ftp install / base not found

[Mike Hunter]

Dear FreeBSD Questions,

I have a not-so-new laptop that I tried to install FBSD on yesterday.
This laptop can only be made to boot from floppies (usb boot doesn't work,
no cdrom) and I happen to have some 5.3-RELEASE boot floppies laying
around.

I am successfully able to get into the installer, format the disk, create
new FS's, DHCP, select the "Minimal" distribution and try the FTP install.
But, no matter what I do, the ftp servers never have the distribution.  I
tried several, including ftp.freebsd.org.

I have had this problem repeatedly over the years, always with older
distributions.  The error message says that I can go to the Options menu
and change my distribution to "any", but that never works either.

What's the story?  Do older bases get removed from the ftp servers, or is
there a different string I should be using in options (I tried
5.3-STABLE), or am I missing something?  Please don't make me create new
boot floopies!  :)

Signed,

befuddled @ Berkeley