From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Oct 26 01:11:03 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 66285106564A for ; Tue, 26 Oct 2010 01:11:03 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jamesbrandongooch@gmail.com) Received: from mail-wy0-f182.google.com (mail-wy0-f182.google.com [74.125.82.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EB08C8FC14 for ; Tue, 26 Oct 2010 01:11:02 +0000 (UTC) Received: by wyb42 with SMTP id 42so3943761wyb.13 for ; Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:11:01 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:received:in-reply-to :references:date:message-id:subject:from:to:cc:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; bh=H5DLyFpWgCZr/UMql9i9eKABBVLD00YhRmu/chy7d8k=; b=RRVY9OBJmMOLtE5L5FBkhYWxoHSpsY8VImVPqVC3bJTro2nyp4caDKpxGDlybSRkv5 PyC5iocy2qpf/TQD+Iv2+2iqVPqYzW+dE25hEdnBMccchVDOZ0HWLNiMz0P+hOo/Adxt TgLpjPWgMr2oJFcZ+NU7WMmFj3GSqRVZxhXmg= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=KtqzULOvoS0zWXzwVi4kWSFRA1GQNl2KeDQrmOEkGsSPIsFqwErCbW4nKdDVVjzc9b 48OtSRXE+8xwRdiPVrx9ONDa2NLmtiiiRC4g4EMtsRkdUesfDfuP7suXs4HnmSNthbfD ZDeiaHDfRlJF7g6vEE5F3ADRIfSzunIx/mhMU= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.216.173.79 with SMTP id u57mr6930590wel.40.1288055461790; Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:11:01 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.216.55.135 with HTTP; Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:11:01 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: References: <4CC61FF7.9050605@centurytel.net> Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2010 20:11:01 -0500 Message-ID: From: Brandon Gooch To: Henry Olyer Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Cc: "Michael D. Norwick" , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD 8.1-RELEASE Installation success 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: Tue, 26 Oct 2010 01:11:03 -0000 On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 7:50 PM, Henry Olyer wrote: > The problem here is that it shouldn't take so much effort to get this > going. =A0But I know it does. =A0And I don't blame the FreeBSD team. > > I do blame the organizational infra-structure that exists. =A0ie., we sho= uld > have scripts that describe every aspect of a computer, so that such scrip= ts > can be mechanically read and a configuration built. > > We do ./configure for software we install. =A0Same thing, but for all asp= ects > of the hardware. =A0The present "configure" logic covers the OS and the > installed software, we need to do this for hardware. > > I notice that freeBSD download's and installs trails Linux. =A0That's oka= y. > FreeBSD is so much better, and in so many ways, too. > > Nothing I've seen in Linux lands comes close to the "sysinstall" command = or > the plainly superior organization of FreeBSD. =A0What I'm trying to encou= rage > is that we, as a group, work on our infra-structures, like strengthing th= e > already high level of organization we have in sysinstall. > > How about a query program that examines a machine. =A0Is this practical? > Something like the automated X-install process that makes it unnecessary = to > set the horizontal and vertical frequencies ourselves (which we used to h= ave > to do.) =A0But not for X, for the sound card, for as much as possible. > > > > > On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 8:25 PM, Michael D. Norwick > wrote: > >> Good Day; >> >> It is with some pleasure that I have finally succeeded in building an >> operative workstation with a custom kernel and world, =A0Xorg 1.7.5, >> KDE4-4.5.2 from ports, most common network applications as well as Firef= ox3, >> and Thunderbird 3.1.5. =A0The machine is an older Dell GX270 P4 2.4 GHz = PC >> with 3G of ram and an ATI Radeon video adapter. >> This install has not been without it's trials. >> 4 weeks ago I backed up all my data and reformatted from Debian 'lenny' = to >> GPT/ZFS/8.1-RELEASE. =A0The next two weeks did not go so well. =A0While = I tried >> hard to get ZFS formatted drives to work reliably, intermittent unexplai= ned >> core dumps with reboots gave me cause for concern. =A0I finally reinstal= led >> msdos boot records and formatted the drives UFS. =A0That install has las= ted 2 >> more weeks. =A0I liked ZFS v14 and would like to try it again when I get= more >> current hardware with more ram and SATA drives. >> My next challenge was building KDE4, Firefox, and Thunderbird from ports= . >> =A0KDE4 and friends (QT4) took days on this machine to build, install an= d >> setup. =A0I initially installed the ports tree using portsnap but was ha= ving >> so much trouble building the mozilla stuff from ports I moved to cvsup a= nd >> portupgrade. =A0This is also what I used to install the kernel and base = source >> tree. =A0Several iterations of make - clean and deinstall/reinstall alon= g with >> cvsup'ing ports a couple of times finally got me to a working browser an= d >> mail client. >> I have had a time getting Flash working with Firefox. =A0I have not yet = got >> the plugin working in Firefox but Opera, using linux-f10 allows my kids = view >> their on-line home school lessons. =A0Audio was somewhat of a challenge = to get >> sound from an AC97 on-board audio chipset. =A0snd_hda was the module tha= t >> eventually provided the needed audio driver for this chipset. =A0I think= I >> forgot what configuring this stuff was like during my 'hamm', 'bo', and >> 'slink', debian days. >> >> My thanks to the entire FreeBSD/KDE development team on allowing me to >> experience the fruit of their efforts. =A0I still like turning the knobs >> myself. =A0I'll keep reading the manuals. =A0:) >> >> Michael Have either of you had a look at PC-BSD? http://www.pcbsd.org/ It's getting better with each release...oh, and it's based on FreeBSD too := ) -Brandon