I quit

[Joshua Tinnin]

On Sunday 09 January 2005 05:28 am, Giorgos Keramidas 
<keramida at ceid.upatras.gr> wrote:
> On 2005-01-09 16:53, william gatlin <willietheturtle at linuxmail.org> 
wrote:
> > I have spent at least two weeks of my free time downloading 5.3 and
> > trying to get it to work.  After figuring out how to get an ISO
> > image, windows couldn't do it because netscape insisted on
> > modifying the file, I loaded it and got a lot of error code 1
> > messages that I never did figure out.  I changed the partitioning
> > and allowed 1/2 a gig for the root directory and loaded it again.
>
> Netscape is acting silly.  Avoid downloading ISO images with it.  The
> ISO images are available through FTP, so you can use any plain good
> old FTP client[1] to get a copy of the images.
>
> [1] Even the command line "ftp" program that comes with Windows can
> be used, if you feel like doing so.

Personally, I think this is easier, especially because it will download 
the file without mangling it, and the commands are very intuitive and 
are common to all ftp servers. GUI ftp clients mostly just enter these 
same commands when you click the buttons.

If you're using Win, first thing you should do is click on Start, then 
Run, then type in "cmd" (no quotes) and hit enter. The commands will be 
typed in that window. Sorry if this seems rudimentary, but it can't 
hurt to mention these things, especially if you're coming from Win.

As the Win ftp client is/was (not sure anymore) essentially the freebsd 
ftp client (iirc the UC copyright is still in ftp.exe), you can use 
these commands on either one ("ftp>" and "%" are prompts and shouldn't 
be typed):

% ftp ftp4.freebsd.org

(this is a mirror close to me)

You have to log in anonymously:

Name (ftp4.freebsd.org:yourmachine): anonymous
Password:

(just hit enter)

Then we should change directories remotely and locally, so we are 
downloading from the right place into the right place:

ftp> cd /pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/ISO-IMAGES/5.3
ftp> lcd /path/to/download/dir

(change the path in the second command to be your local download 
directory - in Win you might have to use backslashes to refer to a 
local path, such as 
C:\path\to\download\dir , but it's been a while)

Now, download the two main install ISOs:

ftp> get 5.3-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso
ftp> get 5.3-RELEASE-i386-disc2.iso

And, if you want:

ftp> get 5.3-RELEASE-i386-bootonly.iso
ftp> get 5.3-RELEASE-i386-miniinst.iso

When it's all done downloading, type:

ftp> bye

There you go, and you can use this on any platform, as long as you can 
enter commands to the ftp server directly. Once you do this once or 
twice, you'll find it's so simple that you'll probably never use a GUI 
ftp client again.

Of course, this doesn't solve the rest of your problems, but you might 
be able to use this no matter what you decide to install.

- jt