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Date:      Tue, 2 Jun 1998 19:58:54 +0200 (CEST)
From:      Alain Brauner <bsdinfo@freegate.gna.org>
To:        Andrzej Bialecki <abial@nask.pl>
Cc:        freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Tips and tricks
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.3.96.980602192719.5515A-100000@freegate.gna.org>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.NEB.3.95.980602160812.5525D-100000@korin.warman.org.pl>

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On Tue, 2 Jun 1998, Andrzej Bialecki wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I've put together a page discussing common tips and tricks useful in
> running or building a small FreeBSD system. It's just the beginning, and
> if you have something which you think should be there, please let me know.
> 
> 	http://www.freebsd.org/~abial/small-tips.html
> 

Hi, 

I used to build custom boot floppies since the dark ages ( Venix 8086 ), 
here are small tips i use to increase to number of things that can 
be put on one single floppy.

For this i use some features only present in FreeBSD 3.0:

	For all these stuff i asumme that the floppy is made using
	the same techniques found in boot.flp or PicoBSD.

	- I use the New SLICE code with DEVFS:
	It permit to auto populate the /dev directory,
	so i will not use a lot of inodes for this purprose,
	this can be converted to space by reducing the inode per
	cylinder group when i use newfs.
	Warning: At least an empty /dev/ must exist, if not init 
	will hang.
	It is also usefull to know exactly what's on the PC.

	- I use 1800 KB instead of 1440 kb for MFS in kernel root fs:
	So i can put more things in the MFS,
	i cannot use all the space, but the space remaining will
	be considered like free space on the root fs.
	Usefull for temporary files.
	My kzip kernel load at an address below 4 MB but it work,
	FreeBSD isn't magic ? 	

	- I use a single big script.sh containing a lot of simple functions,
	 it is being sourced, so i do not need a lot of files.
	It deos not consume lot's of inodes etc ...

	- I sometime use rawboot instead of the regular newfs for
	the floppy.
	It save me some space, but i cannot put a beautifull boot message
	:-)

Misclaneous tips:

	- I use set -E for /bin/sh ( ash ) to make it more Unix friendly.

I also use this function in the .profile for /bin/sh giving a smart prompt.
	
cd()
{
        command cd $1
	CWD=`pwd` ; export CWD
	PS1="$USER@$HOSTNAME $CWD > "
	export PS1
}

I also use moused, and the French LOCALE ( but i like the luxe ! )

Here is an example of what kind of programs i put on a floppy

usage: net6 <prog> <args> ..., where <prog> is one of:
 init sh -sh chroot mount mount_ufs vidcontrol moused fdwrite date -date test [
 chat reboot halt ln kill sleep tee rm sysctl hostname vnconfig syslogd pwd
 stty hexdump od hd fsck sync swapon umount ls dir dd cp mkdir md df mv cat
 more ee edit mount_msdos msdos mount_cd9660 cd9660 mount_ext2fs ext2fs
 mount_std procfs mount_procfs devfs mount_devfs mt tar gzip gunzip ping pppd
 ifconfig route arp telnet Telnet ftp fetch pftp gate-ftp mount_nfs nfs ftpd
 telnetd inetd login getty portmap nfsd mountd net6
	
Notice the use of syslogd, it's extremly small and usefull for debugging
since we cannot run all the tools for this ( netstat etc ... )
I simply cannot live without :)

In syslogd.conf i put:

*.*				/dev/ttyv3

It's amasing how a little floppy can transform a WIN95 PC into a powerfull
NFS server...

( ... and a telnet, ftp, ppp server, and the with all the client stuff ... )

The NeXT STEP is to put a samba server on it...

That's all folk's !

Hope this will help.

FreeBSD: No limits !

a+

--
FreeBSD:<Live free or die>, -> http://www.freebsd.org/	
Alain Brauner: alain@freegate.gna.org
93200 St DENIS France




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