0d73182d8a
Added new question regarding removing an IDE ZIP to get the boot floppy to go beyond the `Probing Devices...' dialog. Submitted by: Doug White <dwhite@gdi.uoregon.edu>
464 lines
20 KiB
Text
464 lines
20 KiB
Text
<!-- $Id: install.sgml,v 1.2 1998-05-19 01:45:17 jkh Exp $ -->
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<!-- The FreeBSD Documentation Project -->
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<sect>
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<heading>Installation<label id="install"></heading>
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<sect1>
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<heading>Which file do I download to get FreeBSD?</heading>
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<p>You generally need just one floppy image, the <em>floppies/boot.flp
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</em> file, which you image-copy onto a 1.44MB floppy and then boot it
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in order to download the rest (and the installation will manage your
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TCP/IP collection, deal with tapes, CDROMs, floppies, DOS.
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partitions, whatever's necessary to get the reset of the bits
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installed).
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<p>If you need to download the distributions yourself (for a DOS
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filesystem install, for instance), below are some recommendations
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for distributions to grab:
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<itemize>
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<item> bin/<newline>
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<item> manpages/<newline>
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<item> compat*/<newline>
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<item> doc/ <newline>
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<item> src/ssys.* <newline>
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</itemize>
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<p>Full instructions on this procedure and a little bit more about
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installation issues in general can be found in the <url
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url="../handbook/install.html"
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name="Handbook entry on installing FreeBSD.">
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<sect1>
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<heading>Where are the instructions for installing FreeBSD?</heading>
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<p>Installation instructions can be found in the
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<url url="../handbook/install.html"
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name="Handbook entry on installing FreeBSD.">
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<sect1>
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<heading>What do I need in order to run FreeBSD?</heading>
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<p>You'll need a 386 or better PC, with 5 MB or more of RAM and at
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least 60 MB of hard disk space. It can run with a low end MDA
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graphics card but to run X11R6, a VGA or better video card is needed.
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<p>See also the section on <ref id="hardware"
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name="Hardware compatibility">
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<sect1>
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<heading>I have only 4 MB of RAM. Can I install FreeBSD?</heading>
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<p>FreeBSD 2.1.7 was the last version of FreeBSD that could be installed
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on a 4MB system. Newer versions of FreeBSD, like 2.2, need at least 5MB
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to install on a new system.
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<p>All versions of FreeBSD, including 3.0, will RUN in 4MB of ram, they
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just can't run the installation program in 4MB. You can add
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extra memory for the install process, if you like, and then
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after the system is up and running, go back to 4MB. Or you could
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always just swap your disk into a system which has >4MB, install onto
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it and then swap it back.
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<p>There are also situations in which FreeBSD 2.1.7 will not install
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in 4 MB. To be exact: it does not install with 640 kB base + 3 MB
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extended memory. If your motherboard can remap some of the ``lost''
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memory out of the 640kB to 1MB region, then you may still be able
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to get FreeBSD 2.1.7 up.
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<p>Try to go into your BIOS setup and look for a ``remap'' option.
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Enable it. You may also have to disable ROM shadowing.
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<p>It may be easier to get 4 more MB just for the install. Build a
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custom kernel with only the options you need and then get the 4
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MB out again.
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<p>You may also install 2.0.5 and then upgrade your system to 2.1.7
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with the ``upgrade'' option of the 2.1.7 installation program.
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<p>After the installation, if you build a custom kernel, it will run
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in 4 MB. Someone has even succeeded in booting with 2 MB (the
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system was almost unusable though :-))
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<sect1>
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<heading>
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How can I make my own custom install floppy?
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</heading>
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<p>Currently there's no way to *just* make a custom install floppy.
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You have to cut a whole new release, which will include your install
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floppy. There's some code in <tt>/usr/src/release/floppies/Makefile</tt>
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that's supposed to let you *just* make those floppies, but it's not
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really gelled yet.
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<p>To make a custom release, follow the instructions <ref id="custrel"
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name="here">.
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<sect1>
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<heading>Can I have more than one operating system on my PC?</heading>
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<p>Have a look at <url url="../tutorials/multios/multios.html"
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name="The multi-OS page.">
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<sect1>
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<heading>Can Windows 95 co-exist with FreeBSD?</heading>
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<p>Install Windows 95 first, after that FreeBSD. FreeBSD's boot
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manager will then manage to boot Win95 and FreeBSD. If you
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install Windows 95 second, it will boorishly overwrite your
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boot manager without even asking. If that happens, see
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the next section.
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<sect1>
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<heading>
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Windows 95 killed my boot manager! How do I get it back?
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</heading>
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<p>You can reinstall the boot manager FreeBSD comes with in one of
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two ways:
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<itemize>
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<item>Running DOS, go into the tools/ directory of your FreeBSD
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distribution and look for <bf>bootinst.exe</bf>. You run it like so:
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<p><bf>bootinst.exe boot.bin</bf>
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<p>and the boot manager will be reinstalled.
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<item>Boot the FreeBSD boot floppy again and go to the Custom
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installation menu item. Choose Partition. Select the drive which
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used to contain your boot manager (likely the first one) and when you
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come to the partition editor for it, as the very first thing (e.g.
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do not make any changes) select (W)rite. This will ask for
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confirmation, say yes, and when you get the Boot Manager selection
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prompt, be sure to select "Boot Manager."
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This will re-write the boot manager to disk. Now quit out of the
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installation menu and reboot off the hard disk as normal.
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</itemize>
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<sect1>
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<heading>Can I install on a disk with bad blocks?</heading>
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<p>FreeBSD's bad block (the <htmlurl
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url="http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?bad144" name="bad144">
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command) handling is still not 100% (to put it charitably) and
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it must unfortunately be said that if you've got an IDE or ESDI drive
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with lots of bad blocks, then FreeBSD is probably not for you!
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That said, it does work on thousands of IDE based systems, so
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you'd do well to try it first before simply giving up.
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<p>If you have a SCSI drive with bad blocks, see <ref id="awre"
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name="this answer">.
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<sect1>
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<heading>Strange things happen when I boot the install floppy!</heading>
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<p>If you're seeing things like the machine grinding to a halt or
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spontaneously rebooting when you try to boot the install floppy,
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here are three questions to ask yourself:-
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<enum>
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<item>Did you use a new, freshly-formatted, error-free floppy
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(preferably a brand-new one straight out of the box, as
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opposed to the magazine coverdisk that's been lying under
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the bed for the last three years)?
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<item>Did you download the floppy image in binary (or image) mode?
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(don't be embarrassed, even the best of us have accidentally
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downloaded a binary file in ASCII mode at least once!)
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<item>If you're using one of these new-fangled operating systems
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like Windows95 or Windows NT, did you shut it down and restart
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the system in plain, honest DOS? It seems these OS's can
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interfere with programs that write directly to hardware, which
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the disk creation program does; even running it inside a DOS
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shell in the GUI can cause this problem.
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</enum>
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<p>There have also been reports of Netscape causing problems when
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downloading the boot floppy, so it's probably best to use a different
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FTP client if you can.
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<sect1>
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<heading>Help! I can't install from tape!</heading>
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<p>If you are installing 2.1.7R from tape, you must create the tape
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using a tar blocksize of 10 (5120 bytes). The default tar
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blocksize is 20 (10240 bytes), and tapes created using this
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default size cannot be used to install 2.1.7R; with these tapes,
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you will get an error that complains about the record size being
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too big.
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<sect1>
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<heading>
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Can I install on my laptop over PLIP (Parallel Line IP)?
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</heading>
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<p>Connect the two computers using a Laplink parallel cable to use
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this feature:
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<verb>
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+----------------------------------------+
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|A-name A-End B-End Descr. Port/Bit |
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+----------------------------------------+
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|DATA0 2 15 Data 0/0x01 |
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|-ERROR 15 2 1/0x08 |
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+----------------------------------------+
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|DATA1 3 13 Data 0/0x02 |
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|+SLCT 13 3 1/0x10 |
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+----------------------------------------+
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|DATA2 4 12 Data 0/0x04 |
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|+PE 12 4 1/0x20 |
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+----------------------------------------+
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|DATA3 5 10 Strobe 0/0x08 |
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|-ACK 10 5 1/0x40 |
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+----------------------------------------+
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|DATA4 6 11 Data 0/0x10 |
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|BUSY 11 6 1/0x80 |
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+----------------------------------------+
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|GND 18-25 18-25 GND - |
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+----------------------------------------+
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</verb>
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<p>See also <ref id="pao" name="this note"> on the Mobile Computing page.
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<sect1>
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<heading>
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Which geometry should I use for a disk drive?<label id="geometry">
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</heading>
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<p>(By the "geometry" of a disk, we mean the number of cylinders,
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heads and sectors/track on a disk - I'll refer to this as
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C/H/S for convenience. This is how the PC's BIOS works out
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which area on a disk to read/write from).
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<p>This seems to cause a lot of confusion for some reason. First
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of all, the <tt /physical/ geometry of a SCSI drive is totally
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irrelevant, as FreeBSD works in term of disk blocks. In fact, there
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is no such thing as "the" physical geometry, as the sector density
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varies across the disk - what manufacturers claim is the "true"
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physical geometry is usually the geometry that they've worked out
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results in the least wasted space. For IDE disks, FreeBSD does
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work in terms of C/H/S, but all modern drives will convert this
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into block references internally as well.
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<p>All that matters is the <tt /logical/ geometry - the answer that the
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BIOS gets when it asks "what is your geometry?" and then uses to access
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the disk. As FreeBSD uses the BIOS when booting, it's very important
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to get this right. In particular, if you have more than one operating
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system on a disk, they must all agree on the geometry, otherwise you
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will have serious problems booting!
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<p>For SCSI disks, the geometry to use depends on whether extended
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translation support is turned on in your controller (this is
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often referred to as "support for DOS disks >1GB" or something
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similar). If it's turned off, then use N cylinders, 64 heads
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and 32 sectors/track, where 'N' is the capacity of the disk in
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MB. For example, a 2GB disk should pretend to have 2048 cylinders,
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64 heads and 32 sectors/track.
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<p>If it <tt /is/ turned on (it's often supplied this way to get around
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certain limitations in MSDOS) and the disk capacity is more than 1GB,
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use M cylinders, 63 heads (*not* 64), and 255 sectors per track, where
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'M' is the disk capacity in MB divided by 7.844238 (!). So our
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example 2GB drive would have 261 cylinders, 63 heads and 255 sectors
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per track.
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<p>If you are not sure about this, or FreeBSD fails to detect the
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geometry correctly during installation, the simplest way around
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this is usually to create a small DOS partition on the disk. The
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correct geometry should then be detected (and you can always remove
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the DOS partition in the partition editor if you don't want to keep
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it, or leave it around for programming network cards and the like).
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<p>Alternatively, there is a freely available utility distributed with
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FreeBSD called ``<tt/pfdisk.exe/'' (located in the <tt>tools</tt>
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subdirectory on the FreeBSD CDROM or on the various FreeBSD
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ftp sites) which can be used to work out what geometry the other
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operating systems on the disk are using. You can then enter this
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geometry in the partition editor.
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<sect1>
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<heading>Any restrictions on how I divide the disk up?</heading>
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<p>Yes. You must make sure that your root partition is below 1024
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cylinders so the BIOS can boot the kernel from it. (Note that this
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is a limitation in the PC's BIOS, not FreeBSD).
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<p>For a SCSI drive, this will normally imply that the root partition
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will be in the first 1024MB (or in the first 4096MB if extended
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translation is turned on - see previous question). For IDE, the
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corresponding figure is 504MB.
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<sect1>
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<heading>
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What about disk managers? Or, I have a large drive!
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</heading>
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<p>FreeBSD recognizes the Ontrack Disk Manager and makes allowances
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for it. Other disk managers are not supported.
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<p>If you just want to use the disk with FreeBSD you don't need a
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disk manager. Just configure the disk for as much space as the
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BIOS can deal with (usually 504 megabytes), and FreeBSD
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should figure out how much space you really have. If you're using
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an old disk with an MFM controller, you may need to explicitly
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tell FreeBSD how many cylinders to use.
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<p>If you want to use the disk with FreeBSD and another operating
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system, you may be able to do without a disk manager: just make sure
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the the FreeBSD boot partition and the slice for the other
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operating system are in the first 1024 cylinders. If you're
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reasonably careful, a 20 megabyte boot partition should be plenty.
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<sect1>
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<heading>
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When I boot FreeBSD I get ``Missing Operating System''
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<label id="missing_os">
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</heading>
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<p>This is classically a case of FreeBSD and DOS or some other OS
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conflicting over their ideas of disk <ref id="geometry"
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name="geometry."> You will have to reinstall FreeBSD, but obeying the
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instructions given above will almost always get you going.
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<sect1>
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<heading>I can't get past the boot manager's `F?' prompt.</heading>
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<p>This is another symptom of the problem described in the preceding
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question. Your BIOS geometry and FreeBSD geometry settings do
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not agree! If your controller or BIOS supports cylinder
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translation (often marked as ``>1GB drive support''), try
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toggling its setting and reinstalling FreeBSD.
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<sect1>
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<heading>
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I have >16MB of RAM. Will this cause any problems?<label id="bigram">
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</heading>
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<p>Apart from performance issues, no. FreeBSD 2.X comes with bounce
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buffers which allow your bus mastering controller access to greater
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than 16MB. (Note that this should only be required if you are using
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ISA devices, although one or two broken EISA and VLB devices may
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need it as well).
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<p>Also look at the section on <ref id="reallybigram"
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name=">64M machines"> if you have that much memory,
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or if you're using a Compaq or other BIOS that lies about
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the available memory.
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<sect1>
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<heading>Do I need to install the complete sources?</heading>
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<p>In general, no. However, we would strongly recommend that you
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install, at a minimum, the ``<tt/base/'' source kit, which
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includes several of the files mentioned here, and the
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``<tt/sys/'' (kernel) source kit, which includes sources for the
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kernel. There is nothing in the system which requires the
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presence of the sources to operate, however, except for the
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kernel-configuration program
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<htmlurl url="http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?config"
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name="config">. With the exception
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of the kernel sources, our build structure is set up so that you
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can read-only mount the sources from elsewhere via NFS and still
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be able to make new binaries. (Because of the kernel-source
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restriction, we recommend that you not mount this on
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<tt>/usr/src</tt> directly, but rather in some other location
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with appropriate symbolic links to duplicate the top-level
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structure of the source tree.)
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<p>Having the sources on-line and knowing how to build a system with
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them will make it much easier for you to upgrade to future
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releases of FreeBSD.
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<p>To actually select a subset of the sources, use the Custom
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menu item when you are in the Distributions menu of the
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system installation tool. The <tt>src/install.sh</tt> script
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will also install partial pieces of the source distribution,
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depending on the arguments you pass it.
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<sect1>
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<heading>Do I need to build a kernel?</heading>
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<p>Building a new kernel was originally pretty much a required
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step in a FreeBSD installation, but more recent releases have
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benefited from the introduction of a much friendlier kernel
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configuration tool. When at the FreeBSD boot prompt (boot:),
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use the "-c" flag and you will be dropped into a visual
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configuration screen which allows you to configure the kernel's
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settings for most common ISA cards.
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<p>It's still recommended that you eventually build a new
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kernel containing just the drivers that you need, just to save a
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bit of RAM, but it's no longer a strict requirement for most
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systems.
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<sect1>
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<heading>I live outside the US. Can I use DES encryption?</heading>
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<p>If it is not absolutely imperative that you use DES style
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encryption, you can use FreeBSD's default encryption for even
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<bf/better/ security, and with no export restrictions. FreeBSD
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2.0's password default scrambler is now <bf/MD5/-based, and is
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more CPU-intensive to crack with an automated password cracker
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than DES, and allows longer passwords as well. The only reason
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for not using the <bf/MD5/-based crypt today would be to use the
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the same password entries on FreeBSD and non-FreeBSD systems.
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<p>Since the DES encryption algorithm cannot legally be exported
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from the US, non-US users should not download this software (as
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part of the <tt/secrdist/ from US FTP sites.
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<p>There is however a replacement libcrypt available, based on
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sources written in Australia by David Burren. This code is now
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available on some non-US FreeBSD mirror sites. Sources for the
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unencumbered libcrypt, and binaries of the programs which use it,
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can be obtained from the following FTP sites:
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<descrip>
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<tag/South Africa/
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<tt>ftp://ftp.internat.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD</tt><newline>
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<tt>ftp://storm.sea.uct.ac.za/pub/FreeBSD</tt>
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<tag/Brazil/
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<tt>ftp://ftp.iqm.unicamp.br/pub/FreeBSD</tt>
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<tag/Finland/
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<tt>ftp://nic.funet.fi/pub/unix/FreeBSD/eurocrypt</tt>
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</descrip>
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<p>The non-US <tt/securedist/ can be used as a direct replacement
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for the encumbered US <tt/securedist/. This <tt/securedist/
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package is installed the same way as the US package (see
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installation notes for details). If you are going to install DES
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encryption, you should do so as soon as possible, before
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installing other software.
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<p>Non-US users should please not download any encryption software
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from the USA. This can get the maintainers of the sites from
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which the software is downloaded into severe legal difficulties.
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<p>A non-US distribution of Kerberos is also being developed, and
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current versions can generally be obtained by anonymous FTP from
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<tt>braae.ru.ac.za</tt>.
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<p>There is also a <ref id="mailing" name="mailing list"> for the
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discussion of non-US encryption software. For more information, send
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an email message with a single line saying ``<tt/help/'' in the body
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of your message to
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<tt><majordomo@braae.ru.ac.za></tt>.
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<sect1>
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<heading>The boot floppy starts but hangs at the ``Probing Devices...''
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screen.</heading>
|
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<p>If you have a IDE Zip or Jaz drive installed, remove it and try again.
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The boot floppy has trouble probing these devices and can confuse it.
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After the system is installed you can reconnect the drive. Hopefully
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this will be fixed in a later release.
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</sect>
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