From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Apr 23 13:47:07 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D24F316A4CE for ; Fri, 23 Apr 2004 13:47:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: from smtpout.mac.com (A17-250-248-44.apple.com [17.250.248.44]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9F40743D41 for ; Fri, 23 Apr 2004 13:47:07 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from cswiger@mac.com) Received: from mac.com (smtpin07-en2 [10.13.10.152]) by smtpout.mac.com (8.12.6/MantshX 2.0) with ESMTP id i3NKl7Cb018386; Fri, 23 Apr 2004 13:47:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [10.1.1.193] (nfw2.codefab.com [199.103.21.225] (may be forged)) (authenticated bits=0)i3NKl63Z023095; Fri, 23 Apr 2004 13:47:06 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <20040423193700.GA5329@isite.net> References: <20040423193700.GA5329@isite.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v613) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Message-Id: <5EFD80D4-9567-11D8-90F9-003065ABFD92@mac.com> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Charles Swiger Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 16:47:01 -0400 To: Joe Rhett X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.613) cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Items missing from the handbook and/or FAQs. X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 20:47:08 -0000 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