I am puzzled by the apparent ease which users have loading unix systems on a PC. I have been
trying to load FreeBSD and OpenBSD for years without success. Recently I bought a new computer but
still no luck. When I try to load FreeBSD 4.3 from a DVD supplied by the book "FreeBSD" by Annelise Anderson, I get to a point BTX Halted. When loading FreeBSD 4.6 from a distro copied from FreeBSD.org
I get to a point that says OS "has halted. Press any key to reboot.". This loops over and over. When loading FreeBSD 4.11 from a distro copied from FreeBSD.org I again get BTX Halted.

When it comes to OpenBSD, I have purchased at least three versions for $50 to $60 each and the last two
were 4.6 and 5.6. OpenBSD.org asks for donations. Man, those were donations. 4.6 says OS "has halted. Press any key to reboot.". This loops over and over just like FreeBSD 4.6. OpenBSD 5.6 gets to the
choice to enter either I, U, A, or S, but nothing happens no matter which key you enter. However, I
have been able to load TrueOS.

I am always amused to see the complex questions asked on BSD forums when I am unable to even get BSD
on my computer. In my bookshelf I have eleven books on unix and BSD. RTFM is a response seen in books and elsewhere, but you can't ask a stupid question if you can't load the distro onto your PC.

Is it a hardware problem, bios problem, or bad luck?

I load multiple OS instances per month, and reload the laptop I am working on to type this at least four times per year. Have you tried different hardware?

I would stop paying for FOSS operating systems for now. Once you get one working and find you really like it is the time to donate.

Sounds like you're not having any luck. I agree with wpeckham - stop paying for FOSS os's for now. Why don't you try downloading a live distro, putting it on a usb stick and booting that to see if it boots, and if it does how it works with your hardware. You can also let us know what kind of hardware you have. e.g motherboard, ram, cpu etc.

Those FreeBSD developers are bastards, when they released their 4.3 version back in 2001 they didn't include 2018 PC hardware support. Shame on them.

2 members found this post helpful.

Yep. Didn't realise FreeBSD was up to version 11 or thereabouts.

There is not enough info in your initial post - i.e. not even basic info about the hardware or CPU architecture.

Apparently you've tried to install two different OS - one a very outdated, unsupported release. Unless you've tried to install FreeBSD 11.1-release and OpenBSD 6.2-release, there really isn't that much to discuss here.

You said you were able to install TrueOS, so in theory, the same version of FreeBSD (which TrueOS is based on) should also install.

There is usually lists of the hardware supported on each BSD's websites. However, as above, those are old versions that may not support your hardware. Go to the BSD of your choice & download their latest release, put it onto a pendrive, & try booting your computer from that.

Also, details of your hardware will help people to help you.

The version of FreeBSD you've chosen to install on new hardware is ancient. Of course the ancient OS won't recognize hardware which didn't exist at the time that FreeBSD 4.6 was released. FreeBSD 11.1 runs just fine on my HP G62 laptop.
I'm running OpenBSD 6.2 on my Dell Inspiron 660s. Everything works as expected. OpenBSD 5.6 may not run on newer hardware.

The new computer most likely uses uefi to boot, therefore will need to use one of the newest versions. For Freebssd at least version 10.1. I don't know about Openbsd butwith FreeBSD if you are duel booting with windows, FreeBSD will overwrite what is in your windows efi partition if you select to use the windows efi paritition versus creating a separate efi partition for use with FreeBSD.

If you have moderate English language reading comprehension skills you should be able to follow my tutorial on Building A FreeBSD Desktop From Scratch and achieve success with a fully functional FreeBSD desktop.

I spell it out step-by-step with a target audience of someone who has never used UNIX or the command line and show you how and what system and security files to edit. All you need to do is pick and build your 3rd party programs of choice after you boot to the Fluxbox desktop, like a browser, image manipulator, multimedia player, etc.

I use ports exclusively, and in the tutorial, but you can use the pkg system if you prefer and save a lot of time. You'll need to consult the FreeBSD Handbook on that and it's easy enough. You lose out on comandline experience that way though.

1 members found this post helpful.

You could add setting CPUTYPE to your tutorial, when building from source why not take advantage of local optimization.

I don't use it so it never occurred to me. I did check the forums for a reference though:

CPUTYPE?=native no longer safe

I am always open to suggestions and constructive criticism.

The initial post there is from 2012. FreeBSD is using CLANG now. That said, GCC has been matured also and -march=native works well in Linux. Anyhow, in FreeBSD you can specify the CPU type instead of using CPUTYPE?=native. Use and look at -target-cpu.

1 members found this post helpful.

It's a beginners tutorial so I try to keep it as simple as possible and still get them to a functional and secure desktop. If they can manage

having never used the commandline I'll be happy.


I already catch heat for using ports instead of pkg, but that's how I learned to set up and think best.

Base system uses clang, ports may use GCC and various build systems.

Do you have any data or "benchmarks", comparisons, etc?

You need to clarify if this is a rebuild of kernel and world or just ports you're discussing? I seem to recall that CPUTYPE? is "HAMMER" by default for amd64? If you have a very new CPU, you might see some performance gains by setting flags for those, but it may depend on use case.