Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 18:36:40 +0200 From: Siegbert Baude <Siegbert.Baude@gmx.de> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Best Installation Method? Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20000612172401.00a89a10@imap.rz.uni-ulm.de>
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Hi, I fiddled around with FreeBSD the last week with several attempts of new installations. Now I decided to reinstall everything from scratch and would like to hear some comments which is the best way to do. What I want is an uptodate stable system. What I have are two boot floppies, a lot of disk space, but no CD-burner and a fast internet connection ;-) The links on the FreeBSD-Homepage Newbies -> "Latest Mainstream release" goes to a 3.4-Release. Isnīt 4.0 the latest stable Release or is 4.0 still somehow experimental? If 4.0 is what Iīm looking for, should I start with the Release or a daily snapshot from ftp://releng4.freebsd.org ? If snapshot, what must I write into the options in the install-menu to install the latest snapshot per ftp? If Release, should I only do a minimal install then pkg_add cvsupit.tgz, with a "make world"? Or do a full install (X,developer, kernel sources, (maybe all sources?)) ? How then to become uptodate: CVSup ? When updating via CVSup should I then first do a "make world" and afterwards a new kernel or the other way round? Iīm thinking about the necessary shared libs. If I first update the libs will the old kernel and apps still work? If I first update the kernel, will the kernel still work if I give him new libs by "make world" ? In general, is the ports collection also in the CVSup, or must I care for the ports separate (if yes, how? Is there something like CVSup for ports?) ? If you can give me some good hint for the what to do, now some questions for the "how to": Is it better to download all files on a DOS-Partition first and install it from there? (In case something goes wrong, I donīt have to repeat the download then). The problem is my primary DOS-partition is nearly full, and the installation procedure wonīt give me access to DOS-partitions in extended partition (the sub-partitions inside normally called logical partitions). Also I didnīt manage yet to get the installation procedure use any extended (logical) partition for FreeBSD. Isnīt FreeBSD able to handle extended partitions? Is this only for the boot procedure? I read nearly all the docs, but did find nothing about this! A short overview of which tries I already passed and what happened: Install by FTP 4.0-Release: The system worked, some problems with kde (still no solution but didnīt work alot on them. What is the difference between kde and kde-i18n?) and interrupt assigning PnP-Sound card (which now works. I had to compile usb support also in the kernel to recognize the system the usb using irq 9. without it irq 9 was assigned to the soundcard, which didnīt work then). The problem which made me think I did something completely wrong and should reinstall everything were about three or four system crashes (instantaneous reboots) both from within the console and X and also both with generic kernel and custom one. (No I donīt have a SMP-System. Celeron 400, ASUS P2B, Elsa Erazor II, IBM IDE-drives. My system works absolutely stable on all may other OS: Linux-Mandrake, BeOS, Win98 (!!!) and WinNT) So next try from scratch I did only a minimal install of 4.0-Release by ftp, then pkg_add cvsupit.tgz (with everything except games) option outside USA with all encryption options. Did a custom kernel, but networking was broken then (NS lookup failures) . Tried make world only to hang within compiling sshd, stating a syntax error, where I canīt find one (but I only have small C abilities. I wanted a stable uptodate system, because I donīt want to fiddle with C-code, I nearly hate this language (prefer reading Suaheli printed on toilet paper ;-)) ). Booting with generic kernel brought me back my network but also failed doing make world with the same error. As I also had a spontaneous reboot now, I want to know how to get an uptodate system with as little as possible from the 4.0 Release but most things out of 4.0-stable. And I want to do it from scratch, therefore this posting :-) So thatīs state of today, and I really would appreciate any comments. If the crashes will reappear after I did what you suggest now, I will have a closer look on them and post here to work about it. But until now I still believe that the fault is on my side (the whole world appreciating the stability of FreeBSD, it should work for me too, I think :-) ) Ciao Siegbert P.S.: there seems to be no lynx in the normal 4.0 Release. (Message: couldnīt find package lynx) I had to install it from the ports collection. Normal? To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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