My shot at FreeBSD 5.2.1

Fair enough, nice write up.
I've wondered about the dhcp-thing myself. The easiest fix is sysinstall->Media->select ftp or http->follow the prompts->exit sysinstall. Actually installing over ftp or http will also set things up right, and that's what I normally do, anyway.
I can't see the openSSL-thing in /usr/ports/UPDATING. Odd, but these things do happen.

As for having a separate bsd-style ls/man/tar/etc, it's not really more work than forking whenever they don't agree with something. (And using completely unmodified gnu-tools is just not an option, IMHO.) I happen to like the BSD userland, of course, so I'm not an objective source. :D

Now, will you try upgrading world to 5.3 next? It's probably easier than a full portupgrade. :)
 
I've been trying to put FreeBSD 5.2.1 on my laptop for quite a while now (or rather, any release in the 5.x series), but it seems to have a known issue with certain Toshiba laptops - and I haven't found any fixes that work. I've got a Toshiba Satellite 1805, and when booting the 5.x kernel, it locks up the machine.

4.10-STABLE works great for me, but I really can't wait to try out 5.x
 
Hey thanks guys, and yeah I'll do a blurb about 5.3 when I update to it. I'll try doing it w/two venues, one with the sysinstall and via ports.

I was really taken by how fast my builds go on it. It's great to tinker with and I plan on making the server a BSD box.
 
Actually, there's only one good way to update to 5.3 (as opposed to reinstalling):
1) Copy, rename and tweak /usr/share/examples/cvsup/standard-supfile.example (much like the ports-supfile)
2) cvsup standard-supfile (or whatever )
3) copy /usr/src/sys/i386/conf/GENERIC, and edit it
4) in /usr/src:
(There's some quicker variations on this, but I'll do it by the book.)
4.1) setenv KERNCONF MYKERNEL (Or export KERNCONF=MYKERNEL if you use bash)
4.2) make buildworld; make buildkernel; make installkernel;
4.3) reboot to singleuser
4.4) mergemaster -p
4.5) make installworld
4.6) mergemaster
5) reboot

1) will determine what version you get. Setting *default tag=RELENG_5 should get you 5.3- RC1 right now, IIRC.

3) takes some explanation: The default kernel configuration is in GENERIC. You will typically make a copy (in the same directory) and edit it. For historical reasons, give it an all-caps name.
I'd suggest setting ident to the filename (e.g. MYKERNEL). As for the actual editing, I suggest removing the unused parts, including all SCSI-adapters, machinetype 486 and 586, all the debugging options, the smp options (unless you have hyperthreading or true SMP, of course) and eisa (but not isa). Also, make sure it uses SCHED_ULE. [1]

In 4.1) , replace MYKERNEL with whatever you called your new kernel config file.

I suggest reading man mergemaster, and disabling any exessive optimisation. Do set CPUTYPE in make.conf, but no -O2 or the like. The kernel has been known to fail with O2, O3, and Os.

As an example, my updates look like this:
* cvsup /root/standard-supfile
* cd /usr/src
* Scan through /usr/src/UPDATING and see if there's any reason to change my kernel config [2]
* setenv KERNCONF PKERN
* make buildworld; make buildkernel; make installkernel;
* reboot
* mergemaster -p
* make installworld
* mergemaster -i
* reboot
* Profit

(Yeah, I don't install world in singleuser unless UPDATING specifically states it's absolutely neccesary. )

[1] At the moment, SCHED_4BSD is default, as is preemption. I suggest removing preemption and changing the scheduler to SCHED_ULE.
[2] If I suggest there's been notable changes I always recreate from GENERIC, just in case. 5.2-> 5.3 would probably get that treatment. Also, did I mention reading /usr/src/UPDATING first? :D
 
Actually, that reminds me alot of how an upgrade of Fedora might work through Yum. The basic idea is to update your config files, update the database, and then let the pm system upgrade for you.

I think for kicks I'll try it both ways though. I'll just backup the slice and do it via sysinstall and the method you mentioned above.

That's one thing I like about Gentoo is that it's a static system. Your core gets upgraded via baselayout, but as far as the rest of the ebuilds go it's all by version deps.

You install binary via a catalyst snapshot.

W/BSD though a world upgrade is not as daunting, the scheduler is so efficient that on a really fast system packages build insanely fast from source.

I do like the ports system for its simplicity, either Make works or doesn't work.
 
What, exactly, are you going to do with sysinstall? Install 5.3 on top of 5.2.1?
AFAIK there's no (official) way to upgrade a system from binaries in sysinstall, but I do wonder what'll happen if you get creative. :D

And yeah, that base/ports-spilt is really nice. You can have any half-recent/bleeding edge FreeBSD base system, and the ports on top are the same, and you can upgrade one without touching the other. Make world/kernel upgrades the base system, portupgrade the ports. Nice and clean. :)

I personally hate package systems where deleting all packages leaves you in a state where you can't get back where you started without some manual downloads/installs. (SuSE/rpm, where deleting all packages would remove such unimportant things as rpm and gcc, was the last one I touched.)
 
Dude I hear ya, gah, after having used Gentoo/BSD it's almost unfathomable to go back to those crappy rpm's. Debian does the best job and I still don't like it.

BSD's pkg_add is better than apt anyway, but with the fast build times who cares??
 
Indeed. pkg_add -r is practical if you need some small thing immediately, of course, and I haven't bothered building openOffice for a while, but yes indeed. I won't touch an rpm until I have to, and with some luck that'll be far into the future.
(There was much rejoicing when I found out that we're free to choose our own distro when we're supposed to learn linux next semester. I've found mine, for values of "linux" that are unusually close to "BSD". :D )


Another fun thing to play with in FreeBSD is netbooting, btw. If you've got another computer with a recent network card, a bios that lets you boot from it, and you won't disturb anything by setting up a dhcp-server, it's suprisingly painless. I haven't spent enough time with it to find out how I'm supposed to add packages, but it's definitely working. Looks impressive, too, if you're geeky enough to appreciate it. :)
 
The OpenSSL thing...The version of OpenSSL installed with 5.2.1 is older than the version some ports expect. That's why ports were erroring out on OpenSSL. The correct thing to do is to update the base system (do the buildworld/buildkernel/etc. song-and-dance). Or, you can install the ports OpenSSL, but generally speaking updating the base system is my preferred approach.

About the installer...How many times do you plan on installing? The installer works fine with minimal confusion. So it's not pretty...Again, how many times do you plan on installing? I don't use GUI installers with any of the Linux distros I have to install, either. I find GUI installers annoying and a waste of time vs. a good text-based installer. I guess your main gripe was with the partitioning tool, to which I say, "it gets the job done pretty well. Deal with it." I'd rather them focus on the operating system and its performance than prettying up the installer, which is a very small part of the time you spend with the OS.
 
To be fair, the positive slant to the rest of the article makes up for the slightly negative (but honestly defendable) gripes he has with the installation.

The installer isn't flawless, though it's fine for my uses. (I usually go for a minimal, custom, ftp-installation and add everything else afterwards. Simpler that way, IMHO.)


Also, I think I know why I haven't had the openSSL-problem. My most conservative system follows RELENG_5 :D
 
Oh but I see where he comes from. I mean, this isn't a Mac we're talking about here, it's Unix. You don't go get FreeBSD to have things easy. It's just something of an annoyance for me when I see what other projects are doing. It's too bad there isn't a BSD knoppix/like install routine like Gentoo has.

Personal preference I guess, but I'm lazy, I admit it :D
 
Otherwise I found the article to be pretty accurate.

Massive portupgrades scare the hell out of me. I simply don't do them. I don't have any reason to ever update all of my ports at once...I call that "acute versionitis" and I avoid it like the plague.
 
I do them from time to time. Some things will fail, most will work, and I can handle the fallout. It's not really neccesary, but, well, why not? It doesn't cost me much.
 
See, that's the thing...Unless I have a reason to upgrade, I'm not going to. Reasons to upgrade include security fixes, new features that I know someone will use, etc. I don't upgrade stuff for every minor version bump. Maybe I'm strange, but "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
 
You remind me alot of the veteran gentoo users, whom after the excitement of having portage wears off only run emerge -u world maybe once in a GREAT while if ever because updating world takes so long.
 
oldsk00l said:
You remind me alot of the veteran gentoo users, whom after the excitement of having portage wears off only run emerge -u world maybe once in a GREAT while if ever because updating world takes so long.
Click to expand...

Heh. :)
I'm not suprised, really.

Hmm, now I was inspired. I think I'll ssh in and see what's getting old on the school box before going to bed.

edit: I don't think I'll bother.
Code: 
hve6006# pkg_version -v | grep '<'
imake-1.0                           <   needs updating (port has 4.4.0)
inkscape-0.38.1_1                   <   needs updating (port has 0.38.1_2)
kdebase-3.3.0_1                     <   needs updating (port has 3.3.0_4)
kdelibs-3.3.0_1                     <   needs updating (port has 3.3.0_2)
openoffice-1.1.2                    <   needs updating (port has 1.1.2_1)
hve6006#
 
lol, well I could still be diagnosed with versionitis though, I'm a geek and I get bored and want something todo once in a while.

For practical usage I'm going to try to use BSD for a while longer. It is fun to tinker if in the least.

Hemi you work on Unixes for a living?
 
I've been known to upgrade to the latest -CURRENT for the lack of something better to do. :)
As I've said before, it's so seductively easy. :D
 
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