From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jul 6 13:50:17 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 489BB16A4CE; Tue, 6 Jul 2004 13:50:17 +0000 (GMT) Received: from freedombi.com (gllug.org [207.179.98.220]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AF51843D62; Tue, 6 Jul 2004 13:50:16 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from charles@idealso.com) Received: by freedombi.com (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 6D5D572495; Tue, 6 Jul 2004 09:50:15 -0400 (EDT) Received: from freedombi.com (bugs.idealso.com [192.168.10.108]) by freedombi.com (Postfix) with SMTP id 6D5C272342; Tue, 6 Jul 2004 09:50:13 -0400 (EDT) Received: from 24.11.146.21 (SquirrelMail authenticated user charles) by freedombi.com with HTTP; Tue, 6 Jul 2004 09:50:13 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <32827.24.11.146.21.1089121813.squirrel@freedombi.com> In-Reply-To: References: <20040705213127.P95606@pooker.samsco.org> Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 09:50:13 -0400 (EDT) From: "Charles Ulrich" To: seb11@ciaoweb.it User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.4.2 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Priority: 3 Importance: Normal X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on freedombi.com X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-3.7 required=7.0 tests=BAYES_00,PRIORITY_NO_NAME autolearn=no version=2.63 cc: stable@freebsd.org cc: Scott Long Subject: Re: Call for FreeBSD status reports X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 06 Jul 2004 13:50:17 -0000 seb11@ciaoweb.it said: > At the moment I have two cd sets: FreeBSD 4.9 and 5.0. I found 5.0 quite > confortable but the main problem is my internet connection: just a 56k > modem and not a quicker system like ADSL or similar. > The problem that arises is due to the live download and build of ports > (about 7000 ports, as far as I know!). > > I ask, please, hoping for the best: > > 1. could be 5.0 a good base to start to join a quite STABLE > configuration? No, if you want to use FreeBSD for anything important, then you want a release from the STABLE branch. 5.0 is a very old CURRENT release (unstable). 4.9, on the other hand isn't all that old and is a very reliable. Use that. You can upgrade to 4.10 if you want the latest STABLE version. > 2. where I can get (order and buy) tarball ports on cd's and, in such > case, what should be the right order to get the appropriate versions, > according to the level of patching and evolution of the FreeBSD > version (non matter which, 5.0 or different ...) I'll be using? I don't know offhand where (or even if) you can get a tarball of a recent ports tree, but you basically have two options: 1) Download a copy of the latest ports tarball from a FreeBSD FTP mirror. (It's called ports.tar.gz, pretty easy to find). Today it's 24.7MB, which is not all that difficult to download with a modem as long as you have a bit of patience. 2) Use the ports tree from 4.9 and cvsup to a newer tree. This isn't as bad as it sounds, I used to update ports on my modem all the time before I had broadband. If you update at least once every two or three months this isn't a problem. You should probably do this since it will almost certainly be a lot quicker than downloading a brand-new ports tarball. Finally, I'd like to very gently point out that the freebsd-questions list is usually a better place for general questions like these. Good luck, Charles Ulrich