docs/155982: [patch] remove reference to floppy installations
Eitan Adler
lists at eitanadler.com
Mon Mar 28 04:20:12 UTC 2011
>Number: 155982
>Category: docs
>Synopsis: [patch] remove reference to floppy installations
>Confidential: no
>Severity: non-critical
>Priority: low
>Responsible: freebsd-doc
>State: open
>Quarter:
>Keywords:
>Date-Required:
>Class: change-request
>Submitter-Id: current-users
>Arrival-Date: Mon Mar 28 04:20:11 UTC 2011
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator: Eitan Adler
>Release:
>Organization:
>Environment:
>Description:
>How-To-Repeat:
>Fix:
Index: install/chapter.sgml
===================================================================
RCS file: /home/ncvs/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install/chapter.sgml,v
retrieving revision 1.420
diff -u -r1.420 chapter.sgml
--- install/chapter.sgml 22 Feb 2011 20:57:42 -0000 1.420
+++ install/chapter.sgml 22 Mar 2011 07:06:40 -0000
@@ -94,9 +94,8 @@
&os; version and the hardware architecture.</para>
<para>A summary of this information is given in the following sections.
- Depending on the method you choose to install &os;, you may
- also need a floppy drive, a supported CDROM drive, and in some
- case a network adapter. This will be covered by the <xref
+ Depending on the method you choose to install &os;, a CDROM drive,
+ and in some cases a network adapter. This will be covered by the <xref
linkend="install-boot-media">.</para>
<sect3>
@@ -543,9 +542,6 @@
<para>A SCSI or QIC tape</para>
</listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>Floppy disks</para>
- </listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<itemizedlist>
@@ -582,10 +578,8 @@
<para>The FreeBSD installation process is started by booting your
computer into the FreeBSD installer—it is not a program you run
within another operating system. Your computer normally boots using
- the operating system installed on your hard disk, but it can also be
- configured to use a <quote>bootable</quote> floppy disk.
- Most modern computers can also
- boot from a CDROM in the CDROM drive or from a USB disk.</para>
+ the operating system installed on your hard disk, but can be
+ booted from a CDROM in the CDROM drive or from a USB disk.</para>
<tip>
<para>If you have FreeBSD on CDROM or DVD (either one you purchased
@@ -700,124 +694,6 @@
</procedure>
</step>
</procedure>
-
- <para>To create boot floppy images, follow these steps:</para>
-
- <procedure>
- <step>
- <title>Acquire the Boot Floppy Images</title>
-
- <important>
- <para>Please note, as of &os; 8.0, floppy disk images are
- no longer available. Please see above for instructions
- on how to install &os; using a USB memory stick or just
- use a CDROM or a DVD.</para>
- </important>
-
- <para>The boot disks are available on your installation media
- in the <filename>floppies/</filename> directory, and
- can also be downloaded from the floppies directory,
<literal>ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/<replaceable>arch</replaceable>/<replaceable>version</replaceable>-RELEASE/floppies/</literal>.
- Replace <replaceable>arch</replaceable> and
- <replaceable>version</replaceable>
- with the architecture and the version number
- which you want to install, respectively.
- For example, the boot floppy images for
- &os;/&arch.i386; &rel2.current;-RELEASE are available
- from <ulink
url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/&rel2.current;-RELEASE/floppies/"></ulink>.</para>
-
- <para>The floppy images have a <filename>.flp</filename> extension.
- The <filename>floppies/</filename> directory contains a number of
- different images, and the ones you will need to use depends on the
- version of FreeBSD you are installing, and in some cases, the
- hardware you are installing to.
- In most cases you will need four
- floppies, <filename>boot.flp</filename>,
- <filename>kern1.flp</filename>,
- <filename>kern2.flp</filename>, and
- <filename>kern3.flp</filename>. Check
- <filename>README.TXT</filename> in the same directory for the
- most up to date information about these floppy images.</para>
-
- <important>
- <para>Your FTP program must use <emphasis>binary mode</emphasis>
- to download these disk images. Some web browsers have been
- known to use <emphasis>text</emphasis> (or
- <emphasis>ASCII</emphasis>) mode, which will be apparent if you
- cannot boot from the disks.</para>
- </important>
- </step>
-
- <step>
- <title>Prepare the Floppy Disks</title>
-
- <para>You must prepare one floppy disk per image file you had to
- download. It is imperative that these disks are free from
- defects. The easiest way to test this is to format the disks
- for yourself. Do not trust pre-formatted floppies. The format
- utility in &windows; will not tell about the presence of
- bad blocks, it simply marks them as <quote>bad</quote>
- and ignores them. It is advised that you use brand new
- floppies if choosing this installation route.</para>
-
- <important>
- <para>If you try to install FreeBSD and the installation
- program crashes, freezes, or otherwise misbehaves, one of
- the first things to suspect is the floppies. Try writing
- the floppy image files to new disks and try
- again.</para>
- </important>
- </step>
-
- <step>
- <title>Write the Image Files to the Floppy Disks</title>
-
- <para>The <filename>.flp</filename> files are
- <emphasis>not</emphasis> regular files you copy to the disk.
- They are images of the complete contents of the
- disk. This means that you <emphasis>cannot</emphasis> simply
- copy files from one disk to another.
- Instead, you must use specific tools to write the
- images directly to the disk.</para>
-
- <indexterm><primary>DOS</primary></indexterm>
- <para>If you are creating the floppies on a computer running
- &ms-dos;/&windows;, then we provide a tool to do
- this called <command>fdimage</command>.</para>
-
- <para>If you are using the floppies from the CDROM, and your
- CDROM is the <devicename>E:</devicename> drive, then you would
- run this:</para>
-
- <screen><prompt>E:\></prompt> <userinput>tools\fdimage
floppies\boot.flp A:</userinput></screen>
-
- <para>Repeat this command for each <filename>.flp</filename>
- file, replacing the floppy disk each time, being sure to label
- the disks with the name of the file that you copied to them.
- Adjust the command line as necessary, depending on where you have
- placed the <filename>.flp</filename> files. If you do not have
- the CDROM, then <command>fdimage</command> can be downloaded from
- the <ulink
- url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/tools/"><filename
class="directory">tools</filename>
- directory</ulink> on the FreeBSD FTP site.</para>
-
- <para>If you are writing the floppies on a &unix; system (such as
- another FreeBSD system) you can use the &man.dd.1; command to
- write the image files directly to disk. On FreeBSD, you would
- run:</para>
-
- <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>dd if=boot.flp
of=/dev/fd0</userinput></screen>
-
- <para>On FreeBSD, <filename>/dev/fd0</filename> refers to the
- first floppy disk (the <devicename>A:</devicename> drive).
- <filename>/dev/fd1</filename> would be the
- <devicename>B:</devicename> drive, and so on. Other &unix;
- variants might have different names for the floppy disk
- devices, and you will need to check the documentation for the
- system as necessary.</para>
- </step>
- </procedure>
-
- <para>You are now ready to start installing FreeBSD.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
@@ -871,12 +747,11 @@
<para>Find the setting that controls which devices the system boots
from. This is usually labeled as the <quote>Boot Order</quote>
and commonly shown as a list of devices, such as
- <literal>Floppy</literal>, <literal>CDROM</literal>,
- <literal>First Hard Disk</literal>, and so on.</para>
+ <literal>CDROM</literal>, <literal>First Hard Disk</literal>,
+ and so on.</para>
<para>If you are booting from the CDROM then make sure that
- the CDROM is selected. If you are booting from a USB disk or
- a floppy disk then
+ the CDROM is selected. If you are booting from a USB disk
make sure that is selected instead. In case of doubt, you
should consult the manual that came with your computer, and/or its
motherboard.</para>
@@ -894,15 +769,6 @@
the computer, and insert the CDROM at the first
opportunity.</para>
- <note>
- <para>For &os; 7.3 and previous versions, installation
- boot floppies are available and can be prepared as
- described in <xref linkend="install-boot-media">. One of
- them will be the first boot disc:
- <filename>boot.flp</filename>. Put this disc in your
- floppy drive and boot the computer.</para>
- </note>
-
<para>If your computer starts up as normal and loads your existing
operating system, then either:</para>
@@ -951,34 +817,10 @@
/boot/kernel/kernel text=0x64daa0 data=0xa4e80+0xa9e40
syms=[0x4+0x6cac0+0x4+0x88e9d]
\</screen>
- <para>If you are booting from floppy disc, you will see a display
- similar to this (version information omitted):</para>
-
- <screen>Booting from Floppy...
-Uncompressing ... done
-
-BTX loader 1.00 BTX version is 1.01
-Console: internal video/keyboard
-BIOS drive A: is disk0
-BIOS drive C: is disk1
-BIOS 639kB/261120kB available memory
-
-FreeBSD/i386 bootstrap loader, Revision 1.1
-
-Loading /boot/defaults/loader.conf
-/kernel text=0x277391 data=0x3268c+0x332a8 |
-
-Insert disk labelled "Kernel floppy 1" and press any key...</screen>
-
- <para>Follow these instructions by removing the
- <filename>boot.flp</filename> disc, insert the
- <filename>kern1.flp</filename> disc, and press
- <keycap>Enter</keycap>. Boot from first floppy;
- when prompted, insert the other disks as required.</para>
</step>
<step>
- <para>Whether you booted from CDROM, USB stick or floppy, the
+ <para>Whether you booted from CDROM or a USB stick, the
boot process will then get to the &os; boot loader
menu:</para>
@@ -4076,8 +3918,7 @@
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>My system hangs while probing hardware during boot,
- or it behaves strangely during install, or the floppy
- drive is not probed.</para>
+ or it behaves strangely during install</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>&os; makes extensive use of the system
@@ -4696,7 +4537,7 @@
the install.</para>
<note>
- <para>If the boot media (floppy disks, usually) for your FTP
+ <para>If the boot media for your FTP
clients is not precisely the same version as that provided
by the local FTP site, then <application>sysinstall</application>
will not let you
complete the installation. If the versions are not similar and
@@ -4715,72 +4556,6 @@
</warning>
</sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Creating Installation Floppies</title>
-
- <indexterm>
- <primary>installation</primary>
- <secondary>floppies</secondary>
- </indexterm>
-
- <para>If you must install from floppy disk (which we suggest you
- do <emphasis>not</emphasis> do), either due to unsupported
- hardware or simply because you insist on doing things the hard
- way, you must first prepare some floppies for the installation.</para>
-
- <para>At a minimum, you will need as many 1.44 MB floppies
- as it takes to hold all the files in the
- <filename>base</filename> (base distribution) directory. If
- you are preparing the floppies from DOS, then they
- <emphasis>must</emphasis> be formatted using the &ms-dos;
- <command>FORMAT</command> command. If you are using &windows;,
- use Explorer to format the disks (right-click on the
- <devicename>A:</devicename> drive, and select <quote>Format</quote>).</para>
-
- <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> trust factory pre-formatted
- floppies. Format them again yourself, just to be sure. Many
- problems reported by our users in the past have resulted from
- the use of improperly formatted media, which is why we are
- making a point of it now.</para>
-
- <para>If you are creating the floppies on another FreeBSD machine,
- a format is still not a bad idea, though you do not need to put
- a DOS filesystem on each floppy. You can use the
- <command>bsdlabel</command> and <command>newfs</command>
- commands to put a UFS filesystem on them instead, as the
- following sequence of commands (for a 3.5" 1.44 MB floppy)
- illustrates:</para>
-
- <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>fdformat -f 1440 fd0.1440</userinput>
-&prompt.root; <userinput>bsdlabel -w fd0.1440 floppy3</userinput>
-&prompt.root; <userinput>newfs -t 2 -u 18 -l 1 -i 65536
/dev/fd0</userinput></screen>
-
- <para>Then you can mount and write to them like any other
- filesystem.</para>
-
- <para>After you have formatted the floppies, you will need to copy
- the files to them. The distribution files are split into chunks
- conveniently sized so that five of them will fit on a conventional
- 1.44 MB floppy. Go through all your floppies, packing as many
- files as will fit on each one, until you have all of the
- distributions you want packed up in this fashion. Each
- distribution should go into a subdirectory on the floppy, e.g.:
- <filename>a:\base\base.aa</filename>,
- <filename>a:\base\base.ab</filename>, and so on.</para>
-
- <important>
- <para>The <filename>base.inf</filename> file also needs to go on the
- first floppy of the <filename>base</filename> set since it is read
- by the installation program in order to figure out how many
- additional pieces to look for when fetching and concatenating the
- distribution.</para>
- </important>
-
- <para>Once you come to the Media screen during the install
- process, select <guimenuitem>Floppy</guimenuitem> and you
- will be prompted for the rest.</para>
- </sect2>
-
<sect2 id="install-msdos">
<title>Installing from an &ms-dos; Partition</title>
@@ -4844,12 +4619,6 @@
Due to the non-random access nature of tapes, this method of
installation requires quite a bit of temporary storage.</para>
- <note>
- <para>When starting the installation, the tape must be in the
- drive <emphasis>before</emphasis> booting from the boot
- floppy. The installation probe may otherwise fail to find
- it.</para>
- </note>
</sect2>
<sect2>
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted:
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