Urgent Installation problems (CD) - DON"T HOLD YOUR BREATH

[Thor Anderson]

I hope you have better luck than I have, Alvin.

I am experiencing the same problems and received and tested the following 
options - all to no avail.

1)  Update computer BIOS to latest version
2)  Downloaded and tested ISO files from 4.6 to 4.91 from bootable CDs (all 
hang)
3)  Purchased commercial release (5.1) and tested CD (hangs after finding 
boot record)
4)  Purchased USB floppy drive and created floppy boot disks (hang)
5)  Attempted to submit problem report via web (web interface is down)
6)  Attempted to submit problem report via email to the "Bugmeister" 
(unacknowlaged)

In the meantime, additional testing shows:

1)  Installation CDs from Microsoft boot and install properly
2)  Installation CD created from downloaded ISO from the Fedora Project 
installs properly

In my situation, I believe the problem may be related to my computer being 
"legacy free".  What that means is that it does not have the traditional IO 
devices that most computers have (PS/2 keyboard or mouse, serial, parallel, 
or floppy interface.  All it has are USB ports for those functions.  My 
guess is that the kernel included in the installation files was not built 
for this situation.  In the meantime, since I do not have a working FreeBSD 
system, I can not build my own kernal.

When approaching this situation, it was my desire to base my systems on a 
BSD kernel.  Due to it's reputation of stability and (especially) 
compatability, I chose FreeBSD.  Since that time, I have spent over $100, 
many hours of testing, and significant frustration to install it - to no 
avail.  The lack of support (and even responsiveness) from the FreeBSD team 
after putting my money on the line to purchase the commercial release gives 
me grave doubts about the viability of this distribution and the legitimacy 
of the organization's compatability claims..

Good luck - and don't spend any money until it works!
Thor

>From: Alvin <alvin777 at mac.com>
>To: questions at FreeBSD.org
>Subject: Urgent Installation problems (CD)
>Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2003 07:03:39 +0800
>
>Thank you for your time. I burned the .iso for i386 (release 5.1) on the CD 
>and configured the BIOS to boot from the CD but it won't boot from it. I 
>have also tried using the floppy to install it but it can't detect the .iso 
>in the CD. Are there other files that must be burned to the CD.
>
>I have burned BeOS PE Max edition to the CD to test if my computer can boot 
>from the CD. It worked perfectly and booted from it.
>
>God bless,
>Alvin
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