I am unable to go beyond fdisk in the installation routine..On selection of the disk (already formatted Primary partition ) , I am taken to bootloader config screen..I choose "None" since I already have grub installed and I get the error" Partition (selected one) does not end in cylinder boundary and on clicking ok , it takes me to the main menu and I have to proceed from step 1..

What should I do to rectify the error and complete Installation

Also , the website "Forums.freebsd.org" is always not reachable ..One time I managed to create a user and post this problem, but after that unable to reach the site at all

Reading the handbook , I felt that it is still not as geared as Linux in handling and detecting hardware ( for eg for enabling LBA , they have instructed to modify the kernel..Also for using more than 6 GB of RAm (PAE) again some tinkering in kernel is required ,,Is this a geek's OS? I can handle command prompt to some extent (courtesy various linux forums) , but FreeBSD is giving me the jitters right from installation to support.I mean everyone has teething problems but there are ways to get around it...Here there is no soul whom I can ask.

Also in the handbook they have given instructions on expanding a win PARTITION ,below that a Note says (to the effect)- Warning Expanding windows Vista partitions have lead to problems with many users .Suggest the drive be backed up...so on and so forth" ..It is good to be truthful but this gives puts a reader off straight away.I mean with warnings as dangerous as this one , one gets the feeling it is not even worth experimenting with...

Is FreeBSD well supported and a good OS choice considering it is there for years?

I have partially managed to cross one hurdle... Now , I am able to go past the partitioner , create mount point and select installation source , but I get a dialog Extracting ...It goes till abt 30 % and gives the error "write failure wrote -1 bytes of data "or something like that..Can anyone help me?..

FreeBSD (any BSD, for that matter) is not a hand-holding OS. Granted, there are projects out there to "*buntuize" BSD (see PC-BSD, for example), but for the most part the BSD's are very much so "geek's OS's". End users tend to be held to a higher standard with the BSD's (OpenBSD especially), because the documentation tends to be of much higher quality in *BSD than Linux. It's perfectly acceptable to "Google the answer" in Linux, but the same tends to get frowned upon in the BSD community because online third-party docs fall out of relevance quite quickly, and the system man pages tend not to.

Would you rather *not* get the warning? Even Windows prints out a very stark "make sure you backup your shiz" type of warning when messing with partitions...that can hardly be held against FreeBSD.

Sorry rocket...My sincere appologies to BSD community

I was just too frustrated the other day on not being able to install and unable to connect to freebsd forum...

I probably shouldnt have bashed Free BSD or for that matter any other OS due to my inability to install ..

I tAke back everything negative which may have hurt people's sentiments ...

At hindsight , the words used were not in the right spirit ..Sorry everyone..

In fact since NIX is by the people , of the people , for the people I think I should have made a constructive criticism....

Actually speaking no one was forcing FreeBSD down my throat and I always had the freedom to choose whatever I want

I did not have the right to demean people's sincere and hard work....

Hey, I wasn't trying to belittle you or correct any thinking on your part, I was just pointing out some facts. For the record, there was no emotion intended in my first response...if it came across that way then I apologize.

The BSD's tend to be a bit more abrasive to users. That doesn't mean you didn't run across a legitimate gripe against FreeBSD. I've had my fair share of difficulty with the FreeBSD installer...I completely understand heh. Putting any kind of emotion in the report will drive off people who might help you, though, so sticking to the facts will get you further. All of us have been frustrated with computers from time to time, and we've all wanted to curse the arch/OS/component/etc that was giving us headaches. Frustration is understandable =)

So you got past the partitioning issue...how did you do that (so people who are new to FreeBSD can find this in the future)? Once you get there, it sounds to me like some kind of corrupted tarball, or perhaps running out of space?...are you downloading the install sets or installing from a CD?

Ok ...I have tried to Install Free BSD 8.2 as well as PC-BSD 8.2

FreeBSD 8.2

1. Downloaded USB mem stick image (914.1 MB) -- i386 DVD 32 Bit
2. Copied it to my Kingston 2GB through "dd" command from slackware
3. Booted from Live USB
4. I am able to define partitions and mount points
5. Next it is asking for installation source and I select "Install from USB"
6. It is able to proceed and a dialog box "Extracting Bin ...with a progress bar is shown"
7. Midway , around 30% or so it gives the error -"Write Failure (Wrote -1 Bytes of XXXXXBytes)"


PC-BSD
1. Downloaded the massive ISO of 3.3 GB directly from PC-BSD server
2. Burnt the ISO image to a DVD-R of 4.7 GB capacity from win using the program "Imgburn"..It appeared to burn ok and gave the msg "Operation Successful"
3. The DVD does not boot
4. I am also not able to check the DVD - maybe since it is in ufs2 from windows or linux .. When I check properties it mentions "0 bytes out of 0 bytes free" . So I dont know whats in the DVD


Can anyone help me with either of the above distro...Wanted to try UNIX base for a long time....

Or is there a sure shot distro based on BSD which installs as intended ..(I guess there are many variants like DesktopBSD / OpenBSD etc)

You are not alone. I tried to install FreeBSD 8.2 today, but it was a failure. First I tried a DVD, but like you, my computer could not see it. I then tried a "live" CD, but was told the disc does not contain the packages for the set-up I selected. The result was a computer with a blank hard-drive.
And I am a Linux user. I can imagine what a nightmare installation would be for Microsoft and Apple users. But I still intend to give BSD a test-run sometime in the future. As was stated above, BSD is not a hand-holding OS. First, I shall read more of the manual. The answers are probably in there somewhere.
So don't give up.

There are tradeoffs to the various *BSD's. OpenBSD's installer is a text-based very simplistic installer that "just works", whereas the installer for FreeBSD has left me on more than one ocassion cursing FreeBSD. After the install, however, OpenBSD tends to be a bit more unforgiving and FreeBSD has more functionality (OpenBSD has a very strict "no NDA/blob/BS" policy, so you won't find binary nvidia drivers, for example). My experience is that once you read the docs and get familiar with how things are done in FreeBSD and OpenBSD, and you take the time to setup the system just as you want it, you'll never have to look back. I have systems running OpenBSD 3.x that have been in service running flawlessly since install (probably 7-8 years now? I really need to update them, but if it works why break it?).

I've only used NetBSD one time, and so I won't comment on NetBSD for lack of experience.

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At last I was able to Install 8.2 ..Actually it turned out to be an md5 checksum error ..Made sure that the integrity of ISO was okay and then it wentt on fine..Still a long way to go though ...I am going to ask in a new thread....This can be closed as installation is okay

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I'm trying to install 8.2 32bit on an old laptop I have at home. But using the USB DVD drive (internal drive is broken) does not see the drive after I get to the "choose install media" point. Funny thing is I can format and choose the ports but final step fails.

Pretty sure I installed 7 without any issues and wondering if this is a problem with 8.2 rather?

I tried the following:
1. Downloaded ISOs for freeBSD and PC-BSD, ver 8.2, 32-bit versions
2. Installed them under VMWare; But- I didn't burn any DVD, simply used the ISO for the installation. The VMWare works on Debian 6.
3. Then, burned DVD (used Brasero on debian - burn DVD ISO; I have to tell You just ONE thing: if Your PC/DVD is the old one, then, take care on the fact that old DVDs can somehow become "blind" after writting the content, so think about to replace this old device with some newer); Installed from DVD at VMWare again; I suppose that this HAS to work directly on hardware ('cause it booted from DVD under VMWare...)

Regards!