1. Open up VirtualBox

2. Click once to select the Virtual Machine you want to run , then click 'Start' to get the party started

3. If all goes well you should see a Screen like this .. just click enter or just let it continue on it's own

4. After some text (FreeBSD detecting hardware) you should get the System Installer... it's 1st screen will be the Country Selection .. in my case choose 'United States' – push Enter

5. Then with your arrow keys go down and select 'Standard – Begin a standard installation (recommended)' – push Enter

6. You'll get some information on how to partition your hard drive .. if you are not sure what you are doing you are best suited to go with the defaults (they work really good actually!!!) - Push Enter to continue

7. You will get a black screen as shown... don't worry about the details – this is just a VirtualMachine – nothing you can do in here can harm your Windows installation in any way – just push 'a' to 'Use Entire Disk'

8. Using your arrow keys select the main FreeBSD partition ..

9. Push 'S' to 'Set Bootable' this will make your partition bootable – notice the little 'A' flag that appeared!

10. Press 'Q' for 'Finish'

11. Next you will get the Boot Manager installation .. go with the 'Standard – Install a standard MBR (non-interactive boot manager) – Push Enter to select it

12. Next you will get an info message about creating BSD partitions inside the main partition you just created earlier – again don't worry too much about the details here go with the defauls – Push Enter to continue

13. You will get another black screen... just push 'A' for 'Auto Defaults' you should get something that looks like this ..

14. Push 'Q' for 'Finish' to continue to the next screen

15. You will get a 'Choose Distributions' screen – we don't really want to install much now, we can install software later so for now we'll go with a minimal installation – using your arrow keys go down to the 'Minimal – The smallest configuration possible'

16. Push the Space bar to actually select it – a 'X' will appear within the brackets ..

17. Push TAB to move to the 'OK' button – then push Enter to continue

18. Next you will be asked what Installation Media to use – just push Enter to select CD/DVD which is the default

19. You'll get a warning before continuing the installation – this is normal, it means that FreeBSD will wipe the Virtual Machine hard drive we created – no problem, go ahead and push 'Enter' it cannot mess with your Windows installation

20. The installation begins ... should look like this – should take about 5 minutes to install

21. You'll get this when the installation is complete.. Push Enter to continue

22. Time for networking!! Push Enter to say 'Yes' and configure your Ethernet (network device)

23. For most purposes we don't need IPv6 (the next version of the IP protocol, almost everyone is using Ipv4) so select 'No' here

24. If you have a Router in your local area network (LAN) like me, you will most likely want to choose 'Yes' in the 'DHCP configuration' .. DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol.. it basically means that FreeBSD will use DHCP to automatically configure the network device (yes this is good) – again push Enter to continue

25. You'll get a screen like this .. FreeBSD is scanning for a DHCP server (that means it's looking for your router!)

26. You'll get the Network Configuration screen .. most values here should be autopopulated by the DHCP lookup... however you may still want to add a Host name .. in my case I have a free DNS server pointing at my computer so I would put weirdbricks.dyndns-blog.com here and also the same thing under domain – in this screen use TAB to navigate across the fields – when you are done changing things use TAB again to go down to the OK button and push Enter to continue .. if you don't have a DNS configuration or even don't know what it is, just go with the defaults and just select OK to continue! No worries you can change all that later too if you need to! My setup looks like this with the DNS entries included.. -- More details on the DNS part to come in a later tutorial including how to get your own for free!!

27. In the next screen 'Do you want this machine to function as a network gateway?' Select 'No' and push Enter..

28. Next .. 'Do you want to configure inetd and the network services that it provides?' select 'Yes' – we need this for networking services (SSH..E-mail .. etc.) push Enter to continue

29. You'll get a screen asking if you want to enable simple networking services.. select 'Yes' here and push Enter to continue..

30. In the next screen select 'No' – we can configure the details of othe services later

31. Next .. 'Would you like to enable SSH login?' say 'No' for now ..Enter to continue

32. Next.. 'Do you want to have anonymous FTP access to this machine?' select 'No' ..Enter to continue

33. Next. 'Do you want to configure this machine as an NFS server?' Select 'No' .. Enter to continue

34. Next. 'Do you want to configure this machine as an NFS client?' Select 'No' .. Enter to continue

35. Next. 'Do you want to customize your system console settings?' Select 'No' .. Enter to continue

36. Next. 'Would you like to set this machine's time zone now?' Select 'Yes' .. Enter to continue

37. Next 'Is this machine's CMOS clock set to UTC? ' Select 'No – Enter to continue

38. Time Zone Selector – Select 'America – North and South' – Enter to continue

39. You'll get a screen with 'Countries in America' .. this should be easy :p Using the arrow keys scroll down until you find #47 – 'United States' – Enter to continue

40. Select the Time Zone for your area using the arrow keys .. in my case '21 Pacific Time' – Push Enter

41. 'Does the abbreviation 'PDT' look reasonable?' Select 'Yes' and just push Enter to continue

42. 'Does this system have a PS/2, serial, or bus mouse?' Irregardless if you do or do not, just choose 'No' here, we'll configure the mouse later

43. You'll get a screen about browsing thr FreeBSD package collection. In FreeBSD packages are basically applications – software. We don't want to install anything now, we'll do it later according to our needs at the moment. - Select 'No' and push Enter

44. Then, you'll be asked if you want to add any additional account to the system – again this is something best saved for later.. - Select 'No' and push Enter

45. You'll get an info message that you need to set the system manager's password – just push Enter to continue – but do note : this will be the password for your 'root' user. The root user if the equivalent of the Administrator account in Windows – it has full power and permissions .. which is good for our purposes now – Push Enter to continue

46. You'll be asked to insert your new password – be warned: this is case sensitive ! 'Weird' is not the same as 'wEiRd' - push Enter to continue

47. You'll be asked to retype it..this is to verify it is correct – push Enter to continue

48. We're almost done – You'll get a message if you want to 'Visit the general configuration menu for a chance to set any last options?' - Select 'No' and push 'Enter'

49. You'll be returned back to the main menu. Using the 'TAB' key navigate to 'Exit Install' and push 'Enter'

50. You need to confirm you want to exit the installation. Select 'Yes' and push Enter – this will reboot the system

51. You'll get an info message 'Be sure to remove the media from the drive' this might sound dumb, but it's actually very important! The way we have our Virtual Machine set up now, every time we start it, it'll try to boot the CD image of FreeBSD 8.1. Effectively ignoring the installation in the Hard Drive!

52. Before pushing Enter do the following:

1.Click the right Ctrl key to unlock the cursor from the Virtual Machine

2.Click On 'Devices'

3.Click on 'CD/DVD Devices'

4.Click on 'Unmoumt CDDVD Device'

53. Click back again anywhere on the Virtual Machine screen to make the machine grab input and push Enter to continue rebooting

54. If all went well the machine will reboot and after about a minute or less you will be presented with a login prompt! Success! FreeBSD 8.1 has been installed correctly! Just login using your username 'root' and the password you entered twice above – Press Enter to login

55. If you succesfully logged in you should get this... !

Success! We are now ready to start configuring our FreeBSD system!!!!!!!!! Follow up on my next tutorial on installing additional packages, configuring the mousy mouse and how to configure a graphical user environment!