# no floppies for 8.0-R?



## hirohitosan (Dec 21, 2009)

I tried to download the floppies for 8.0-RELEASE from ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/8.0-RELEASE/floppies/.
That directory doesn't exist.
No floppies for 8.0-RELEASE?


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## hermit (Dec 21, 2009)

all u need is the first cd,of course if u have cd-rom...

ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ISO-IMAGES-i386/8.0/8.0-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso


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## LateNiteTV (Dec 21, 2009)

a burner helps also.
but seriously... i wonder why theres no floppy images.


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## vigol (Dec 21, 2009)

Because of the same story as 8" & 5.25".


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## hirohitosan (Dec 22, 2009)

my computer cannot boot from cdrom ...


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## vivek (Dec 22, 2009)

What about USB? Can you boot from USB pen 128/256Mb? If not network boot will also help but than you need TFT and at least some sort of working UNIX / BSD box.


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## aragon (Dec 22, 2009)

If there are no floppy images, it's because the project ran out of people to generate and test them.  Maybe you could fill the role, hirohitosan?


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## hirohitosan (Dec 22, 2009)

aragon said:
			
		

> Maybe you could fill the role, hirohitosan?


well ... I'm an "old" beginner in FreeBSD, I have no idea what that means 

and I want to use floppies for I wanted to test FBSD on my very old computer Toshiba Tecra 510CDT. I posted this issue already and the only way to bring my PCMCIA network card was to test with new 8.0 kernel. So my comp can boot only from floppy or HDD


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## jb_fvwm2 (Dec 22, 2009)

Put the hard drive in another computer and install to it?
Though the other computer should be running v8 already...


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## Beastie (Dec 22, 2009)

jb_fvwm2 said:
			
		

> Though the other computer should be running v8 already...


Hmm, why?


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## fronclynne (Dec 22, 2009)

It might take a bit of time, but installing 7.x from floppies and using either freebsd-update(8) or the buildworld cycle ought to work.  I mean, it wasn't a huge headache here, though with a slow machine it might be.


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## Beastie (Dec 23, 2009)

Isn't that like a big waste of time, human energy and electric power when you can do it in 15 minutes using the above method?


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## hirohitosan (Dec 23, 2009)

Like I said in a previous post, 7.2 cannot recognize my PCMCIA card (the only way to connect at Internet) so the only hope was 8.0.

since my computer is very old I don't know how to mount my HDD to another computer. I need some adapters or something. I never opened this laptop.


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## mickey (Dec 23, 2009)

If you have another machine already running 8.0, you could try and generate floppy images on that one:


```
cd /usr/src/release
make -D MAKE_FLOPPIES release
```

But there are other ways still... if you have 7.2 installed on this notebook, you could set up networking through serial or parallel port to another machine, that acts as a router, using SLIP/PPP/PLIP.


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## Beastie (Dec 23, 2009)

hirohitosan said:
			
		

> since my computer is very old I don't know how to mount my HDD to another computer. I need some adapters or something. I never opened this laptop.


All you need is:

An external USB enclosure for your laptop HDD (that you can borrow or get for 20$)
Access to any other computer that can understand USB (obviously), and optionally that can boot CDs (see next point)
A livefs disk *or* working FreeBSD system (*any version* will do)
The base distribution and the GENERIC kernel (that you can both get from disc1)


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## hirohitosan (Dec 23, 2009)

mickey said:
			
		

> If you have another machine already running 8.0, you could try and generate floppy images on that one.


Here's the output

```
# cd /usr/src/release/
# make -D MAKE_FLOPPIES release
To make a release you must set CHROOTDIR and BUILDNAME
*** Error code 1
Stop in /usr/src/release.
```
I don't understand, how to set chrootdir and buildname?


			
				mickey said:
			
		

> if you have 7.2 installed on this notebook, you could set up networking through serial or parallel port to another machine, that acts as a router, using SLIP/PPP/PLIP.



but for this I need a parallel cable (hard to find in these days) and a computer act like a router? All that I have on this notebook is an working internet connection in Win98


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## hirohitosan (Dec 27, 2009)

Beastie said:
			
		

> All you need is:


thanks Beastie. I've got everything, I installed 8.0 on HDD, but unfortunately 8.0 still not recognize my PCMCIA network card, so I cannot conect to internet 
I got the same 
	
	



```
CIS is too long -- truncating
pccard1: Card has no functions!
cbb1: PC Card card activation failed
```


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## thomas (Jan 29, 2010)

*use smartbootmgr*



			
				hirohitosan said:
			
		

> well ... I'm an "old" beginner in FreeBSD, I have no idea what that means
> 
> and I want to use floppies for I wanted to test FBSD on my very old computer Toshiba Tecra 510CDT. I posted this issue already and the only way to bring my PCMCIA network card was to test with new 8.0 kernel. So my comp can boot only from floppy or HDD



use smartbootmgr to boot from the floppy and then select CD0 from the menu (it seems to replace the BIOS bootloader code in memory, so it can even boot DVD on machines that pre-date bootable DVD).  It's open-source, btw.  I use it on machines that don't support DVD or where the CD bootloader does not work, or to select alternate HDD).


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## randi@ (Feb 1, 2010)

I was wondering the other day if people still used floppies to install FreeBSD. So many parts of our installer are built around the idea that people require older technology that it can inhibit some improvements. I'm glad to have my question answered.


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## silicium (Apr 22, 2010)

*create bootable flash alternative to floppy-DJ*

I had not tried to install from floppies for ages, but went for another bootable medium after seeing the number of floppies to format and dd (too many for 7.3 and... nothing for 8.0). Since my target does not have CD/DVD-ROM, but has another disk with an older release and a bootable CF, I installed the bootonly ISO on the CF and could run sysinstall successfully. Creating such a bootable flash drive does not look easy for a beginner (mdconfig, mount_cd9660, fdisk, disklabel, boot0cfg, find | cpio, reboot, F5).
Installing from local FTP server is faster (anonymous user name is 'ftp'), but the packages directory is in the CD/DVD root while the installer looks for them in x.x-RELEASE if media == FTP. The release ISO's cannot be mounted and served, first extract them to move packages where they will be expected.


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## richardpl (Apr 23, 2010)

hirohitosan said:
			
		

> thanks Beastie. I've got everything, I installed 8.0 on HDD, but unfortunately 8.0 still not recognize my PCMCIA network card, so I cannot conect to internet
> I got the same
> 
> 
> ...



Usually such problems are reported on freebsd mailing list, with more useful data.


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