From owner-freebsd-doc Tue May 9 20: 0:16 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Received: from freefall.freebsd.org (freefall.FreeBSD.ORG [204.216.27.21]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7E57537B6C8 for ; Tue, 9 May 2000 20:00:01 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from gnats@FreeBSD.org) Received: (from gnats@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.9.3/8.9.2) id UAA77347; Tue, 9 May 2000 20:00:00 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from gnats@FreeBSD.org) Received: from merlin.prod.itd.earthlink.net (merlin.prod.itd.earthlink.net [207.217.120.156]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5A5CD37B668 for ; Tue, 9 May 2000 19:57:45 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from eogren@rod.darktech.org) Received: from rod.darktech.org (ip80.cambridge2.ma.pub-ip.psi.net [38.32.112.80]) by merlin.prod.itd.earthlink.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id TAA23840 for ; Tue, 9 May 2000 19:57:39 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from eogren@localhost) by rod.darktech.org (8.10.1/8.10.1) id e4A2wu905901; Tue, 9 May 2000 22:58:56 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <200005100258.e4A2wu905901@rod.darktech.org> Date: Tue, 9 May 2000 22:58:56 -0400 (EDT) From: eogren@earthlink.net Reply-To: eogren@earthlink.net To: FreeBSD-gnats-submit@freebsd.org X-Send-Pr-Version: 3.2 Subject: docs/18477: [PATCH] FAQ Updates Sender: owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org >Number: 18477 >Category: docs >Synopsis: [PATCH] Several updates to the FAQ are included >Confidential: no >Severity: non-critical >Priority: low >Responsible: freebsd-doc >State: open >Quarter: >Keywords: >Date-Required: >Class: doc-bug >Submitter-Id: current-users >Arrival-Date: Tue May 09 20:00:00 PDT 2000 >Closed-Date: >Last-Modified: >Originator: Eric Ogren >Release: FreeBSD 4.0-STABLE i386 >Organization: >Environment: FreeBSD 4.0-STABLE, doc repository CVSup'd this morning. >Description: This patch includes various updates to the FAQ: * Minor grammar nits * Updated FAQ to show that snapshots are made for both -CURRENT and -STABLE * 3-STABLE snapshots are no longer being produced (as far as I can tell) * There are still a couple of places that say "4.0 will be released in...". Fix those. * 2.x releases are no longer available on ftp.FreeBSD.org * Snapshots are made daily; not every once in a while * Change some entries from "FreeBSD 2.2.x" to simply "FreeBSD" (ie, "FreeBSD 2.2.x is based on 4.4BSD-Lite -> FreeBSD is based on...) * For those who want to mirror the website, we now provide an example supfile. Tell them to use this. * Users can no longer use rsync to monitor the website [at least the webpage the FAQ points to no longer includes it as an option] * Ask potential translators to contact freebsd-doc before beginning, just in case there is already an existing trans. team * Add notices that bad144 has been nuked in FreeBSD 4.0 * Remove the "if I have > 16MB of RAM, will there be performance issues?" entry, since a) this question is incredibly and old and b) the majority of machines nowadays have > 16MB of RAM * Update a couple of places that told the user to edit /etc/sysconfig * Tell FBSD 3.1 and later users to put shell scripts in /usr/local/etc instead of editing /rc/local * Some kernel options have changed between 3.X and 4.0; make a note of this * SYSV stuff is now in GENERIC, note this. * Tell user to look in /sys/i386/conf/LINT for SMP options instead of just saying "Yes we support it." * Change the "Windows95 + FreeBSD connect to the Internet?" question, since the best way to do this is to run ppp -nat, instead of kernel ppp + natd. * Remove 8 or 10 lines of gratuitous(sp?) whitespace * Put a note at the beginning of the a.out/ELF question that FreeBSD uses ELF now; before, you had to scroll down a couple of pages before you saw this. There is still a lot of 2.x cruft in the FAQ, but this should clear up at least some of it. >How-To-Repeat: n/a >Fix: Index: book.sgml =================================================================== RCS file: /usr/local/doctree/doc/en_US.ISO_8859-1/books/faq/book.sgml,v retrieving revision 1.54 diff -u -r1.54 book.sgml --- book.sgml 2000/05/07 16:48:51 1.54 +++ book.sgml 2000/05/10 02:43:42 @@ -205,10 +205,11 @@ -CURRENT mailing list are sometimes treated with contempt. - Every now and again, a snapshot release is - also made of this -CURRENT development code, CDROM - distributions of the occasional snapshot even now being made + Every day, snapshot releases are + made based on the current state of the -CURRENT and + -STABLE branches. Nowadays, + distributions of the occasional snapshot are now being made available. The goals behind each snapshot release are: @@ -218,7 +219,8 @@ - To give people who would like to run -CURRENT but who + To give people who would like to run -CURRENT or + -STABLE but who don't have the time and/or bandwidth to follow it on a day-to-day basis an easy way of bootstrapping it onto their systems. @@ -238,10 +240,11 @@ - No claims are made that any snapshot can be considered - ``production quality'' for any purpose. For stability and - tested mettle, you will have to stick to full - releases. + No claims are made that any -CURRENT snapshot can be considered + “production quality” for any purpose. + If you want to run a stable and + fully tested system, you will have to stick to full + releases, or use the -STABLE snaphosts. Snapshot releases are directly available from @@ -249,10 +252,10 @@ for 5.0-CURRENT and releng4.FreeBSD.org for 4-STABLE snapshots. - 3-STABLE snapshots can be found at - - releng3.FreeBSD.org. - Snapshots are generated, on the average, once a day for + 3-STABLE snapshots are not being produced at the time of + this writing (May 2000). + + Snapshots are generated, on the average, once a day for all actively developed branches. @@ -310,8 +313,12 @@ beyond, the previous 2.2-STABLE branch having been retired with the release of 2.2.8. 3.4-STABLE has now replaced it, with 3.4-RELEASE being released in mid-December 1999. - 4.0-RELEASE released at mid-March 2000 and going to replace - 3.X branch at summer 2000. 5.0-CURRENT is now the "current + 4.0-RELEASE was released in March 2000. Although 4-STABLE + is the actively developed -STABLE branch, bugfixes are + still being committed to 3-STABLE. It is expected that the + 3.X branch will be officially obsoleted some time in + summer 2000. + 5.0-CURRENT is now the "current branch", with the no release date planed. @@ -335,9 +342,8 @@ Releases are made about every 4 months on average. For people needing (or wanting) a little more excitement, - there are SNAPs released more frequently, particularly during - the month or so leading up to a release. - + binary snapshots are made every day... see above. + @@ -393,12 +399,6 @@ - For the current 2.2-STABLE release, 2.2.8R, see the - 2.2.8-RELEASE - directory. - - - For the current 3.X-STABLE release, 3.4-RELEASE, see the 3.4-RELEASE @@ -406,23 +406,15 @@ The current 4.X-STABLE release, 4.0-RELEASE can be - found in the 4.0-RELEASE directory. 3.X Snapshot - releases are also made once a day along the RELENG_3 branch - (post 3.0-RELEASE) as it continues on its way towards - 3.5-RELEASE. - - - - 4.X - snapshots are made once a day as well. - + snapshots are usually made once a day. + There is a FreeBSD Documentation Project which you may - contact (or even better, join) on the doc mailing list: freebsd-doc mailing list: <freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org>. This list is for discussion of the FreeBSD documentation. For actual questions about FreeBSD, there is the questions mailing list: freebsd-questions mailing list: <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org>. A FreeBSD ``handbook'' is available, and can be found as: the FreeBSD - Handbook. Note that this is a work in progress, and - so parts may be incomplete. + Handbook. Note that this is a work in progress; + some parts may be incomplete or out-of-date. The definitive printed guide on FreeBSD is ``The Complete FreeBSD'', written by Greg Lehey and published by Walnut Creek @@ -593,9 +585,9 @@ URL="http://www.cheapbytes.com">CheapBytes, or at your favorite bookstore. The ISBN is 1-57176-227-2. - However, as FreeBSD 2.2.X is based upon Berkeley + Since FreeBSD is based upon Berkeley 4.4BSD-Lite2, most of the 4.4BSD manuals are applicable to - FreeBSD 2.2.X. O'Reilly and Associates publishes these + FreeBSD. O'Reilly and Associates publishes the following manuals: @@ -816,22 +808,17 @@ - Using CVSUP: You can retrieve the formatted files - using CVSUP from cvsup.FreeBSD.org. Add this line to - your cvsup file: - - -www release=current hostname=/home base=/usr/local/etc/cvsup -prefix=/usr/local/www/data/www.FreeBSD.org delete old use-rel-suffix + Using CVSup: + You can retrieve the formatted files + using CVSup, and connecting + to a CVSup server. + To retrieve the webpages, please look at the example + supfile, which can be found in + /usr/share/examples/cvsup/www-supfile. + - Using rsync: See the - mirroring page for information. - - - Using ftp mirror: You can download the FTP server's copy of the web site sources using your favorite ftp mirror tool. Keep in mind that you have to build these sources before @@ -851,7 +838,14 @@ Well, we can't pay, but we might arrange a free CD or T-shirt and a Contributor's Handbook entry if you submit a - translation of the documentation. + translation of the documentation. Before you begin translating + please contact the + freebsd-doc mailing list at + freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org; you may find + somebody to help with the translation effort. You may also + find out there is already + a team translating the docs into your chosen language, + who surely wouldn't turn down your help. @@ -1156,12 +1150,18 @@ Can I install on a disk with bad blocks? -FreeBSD's bad block (the bad144 -command) handling is still not 100% (to put it charitably) and -it must unfortunately be said that if you've got an IDE or ESDI drive -with lots of bad blocks, then FreeBSD is probably not for you! -That said, it does work on thousands of IDE based systems, so -you'd do well to try it first before simply giving up. +Prior to 3.0, FreeBSD included a utility known as +bad144, which automatically remapped bad +blocks. Because modern IDE drives perform this function themselves, +bad144 has been removed from the FreeBSD source +tree. If you wish to install FreeBSD 3.0 or later, we strongly suggest +you purchase a newer disk drive. If you do not wish to do this, you +must run FreeBSD 2.x. +If you are seeing bad block errors with a modern IDE drive, +chances are the drive is going to die very soon (the drive's internal +remapping functions are no longer sufficient to fix the bad blocks, +which means the disk is heavily corrupted); we suggest you by a +new hard drive. If you have a SCSI drive with bad blocks, see this answer. @@ -1193,9 +1193,9 @@ -If you're using one of these new-fangled operating systems -like Windows95 or Windows NT, did you shut it down and restart -the system in plain, honest DOS? It seems these OS's can +If you're using +Windows95 or Win98 did you run fdimage or +rawrite in pure DOS mode? These OS's can interfere with programs that write directly to hardware, which the disk creation program does; even running it inside a DOS shell in the GUI can cause this problem. @@ -1462,23 +1462,6 @@ - - I have >16MB of RAM. Will this cause any problems? - - -Apart from performance issues, no. FreeBSD 2.X comes with bounce -buffers which allow your bus mastering controller access to greater -than 16MB. (Note that this should only be required if you are using -ISA devices, although one or two broken EISA and VLB devices may -need it as well). - -Also look at the section on >64M machines if you have that much memory, -or if you're using a Compaq or other BIOS that lies about -the available memory. - - - Do I need to install the complete sources? @@ -1505,9 +1488,7 @@ To actually select a subset of the sources, use the Custom menu item when you are in the Distributions menu of the -system installation tool. The src/install.sh script -will also install partial pieces of the source distribution, -depending on the arguments you pass it. +system installation tool. @@ -2039,15 +2020,22 @@ -In FreeBSD 3.1 or later, the line should be: +In FreeBSD 3.X, the line should be: device mse0 at isa? port 0x23c tty irq5 + +And in FreeBSD 4.X and later, the line should read: -The bus mouse usually comes with an dedicatd interface card. -It may allow you to set the port address and the IRQ number other + + device mse0 at isa? port 0x23c irq5 + + + +Bus mice usually comes with dedicated interface cards. +These cards may allow you to set the port address and the IRQ number other than shown above. Refer to the manual of your mouse and the &man.mse.4; man page for more information. @@ -2138,7 +2126,7 @@ -In versions 2.2.2 or later, set the following variables in +In versions 2.2.2 to 3.0, set the following variables in /etc/rc.conf. @@ -2148,6 +2136,10 @@ +In 3.1 and later, assuming you have a PS/2 mouse, all you need +to is add “moused_enable="YES" to +/etc/rc.conf. + In addition, if you would like to be able to use the mouse daemon on all virtual terminals instead of just console at boot-time, add the following to /etc/rc.conf. @@ -2431,7 +2423,7 @@ -What other devices does 2.X support? +What other devices does FreeBSD support? See the Handbook for the list of other devices supported. @@ -2537,7 +2529,11 @@ Does FreeBSD support Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP)? -SMP is supported in 3.0-STABLE and later releases only. +SMP is supported in 3.0-STABLE and later releases only. SMP is +not enabled in the GENERIC kernel, so you will +have to recompile your kernel to enable SMP. Take a look at +/sys/i386/conf/LINT to figure out what options to put in +your kernel config file. @@ -2604,7 +2600,8 @@ This is fine for operating systems like DOS that use BIOS code to access the disk. However, FreeBSD's disk driver does not go through BIOS, therefore a mechanism, bad144, exists that replaces this -functionality. bad144 only works with the wd driver, +functionality. bad144 only works with the wd driver (which means it +is not supported in FreeBSD 4.0), it is NOT able to be used with SCSI. bad144 works by entering all bad sectors found into a special file. @@ -2692,10 +2689,6 @@ firmware for it, you will need to check the position of jumper W1 to B-C, the default is A-B. -The 742a EISA cards never had the ``>16MB'' problem mentioned in -the section on >16 MB machines. This is a -problem that occurs with the Vesa-Local Buslogic SCSI cards. - @@ -3588,7 +3581,8 @@ - When I run a SCO/iBCS2 application, it bombs on socksys. + When I run a SCO/iBCS2 application, it bombs on +socksys (FreeBSD 3.0 and older only). You first need to edit the /etc/sysconfig @@ -3799,9 +3793,22 @@ so that all files could be copied with a cp /usr/src/etc/rc* /etc command. -/etc/rc.local is here as always and may be used to -start up additional local services like INN -or set custom options. +And, in 3.1 and later, /etc/rc.conf has +been moved to /etc/defaults/rc.conf. Do not edit +this file! Instead, if there is any entry in +/etc/defaults/rc.conf that you want to change, +you should copy the line into /etc/rc.conf and +change it there. +For example, if you wish to start named, the DNS server included +with FreeBSD in FreeBSD 3.1 or later, all you need to do is: +&prompt.root; echo named_enable="YES" >> +/etc/rc.conf + +To start up local services in FreeBSD 3.1 or later, place shell +scripts in the /usr/local/etc.rd directory. These +shell scripts should be set executable, and end with a .sh. In FreeBSD +3.0 and earlier releases, you should edit the +/etc/rc.local file. The /etc/rc.serial is for serial port initialization (e.g. locking the port characteristics, and so on.). @@ -3809,34 +3816,6 @@ The /etc/rc.i386 is for Intel-specifics settings, such as iBCS2 emulation or the PC system console configuration. -Starting with 2.1.0R, you can also have "local" startup files in a -directory specified in /etc/sysconfig (or -/etc/rc.conf): - - - # Location of local startup files. - local_startup=/usr/local/etc/rc.local.d - - - -Each file ending in .sh will be executed in alphabetical order. - -If you want to ensure a certain execution order without changing all -the file names, you can use a scheme similar to the following with -digits prepended to each file name to insure the ordering: - - - 10news.sh - 15httpd.sh - 20ssh.sh - - - -It can be seen as ugly (or SysV :-)) but it provides a simple and -regular scheme for locally-added packages without resorting to -magical editing of /etc/rc.local. Many of the ports/packages -assume that /usr/local/etc/rc.d is a local startup directory. - @@ -3845,7 +3824,9 @@ Use the adduser command. For more complicated usage, the pw command. -To remove the user again, use the rmuser command. +To remove the user again, use the rmuser +command. Once again, pw will work as well. @@ -4540,17 +4521,16 @@ options SYSVSHM - options "SHMMAXPGS=64" # 256Kb of sharable memory + options SYSVSHM # enable shared memory options SYSVSEM # enable for semaphores options SYSVMSG # enable for messaging - -Recompile and install. +In FreeBSD 3.2 and later, these options are already part +of the GENERIC kernel, which means they should +already be compiled into your system. -NOTE: You may need to increase SHMMAXPGS to some -ridiculous number like 4096 (16M!) if you want to run -GIMP. 256Kb is plenty for X11R6 shared memory. +Recompile and install your kernel. @@ -5941,20 +5921,19 @@ box to connect to the Internet and then be able to access the Internet from the Windows95 box through the FreeBSD box. This is really just a special case of the previous question. - -There's a useful document available which explains how to set -FreeBSD up as a PPP Dialup Router - -NOTE: This requires having at least two fixed IP addresses -available, and possibly three or more, depending on how much -work you want to go through to set up the Windows box. As an -alternative, if you don't have a fixed IP, you can use one of -the private IP subnets and install proxies such as -SQUID and -the TIS firewall toolkit -on your FreeBSD box. - -See also the section on natd. + ... and the answer is yes! In FreeBSD 3.x, user-mode ppp contains a + option. If you run ppp with +the , set gateway_enable to +YES in /etc/rc.conf, and +configure your Windows machine correctly, this should work +fine. + +More detailed information about setting this up can be found in +the Pedantic PPP +Primer by Steve Sims. +If you are using kernel-mode ppp, or have an Ethernet connection +to the Internet, you will have to use natd. Please +look at the natd section of this FAQ. @@ -6380,18 +6359,6 @@ - - - - - - - - - - - - PPP @@ -8027,10 +7994,12 @@ Why use (what are) a.out and ELF executable formats? -To understand why FreeBSD uses the a.out format, you must +To understand why FreeBSD uses the ELF format, you must first know a little about the 3 currently "dominant" executable formats for UNIX: +Prior to FreeBSD 3.x, FreeBSD used the a.out format. + @@ -8483,7 +8452,9 @@ There are currently three active/semi-active branches in the FreeBSD -CVS Repository: +CVS +Repository (the RELENG_2 branch is probably only changed twice +a year, which is why there are only three active branches of development): @@ -8507,7 +8478,7 @@ -HEAD is not an actual branch tag, like the other two, it's +HEAD is not an actual branch tag, like the other two; it's simply a symbolic constant for "the current, non-branched development stream" which we simply refer to as . >Release-Note: >Audit-Trail: >Unformatted: To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message