From owner-freebsd-doc Wed May 22 09:22:51 1996 Return-Path: owner-doc Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id JAA07690 for doc-outgoing; Wed, 22 May 1996 09:22:51 -0700 (PDT) Received: from host.igs.net (root@host.igs.net [206.248.16.2]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with ESMTP id JAA07684 for ; Wed, 22 May 1996 09:22:47 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ttyB12.ott.igs.net (ttyB12.ott.igs.net [206.248.17.118]) by host.igs.net (8.7.4/8.6.12) with SMTP id MAA05481; Wed, 22 May 1996 12:22:35 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <199605221622.MAA05481@host.igs.net> Date: Wed, 22 May 96 12:22:36 -0700 From: "Chris K. Skinner" Organization: Bytown Marine Limited, Nepean/Kanata, Ontario, Canada X-Mailer: Mozilla 1.2N (Windows; I; 16bit) MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,list.freebsd-questions To: doc@freebsd.org, support@cdrom.com Subject: FreeBSD 2.1 Documentation and Installation of "Everything" to 2.1 Gig drive. Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: owner-doc@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Dear documenting dudes for freebsd, Hi. Nice job so far. Warning: I'm only a Dos/Windows C-programmin' dude with minimal UNIX going on in my head. The learning curve for me is big because of the following: 1. There are configuration files all over the place, each one with a different name or "file extension" and so on. 2. The existing sysinstall facility just gets you started and leaves a bunch of configuration items incomplete: samba, DNS/named configuration, NFS client/server software, routed, apache, and other of the distribution packages. Re-configuration seems not to take into consideration existing settings and overwrites some hand-crafted settings with the old, non-functional defaults. 3. X-windows: wow--it's quite a bit different than Win3.1x or Win95! For items 1, 2, 3, I bought the BSD Docs Walnut Creek CD-Rom, but it did not have direct answers to questions like: 1. What is the name of each config file and its location? 2. Does one edit each config file or is there a config utility program to manipulate the file? 3. For 2 or more example installation complexity levels, what are the key elements to understand about the each type of config file on the system? Give at least a beginner, and an intermediate example. 4. What are the differences between X-windows and MS-windows? Like how do ya start the darned thing? (I had to get an e-mail reply to tell me that you do a startx command to get going!) Exclude the obvious user interface operational differences and concentrate on the setup of the environment and the configuration of a couple of X- applications such as Netscape 2.02 for BSD. Test your example setup steps. What steps can be made to bridge any deficiencies that X-windows might not have over MS-windows like file type associations, OLE2, TTFonts, DDE, NetDDE, filesharing, icon files in a program manager or file manager user interface shell program--I dunno, I'm no expert--other stuff? 5. What are the major configuration choices that have to be made? What impact will these decisions have on operation of the system at a later stage (as the disk gets full or other)? I found that I have re-installed the software 5 times now. Each time I do it, I correct for a bad answer that I gave the first several times. This might be OK if I had a Pentium Pro 200 MHz with 512 Mbytes Ram and a 12x speed CD-Rom, but I don't and the process each time takes a couple of hours to do. The first couple of times no harm was done to the configuration, but the latter few times cause a bunch of the customized configuration files and user setups to be stepped-on and overwritten with the default crap. I chose the defaults for the file partitioning/disk labeling process, but it turned out that the "Everything install" that I did ran out of /var or /tmp or / root disk file blocks and got a disk full error in the middle of unpacking distribution apps. I examined which of the items ran out, then I multiplied the default by 10 to get a bit of head room for the next install attempt. 30 Mbytes turned into 300 Mbytes. The frigging thing ought to install its 700 Mbytes into a 2.1 Gig drive that has a 440 Mbyte Dos partition already setup? The sysinstall program is amazing! But maybe it does too much all at once for configuring the system. Perhaps it should be segmented into a couple of standard components that call "plug and play"-type scripts from the application being installed so that each item can not only be copied to the disk, but configured and maybe test launched (after some context info is saved to disk if re-booting is required). Microsoft has steadily improved its installation mechanisms so that applications are easy to install. INI files and system registration database file(s) are in the Windows directory and aren't scattered all over the place. Paths to application executables are frequently not required because the application group/icon/short-cut files contain the setup context required for each application to be launched correctly. Now, re-booting/re-starting MS-windows is less required than it used to be. Settings are re-read and refresh the existing run-time session. When certain disk drive mappings change, short-cut files have the changes propagated to them. Some positive things about FreeBSD: 1. When somebody buys the CDs, they seem to get a good lot of stuff to start out with and for very nearly zero cost! 2. The mount_msdos capability seems to even be able to read Extended "On-track Disk Manager" partitions of MS-Dos file systems (I have not fully tested this but...). 3. No need to use any large disk translation schemes to beat the 1024 cylinder barrier that Dos has imposed for years. 4. If you've got the requisite supported hardware, installation proceeds fairly painlessly compared to Linux because the hardware detection probes seem to work fairly reasonably. It is on par with Win95 or very nearly. In an effort to make the learning curve less trial and error, I've purchased the "Linux Network Administrator's Guide" from O'Reilly & Assc. I was going to by the "DNS and Bind" book but it cost nearly $10 more and was less broad in its scope. I've only just got the thing and so have not read it cover to cover. I hear that there is a 5 volume set (one with CD Rom(s) and one without). The cost is US$150 so I was quoted CDN$220 by a bookstore here in Ottawa. Anybody got any comments about the set--do they go out of date too quickly to be worth the money? A question for Walnut Creek support: what's the 2nd BSD 2.1 CD-Rom for; I've looked at it but it seems to have similar stuff on it as the first one? TIA for any positive development any of y'alls can give. Regards, Chris K. Skinner.