FreeBSD Installation Problems

[Sukhbinder Singh]

----- Original Message -----
From: John Murphy <jfm at blueyonder.co.uk>
To: Sukhbinder Singh <sukhbinders at hotmail.com>
Cc: <questions at FreeBSD.ORG>
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2003 10:22 PM
Subject: Re: FreeBSD Installation Problems


"Sukhbinder Singh" <sukhbinders at hotmail.com> wrote:

>     First, I made the 2 image floppy disk for the 2 image files by
>downloading them from ftp.freebsd.org. These 2 files are kern.flp and
>msfroot.flp. I also downloaded and made an image disk for drvivers.flp just
>to download the drivers at the installation process.

Sounds like you are trying to install the 5.0 version.  I would advise
anyone who is fairly new to FreeBSD to try 4.7 instead.  You would need
to obtain the 4.7 images for kern.flp and mfsroot.flp.  There is no
driver.flp for 4.7.

<snip>

>I have 2 MB of my hard disk space devoted to FreeBSD.

2MB isn't enough! I presume you meant 2GB :)

<snip (all ok so far)>

>Then in the next screen I get another window
>with a request message like "Do you want to try DHCP configuration at the
>Interface ? Yes No ". I selected No and proceeded to the next level of the
>installation process. In this next level, I get a big screen called the
>"Network Configuration" window to proceed with my ftp. I think or suspect
>this is where the problem is.  This window has 7 fields which it requires
me
>to enter. These 7 fields are host, domain, ipv4 gateway, name server, IPv4
>address netmask :, extra option to ifconfig. I do not know any information
>regarding any of the fields. If I leave all of these fields empty, the
>installation program prompts me with an error message like "must specify a
>host name of some sort !"  Then I just entered a host name for the host,
>like foo.com and pressed enter to proceed all the way through the 7 fields
>to the OK button.

You definitely need some more entries there.  Choose something that you
would not find on the net for domain.  I use the rather boring my.domain
and the hostname can be any word you like.

You must insert a valid IP in the Name Server (DNS) field.  If you usually
use Microsoft Windows to connect to your ISP, you should be able to see
the Name Server address by using winipcfg while connected.  Or you may be
able to find this from your ISP's www help pages, or contact their Tech.
Support as a last resort.

Without a Name Server the installation won't be able to convert a name
like ftp.freebsd.org into a number (62.243.72.50).  And therefore will
not be able to connect.

It would probably help to put an entry in the interface netmask field.
255.255.255.0 should be ok.

<more snippage>

>It fails to download freebsd automatically from the freebsd ftp site like
>it should. Any help will be helpful.

I hope this is helpful.

Good luck.
John.


I did what you asked me to do. This time I had a little bit of progress but
still I got a differen error message. I used the windows command winipcfg
command to get the DNS information. As I indicated in my previous mail there
are 6 fields in the windows in the "Network Configuration" window where
these 6 fields are  host, domain, ipv4 gateway, name server, IPv4 address
netmask : , extra option to ifconfig.

The hostname I typed as :-   foo
The domain name as you indicated in your mail that you used my.domain I also
used my.domain
The netmask automatically chaged to :- 255.255.255.0
The name server address or the DNS address after checking using winipcfg
was: 202.188.0.133 but when I use the arp command it gives me a different
address instead. It gives me 202.188.0.132 instead. The ipv4 gateway
information is blank with no information on this. The IPv4 information is
also left blank with no information  and the extra option to ifconfig is
also left blank with no information. I chose to download using FTP. after
keying in all the information like the login name, password and the
telephone number for my ISP, I tried connecting, I got an error message like
" Cannot resolve hostname 'ftp.freebsd.org' ! Are you sure that your name se
rver, gateway and network interface are correctly configured ?" then I
pressed enter after this I got another message like "Killing previous PPP
process 34". Can anyone help regarding this problem. Any help will be
helpful.

thanks,

sukh