installation of 12.1R and 11.3R fails

Sat May 23 20:27:26 UTC 2020

Mine (the laptop) is not quite 2007 vintage, although my Dell  i7
tower is. :) IIRC it's about 2012 or so. Still going fine although
it's just a HDD-based mule. Upgrading it now to 12-STABLE.

I am using it as a "refresher" on FreeBSD; I was paid by Bob Bruce
1998 to 2000 to do "advocacy" for FreeBSD. I orchestrated the 3-way
press conference between the FreeBSD and NetBSD projects and Apple at
the release of DARWIN... time does pass...

I have a relative who's asked me to make a specialized social network
for his business, and I've decided to return to using FreeBSD. Not all
hosting corps will support FreeBSD servers, but since I intend to
purchase and support everything through the business, that isn't an
issue. I'll buy Intel's fancy Optane caching boards when I buy servers
for the project, and every "drive" will be SS except for a portable
boot drive.

On 5/23/20, David Christensen <dpchrist at holgerdanske.com> wrote:
> 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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>

-- 
Don Wilde
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