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Date:      Sat, 8 Jan 2000 22:10:28 +0700
From:      John Indra <m4v3r1ck@bigfoot.com>
To:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Newbie has a lot of questions...
Message-ID:  <20000108221028.A16294@bigfoot.com>
In-Reply-To: <200001081305.OAA23249@dorifer.heim3.tu-clausthal.de>; from olli@dorifer.heim3.tu-clausthal.de on Sat, Jan 08, 2000 at 02:05:57PM %2B0100
References:  <8579j0$bnq$1@atlantis.rz.tu-clausthal.de> <200001081305.OAA23249@dorifer.heim3.tu-clausthal.de>

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On Sat, Jan 08, 2000 at 02:05:57PM +0100, Oliver Fromme wrote:

| I'm going to try to answer a few of your questions, but not
| all.  Maybe others can pick up the remaining topics.

Thanks a lot... I think you have answer all my questions ;)

I think I'm going to like this list a lot... And when I have gain enough
knowledge and experience, I'll try to contribute to this list, answering
newbies questions like what I'm asking right now and before ;)

| Personally, I prefer "Chuck", and I don't like "Beastie"
| at all (maybe that's because there's a band called
| "Beastie Boys" whose music I don't like).  :-)

Ha3x... feeling's mutual... Don't even realize that there is a band
called "Beastie Boys" =P
OK then... Chuck's what I'll called the daemon ;)
BTW "Beastie" sounds to "demonish" anyway... =)

Talking about Chuck... Anyone know where to download Chuck images? I
want to use them as my Enlightenment wallpaper ;)

| No, there aren't, and I don't think that that concept is really
| necessary (I think that, for example, Solari's runlevel system
| is overly complicated).

Hmmm... OK... Now I got the info...

Anyway, to put it into thoughts; since the first time I used Linux,
I haven't really jumped into another runlevel beside of runlevel 3,
which I believe most Linux distros choose as the default multiuser mode
"runlevel". Well... to confess a little lie, if rebooting (runlevel 6)
and halting machine (runlevel 0) and single-user mode (runlevel 1)
must be called runlevels... then: yes, I have jumped into another
runlevel ;)

| In FreeBSD (and BSD in general), there is single-user mode and
| multi-user mode.  No need for anythig else, IMO.

OK... understood...

| Roughly.  :-)

Thanks for giving a clearer description...

| If you're interested in details, I'd suggest that you read the
| init(8) manpage.

Aah... yeah... the good old man page ;)

| That's because Linux is not UNIX.  :-)

Hmmm... so I've heard ;)

| Traditionally, csh is root's login shell.  This is true for
| every UNIX OS that I can think of, not only FreeBSD.

Yupe... true... I've tried NetBSD once, and they have csh as the default
root shell too.

| The manpage can.  :-)

Ha3x... OK... I'll read it... later maybe ;)
It's not that I have something against csh, it's just... like I've
mentioned before, I'm a novice sysadmin. And my first UNIX resemblance
OS was Linux, which by default use bash.
That's why, I have been like "comparing" csh to bash...

| It is recommended that you log in as normal user, then use the
| ``su -m'' command to get a root shell.  That shell will be your

I've always done that...

Hmm... since this issue have been brought up to conversation... Can
anyone please "open" my eyes...
Till now, I haven't understand, what's the security risk to login as
root from the console.

Let's put this to scenario:
Default FreeBSD 3.4 install, with inetd configured to run ftp, telnet,
and sendmail ONLY. finger, comsat, ntalk service turned off. Default
stock /etc/hosts.allow... This machine is not protected by any security
mechanism (no firewall, no IP filtering, no nothing, just a single box,
having static IP, connected 24 hours a day to the 'net)
Now... I login as root, directly to ttv0.
What's so insecure about that? How can a cracker compromise my FreeBSD
box?
Please... like I've said... "open" my eyes... ;)

| LKMs are old and obsolete.  The directory exists solely for
| compatibility.  The new kernel modules are called KLDs.

Now... I don't see that being mentioned on the handbook and FAQ... or am
I missing an entry again?
Thanks for clarifying...

So... what harm will strike me if I rm -rf /lkm?

| That's because the vmlinuz kernel is compressed.  FreeBSD's

Aaah... stupid me... As soon as I read this sentence, I remembered that
make bzImage was in my step in compiling a Linux kernel ;)

| kernel is not compressed by default.  There is (or was) support
| for compressing it, but it has disadvantages (e.g. kernel
| symbols don't work anymore, so you can't debug it, and certain
| tools don't work anymore), and there aren't really any
| advantages.

Hmmm... OK...
But just a newbie thought... Why don't FreeBSD compress /kernel anyway,
and have the bootstrap "uncompress" it when it try to load /kernel...
Then it will be the same as not compressing /kernel right?

| In general, you can omit everything from your kernel config
| that you don't need (I don't think you need ``options LKM'').
| If you've done that, you really shouldn't worry about the
| resulting kernel size.  1.2 Mbyte is perfectly OK.  Mine is
| 1.8 Mbyte, and that's after removing everything I don't need.

OK... Nice to know that my kernel is not too big ;)
So... if I omit an options line... I will be missing an option or will
it fall to the defaulted configuration?
Take this as an example:

options ATAPI_STATIC

If I omit this entry from my kernel config file, what will my /kernel be?
With ATAPI support compiled to /kernel (NOT as KLDs) automatically?
Or... it will be build as KLDs anyway?
Now... how or from where do I take a look at this "default" values?

| system code, the FPU emulators, the Linux emulator, etc.  See
| the contents of /modules for all KLDs that are available.

Now... how do I make the /modules/*.ko?
Or I don't even have to bother to make them as FreeBSD developers have
kindly supplied those KLDs for me? ;)
He3x... I'm sounding like I'm comparing FreeBSD to much to Linux ain't
I? ;) 
Cause from what I understand, in Linux, you got to build your own
modules...
Sorry... cause FreeBSD is still brand new to me and I have to adapt...

| If you have a complete source tree of the system installed
| under /usr/src, you can use a mechanism called "make world"
| to update, recompile and re-install the complete operating
| system.

Whooaaa... cool!!! I can do that in FreeBSD???
When I spotted the phrase "make world" my first impression was when I
make install as the final step in compiling kernel, that's the process
of "making world". Ha3x boy... am I damn wrong ;) But I was over
exhausted and really need a lot of sleep then ;)

| See chapter 18.4. ``Using make world to rebuild your system''
| of the FreeBSD Handbook for much more details.

Hmmm... no wonder...
Just got to chapter 7 of the Handbook ;)

| Use kldstat.

OK...
I think this info got to be inserted to the Handbook...
I was reading the handbook supplied with the 3.4-RELEASE ISO image. This
is for version 3.3. Pardon me if this information has have it slot on
the newer version of FreeBSD's Handbook...

| If your machine is already running in multi-user mode, you can
| use the ``shutdown now'' command to go to single-user mode.
| If you do that, however, all filesystems are still mounted.

Aah... so... now I realized that I have entered single user mode numerous
times ;)

| Do you use ``shutdown -p''?  That's supposed to power-off your
| machine after it has been shut down properly.  If that doesn't
| work:  Are you sure APM is enabled in your BIOS setup?

Hmmm... the Linux term has caught me again ;)
I must, starting from now, re-read all FreeBSD's manpage ;)
Cause in Linux, to achieve a power shutdown, all I need to issue was
halt...

| BTW, your English is very good, as far as I can tell (I'm not
| a native English speaker either).  :-)

Thanks... Thanks a lot Oliver... and of course others who have helped...
=)

|    Oliver

Regards,
John Indra -- ICQ UIN #26095019

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