>16MB memory requirement for 5.3 install (Re: cracked out floppy install)

[Kris Kennaway]

On Tue, Feb 08, 2005 at 05:55:31PM +0100, Ramiro Aceves wrote:
> Kris Kennaway wrote:
> >On Mon, Feb 07, 2005 at 10:52:53PM -0500, daniel wrote:
> >
> >>On February 7, 2005 10:40 pm, Chris Hill wrote:
> >>
> >>>On Mon, 7 Feb 2005, daniel wrote:
> >>>
> >>>>i've been trying to install freebsd-5.3RELEASE on this old computer on
> >>>>and off for days now.  i downloaded the floppies, watched the thing
> >>>>boot and each and every time, it'll get to the little beastie prompt
> >>>>where it counts down and is *supposed* to run sysinst but instead, it
> >>>>just reboots!
> >>>
> >>>That's just peculiar. Maybe you need more RAM? Couldn't hurt, anyway.
> >>>The 16M you cite below seems a bit meager.
> >>
> >>well the handbook says freebsd5 has a minimum requirement of 8mb, so 16 
> >>should be fine.  but even if it weren't, you'd think there'd be some form 
> >>of useful error message instead of just rebooting.  it just makes no 
> >>sense.
> >
> >
> >In practise no-one tests running on minuscule-memory configurations,
> >so it's possible that 8mb or even 16mb is not in fact enough thesedays.
> >
> >Anyway, it's possible something else is wrong.  Did you try the other
> >boot modes, e.g. disabling acpi, running in 'safe mode', etc?  In
> >particular, many older systems have buggy BIOS implementations that do
> >not allow them to run with acpi, even though the BIOS thinks they can.
> >
> >Kris
> 
> In my experience, I was not able to install FreeBSD 5.3 in an old 
> pentium 16 MB RAM. I experienced the same reboot problem. 32 MB fixed 
> the issue and it installed fine. I could not test with 24 MB, but 
> perhaps it will work.

Sounds like memory is indeed the issue then - is the original poster
able to confirm this?  If so, one of you should submit a PR requesting
that the docs be updated.

Kris
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