[TriLUG] FreeBSD: An Exercise in Pain

[Mike Helms]

Hi everyone,

FreeBSD looks fantastic.  I wish I could install it.

When I do the kernel configuration, I am greeted with seven network card
driver conflicts.  OK, fine, I remove the offending drivers and go in search
of the 3Com 90x series driver for my garden variety 10/100 network card.  Is
it there, in the list?  I think not ... the documentation says that there's
a driver (the xl0 driver), and just about anything that I try isn't working.
I have initiated this install procedure about a hundred times now - and
every time I get to the network configuration part of the OS, there is not a
3Com 90x network card to be seen.

What the hell is going on here?  I have searched high and low in the
installation and nowhere do these mythical drivers exist.  Is the system
supposed to find them itself?  If so, it's doing a lousy job.

For what it's worth, this is FreeBSD version 4.5, downloaded from their FTP
site yesterday.

Cheers,
-- Mike Helms