Not entirely sure if this belongs here but here it is. I am installing FreeBSD, downloaded the ISO from their website, created the Bootdisk. And when I try to boot, I get this error, 'Panic, Couldn't Inialize. Will not continue without Inialization'. I get the prompt telling me that it will restart. Any Ideas?

Check your media - straight from their web page


Freebsd.org


In general, to create boot floppy images, follow these steps:

Acquire the Boot Floppy Images

The boot discs are available on your installation media in the floppies directory, and can also be downloaded from the floppies directory.

The floppy images have a .flp extension. The floppies/ directory contains a number of different images, and the ones you will need to use depends on the version of FreeBSD you are installing, and in some cases, the hardware you are installing to. In most cases you will need two files, kern.flp and mfsroot.flp, but check README.TXT in the same directory to be sure.

Important: Your FTP program must use binary mode to download these disk images. Some web browsers have been known to use text (or ASCII) mode, which will be apparent if you cannot boot from the disks.

Prepare the Floppy Disks

You must prepare one floppy disk per image file you had to download. It is imperative 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.

Important: 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.

Write the Image Files to the Floppy Disks.

The .flp files are not regular files you copy to the disk. Instead, they are images of the complete contents of the disk. This means that you cannot use commands like DOS' copy to write the files. Instead, you must use specific tools to write the images directly to the disk.

If you are creating the floppies on a computer running DOS/Windows, then we provide a tool to do this called fdimage.

If you are using the floppies from the CDROM, and your CDROM is the E: drive, then you would run this:

E:\> tools\fdimage floppies\kern.flp A:

Repeat this command for each .flp file, replacing the floppy disk each time, being sure to label the disks with the name of the file that you copied to them. Adjust the command line as necessary, depending on where you have placed the .flp files. If you do not have the CDROM, then fdimage can be downloaded from the tools directory on the FreeBSD FTP site.

If you are writing the floppies on a Unix system (such as another FreeBSD system) you can use the dd(1) command to write the image files directly to disk. On FreeBSD, you would run:

# dd if=kern.flp of=/dev/fd0

On FreeBSD, /dev/fd0 refers to the first floppy disk (the A: drive). /dev/fd1 would be the B: 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.

You are now ready to start installing FreeBSD.

Thank you.