From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jun 23 01:25:38 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8536F16A41C for ; Thu, 23 Jun 2005 01:25:38 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: from kane.otenet.gr (kane.otenet.gr [195.170.0.95]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0224343D48 for ; Thu, 23 Jun 2005 01:25:37 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: from gothmog.gr (patr530-b239.otenet.gr [212.205.244.247]) by kane.otenet.gr (8.13.4/8.13.4/Debian-1) with ESMTP id j5N1PYs5025062; Thu, 23 Jun 2005 04:25:35 +0300 Received: from gothmog.gr (gothmog [127.0.0.1]) by gothmog.gr (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id j5N1PRl3002046; Thu, 23 Jun 2005 04:25:27 +0300 (EEST) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: (from giorgos@localhost) by gothmog.gr (8.13.4/8.13.4/Submit) id j5N1PQSe002045; Thu, 23 Jun 2005 04:25:27 +0300 (EEST) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 04:25:26 +0300 From: Giorgos Keramidas To: Garrett Cooper Message-ID: <20050623012526.GB1844@gothmog.gr> References: <42BA0AAE.2000502@u.washington.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <42BA0AAE.2000502@u.washington.edu> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Custom kernel config questions for Linux user X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 01:25:38 -0000 On 2005-06-22 18:04, Garrett Cooper wrote: > Hello, > I was wondering if anyone could provide me an answer to the > following questions. Please keep in mind that by default I learned Unix > on a Linux system, so... please no flames :(. That's ok. I was also a Linux user for a long time before I switched exclusively to FreeBSD somewhere around 1999. > 1) Is there any sort of configuration interface (ncurses, X, etc), > or am I 'stuck' with 'manually configuring' a textfile? Yes. It may seem daunting or "primitive" at first, but eventually you may start enjoying the fact that you don't constantly have to fight with multilevel, deeply nested, ever changing manu hierarchies to find that particular option that you know exists somewhere, but for the life of you can't right now remember where :-) Being able to just fire up your favorite editor and search using common "search" operations for strings like "disk", or "usb" (possibly repeating the search within the rest of the file with a single keystroke), is actually very very cool, once you get the hang of it. > 2) Is there a complete list of features which can be enabled for the > kernel, other what was in the GENERIC configuration file? The GENERIC configuration file is just, well, a "generic" configuration file that is used as the kernel configuration when preparing the FreeBSD release CD-ROMs. It also serves as a common reference point for troubleshooting, which is a lot easier when there is a single "reference config" instead of a billion, custom, personalized configuration sets. Note that I'm not arguing that Linux *does*, in fact, use ``a billion, custom, personalized configuration sets''. Just that this is one of the roles GENERIC fulfills. In general, modern versions of FreeBSD include at least the following too: /usr/src/sys/conf/NOTES /usr/src/sys//conf/NOTES The first is the complete set of machine & architecture-independent options that the kernel supports. The files described by the second set are currently: % # ls -l /usr/src/sys/*/conf/NOTES % -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 2160 Nov 11 2004 /usr/src/sys/alpha/conf/NOTES % -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 15923 Jun 16 01:53 /usr/src/sys/amd64/conf/NOTES % -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 33439 Jun 23 04:18 /usr/src/sys/i386/conf/NOTES % -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1781 Feb 26 10:33 /usr/src/sys/ia64/conf/NOTES % -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 24728 May 27 02:06 /usr/src/sys/pc98/conf/NOTES % -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 3344 Jun 11 03:26 /usr/src/sys/sparc64/conf/NOTES and they contain architecture-dependent options for the specific architecture. > 3) What is needed for the FreeBSD kernel and what modules need to be > compiled in order to use IDE CD-burning. In linux previous to kernel > version 2.6.8 I know that SCSI was required, but now they are doing > proper IDE emulation. Look up the descriptions of the following options: % device scbus # SCSI bus (required for SCSI) % device cd # CD % device pass # Passthrough device (direct SCSI access) % device atapicam # emulate ATAPI devices as SCSI ditto via CAM % # needs CAM to be present (scbus & pass) This should get you started for now. This list exists specifically for asking questions about FreeBSD, what it is, how it works, etc. Please, if you need to, feel free to ask any questions. Welcome to FreeBSD :-) - Giorgos