Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 15:02:14 -0400 From: Marcia Barrett Nice <mimerki@myrealbox.com> To: "Jeff Frederick" <jfrederick@novell.com>, <freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Understanding FreeBSD Message-ID: <0205201502140H.00345@Rozinante> In-Reply-To: <sce8d0ce.069@prv-mail20.provo.novell.com> References: <sce8d0ce.069@prv-mail20.provo.novell.com>
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On Monday 20 May 2002 11:32 am, Jeff Frederick wrote Understanding FreeBSD: | I'm new to this FreeBSD thing, but I'm tired of Microsoft. I REALLy | want to find an alternative. I'm getting ready to put up FBSD on my | home desktop and have a few questions. I've been reading up on this | stuff, FreeBSD Unleashed, the FreeBSD handbook (I actually bought the | printed version!), as well as Annelise Anderson's book. I've also | printed out the FAQ as well as a number of other Web based info. I've | downloaded the 4 CD ISO's and burned them to disk. So, now the | questions. Congrats and good luck!! | | 1. It seems like FBSD 4.5 supports USB out of the box, that I don't | have to recompile the kernal or anything. Is this correct? | I believe USB is supported out of the box. This does not necesarily mean that you won't need drivers for any given device though. | 2. Wacom Tablet support. I'm gathering that there is no native Wacom | Tablet driver, mostly for X. I've found that there is an OpenBSD driver | and this it should work for X and FBSD. Is anyone out there using that | driver?? Comments? No clue. Searching freebsd.org gave me no results for 'wacom tablet' or 'wacom'. You might try asking this on -questions. | | 3. CVSup. I want to install the 4.5 release version on my desktop and | then update to all the latest release patches and updates. I also then | want to update all the ports and packages that come on the CD's. Is the | a key or tag that just updates ALL the code I've installed on my disk?? | It seems that the "catagories" are specific to groups of ports. As far | as the kernal or core OS, can I just use the RELENG_4_5_0_RELEASE tag?? I am going to try to answer the question I think you're asking. You can use CVSup to update the source code on your system. In order to update the ports collection you would want to CVSup the ports collection. This will make it possible for you to install the latest and greatest, but will not update the programs you already have installed. To do that you will want to install portupgrade (which is conveniently available in the ports collection) and run it _after_ CVSup-ing the ports collection. Regarding the FBSD source itself, if you use the tag RELENG_4_5_0_RELEASE you will get precisely the code on your 4.5 CDs. As that wouldn't help much, you are more likely to want RELENG_4_5 (contains security patches etc. for 4.5 release) or RELENG_4 (-STABLE). | | 4. Soundblaster Live support. In section 14.2.1 of the Handbook, it | says that the SB Live is not supported under FBSD 4.0 without a patch. | I am readning that as meaning that it IS support in the core OS with | versions later that 4.0. Does this mean that 4.5 (and 4.6 support it | out of the box? | I believe you are correct but have have no evidence with which to support this conclusion. | | 5. Release 4.5 vs. 4.6 and X3 vs. X4. I guess 4.6 is going to be out | soon. Will it actually install X4? If so, would it be recommended to | wait the couple of weeks to get that vs. installing 4.5?? | WARNING: The following is advice and based entirely on my opinion and experience. Your milage may vary. As you've already got the 4.5 CDs and you seem to understand the idea of CVSup, I'd say install 4.5 and see what you think. You can always update later. (personally, I have one of the 4.3 CDs put out by WindRiver that I use for most of my initial installations and then update from there) It appears that XFree86 4.2 will be the default installation with 4.6 (I guess I should look into upgrading that, huh). I haven't tried running Xfree84 4.x since 4.0.x, so I can't advise there. This information might make it worth your while to wait on FBSD 4.6. On the other hand, you might want to keep in mind that your first installation is usually poorly done, install 4.5 now and see what you think on the assumption that you will either have to re-install or upgrade anyway. http://www.freebsd.org/releases/4.6R/qa.html for the change in XFree86 version. Good luck. I hope this helps. Marci -- So why, pray, sign anything as long as every word, letter, penstroke, paperspace is a perfect signature of its own? - James Joyce, Finnegans Wake To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
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