Can't install UNIX
 

I give up. I am going to ask for help. I have been trying to load freebsd for a few years and openbsd since 4.3. I have had partial success with openbsd 6.2. When done I rebooted, but I get a message that there is no active partition, or it loads over and over nonstop. When sd0 information is displayed it shows four partitions 0 to 3. The first three are unused and the fourth is A6 and is openbsd. To the left of A6 is an * which to me means it is active. Also, a line displayed in installing follows: Directory does not contain SHA256.sig. Continue without verification? [no]. When I enter the default no, it loops around to the same line. To continue with the install I have to answer yes. Why a default of no that doesn't work.
I have "rtfm" and research books, the internet, and man pages to no avail. There is very little information available regarding active partitions. I have a 512gb ssd with 16gb of memory. What other information do you need? Please help me!

So what about your previous thread?

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ul-4175622180/

Your "loop" you have reported is you are continuing to boot the installation media, rather than booting a system you might have installed.

Generally, one boots from the installed system drive rather than from installation media after installation has completed. As, for example, removing the CD from the drive bay.

The SHA256.sig message is produced because the signature file is not included on CD or disk-image installation media. It is only available when installing file sets from a network mirror. When installing from CD or disk-image, you must complete the installation without the signature file.I'm going to guess that you should be installing OpenBSD's "amd64" 64-bit architecture system. Why? Because you didn't post your CPU make/model, so I will assume Intel or AMD "x86"-compatible, and you have more than 3GB of RAM. OpenBSD's "i386" is 32-bit, and will only use a maximum of 3GB of RAM.
Make and model of workstation. If a "custom" workstation, the make/model of the motherboard.

It is unfortunate that you have not gotten further than booting and rebooting installation media since 2008.

Yes, Linux Hal, what happened with your previous installation of FreeBSD?

I think the point you're getting hung up on during the OpenBSD installation is where you want to install sets from. Choose HTTP (or HTTPS whichever it is) and scroll down to where you see a mirror close to you or all the way to the end where it will show the official mirror and use that. There rest is pretty straightforward.

Once it's done remove your boot media while it reboots to keep it from looping. From there you should be able to use the startx command and continue to the desktop.

I would like to clarify my former posting of 1-22-18. First, after buying Openbsd CDs I considered them as
donations instead of purchases since I could not get them to install. Secondly, after failing to get recent
versions of Openbsd and Freebsd to install, I tried older versions that I had laying around. But you are
right I was beating my head against the wall expecting positive results from old versions on new software.
Shame on me!

Now for my recent posting of 3-28-18. As for the looping, that occurred after removing the CD. And when
I tried to install Freebsd 11.1, I only got to the point where I was to add a desktop manager in order to
run a GUI, but I could not save and close out the editor I was in. I tried to follow instructions on youtube
but to no avail. Here is a question which is indicative of my innocence. Do I install from a mirror site
to an OS, or is it possible to install to a partially installed OS at some point? Following are the
hardware on my computer:


Architecture-AMD 64 bit

CPU-Intel 7th Gen Core i5-7500 Processor (Kaby Lake) 3.8GHz Max Turbo / 6MB Cache (Manufacturer # 953683)

SuperMicro C7H270-CG-ML-O Motherboard

HD-Samsung 512GB 850 Pro Series 2.5" SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

RAM-DDR4 16GB 2400MHz Dual P CL15 Viper 4 Red 1.35V

CDRom-LG OEM DVDRW 24X Int SATA, Internal M-DISC Compatible

Thanks for the help and patience.

Thanks for clarifying.For OpenBSD, you can install from "full" media that includes the kernels and file sets (install62.fs or install62.iso) or boot from media which just contains the RAMDISK installation kernel alone (miniroot62.fs or cd62.iso). For the latter, you must have a working network connection in order to access the kernels and filesets.You can install a fileset you previously excluded, should you need it. But you must have a working, successfully installed system. The minimum requirement is a fully operational kernel and the base62.tgz file set.
This should be supported at 6.2-release. The inteldrm(4) driver at that release included an update to support Kaby Lake integrated graphics.

The "looping" at boot after installation could be a bootloader or BIOS issue, but this is just a guess. The default OpenBSD installation uses MBR partitioning, and from your description you used this default. If so, it is possible that your motherboard needs to be configured to permit "legacy boot" in order to boot from an MBR. If the motherboard does not support MBR booting, you could reinstall using GPT/EFI partitioning.
You're the one with the decade-long patience. :)

I've always used the installXX.fs on a USB stick to build OpenBSD, but I also use the http option to install my sets. That sets the installurl file and is probably the easiest thing for a beginner IMO since you don't have to edit the PKG_PATH variable to start building pkg.

First off, did you check your download hash signature?

Answer 'yes' to proceed without varification.

(Set up your wifi)(Set up your internet connection)

Select your installation (use the defaults)

Select your package sets, (use the defaults)

Fill in your details

Enter 'reboot' at the command line when it asks you to, wait while it shuts down, remove installation media before it restarts.
You should then be at a login prompt, enter 'root' & your password, then add the 'Package Path', otherwise you won't be able to install extra software.

I put it into my .profile
followed by
Nothing will change until you reboot, or issue the same command at the command line.
Now you should add whatever extra software you want.

I usually add
This will give a workable system of about 1.1GB on disk.

Edit: You will need to set up .xinitrc to use fluxbox.