FreeBSD and installing ports

[11thistle]

Two days ago I loaded up FreeBSD 4.4 off the CD's and after a few hours I got it to boot!
I have a basic working knowledge of Linux and have set up a home server using Mandrake, so I am not entirely new to *nix stuff.

I am trying to install various ports and I get the same problem each time:

Example:

Try to install the "xworld" package

I load the relevant CD and mount the CD drive.

I go to /usr/ports/astro/xworld and type "make"

The system responds:

The file xworld-2.0.tar.gz doesn't seem to exist in /usr/ports/distfiles

The system then tries to FTP the file from the www.

The files on the CD are all in ".tgz" format so even if I manually copy "xworld-2.0.tgz" to the /usr/ports/distfiles directory I get nowhere.

What am I doing wrong here?

Any help would be very welcome.

Thanks

Rob

[freebsd]

>> so I am not entirely new to *nix stuff

Linux/Mandrake doesn't count toward your UNIX experience.

>> I go to /usr/ports/astro/xworld and type "make"

The ports system is for installing program by building/compiling. You would run make install to install it.

>> if I manually copy "xworld-2.0.tgz"

Anything.tgz in BSD is precompiled binary. Run pkg_add to install it.

[slayer17]

Last time I checked Mandrake was a *nix. Therefore it would count as *nix knowledge.

[Gnu/Vince]

Originally posted by slayer17:
<STRONG>Last time I checked Mandrake was a *nix. Therefore it would count as *nix knowledge.</STRONG>

I agree. But what I think freebsd (the user) meant is that since Mandrake has so many GUI configuration apps, it hides you the core of UNIX. On the other hand, with FreeBSD, besides /stand/sysinstall, you don't have much.

[11thistle]

Thanks for the somewhat cryptic replies. I am trying to work according to the FreeBSD Handbook which I downloaded less than a week ago. Section 4.5.1.1 details the procedure to install ports from a CDROM which is what I trying to do.

Following the instructions to cd to the directory in which the port should live and then typing "make" I get the message

"xworld-2.0.tar.gz doesn't seem to exist in usr/ports/distfiles"

The system then attempts to FTP from numerous sites.

During the installation of the FReeBSD CDs I selected a number of ports which I would like added and this appeared to work, in that I can find the "skeleton" files under /usr/ports/xyz.

According to the manual, the system should attempt to read from the CD after the "make" command rather than try to FTP.

By the way, if I try a pkg_add command I get a response indicating that the package is already installed.

A "make install" command also results in an FTP attempt.

Where do I go from here?

Thanks

Rob

[freebsd]

&gt;&gt; FReeBSD CDs I selected a number of ports

There is ports.tar.gz in CD, note, just the ports tree, no source for each ports. The ones you selected are so-called packages (precompiled binary). Any software in the ports tree is just some Makefile + instructions + scripts to help you compile a software from source (tar.gz extension). Those that end with .tgz are precompiled binary. Get it?