Recommendations for a simple machine with floppy drive and no internet
reddit / freebsd

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dorayfoo · 2022-01-16 22:14

The internet is a distraction, so to learn more about FreeBSD, could
someone recommend an ancient machine which has no internet
capabilities, but with 3.5" floppy drive, and some means of attaching
a printer (USB?). With working sound. Desktop or laptop.

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ruyrybeyro · 2022-01-16 22:19

Buy an el cheapo machine, and take out the wireless card. Presto, no
Internet.

I use for similar effect a lousy Ideapad 14'' IBR notebook.

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shawn_blackk · 2022-01-16 22:20

if you buy an old pentium 3 or 4 desktop it may have a floppy drive.
if it doesn't have usb by default, install an usb addon pci card

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rykolepl · 2022-01-16 23:04

I think you can get USB floppy drives. This way you can use something
more recent.

I think most lga755(775?) socket motherboards had floppy connectors,
and you could put quad-core xeons there, but I'm writing this from
memory.

Usually you can disable NIC in BIOS, or, in case of wifi card,
physically remove it, as stated by others.

Anyway, I'd just leave NIC enabled in bios, then not configure it in
OS, since sooner or later you will need internet - basically to
install any software (as both ports and packages require internet,
unless you are moving files via floppy/usb drive, which will get
painfull quickly)

Have fun!

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mwharvey · 2022-01-17 03:54

While you can get a working system from the dvd image (or usb) it will
likely be 'barebone', enough for the OS to be complete. The other
software you would want to install would come from the ports system
which if I remember correctly is all pulled from the net.

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rykolepl · 2022-01-17 10:43

Correct, /usr/ports contains only information on from where to
download and how to install software.

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grahamperrin · 2022-01-17 12:18

> an ancient machine

Avoid i386 ancient.

[[FreeBSD-Announce] FreeBSD/i386 demoted to Tier 2 for FreeBSD
13.x](https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-
announce/2021-January/002006.html)