Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2012 10:40:41 -0700 From: Eitan Adler <lists@eitanadler.com> To: Fred Morcos <fred.morcos@gmail.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, Walter Hurry <walterhurry@gmail.com> Subject: Re: New to FreeBSD - Some questions Message-ID: <CAF6rxg=ZACcNR641SHmE6P6jjCphNMzoK7XYGCmGS8pEfYAe3g@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <CAH3a3KUWc_a_8Ts8m2VHEYx5TNoGKGv_zCgMxhRkPbC9wvziaQ@mail.gmail.com> References: <CAH3a3KWEik7nViy2VDBka-a7X9Ew-NrFrW5hPQMT1d2UgGLpzA@mail.gmail.com> <jrt7n5$3js$2@dough.gmane.org> <alpine.BSF.2.00.1206202155100.2866@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> <CAH3a3KUWc_a_8Ts8m2VHEYx5TNoGKGv_zCgMxhRkPbC9wvziaQ@mail.gmail.com>
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On 21 June 2012 04:24, Fred Morcos <fred.morcos@gmail.com> wrote: > > =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 Int= roduction and background > q) Is it possible to run a FreeBSD system without much building? In > other words, can I survive by depending on packages and only resorting > to ports when really needed? To an extent. It is currently possible to use only packages, but they tend to be out of date and upgrading is non-easy without a third party tool (such as portmaster or portupgrade). There is currently active work to fix these issues in a project called pkgng. This will likely become the default in the next couple of months. > q) Where does the FreeBSD project stand on this matter? From what I > noticed is that the base system seems to adhere to the tranditional > flat text files for configuration and simple tools that do a good job, > leaving it up to the user to combine those small tools to create > larger, more complex ones (a UNIX inheritance). FreeBSD tends to be conservative. The project won't implement a complex daemon without clear benefits and specific discussion on the pros and cons. > q) Is a FreeBSD stable base system with "current" high-level > components possible? Will it avoid the issues I experienced on > Linux-based systems? Generally, yes. There will likely be some adjustment period as you learn how FreeBSD works, but most people have few problems. > q) I would assume UFS with J+SU is "fast enough" for a laptop? Yes. Most people call it "SU+J" ;). Don't use it for an SSD though > q) Does ZFS make sense on a laptop? Any advantages of using it over > USF with J+SU? I am not interested in any striping or mirroring on > the laptops, but the compression features is very attractive for the > HDDs in the first laptop. ZFS is ram hog. How much ram does your laptop have? > q) The second laptop has an SSD, would UFS with/without J and > with/without SU or ZFS make more sense for it? Make sure to enable TRIM support if your SSD supports it. > q) Can I live with a desktop environment (Gnome or KDE) and desktop > applications (Firefox, Libreoffice, etc) by relying only on packages? Sort of. With pkgng this will become a lot easier. If you are currently willing to deal with out of date packages until pkgng becomes default (or want to work with non-default technology now) it will be possible. > q) Does the NVIDIA binary driver work reliably? I would like to hear > personal experiences with that. Yes. This has never been the cause of any problem for me > q) Does the bsdinstall align partitions to device blocks by default > for optimal speed? If not, I have found that I can use gpart with -a > and -b which will require me to calculate the start and end offsets of > each partition manually. Is there a tool that can automatically do > that for me? You said you had an SSD: it doesn't matter. > q) Adding tmpmfs=3D"YES" to /etc/rc.conf is analogous to a tmpfs /tmp on > Linux-based systems, correct? Yes. > Any other directories that might make > sense to have as an mfs (ie, in /var)? Don't use tmpfs for anything in /var > q) Is there a place where all sysctl variables are documented? It > occurred to me when I was trying to find the memory usage on my system > but `sysctl -a | grep mem' shows a whole bunch of stuff. You can try sysctl -ad but most of the systls are either documented in man pages or not at all. :( > q) How can I set proxy settings system-wide? Same for PACKAGESITE (for > the pkg_* tools), how can I set a mirror system-wide? /etc/profile? Same as any other unix system. It depends on what shell you use. > q) I noticed all file/data-sizes are in bytes (ls, dd, etc), is there > a way to change that system-wide to be in human-readable format? usually adding -h (for "human") helps. Also try setting BLOCKSIZE. each program might have some more explanation in the man page. > > =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2= =A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0System > > To assess my understanding, the system is split into kernel, base, > documentation, games, lib32 (on 64-bit systems) and ports. This distinction is rarely used. The only place that cares for these differences is the installer. > There is > another split between base and ports where base includes everything > previously mentioned minus ports. This is the one that matters >Now, there are 3 "branches" of the > base system: RELEASE, STABLE and CURRENT. RELEASE means 9.0 and stays > that way until 10.0 is released. STABLE means 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, > etc. CURRENT means "trunk" in SVN terms. Is all that correct? This is incorrect. RELEASE are all releases: There is 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, etc. STABLE is a misnomer: it is a *development* branch but the ABI / KPI is kept stable. CURRENT is "HEAD" and where new commits go before being "MFCed" or Merged From Current to -stable. Releases are branched from -STABLE. -STABLE is branched from -HEAD. > Also, > when somewhere is mentioned `make world', this means to rebuild all > installed ports which doesn't include base, I assume? "make world" is always wrong. "make buildworld" is closer. In source land "world" is everything but the kernel. Ports are not related. > q) The files in /etc/rc.d are all executable, from my understanding, > those files will get executed and it is their duty to check the > variable `<rc-script-name>_enable' for whether they should start or > not. Wouldn't it be more efficient to chmod -x or +x them to > disable/enable? For a variety of reasons, no. They do more than just check *_enable in complex cases. > q) Is there a tool that can test a set of mirrors for connection time > and speed (for packages and ports)? Analogous to Archlinux's > rankmirrors? looks in ports-mgmt/ there is fastestmirrors or something like that. I ran it once and forgot about it ;) > q) Is it possible for the pkg_* tools (especially pkg_add -r) to > display progress? no. > q) I noticed in the ports collection that there were some outdated > packages (skype-2.2, gimp-2.6), should I report that and where? (A > PR?) skype is out of date cause the newer ones don't work. Generally, reporting out of date ports as PRs with patches (or to ports@freebsd.org without patches might help) is a good thing. Larger ports tend to be actively maintained. For gimp try asking gnome@freebsd.org for progress. > q) Is it possible to have the ports system compile into an mfs (to > avoid disk access)? Yes. Set WRKDIRPREFIX in /etc/make.conf to a mfs disk > q) Is it possible to have the user asked to change their password the > first time they log in (using an OTP) in a simple way? I looked at > OPIE but it seems to be much more complex than what I need. Look at pw -e ? Hope I helped and didn't disappoint too much :) --=20 Eitan Adler
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