loads of pre-install questions [Archive] - Screaming Electron Forums

PPCLuke

February 13th, 2003, 05:48

I'm downloading the FreeBSD 5.0 ISOs right now and I'm wondering how hard the install is for someone that's used to using Linux? also howmuch space should I leave allocated for FreeBSD, I'm planning to get my broken 20 gig replaced with another 20gig soon, and in the end I plan to have a dual boot with Slackware, and FreeBSD, can Slack and BSD share swap the same and different Linux distros can? what would be the BSD equivilent of the linuc hard drive scheme (hda1 in linux = ??? in BSD)?

many more questions to come after the ISOs finish (gotta love dial-up)

soup4you2

February 13th, 2003, 09:33

Here..

Installing BSD - http://bsdhound.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=42

Sharing Swap - http://www.ibiblio.org/mdw/HOWTO/mini/Linux+FreeBSD.html

doesnt get much easier than that

elmore

February 13th, 2003, 11:08

Those are a couple of pretty good links. I might also suggest that you look at something like gag for your boot manager. It does a real good job. I just got turned onto it last week by krusty and minion. http://gag.sourceforge.net/

Feel free to ask away, that's what we're here for.

soup4you2

February 13th, 2003, 11:31

nice... i have a new toy to play w/ this evening now...

how easy is gag to hack.. by changing the looks of it?

elmore

February 13th, 2003, 11:51

I'm not sure, I haven't really looked at that soup. I'm sure it can't be that hard though.

PPCLuke

February 13th, 2003, 14:51

thanks, those were some helpful links, although they've kinda scared me about the install... is it text based? does it have menus?

elmore

February 13th, 2003, 15:04

Very similar to the slackware install. No worries, we got a live support channel on irc for when you install.

If you lick slack you're gonna love FreeBSD! You might be BSDLuke before it's all over.

v902

February 13th, 2003, 20:32

Yeah it's a nice ncurses based install just like Slackware, very nice.

schotty

February 13th, 2003, 21:56

thanks, those were some helpful links, although they've kinda scared me about the install... is it text based? does it have menus?

Man, trust me its an easy installer. Really intuitive. Better than Slack's.

PPCLuke

February 13th, 2003, 22:29

Well, I'm LinuxLuke, because I got the link to this site from a Linux message board I fequent, and I figured someone may recognize me... I haven't actually used Slack yet, but I plan to get that going properly once I get the Cd in the mail but my broken 20 gig is a setback... stupid Radio Shack...I only have a 4 gig right now... so that complicates a dual boot, but if all pans out, I might just be BSDLuke, I hear from many Linux advocates that once you go BSD you'll never look back on Linux, I'm no pro with Linux, but I can get around... clumsily a lot of the time, but it works... I've downloaded GAG, and it looks nice, I plan to use it (again, if all pans out with the hard drive) I should have a modem coming, so I can take my *NIX OSes online... which will be very pleasing. I'd like to run Fluxbox on Slack and FreeBSD in the end. an dif this wasn't all over the place enough... how compatible with each other are Linux and BSD, in terms of apps and such?

(excuse the lack of punctuation... or any kind of formatting...)

v902

February 13th, 2003, 22:51

schotty: I dont really think so, they are bassicly the same

The comptability layer is very high and most software has a FBSD port as well.

elmore

February 13th, 2003, 23:45

If you're looking at FBSD these days just like vlad said there's probably a port for whatever app you're looking for. If not most apps run just fine under emulation.

elmore

February 14th, 2003, 00:08

Oh yeah one more thing.

What linux board did you join us from?

v902

February 14th, 2003, 14:14

Just Linux, the biggest forum there probably is 0_0. http://www.justlinux.com/forum/member.php?s=&action=getinfo&userid=42349

Yeah there are mentions of SE in the Other UNIXes forum.

PPCLuke

February 14th, 2003, 15:39

I think I've seen a link in someone sig on JustLinux, and maybe Linux Junior too....

also I read today that the FreeBSD team is suggesting that people wait 'till 5.1 or 5.2 as 5.0 is not as stable as it could be, has anyone actually got 5.0 running and had any troubles with it?

bsdjunkie

February 14th, 2003, 15:58

I have 5.0 running at home. No issues with it that I see. I think they are warning people to use the 4.7 yet is that 5.0 is almost a complete rewrite of many parts of the system. But for a home user, i prefer to be on the cutting edge anyways and usually track -current via cvs.

elmore

February 14th, 2003, 16:25

I'm running 5.0 on my laptop and have had no issues. I've compiled kernels, made over 200 ports, got linux emu. working etc. etc. Seems pretty stable, I haven't had any issues on this laptop. I also know several other people that are running 5 and they haven't had any problems either.

The only problem I did have was with another laptop where it didn't like the cardbus in the computer. The install started loading and then core dumped. UGLY! Anyways, other than that, I just switched to another laptop, as I had several available to use. I've had no problems with the one I have now.

soup4you2

February 14th, 2003, 16:33

does nvidia have opengl drivers for 5 yet?

i gotta get my ut2k3 fix on...

and last time i downloaded them in 5 it would not let me install them..

elmore

February 14th, 2003, 16:44

Well they've entered the ports tree.

Kernel_Killer

February 14th, 2003, 20:53

DIdn't I make a HOW-TO on installing the drivers on 5.0??

PPCLuke

February 14th, 2003, 22:52

you know, with all of the info I'm getting, I think I may actually end up being BSDLuke in the end :) it sounds like a great OS, and when this last 4% finishes up, and I get some CDs... I'll get to installing it! (temporarily, until I get my 20 gig replaced)

Kernel_Killer

February 14th, 2003, 23:34

you know, with all of the info I'm getting, I think I may actually end up being BSDLuke in the end icon_smile.gif it sounds like a great OS, and when this last 4% finishes up, and I get some CDs... I'll get to installing it! (temporarily, until I get my 20 gig replaced)

Good call! :D

I think I'll have to stop killing other's kernels, since I can't kill my own in FreeBSD since it's too hard to mess up. :P

PPCLuke

February 15th, 2003, 21:19

I've only hit one major hangup now... my Radeon 7000, and when I try to load KDM I get the login screen, but if I try to log in and use KDE (from the drop down box) nothing loads...

Kernel_Killer

February 16th, 2003, 00:00

Check out my KDM how-to. It's usually not set to load KDE correctly. At least mine wasnt. :P

PPCLuke

February 16th, 2003, 00:07

Oh yeah one more thing.

What linux board did you join us from?

I remembered exactly now! I follwed the link in Schotty's sig on Linux Junior

PPCLuke

February 16th, 2003, 01:54

could anyone give me the commnds to recompile a kernel, and some options I should possibly enable to increase performance, if possible?

elmore

February 16th, 2003, 03:28

Compiling a kernel is easy breezy in FBSD. Here's what you do. First, did you install the kernel sources in the install? Provided you did then do the following. If you didn't you'll need to get those from the ftp site first.

[code:1:ff0080f8cc]

cd /usr/src/sys/i386/conf

cp GENERIC <mynewkernelname>

vi <mynewkernelname>

Make your changes

/usr/sbin/config <mynewkernelname>

cd ../../compile/<mynewkernelname>

make

make depend

make install

reboot

[/code:1:ff0080f8cc]

Now go enjoy your new kernel. Check the handbook for more info and kernel options. Here's the link: http://docs.freebsd.org/doc/5.0-RELEASE/usr/share/doc/en/books/handbook/

Kernel_Killer

February 16th, 2003, 06:23

Just printed out the handbook PDF file. OMG. I had no clue how big this thing was until I noticed I had to refill the printed 3 times! :P

soup4you2

February 16th, 2003, 15:50

i always just did

cd /usr/src/sys/i386/conf

cp GENERIC <yournewkernel>
vi <yournewkernel>
make changes
cd /usr/src
make buildkernel KERNCONF=yournewkernel
make installkernel KERNCONF=yournewkernel

reboot and enjoy..

make sure your sysctl enviroment is not in kernsecurelevel if it is you might have to do into single user to preform the installkernel

PPCLuke

February 16th, 2003, 20:49

Soup4you2... I went to BSdhound.com... man... relax with the posts! everything is the entire month of February is from you :P

PPCLuke

February 17th, 2003, 00:04

alright, no idea why this happened, but the CLI screen saver came on... and I had to jam on a bunch of keys for it to go away, then I was just stuck at the login screen, nothing worked... any ideas as to what may have happened?

elmore

February 17th, 2003, 00:46

You plugged in through a kvm switch? Sometimes on mine it gets out of sync. Also I find that I have to press the insert key when swapping kvm channels. Don't know if you're running one or not but if you are those are a couple of things that I've found out about mine.

soup4you2

February 17th, 2003, 12:52

Soup4you2... I went to BSdhound.com... man... relax with the posts! everything is the entire month of February is from you :P

most of the content is being imported from my old website.. i just started this site last month. plus all the bugfix's and stuff i'm workin on.. arg.

-the bugs will stop when you turn off the pc

PPCLuke

February 17th, 2003, 21:56

I don' t have any kind of switch or anything... whatever that switch is exactly, I have a normal PS/2 keyboard nd mouse... on another note, I NEED A HARDWARE MODEM! I was looking at the ports... and I'm impressed, I need to try some of those things out, mainly doom, since I'm on dialup, I know the linux-q3demo will run nicely on my hardware, but downloading the 50meg file without being able to resume it is a bit out of the question... and to make this post into a bigger mess, I hate ATI, they need to make drivers for Radeons less than the 8500, I had 3d support under Linux... but I can't even seem to get a decent colour depth on FreeBSD (which is a million times better than Linux) yet another sidenote, I need a new monitor... 800x600 sucks :P anyone live in ONT, Canada and have any monitors/modems for sale, cheap?

elmore

February 17th, 2003, 23:52

You're in Canada can you get a cable modem from rogers?

PPCLuke

February 18th, 2003, 00:06

can't get broadband here... sadly I'm stuck with dial-up

Monkey Man

May 3rd, 2003, 20:32

Just finally got FreeBSD v5.0 installed on my Toshiba Laptop <grin>...but when after installing both Gnome and KDE, they are telling me that they cannot start the sound engine because....

KDE - cannot find /dev/dsp
Gnome - cannot find /dev/sound

I would like to have sound on my laptop. The sound card that is in this laptop is an Ensonic ES1978...

Other than that...I'm impressed on the setup and installation of FreeBSD v5 and the latest versions of Gnome and KDE.....

L8TR
MM :P

soup4you2

May 3rd, 2003, 21:18

you gotta recompile your kernel w/ the sound device probbibly pcm

Monkey Man

May 3rd, 2003, 22:01

how would one do such a task like that....not familiar with recompiling BSD...

Thanks,
MM

elmore

May 4th, 2003, 01:29

Compiling a kernel is easy breezy in freebsd. Assuming you installed the kernel sources when you installed, one would just:

[code:1:0a11329c79]
cd /usr/src/sys/i386/conf
cp GENERIC MYKERNEL
vi MYKERNEL (make changes in your case device pcm)
config MYKERNEL
cd ../../compile/MYKERNEL
make
make depend
make install
reboot
[/code:1:0a11329c79]
Here's a great link:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/kernelconfig.html

Strog

May 4th, 2003, 01:52

Go right to the source then. http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/

If you aren't familiar with FreeBSD then is an awesome place to start. FreeBSD has some of the best docs around and your knowledge of FreeBSD would be much greater if you read the handbook a time or two throughly.

Here's what you need to get started. I'd recomend looking at cvsup and ports next.
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/sound-setup.html
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/kernelconfig.html

Monkey Man

May 4th, 2003, 14:17

Thanks to the help of Strog and elmore...I finally have a working Toshiba laptop running FreeBSD v5.0 w/sound. Thanks for the help on this issue.

L8TR
MM

elmore

May 4th, 2003, 19:52

Other than that...I'm impressed on the setup and installation of FreeBSD v5 and the latest versions of Gnome and KDE.....

Check out fluxbox it's in the ports. If you haven't figured out the ports system yet read up on it in the handbook. We have a couple great how-to's on keeping your system and the installed ports up to date as well. Makes upgrading a snap.

Enjoy