Unable to install FreeBSD-11.0-i386 on a elderly desktop

[David Christensen]

On 04/20/2017 02:27 PM, Per olof Ljungmark wrote:
> On 2017-04-20 23:11, James B. Byrne wrote:
>> I am trying to install FreeBSD-11.0 on a older model HP Compaq DC7700S
>> desktop.  I downloaded FreeBSD-11.0-RELEASE-i386-dvd1.iso, ran
>> sha256sum and verified the image and then created a bootable DVD from
>> the downloaded iso.
>>
>> I put this into the DVD drive of the unit and booted.  it initially
>> brought up the boot menu and I proceeded through the install process
>> selecting guided zfs for the filesystem. However, half way through the
>> transfer of kernel.txz I began to receive media errors.  I also began
>> to see the message cdrom error 5 unretryable.
>>
>> After several retries with new media I now cannot get the cdrom boot
>> menu to display at all.  What i get instead is a message on the
>> console that 'Can't find boot/zfsloader' followed by:
>>
>> FreeBSD/x86 boot
>> Default: zroot/ROOT/default:/boot/kernel/kernel
>> boot:
>> \
>> Can't find /boot/kernel/kernel
>
> First thing I would have done is to clean the laser lens in the cd drive...

+1, if the lens is readily accessible.


It sounds like the optical drive is failing.  But, boot the CD in 
another machine and do an install just to make sure.


I usually replace failing optical drives, but I loath spending money on 
obsolete hardware (such as IDE).


One of my Pentium 4 machines is lacking an optical drive.  My solution 
was to download, burn, and install using the USB flash installer:

 
ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/ISO-IMAGES/11.0/FreeBSD-11.0-RELEASE-i386-memstick.img


David