FreeBSD is a free UNIX operating System, like Linux, but more stable, and less known. - FreeBSD is the server behind The Apache Group, "cdrom.com" (holding the record for the biggest internet download per day) and Yahoo, amongst others.
Use this site to automatically create a FreeBSD UNIX workstation on a standard PC. Includes full step-by-step details, all source software for free download, and the full on-line user/support guide. This is all on the intranet for fast downloading.
"We prefer FreeBSD for basic Web serving. A well-tuned FreeBSD and Apache beats similar operating-system offerings. That's because FreeBSD's TCP/IP networking is superior to that used by current Linuxes. It's a bit more stable and contains useful features for high-performance networking, such as a better scheduler and idle queues." --- ZDNET, Sm@rt Reseller - 6th March 2000.
Minimum requirements are a 386 PC with 8Mb of RAM, and 60Mb of disk
space. If you want to partition your disk, the installation comes with
a boot-driver that allows you to boot your PC into either windows/Unix
etc.
This software has successfully been installed locally on the following hardware:
Simply follow the simple steps laid out below (these assume you are
currently using a machine with MS-DOS / Windows installed):
The first step is to create 2 floppy disks with enough information on them to allow you to reboot your PC into UNIX mode.
You will need 2 spare 1.44Mb floppy disks, and will need to download 3 files from the intranet to achieve this :
The floppy disk unix data itself. ( kern.flp and mfsroot.flp )
The PC program that installs this data on the floppy disk. ( fdimage.exe )
Download these 3 files, and save them to a temporary area on your hard disk. Once complete, open up a MS-DOS prompt, insert your spare floppy disks in turn, and run fdimage as follows on each floopy disk. (assuming you downloaded your files to C:\TEMP\)
C:\> \temp\fdimage \temp\kern.flp a: C:\> \temp\fdimage \temp\mfsroot.flp a:
If when you attempt to download one of the above files, it instead
gets displayed to the screen, try again, but this time, hold down
the SHIFT key before following the link.
You are now half way there. You'll now need to reboot your machine using the newly created UNIX floppy disks.... Now may be a good time to print this page out!
Ok, with the floppy disk that holds "kern.flp" in the drive, reboot your PC in the normal way. You should get a boot prompt something like this:
Please note that the rest of this article is from the installation guide from version 2.2.7. Whilst the rest of the installation is similar, there may be slight differences from the text that follows. Please use your common sense regarding 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
[ ...Usage info and examples... ]
Boot:
If you do not type anything, FreeBSD will automatically boot with its default configuration after a delay of about five seconds.
The first things to appear is the "Kernel Configuration Menu". This allows you to adjust the kernel to match your hardware configuration.
However, it is only necessary if you encounter problems, as the installation will automatically scan and detect your hardware, and configure itself automatically.
If you really know what you are doing, you can use this menu to tidy up your kernel configuration to make your system boot a bit faster, and a bit "tidyier".
For now, we'll leave this menu alone... Simply press "ENTER" to quit this menu.
The software now probes and detects your system hardware automatically. This can take a few minutes.
Some time into this process, the screen will clear, and you'll get a message:
Probing Devices, please wait (this can take awhile)...
From this point on, you can press ALT-F2 to see a DEBUG output (if there are problems). Press ALT-F1 to get back to the main screen.
When the booting process is finished, The main FreeBSD installation
menu will be displayed.
If something goes wrong, you'll need to go back to the "Kernel Configuration Menu" mentioned earlier, and tune your hardware configuration.... For further details on this process, check here for further information.
Press ENTER to read the usage instructions for the menu system
Make sure you read this, as some options are selected using the space bar rather than the ENTER key.... It's all explained here.
Select the "DOC" section if you want to do further reading
Select "KEYMAP" to select your keyboard type.
You'll probably want to page down, and select "U.K. ISO" (press
SPACE to select, and ENTER to return to previous menu)
Select option "5" (NOVICE) to start a novice installation.
Follow the onscreen instructions, and allocate disk space to BSD.
The options you will choose depend on whether you are allocating the whole system to BSD, or are planning on sharing the disk with a Windows installation (dual booting)
When complete, press "Q" to exit the partition editor.
If you are attempting to create a dual-bootable system, you must
backup your files before repartitioning the disk.
Next, you can install a boot manager.
If you are installing a dual-boot system, you will choose either "NONE" or "BootMgr".
Choose "BootMgr" to install a menu driven boot program that allows you to switch operating systems on startup.
Choose "None" if you don't trust this installation program to
not mess up your files... However, in this situation, you'll
need to work out your own method for booting into unix!
If your are setting up a dual booting system, and your disk was
already partitioned (with windows on the primary partition), then
you should be able to install the boot manager without losing any
data. It worked for me, however, I can't guarantee it. If you have
anything important on the disk, BACK IT UP FIRST!
If you are installing a dual-boot system, you simply choose
the "Standard" option.
You may get a warning message about 'fat'.... Ignore it!
Under Unix, the available disk partitions are split into smaller slices for different tasks - e.g. swap space area, system files, user files, temporary files (a slightly simplified view).
As a rule of thumb, swap space is usually twice the size of the systems main memory.
If you know what you are doing, you can use this menu to create your slices. Otherwise, simply press "A", and "Q" to finish, and the system will create defaults automatically!
This allows you to select how much of the distribution is installed. Select "all" if you are unsure, and you have the disk space (this totals about 400Mb of used space). Otherwise, just select the option you require.
Select "2 - FTP".
Select "URL - Specify some other ftp site by URL".
Enter the following:
ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/
* Make sure you get the case exactly as shown above! *
Select the option for your network card
The host is the name of the machine
The domain is the rest of the internal address, e.g. "mydomain.co.uk"
The gateway is the local router on your current lan
The nameserver is the address of a localnameserver.
IP address is the IP address of that machine
The netmask is the netmask address of your lan. This is generally either 255.255.255.0, but you will need to find out for sure.
"Extra options to ifconfig" can be left blank.
A sample setup is:
Network Configuration
Host: Domain:
catflap.mydomain.co.uk mydomain.co.uk
Gateway: Name Server:
145.227.242.1 145.227.242.220
Configuration for Interface fxp0
IP Address: Netmask:
145.227.242.206 255.255.255.0
Extra options to ifconfig:
OK CANCEL
NOW PRESS OK TO START THE INSTALL!
Depending on network speed etc., and how big a distribution you selected to download, this can take a while.
This section will complete automatically.
When I install the COMPLETE installation, on a local-lan connection (inside FEL01), it takes about 30 minutes. - from another site, it may take alot longer... There is alot of processing done in this phase, so you aren't just dealing with network speeds... If you successfully install this software, please let us know how long this phase too from your site. Thanks.
Once this has finished you are given a few more questions:
Will the machine be an IP gateway ?
[ NO ]
Do you want to allow annoymous FTP connections to this machine ?
[ Up to you. Do this if you want to provide a public fileserver on the intranet... If you don't understand the question, say NO! ]
Do you want to configure this machine as an NFS server?
[ Again, hit NO if you don't understand this! ]
Would you like to customize your system console settings?
[ Hit YES, if only to configure the screensaver..... All options her are explained in the menu ]
Timezone......
[ Self explanatory... UTC is GMT. I.e. it's asking whether the PC clock is currently set to GMT or BST... ]
Timezone......
[ Choose "Europe", then "United Kingdom ]
Does the system have a mouse attached ?
[ If yes, choose the mouse type / mouse port. Choose "enable" to test it. My system uses the type of "AUTO" and the port "PS/2". Your system may be different.
(This section is not yet complete.... More soon.)