Machine Setup

System Physical Identification

Dell Dimension 4100 BIOS setup

	Boot -> Quiet Boot: Disabled
		It's helpful to be able to see what's happening.
		The giant blue "Dell" logo isn't useful.
	
	Boot -> Quick Boot: Disabled

	Boot -> Boot Device:
		1st: ATAPI-CDROM
		2nd: Floppy
		3rd: IDE-HDD

Operating System Installation

Disk Organization

When I first started working with the machines in September, 2001, Windows ME was already allocated 7GB. I didn't change it.

Swap was selected as 512MB=2*physical-ram.

Contiguous space is easier to work with, although for a system filesystem (such as the root), it offers a risk that it will fill and the system will be unable to proceed. For this system, it seems to me that the ease of use offered by the large root filesystem, combined with the convenience of not having to compute how much space should be allocated for the system, is together greater than the risk of filling up the system's storage space. There are higher-level constructs which could be used to prevent this problem, even with the physical-disk organization given as above.

Installation Procedure

-> Ensure that the BIOS settings are set, as given above.

-> Ensure that the machine is turned off (power off).

-> Secure a copy of the FreeBSD 4.4-RELEASE cdrom.

-> Insert the cdrom and boot with it.

-> At the "Kernel Configuration Menu", choose
	Start kernel configuration in full-screen visual mode
and press Enter.

-> Expand the Network-driver list; use [DEL] to remove all 
of the drivers. This will remove the probing conflicts.

-> Select "Q" to save and continue.

-> The kernel should load drivers, then continue to the Sysinstall
menu. 

The kernel may report an error about fxp0, saying that the system 
must be rebooted. I've not yet determined whether this advice is true.

-> From the Sysinstall menu, choose "Standard", then acknowledge the
message about partitioning.

-> In the FDISK Partition Editor, setup slice ad0s2 as follows:
	Offset: 14458500
	Size: 24595515
	End: 39054014
	Name: ad0s2
	Ptype: 3
	Desc: freebsd
	Subtype: 165
	Flags: C

Ultimately, the total partition table should look like this:
	Offset   Size(st) End      Name  PType  Desc    Subtype Flags
	0        63       62       -     6      unused  0
	63       14458437 14458499 ad0s1 2      fat     12
	14458500 24595515 39054014 ad0s2 3      freebsd 165     C
	39054015 8465     39062499 -     6      unused  0

-> Quit the FDISK Partition Editor after saving any changes.

-> On the "Install Boot Manager" menu, select to 
install the FreeBSD Boot Manager.

-> Acknowledge the message about partitioning the FreeBSD slice
to access the Disklabel Editor.

-> On ad0s2, setup a 512MB swap area. (In my experience, the 
Disklabel Editor placed this as ad0s2b.)

-> On ad0s2, setup the remainder for the root filesystem (mount
point /). 

-> Use "Q" to exit the Disklabel Editor.

-> The "Choose Distributions" menu will be displayed; choose
"Kern-Developer", and "yes" to install the Ports collection.

-> Choose to install from CD.

-> Choose to configure ethernet device fxp0. 
Do not use IPv6. Do not configure for DHCP.
	Host:
		vidcap1, vidcap2, vidcap3, or vidcap4
	Domain:
		cs.unc.edu
	IPv4 gateway:
		152.2.254.254
	Name server:
		152.2.131.228

	fxp0 IPv4 address:
		152.2.142.211, 152.2.142.212, 152.2.142.213, 152.2.142.214
	fxp0 netmask:
		255.255.0.0

-> Do not setup the machine to function as a gateway.

-> Choose to enable simple internet services.

-> Choose to enable inetd, and use the default (all-disabled)
inetd.conf.

-> Choose not to have anonymous FTP access to this machine.

-> File server (i.e., vidcap1): On the designated vidcap fileserver
(vidcap1, currently), choose to configure this machine as an NFS
server. Leave the file /etc/exports unmodified (i.e., all comments).

-> Not file server (i.e., vidcap2, vidcap3, and vidcap4): On all
machines which are not the dedicated vidcap fileserver (vidcap2,
vidcap3, and vidcap4, currently), choose not to be an NFS server.

-> All machines: Choose not to configure this machine as an NFS client.

-> Choose to use the default security profile for this machine.
Choose the "Medium -- Moderate security settings".

-> Choose not to customize console settings.

-> Choose to set the machine's time zone. State that the hardware
clock is not set to UTC. Select the time zone Americas -> 
United States -> Eastern Time, and that the abbreviation "EDT"
looks reasonable.

-> Choose to enable Linux binary compatibility.

-> State that the system does not have a USB mouse. 

-> In the mouse configuration menu, choose mouse type of Auto
(for PS/2), port of Auto (for PS/2). 

-> Choose not to browse the selection of FreeBSD packages.

-> Choose not to add any initial user accounts to the system.

-> Set the initial root password to the current standard.

-> Exit the configuration program, and reboot.