installation of 12.1R and 11.3R fails
David Christensen
dpchrist at holgerdanske.com
Sat May 23 20:04:52 UTC 2020
On 2020-05-22 21:43, Donald Wilde wrote:
> Service tag 5K8W162
>
> I will try using MBR instead of GPT, as you suggest. I did that once
> the first time and no joy. Other than that and using the USB instead
> of DVD, the only other delta in your procedure is zeroing the disk and
> ensuring that all settings in BIOS are set to default.
>
> Do I need to erase my USB key and only put the key-version ISO on it?
> Why would that be superior to using a DVD, other than the waste of
> plastic?
>
> The only other possible problem I can see is that I simply named the
> machine, and did not create a meaningless FQDN (in my NAT).
>
> Thank you for your answer, and I WILCO.
On 2020-05-22 22:20, Clay Daniels wrote:
> I would second all of David's suggestions, but would like to also
recommend
> using GParted to clear & write a new partition table, be it MBR or GPT.
> GParted lets you take control of the drive. It's Gnome Partition Editor &
> free:
>
> https://gparted.org/
On 2020-05-22 23:03, Manish Jain wrote:
> I think we are using a nuclear missile to kill a mosquito !
>
> The FreeBSD installer can do everything needed by itself.
>
> 1) Boot from the FreeBSD CD/DVD
>
> 2) Choose Install
>
> 3) At the disk setup page, choose Manual
>
> 4) Remove all existing partitions. When done that, press 'd' again (for
> delete) with ada0 selected. That will delete the partition table itself.
>
> 5) Press 'c' (for create) to create a new MBR (DOS) partition table.
>
> 6) Create partitions as needed and install.
>
> That should be it.
On 2020-05-23 02:01, D'Arcy Cain wrote:
> [Zeroing the disk] is exactly what I found when going from Linux to
FreeBSD. Just run
> dd(1) with input file /dev/zero on the raw disk before starting your
> installation. You have to completely wipe out the Linux boot blocks.
On 2020-05-23 08:06, Donald Wilde wrote:
> The MBR boot after wiping the disk was successful. YAY, Beasties! TYVM
> for all the advice. :D
>
> Taking your thought to heart, D'Arcy, I'm going to try again with GPT
> now that Linux is gone, gone, gone! :D
I'm glad the BIOS/ MBR install worked. :-)
That looks like a decent daily driver laptop, especially if you maxed
out the RAM and installed a good SSD:
https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/servicetag/0-aUlCTHJhMTkzWUs5S1dMQjN2WGdIdz090/overview
My 2007 Inspiron E1505 gave me many years of service (with repairs and
upgrades). It still works.
I zero my USB flash drives before burning them with an installer image
out of sheer OCD, but it should not be required. (I wrote a Perl script
to only write zeros to dirty blocks, to conserve write cycles.)
Most every x86 computer made in the last 30 years will have a USB port.
Many newer computers, especially portable computers, do not have optical
drives.
It is easy to make changes to an installer on a USB flash drive, and you
don't have to burn a disc for every edit-compile-test cycle. I hacked
my FreeBSD USB installer to slice and partition system disks the way I
like them.
I have boogered installs many ways, including the hostname, FQDN,
network name, and/or network settings. The FreeBSD installer offers you
a root shell into the installed image near the end. If you know what
file(s) to edit, you can fix those mistakes. Alternatively, some
installers let you re-run specific steps. TIMTOWDI.
I image my system disks regularly. Zero-filling them before an install
saves image storage space. Partition editors within installers
typically do not zero-fill. (I need to figure out how to zero unused
blocks beneath GELI and ZFS prior to imaging; does anyone know how?)
David
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