[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
RE: FreeBSD
I'm glad to see there are some FreeBSD hands out there - expect some
pestering over the next few weeks! Thanks to all participants in this
discussion. At least I didn't regress to total newbie style questions, even
if it did take me about 14 hours of mucking about to go from opening the
box to closing KDE & making a symlink to midc - yes, I couldn't find
Midnight Commander 'cos on BSD it ain't called mc!!
= = = = = = = = = =
FreeBSD has two partitioning schemes - the other-OS-safe and the dangerous.
"Dangerously allocated" disks are one big slice into which the logical
partitions are installed. The "safe" option produces a dos-compatible
scheme with a small partition at the top, the main FreeBSD slice then
another small partition after.
Setting the boot flag on the "dangerous" setup resulted in "read error" at
boot time, apparently because the boot loader was not installed correctly
(or at all). To get the boot loader installation dialogues I was forced to
do a "safe" scheme, after which the small primary partition was marked
active & booted ok. Because of the crappy BIOS on the server I was using, I
have a 1 gig boot/root drive and a 4 gig /usr drive, so I don't think disk
geometries are an issue - I got the same error using a 1 gig SCSI hdd
initally. I was aware of the driver issues, which is why I went for a real
server with "safe" standard hardware.
I don't have any hangups about FreeBSD - I've installed other commercial
unices like Unixware 7, they all have their "ways". Like anything new, it
takes a while to get your head round it, I'm getting there slowly. After
all, it took me a day to get the thing up & running with X & KDE,
installing & making source, so it wasn't too rough a ride. I suspect a
"modern" pc with bog-standard bits would actaully be less of a problem than
this server because of the BIOS support for large IDE boot disks.
I agree that the package system is "a good thing", it's just a bit of a
surprise to find that when you install the ports collection you don't get
the binaries, or even the source, just the makefile which will hunt down
the source on the CDs first and then go to ftp. In a real server
environment with an open pipe to the 'net, I imagine it's the dogs
danglies.
-----Original Message-----
From: C.Lamb [SMTP:C.Lamb [at] sheffield.ac.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2000 11:19 AM
To: sheflug@vuw.ac.nz
Subject: Re: FreeBSD
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.
>
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Sheffield Linux User's Group - http://www.sheflug.co.uk
To unsubscribe from this list send mail to
- <sheflug-request [at] vuw.ac.nz> - with the word
"unsubscribe" in the body of the message.
GNU the choice of a complete generation.
"WorldSecure Server <lombard.co.uk>" made the following
annotations on 02/08/00 11:51:13
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The opinions expressed within this email represent those of the
individual and not necessarily those of Lombard.
The contents of this Email may be privileged and are confidential. It may not be disclosed to or used by anyone other than the addressee(s), nor copied in any way. If received in error, please advise the sender, then delete from your system.
Should you wish to use Email as a mode of communication, Lombard are unable to guarantee the security of Email content outside of our own computer systems.
==============================================================================
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Sheffield Linux User's Group - http://www.sheflug.co.uk
To unsubscribe from this list send mail to
- <sheflug-request [at] vuw.ac.nz> - with the word
"unsubscribe" in the body of the message.
GNU the choice of a complete generation.