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Date:      Sat, 12 Aug 2000 15:13:33 +1000
From:      "Doug Young" <dougy@gargoyle.apana.org.au>
To:        "leegold" <goldtech@worldpost.com>
Cc:        <freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: classic newbie inquiry
Message-ID:  <077d01c0041c$62e6eb70$847e03cb@ROADRUNNER>
References:  <000901c003f5$d92cda00$46e07ad1@beefstew>

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Ahhhhhhhhhh yes ..... the dreaded getty & apache strike again !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Both those really need a better (as in "more explicit") explanation than
whats
presently available, & are high on the list of stuff for the next version of
Pedantic FreeBSD. The "man ppp" isn't anywhere near as bad as the apache
stuff generally though, thanks to Brian Somers ... he has been extremely
helpful whenever I've
had problems comprehending any user-ppp issues. Basically what I've been
doing
for the dialin setup is creating the ppplogin file, then setting ppplogin as
the login
shell for dialin users, basically as the "Method 1" in man ppp explains. I
HATE that poxridden "vi" monstrosity though, so to make life easier when I
run "vipw" to edit
the master password file, I first set the default editor to "ee" by using
"setenv
EDITOR ee". That doesn't "stick", so it needs to be re-set every time you
use
"vipw".

Avoid the /sysinstall version of mgetty at all costs ... its TOTALLY broken
!!!
As far as I can tell the only possible way to getmgetty working is by
compiling from source, and thats another challenge given that the info
provided isn't as helpful as it could be ..... my advice for what its worth
is to stick with the man ppp / getty / method .

Now for apache ...... it probably wins the prize for the most poorly
documented application ever. There is virtually no attempt at explanation
anywhere for basic apache setup .... the apache homepage isutterly useless,
likewise the various man ages.  Thankfully I've always got it running in
basic form (ie without php etc) straight from sysinstall. The main problem
I've struck is with inability to find the pages I've put in the proper
location (at least "proper" according to pppd.conf). I now know that was
because of some symbolic links which I inadvertently broke whilst copying
pages into the default location. I haven't messed around with this stuff for
a while, but I recall reading about many others having similar problems as I
did with "page not found" type errors, and invariably the cause was the
broken links. As I recall, the guts of the issue is that the pages aren't
where they are supposed to be according to pppd.conf ..... they are
somewhere weird with (hopefully) a link between where pppd.conf thinks they
are & where they REALLY are !!! If you don't know exactly what you are on
about when you start replacing the dummy page with your own content you
could easily end up with the same problem, so be VERY careful here :) Other
than that its fairly straightforward until you get into linking apache with
a database ... the apparent favourite method (PHP) is another contender for
the worst documentation on the planet .... I'm getting infinitely better
results with solutions like CGI  /  C++  /  Java ...  at least there's a
bunch of decent docs for those.


----- Original Message -----
From: "leegold" <goldtech@worldpost.com>
To: <freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG>
Sent: Saturday, August 12, 2000 10:39 AM
Subject: classic newbie inquiry


> could anyone direct me to very basic how-to's on stting up FreeBSD to
> answer the phone and being an internet server. I have never done this I
> admit - and want to learn how. Maybe just put a few html pages on it to
> start.
>
> Where do i start?, what links would explain on basic level?
>
> thanks
>
>
>
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