Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 02:00:16 -0800 (PST) From: Annelise Anderson <andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu> To: "Alexey N. Dokuchaev" <danfe@ssc.nsu.ru> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Several questions Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.10.9911180141500.87463-100000@andrsn.stanford.edu> In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.04.9911181523330.11093-100000@inet.ssc.nsu.ru>
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On Thu, 18 Nov 1999, Alexey N. Dokuchaev wrote: > > Hello All! > > I've been using Red Hat Linux for quite a long time, but recently decided > to try FreeBSD, since (as I understood) it is much more stable, > intelligently-written and just different from Linux. > > I've install it quite easily, however, there are several places which are > still not quite clear to me. Please note that I've spent some time > searching in previously submitted questions, but wasn't able to find > *exact* answers to my questions. I hope I won't be annoying ;-) > > 1). During installation, when fdisking/labeling my (LBA-mode in BIOS with > 638/128/63 CHS) disk (approx view with linux's fdisk): > > device scyl ecyl size type comments > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > /dev/hda1 63 ... 20M 6 (>=32M DOS FAT) > /dev/hda2 ... ... 64M 6 (>=32M DOS FAT) > /dev/hda3 ... ... ~2G 165 (big FreeBSD slice) > /dev/hda4 ... 638 ... 5 (EXTENDED) > /dev/hda5 ... ... ~900M 7 (NTFS) > /dev/hda8 ... ... 64M 0x82 (linux swap in case I need it) > /dev/hda7 ... 638 64M 6 (>=32M FAT) > > _____ > First, strangely enough, fbsd's install-time fdisk didn't show my logical > drives (only extended entry). Why not? If I am able to set mount points > to my primary DOS/FAT partitions, than why I can't see my, say, /dev/hda7 > to mount it somewhere too? Or am I missing anything? How do I use > mount_msdos to mount logical disks? > > ______ > Second, when defining /, /usr, /tmp, /home, setting mount points for them, > and just before (or after -- can't remember exactly, and I don't want to > repeat installation procedure all over again) dialog box about preferred > boot manager (3 choises), I get this strange warning box: > > +--------------------[Warning!]----------------------+ > | | > | Max one `fat' allowed as child of `whole' | > | | > +----------------------------------------------------+ > > What does this suppose to mean?! I have _no_ idea whatsoever, even any > sort of lame guess. Just nothing. Any help would be greatly appreciated. > I *think* this means that you have two or more primary partitions on the drive, which is typical of a dual-boot system. I ignore this. > _____ > Third, it's about distribution itself. When I decided to download > FreeBSD 3.3-RELEASE to my Linux box, I 'wget -r -b -t 0 -nr 'ed it. > Everything was fine, except that 'packages'-linked directory/All contained > *huge* amouunt of software. When examined, it seemed to me that it is > only binaries + some config stuff, but no sources. But the path was > ../../../ports/i386/packages-3.3-release. Is this a port collection or > what? If so, why no sources, or I didn't get something again? Moreover, > there is ports/distfiles, seemed to be stuffed this another bunch of > tarballs. If _this_ is the source port colection, what the purpose of > having packages link in FreeBSD "distribution root"? Well, OK, > installator seems to be fetching binaries from packages, without compiling > them (obviously) -- like when I select GNOME/Enlightement as my preferred > window manager, but still, I can't understand how all this fits on single > Red Hat distribution CD, and occupies ~1.5 gigs in fBSD's one. Add ports > (actuall, sources one), and it won't fit even on 4-CD set. Please, > explain to me, what does this all mean? Why so many used space? Why no > symlink to ports (sources) directory from "distro root"? What is the > purpose of packages (precompiled)? Is it the same as ports? If so, why > there are 2 places (ports/distfiles and ports/i386/packages-3.3-release)? > And can I tell installator to copy all ports somewhere, not only skeleton > directory (and, am I right thinking that skeleton is that ~7Mb archive in > ports dir of "distro root"?)? If my questions seems to be obscure (or > even lame :-), just explain what you think I need to know about how all > this works. Note that English in not my native language, so I beg your > pardon for any mistakes and unclear points ;-) It is easier to forget about linux and analogies to it at this point and just assume that FreeBSD is organized differently. There are two ways to install software: ports and packages. From the installation menus you can install the ports framework--the skeleton-- but not specific ports. This framework, /usr/ports with its sub- directories, can later be used to fetch sources, extract them, patch them, configure them, build them, and install them, all with the command "make install." It handles dependencies and will also get anything else the port needs to work. Instead of "make install", you can do make fetch, make extract, make patch, and then alter the configuration to suit your own preferences, and proceed; sometimes you can edit the Makefile (the FreeBSD Makefile in the port's directory) to include or exclude certain features. You can then proceed with make configure, make build, and make install. Packages are binaries plus documentation and configuration files that have actually been built from ports; no source code. They can be installed from sysinstall, either when doing the original install or later. The pkg_add command extracts the tar ball and puts everything in the right place. For both ports and packages, installation is recorded in /var/db/pkg. When you use wget to get everything, you're getting, for packages, all the pre-compiled binaries for 2,500+ software programs--sometimes multiple versions of the same thing, or a dozen different editors, a slew of window managers, a lot of the same stuff in multiple foreign languages, and so forth. There is definitely a great deal of stuff here you don't want. > > ______ > Fourth. At some point during installion, installator told me that > es told me that it > can't fetch file 'local/local.inf'. Well, there is no such file, indeed. > Neither on ftp1.ru.FreeBSD.org, nor on ftp.freebsd.org. What is this > about? > > _____ > Fifth. It's about mouse. Why only on ttyv0? How to turn off stupid > "graphical" cursor? Can I cut and paste, like in Linux? This is explained in the FAQ. It's not difficult to set it up for all virtual terminals. > > _____ > Sixth. How to make standard "blinking _" cursor (messing with rc.confs > didn't help)? man vidcontrol > > > OK. That's it for now. Any help will be really appreciated. Thanks in > advance. But, please, reply direcly to me, and cc to mailinglist if you > wish, just in case something goes wrong. > > Yours, > > ./danfe > Annelise To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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