release 4.9 sysinstall hangs

[Matthew Seaman]

On Mon, Jan 05, 2004 at 12:05:50PM -0800, Lee_Shackelford at dot.ca.gov wrote:
> Good morning dear FreeBSD enthusiasts.   I am trying to install version 4.9
> FreeBSD on a Compaq Proliant 5000 with four Pentium Pro processors, and a
> RAID 5 SCSI drive.  The RAID is implemented in hardware.  The installation
> procedure proceeds through the steps of device sensing, then prints the
> following line "stand/sysinstall running as init on vty0", then stops.  The
> program responds to no keys other than "print screen," "scroll lock," and
> "pause/break". Depressing these keys in certain sequences will move the
> large block cursor from the bottom of the screen leftmost column to the
> middle of the screen leftmost column.  There is no response to
> "control-alt-delete."  Which device is vty0?  What am I doing wrong?  Is
> there a bug in the install program?  Where is there posted a listing of the
> device mnemonics translated into plain English for people who are still
> learning about FreeBSD?  Thank you in advance for any suggestions.  Lee
> underscore Shackelford at d o t dot c a dot g o v.

Seems to be quite a common problem with several Compaq models.  The
trick seems to be seting the BIOS either to "Linux OS" or "Other".

    http://freebsd.rambler.ru/bsdmail/freebsd-questions_2003/msg25381.html

'vty' stands for 'virtual tty', and 'tty' stands for 'teletype'.  Now,
computers haven't used teletypes for user IO for twenty years or more,
but the name has stuck. Now all it means is some sort of
screen+keyboard terminal interface.

The virtual part of 'vty' just refers to a series of virtual tty
interfaces you can switch between on the same physical hardware.
Usually you'ld type Alt-F1 (or sometimes you need Ctrl-Alt-F1) to
switch to the first vty, Alt-F2 for the second, and so on, usually up
to Alt-F8.  If you run X it generally behaves as if it's on the 9th
vty.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                       26 The Paddocks
                                                      Savill Way
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey         Marlow
Tel: +44 1628 476614                                  Bucks., SL7 1TH UK
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 187 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions/attachments/20040105/749689bd/attachment.bin