Free BSD refuses to format my Hard drive
 

I don't know why, but Free BSD 5.3 (the CD which i have) doesn't format my drive, even after I use the Automatic Disk Partition and Format option.

I get some Disk Drive Geometry Error.

My First Encounter with Free BSD, so be a little bit simple.

Yeah,that's a quirk.I just ignore it and proceed.

Well, I don't remember that it had an option to Ignore it.

I will surely 'try' to ignore it as I install it the next time.

Thanks for the reply.

LOL.You said keep it simple.;)

But is there anything else I should know?

Yeah, never tried any of the BSDs, but yeah, I am a Linux Distro Junkie :D

So, not too simple not too complicated stuff would do.
I just wanted to know whether there is anything wrong with my CDs.
And whether I should follow any essential steps while installing Free BSD.(Especially while formatting the Hard drives.)
Would anybody like to suggest a Partition setup.
I only use / and /home partitions on my Home and keep it simple.
What is the equivalent of the above in Free BSD?

Well, I have my hands on the Free BSD Documentation, and have been reading it for a while, but the screens mentioned in there, I haven't ever seen them with my CD....>LOL

I have verified the MD5 sums, all to be correct.

I got the Geometry error on two different hard drives with FreeBSD 5.4, and both installations were successful, so don't worry about that.

Partitioning and formatting are very easy in FreeBSD, as there are defaults set up for you that you need only press one key to accept. After I got used to the installer I was easily able to get through entire installations in less than 45 minutes.

On FreeBSD (and any *nix system, really), the top level directory is still / -- however, FreeBSD makes /home a symlink to /usr/home. I kind of liked that setup because I install lots of programs and store lots of files, so I didn't need to choose between a big /usr and a big /home!

You're doing a good thing by reading the documentation for this operating system, not because it's especially difficult for someone experienced with other unices, but because it's really good documentation.

Other than that, just make sure you add your user account to the wheel group so you can su to root, and don't be surprised if you experience many more segmentation faults than you're used to. I'm really picky so a few crashing/outdated ports drove me away from FreeBSD.

This would get me the Automatic Partitioning Scheme, right?


Wow! That is incredible.


LOL...Thanks for pointing that out.


But I am all set to start with Dual Boot FreeBSD and Linux in a few days now.

Yes, I'm talking about an automatic partitioning scheme that makes good use of hard drive space. IIRC you press "a" at the partitioning screens to use the auto scheme, but the commands are listed at the bottom so check me on that. :)

Outdated ports should never drive you away. Remember that FBSD can run Linux binaries and will configure them as such. As for crashing, thats normally an issue with the X servers like KDE. As a server, it is very stable. As for the auto scheme, I would not advise it as it usually skimps on the /var and /tmp partitons. Best of luck.

D

Yes. Thanks again to all of you have replied here. :)

The crashes will fade away ...
 

I have noticed that the FreeBSD 5.x series is still not quite up to the reliability level that I had learned to love in the 4.x series. FreeBSD took a little step backwards in the 5.x series, especially concerning the x/kde/gnome oriented stuff, and also in the installer/file-system setup. But, considering the changes made within the 5.x series (complete kernel revamp, file-system, xorg, etc) I am happy with the progress made at the v5.3 point. (I'm using v5.3 now). After v5.0 and v5.1 I wasn't so sure.

Given a little more time, I'm sure the developers will hoist the reliability flags to the 4.9 level again.