Question for slackers who now use freebsd..

[11000]

I'm currently downloading the ISO for FreeBSD 4.2. My question is: How much is going to be the same as Slackware and how much am I going to have to relearn?

And if I'm going to be relearning a lot, is there a good place to find info(for bsd newbies)? Especially for people coming from a Linux background.

Thanks. Oh, and I won't be installing till tomorrow because the stupid download is taking forever! :eek:

[donxc2]

don't know about slack but I'm finding it more sensible than drakes. Try http://www.freebsd.org Then read install notes and then download the handbook (under Documentation ). It will answer many of your questions. http://bsdvault.net has also got some good help files and plenty of links.

Arrgh, one little typo = 4 edits.

[ 04 April 2001: Message edited by: donxc2 ]

[ 04 April 2001: Message edited by: donxc2 ]

[ 04 April 2001: Message edited by: donxc2 ]

[ 04 April 2001: Message edited by: donxc2 ]

[xulfralos]

And if I'm going to be relearning a lot, is there a good place to find info(for bsd newbies)? Especially for people coming from a Linux background.

Try here:
http://bsdvault.net

Lots of goodies: links, help files, forums, chat room...

If you've used and like Slackware, YOU'LL LOVE BSD!

[ 04 April 2001: Message edited by: xulfralos ]

[jemfinch]

Really, the only things I think slackware and FreeBSD have in common are that both use a BSD init and both focus on using /usr/local.

Other than that, slackware is still linux, still uses GNU for all the standard programs (freebsd uses the BSD versions) and still has all the problems that linux has (generally less reliable/less secure programs.)

Jeremy

[iDxMan]

I just switched as well, mostly to learn something new. FreeBSD is quite different, but its not too bad. I was able to poke around and figure most things out without too much trouble. As mentioned, the handbook at freebsd.org is fairly helpful for most basic questions. There are a few other sites .. Lemme see if I have some bookmarks.
www.freebsddiary.org (http://www.freebsddiary.org) www.daemonnews.org (http://www.daemonnews.org)

Hm. Can't find my others right now..

Slack is still my firewall, but that's probably soon to change when I find the time..

-r

[11000]

Thanks everyone for the responses. I finally finished the download and will probably install tonight. I'm not looking to switch from Slackware, because.. Well, I love Slackware! :) But since one of the reasons I got into linux in the first place was to learn UNIX I figured next logical step would be to try out a *BSD.

Originally posted by jemfinch:
Really, the only things I think slackware and FreeBSD have in common are that both use a BSD init and both focus on using /usr/local.


Yeah, that's kinda what I thought, I just wasn't sure how similar. Like if I'm getting my sound card to work, do I just open /etc/rc.d/rc.modules and uncomment the right line. OR are internet services still started in inetd.conf and such things. I realize that package management and such will be different.

[skweegie]

hiyas,

i used this as a reference:

http://home.earthlink.net/~bhami/rosetta.html

and then if i needed real help, i went here:
http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/

hope this helps 24...

cheers

[11000]

Originally posted by skweegie:
hiyas,

i used this as a reference:

http://home.earthlink.net/~bhami/rosetta.html

and then if i needed real help, i went here:
http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/

hope this helps 24...

cheers

Hey skweegie! Long time no see!

Awesome linkage, the "Sysadmin's Universal Translator" is going to help a lot! :)

I didn't know you used freeBSD. What do you think of it compared to Slack?

[GuruWannabe]

I've had FreeBSD since November. It's true that there's a lot to relearn, but the things that are different are generally better. There's one big a file /etc/rc.conf where you can enable/disable sendmail, moused, natd (forwarding), etc. Making a custom kernel is a snap: edit a configuration file, and make buildkernel installkernel. Ports totally rule! (make install clean; you're done!)

There are some gotchas: No xwmconfig, you have to edit your .xinitrc file by hand. bash and vim aren't in the default install. Neither are Gnome or KDE. You can, however, install them from the CD in the "Post-install configuration" section. The default shell for root is the C shell.

I found _The Complete FreeBSD_ and _The FreeBSD Handbook_ indispensable (sp?) while I was learning the ropes.

I think you'll really like FreeBSD.

[RTFM]

Originally posted by 11000:
I'm currently downloading the ISO for FreeBSD 4.2. My question is: How much is going to be the same as Slackware and how much am I going to have to relearn?


And if I'm going to be relearning a lot, is there a good place to find info(for bsd newbies)? Especially for people coming from a Linux background.


Thanks. Oh, and I won't be installing till tomorrow because the stupid download is taking forever! :eek:


bsdvault is pretty darn good.

You wont have to learn a whole lot, really. Enlightenment still works, and a lot of things are similar.

[skweegie]

Originally posted by 11000:
<STRONG>Hey skweegie! Long time no see!

Awesome linkage, the "Sysadmin's Universal Translator" is going to help a lot! :)

I didn't know you used freeBSD. What do you think of it compared to Slack?</STRONG>

apologies for the pathetically late reply...

the transition from slack to FreeBSD is beyond seamless. installation and any "visual" scripts is the normal ncurses based ones we are used to with slack. the file layout/structure is as logical (but not the same) as slack and from an administrative standpoint, the procedures you used to administrate slack (ie. editing text files and the rare token visual script) carries directly over to FreeBSD. once you compile your own kernel, your system pretty much rips. basically, if i wasn't devoted to slack, FreeBSD would definitely be my choice for my main box...

the only bugaboos i had was that i am admittedly weak (ok, pathetic) with c shell. so what i did was to give root bash by doing a:

: chsh -s /usr/local/bin/bash

and leaving my normal users to remain with c shell so i can learn how to navigate with it. also, i'm trying to learn the innards of sysctl but for the time being, i've had to resort to sudo to allocate more userfriendly permissions to devices. other than that, i had no other problem. (remember that i am a loser geek BTW, so i was prolly ahead of the game somewhat when it came to making the transition) :)

lemme know if ya need any more help...

cheers

[btberch]

Hey 11000,

Maybe I missed it somewhere, but have you got fbsd installed and if so how do you like it? Slack is my first choice in linux, but I think fbsd is where I will stay.

btberch

[11000]

Well, I started the install last week, and it kept giving me an error message about not being able to load the kernel. It's looking for it on the floppy drive, so I need to get a floppy disk with the kernel on it, I guess. Don't know if you always have to do that, or if it's because I was trying to load it on a laptop. Anyways, I just havn't had time to mess with it, if it would've installed without a hitch, I'd already have it going, but I didn't have time to troubleshoot. Next week, I might have a chance to work with it again.

[pointreyes]

Originally posted by 11000:
<STRONG>Well, I started the install last week, and it kept giving me an error message about not being able to load the kernel. It's looking for it on the floppy drive, so I need to get a floppy disk with the kernel on it, I guess. Don't know if you always have to do that, or if it's because I was trying to load it on a laptop. Anyways, I just havn't had time to mess with it, if it would've installed without a hitch, I'd already have it going, but I didn't have time to troubleshoot. Next week, I might have a chance to work with it again.</STRONG>

You didn't create a bootable CD for install FreeBSD? I like FreeBSD a little better than Slack. I especially like using Enlightenment with Gnome in BSD over the way it worked in Slack. Mouse support is better in BSD. Installing XFree 4 was much harder and I'm glad I have imaging software to try to install XFree because I had to recover the image more than once to finally get XFree working.

I think on April 15, FreeBSD 4.3 is coming out but unsure if they are switching to XFree 4.0.2 like Slack 7.2 did.

One really big dislike toward FreeBSD was the partitioning. I had to install the OS on a primary partition. It would not allow me to install it on any of my extended partitions. I install Linux only on extended partitions. Plus I even got QNX installed on an extended partition. But FreeBSD will not even see the extended partition area with partitions within the area for installation. FreeBSD just wanted to wipe out the complete extended partition area for installation - sorry not will to lose that much.

[ 12 April 2001: Message edited by: pointreyes ]

[11000]

Originally posted by pointreyes:
<STRONG>You didn't create a bootable CD for install FreeBSD? </STRONG>

Yeah, I did create a bootable CD. It booted off the cd fine, and then when it get's to the part where it says "loading kernel in 10 seconds" or something like that, it acts like it's trying to access the floppy drive, and then tells me it can't find a kernel to load.

[pointreyes]

I noticed on the readme.txt on the ftp site for the rc3 of 4.3 that the iso will install on most Windows software for burners.

When 4.3 comes out I will have to give it a try. Note: It takes me 40 hours to download and I have to be present at the computer at all times so it will be a loooonnngg time before I can burn the image.

Did you download from the ftp site or the linuxiso.org site? I heard somewhere else on this site that the linuxiso.org iso of FreeBSD did not work (I think the same problem you had was mentioned).

[freebsd]

&gt;&gt; Note: It takes me 40 hours to download and I have to...

Why must you download the ISO image? Just download everything individually including X except packages would be around 230mb. If you plan to cvsup to 4.3-STABLE later on, you can save yourself another 63mb during initial download.

[Piix4]

What about if you press tab @ the boot in 10 seconds prompt and then issue a boot command? Might be worth a try?

[11000]

Originally posted by pointreyes:
<STRONG>
Did you download from the ftp site or the linuxiso.org site? I heard somewhere else on this site that the linuxiso.org iso of FreeBSD did not work (I think the same problem you had was mentioned).</STRONG>

I downloaded it from the FreeBSD ftp site.

[11000]

Originally posted by piix4:
<STRONG>What about if you press tab @ the boot in 10 seconds prompt and then issue a boot command? Might be worth a try?</STRONG>

Yeah, I tried a couple boot commands and all end with the same problem of it not finding the kernel.