2.3 Starting the Installation

Start with your computer turned off.

Turn on the computer. As it starts it should display an option to enter the system set up menu, or BIOS, commonly reached by keys like F2, F10, Del, or Alt+S. Use whichever keystroke is indicated on screen. In some cases your computer may display a graphic while it starts. Typically, pressing Esc will dismiss the graphic and allow you to see the necessary messages.

Find the setting that controls which devices the system boots from. This is usually labeled as the “Boot Order” and commonly shown as a list of devices, such as Floppy, CDROM, First Hard Disk, and so on.

If you needed to prepare boot floppies, then make sure that the floppy disk is selected. If you are booting from the CDROM then make sure that that is selected instead. In case of doubt, you should consult the manual that came with your computer, and/or its motherboard.

Make the change, then save and exit. The computer should now restart.

If you needed to prepare boot floppies, as described in Section 2.2.7, then one of them will be the first boot disc, probably the one containing kern.flp. Put this disc in your floppy drive.

If you are booting from CDROM, then you will need to turn on the computer, and insert the CDROM at the first opportunity.

If your computer starts up as normal and loads your existing operating system, then either:

1. The disks were not inserted early enough in the boot process. Leave them in, and try restarting your computer.

2. The BIOS changes earlier did not work correctly. You should redo that step until you get the right option.

3. Your particular BIOS does not support booting from the desired media.

FreeBSD will start to boot. If you are booting from CDROM you will see a display similar to this (version information omitted):

Verifying DMI Pool Data ........
Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM :
 1. FD 2.88MB  System Type-(00)
Uncompressing ... done

BTX loader 1.00 BTX version is 1.01
Console: internal video/keyboard
BIOS drive A: is disk0
BIOS drive B: is disk1
BIOS drive C: is disk2
BIOS drive D: is disk3
BIOS 639kB/261120kB available memory

FreeBSD/i386 bootstrap loader, Revision 0.8

/kernel text=0x277391 data=0x3268c+0x332a8 |

|
Hit [Enter] to boot immediately, or any other key for command prompt.
Booting [kernel] in 9 seconds... _

If you are booting from floppy disc, you will see a display similar to this (version information omitted):

Verifying DMI Pool Data ........ 

BTX loader 1.00  BTX version is 1.01 
Console: internal video/keyboard 
BIOS drive A: is disk0 
BIOS drive C: is disk1 
BIOS 639kB/261120kB available memory 

FreeBSD/i386 bootstrap loader, Revision 0.8 

/kernel text=0x277391 data=0x3268c+0x332a8 |

Please insert MFS root floppy and press enter:

Follow these instructions by removing the kern.flp disc, insert the mfsroot.flp disc, and press Enter. FreeBSD 5.3 and above provide other floppy disks set, as described in previous section. Boot from first floppy; when prompted, insert the other disks as required.

Whether you booted from floppy or CDROM, the boot process will then get to this point:

Hit [Enter] to boot immediately, or any other key for command prompt. 
Booting [kernel] in 9 seconds... _

Either wait ten seconds, or press Enter

Start with your computer turned off.

Turn on the computer and wait for a boot monitor prompt.

If you needed to prepare boot floppies, as described in Section 2.2.7 then one of them will be the first boot disc, probably the one containing kern.flp. Put this disc in your floppy drive and type the following command to boot the disk (substituting the name of your floppy drive if necessary):

>>>BOOT DVA0 -FLAGS '' -FILE ''

If you are booting from CDROM, insert the CDROM into the drive and type the following command to start the installation (substituting the name of the appropriate CDROM drive if necessary):

>>>BOOT DKA0 -FLAGS '' -FILE ''

FreeBSD will start to boot. If you are booting from a floppy disc, at some point you will see the message:

Please insert MFS root floppy and press enter:

Follow these instructions by removing the kern.flp disc, insert the mfsroot.flp disc, and press Enter.

Whether you booted from floppy or CDROM, the boot process will then get to this point:

Hit [Enter] to boot immediately, or any other key for command prompt. 
Booting [kernel] in 9 seconds... _

Either wait ten seconds, or press Enter. This will then launch the kernel configuration menu.