FreeBSD using Dell systems

[Bob Johnson]

On 1/26/06, Jennifer Gold <jenniferg at cticomtel.com> wrote:
> Would you have any information on using and loading FreeBSD on a Dell
> PowerEdge 2850 or 850?
>
> Any information would be of great help.  Thank you for your time.

I have neither of those, but I've been running FreeBSD 5.4 on a pair
of PowerEdge 1800 systems.  It can't access all 4 GB of installed RAM
(it sees 3327 MB).  I looked up the reason for that once, but now I
forget what it is (PCI bus mapping, maybe, or PAE, or both?).  It is
not specific to Dell, though, and may be solved in 6.0 (speculation).

I tried to set aside a small partition for Windows XP in case I needed
to run some Windows-only management or repair software.  It didn't
work.  The Windows XP install program bluescreens on these systems.  I
believe Dell only supports Windows 2003 Server on them.

- Bob