Booting into the Install Program

Caution

If you are installing on a system that already has Windows or some other operating system on it and you don't want to lose that operating system and all its data, stop here and read "Potential Problems with and Limitations of Dual-Boot Systems" in Chapter 3. It is very important that you read this first. Failure to follow the instructions in that section could result in the loss of all data on your hard disk!

The next few sections assume that you either plan to wipe out everything currently on your hard disk to install FreeBSD, that you are installing on a new disk, or that you have already followed the instructions in Chapter 3 to create space for FreeBSD on a system that already has another operating system installed on it. These sections also assume that you are installing from the FreeBSD DVD included with this book. If this is not the case, stop here and read the relevant sections in Chapter 3 on NFS or FTP installation. After you do that, come back and continue with the instructions given here.

When you are ready to begin the installation, insert the included DVD into your optical drive. (If you chose to install from floppy disks, insert the floppy disk on which you installed boot.flp into your A: drive instead.) Reboot your system. If necessary, enter your BIOS setup program and enable booting from the optical drive or floppy drive, as necessary.

Note

Some BIOSes also have a security feature that prevents booting from the floppy drive. If you have to boot from the floppy drive, you might need to check for this option and set it to allow booting from the A: drive. See your system documentation for the way to configure the BIOS settings to control boot devices.

As the system boots, you should see some FreeBSD status messages on your screen. You should also see a "twirling baton," an animated cursor that indicates an in-progress task. As long as the baton keeps twirling, the system is doing something. If the baton stops twirling for a long period of time, it probably means your system is hanging. If that happens, refer to Appendix C, "Troubleshooting Installation and Boot Problems."

Note

In versions of FreeBSD earlier than 6.0, you'll see a message like the following instead of the full-screen boot menu:

FreeBSD/i386 bootstrap loader, Revision 1.1 ([e-mail], Thu Nov  3 07:33:10 UTC 2005) | Hit [Enter] to boot immediately, or any other key for command prompt. Booting [kernel] in 9 seconds... _

If you see this message, go ahead and press Enter to continue.

At some point during this process, if you're installing from floppies, you will be asked to "Insert disk labeled "Kernel floppy 1" and press any key"; that's the kern1.flp disk. After it's loaded, you will be prompted to replace it with the kern2.flp floppy. Finally you're asked to reinsert the boot floppy, boot.flp, once more.

When the kernel is loaded, a textual boot menu appears, giving you several options for how to launch FreeBSD. Depending on your console's capabilities, this screen might show the "daemon" mascot in color or black-and-white, or a FreeBSD logo in ASCII text, to the right of the list of options. For now, press Enter to accept the default option, Boot FreeBSD. This option leads you into the Sysinstall program.

Note

A flurry of messages will go past your screen as the kernel detects and initializes the hardware in your system. If your system hangs at any point during this period, see Appendix C for help on troubleshooting installation problems.