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Date:      Wed, 7 Mar 2001 22:38:31 -0500 (EST)
From:      Jim Durham <durham@w2xo.pgh.pa.us>
To:        "ebonytears@uk2.net" <ebonytears@uk2.net>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: FreeBSD
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.21.0103072223460.13239-100000@shazam.int>
In-Reply-To: <3AA6EA7F.A82AA330@uk2.net>

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On Wed, 7 Mar 2001, ebonytears@uk2.net wrote:

> I want to run a FreeBSD box, I'm 16, so money looks grim.  I want to run
> Gnome on it (I've run gnome under linux, and I loved it).

Gnome runs fine on FreeBSD, but it's a resource hog.

  Exactly how
> extensive is linux app support under freebsd?

Netscape, Staroffice, any Linux binary I've tried runs just fine.
The system actually changes it's personality on seeing a Linux binary
and uses Linux libraries. Works pretty slick...

  And also, I want it to
> run pretty fast, would you say that a celeron 667 or 700 would do the
> job nicely?

Probably overkill for most stuff, but gnome would run better with that
kind of horsepower.

  And also, about how much memory?  32 or 64 to start off?

32 will work ,but will certainly swap a lot with Gnome.

> Also, with the source code, does that include the bootloader source and
> all?
Yes, look at /usr/src.

> Oh yeah, one last question..  how easy is it to upgrade one version to
> the next?  and how would I go about this process in the future?

You can do it several ways. One favorite way of mine is to download the
kernel.flp and mfsroot.flp for the new version, boot from the floppies,
and choose "Upgrade" on the installation menu.

The better way to do this is to use cvsup. You get a supfile ( the
"config" file for cvsup) for the version you want to upgrade to, run
cvsup and get the new sources. Then you can build the whole system
with "make buildworld" and build a new kernel with "make buildkernel",
and then go to single user mode, and do a "make installworld" to install
the new binaries, and a "make installkernel" to install the new kernel.

There is also a program called "mergemaster" that allows you to migrate
to to the new versions of config files that have changed with the upgrade
by showing you the differences between new and old and allowing you to
decide how to handle this. This is very beneficial if you have a lot
of customization built into your config files and don't want to lose it
with the upgrade.

The process of cvsup'ing is mostly a lot of work for your c compiler
and not for you.

-Jim Durham




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