# Trouble installing



## iWeirdo (Mar 7, 2010)

I've been trying to install FreeBSD 8 without successs. I've tried burning "8.0-Release-ia64-dvd1.iso", and various methods of installing from USB. The closest I get to booting up is getting to a blank screen with a blinking underscore, which accept nothing and does nothing.
Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?


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## Erratus (Mar 7, 2010)

For for installation from USB-Stick you should use *.img files, not *.iso 
Did you download PCBSD8.0-x86-USB.img ?
If it is a USB-CDROM from where you install check how you burned the iso. Did you check the MD5 hashes for integrity of the download? 
Did you tell the BIOS from where to boot your installation media?


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## iWeirdo (Mar 7, 2010)

I tried using win32 image writer and the 8.0-RELEASE-i386-memstick.img and never got anywhere with it.
I have SATA dvd-rw drive, burning the dvd image and trying to boot from that results in a system hang.
Trying to transfer the various images over to USB using unetbootin-windows-408.exe resulted in nothing. Letting the program use ftp to install onto the flash drive, that got me as far as the boot menu, selecting any option results in a hang (BTX halted..).

Can it be I can't boot from the dvd because it's a SATA drive?


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## Erratus (Mar 7, 2010)

iWeirdo said:
			
		

> I've been trying to install FreeBSD 8 without successs. I've tried burning "8.0-Release-ia64-dvd1.iso",


ia64? 

On what system-architecture do you want install to? In your last post you mention i386?


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## iWeirdo (Mar 7, 2010)

I've got a Core 2 Duo system, by all means correct me if I'm wrong. I have been under the assumption that it's a ia64 system with i386 emulation capabilities, so either should work. I would prefer ia64 though, but there isn't a "memory stick" version of that one available, so I decided to try the i386 one.


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## nhanquy (Mar 7, 2010)

iWeirdo said:
			
		

> ...
> I have SATA dvd-rw drive, burning the dvd image and trying to boot from that results in a system hang.
> ...



It happened to me too. At the end, I went out and bought DVD+RW discs to burn on; and it worked perfectly, no more blank screen! Spend more money on the DVD and forget the USB stick.


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## Erratus (Mar 7, 2010)

Sorry to ask you again, are you going to install from USB-stick (use *.img) or from "SATA-DVD" (use *.iso)? Did you ever manage to boot something else from your SATA-DVD?


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## iWeirdo (Mar 7, 2010)

I managed to boot a Windows Vista DVD, tried that to be sure the drive wasn't broken. I have a stack of DVD-R's and another DVD-writer to try out. I just want to be sure I am not forgetting something.


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## Erratus (Mar 7, 2010)

If your burned media is ok (shows up directory entries and not a single *.iso file) you can boot it on your other DVD-drives?


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## iWeirdo (Mar 7, 2010)

I can browse the DVD's in Windows, the booting just stops, nothing happens.
One dvd burned using Alcohol 120, and one using Roxio Toast on OS X.
Neither will boot in either a SATA drive or a PATA drive.


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## Erratus (Mar 7, 2010)

So if booting the DVD media fails on PATA drive too, for me it looks like the media is corrupted (again check once more if you selected the right system architecture iso).

Errors while downloading gigabytes can happen. To make sure you have downloaded a non-corrupted iso file a hash check is mandatory. Did you check MD5?


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## iWeirdo (Mar 7, 2010)

I tried, but I have no experience with hash checkers, I found a shareware checker, installed it and couldn't get it to work.
What really annoys me is that there is no information regarding the error in booting, nothing starts up and nothing comes up on the screen.


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## Erratus (Mar 7, 2010)

On windows I use DigestIT for checking hashes.

http://www.colonywest.us/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=61&func=select&id=3

Maybe it's a good idea to try first the CDROM disk1 instead of the bigshot DVD?


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## Beastie (Mar 7, 2010)

Try this one (28KB, no setup).


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## iWeirdo (Mar 7, 2010)

Found one humongous error on my part... Core 2 are not ia64, rather intel64/x86-64/amd64. Pays to do a little more research sometimes... Could have saved me more than 20 hours of troubles and trials...


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## Erratus (Mar 7, 2010)

Ok, let us know how you finally got the install done.


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## iWeirdo (Mar 7, 2010)

Will do, I hope this experiment of mine will result in success, it has cost me far to much time and trouble so far..


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