fixit disc for 7.3 #1?

[Gary Kline]

On 02/14/2012 05:40 PM, Da Rock wrote:
> On 02/15/12 10:08, Gary Kline wrote:
>> guys,
>>
>> is there still a  way of fixing something i did to my existing
>> installation?  it does nothing but continually cycle e and try to
>> reboot into the old release i had from feb 2011.  i thought editing
>> out /etc/fstab would do it.  but nope, it throws me into the lowest
>> level manual config and then hangs.  i cannot even install release 9.0
>> which is the only other path.  either some stable distro of debian,
>> or getting past release8 and going to   9.
>>
>> first, tho, i need to get rid of this [[messed up]] 7.3.
>>
>> let me share a story from when i was visiting a favorite cousin who
>> put up about half of NASA's huge antennas.  long retired, he lives
>> out where not even god could find him.  he wanted to see proof of my
>> beloved freebsd.  so, using a new set of discs that i bought, i
>> started the installation.  { FWIW, --this was in july, 2000.  }  I
>> happened to mention that freebsd had trouble configuring the
>> printers.  or that   that could get hairy.  he stopped what he was
>> doing and asked me to get back to his windows toys and games.  i had
>> a floppy w ith the mystery file "MBR" that removed that single file.
>>
>> my hunch is that since i never mess with anything but freebsd, i
>> left it configure itself by default and that the same thing that
>> stalled me for ten minutes back in 2000, might be what's stopping
>> me from installing anything over my 7.3 in 2012.
>>
>> any wizards how how to fix  this?
> Are you sure you can't backup your important files and start again? 
> You might have a good deal of trouble jumping by 2 major releases at 
> the best of times.
>
> Also, 9.0 is significantly different in many ways to 7.x in dir 
> structure _and_ filesystems, to just mention a few. I new (clean) 
> install would be _highly_ recommended ;)
> _______________________________________________

i have a working copy on 7.3 #4 on my Server.  the server in a 2009 
dell;  the one that is busted and that i want to upgrade ---to either 
debian-6-iso or freebsd9-iso is my old 2003 dell.  two different 
computers.  the thing with the old dell is that nothing can boot off 
it.  it keep cycling, trying to boot a 7.3 #1.

i just remembered that the floppy disk   was a DOS file  with a secret 
command :A:\MBR that got rid of that boot track.

it's looking more and more hopeless.

....

wasn't/isn't there some kind of "fixit" CD?

gary

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