Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 16:47:01 -0400 From: Charles Swiger <cswiger@mac.com> To: Joe Rhett <jrhett@isite.net> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Items missing from the handbook and/or FAQs. Message-ID: <5EFD80D4-9567-11D8-90F9-003065ABFD92@mac.com> In-Reply-To: <20040423193700.GA5329@isite.net> References: <20040423193700.GA5329@isite.net>
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On Apr 23, 2004, at 3:37 PM, Joe Rhett wrote:
> Sorry, it's been quite a while since I've played with FreeBSD and some
> things are taking a while to get used to. The configuration system has
> come a long way... but the documentation seems to be lacking a bit.
I'll make a try at answering the issues you raise, but the best way of
handling missing documentation is to submit PR's which update the
manpages or the Handbook with something better.
> 1. How to disable ppp ?
>
> The handbook has lots of information on how to configure it.
> Apparently I
> chose to enable it during install (I don't remember this) and I'm
> trying to
> get rid of the ppp0 and sl0 interfaces. The answer was to copy related
> parameters from /etc/defaults/rc.conf to /etc/rc.conf and change them.
You mean, setting network_interfaces? I have these interfaces disabled
in the kernel config file, myself:
#pseudo-device sl 1 # Kernel SLIP
#pseudo-device ppp 1 # Kernel PPP
...but it's not as if they do harm if they were compiled in.
> 2. How to configure a wireless card?
>
> If you're coming from any other unixy OS, you're going to be looking
> for
> iwconfig and relatives. Just a note somewhere that all wireless
> configuration is handled through ifconfig would have saved me some
> time.
1-tanya% which iwconfig
iwconfig not found
2-tanya% uname -a
Darwin tanya 7.3.0 Darwin Kernel Version 7.3.0: Fri Mar 5 14:22:55 PST
2004; root:xnu/xnu-517.3.15.obj~4/RELEASE_PPC Power Macintosh powerpc
1-pong# which iwconfig
iwconfig not found
2-pong# uname -a
SunOS pong 5.8 Generic_117000-03 sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-4 Solaris
...and I could repeat this with a few other Unix systems and not find a
"iwconfig" on them, either. ifconfig ought to be used for configuring
network interfaces, IMO.
> Also a note to create /etc/start_if.{ifname} to put the wireless
> options in
> would also have saved me reading through the rc scripts. I asusme
> that's a
> general case for all interfaces, but it could bear repeating in the
> wireless
> documentation. (when there is some...)
I believe the PPP section of the handbook has a discussion of start_if.
> 3. Choosing filesystem types
>
> During setup you can create filesystems other than FreeBSD, but you are
> supposed to magickally know their filesystem type numbers. The setup
> documenation and the fdisk tools only tell you the filesystem numbers
> for
> freebsd, linux and dos. An option to get a list would be nice.
Agreed.
> 4. Why is xdm still listed as the way to set up X?
>
> Okay, I'm certain that a bunch of people will respond to tell me that
> gnome
> and kde are evil and should be destroyed, but the vast majority of
> people
> are expecting modern graphical interfaces.
If so, why would they want to use X?
Fifteen years ago, Sun with NeWS and NeXT/Adobe with Display PostScript
solved problems that still plague X-- things like transparency, or a
unified imaging model that works with printing too, or font support
that doesn't suck.
Aqua under MacOS X uses PDF rather than DPS, but it retains most of the
advantages of DPS.
> 1. How to put DHCP on the wireless card?
>
> I still haven't figured this out. I run dhclient on the interface by
> hand
> after every reboot and it works fine, but I'm assuming there is some
> standard method of telling the system that wi0 should be a
> dhcp-managed, right?
Add a line like:
ifconfig_wi0="DHCP"
...I believe.
> 2. What is interface faith0 ?
>
> It took a ridiculous amount of searching to determine that faith0 was
> an
> ipv4 -> ipv6 interface.
"man faith" or "apropos faith" gives useful information without having
to search.
> And I can find nothing about how to disable it.
> (and if you say compile a new kernel and make world, excuse me while I
> puke)
FreeBSD configures the OS to have IPv6 support by default.
If you don't want IPv6 support, yes, you will need to recompile world.
I won't say that IPv6 support is completely transparent at this time,
but it usually doesn't get in the way...
--
-Chuck
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