Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 17:43:28 +0200 From: Eivind Eklund <eivind@yes.no> To: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> Cc: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>, doc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Dos and Don'ts Message-ID: <19981006174328.65315@follo.net> In-Reply-To: <19981006173417.64829@welearn.com.au>; from Sue Blake on Tue, Oct 06, 1998 at 05:34:17PM %2B1000 References: <19981006071237.02443@follo.net> <19981006155341.C27781@freebie.lemis.com> <19981006083809.00946@follo.net> <19981006173417.64829@welearn.com.au>
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On Tue, Oct 06, 1998 at 05:34:17PM +1000, Sue Blake wrote: > On Tue, Oct 06, 1998 at 08:38:09AM +0200, Eivind Eklund wrote: [On using pppd instead of /usr/sbin/ppp] > > Because it often lead to a large amount of pain (in setup), especially > > when somebody get the idea that they want to use NAT. In the cases > > where there are problems with iij-ppp, my impression is it usually get > > fixed pretty quickly (personally, I've never had a problem except when > > I've been hacking the code myself, so I can't give more than a > > second-hand impression). > > In my experience, if newbies can mislead themselves they will, and > advice without a reason causes reasons to be guessed. Why not just say > that most people prefer not to use the kernel ppp? Of course, you'll > have to tell them that there are two kinds first, otherwise it will > confuse. Does the following look better? DON'T run pppd (as opposed to /usr/sbin/ppp) unless you either (a) already have a working setup, or (b) absolutely need the 2% reduction of CPU usage it will give you. Running the kernel PPP will not buy you much, it is harder to setup, it is less maintained, it has fewer features, and it will give you much more problems if you later find out you want to put your local network online through PPP (the natd comment below) DON'T run natd with pppd unless you already have the combo working. If it is not up and working, you want to run 'ppp -alias', _even if you already have a working pppd_. There is no excuse WRT CPU usage here, either. DON'T DO IT. (You'll just get a headache - and asking people about how to run natd with pppd is NOT appreciated.) > Or easier, just forget it. ppp is covered in the Handbook and lots > of places. ... and I still get about 5 questions a day about using natd with pppd, which seems to indicate it is not covered well enough. > > > > DON'T send questions to anything but questions@freebsd.org, except: > > The two styles of addresses, questions@ and freebsd-questions@ seem > like they go to two different places. I prefer to always stick to the > full name for consistency. It makes (un)subscribing work a lot better > too. Changed (though I'm slightly sceptical - most references elsewhere are without the freebsd- prefix, which means it may become even more confusing if we use it just here). > > > > * Multimedia questions (TV-cards, sound cards, qcam, and > > > > similar) can go to multimedia@freebsd.org. > > > > * Questions directly related to the FreeBSD code (ie, not > > > > functionality) can be sent to hackers@freebsd.org > > > > * Questions about ISDN can be sent to isdn@freebsd.org > > > > > > Questions from newbies can go to -newbies if they meet Aunty Sue's > > > criteria. > > > > Then Aunty Sue had better come up with a suitable description ;-) > > Sheesh, you would pick a time when most of a day's mail is stuck in the > spool to start taking my auntyhood in vain :-) Studded got it right the > first time. What has Studded got to do with this? > Freebsd-newbies does not cover anything that is already > covered by another list. It does have a charter, plus two supporting > web pages in case that's not enough. OK, no reference to freebsd-newbies. Or do you think a DO mail freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org if you're confused about everything with respect to FreeBSD. would be a good thing? > I'm surprised that list charters don't get a pointer. We have had > incidents where understanding the top of the list charters page was > critical, but few knew it was there. Added. > > > > DON'T send questions about anything (beyond the exceptions noted > > > > above) to any mailing list you are not a member of and have > > > > read for at least two days. > > > > > > This sounds funny, like you want them to be a member and not have read > > > it for two days. > > > > Is this better? > > > > DON'T send questions about anything (beyond the exceptions noted > > above) to any mailing list you have not read at least two days > > of traffic from. Yes, this implies you should be or have been > > a member. > > Again, a newcomer would be puzzled by this. It's hard to see the > reason. Perhaps it's some strict rule? Do I have to read -multimedia > for two days before I can ask about my TV card before deciding whether > to install FreeBSD? Again, they deserve an explanation or a reason. > I'd suggest scrapping this one and replacing it with advice to search > the archives first (with URL#) and a reason. The reference to 'with the exceptions noted above' were obviously not clear enough. How about the below? > Hey, maybe add: > DON'T try to run your mail server with 8 megs RAM and 16 megs swap :-) I rephrased this a little. Full text w/all changes to date included below. Dos and Don'ts of FreeBSD ------------------------- DON'T run pppd (as opposed to /usr/sbin/ppp) unless you either (a) already have a working setup, or (b) absolutely need the 2% reduction of CPU usage it will give you. Running the kernel PPP will not buy you much, it is harder to setup, it is less maintained, it has fewer features, and it will give you much more problems if you later find out you want to put your local network online through PPP (the natd comment below) DON'T run natd with pppd unless you already have the combo working. If it is not up and working, you want to run 'ppp -alias', _even if you already have a working pppd_. There is no excuse WRT CPU usage here, either. DON'T DO IT. (You'll just get a headache - and asking people about how to run natd with pppd is NOT appreciated.) DO use 'dangerously dedicated' mode if you're only going to have FreeBSD on the machine. There are a number of problems that can occur with DOS slices; the FreeBSD disklabel is immune to this. (Don't need to change if your system is already working, however.) DON'T run routed unless you know what dynamic routes are and why you need them. DO keep a notebook of which configuration changes you do as you first set up the machine; you _will_ find it useful. At some point, you may want to look at 'man rcsintro' for details of how you can have the machine remember it for you. DO separate out changes in /etc/<configfile>.local whereever this applies - it will make updates much easier. DON'T expect to get help on IRC, and don't attempt to demand it. #freebsd is a cesspool; the people you see there are not representative of the FreeBSD community (and I can say this with immunity, as I'm one of them :-) DON'T expect FreeBSD to work miracles - running a busy mailserver on a 386 with 8MB RAM and 16MB swap will not work. DON'T send questions to anything but freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, except: * Multimedia questions (TV-cards, sound cards, qcam, and similar) can go to freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org. * Questions directly related to the FreeBSD code (ie, not functionality) can be sent to freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org * Questions about ISDN can be sent to freebsd-isdn@freebsd.org * Questions about FreeBSD Security should go to freebsd-security@freebsd.org DON'T send mail to any other mailing FreeBSD list than the above (and freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org) before you have read the mailing list you're thinking of mailing for at least a couple of days. Which types of mail that is OK for which list varies a lot, and it take a little while to pick up the 'culture' (even if you've read the charters). DON'T send questions about network setup to net@freebsd.org. DON'T send a question before having searched the mailing list archives at http://www.freebsd.org/search.html DON'T send mail to any mailing list before you've read http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/eresources:charters.html or the same section in the handbook you downloaded (if you downloaded the handbook). DON'T send patches except through send-pr. Patches sent to mailing lists directly are likely to get lost - they pass by too quickly :-( DO send patches :-) Eivind. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message
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