installation question

[Rob]

Michael Silverstein wrote:
> There are two installation CD's for FreeBSD 6.2.  After booting the 
> first one, and requesting ALL packages and ALL ports, the installation 
> seems to go ok until the end when it complains that it cannot find the 
> requested package on the media from which installation is being made.

Yikes!  You probably filled all the available disk space.  If you were to flip over to one of the other virtual consoles (Alt F1 thru F4) you would probably see a panic or other warning.

First off, YOU DO NOT WANT ALL THAT STUFF!  There are 18,000 or so 3rd party software packages that have been ported to FreeBSD.  You can install the ones you want either as pre-compiled binaries, via "packages";  or configure & compile them yourself via "ports".  For a given software package you should use packages OR ports, but not both.

Also, the 3rd party software on the install CDs is usually obsolete by the time you're installing it.  Don't install any of that stuff at OS installation time.  Get the system up and running, then investigate how to get a current copy of the ports framework installed.  Hint:  look into portsnap.

I'd also suggest setting up a separate file system (I use /build) for ports and operating system source at install time.  This is usually /usr/ports, /usr/src, and /usr/obj.  I just like to keep it in a separate fs for ease of backup and other issues;  others may disagree.

> Questions: Do I have a complete installation? How do I install whatever 
> is on the 2nd CD?

You only need the first CD for a complete installation of FreeBSD.  Load it and the full source code.  Don't screw with ports, packages, or any of the X11 (X windows) during installation.

  -Rob