Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 13:45:19 -0700 From: "Steve Franks" <stevefranks@ieee.org> To: "Giorgos Keramidas" <keramida@freebsd.org> Cc: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org, FreeBSD Users Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: newbie documentation (was: Re: Contributing to FreeBSD documentation (was: Re: no ath0 on new system with good card)) Message-ID: <539c60b90701211245s4941d626iefa9810403c87a96@mail.gmail.com>
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I have another section to add to my previous post: At some point in your dealings, you may introduce a typo into a critical startup file, such as rc.conf, loader.conf, fstab, or similar, and reach the following upon reboot: "...." "Press enter for /bin/sh:" To recover: 0. press enter 1. cd /etc 2. cat fstab (if you don't know the partitions & disks to mount already) 3. mount /dev/adXs1Y /usr (gives you the edit command) (find X and Y in your fstab file) 4. mount /dev/adXs1Z / (gives you write acess to /etc) (find X and Z in your fstab) 5. edit blah ( i.e. rc.conf) to fix the typo 6. init 6 This has helped keep me from reaching for the install disk more than once, and it took a long time to figure out intuitively - think it might give the newbie's a 'leg-up' Steve On 1/17/07, Steve Franks <stevefranks@ieee.org> wrote: > > > > On 1/16/07, Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@freebsd.org> wrote: > > On 2007-01-16 15:47, Steve Franks <stevefranks@ieee.org> wrote: > > > So, this is what I have so for. It was a bit late at night, so I appologise > > > if my tone is a bit silly at times...where do we go from here? Steve > > > > [snip nicely written stuff about freezes during installation and first > > post install steps] > > > > Fantastic! This looks like something that would fit quite nicely with > > the section ``Installing FreeBSD > Troubleshooting'', in the Handbook. > > > > Do you mind if I integrate this with the section? Does it look like the > > right place for you to write this stuff? Will you be able to review it > > and let me know if it looks ok? > > > Sounds good to me. > > > > You can read the current Handbook section at: > > > > http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install-trouble.html > > > Hmmm. Yes, I don't think the current page provides much actual help for newbies. Can we make sure to put links to all the appropriate man pages ( i.e. device.hints) in my text when we insert it? I've found the man online to be way more useful than I expected for people who are willing to read. We also could use some driver gurus to make my list of things to disable, and things to *not* disable both longer and correct - I admit I wrote that on my windows box, because my laptop bios disables the system (on purpose) when you put a non-compaq bsd-friendly network card in it. Go big brother. This is why I want to get the whole world to run *nix. </soapbox> > > > > Regards, > > Giorgos > > > > It occurs to me that a new option on the boot menu of the .iso installer that opens a version of this page in links or equiv might be most useful for newbies (I'm at work, so I can't check if it's <it being a help option> there already). It might be useful to point to that doc if the .iso installer is started in safemode as well. > > Steve > > > -- > Steve Franks, KE7BTE > Staff Engineer > La Palma Devices, LLC > http://www.lapalmadevices.com > (520) 312-0089 -- Steve Franks, KE7BTE Staff Engineer La Palma Devices, LLC http://www.lapalmadevices.com (520) 312-0089
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