FreeBSD 9.2-RELEASE README

The +FreeBSD Project

FreeBSD is a registered trademark of the FreeBSD Foundation.

Intel, Celeron, EtherExpress, i386, i486, Itanium, Pentium, and +Xeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation +or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.

Motif, OSF/1, and UNIX are registered trademarks and IT DialTone +and The Open Group are trademarks of The Open Group in the United +States and other countries.

SPARC, SPARC64, SPARCengine, and UltraSPARC are trademarks of +SPARC International, Inc in the United States and other countries. +SPARC International, Inc owns all of the SPARC trademarks and under +licensing agreements allows the proper use of these trademarks by +its members.

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to +distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those +designations appear in this document, and the FreeBSD Project was +aware of the trademark claim, the designations have been followed +by the “™” or +the “®” +symbol.

Last modified on 2013-09-26 by gjb.

Table of Contents

1. +Introduction
2. Obtaining +FreeBSD
3. Contacting the +FreeBSD Project
4. Further +Reading
5. +Acknowledgments

This document gives a brief introduction to FreeBSD 9.2-RELEASE. +It includes some information on how to obtain FreeBSD, a listing of +various ways to contact the FreeBSD Project, and pointers to some +other sources of information.

1. Introduction

This distribution is a snapshot of FreeBSD 9.2-RELEASE, the +latest point along the 9.2-STABLE branch.

1.1. About FreeBSD

FreeBSD is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for AMD64 +and Intel EM64T based PC hardware (amd64), Intel, AMD, Cyrix or +NexGen “x86” +based PC hardware (i386), Intel Itanium Processor based computers +(ia64), NEC PC-9801/9821 series PCs and compatibles (pc98), and +UltraSPARC® machines (sparc64). +Versions for the ARM® (arm), +MIPS® (mips), and PowerPC® (powerpc) architectures are currently +under development as well. FreeBSD works with a wide variety of +peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything from +software development to games to Internet Service Provision.

This release of FreeBSD contains everything you need to run such +a system, including full source code for the kernel and all +utilities in the base distribution. With the source distribution +installed, you can literally recompile the entire system from +scratch with one command, making it ideal for students, +researchers, or users who simply want to see how it all works.

A large collection of third-party ported software (the +“Ports +Collection”) is also provided to make it easy to +obtain and install all your favorite traditional UNIX® utilities for FreeBSD. Each “port” consists of a set +of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install a piece of +software, with a single command. Over 24,000 ports, from editors to +programming languages to graphical applications, make FreeBSD a +powerful and comprehensive operating environment that extends far +beyond what's provided by many commercial versions of UNIX®. Most ports are also available as +pre-compiled “packages”, which can be quickly installed +from the installation program.

1.2. Target Audience

This snapshot is aimed primarily at early adopters and various +other users who want to get involved with the ongoing development +of FreeBSD. While the FreeBSD development team tries its best to +ensure that each snapshot works as advertised, 9.2-STABLE is very +much a work-in-progress.

The basic requirements for using this snapshot are technical +proficiency with FreeBSD and an understanding of the ongoing +development process of FreeBSD 9.2-STABLE (as discussed on the +FreeBSD-CURRENT mailing list).

For those more interested in doing business with FreeBSD than in +experimenting with new FreeBSD technology, formal releases (such as +9.1-RELEASE) are frequently more appropriate. Releases undergo a +period of testing and quality assurance checking to ensure high +reliability and dependability.

2. Obtaining FreeBSD

FreeBSD may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section +focuses on those ways that are primarily useful for obtaining a +complete FreeBSD distribution, rather than updating an existing +installation.

2.1. CDROM and DVD

FreeBSD -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD +from several publishers. This is frequently the most convenient way +to obtain FreeBSD for new installations, as it provides a +convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if necessary. Some +distributions include some of the optional, precompiled +“packages” +from the FreeBSD Ports Collection, or other extra material.

A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the project are +listed in the “Obtaining +FreeBSD” appendix to the Handbook.

2.2. FTP

You can use FTP to retrieve FreeBSD and any or all of its +optional packages from ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/, +which is the official FreeBSD release site, or any of its +“mirrors”.

Lists of locations that mirror FreeBSD can be found in the +FTP Sites section of the Handbook. Finding a +close (in networking terms) mirror from which to download the +distribution is highly recommended.

Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact <freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org> +for more details on becoming an official mirror site. You can also +find useful information for mirror sites at the Mirroring FreeBSD article.

Mirrors generally contain the ISO images generally used to +create a CDROM of a FreeBSD release. They usually also contain +floppy disk images (for applicable platforms), as well as the files +necessary to do an installation over the network. Finally mirrors +sites usually contain a set of packages for the most current +release.

3. Contacting the FreeBSD +Project

3.1. Email and Mailing Lists

For any questions or general technical support issues, please +send mail to the FreeBSD general questions mailing list.

If you're tracking the 9.2-STABLE development efforts, you +must join the FreeBSD-CURRENT mailing list, in order to keep abreast +of recent developments and changes that may affect the way you use +and maintain the system.

Being a largely-volunteer effort, the FreeBSD Project is always +happy to have extra hands willing to help—there are already far +more desired enhancements than there is time to implement them. To +contact the developers on technical matters, or with offers of +help, please send mail to the FreeBSD technical discussions mailing list.

Please note that these mailing lists can experience significant amounts of traffic. If you +have slow or expensive mail access, or are only interested in +keeping up with major FreeBSD events, you may find it preferable to +subscribe instead to the FreeBSD announcements mailing list.

All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone wishing +to do so. Visit the FreeBSD +Mailman Info Page. This will give you more information on +joining the various lists, accessing archives, etc. There are a +number of mailing lists targeted at special interest groups not +mentioned here; more information can be obtained either from the +Mailman pages or the mailing lists section of the FreeBSD Web site.

Important:

Do not send email to the lists asking to be +subscribed. Use the Mailman interface instead.

3.2. Submitting Problem Reports

Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are always +valued—please do not hesitate to report any problems you may find. +Bug reports with attached fixes are of course even more +welcome.

The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine with +Internet mail connectivity is to use the +send-pr(1) command. “Problem Reports” (PRs) +submitted in this way will be filed and their progress tracked; the +FreeBSD developers will do their best to respond to all reported +bugs as soon as possible. A +list of all active PRs is available on the FreeBSD Web site; +this list is useful to see what potential problems other users have +encountered.

Note that +send-pr(1) itself is a shell +script that should be easy to move even onto a non-FreeBSD system. +Using this interface is highly preferred. If, for some reason, you +are unable to use +send-pr(1) to submit a bug +report, you can try to send it to the FreeBSD problem reports mailing list.

For more information, “Writing +FreeBSD Problem Reports”, available on the +FreeBSD Web site, has a number of helpful hints on writing and +submitting effective problem reports.

4. Further Reading

There are many sources of information about FreeBSD; some are +included with this distribution, while others are available on-line +or in print versions.

4.1. Release Documentation

A number of other files provide more specific information about +this snapshot distribution. These files are provided in various +formats. Most distributions will include both ASCII text +(.TXT) and HTML (.HTM) renditions. Some distributions may also +include other formats such as Portable Document Format +(.PDF).

+
README.TXT: This file, which gives +some general information about FreeBSD as well as some cursory +notes about obtaining a distribution.
+
+
RELNOTES.TXT: The release notes, +showing what's new and different in FreeBSD 9.2-RELEASE compared to +the previous release (FreeBSD 9.1-RELEASE).
+
+
HARDWARE.TXT: The hardware +compatibility list, showing devices with which FreeBSD has been +tested and is known to work.
+
+
ERRATA.TXT: Release errata. +Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in this file, +which is principally applicable to releases (as opposed to +snapshots). It is important to consult this file before installing +a release of FreeBSD, as it contains the latest information on +problems which have been found and fixed since the release was +created.
+

Note:

It is extremely important +to read the errata for any given release before installing it, to +learn about any “late-breaking news” or post-release problems. +The errata file accompanying each release (most likely right next +to this file) is already out of date by definition, but other +copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be consulted as +the “current +errata” for this release. These other copies of the +errata are located at http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/ (as well as any sites +which keep up-to-date mirrors of this location).

4.2. Manual Pages

As with almost all UNIX® like +operating systems, FreeBSD comes with a set of on-line manual +pages, accessed through the +man(1) command or +through the hypertext manual +pages gateway on the FreeBSD Web site. In general, the manual +pages provide information on the different commands and APIs +available to the FreeBSD user.

In some cases, manual pages are written to give information on +particular topics. Notable examples of such manual pages are + +tuning(7) (a guide to performance +tuning), +security(7) (an introduction to +FreeBSD security), and +style(9) (a style +guide to kernel coding).

4.3. Books and Articles

Two highly-useful collections of FreeBSD-related information, +maintained by the FreeBSD Project, are the FreeBSD Handbook and +FreeBSD FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions document). On-line versions +of the Handbook and FAQ are always available from the FreeBSD +Documentation page or its mirrors. If you install the +doc distribution set, you can use a +Web browser to read the Handbook and FAQ locally. In particular, +note that the Handbook contains a step-by-step guide to installing +FreeBSD.

A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by the +FreeBSD Project, cover more-specialized, FreeBSD-related topics. +This material spans a wide range of topics, from effective use of +the mailing lists, to dual-booting FreeBSD with other operating +systems, to guidelines for new committers. Like the Handbook and +FAQ, these documents are available from the FreeBSD Documentation +Page or in the doc distribution +set.

A listing of other books and documents about FreeBSD can be +found in the bibliography of the FreeBSD Handbook. Because of +FreeBSD's strong UNIX® heritage, +many other articles and books written for UNIX® systems are applicable as well, some of +which are also listed in the bibliography.

5. Acknowledgments

FreeBSD represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not +thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked +countless hours to bring about this snapshot. For a complete list +of FreeBSD developers and contributors, please see “Contributors +to FreeBSD” on the FreeBSD Web site or any of its +mirrors.

Special thanks also go to the many thousands of FreeBSD users +and testers all over the world, without whom this snapshot simply +would not have been possible.