Temporary measures to solve boot problems

[pcbsdusr]

what do you guys think of asking Kris to make stripped down versions of pcbsd with only the core functionality necessary to run the OS?

Only kde in english, conqueror to acess the forum... only keeping the bits related to the installation and boot problems PC-BSD is suffering from.

Removing all unnecessary weight of the os for a couple of weeks could allow kris to work solely on the installation issue and release small isos for testing in very short intervals.

I already pmed Kris about forgueting my translation for a while if that helps him concentrating on these issues.

If you guys agree on this, kris could release those isos with a different name like PC-BSD BootTest v01 or somethink...

Hope we can help Kris on this...


Cheers!

Renato Flórido

I was unlucky with the 0.8.
My wish and my dream. A PCBSD, even without KDE, a pure small nix system. No graphical interface, but a system I succeed to use with my swiss french keyboard. It seems, it is today an impossible mission to have such a small running system, even in the Linux world.

[jamiefoxer]

you could run a purely command line system, if you wished. There's plenty of Small Linux distributions (Puppy Linux, Damn Small Linux, etc.) ANY linux can be easily configured to bypass the X server and go to the commandline by editing the /etc/ttys file. Often, most bootloaders have a command prompt option.

And if you want pure commandline, just download the FreeBSD 5.4 release, and there you go. At the end of installation, you'll have a FreeBSD system without X configured that you can use for text-controlled operation.

I don't know what Kris did after .7.8, but whatever he added has wreaked havoc with starting the system. As a workaround, if you get the "mountroot" error, type "?" and find out what AD devices are available. I assumed my device was AD0 (because I only have one harddrive), but on my laptop, it was actually AD2. I told it to boot "ufs:ad2s3" and it works. On my Desktop, the SATA/PATA mode works to recognize where the UFS is.

It's a workaround for right now, but I'm sure it will get changed in the future.

Puppy Linux, Damn Small Linux, froddo (the core of slax), Ubuntu, and probably a lot of other distros are not working with my swiss french kbd. This applies also for other keyboards/languages using dead keys. I resctrict the use to the iso-latin1 world. They do not contain the right and updated <console tools>. Please google for console tool.
PCBSI, that I expected to be more user friendly, seems to suffer from the same problem. I do not want to spend 3 hours to download FreeBSD just to see if my kbd is supported. Asking the different mailing lists does not help, the general answer is yes, just do .... And this is not working. The only guy I know, who was understanding my problem and agree with me, was a french canadian (a Linux guru). He explained to me I have to modify the linux conf, download some libs and other things I do not understand.
So my wish is to have a PCBCD, on which I can set up my kbd on the fly. A distro that allows to configure my kbd with a simple command without to many problems. Something like the DOS cmd: c:\>kbd sf, sf:swiss french.
In mid 2005, it seems it is practically impossible to have something like this.
No kbd, no vi, no conf editing, no help.
On X, the problem is different. X has its own kbd "driver", perfectly working will all kbds around.
Seriously, I could really cry.

[pcbsdusr]

guys /girls, have you read the topic before posting? LOL

"guys /girls, have you read the topic before posting? LOL"

You do not get it. If I had a least a working and functional kbd working, I could enter some commands at the console mode level and try to vi some files. I'm still no able to do this! That is why I think, having a small working console mode PCBSD can help to see what is going wrong. Am I asking to much?

[pcbsdusr]

you cant use console?

Sorry if i am misunderstanding your post...

Asking for an app to work is never too much. Dont think i was criticizing you on that.

cheers!

RF

A quick addendum to my previous post.
Google with the keywords freebsd keyboard layout, there are ~289000 (two eight nine zero zero zero) hits.