Rewrite the "Creating the Installation Floppies" section, based on feedback

from Christopher Sold <so@server.i-clue.de> on -doc.

1 files changed, 112 insertions, 53 deletions

diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install/chapter.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install/chapter.sgml
index 0702dd8aae..071c9fdce1 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install/chapter.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install/chapter.sgml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 <!--
      The FreeBSD Documentation Project
 
-     $FreeBSD: doc/en_US.ISO_8859-1/books/handbook/install/chapter.sgml,v 1.44 2000/06/14 00:47:26 jim Exp $
+     $FreeBSD: doc/en_US.ISO_8859-1/books/handbook/install/chapter.sgml,v 1.45 2000/06/15 22:56:38 jim Exp $
 -->
 
 <chapter id="install">
@@ -66,58 +66,117 @@
 	The list should include their IRQs and IO port addresses.</para>
 
       <sect3 id="install-floppies">
-	<title>Creating the Boot Floppies</title>
-
-        <para>Please read the <ulink
-	  url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/&rel.current;-RELEASE/floppies/README.TXT">installation
-	  boot image information</ulink> before proceeding.  To make the
-	  installation boot disks from the image files, do the
-	  following:</para>
-
-	<para>Download the image
-	  files.  These can be retrieved from the <ulink
-	  url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/&rel.current;-RELEASE/floppies/">floppies directory</ulink>
-	  of the FreeBSD FTP site or your local mirror.</para>
-
-	<itemizedlist>
-	  <listitem>
-	    <para>If you are installing from an MS-DOS partition,
-	      download the <ulink
-	      url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/tools/fdimage.exe">fdimage.exe</ulink>
-	      program or get it from <filename>tools\fdimage.exe</filename>
-	      on the CDROM and then run it like so:</para>
-
-	    <screen><prompt>E:\&gt;</prompt> <userinput>tools\fdimage floppies\kern.flp a:</userinput></screen>
-
-	    <para>The <emphasis>fdimage</emphasis> program will format
-	      the <devicename>A:</devicename> drive and then copy
-	      <filename>kern.flp</filename> to it (assuming that you are
-	      at the top level of a FreeBSD distribution and the floppy
-	      images live in a <filename>floppies</filename>
-	      subdirectory, which is typically the case).</para>
-	  </listitem>
-
-	  <listitem>
-	    <para>If you are using a UNIX-based system to create the
-	      boot floppies, do the following:</para>
-
-	    <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>dd if=kern.flp of=<replaceable>disk_device</replaceable></userinput></screen>
-
-	    <para><replaceable>disk_device</replaceable> is the
-	      <filename>/dev</filename> entry for the floppy drive.  On
-	      FreeBSD, this is <filename>/dev/rfd0</filename> for the
-	      <devicename>A:</devicename> drive and
-	      <filename>/dev/rfd1</filename> for the
-	      <devicename>B:</devicename> drive.</para>
-	  </listitem>
-	</itemizedlist>
-
-        <para>With the <filename>kern.flp</filename> disk in your floppy
-	  drive, reboot your computer.  After a couple of minutes
-	  (while the kernel loads from the floppy), you 
-	  will be prompted to insert
-	  the <filename>mfsroot.flp</filename>, after which the
-	  installation will proceed normally.</para>
+	<title>Creating the Installation Floppies</title>
+
+	<para>You may need to prepare some floppy disks.  These disks will
+	  be used to boot your computer in to the FreeBSD install process.
+	  This step is not necessary <emphasis>if</emphasis> you are
+	  installing from CD-ROM, <emphasis>and</emphasis> your computer
+	  supports booting from the CD-ROM.  If you do not meet these
+	  requirements then you will need to create some floppies to boot
+	  from.</para>
+
+	<note>
+	  <para>If you are not sure whether your computer can boot from the
+	    CD-ROM it does not hurt to try.  Just insert the CD-ROM as
+	    normal and restart your computer.  You might need to adjust some 
+	    options in your BIOS so that your computer will try and boot
+	    from the CD-ROM drive before the hard disk.</para>
+	</note>
+	  
+	<tip>
+	  <para>Even if you have the CD-ROM it might make sense for you to
+	    download the files.  There have been occasions where bugs  in the
+	    FreeBSD installer have been discovered after the CDs have been
+	    released.  When this happens the copies of the images on the FTP
+	    site will be fixed as soon as possible. Obviously, it is not
+	    possible to update the CDs after they have been pressed.</para>
+	</tip>
+
+	<procedure>
+	  <step>
+	    <title>Acquire the boot floppy images</title>
+	      
+	    <para>These are files with a <filename>.flp</filename>
+	      extension.  If you have a CD-ROM release of FreeBSD then you
+	      will find the files in the <filename>floppies</filename>
+	      subdirectory.  Alternatively, you can download the images from
+	      the <ulink
+		url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/&rel.current;-RELEASE/floppies/">floppies directory</ulink> of the FreeBSD FTP site or your local mirror.</para>
+
+	    <para>The names of the files you will need varies between
+	      FreeBSD releases (sometimes) and the architecture you will be
+	      installing on.  The <ulink
+		url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/&rel.current;-RELEASE/floppies/README.TXT">installation
+		boot image information</ulink> on the FTP site provides
+	      up-to-the-minute information about the specific files you will 
+	      need.</para>
+	  </step>
+
+	  <step>
+	    <title>Prepare the floppy disks</title>
+	    
+	    <para>You must prepare one floppy disk per image file you had to
+	      download.  It is imperitive that these disks are free from
+	      defects.  The easiest way to test this is to format the disks
+	      for yourself.  Do not trust pre-formatted floppies.</para>
+
+	    <important>
+	      <para>If you try to install FreeBSD and the installation
+		program crashes, freezes, or otherwise misbehaves one of
+		the first things to suspect is the floppies.  Try writing
+		the floppy image files to some other disks, and try
+		again.</para>
+	    </important>
+	  </step>
+
+	  <step>
+	    <title>Write the image files to the floppy disks.</title>
+
+	    <para>The image files, such as <filename>kern.flp</filename>,
+	      are <emphasis>not</emphasis> regular files you copy to the
+	      disk.  Instead, they are images of the complete contents of
+	      the disk.</para>
+
+	    <para>This means that you can <emphasis>not</emphasis> use
+	      commands like DOS' <command>copy</command> to write the
+	      files.  Instead, you must use specific tools to write the
+	      images directly to the disk.</para>
+
+	    <para>If you are creating the floppies on a computer running DOS 
+	      then we provide a tool to do this called
+	      <command>fdimage</command>.</para>
+
+	    <para>If you are using the floppies from the CD-ROM, and your
+	      CD-ROM is the <devicename>E:</devicename> drive then you would 
+	      run this:</para>
+
+	    <screen><prompt>E:\&gt;</prompt> <userinput>tools\fdimage floppies\kern.flp</userinput></screen>
+
+	    <para>Repeat this command for each <filename>.flp</filename>
+	      file, replacing the floppy disk each time.  Adjust the command 
+	      line as necessary, depending on where you have placed the
+	      <filename>.flp</filename> files.  If you do not have the
+	      CD-ROM then <command>fdimage</command> can be downloaded from
+	      the <ulink
+		url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/&rel.current;-RELEASE/tools/"><filename>tools</filename> directory</ulink> on the FreeBSD FTP site.</para>
+
+	    <para>If you are writing the floppies on a Unix system (such as
+	      another FreeBSD system) you can use the &man.dd.1; command to
+	      write the image files directly to disk.  On FreeBSD you would
+	      run:</para>
+
+	    <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>dd if=kern.flp of=/dev/rfd0</userinput></screen>
+
+	    <para>On FreeBSD <filename>/dev/rfd0</filename> refers to the
+	      first floppy disk (the <devicename>A:</devicename> drive).
+	      <filename>/dev/rfd1</filename> would be the
+	      <devicename>B:</devicename> drive, and so on.  Other Unix
+	      variants might have different names for the floppy disk
+	      devices, and you will need to check the documentation for the
+	      system as necessary.</para>
+	  </step>
+	</procedure>
       </sect3>
 
       <sect3 id="install-cdrom">