free bsd 5.3

[imported_renault]

i am trying 2 install bsd 5.3 on my 486,the installation guide goes like this
" Get approximately three blank, freshly formatted floppies and image copy
boot.flp onto one and the kernX.flp files onto the others. These images
are not DOS files. You cannot simply copy them to a DOS or UFS floppy as
regular files, you need to ``image'' copy them to the floppy with
fdimage.exe under DOS (see the tools directory on your CDROM or FreeBSD
FTP mirror) or the dd(1) command in UNIX.

For example, to create the kernel floppy image from DOS, you'd do
something like this:

C> fdimage boot.flp a:

Assuming that you'd copied fdimage.exe and boot.flp into a directory
somewhere. You would do the same for the kernX.flp files, of course.

If you're creating the boot floppy from a UNIX machine, you may find that:

# dd if=floppies/boot.flp of=/dev/rfd0

or

# dd if=floppies/boot.flp of=/dev/fd0

or

# dd if=floppies/boot.flp of=/dev/floppy

work well, depending on your hardware and operating system environment
(different versions of UNIX have different names for the floppy drive)."
what does image copy mean,how should i do it,and what ll happen if an ordinary copy is made.
pls visit this topic often as i ll have more doubts 2 ask on free bsd 5.3

[GNUrag]

Ordinary copy will just copy the file as any other ordinary file.. While booting, your computer bios would not understand what it means...

Image copy will copy the file and write it onto floppy's MBR and other areas...

You may use # dd under Linux or rawrite.exe utility to write image floppies for any linux/unix distributions.

[h4xbox]

there is also a thing called rawwrite for win..its gui.

[vasanth_12345]

Sames the case here I am installing free bsd5.3 in p1 60mhz machine.I got the rawwrite utility if u want it pm me i will mail it to uAnd wat installation r u using miniist i guess i downloaded the iso few days ago and ur queries whatever post here i have read the full guide and fortunately i will be able to post the replies

[imported_renault]

ok thanxs 4 that but this has sparked many doubts in me
pls show me a site where can i learn more of this mbr stuff.
do all disks(cds)have mbr
what is the size of the mbr
what makes it different from other parts of the disk
and why wont a normal copy be written on the mbr

[h4xbox]

renault : why dont u search @ www.wikipedia.org
Half of ur questions have been answered there.

[vasanth_12345]

The MBR reides in the first gb of ur harddisk i dont think cds have mbr(i maybe wrong).The bios looks in the mbr to load the oses anyway why r u asking 'bout the mbr. I think ur asking 'bout the floppies as u see the files r images(boot.flp etc etc) created by some software jus like the iso images hence a ordinary copy wont work

[h4xbox]

renault: www.freebsd.org/tutorials