Re: FreeBSD

["C.Lamb" <nospam [at] sheffield.ac.uk>]

Paul,
> 
> What an adventure ! FreeBSD is not an easy ride if you go into it with a 
> Linux mindset. It took a while to discover, for instance, that unless you 
> install a "legacy" partitioning scheme it just won't boot. A DOS-compliant 
> partition scheme is essential.

In which way? I've partitioned machines for Linux (Turbo and SuSE) and 
FreeBSD and I see the differences in the schemes used, but
DOS compliant? Admittedly I don't let anything else on my 2 BSD 
machines <banner unfurls reading "One Machine, One OS"> and Win98,
OpenBSD and Turbo Linux all sit happily independant of each other
(apart from the STP between:)). At work I do have a dual NTFS/BSD boot
system and that is partitioned a la Linux - 6 partitions NTFS1, NTFS2
and one each for /, /usr, /var, /tmp and swap (no steenking limit on 
swap size either ;)).

Give in to Chuckie, Paul- use the 'dangerously dedicated' option on 
install :)

> 
> After many hours of installing/re-installing/re-re-installing I now have a 
> working system with X, KDE etc. Curiously, it refused to use the onboard 
> DEC Tulip ethernet chip, but worked quite happily with one on a PCI card 
> (Znyx PCI Etheraction).

FreeBSD does have reduced h/w support in comparison to Linux. Insofar 
as preparation before install, the h/w compat. lists are v. useful. I 
haven't been bitten yet but then I stick to fairly basic h/w - NE2000 
network cards are the norm for me and you would probably shudder at 
the video cards I use (S3 ViRGE DX, G100, Cirrus Logic <mumble> and 
some low end ATI Rage card), only my Win98 box has a performance 3d 
card in it - and we know the only reason for the existence of Win98 - 
yep - HalfLife, Homeworld, Outcast etc. etc.

> 
> However......the distribution format is very annoying. Instead of actually 
> loading the sources for ported software, a "dummy" is installed. Only when 
> actually trying to make does the system hunt for the actual source, first 
> on the dist CD then via ftp. Great if youy have a permenant connection, not 
> great otherwise.

<religious war>
But it is great! Just as emacs is the work of the devil and
vi is the one true way.
Cathedral and bazaar grasshopper, cathedral and bazaar. I find the 
(percieved to be minor) inconvenience of firing up a connect to grab 
a bit of source from ftp2.uk.freebsd.org to be outweighed by the 
utility of a single repository where dependancies are noted and all 
is guaranteed to work. No need for worries about if your version of 
make, gcc or foo-lib-2.6 can handle the latest bar.
</religious war>

Or, if you have the CD use the packages system - '/stand/sysinstall
configPackages' is your friend ;). Quick and dirty but if you have 
exactly 9 seconds to install javac 'cos some cretin on the other end 
of the line demands support _now_ and doesn't care that it is 9:05pm 
then Packages are a godsend. Just don't use your 3.2 CD in your 3.1 
system otherwise it will think it has done an upgrade and will call 
your pristine 3.1 box a 3.2 :(.

> 
> I'm going to try to get the CDs copied - any volunteers :) so I can pass 
> the master set back to Richard for someone else to tinker with.
> 
> Paul.
> 
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