[bumbler]

Gotta busted laptop -- CD-ROM is dead and costs too much to replace. But it's got working USB ports, a 266Mhz CPU and 96MB RAM. My plan is to try NetBSD sans-GUI on it until I become familiar with it. I've read the installation instructions, and I know I won't get it all until I actually do it.

1. Is there any reason I can't boot from floppy and convince it to install from an external CD-ROM via USB? How would I go about that, as I didn't see that in the install guide -- that is, how do I tell it to look for the CD on the USB port?

2. Outline what NetBSD does best on laptops, and what makes it distinct from FreeBSD in that setting.

Bumbler

[Strog]

The generic kernel has USB support in it. Your usb cdrom should show up as a da device automatically and you should be able to mount it and use it when you get to extracting sets from your source. The other option is to use the laptop install floppy and load up a pcmcia network card. Once you hit the internet, you can install everything off your favorite mirror.

NetBSD was the first *nix I played with USB on and it was so easy with mass storage and mice. You should be able to get this running relatively smoothly. My first NetBSD install (1.4ish) was on a laptop that I couldn't get FreeBSD or Linux running very well on but NetBSD was very smooth. Both OSes handle laptops much better today and either should do well. FreeBSD does more things with ACPI and that means when it works, it works better but ACPI is a quirky thing.

I'm typing this reply on a Freesbie 1.1 CD loaded on Dell Latitude over the wireless. I just threw the CD and my wireless card in and it came up all configured and ready to go. I just wish it wasn't work's laptop. ;-)

[bumbler]

Glad to hear about the USB issue. With my slow dialup connection, I would hesitate even to contemplate installing over a PCI modem. I'd like to do this before my hair finishes falling out.

OTOH, I have just found a needy recipient for the laptop, so I'll save the NetBSD for another machine. Got lots of nifty hardware donations today, and I'm still poring over them.

[Strog]

Glad to hear about the USB issue. With my slow dialup connection, I would hesitate even to contemplate installing over a PCI modem. I'd like to do this before my hair finishes falling out.

OTOH, I have just found a needy recipient for the laptop, so I'll save the NetBSD for another machine. Got lots of nifty hardware donations today, and I'm still poring over them.

Yeah, dialup would take a while but it could be doable if you really needed to do it that way. If you already have the CD-Rom then you could copy it to a local machine and setup your own local mirror. I try to keep local copies of all the BSDs current release on my local server. Network installs are great locally since a network connection is faster than a cdrom. Maybe next time. :silly: