Question on downloading and installing freeBSD4.8

[Peder Blom]

On Sun, 7 Sep 2003 21:25:59 -0400
"Satish Kumar" <gssatishkumar at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I am trying to download and install freeBSD4.8 as per instructions in
> the freeBSD handbook section 2.13.4 (Installing from an MS-DOS®
> Partition).  When I go to the following site:
> ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/4.8-RELEASE/4.8-RELEASE/
> 
> I see a number of files in the bin directory.  I am unable to open the
> install.html document.  Am I supposed to download all the files on
> this site?
> 
> 
> Could you direct me to a URL from where all files are packaged and
> named clearly so that I know what to download?
> 
> Thanks
> Satish 

Hi,

I have never installed from a dos partition so you have to take this for
what it is... vague remembrances from googling when I was to do my first
install of FreeBSD, and perhaps they are not valid for 4.8.

I think that you can get by with just downloading the bin and crypto
directories and then choose a minimal install. That would give you a
very barebone installation, but supposedly it will enable you to get
something started so that you can get an internet connection up and
sysinstall a more complete distribution.

Otherwise I think that you have to download most of the files in the
4.8-RELEASE directory. This will depend on type of installation and the
amount of documentation you want. Don't download the packages directory.

A simple way to get all the files needed for an install is to
download the iso-image(s) and burn them to a cd. Then you can either
install from cd or (I assume) copy the files from the cd to your dos
partition. The mini iso should suffice to get you started. Some dark
memories from the past tells me that there are windows programs that
lets you extract files directly from iso-images, so you might be able to
skip burning to cd...

You should be able to download the install.html document, but if for
some reason you can't open it you can download install.txt instead.