From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Oct 29 15:04:08 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BF9ED106567F for ; Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:04:08 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mail@ozzmosis.com) Received: from smtp.mel.people.net.au (smtp.mel.people.net.au [218.214.17.98]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 205348FC12 for ; Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:04:07 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mail@ozzmosis.com) Received: (qmail 5851 invoked from network); 29 Oct 2008 15:04:05 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO blizzard.dnsalias.org) (218.215.159.66) by smtp.mel.people.net.au with SMTP; 29 Oct 2008 15:04:05 -0000 Received: by blizzard.dnsalias.org (Postfix, from userid 1001) id C42D417075; Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:55:34 +1100 (EST) Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:55:34 +1100 From: andrew clarke To: pwn Message-ID: <20081029145534.GA78317@ozzmosis.com> References: <4908687B.7020105@gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <4908687B.7020105@gmail.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.18 (2008-05-17) Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: freebsd installation order X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:04:08 -0000 On Wed 2008-10-29 13:43:23 UTC+0000, pwn (pwnedomina@gmail.com) wrote: > immediately after the installation of FreeBSD what steps should be > performed by order > 1 - Configuring the FreeBSD Kernel > 2 - The Cutting Edge > 3 - Updating FreeBSD > > Is this the proper order? > there is some set of rules to be followed post-installation? > since, i do not find any reference mentioning the order that should be > followed immediately after installation i would like to be informed if > possible what will be the proper order to facilitate the maintenance of > the operating system and the installation of new applications without > conflicts or problems with ports. Re: Configuring the FreeBSD Kernel. Depending on your hardware and software requirements you may need to configure the supplied GENERIC kernel, or perhaps even build your own custom kernel and configure that. These days I think many people just use the GENERIC kernel and configure it from /boot/loader.conf. For a desktop machine it may just be a single entry to load a kernel module for your sound card. If you do use a GENERIC kernel this has the advantage that you can run freebsd-update whenever there are important security updates to the kernel itself, and then those updates become immediately active after a reboot. There is no need to rebuild the kernel, and very little downtime. Re: The Cutting Edge. In simple terms I would not bother with any of this unless you want to be actively involved in the development of the operating system. If you just want something that works reliably, stick with FreeBSD-RELEASE and use freebsd-update when you want to upgrade your FreeBSD version (eg. from 6.3 to 6.4). freebsd-update is brilliant and really makes updating fairly painless. Which leads me to... Re: Updating FreeBSD. Every FreeBSD sysadmin should read this. You should know how to install packages from the command-line using pkg_add (see the section called Installing Applications: Packages and Ports), and if you want to use the Ports system, learn how to use portsnap (another brilliant tool). Also, if you're using the Ports system (to build and install software from source code) I also recommend using portmaster, which isn't talked about in the Handbook, but is leaps and bounds over portupgrade (my personal opinion). > thank you. Regards Andrew