I can not install FreeBSD 5.3 in an old Pentium 100 MHz

[Ramiro Aceves]

Brian Bobowski wrote:

 > Well, salvage any hardware that you can; you never know, you just 
 >might find a compatible motherboard without a CPU, and then you'll be 
 >able to mix and match. (Speaking as someone who's missed too many 
 >scrounging opportunities, here.)


Dear Brian:
Thanks for answering. I mainly use my Athlon 1.2 GHz computer, but I 
have an ethernet link with the old Pentium (which us situated at another 
room in my house) just to test and learn about networks and OSes. I have 
been playing with Debian Linux and I am a satisfied user, but I would 
like to test the well known FreeBSD. I wanted to test the "solid rocks" 
that they claim, and I am sure that it is. Never had a problem with 
Linux in this old machine, and even older ones that I have tested. I 
ordered the four cdrom discs distribution and was nervous waiting for 
them to arrive. In the meantime I was reading the FreeBSD documentation 
to be prepared to install it as soon as disc arrived. The discs arrived, 
I intalled them at the athlon in a few minutes, and I had a wonderful 
fvwm desktop working quickly. I tested some ports downloading and 
compiling, everything was perfect. It works!. I went to the old computer 
to repeat the same successfull install :-( . I am a novice in FreeBSD 
and I was lost and disappointed with this unexpected booting failure. I 
am a boy that likes to solve the problems till the end. I do not like to 
abandon at the first attempt, so I said to me:" Ramiro, do not abandon 
and investigate it further!"  ;-) I was reading docs hard during 3 days, 
and my only oportunity was this mailing-list. I hoped that some gurus 
will solve my problem, mut only Ted answered.

 > Speaking for myself, I often will hold my peace if I feel that 
someone >else has adequately answered the question; I'll only throw in 
an >additional contribution if I feel it's necessary, that is, either 
the >first to respond has left something out or they've stated something 
I >think is incorrect or, at least, not appropriate to the OP's query. I 
 >just thought that was mailing-list typical; if you don't have anything 
 >to add that hasn't been said, some people just won't waste the 
 >bandwidth. This is certainly the right place for general questions 
 >about the OS and getting it to run; if the experienced residents of 
the >list don't think it is the right place for something, they'll often 
 >advise you of such and even CC to the right list(which you could then 
 >sign up to through the mailman interface if you want to follow such 
 >things). Overall it's a pretty friendly bunch; you'd have to be quite 
 >obnoxious to actually incur wrath.


Thank you Brian, at least I know that there is people at the list, and 
If I have not received any answers apart from Ted's, I have only two 
ways of solving my problem:

1- install 4.10 and forget upgrading anymore.
2- throw the pentium away
3- install Debian again (it will mean that I have lost the fight)  :-( .


 >
 > As an aside, when you reply to or forward e-mail, especially to a 
 >list, it's usually considered better form(because it keeps thoughts 
 >flowing in the right direction) to only include what's relevant to 
your >reply(especially if the replied-to message is long), and to 
include >your comments AFTER the text you're replying to.


I apologize for this newbie mistake. I do not know why I did it so bad. 
I am used to write in the Debian mailing lists and I am used to answer 
at the end. Perhaps I was anxious of getting help.  :-) Sorry again.

Thank you for your help.
See you.

PS: I am sorry, my english is so poor that I can not say everything I am 
thinking about. Perhaps I do not talk in a polite manner.

Long life to free software!

Ramiro.