Hi, I have a HP laptop with intel dual core 32bit processor with 512MB RAM & 80 GB HDD.
2 years back I have installed windows XP on it on my own, it was quite easy.
But now I need to install FreeBSD for the C++ development on the same laptop.
In short I am trying to make it multiOS system.As I have already tried with Wubi's different versions to install on my office PC, but they faild throwing could not download the.." error; so I cant even try the Wubi on my laptop (also dot have internet connection on my laptop).
I have tried to boot from the pendrive too, but laptop can not boot from it, throwing "Booting device is not ready" type of error. So kept that aside too.
Yesterday, I burned the FreeBSD on the DVD and tried to boot, but it faild too with following sequence & error -

Booting [/boot/kernel/kernel].. /boot/kernel/acpi.ko text=0x56e4c loading required module 'kernel'
ACPI autoload failed - no such file or directory
{then list of some variable values like err ect and lastly - }
BTX halted


So it could not boot for the FreeBSD I have downloaded (i.e. 8.0-RELEASE-i386-bootonly.iso ) & burned on DVD.

Later I burned OpenSolaris image "os200805g.iso" on the DVD(R/W) & tried to boot.This time it started booting properly and I could see the blue screen of Opensolaris, and thedesktop of it.
There was a exe (I guess) on desktop with name 'install openSolaris'; I did not executed it, and in the hope of that the OS is installed properly, I restarted the laptop and to my surprise there was no existence of OpenSolaris now just my previous winXP.

Please help me to install FreeBSD on the laptop & configure it for the C++ development, as I behind this since last one week.

It's going to be a multi-step process.
Here is what you need to search for:
1) Resizing partitions with Knoppix+qtparted or with gparted live.
2) Basic installation of FreeBSD including graphical environment.
3) Setting up grub on FreeBSD to chainload each OS.


You will need to attach your laptop to the internet with an ethernet/cat(5,6) cord or you will have to download all packages.
Do you have a router? If not, do you know how to use ifconfig?

If acpi causes trouble, then disable it. That option should be on the boot screen numbered menu.

THe following post does not reflect the views of the Linux community as a whole, and odds are I am the minority here.

You have more to learn before you try this sort of thing. I would quit for a while and focus my time understanding the nature of PCs. Once I returned, I would use Linux instead, and then maybe try others later on. I stuck with Linux myself. Linux/FreeBSd/OpenSolaris are in the UNIX family of operating systems, so when you know one, you know 70% of what you need to about the others. These systems do not use EXEs. You often don't even need a file extension. THe icon on the Solaris desktop is a .desktop file. A type of shortcut used only to launch applications. Now you know.

I bet that the application the .desktop file points to is set to +x, that would be: being executable, this way or the other. They may not be called exe-files in the UNIX-world, but they are executable, so the OP was right (in some sense)
No need to beat a dead horse.

@OP, you really need BSD or just any kind of UNIX?
If its any UNIX you could use your Solaris-CD, click on the install-icon and there you go. For BSD-stuff Mr.Biskuit should be able to help you. Most of the Linux'es would be a good choice, as they are more easy to install and configure (At least for me).Fedora, Debian, PCLInuxOS, something like that. Check distrowatch.com.
Lots of them contain said icon on the Destkop, you click on it, accept the defaults and all is done by magic.

I would try either DesktopBSD or PCBSD. I believe they can use the ports system of FreeBSD and they are within one release cycle of FreeBSD.

I've had DesktopBSD 1.7 on this machine, and I've had PC-BSD 7.1 & 7.2 as well. Both were flawless, but I kept DesktopBSD since it recognized my wifi stix right off. DesktopBSD is now somewhat defunct, so I can't recommend it. I've also used FreeBSD since 2.2.5 (Nov 1997) and found it straightforward in it's installation and use. I can't recommend the latest version, but I will advise you to try 7.1 to 7.3 on your system, especially if your computer is several years old. The newest version doesn't always work on older systems, especially when first released. I have found that, in general, the BSD family of unix is not as snappy on my systems as some of the linux variants I've used (Puppy, Debian, Slackware), but your mileage may vary on this. Different machines work better with different operating systems. Don't forget that linux & unix are NOT win-doze.

73