FreeBSD 2.2.9 / Installation problem

[Christian Walther]

On 15/03/07, Nino Ivanov <niivanov at gmx.net> wrote:
> Dear Sir or Madam,
>
[...]
>
> The target machine is a HP Omnibook 600c laptop with 8MB RAM, a 486 DX4
> processor, 300 MB disk space. No CD drive. No network available. External
> floppy drive without DMA. (I tried NetBSD, but because of the lack of DMA it
> did not work properly.) The functioning of the floppy drive is critical,
> being the machine's only practical means of communicating with the outer
> world. Due to cost and time considerations, no upgrades are possible. If the
> target machine is not suitable for an installation of FreeBSD, please let me
> know so I stop further attempts.

I guess you're without luck in this case. AFAIK FreeBSD needs at least
64 MB RAM to work happily. I tried installing it on an P1/133MHz
Laptop with 16MB RAM, and it freezes after a few minutes. And it's
dead slow.
So I tried NetBSD which worked better on my machine. Maybe there is a
switch or configuration setting to turn off DMA for the Floppy Drive?

HTH
Christian