD 5.3-BETA2 #9: Mon Sep 6 15:59:27 BST 2004 root at buffy.york.ac.uk:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC i386
>Description:
Various updates to the FAQ chapter 3 (Installation) to bring it up
to date with respect to 5.X and other developments.
>How-To-Repeat:
N/A
>Fix:
(Patch also available at http://www.devrandom.co.uk/freebsd/faq3.diff )
--- faq3.diff begins here ---
Index: doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/book.sgml
===================================================================
RCS file: /usr/cvs/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/book.sgml,v
retrieving revision 1.653
diff -u -r1.653 book.sgml
--- doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/book.sgml 22 Sep 2004 19:38:51 -0000 1.653
+++ doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/book.sgml 25 Sep 2004 15:51:22 -0000
@@ -1123,7 +1123,11 @@
<filename>floppies/kernel.flp</filename> and
<filename>floppies/mfsroot.flp</filename>. These images need to
be copied onto floppies by tools like
- <command>fdimage</command> or &man.dd.1;.</para>
+ <command>fdimage</command> or &man.dd.1;.
+ In &os; 5.3 and later, the boot floppies have been restructured
+ and you need <filename>floppies/boot.flp</filename> and
+ all the <filename>floppies/kern<replaceable>X</replaceable></filename>
+ files (of which there are currently two).</para>
<para>If you need to download the distributions yourself (for a
DOS filesystem install, for instance), below are some
@@ -1132,7 +1136,7 @@
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
- <para>bin/</para>
+ <para>base/ (bin/ in 4.X)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
@@ -1230,10 +1234,13 @@
</question>
<answer>
- <para>You will need a 386 or better PC, with 5 MB or more of RAM
+ <para>For versions prior to 5.X, you will need a 386 or better
+ PC, with 5 MB or more of RAM
and at least 60 MB of hard disk space. It can run with a low
end MDA graphics card but to run X11R6, a VGA or better video
- card is needed.</para>
+ card is needed. For &os; 5.X you will need a 486 or better
+ PC, with 8 MB or more of RAM and at least 150 MB of hard disk
+ space.</para>
<para>See also <xref linkend="hardware">.</para>
@@ -1248,9 +1255,10 @@
<answer>
<para>FreeBSD 2.1.7 was the last version of FreeBSD that
could be installed on a 4MB system. FreeBSD 2.2 and later
- needs at least 5MB to install on a new system.</para>
+ needs at least 5MB, and &os; 5.X needs at least 8MB to
+ install on a new system.</para>
- <para>All versions of FreeBSD will <emphasis>run</emphasis>
+ <para>All versions of FreeBSD prior to 5.X will <emphasis>run</emphasis>
in 4MB of RAM, they just cannot run the installation
program in 4MB. You can add extra memory for the install
process, if you like, and then after the system is up and
@@ -1294,13 +1302,13 @@
<qandaentry>
<question id="windows-coexist">
- <para>Can &windows; 95/98 co-exist with FreeBSD?</para>
+ <para>Can &windows; co-exist with FreeBSD?</para>
</question>
<answer>
- <para>Install &windows; 95/98 first, after that FreeBSD.
- FreeBSD's boot manager will then manage to boot Win95/98 and
- FreeBSD. If you install &windows; 95/98 second, it will boorishly
+ <para>Install &windows; first, after that FreeBSD.
+ FreeBSD's boot manager will then manage to boot &windows; and
+ FreeBSD. If you install &windows; second, it will boorishly
overwrite your boot manager without even asking. If that
happens, see the next section.</para>
</answer>
@@ -1308,7 +1316,7 @@
<qandaentry>
<question id="win95-damaged-boot-manager">
- <para>&windows; 95/98 killed my boot manager!
+ <para>&windows; killed my boot manager!
How do I get it back?</para>
</question>
@@ -1429,13 +1437,13 @@
<para>It has been reported that later IBM BIOS revisions may
have reintroduced the bug. <ulink
- url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=200565+208320+/usr/local/www/db/text/2001/freebsd-mobile/20010429.freebsd-mobile">This
+ url="http://docs.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20010427133759.A71732">This
message</ulink> from Jacques Vidrine to the &a.mobile;
describes a procedure which may work if your newer IBM
laptop does not boot FreeBSD properly, and you can upgrade
or downgrade the BIOS.</para>
- <para>If you have an earlier BIOS, and upgrading is not an option a
+ <para>If you have an earlier BIOS, and upgrading is not an option, a
workaround is to install FreeBSD, change the partition ID FreeBSD
uses, and install new boot blocks that can handle the different
partition ID.</para>
@@ -1683,7 +1691,7 @@
<para>If you are running FreeBSD 3.X or earlier, also look at
the <ulink
- url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/docs.html#PAO">Mobile
+ url="http://www.jp.freebsd.org/PAO/">Mobile
Computing page</ulink>.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
@@ -1808,7 +1816,7 @@
<qandaentry>
<question id="missing-os">
- <para>When I boot FreeBSD I get <errorname>Missing Operating
+ <para>When I boot FreeBSD for the first time after install I get <errorname>Missing Operating
System</errorname>. What is happening?</para>
</question>
@@ -1877,15 +1885,17 @@
<answer>
<para>Building a new kernel was originally pretty much a required
step in a FreeBSD installation, but more recent releases have
- benefited from the introduction of a much friendlier kernel
- configuration tool. When at the FreeBSD boot prompt (boot:),
+ benefited from the introduction of much friendlier kernel
+ configuration methods. In 4.X and earlier, when at the FreeBSD boot prompt (boot:),
use the <option>-c</option> flag and you will be dropped into a
visual configuration screen which allows you to configure the
- kernel's settings for most common ISA cards.</para>
+ kernel's settings for most common ISA cards. In &os; 5.X
+ this has been replaced by much more flexible "hints" which
+ can be set from the loader prompt.</para>
- <para>It is still recommended that you eventually build a new
+ <para>It may still be worthwhile building a new
kernel containing just the drivers that you need, just to save a
- bit of RAM, but it is no longer a strict requirement for most
+ bit of RAM, but it is no longer necessary for most
systems.</para>
</answer>
@@ -2029,11 +2039,19 @@
</question>
<answer>
- <para>For memory, the limit is 4 gigabytes. If you plan to install
- this much memory into a machine, you need to be careful. You will
- probably want to use ECC memory and to reduce capacitive
- loading use 9 chip memory modules versus 18 chip memory
- modules.</para>
+ <para>The limit is 4 gigabytes on a standard &i386; install.
+ Beginning with &os; versions 4.9 and 5.1, more memory can be
+ supported through &man.pae.4;. This does require a kernel
+ recompile, with an extra option to enable PAE:</para>
+
+ <programlisting>options PAE</programlisting>
+
+ <para>&os;/PC-98 has a limit of 4 GB memory, and PAE can not
+ be used with it. On &os;/Alpha, the limit on memory depends
+ on the type of hardware in use - consult the Alpha Hardware
+ Release Notes for details. Other architectures
+ supported by &os; have much higher theoretical limits on
+ maximum memory (many terabytes).</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
--- faq3.diff ends here ---
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted:
More information about the freebsd-doc
mailing list