diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/config/chapter.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/config/chapter.sgml
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ChernLeeWritten by MikeSmithBased on a tutorial written by MattDillonAlso based on tuning(7) written by Configuration and TuningSynopsissystem configuration/optimizationConfiguring a system correctly can substantially reduce the
amount of work involved in maintaining and upgrading it
in the future. This chapter describes some of the aspects of
administrative configuration of FreeBSD systems.This chapter will also describe some of the parameters that
can be set to tune a FreeBSD system for optimum
performance.After reading this chapter you will know:Why and how to efficiently size, layout, and place
filesystems and swap partition on your hard drive.The basics of the rc.conf configuration and
/usr/local/etc/rc.d startup systems.How to configure virtual hosts on your network device.How to use the various configuration files in
/etc.How to tune FreeBSD using sysctl variables.How to tune disk performance and modify kernel
limitations.Before reading this chapter you should:Understand the basics of Unix and FreeBSD ()
+ linkend="basics">).
Initial ConfigurationPartition LayoutPartition layout/etc/var/usrBase PartitionsWhen laying out your filesystem with &man.disklabel.8;
or &man.sysinstall.8;, it is important to remember that hard
drives can transfer data at a faster rate from the outer
tracks than the inner. Knowing this, you should place your
smaller, heavily-accessed filesystems, such as root and swap,
closer to the outside of the drive, while placing larger
partitions, such as /usr, towards the
inner. To do so, it is
a good idea to create partitions in a similar order: root,
swap, /var,
/usr.The size of your /var partition
reflects the intended use of your machine.
/var is primarily used to hold:
mailboxes, print spool and log files. Mail boxes and log
files, in particular, can grow to unexpected sizes based upon
how many users are on your system and how long your log files
are kept. If you intend to run a mail server, a
/var partition of over a gigabyte can be
suitable. Additionally, /var/tmp must be
large enough to contain any packages you may wish to
add.The /usr partition holds the bulk
of the files required to support the system and a
subdirectory within it called
/usr/local holds the bulk of the files
installed from the &man.ports.7; hierarchy. If you do not
use ports all that much and do not intend to keep system
source (/usr/src) on the machine,
you can get away with a 1
gigabyte /usr partition. However,
if you install a lot of
ports (especially window managers and Linux binaries), we
recommend at least a two gigabyte /usr
and if you also
intend to keep system source on the machine, we recommend a
three gigabyte /usr. Do not
underestimate the amount of space you will need in this
partition, it can creep up and surprise you!When sizing your partitions, keep in mind the space
requirements for your system to grow. Running out of space in
one partition while having plenty in another can lead to much
frustration.Some users who have used &man.sysinstall.8;'s
Auto-defaults partition sizer have found
either their root or /var partitions too
small later on. Partition wisely and
generously.Swap Partitionswap sizingswap partitionAs a rule of thumb, your swap space should typically be
double the amount of main memory. For example, if the machine
has 128 megabytes of memory, the swap file should be 256
megabytes. Systems with lesser memory may perform better with
a lot more swap. It is not recommended that you configure any
less than 256 megabytes of swap on a system and you should
keep in mind future memory expansion when sizing the swap
partition. The kernel's VM paging algorithms are tuned to
perform best when the swap partition is at least two times the
size of main memory. Configuring too little swap can lead to
inefficiencies in the VM page scanning code as well as create
issues later on if you add more memory to your machine.Finally, on larger systems with multiple SCSI disks (or
multiple IDE disks operating on different controllers), it is
strongly recommend that you configure swap on each drive (up
to four drives). The swap partitions on the drives should be
approximately the same size. The kernel can handle arbitrary
sizes but internal data structures scale to 4 times the
largest swap partition. Keeping the swap partitions near the
same size will allow the kernel to optimally stripe swap space
across the disks. Do not worry about overdoing it a little,
swap space is the saving grace of Unix. Even if you do not
normally use much swap, it can give you more time to recover
from a runaway program before being forced to reboot.Why Partition? Why partition at all? Why not create one big root
partition and be done with it? Then I do not have to worry
about undersizing things!There are several reasons this is not a good idea.
First, each partition has different operational
characteristics and separating them allows the filesystem to
tune itself to those characteristics. For example, the root
and /usr partitions are read-mostly, with
very little writing, while a lot of reading and writing could
occur in /var and
/var/tmp.By properly partitioning your system, fragmentation
introduced in the smaller more heavily write-loaded partitions
will not bleed over into the mostly-read partitions.
Additionally, keeping the write-loaded partitions closer to
the edge of the disk, for example before the really big
partition instead of after in the partition table, will
increase I/O performance in the partitions where you need it
the most. Now it is true that you might also need I/O
performance in the larger partitions, but they are so large
that shifting them more towards the edge of the disk will not
lead to a significant performance improvement whereas moving
/var to the edge can have a huge impact.
Finally, there are safety concerns. Having a small neat root
partition that is essentially read-only gives it a greater
chance of surviving a bad crash intact.Core Configurationrc filesrc.confThe principal location for system configuration information
is within /etc/rc.conf. This file
contains a wide range of configuration information, principally
used at system startup to configure the system. Its name
directly implies this; it is configuration information for the
rc* files.An administrator should make entries in the
rc.conf file to
override the default settings from
/etc/defaults/rc.conf. The defaults file
should not be copied verbatim to /etc - it
contains default values, not examples. All system-specific
changes should be made in the rc.conf
file itself.A number of strategies may be applied in clustered
applications to separate site-wide configuration from
system-specific configuration in order to keep administration
overheads down. The recommended approach is to place site-wide
configuration into another file,
such as /etc/rc.conf.site, and then include
this file into /etc/rc.conf, which will
contain only system-specific information.As rc.conf is read by &man.sh.1; it is
trivial to achieve this. For example:rc.conf: . rc.conf.site
hostname="node15.webcompany.com"
network_interfaces="fxp0 lo0"
ifconfig_fxp0="inet 10.1.1.1"rc.conf.site: defaultrouter="10.1.1.254"
saver="daemon"
blanktime="100"The rc.conf.site file can then be
distributed to every system using rsync or similar
program, whilst the rc.conf file remains
unique.Upgrading the system using &man.sysinstall.8;
or make world will not overwrite the
rc.conf
file, so system configuration information will not be lost.Application ConfigurationTypically, installed applications have their own
configuration files, with their own syntax, etc. It is
important that these files be kept separate from the base
system, so that they may be easily located and managed by the
package management tools./usr/local/etcTypically, these files are installed in
/usr/local/etc. In the case where an
application has a large number of configuration files, a
subdirectory will be created to hold them.Normally, when a port or package is installed, sample
configuration files are also installed. These are usually
identified with a .default suffix. If there
are no existing
configuration files for the application, they will be created by
copying the .default files.For example, here is
/usr/local/etc/apache:-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 2184 May 20 1998 access.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 2184 May 20 1998 access.conf.default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 9555 May 20 1998 httpd.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 9555 May 20 1998 httpd.conf.default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 12205 May 20 1998 magic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 12205 May 20 1998 magic.default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 2700 May 20 1998 mime.types
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 2700 May 20 1998 mime.types.default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 7980 May 20 1998 srm.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 7933 May 20 1998 srm.conf.defaultIt can be quickly seen that only the srm.conf
file has been changed. A later update of the apache port would not
overwrite this changed file.Starting ServicesservicesIt is common for a system to host a number of services.
These may be started in several different fashions, each having
different advantages./usr/local/etc/rc.dSoftware installed from a port or the packages collection
will often place a script in
/usr/local/etc/rc.d which is invoked at
system startup with a argument, and at
system shutdown with a argument.
This is the recommended way for
starting system-wide services that are to be run as
root, or that
expect to be started as root.
These scripts are registered as
part of the installation of the package, and will be removed
when the package is removed.A generic startup script in
/usr/local/etc/rc.d looks like:#!/bin/sh
echo -n ' FooBar'
case "$1" in
start)
/usr/local/bin/foobar
;;
stop)
kill -9 `cat /var/run/foobar.pid`
;;
*)
echo "Usage: `basename $0` {start|stop}" >&2
exit 64
;;
esac
exit 0
This script is called with
at startup, and the at shutdown to allow
it to carry out its purpose.Some services expect to be invoked by &man.inetd.8; when a
connection is received on a suitable port. This is common for
mail reader servers (POP and IMAP, etc.). These services are
enabled by editing the file /etc/inetd.conf.
See &man.inetd.8; for details on editing this file.Some additional system services may not be covered by the
toggles in /etc/rc.conf. These are
traditionally enabled by placing the command(s) to invoke them
in /etc/rc.local. As of FreeBSD 3.1 there
is no default /etc/rc.local; if it is
created by the administrator it will however be honored in the
normal fashion. Note that rc.local is
generally regarded as the location of last resort; if there is a
better place to start a service, do it there.Do not place any commands in
/etc/rc.conf. To start daemons, or
run any commands at boot time, place a script in
/usr/local/etc/rc.d instead.It is also possible to use the &man.cron.8; daemon to start
system services. This approach has a number of advantages, not
least being that because &man.cron.8; runs these processes as the
owner of the crontab, services may be started
and maintained by non-root users.This takes advantage of an undocumented feature of &man.cron.8; the
time specification may be replaced by @reboot,
which will
cause the job to be run when &man.cron.8; is started shortly after
system boot.Virtual Hostsvirtual hostsip aliasesA very common use of FreeBSD is virtual site hosting, where
one server appears to the network as many servers. This is
achieved by assigning multiple network addresses to a single
interface.A given network interface has one real address,
and may have any number of alias addresses.
These aliases are
normally added by placing alias entries in
/etc/rc.conf.An alias entry for the interface fxp0
looks like:ifconfig_fxp0_alias0="inet xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx netmask xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"Note that alias entries must start with alias0 and proceed
upwards in order, (for example, _alias1, _alias2, and so on).
The configuration process will stop at the first missing number.
The calculation of alias netmasks is important, but
fortunately quite simple. For a given interface, there must be
one address which correctly represents the network's netmask.
Any other addresses which fall within this network must have a
netmask of all 1's.For example, consider the case where the
fxp0 interface is
connected to two networks, the 10.1.1.0 network with a netmask
of 255.255.255.0 and the 202.0.75.16 network with a netmask of
255.255.255.240. We want the system to appear at 10.1.1.1
through 10.1.1.5 and at 202.0.75.17 through 202.0.75.20.The following entries configure the adapter correctly for
this arrangement: ifconfig_fxp0="inet 10.1.1.1 netmask 255.255.255.0"
ifconfig_fxp0_alias0="inet 10.1.1.2 netmask 255.255.255.255"
ifconfig_fxp0_alias1="inet 10.1.1.3 netmask 255.255.255.255"
ifconfig_fxp0_alias2="inet 10.1.1.4 netmask 255.255.255.255"
ifconfig_fxp0_alias3="inet 10.1.1.5 netmask 255.255.255.255"
ifconfig_fxp0_alias4="inet 202.0.75.17 netmask 255.255.255.240"
ifconfig_fxp0_alias5="inet 202.0.75.18 netmask 255.255.255.255"
ifconfig_fxp0_alias6="inet 202.0.75.19 netmask 255.255.255.255"
ifconfig_fxp0_alias7="inet 202.0.75.20 netmask 255.255.255.255"Configuration Files/etc LayoutThere are a number of directories in which configuration
information is kept. These include:/etcGeneric system configuration information; data here is
system-specific./etc/defaultsDefault versions of system configuration files./etc/mailExtra &man.sendmail.8; configuration, other
MTA configuration files.
/etc/pppConfiguration for both user- and kernel-ppp programs.
/etc/namedbDefault location for &man.named.8; data. Normally the
boot file is located here, and contains a directive to
refer to other data in /var/db./usr/local/etcConfiguration files for installed applications.
May contain per-application subdirectories./usr/local/etc/rc.dStart/stop scripts for installed applications./var/dbPersistent system-specific data files, such as
&man.named.8; zone files, database files, and so on.HostnameshostnameDNS/etc/resolv.confresolv.conf/etc/resolv.conf dictates how FreeBSD's
resolver accesses the Internet Domain Name System (DNS).The most common entries to resolv.conf are:
nameserverThe IP address of a name server the resolver
should query. The servers are queried in the order
listed with a maximum of three.searchSearch list for hostname lookup. This is normally
determined by the domain of the local hostname.domainThe local domain name.A typical resolv.conf:search foobar.com
nameserver 147.11.1.11
nameserver 147.11.100.30If you are using DHCP, &man.dhclient.8; usually rewrites
resolv.conf with information received from the
DHCP server./etc/hostshosts/etc/hosts is a simple text database
reminiscent of the old Internet. It works in conjunction with DNS
and NIS providing name to IP address mappings. Local computers
connected via a LAN can be placed in here for simplistic naming
purposes instead of setting up a &man.named.8; server.
Additionally, /etc/hosts can be used to provide
a local record of Internet names, reducing the need to query
externally for commonly accessed names.# $FreeBSD$
#
# Host Database
# This file should contain the addresses and aliases
# for local hosts that share this file.
# In the presence of the domain name service or NIS, this file may
# not be consulted at all; see /etc/nsswitch.conf for the resolution order.
#
#
::1 localhost localhost.my.domain myname.my.domain
127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.my.domain myname.my.domain
#
# Imaginary network.
#10.0.0.2 myname.my.domain myname
#10.0.0.3 myfriend.my.domain myfriend
#
# According to RFC 1918, you can use the following IP networks for
# private nets which will never be connected to the Internet:
#
# 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
# 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
# 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255
#
# In case you want to be able to connect to the Internet, you need
# real official assigned numbers. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not try
# to invent your own network numbers but instead get one from your
# network provider (if any) or from the Internet Registry (ftp to
# rs.internic.net, directory `/templates').
#/etc/hosts takes on the simple format
of:[Internet address] [official hostname] [alias1] [alias2] ...For example:10.0.0.1 myRealHostname.foobar.com myRealHostname foobar1 foobar2Consult &man.hosts.5; for more information.Log File Configurationlog filessyslog.confsyslog.confsyslog.conf is the configuration file
for the &man.syslogd.8; program. It indicates which types
of syslog messages are logged to particular
log files.# $FreeBSD$
#
# Spaces ARE valid field separators in this file. However,
# other *nix-like systems still insist on using tabs as field
# separators. If you are sharing this file between systems, you
# may want to use only tabs as field separators here.
# Consult the syslog.conf(5) manual page.
*.err;kern.debug;auth.notice;mail.crit /dev/console
*.notice;kern.debug;lpr.info;mail.crit;news.err /var/log/messages
security.* /var/log/security
mail.info /var/log/maillog
lpr.info /var/log/lpd-errs
cron.* /var/log/cron
*.err root
*.notice;news.err root
*.alert root
*.emerg *
# uncomment this to log all writes to /dev/console to /var/log/console.log
#console.info /var/log/console.log
# uncomment this to enable logging of all log messages to /var/log/all.log
#*.* /var/log/all.log
# uncomment this to enable logging to a remote log host named loghost
#*.* @loghost
# uncomment these if you're running inn
# news.crit /var/log/news/news.crit
# news.err /var/log/news/news.err
# news.notice /var/log/news/news.notice
!startslip
*.* /var/log/slip.log
!ppp
*.* /var/log/ppp.logConsult the &man.syslog.conf.5; manual page for more
information.newsyslog.confnewsyslog.confnewsyslog.conf is the configuration
file for &man.newsyslog.8;, a program that is scheduled to run
normally by &man.cron.8;. &man.newsyslog.8; determines when log
files require archiving or rearranging.
logfile is moved to
logfile.0, logfile.0
is moved to logfile.1, and so on.
Additionally, the log files may be archived in &man.gzip.1; format
causing them to be named: logfile.0.gz,
logfile.1.gz, and so on.newsyslog.conf indicates which log
files are to be managed, how many are to be kept, and when
they are to be touched. Log files can be rearranged and/or
archived when they have either reached a certain size, or at a
certain periodic time/date.# configuration file for newsyslog
# $FreeBSD$
#
# filename [owner:group] mode count size when [ZB] [/pid_file] [sig_num]
/var/log/cron 600 3 100 * Z
/var/log/amd.log 644 7 100 * Z
/var/log/kerberos.log 644 7 100 * Z
/var/log/lpd-errs 644 7 100 * Z
/var/log/maillog 644 7 * @T00 Z
/var/log/sendmail.st 644 10 * 168 B
/var/log/messages 644 5 100 * Z
/var/log/all.log 600 7 * @T00 Z
/var/log/slip.log 600 3 100 * Z
/var/log/ppp.log 600 3 100 * Z
/var/log/security 600 10 100 * Z
/var/log/wtmp 644 3 * @01T05 B
/var/log/daily.log 640 7 * @T00 Z
/var/log/weekly.log 640 5 1 $W6D0 Z
/var/log/monthly.log 640 12 * $M1D0 Z
/var/log/console.log 640 5 100 * ZConsult the &man.newsyslog.8; manual page for more
information.sysctl.confsysctl.confsysctlsysctl.conf looks much like
rc.conf. Values are set in a
variable=value
form. The specified values are set after the system goes into
multi-user mode. Not all variables are settable in this mode.A sample sysctl.conf turning off logging
of fatal signal exits and letting Linux programs know they are really
running under FreeBSD.kern.logsigexit=0 # Do not log fatal signal exits (e.g. sig 11)
compat.linux.osname=FreeBSD
compat.linux.osrelease=4.3-STABLETuning with sysctlsysctlTuning with sysctl&man.sysctl.8; is an interface that allows you to make changes
to a running FreeBSD system. This includes many advanced
options of the TCP/IP stack and virtual memory system that can
dramatically improve performance for an experienced system
administrator. Over five hundred system variables can be read
and set using &man.sysctl.8;.At its core, &man.sysctl.8; serves to do two functions: read and
modify system settings.To view all readable variables:&prompt.user; sysctl -aTo read a particular variable, for example,
kern.maxproc:&prompt.user; sysctl kern.maxproc
kern.maxproc: 1044To set a particular variable, use the =
option:&prompt.root; sysctl kern.maxfiles=5000
kern.maxfiles: 2088 -> 5000Settings of sysctl variables are usually either strings,
numbers, or booleans. A boolean being 1 for yes
or a 0 for no.Tuning DisksSysctl Variablesvfs.vmiodirenablevfs.vmiodirenableThe vfs.vmiodirenable sysctl variable
defaults to 0 (off) (though soon it will default to 1) and may
be set to 0 (off) or 1 (on). This parameter controls how
directories are cached by the system. Most directories are
small and use but a single fragment (typically 1K) in the
filesystem and even less (typically 512 bytes) in the buffer
cache. However, when operating in the default mode the buffer
cache will only cache a fixed number of directories even if
you have a huge amount of memory. Turning on this sysctl
allows the buffer cache to use the VM Page Cache to cache the
directories. The advantage is that all of memory is now
available for caching directories. The disadvantage is that
the minimum in-core memory used to cache a directory is the
physical page size (typically 4K) rather than 512 bytes. We
recommend turning this option on if you are running any
services which manipulate large numbers of files. Such
services can include web caches, large mail systems, and news
systems. Turning on this option will generally not reduce
performance even with the wasted memory but you should
experiment to find out.hw.ata.wchw.ata.wcFreeBSD 4.3 flirted with turning off IDE write caching.
This reduced write bandwidth to IDE disks but was considered
necessary due to serious data consistency issues introduced
by hard drive vendors. Basically the problem is that IDE
drives lie about when a write completes. With IDE write
caching turned on, IDE hard drives will not only write data
to disk out of order, they will sometimes delay some of the
blocks indefinitely when under heavy disk loads. A crash or
power failure can result in serious filesystem corruption.
So our default was changed to be safe. Unfortunately, the
result was such a huge loss in performance that we caved in
and changed the default back to on after the release. You
should check the default on your system by observing the
hw.ata.wc sysctl variable. If IDE write
caching is turned off, you can turn it back on by setting
the kernel variable back to 1. This must be done from the
boot loader at boot time. Attempting to do it after the
kernel boots will have no effect.For more information, please see &man.ata.4;.Soft UpdatesSoft UpdatestunefsThe &man.tunefs.8; program can be used to fine-tune a
filesystem. This program has many different options, but for
now we are only concerned with toggling Soft Updates on and
off, which is done by :&prompt.root; tunefs -n enable /filesystem
&prompt.root; tunefs -n disable /filesystemA filesystem cannot be modified with &man.tunefs.8; while
it is mounted. A good time to enable Soft Updates is before any
partitions have been mounted, in single-user mode.Soft Updates drastically improves meta-data performance, mainly
file creation and deletion, through the use of a memory cache. We
recommend turning Soft Updates on on all of your filesystems. There
are two downsides to Soft Updates that you should be aware of: First,
Soft Updates guarantees filesystem consistency in the case of a crash
but could very easily be several
seconds (even a minute!) behind updating the physical disk. If you
crash you may lose more work than otherwise. Secondly, Soft Updates
delays the freeing of filesystem blocks. If you have a filesystem
(such as the root filesystem) which is close to full, doing a major
update of it, e.g. make installworld, can run it
out of space and cause the update to fail.Tuning Kernel LimitsTuning kernel limitsFile/Process Limitskern.maxfileskern.maxfileskern.maxfiles can be raised or
lowered based upon your system requirements. This variable
indicates the maximum number of file descriptors on your
system. When the file descriptor table is full,
file: table is full will show up repeatedly
in the system message buffer, which can be viewed with the
dmesg command.Each open file, socket, or fifo uses one file
descriptor. A large-scale production server may easily
require many thousands of file descriptors, depending on the
kind and number of services running concurrently.kern.maxfile's default value is
dictated by the option in your
kernel configuration file. kern.maxfiles grows
proportionally to the value of .
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/kernelconfig/chapter.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/kernelconfig/chapter.sgml
index c03fd5233d..856e0187cd 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/kernelconfig/chapter.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/kernelconfig/chapter.sgml
@@ -1,1327 +1,1327 @@
JimMockUpdated and restructured by JakeHambyOriginally contributed by Configuring the FreeBSD KernelSynopsiskernelbuilding a custom kernelThe kernel is the core of the FreeBSD operating system. It is
responsible for managing memory, enforcing security controls,
networking, disk access, and much more. While more and more of FreeBSD
becomes dynamically configurable it is still occasionally necessary to
reconfigure and recompile your kernel.After reading this chapter you will know:
- Why you might need to build a custom kernel
+ Why you might need to build a custom kernel.How to write a kernel configuration file, or alter an existing
- configuration file
+ configuration file.
How to use the kernel configuration file to create and build a
- new kernel
+ new kernel.
- How to install the new kernel
+ How to install the new kernel.How to create any entries in /dev that may
- be required
+ be required.
- How to troubleshoot if things go wrong
+ How to troubleshoot if things go wrong.Why Build a Custom Kernel?Traditionally FreeBSD has had what is called a
monolithic kernel. This means that the kernel was one
large program, supported a fixed list of devices, and if you wanted to
change the kernel's behavior then you had to compile a new kernel, and
then reboot your computer with the new kernel.Today, FreeBSD is rapidly moving to a model where much of the
kernel's functionality is contained in modules which can be dynamically
loaded and unloaded from the kernel as necessary. This allows the
kernel to adapt to new hardware suddenly becoming available (such as
PCMCIA cards in a laptop), or for new functionality to be brought in to
the kernel that was not necessary when the kernel was originally
compiled. Colloquially these are called KLDs.Despite this, it is still necessary to carry out some static kernel
configuration. In some cases this is because the functionality is so
tied to the kernel that it can not be made dynamically loadable. In
others it may simply be because no one has yet taken the time to write a
dynamic loadable kernel module for that functionality yet.Building a custom kernel is one of the most important rites of
passage nearly every Unix user must endure. This process, while
time consuming, will provide many benefits to your FreeBSD system.
Unlike the GENERIC kernel, which must support a
wide range of hardware, a custom kernel only contains support for
your PC's hardware. This has a number of
benefits, such as:Faster boot time. Since the kernel will only probe the
hardware you have on your system, the time it takes your system to
boot will decrease dramatically.Less memory use. A custom kernel often uses less memory
than the GENERIC kernel, which is important
because the kernel is one process that must always be present in
memory. For this reason, a custom kernel is especially useful
on a system with a small amount of RAM.Additional hardware support. A custom kernel allows you to
add in support for devices such as sound cards, which are not
present in the GENERIC kernel.Building and Installing a Custom Kernelkernelbuilding / installingFirst, let us take a quick tour of the kernel build directory.
All directories mentioned will be relative to the main
/usr/src/sys directory, which is also
accessible through /sys. There are a number of
subdirectories here representing different parts of the kernel, but
the most important, for our purposes, are
arch/conf, where you
will edit your custom kernel configuration, and
compile, which is the staging area where your
kernel will be built. arch represents
either i386, alpha, or
pc98 (an alternative development branch of PC
hardware, popular in Japan). Everything inside a particular
architecture's directory deals with that architecture only; the rest
of the code is common to all platforms to which FreeBSD could
potentially be ported. Notice the logical organization of the
directory structure, with each supported device, filesystem, and
option in its own subdirectory.If there is not a
/usr/src/sys directory on your system, then
the kernel source has not been installed. The easiest way to
do this is by running /stand/sysinstall as
root, choosing Configure,
then Distributions, then
src, then sys.Next, move to the
arch/conf directory
and copy the GENERIC configuration file to the
name you want to give your kernel. For example:&prompt.root; cd /usr/src/sys/i386/conf
&prompt.root; cp GENERIC MYKERNELTraditionally, this name is in all capital letters and, if you
are maintaining multiple FreeBSD machines with different hardware,
it is a good idea to name it after your machine's hostname. We will
call it MYKERNEL for the purpose of this
example.Storing your kernel config file directly under
/usr/src can be a bad idea. If you are
experiencing problems it can be tempting to just delete
/usr/src and start again. Five seconds after
you do that you realize that you have deleted your custom kernel
config file.You might want to keep your kernel config file elsewhere, and then
create a symbolic link to the file in the i386
directory.For example:&prompt.root; cd /usr/src/sys/i386/conf
&prompt.root; mkdir /root/kernels
&prompt.root; cp GENERIC /root/kernels/MYKERNEL
&prompt.root; ln -s /root/kernels/MYKERNELYou must execute these and all of the following commands under
the root account or you will get permission
denied errors.Now, edit MYKERNEL with your favorite text
editor. If you are just starting out, the only editor available
will probably be vi, which is too complex to
explain here, but is covered well in many books in the bibliography. However, FreeBSD does
offer an easier editor called ee which, if you are a
beginner, should be your editor of choice. Feel free to change the
comment lines at the top to reflect your configuration or the
changes you have made to differentiate it from
GENERIC.SunOSIf you have built a kernel under SunOS or some other BSD
operating system, much of this file will be very familiar to you.
If you are coming from some other operating system such as DOS, on
the other hand, the GENERIC configuration file
might seem overwhelming to you, so follow the descriptions in the
Configuration File
section slowly and carefully.Be sure to always check the file
/usr/src/UPDATING, before you perform any update
steps, in the case you sync your source-tree with the
latest sources of the FreeBSD project.
In this file all important issues with updating FreeBSD
are written down. /usr/src/UPDATING always fits
to your version of the FreeBSD source, and is therefore more accurate
for those information than the handbook.You must now compile the source code for the kernel. There are two
procedures you can use to do this, and the one you will use depends on
why you are rebuilding the kernel, and the version of FreeBSD you are
running.If you have installed only the kernel
source code, use procedure 1.If you are running a FreeBSD version prior to 4.0, and you are
not upgrading to FreeBSD 4.0 or higher using
the make world procedure, use procedure 1.If you are building a new kernel without updating the source
code (perhaps just to add a new option, such as
IPFIREWALL) you can use either procedure.If you are rebuilding the kernel as part of a make
world process, use procedure 2.Procedure 1. Building a kernel the traditional wayRun &man.config.8; to generate the kernel source code.&prompt.root; /usr/sbin/config MYKERNELChange in to the build directory.&prompt.root; cd ../../compile/MYKERNELCompile the kernel.&prompt.root; make depend
&prompt.root; makeInstall the new kernel.&prompt.root; make installProcedure 2. Building a kernel the new
wayChange to the /usr/src directory&prompt.root; cd /usr/srcCompile the kernel.&prompt.root; make buildkernel KERNCONF=MYKERNELInstall the new kernel.&prompt.root; make installkernel KERNCONF=MYKERNELIn FreeBSD 4.2 and older you must replace
KERNCONF= with KERNEL=.
4.2-STABLE that was fetched after Feb 2nd, 2001 does
recognize KERNCONF=cvsupanonymous CVSCTMCVSanonymousIf you have not upgraded your source
tree in any way (you have not run CVSup,
CTM, or used
anoncvs), then you should use the
config, make depend,
make, make install sequence.kernel.oldThe new kernel will be copied to the root directory as
/kernel and the old kernel will be moved to
/kernel.old. Now, shutdown the system and
reboot to use your kernel. In case something goes wrong, there are
some troubleshooting
instructions at the end of this document. Be sure to read the
section which explains how to recover in case your new kernel does not boot.If you have added any new devices (such as sound cards) you
may have to add some device
nodes to your /dev directory before
you can use them.The Configuration FilekernelLINTLINTkernelconfig fileThe general format of a configuration file is quite simple.
Each line contains a keyword and one or more arguments. For
simplicity, most lines only contain one argument. Anything
following a # is considered a comment and
ignored. The following sections describe each keyword, generally in
the order they are listed in GENERIC, although
some related keywords have been grouped together in a single section
(such as Networking) even though they are actually scattered
throughout the GENERIC file. An exhaustive list of options and more
detailed explanations of the device lines is present in the
LINT configuration file, located in the same
directory as GENERIC. If you are in doubt as
to the purpose or necessity of a line, check first in
LINT.Quoting numbersIn all versions of FreeBSD up to and including 3.X,
&man.config.8; required that any strings in the configuration file
that contained numbers used as text had to be enclosed in double
quotes.This requirement was removed in the 4.X branch, which this
book covers, so if you are on a pre-4.X system, see the
/usr/src/sys/i386/conf/LINT and
/usr/src/sys/i386/conf/GENERIC
files on your system for examples.kernelexample config fileThe following is an example GENERIC kernel
configuration file with various additional comments where needed for
clarity. This example should match your copy in
/usr/src/sys/i386/conf/GENERIC fairly
closely. For details of all the possible kernel options, see
/usr/src/sys/i386/conf/LINT.#
# GENERIC -- Generic kernel configuration file for FreeBSD/i386
#
# For more information on this file, please read the handbook section on
# Kernel Configuration Files:
#
# http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/kernelconfig-config.html
#
# The handbook is also available locally in /usr/share/doc/handbook
# if you've installed the doc distribution, otherwise always see the
# FreeBSD World Wide Web server (http://www.FreeBSD.ORG/) for the
# latest information.
#
# An exhaustive list of options and more detailed explanations of the
# device lines is also present in the ./LINT configuration file. If you are
# in doubt as to the purpose or necessity of a line, check first in LINT.
#
# $FreeBSD: src/sys/i386/conf/GENERIC,v 1.246 2000/03/09 16:32:55 jlemon Exp $The following are the mandatory keywords required in
every kernel you build:kernel optionsmachinemachine i386This is the machine architecture. It must be either
i386, alpha, or
pc98.kernel optionscpucpu I386_CPU
cpu I486_CPU
cpu I586_CPU
cpu I686_CPUThe above specifies the type of CPU you have in your system.
You may have multiple instances of the CPU line (i.e., you are not
sure whether you should use I586_CPU or
I686_CPU), however, for a custom kernel, it is
best to specify only the CPU you have. If you are unsure of your CPU type,
you can use the dmesg command to
view your boot up messages.kernel optionscpu typeThe Alpha architecture has different values for
cpu_type. They include:cpu EV4
cpu EV5If you are using an Alpha machine, you should be using one of
the above CPU types.kernel optionsidentident GENERICThis is the identification of the kernel. You should change
this to whatever you named your kernel, in our previous example,
MYKERNEL. The value you put in the
ident string will print when you boot up the
kernel, so it is useful to give a kernel a different name if you
want to keep it separate from your usual kernel (i.e., you want to
build an experimental kernel).kernel optionsmaxusersmaxusers 32The maxusers option sets the size of a number
of important system tables. This number is supposed to be roughly
equal to the number of simultaneous users you expect to have on your
machine. However, under normal circumstances, you will want to set
maxusers to at least 4, especially if you are
using the X Window System or compiling software. The reason is that
the most important table set by maxusers is the
maximum number of processes, which is set to 20 + 16 *
maxusers, so if you set maxusers to 1,
then you can only have 36 simultaneous processes, including the 18
or so that the system starts up at boot time, and the 15 or so you
will probably create when you start the X Window System. Even a
simple task like reading a manual page will start up nine processes to
filter, decompress, and view it. Setting
maxusers to 64 will allow you to have up to 1044
simultaneous processes, which should be enough for nearly all uses.
If, however, you see the dreaded proc table
full error when trying to start another program, or are
running a server with a large number of simultaneous users (like
ftp.FreeBSD.org), you can always
increase the number and rebuild.maxusers does not
limit the number of users which can log into your machine. It
simply sets various table sizes to reasonable values considering
the maximum number of users you will likely have on your system
and how many processes each of them will be running. One keyword
which does limit the number of simultaneous
remote logins is pseudo-device pty
16.Everything that follows is more or less optional. See the notes
underneath or next to each option for more information.#makeoptions DEBUG=-g #Build kernel with gdb(1) debug symbols
options MATH_EMULATE #Support for x87 emulationThis line allows the kernel to simulate a math co-processor if
your computer does not have one (386 or 486SX). If you have a
486DX, or a 386 or 486SX (with a separate 387 or 487 chip), or
higher (Pentium, Pentium II, etc.), you can comment this line
out.The normal math co-processor emulation routines that come with
FreeBSD are not very accurate. If you do not
have a math co-processor, and you need the best accuracy, it is
recommended that you change this option to
GPL_MATH_EMULATION to use the GNU math support,
which is not included by default for licensing reasons.options INET #InterNETworkingNetworking support. Leave this in, even if you do not plan to
be connected to a network. Most programs require at least loopback
networking (i.e., making network connections within your PC), so
this is essentially mandatory.options INET6 #IPv6 communications protocolsThis enables the IPv6 communication protocols.options FFS #Berkeley Fast Filesystem
options FFS_ROOT #FFS usable as root device [keep this!]This is the basic hard drive filesystem. Leave it in if you
boot from the hard disk.options MFS #Memory Filesystem
options MD_ROOT #MD is a potential root deviceThis is the memory-mapped filesystem. This is basically a RAM
disk for fast storage of temporary files, useful if you have a lot
of swap space that you want to take advantage of. A perfect place
to mount an MFS partition is on the /tmp
directory, since many programs store temporary data here. To mount
an MFS RAM disk on /tmp, add the following line
to /etc/fstab:/dev/ad1s2b /tmp mfs rw 0 0Now you simply need to either reboot, or run the command
mount /tmp.kernel optionsNFSkernel optionsNFS_ROOToptions NFS #Network Filesystem
options NFS_ROOT #NFS usable as root device, NFS requiredThe network filesystem. Unless you plan to mount partitions
from a Unix file server over TCP/IP, you can comment these
out.kernel optionsMSDOSFSoptions MSDOSFS #MSDOS FilesystemThe MS-DOS filesystem. Unless you plan to mount a DOS formatted
hard drive partition at boot time, you can safely comment this out.
It will be automatically loaded the first time you mount a DOS
partition, as described above. Also, the excellent
mtools software (in the ports collection)
allows you to access DOS floppies without having to mount and
unmount them (and does not require MSDOSFS at
all).options CD9660 #ISO 9660 Filesystem
options CD9660_ROOT #CD-ROM usable as root, CD9660 requiredThe ISO 9660 filesystem for CDROMs. Comment it out if you do
not have a CDROM drive or only mount data CDs occasionally (since it
will be dynamically loaded the first time you mount a data CD).
Audio CDs do not need this filesystem.options PROCFS #Process filesystemThe process filesystem. This is a pretend
filesystem mounted on /proc which allows
programs like &man.ps.1; to give you more information on what
processes are running.options COMPAT_43 #Compatible with BSD 4.3 [KEEP THIS!]Compatibility with 4.3BSD. Leave this in; some programs will
act strangely if you comment this out.options SCSI_DELAY=15000 #Delay (in ms) before probing SCSIThis causes the kernel to pause for 15 seconds before probing
each SCSI device in your system. If you only have IDE hard drives,
you can ignore this, otherwise you will probably want to lower this
number, perhaps to 5 seconds, to speed up booting. Of course, if
you do this, and FreeBSD has trouble recognizing your SCSI devices,
you will have to raise it back up.options UCONSOLE #Allow users to grab the consoleAllow users to grab the console, which is useful for X users.
For example, you can create a console xterm by typing xterm
-C, which will display any write,
talk, and any other messages you receive, as well
as any console messages sent by the kernel.options USERCONFIG #boot -c editorThis option allows you to boot the configuration editor from the
boot menu.options VISUAL_USERCONFIG #visual boot -c editorThis option allows you to boot the visual configuration editor
from the boot menu.options KTRACE #ktrace(1) supportThis enables kernel process tracing, which is useful in
debugging.options SYSVSHM #SYSV-style shared memoryThis option provides for System V shared memory. The most
common use of this is the XSHM extension in X, which many
graphics-intensive programs will automatically take advantage of for
extra speed. If you use X, you will definitely want to include
this.options SYSVSEM #SYSV-style semaphoresSupport for System V semaphores. Less commonly used but only
adds a few hundred bytes to the kernel.options SYSVMSG #SYSV-style message queuesSupport for System V messages. Again, only adds a few hundred
bytes to the kernel.The &man.ipcs.1; command will list any processes using each of
these System V facilities.options P1003_1B #Posix P1003_1B real-time extensions
options _KPOSIX_PRIORITY_SCHEDULINGReal-time extensions added in the 1993 POSIX. Certain
applications in the ports collection use these (such as Star
Office).kernel optionsICMP_BANDLIMoptions ICMP_BANDLIM #Rate limit bad repliesThis option enables ICMP error response bandwidth limiting. You
typically want this option as it will help protect the machine from
denial of service packet attacks.kernel optionsSMP# To make an SMP kernel, the next two are needed
#options SMP # Symmetric MultiProcessor Kernel
#options APIC_IO # Symmetric (APIC) I/OThe above are both required for SMP support.device isaAll PCs supported by FreeBSD have one of these. If you have an
IBM PS/2 (Micro Channel Architecture), you cannot run FreeBSD at
this time (support is being worked on).device eisaInclude this if you have an EISA motherboard. This enables
auto-detection and configuration support for all devices on the EISA
bus.device pciInclude this if you have a PCI motherboard. This enables
auto-detection of PCI cards and gatewaying from the PCI to ISA
bus.# Floppy drives
device fdc0 at isa? port IO_FD1 irq 6 drq 2
device fd0 at fdc0 drive 0
device fd1 at fdc0 drive 1This is the floppy drive controller. fd0 is
the A: floppy drive, and
fd1 is the B:
drive.device ataThis driver supports all ATA and ATAPI devices. You only need
one device ata line for the kernel to detect all
PCI ATA/ATAPI devices on modern machines.device atadisk # ATA disk drivesThis is needed along with device ata for
ATAPI disk drives.
device atapicd # ATAPI CDROM drivesThis is needed along with device ata for
ATAPI CDROM drives.device atapifd # ATAPI floppy drivesThis is needed along with device ata for
ATAPI floppy drives.device atapist # ATAPI tape drivesThis is needed along with device ata for
ATAPI tape drives.options ATA_STATIC_ID #Static device numberingThis makes the controller number static (like the old driver) or
else the device numbers are dynamically allocated.# ATA and ATAPI devices
device ata0 at isa? port IO_WD1 irq 14
device ata1 at isa? port IO_WD2 irq 15Use the above for older, non-PCI systems.# SCSI Controllers
device ahb # EISA AHA1742 family
device ahc # AHA2940 and onboard AIC7xxx devices
device amd # AMD 53C974 (Teckram DC-390(T))
device dpt # DPT Smartcache - See LINT for options!
device isp # Qlogic family
device ncr # NCR/Symbios Logic
device sym # NCR/Symbios Logic (newer chipsets)
device adv0 at isa?
device adw
device bt0 at isa?
device aha0 at isa?
device aic0 at isa?SCSI controllers. Comment out any you do not have in your
system. If you have an IDE only system, you can remove these
altogether.# SCSI peripherals
device scbus # SCSI bus (required)
device da # Direct Access (disks)
device sa # Sequential Access (tape etc)
device cd # CD
device pass # Passthrough device (direct SCSI
access)SCSI peripherals. Again, comment out any you do not have, or if
you have only IDE hardware, you can remove them completely.# RAID controllers
device ida # Compaq Smart RAID
device amr # AMI MegaRAID
device mlx # Mylex DAC960 familySupported RAID controllers. If you do not have any of these,
you can comment them out or remove them.# atkbdc0 controls both the keyboard and the PS/2 mouse
device atkbdc0 at isa? port IO_KBDThe keyboard controller (atkbdc) provides I/O
services for the AT keyboard and PS/2 style pointing devices. This
controller is required by the keyboard driver
(atkbd) and the PS/2 pointing device driver
(psm).device atkbd0 at atkbdc? irq 1The atkbd driver, together with
atkbdc controller, provides access to the AT 84
keyboard or the AT enhanced keyboard which is connected to the AT
keyboard controller.device psm0 at atkbdc? irq 12Use this device if your mouse plugs into the PS/2 mouse
port.device vga0 at isa?The video card driver.# splash screen/screen saver
pseudo-device splashSplash screen at start up! Screen savers require this
too.# syscons is the default console driver, resembling an SCO console
device sc0 at isa?sc0 is the default console driver, which
resembles a SCO console. Since most full-screen programs access the
console through a terminal database library like
termcap, it should not matter whether you use
this or vt0, the VT220
compatible console driver. When you log in, set your
TERM variable to scoansi if
full-screen programs have trouble running under this console.# Enable this and PCVT_FREEBSD for pcvt vt220 compatible console driver
#device vt0 at isa?
#options XSERVER # support for X server on a vt console
#options FAT_CURSOR # start with block cursor
# If you have a ThinkPAD, uncomment this along with the rest of the PCVT lines
#options PCVT_SCANSET=2 # IBM keyboards are non-stdThis is a VT220-compatible console driver, backward compatible to
VT100/102. It works well on some laptops which have hardware
incompatibilities with sc0. Also set your
TERM variable to vt100 or
vt220 when you log in. This driver might also
prove useful when connecting to a large number of different machines
over the network, where termcap or
terminfo entries for the sc0
device are often not available — vt100
should be available on virtually any platform.# Floating point support - do not disable.
device npx0 at nexus? port IO_NPX irq 13npx0 is the interface to the floating point
math unit in FreeBSD, which is either the hardware co-processor or
the software math emulator. This is not
optional.# Power management support (see LINT for more options)
device apm0 at nexus? disable flags 0x20 # Advanced Power ManagementAdvanced Power Management support. Useful for laptops.# PCCARD (PCMCIA) support
device card
device pcic0 at isa? irq 10 port 0x3e0 iomem 0xd0000
device pcic1 at isa? irq 11 port 0x3e2 iomem 0xd4000 disablePCMCIA support. You need this if you are installing on a
laptop.# Serial (COM) ports
device sio0 at isa? port IO_COM1 flags 0x10 irq 4
device sio1 at isa? port IO_COM2 irq 3
device sio2 at isa? disable port IO_COM3 irq 5
device sio3 at isa? disable port IO_COM4 irq 9These are the four serial ports referred to as COM1 through COM4
in the MS-DOS/Windows world.If you have an internal modem on COM4 and a serial port at
COM2, you will have to change the IRQ of the modem to 2 (for
obscure technical reasons, IRQ2 = IRQ 9) in order to access it
from FreeBSD. If you have a multiport serial card, check the
manual page for &man.sio.4; for more information on the proper
values for these lines. Some video cards (notably those based on
S3 chips) use IO addresses in the form of
0x*2e8, and since many cheap serial cards do
not fully decode the 16-bit IO address space, they clash with
these cards making the COM4 port practically unavailable.Each serial port is required to have a unique IRQ (unless you
are using one of the multiport cards where shared interrupts are
supported), so the default IRQs for COM3 and COM4 cannot be
used.# Parallel port
device ppc0 at isa? irq 7This is the ISA-bus parallel port interface.device ppbus # Parallel port bus (required)Provides support for the parallel port bus.device lpt # PrinterSupport for parallel port printers.All three of the above are required to enable parallel printer
support.device plip # TCP/IP over parallelThis is the driver for the parallel network interface.device ppi # Parallel port interface deviceThe general-purpose I/O (geek port) + IEEE1284
I/O.#device vpo # Requires scbus and dazip driveThis is for an Iomega Zip drive. It requires
scbus and da support. Best
performance is achieved with ports in EPP 1.9 mode.# PCI Ethernet NICs.
device de # DEC/Intel DC21x4x (Tulip)
device fxp # Intel EtherExpress PRO/100B (82557, 82558)
device tx # SMC 9432TX (83c170 EPIC)
device vx # 3Com 3c590, 3c595 (Vortex)
device wx # Intel Gigabit Ethernet Card (Wiseman)Various PCI network card drivers. Comment out or remove any of
these not present in your system.# PCI Ethernet NICs that use the common MII bus controller code.
device miibus # MII bus supportMII bus support is required for some PCI 10/100 Ethernet NICs,
namely those which use MII-compliant transceivers or implement
transceiver control interfaces that operate like an MII. Adding
device miibus to the kernel config pulls in
support for the generic miibus API and all of the PHY drivers,
including a generic one for PHYs that are not specifically handled
by an individual driverdevice dc # DEC/Intel 21143 and various workalikes
device rl # RealTek 8129/8139
device sf # Adaptec AIC-6915 (Starfire)
device sis # Silicon Integrated Systems SiS 900/SiS 7016
device ste # Sundance ST201 (D-Link DFE-550TX)
device tl # Texas Instruments ThunderLAN
device vr # VIA Rhine, Rhine II
device wb # Winbond W89C840F
device xl # 3Com 3c90x (Boomerang, Cyclone)Drivers that use the MII bus controller code.# ISA Ethernet NICs.
device ed0 at isa? port 0x280 irq 10 iomem 0xd8000
device ex
device ep
# WaveLAN/IEEE 802.11 wireless NICs. Note: the WaveLAN/IEEE really
# exists only as a PCMCIA device, so there is no ISA attachment needed
# and resources will always be dynamically assigned by the pccard code.
device wi
# Aironet 4500/4800 802.11 wireless NICs. Note: the declaration below will
# work for PCMCIA and PCI cards, as well as ISA cards set to ISA PnP
# mode (the factory default). If you set the switches on your ISA
# card for a manually chosen I/O address and IRQ, you must specify
# those parameters here.
device an
# The probe order of these is presently determined by i386/isa/isa_compat.c.
device ie0 at isa? port 0x300 irq 10 iomem 0xd0000
device fe0 at isa? port 0x300
device le0 at isa? port 0x300 irq 5 iomem 0xd0000
device lnc0 at isa? port 0x280 irq 10 drq 0
device cs0 at isa? port 0x300
device sn0 at isa? port 0x300 irq 10
# requires PCCARD (PCMCIA) support to be activated
#device xe0 at isa?ISA Ethernet drivers. See
/usr/src/sys/i386/conf/LINT for which cards are
supported by which driver.# Pseudo devices - the number indicates how many units to allocate.
pseudo-device loop # Network loopbackThis is the generic loopback device for TCP/IP. If you telnet
or FTP to localhost (a.k.a., 127.0.0.1) it will come back at you through
this pseudo-device. This is mandatory.pseudo-device ether # Ethernet supportether is only needed if you have an Ethernet
card. It includes generic Ethernet protocol code.pseudo-device sl 1 # Kernel SLIPsl is for SLIP support. This has been almost
entirely supplanted by PPP, which is easier to set up, better suited
for modem-to-modem connection, and more powerful. The
number after sl
specifies how many simultaneous SLIP sessions to support.pseudo-device ppp 1 # Kernel PPPThis is for kernel PPP support for dial-up connections. There
is also a version of PPP implemented as a userland application that
uses tun and offers more flexibility and features
such as demand dialing. The number after
ppp specifies how many simultaneous PPP
connections to support.pseudo-device tun # Packet tunnel.This is used by the userland PPP software. A
number after tun
specifies the number of simultaneous PPP sessions to support. See
the PPP section of this book for more
information.
pseudo-device pty # Pseudo-ttys (telnet etc)This is a pseudo-terminal or simulated login port.
It is used by incoming telnet and
rlogin sessions,
xterm, and some other applications such
as emacs. A
number after pty indicates the number of
ptys to create. If you need more than the
default of 16 simultaneous xterm windows
and/or remote logins, be sure to increase this number accordingly,
up to a maximum of 256.pseudo-device md # Memory disksMemory disk pseudo-devices.pseudo-device gif 4 # IPv6 and IPv4 tunnelingThis implements IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling, IPv4 over IPv6
tunneling, IPv4 over IPv4 tunneling, and IPv6 over IPv6
tunneling.pseudo-device faith 1 # IPv6-to-IPv4 relaying (translation)This pseudo-device captures packets that are sent to it and
diverts them to the IPv4/IPv6 translation daemon.# The `bpf' pseudo-device enables the Berkeley Packet Filter.
# Be aware of the administrative consequences of enabling this!
pseudo-device bpf # Berkeley packet filterThis is the Berkeley Packet Filter. This pseudo-device allows
network interfaces to be placed in promiscuous mode, capturing every
packet on a broadcast network (e.g., an Ethernet). These packets
can be captured to disk and or examined with the &man.tcpdump.1;
program.The bpf pseudo-device is also used by
&man.dhclient.8; to obtain the IP address of the default router
(gateway) and so on. If you use DHCP, leave this
uncommented.# USB support
#device uhci # UHCI PCI->USB interface
#device ohci # OHCI PCI->USB interface
#device usb # USB Bus (required)
#device ugen # Generic
#device uhid # Human Interface Devices
#device ukbd # Keyboard
#device ulpt # Printer
#device umass # Disks/Mass storage - Requires scbus and da
#device ums # Mouse
# USB Ethernet, requires mii
#device aue # ADMtek USB ethernet
#device cue # CATC USB ethernet
#device kue # Kawasaki LSI USB ethernetSupport for various USB devices.For more information and additional devices supported by
FreeBSD, see
/usr/src/sys/i386/conf/LINT.Making Device Nodesdevice nodesMAKEDEVAlmost every device in the kernel has a corresponding
node entry in the /dev directory.
These nodes look like regular files, but are actually special
entries into the kernel which programs use to access the device.
The shell script /dev/MAKEDEV, which is
executed when you first install the operating system, creates
nearly all of the device nodes supported. However, it does not
create all of them, so when you add support for
a new device, it pays to make sure that the appropriate entries are
in this directory, and if not, add them. Here is a simple
example:Suppose you add the IDE CD-ROM support to the kernel. The line
to add is:device acd0This means that you should look for some entries that start with
acd0 in the /dev
directory, possibly followed by a letter, such as
c, or preceded by the letter
r, which means a raw device. It
turns out that those files are not there, so you must change to the
/dev directory and type:MAKEDEV&prompt.root; sh MAKEDEV acd0When this script finishes, you will find that there are now
acd0c and racd0c entries
in /dev so you know that it executed
correctly.For sound cards, the following command creates the appropriate
entries:&prompt.root; sh MAKEDEV snd0When creating device nodes for devices such as sound cards, if
other people have access to your machine, it may be desirable to
protect the devices from outside access by adding them to the
/etc/fbtab file. See &man.fbtab.5; for more
information.Follow this simple procedure for any other
non-GENERIC devices which do not have
entries.All SCSI controllers use the same set of
/dev entries, so you do not need to create
these. Also, network cards and SLIP/PPP pseudo-devices do not
have entries in /dev at all, so you do not
have to worry about these either.If Something Goes WrongThere are four categories of trouble that can occur when
building a custom kernel. They are:config failsIf the config command fails when you
give it your kernel description, you have probably made a
simple error somewhere. Fortunately,
config will print the line number that it
had trouble with, so you can quickly skip to it with
vi. For example, if you see:config: line 17: syntax errorYou can skip to the problem in vi by
typing 17G in command mode. Make sure the
keyword is typed correctly, by comparing it to the
GENERIC kernel or another
reference.make failsIf the make command fails, it usually
signals an error in your kernel description, but not severe
enough for config to catch it. Again, look
over your configuration, and if you still cannot resolve the
problem, send mail to the &a.questions; with your kernel
configuration, and it should be diagnosed very quickly.The kernel will not bootIf your new kernel does not boot, or fails to recognize
your devices, do not panic! Fortunately, BSD has an excellent
mechanism for recovering from incompatible kernels. Simply
choose the kernel you want to boot from at the FreeBSD boot
loader (i.e.,
boot kernel.old).
When reconfiguring a kernel, it is always a good idea to keep
a kernel that is known to work on hand.After booting with a good kernel you can check over your
configuration file and try to build it again. One helpful
resource is the /var/log/messages file
which records, among other things, all of the kernel messages
from every successful boot. Also, the &man.dmesg.8; command
will print the kernel messages from the current boot.If you are having trouble building a kernel, make sure
to keep a GENERIC, or some other kernel
that is known to work on hand as a different name that will
not get erased on the next build. You cannot rely on
kernel.old because when installing a
new kernel, kernel.old is overwritten
with the last installed kernel which may be non-functional.
Also, as soon as possible, move the working kernel to the
proper kernel location or commands such
as &man.ps.1; will not work properly. The proper command to
unlock the kernel file that
make installs (in order to move another
kernel back permanently) is:&prompt.root; chflags noschg /kernelIf you find you cannot do this, you are probably running
at a &man.securelevel.8; greater than zero. Edit
kern_securelevel in
/etc/rc.conf and set it to
-1, then reboot. You can change it back
to its previous setting when you are happy with your new
kernel.And, if you want to lock your new kernel
into place, or any file for that matter, so that it cannot
be moved or tampered with:&prompt.root; chflags schg /kernelThe kernel works, but ps does not work
any more!If you have installed a different version of the kernel
from the one that the system utilities have been built with,
for example, a 4.X kernel on a 3.X system, many system-status
commands like &man.ps.1; and &man.vmstat.8; will not work any
more. You must recompile the libkvm
library as well as these utilities. This is one reason it is
not normally a good idea to use a different version of the
kernel from the rest of the operating system.
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/linuxemu/chapter.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/linuxemu/chapter.sgml
index e5946af2ef..6e86208a6b 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/linuxemu/chapter.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/linuxemu/chapter.sgml
@@ -1,2344 +1,2344 @@
JimMockRestructured and parts updated by Brian N.HandyOriginally contributed by RichMurpheyLinux Binary CompatibilitySynopsisLinux binary compatibilitybinary compatibilityLinuxFreeBSD provides binary compatibility with several other
Unix-like operating systems, including Linux. At this point,
you may be asking yourself why exactly, does
FreeBSD need to be able to run Linux binaries? The answer to that
question is quite simple. Many companies and developers develop
only for Linux, since it is the latest hot thing in
the computing world. That leaves the rest of us FreeBSD users
bugging these same companies and developers to put out native
FreeBSD versions of their applications. The problem is, that most
of these companies do not really realize how many people would use
their product if there were FreeBSD versions too, and most continue
to only develop for Linux. So what is a FreeBSD user to do? This
is where the Linux binary compatibility of FreeBSD comes into
play.In a nutshell, the compatibility allows FreeBSD users to run
about 90% of all Linux applications without modification. This
includes applications such as Star Office,
the Linux version of Netscape,
Adobe Acrobat,
RealPlayer
5 and 7, VMWare,
Oracle,
WordPerfect, Doom,
Quake, and more. It is also reported
that in some situations, Linux binaries perform better on FreeBSD
than they do under Linux.Linux/proc filesystemThere are, however, some Linux-specific operating system
features that are not supported under FreeBSD. Linux binaries will
not work on FreeBSD if they overly use the Linux
/proc filesystem (which is different from
FreeBSD's /proc filesystem), or i386-specific
calls, such as enabling virtual 8086 mode.After reading this chapter you will know:How to enable Linux binary compatibility on your
system.How to install additional Linux shared
libraries.How to install Linux applications on your
FreeBSD system.The implementation details of Linux
compatibility in FreeBSD.Before reading this chapter you should:
- Know how to install additional third-party software ()
+ Know how to install additional third-party
+ software ().InstallationKLD (kernel loadable object)Linux binary compatibility is not turned on by default. The
easiest way to enable this functionality is to load the
linux KLD object (Kernel LoaDable
object). You can load this module by simply typing
linux at the command prompt.If you would like Linux compatibility to always be enabled,
then you should add the following line to
/etc/rc.conf:linux_enable=YESThis, in turn, triggers the following action in
/etc/rc.i386:# Start the Linux binary compatibility if requested.
#
case ${linux_enable} in
[Yy][Ee][Ss])
echo -n ' linux'; linux > /dev/null 2>&1
;;
esacThe &man.kldstat.8; command can be used to verify that the
KLD is loaded:&prompt.user; kldstat
Id Refs Address Size Name
1 2 0xc0100000 16bdb8 kernel
7 1 0xc24db000 d000 linux.kokernel optionsLINUXIf for some reason you do not want to or cannot load the KLD,
then you may statically link Linux binary compatibility into the kernel
by adding options LINUX to your kernel
configuration file. Then install your new kernel as described in
.Installing Linux Runtime LibrariesLinuxinstalling Linux librariesThis can be done one of two ways, either by using the
linux_base port, or
by installing them manually.Installing Using the linux_base Portports collectionThis is by far the easiest method to use when installing the
runtime libraries. It is just like installing any other port
from the ports collection.
Simply do the following:&prompt.root; cd /usr/ports/emulators/linux_base
&prompt.root; make install distcleanYou should now have working Linux binary compatibility.
Some programs may complain about incorrect minor versions of the
system libraries. In general, however, this does not seem to be
a problem.Installing Libraries ManuallyIf you do not have the ports collection
installed, you can install the libraries by hand instead. You
will need the Linux shared libraries that the program depends on
and the runtime linker. Also, you will need to create a
shadow root directory,
/compat/linux, for Linux libraries on your
FreeBSD system. Any shared libraries opened by Linux programs
run under FreeBSD will look in this tree first. So, if a Linux
program loads, for example, /lib/libc.so,
FreeBSD will first try to open
/compat/linux/lib/libc.so, and if that does
not exist, it will then try /lib/libc.so.
Shared libraries should be installed in the shadow tree
/compat/linux/lib rather than the paths
that the Linux ld.so reports.Generally, you will need to look for the shared libraries
that Linux binaries depend on only the first few times that you
install a Linux program on your FreeBSD system. After a while,
you will have a sufficient set of Linux shared libraries on your
system to be able to run newly imported Linux binaries without
any extra work.How to Install Additional Shared Librariesshared librariesWhat if you install the linux_base port
and your application still complains about missing shared
libraries? How do you know which shared libraries Linux
binaries need, and where to get them? Basically, there are 2
possibilities (when following these instructions you will need
to be root on your FreeBSD system).If you have access to a Linux system, see what shared
libraries the application needs, and copy them to your FreeBSD
system. Look at the following example:Let us assume you used FTP to get the Linux binary of
Doom, and put it on a Linux system you have access to. You
then can check which shared libraries it needs by running
ldd linuxdoom, like so:&prompt.user; ldd linuxdoom
libXt.so.3 (DLL Jump 3.1) => /usr/X11/lib/libXt.so.3.1.0
libX11.so.3 (DLL Jump 3.1) => /usr/X11/lib/libX11.so.3.1.0
libc.so.4 (DLL Jump 4.5pl26) => /lib/libc.so.4.6.29symbolic linksYou would need to get all the files from the last column,
and put them under /compat/linux, with
the names in the first column as symbolic links pointing to
them. This means you eventually have these files on your
FreeBSD system:/compat/linux/usr/X11/lib/libXt.so.3.1.0
/compat/linux/usr/X11/lib/libXt.so.3 -> libXt.so.3.1.0
/compat/linux/usr/X11/lib/libX11.so.3.1.0
/compat/linux/usr/X11/lib/libX11.so.3 -> libX11.so.3.1.0
/compat/linux/lib/libc.so.4.6.29 /compat/linux/lib/libc.so.4 -> libc.so.4.6.29
Note that if you already have a Linux shared library
with a matching major revision number to the first column
of the ldd output, you will not need to
copy the file named in the last column to your system, the
one you already have should work. It is advisable to copy
the shared library anyway if it is a newer version,
though. You can remove the old one, as long as you make
the symbolic link point to the new one. So, if you have
these libraries on your system:/compat/linux/lib/libc.so.4.6.27
/compat/linux/lib/libc.so.4 -> libc.so.4.6.27and you find a new binary that claims to require a
later version according to the output of
ldd:libc.so.4 (DLL Jump 4.5pl26) -> libc.so.4.6.29If it is only one or two versions out of date in the
in the trailing digit then do not worry about copying
/lib/libc.so.4.6.29 too, because the
program should work fine with the slightly older version.
However, if you like, you can decide to replace the
libc.so anyway, and that should leave
you with:/compat/linux/lib/libc.so.4.6.29
/compat/linux/lib/libc.so.4 -> libc.so.4.6.29
The symbolic link mechanism is
only needed for Linux binaries. The
FreeBSD runtime linker takes care of looking for matching
major revision numbers itself and you do not need to worry
about it.
Installing Linux ELF BinariesLinuxELF binariesELF binaries sometimes require an extra step of
branding. If you attempt to run an unbranded ELF
binary, you will get an error message like the following;&prompt.user; ./my-linux-elf-binary
ELF binary type not known
AbortTo help the FreeBSD kernel distinguish between a FreeBSD ELF
binary from a Linux binary, use the &man.brandelf.1;
utility.&prompt.user; brandelf -t Linux my-linux-elf-binaryGNU toolchainThe GNU toolchain now places the appropriate branding
information into ELF binaries automatically, so you this step
should become increasingly more rare in the future.Configuring the Hostname ResolverIf DNS does not work or you get this message:resolv+: "bind" is an invalid keyword resolv+:
"hosts" is an invalid keywordYou will need to configure a
/compat/linux/etc/host.conf file
containing:order hosts, bind
multi onThe order here specifies that /etc/hosts
is searched first and DNS is searched second. When
/compat/linux/etc/host.conf is not
installed, Linux applications find FreeBSD's
/etc/host.conf and complain about the
incompatible FreeBSD syntax. You should remove
bind if you have not configured a name server
using the /etc/resolv.conf file.Installing MathematicaUpdated for Mathematica
version 4.X by &a.murray
and merged with work by Bojan Bistrovic
bojanb@physics.odu.edu.applicationsMathematicaThis document describes the process of installing the Linux
version of Mathematica 4.X onto
a FreeBSD system.The Linux version of Mathematica
runs perfectly under FreeBSD
however the binaries shipped by Wolfram need to be branded so that
FreeBSD knows to use the Linux ABI to execute them.The Linux version of Mathematica
or Mathematica for Students can
be ordered directly from Wolfram at http://www.wolfram.com/.Branding the Linux BinariesThe Linux binaries are located in the Unix
directory of the Mathematica CDROM
distributed by Wolfram. You
need to copy this directory tree to your local hard drive so that
you can brand the Linux binaries with &man.brandelf.1; before
running the installer:&prompt.root; mount /cdrom
&prompt.root; cp -rp /cdrom/Unix/ /localdir/
&prompt.root; brandelf -t Linux /localdir/Files/SystemFiles/Kernel/Binaries/Linux/*
&prompt.root; brandelf -t Linux /localdir/Files/SystemFiles/FrontEnd/Binaries/Linux/*
&prompt.root; brandelf -t Linux /localdir/Files/SystemFiles/Installation/Binaries/Linux/*
&prompt.root; brandelf -t Linux /localdir/Files/SystemFiles/Graphics/Binaries/Linux/*
&prompt.root; brandelf -t Linux /localdir/Files/SystemFiles/Converters/Binaries/Linux/*
&prompt.root; brandelf -t Linux /localdir/Files/SystemFiles/LicenseManager/Binaries/Linux/mathlm
&prompt.root; cd /localdir/Installers/Linux/
&prompt.root; ./MathInstallerAlternatively, you can simply set the default ELF brand
to Linux for all unbranded binaries with the command:&prompt.root; sysctl -w kern.fallback_elf_brand=3This will make FreeBSD assume that unbranded ELF binaries
use the Linux ABI and so you should be able to run the
installer straight from the CDROM.Obtaining Your Mathematica PasswordBefore you can run Mathematica
you will have to obtain a
password from Wolfram that corresponds to your machine
ID.EthernetMAC addressOnce you have installed the Linux compatibility runtime
libraries and unpacked Mathematica
you can obtain the
machine ID by running the program
mathinfo in the Install directory. This
machine ID is based solely on the MAC address of your first
Ethernet card.&prompt.root; cd /localdir/Files/SystemFiles/Installation/Binaries/Linux
&prompt.root; mathinfo
disco.example.com 7115-70839-20412When you register with Wolfram, either by email, phone or fax,
you will give them the machine ID and they will
respond with a corresponding password consisting of groups of
numbers. You can then enter this information when you attempt to
run Mathematica for the first time
exactly as you would for any other
Mathematica platform.Running the Mathematica Frontend over a NetworkMathematica uses some special
fonts to display characters not
present in any of the standard font sets (integrals, sums, Greek
letters, etc.). The X protocol requires these fonts to be install
locally. This means you will have to copy
these fonts from the CDROM or from a host with
Mathematica
installed to your local machine. These fonts are normally stored
in /cdrom/Unix/Files/SystemFiles/Fonts on the
CDROM, or
/usr/local/mathematica/SystemFiles/Fonts on
your hard drive. The actual fonts are in the subdirectories
Type1 and X. There are
several ways to use them, as described below.The first way is to copy them into one of the existing font
directories in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts.
This will require editing the fonts.dir file,
adding the font names to it, and changing the number of fonts on
the first line. Alternatively, you should also just be able to
run mkfontdir in the directory you have copied
them to.The second way to do this is to copy the directories to
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts:&prompt.root; cd /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts
&prompt.root; mkdir X
&prompt.root; mkdir MathType1
&prompt.root; cd /cdrom/Unix/Files/SystemFiles/Fonts
&prompt.root; cp X/* /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/X
&prompt.root; cp Type1/* /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/MathType1
&prompt.root; cd /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/X
&prompt.root; mkfontdir
&prompt.root; cd ../MathType1
&prompt.root; mkfontdirNow add the new font directories to your font path:&prompt.root; xset fp+ /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/X
&prompt.root; xset fp+ /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/MathType1
&prompt.root; xset fp rehashIf you are using the XFree86 server, you can have these font
directories loaded automatically by adding them to your
XF86Config file.fontsIf you do not already have a directory
called /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1, you
can change the name of the MathType1
directory in the example above to
Type1.MarcelMoolenaarContributed by Installing OracleapplicationsOraclePrefaceThis document describes the process of installing Oracle 8.0.5 and
Oracle 8.0.5.1 Enterprise Edition for Linux onto a FreeBSD
machineInstalling the Linux EnvironmentMake sure you have both linux_base and
linux_devtools from the ports collection
installed. These ports are added to the collection after the release
of FreeBSD 3.2. If you are using FreeBSD 3.2 or an older version for
that matter, update your ports collection. You may want to consider
updating your FreeBSD version too. If you run into difficulties with
linux_base-6.1 or
linux_devtools-6.1 you may have to use version
5.2 of these packages.If you want to run the intelligent agent, you will
also need to install the Red Hat Tcl package:
tcl-8.0.3-20.i386.rpm. The general command
for installing packages with the official RPM port is :&prompt.root; rpm -i --ignoreos --root /compat/linux --dbpath /var/lib/rpm packageInstallation of the package should not generate any errors.Creating the Oracle EnvironmentBefore you can install Oracle, you need to set up a proper
environment. This document only describes what to do
specially to run Oracle for Linux on FreeBSD, not
what has been described in the Oracle installation guide.Kernel Tuningkernel tuningAs described in the Oracle installation guide, you need to set
the maximum size of shared memory. Do not use
SHMMAX under FreeBSD. SHMMAX
is merely calculated out of SHMMAXPGS and
PGSIZE. Therefore define
SHMMAXPGS. All other options can be used as
described in the guide. For example:options SHMMAXPGS=10000
options SHMMNI=100
options SHMSEG=10
options SEMMNS=200
options SEMMNI=70
options SEMMSL=61Set these options to suit your intended use of Oracle.Also, make sure you have the following options in your kernel
config-file:options SYSVSHM #SysV shared memory
options SYSVSEM #SysV semaphores
options SYSVMSG #SysV interprocess communicationOracle AccountCreate an Oracle account just as you would create any other
account. The Oracle account is special only that you need to give
it a Linux shell. Add /compat/linux/bin/bash to
/etc/shells and set the shell for the Oracle
account to /compat/linux/bin/bash.EnvironmentBesides the normal Oracle variables, such as
ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_SID you must
set the following environment variables:VariableValueLD_LIBRARY_PATH$ORACLE_HOME/libCLASSPATH$ORACLE_HOME/jdbc/lib/classes111.zipPATH/compat/linux/bin
/compat/linux/sbin
/compat/linux/usr/bin
/compat/linux/usr/sbin
/bin
/sbin
/usr/bin
/usr/sbin
/usr/local/bin
$ORACLE_HOME/binIt is advised to set all the environment variables in
.profile. A complete example is:ORACLE_BASE=/oracle; export ORACLE_BASE
ORACLE_HOME=/oracle; export ORACLE_HOME
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
ORACLE_SID=ORCL; export ORACLE_SID
ORACLE_TERM=386x; export ORACLE_TERM
CLASSPATH=$ORACLE_HOME/jdbc/lib/classes111.zip
export CLASSPATH
PATH=/compat/linux/bin:/compat/linux/sbin:/compat/linux/usr/bin:/compat/linux/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:$ORACLE_HOME/bin
export PATHInstalling OracleDue to a slight inconsistency in the Linux emulator, you need to
create a directory named .oracle in
/var/tmp before you start the installer. Either
make it world writable or let it be owner by the oracle user. You
should be able to install Oracle without any problems. If you have
problems, check your Oracle distribution and/or configuration first!
After you have installed Oracle, apply the patches described in the
next two subsections.A frequent problem is that the TCP protocol adapter is not
installed right. As a consequence, you cannot start any TCP listeners.
The following actions help solve this problem:&prompt.root; cd $ORACLE_HOME/network/lib
&prompt.root; make -f ins_network.mk ntcontab.o
&prompt.root; cd $ORACLE_HOME/lib
&prompt.root; ar r libnetwork.a ntcontab.o
&prompt.root; cd $ORACLE_HOME/network/lib
&prompt.root; make -f ins_network.mk installDo not forget to run root.sh again!Patching root.shWhen installing Oracle, some actions, which need to be performed
as root, are recorded in a shell script called
root.sh. root.sh is
written in the orainst directory. Apply the
following patch to root.sh, to have it use to proper location of
chown or alternatively run the script under a
Linux native shell.*** orainst/root.sh.orig Tue Oct 6 21:57:33 1998
--- orainst/root.sh Mon Dec 28 15:58:53 1998
***************
*** 31,37 ****
# This is the default value for CHOWN
# It will redefined later in this script for those ports
# which have it conditionally defined in ss_install.h
! CHOWN=/bin/chown
#
# Define variables to be used in this script
--- 31,37 ----
# This is the default value for CHOWN
# It will redefined later in this script for those ports
# which have it conditionally defined in ss_install.h
! CHOWN=/usr/sbin/chown
#
# Define variables to be used in this scriptWhen you do not install Oracle from CD, you can patch the source
for root.sh. It is called
rthd.sh and is located in the
orainst directory in the source tree.Patching genclntshThe script genclntsh is used to create
a single shared client
library. It is used when building the demos. Apply the following
patch to comment out the definition of PATH:*** bin/genclntsh.orig Wed Sep 30 07:37:19 1998
--- bin/genclntsh Tue Dec 22 15:36:49 1998
***************
*** 32,38 ****
#
# Explicit path to ensure that we're using the correct commands
#PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/ccs/bin export PATH
! PATH=/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin export PATH
#
# each product MUST provide a $PRODUCT/admin/shrept.lst
--- 32,38 ----
#
# Explicit path to ensure that we're using the correct commands
#PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/ccs/bin export PATH
! #PATH=/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin export PATH
#
# each product MUST provide a $PRODUCT/admin/shrept.lstRunning OracleWhen you have followed the instructions, you should be able to run
Oracle as if it was run on Linux
itself.HolgerKillContributed by ValentinoVaschettoConverted to SGML by Installing SAP R/3 (4.6B - IDES)applicationsSAP R/3PrefaceThis document describes a possible way of installing a
SAP R/3 4.6B IDES-System
with Oracle 8.0.5
for Linux onto a FreeBSD 4.3 machine, including the installation
of FreeBSD 4.3-STABLE and
Oracle 8.0.5.Even though this document tries to describe all important
steps in a greater detail, it is not intended as a replacement
for the Oracle and
SAP R/3 installation guides.Please see the documentation that comes with the
SAP R/3
Linux edition for SAP- and
Oracle-specific questions, as well
as resources from Oracle and
SAP OSS.SoftwareThe following CDROMs have been used for
SAP-installation:NameNumberDescriptionKERNEL51009113SAP Kernel Oracle /
Installation / AIX, Linux, SolarisRDBMS51007558Oracle / RDBMS 8.0.5.X /
LinuxEXPORT151010208IDES / DB-Export / Disc
1 of 6EXPORT251010209IDES / DB-Export / Disc
2 of 6EXPORT351010210IDES / DB-Export /
Disc3 of 6EXPORT451010211IDES / DB-Export /
Disc4 of 6EXPORT551010212IDES / DB-Export /
Disc5 of 6EXPORT651010213IDES / DB-Export /
Disc6 of 6Additionally, I used the Oracle 8
Server (Pre-production version 8.0.5 for Linux,
Kernel Version 2.0.33) CD which is not really necessary, and
of course FreeBSD 4.3 stable (it was only a few days past 4.3
RELEASE).SAP-NotesThe following notes should be read before installing
SAP R/3 or proved to be useful
during installation:NumberTitle0171356SAP Software auf Linux: grundlegenden
Anmerkungen0201147INST: 4.6C R/3 Inst. on UNIX -
Oracle0373203Update / Migration Oracle 8.0.5 -->
8.0.6/8.1.6 LINUX0072984Release of Digital UNIX 4.0B for
Oracle0130581R3SETUP step DIPGNTAB terminates0144978Your system has not been installed
correctly0162266Questions and tips for R3SETUP on Windows
NT / W2KHardware-RequirementsThe following equipment is sufficient for a
SAP R/3 System (4.6B):Component4.6B4.6CProcessor2 x 800MHz Pentium III2 x 800MHz Pentium IIIMemory1GB ECC2GB ECCHard Disc Space50-60GB (IDES)50-60GB (IDES)For use in production, Xeon-Processors with large cache,
high-speed disc access (SCSI, RAID hardware controller), USV
and ECC-RAM is recommended. The large amount of Hard disc
space is due to the preconfigured IDES System, which creates
27 GB of database files during installation. Usually after
installation it is then necessary to extend some
tablespaces.I used a dual processor board with 2 800MHz Pentium III
processors, Adaptec 29160 Ultra160 SCSI adapter (for accessing
a 40/80 GB DLT tape drive and CDROM), Mylex AcelleRAID (2
channels, firmware 6.00-1-00 with 32MB RAM). To the Mylex
Raid-controller are attached two 17GB hard discs (mirrored)
and four 36GB hard discs (RAID level 5).Installation of FreeBSD 4.3-STABLEFirst I installed FreeBSD 4.3 stable. I did the
default-installation via FTP.Installation via FTPGet the diskimages
kern.flp and mfsroot.flp and put them on floppy disks (I got
mine from ftp7.de.freebsd.org. Please choose the appropriate
mirror).&prompt.root; dd if=kern.flp of=/dev/fd0
&prompt.root; dd if=mfsroot.flp of=/dev/fd0Do not forget to use different disks for the two images,
then boot from the floppy with the kern.flp-image on it
and follow instructions. I used the following disk
layout:FilesystemSize (1k-blocks)Size (GB)Mounted on/dev/da0s1a1.016.3031//dev/da0s1b6<swap>/dev/da0s1e2.032.6232/var/dev/da0s1f8.205.3398/usr/dev/da1s1e45.734.36145/compat/linux/oracle/dev/da1s1f2.032.6232/compat/linux/sapmnt/dev/da1s1g2.032.6232/compat/linux/usr/sapI had to configure and initialize the two logical drives
with the Mylex software beforehand. It is located on the
board itself and can be started during the boot phase of the
PC. Please note that this disk layout differs slightly from
the SAP recommendations, as SAP suggests mounting the
oracle-subdirectories (and some others) separately - I
decided to just create them as real subdirectories for
simplicity.Get the Latest STABLE SourcesFor FreeBSD 4.3 stable onwards, it is quite easy to get
the latest stable sources. With the older versions of
FreeBSD, I had my own script located in /etc/cvsup. Setting
up CVSup for FreeBSD 4.3 is quite
easy. As user
root do the following:&prompt.root; cp /etc/defaults/make.conf /etc/make.conf
&prompt.root; vi /etc/make.confThe file /etc/make.conf requires the
following entries to be active:SUP_UPDATE= yes
SUP= /usr/local/bin/cvsup
SUPFLAGS= -g -L 2
SUPHOST= cvsup8.FreeBSD.org
SUPFILE= /usr/share/examples/cvsup/stable-supfile
PORTSSUPFILE= /usr/share/examples/cvsup/ports-supfile
DOCSUPFILE= /usr/share/examples/cvsup/doc-supfileChange the SUPHOST-value
appropriately. The supfiles in
/usr/share/examples/cvsup should be
fine. If you do not want to load all the docfiles, leave the
corresponding DOCSUPFILE-entry
inactive. Starting cvsup
to get the latest stable-sources is then very easy:&prompt.root; cd /usr/src
&prompt.root; make updatemake world and a New KernelThe first thing to do is to install the sources.
As user root, do the following:&prompt.root; cd /usr/src
&prompt.root; make worldIf this goes through, one can then continue creating and
configuring the new kernel. Usually this is where to
customize the kernel configuration file. As the computer is
named troubadix, the natural name for the
config file also is troubadix:&prompt.root; cd /usr/src/sys/i386/conf
&prompt.root; cp GENERIC TROUBADIX
&prompt.root; vi TROUBADIXAt this stage one can define the drivers to use and not
to use, etc. See the appropriate documentation or have a
look at file LINT for some additional
explanations.One can then also include the parameters as described
below Creating the new kernel then requires:&prompt.root; cd /usr/src/sys/i386/conf
&prompt.root; config TROUBADIX
&prompt.root; cd /usr/src/sys/compile/TROUBADIX
&prompt.root; make depend
&prompt.root; make
&prompt.root; make installAfter make install finished
successfully, one should reboot the computer to have the new
kernel available.Installing the Linux EnvironmentI had some trouble downloading the required RPM-files (for
4.3 stable, 2nd May 2001), so you might try one of the
following locations (if all the others fail and the following
are not out of date):ftp7.de.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/distfiles/rpmftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/6.1/en/os/i386/RedHat/RPMSInstalling Linux Base-systemFirst the Linux base-system needs to be installed (as root):
&prompt.root; cd /usr/ports/emulators/linux_base
&prompt.root; make packageInstalling Linux DevelopmentNext, the Linux development is needed:&prompt.root; cd /usr/ports/devel/linux_devtools
&prompt.root; make packageInstalling Necessary RPMsRPMsTo start the R3SETUP-Program, pam support is needed. As
this also requires some other packages, I ended up
installing several packages. After that, pam still
complained about a missing package, so I forced the
installation and it worked. I wonder if the other packages
are really needed or if it would have been sufficient to
install the pam-package.Anyway, here is the list of packages I installed:cracklib-2.7-5.i386.rpmcracklib-dicts-2.7-5.i386.rpmpwdb-0.60-1.i386.rpmpam-0.68-7.i386.rpmI installed these packages with the following
command:&prompt.root; rpm -i --ignoreos --root /compat/linux --dbpath /var/lib/rpm <package_name>except for the pam package, which I forced with&prompt.root; rpm -i --ignoreos --nodeps --root /compat/linux --dbpath /var/lib/rpm pam-0.68-7.i386.rpmFor Oracle to run the
intelligent agent, I also had to install the following
RedHat Tcl package (as is stated in the FreeBSD Handbook):
tcl-8.0.5-30.i386.rpm (otherwise the
relinking during Oracle install
will not work). There are some other issues regarding
relinking of Oracle, but that is
a Oracle-Linux issue, not FreeBSD specific as far as I
understand it.Creating the SAP/R3 EnvironmentCreating the Necessary Filesystems and MountpointsFor a simple installation, it is sufficient to create the
following filesystems:mountpointsize in GB/compat/linux/oracle45 GB/compat/linux/sapmnt2 GB/compat/linux/usr/sap2 GBI also created some links, so FreeBSD will also find the
correct path:&prompt.root; ln -s /compat/linux/oracle /oracle
&prompt.root; ln -s /compat/linux/sapmnt /sapmnt
&prompt.root; ln -s /compat/linux/usr/sap /usr/sapCreating Users and DirectoriesSAP R/3 needs two users and
three groups. The usernames depend on the
SAP system id (SID) which consists
of three letters. Some of these SIDs are reserved
by SAP (for example
SAP and NIX. For a
complete list please see the SAP documentation). For the IDES
installation I used IDS. We have
therefore the following groups (group ids might differ, these
are just the values I used with my installation):group idgroup namedescription100dbaData Base Administrator101sapsysSAP System102operData Base OperatorFor a default Oracle-Installation, only group
dba is used. As
oper-group, one also uses group
dba (see Oracle- and
SAP-documentation for further information).We also need the following users:user idusernamegeneric namegroupadditional groupsdescription1000idsadm<sid>admsapsysoperSAP Administrator1002oraidsora<sid>dbaoperDB AdministratorAdding the users with adduser
requires the following (please note shell and home
directory) entries for SAP-Administrator:Name: idsadm <sid>adm
Password: ******
Fullname: SAP IDES Administrator
Uid: 1000
Gid: 101 (sapsys)
Class:
Groups: sapsys dba
HOME: /home/idsadm /home/<sid>adm
Shell: /bin/shand for Database-Administrator:Name: oraids ora<sid>
Password: ******
Fullname: Oracle IDES Administrator
Uid: 1002
Gid: 100 (dba)
Class:
Groups: dba
HOME: /oracle/IDS /oracle/<sid>
Shell: /bin/shThis should also include group
oper in case you are using both
groups dba and
oper.Creating DirectoriesThese directories are usually created as separate
filesystems. This depends entirely on your requirements. I
choose to create them as simple directories, as they are all
located on the same RAID 5 anyway:First we will set owners and right of some directories (as
user root):&prompt.root; chmod 775 /oracle
&prompt.root; chmod 777 /sapmnt
&prompt.root; chown root:dba /oracle
&prompt.root; chown idsadm:sapsys /compat/linux/usr/sap
&prompt.root; chmow 775 /compat/linux/usr/sapSecond we will create directories as user ora<sid>. These
will all be subdirectories of /oracle/IDS:&prompt.root; su - oraids
&prompt.root; mkdir mirrlogA mirrlogB origlogA origlogB
&prompt.root; mkdir sapdata1 sapdata2 sapdata3 sapdata4 sapdata5 sapdata6
&prompt.root; mkdir saparch sapreorg
&prompt.root; exitIn the third step we create directories as user
idsadm (<sid>adm):&prompt.root; su - idsadm
&prompt.root; cd /usr/sap
&prompt.root; mkdir IDS
&prompt.root; mkdir trans
&prompt.root; exitEntries in /etc/servicesSAP R/3 requires some entries in file
/etc/services , which will not be set
correctly during installation under FreeBSD. Please add the
following entries (you need at least those entries
corresponding to the instance number - in this case,
00. It'll do no harm adding all
entries from 00 to
99 for dp,
gw, sp and
ms);sapdp00 3200/tcp # SAP Dispatcher. 3200 + Instance-Number
sapgw00 3300/tcp # SAP Gateway. 3300 + Instance-Number
sapsp00 3400/tcp # 3400 + Instance-Number
sapms00 3500/tcp # 3500 + Instance-Number
sapmsIDS 3600/tcp # SAP Message Server. 3600 + Instance-NumberNecessary LocaleslocaleSAP requires at least two locales that are not part of
the default RedHat installation. SAP offers the required
RPMs as download from their FTP-server (which is only
accessible if you are a customer with OSS-access). See note
0171356 for a list of RPMs you need.It is also possible to just create appropriate links
(for example from de_DE and
en_US ), but I would not recommend this
for a production system (so far it worked with the IDES
system without any problems, though). The following locales
are needed:de_DE.ISO-8859-1
en_US.ISO-8859-1If they are not present, there will be some problems
during the installation. If these are then subsequently
ignored (eg by setting the status of the offending steps to
OK in file CENTRDB.R3S), it will be impossible to log onto
the SAP-system without some additional effort.Kernel Tuningkernel tuningSAP R/3 Systems need a lot of resources. I therefore
added the following parameters to my kernel config-file:
# Set these for memory pigs (SAP and Oracle):
options MAXDSIZ="(1024*1024*1024)"
options DFLDSIZ="(1024*1024*1024)" # System V options needed.
options SYSVSHM #SYSV-style shared memory
options SHMMAXPGS=262144 #max amount of shared mem. pages
options SHMMNI=256 #max number of shared memory ident if.
options SHMSEG=100 #max shared mem.segs per process
options SYSVMSG #SYSV-style message queues
options MSGSEG=32767 #max num. of mes.segments in system
options MSGSSZ=32 #size of msg-seg. MUST be power of 2
options MSGMNB=65535 #max char. per message queue
options MSGTQL=2046 #max amount of msgs in system
options SYSVSEM #SYSV-style semaphores
options SEMMNU=256 #number of semaphore UNDO structures
options SEMMNS=1024 #number of semaphores in system
options SEMMNI=520 #number of semaphore indentifiers
options SEMUME=100 #number of UNDO keysThe minimum values are specified in the documentation that
comes from SAP. As there is no description for Linux, see the
HP-UX-section (32-bit) for further information.
Installing SAP R/3Preparing SAP CDROMsThere are lots of CDROMs to mount and unmount during
installation. Assuming you have enough CDROM-drives, you
can just mount them all. I decided to copy the CDROM
contents to corresponding directories:/oracle/IDS/sapreorg/<cd-name>where <cd-name> was one of KERNEL,
RDBMS, EXPORT1,
EXPORT2, EXPORT3,
EXPORT4, EXPORT5 and
EXPORT6. All the
filenames should be in capital letters, otherwise use the -g
option for mounting. So use the following commands:&prompt.root; mount_cd9660 -g /dev/cd0a /mnt
&prompt.root; cp -R /mnt/* /oracle/IDS/sapreorg/<cd-name>
&prompt.root; umount /mntRunning the install-scriptFirst we need to prepare an install-directory:&prompt.root; cd /oracle/IDS/sapreorg
&prompt.root; mkdir install
&prompt.root; cd installThen the install-script is started, which will copy nearly
all the relevant files into the install-directory:/oracle/IDS/sapreorg/KERNEL/UNIX/INSTTOOL.SHAs this is an IDES-Installation with a fully customized
SAP R/3 Demo-System, we have six instead of just three
EXPORT-CDs. At this point the installation template
CENTRDB.R3S is for installing a standard central instance
(R/3 and Database), not an IDES central instance, so copy
the corresponding CENTRDB.R3S from the EXPORT1 directory,
otherwise R3SETUP will only ask for three EXPORT-CDs.Start R3SETUPMake sure LD_LIBRARY_PATH is set correctly:&prompt.root; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/oracle/IDS/lib:/sapmnt/IDS/exe:/oracle/805_32/libStart R3SETUP as user root from installation
directory:&prompt.root; cd /oracle/IDS/sapreorg/install
&prompt.root; ./R3SETUP -f CENTRDB.R3SThe script then asks some questions (defaults in brackets,
followed by actual input):QuestionDefaultInputEnter SAP System ID[C11]IDS<ret>Enter SAP Instance Number[00]<ret>Enter SAPMOUNT Directory[/sapmnt]<ret>Enter name of SAP central host[troubadix.domain.de]<ret>Enter name of SAP db host[troubadix]<ret>Select character set[1] (WE8DEC)<ret>Enter Oracle server version (1) Oracle 8.0.5, (2) Oracle 8.0.6, (3) Oracle 8.1.5, (4) Oracle 8.1.61<ret>Extract Oracle Client archive[1] (Yes, extract)<ret>Enter path to KERNEL CD[/sapcd]/oracle/IDS/sapreorg/KERNELEnter path to RDBMS CD[/sapcd]/oracle/IDS/sapreorg/RDBMSEnter path to EXPORT1 CD[/sapcd]/oracle/IDS/sapreorg/EXPORT1Directory to copy EXPORT1 CD[/oracle/IDS/sapreorg/CD4_DIR]<ret>Enter path to EXPORT2 CD[/sapcd]/oracle/IDS/sapreorg/EXPORT2Directory to copy EXPORT2 CD[/oracle/IDS/sapreorg/CD5_DIR]<ret>Enter path to EXPORT3 CD[/sapcd]/oracle/IDS/sapreorg/EXPORT3Directory to copy EXPORT3 CD[/oracle/IDS/sapreorg/CD6_DIR]<ret>Enter path to EXPORT4 CD[/sapcd]/oracle/IDS/sapreorg/EXPORT4Directory to copy EXPORT4 CD[/oracle/IDS/sapreorg/CD7_DIR]<ret>Enter path to EXPORT5 CD[/sapcd]/oracle/IDS/sapreorg/EXPORT5Directory to copy EXPORT5 CD[/oracle/IDS/sapreorg/CD8_DIR]<ret>Enter path to EXPORT6 CD[/sapcd]/oracle/IDS/sapreorg/EXPORT6Directory to copy EXPORT6 CD[/oracle/IDS/sapreorg/CD9_DIR]<ret>Enter amount of RAM for SAP + DB850<ret> (in Megabytes)Service Entry Message Server[3600]<ret>Enter Group-ID of sapsys[101]<ret>Enter Group-ID of oper[102]<ret>Enter Group-ID of dba[100]<ret>Enter User-ID of <sid>adm[1000]<ret>Enter User-ID of ora<sid>[1002]<ret>Number of parallel procs[2]<ret>If I had not copied the CDs to the different locations,
then the SAP-Installer cannot find the CD needed (identified
by the LABEL.ASC-File on CD) and would
then ask you to insert / mount the CD and confirm or enter
the mount path.The CENTRDB.R3S might not be
error-free. In my case, it requested EXPORT4 again (but
indicated the correct key (6_LOCATI ON, then 7_LOCATION
etc.), so one can just continue with entering the correct
values. Do not get irritated.Apart from some problems mentioned below, everything
should go straight through up to the point where the Oracle
database software needs to be installed.Installing Oracle 8.0.5Please see the corresponding SAP-Notes and Oracle Readmes
regarding Linux and Oracle DB for possible problems. Most if
not all problems stem from incompatible librariesFor more information on installing Oracle, refer to the Installing Oracle
chapter.Installing the Oracle 8.0.5 with orainstIf Oracle 8.0.5 is to be
used, some additional libraries are needed for successfully
relinking, as Oracle 8.0.5 was linked with an old glibc
(RedHat 6.0), but RedHat 6.1 already uses a new glibc. So
you have to install the following additional packages to
ensure that linking will work:compat-libs-5.2-2.i386.rpmcompat-glibc-5.2-2.0.7.2.i386.rpmcompat-egcs-5.2-1.0.3a.1.i386.rpmcompat-egcs-c++-5.2-1.0.3a.1.i386.rpmcompat-binutils-5.2-2.9.1.0.23.1.i386.rpmSee the corresponding SAP-Notes or Oracle Readmes for
further information. If this is no option (at the time of
installation I did not have enough time to check this), one
could use the original binaries, or use the relinked
binaries from an original RedHat System.For compiling the intelligent agent, the RedHat Tcl
package must be installed. If you cannot get
tcl-8.0.3-20.i386.rpm, a newer one like
tcl-8.0.5-30.i386.rpm for RedHat 6.1
should also do.Apart from relinking, the installation is
straightforward:&prompt.root; su - oraids
&prompt.root; export TERM=xterm
&prompt.root; export ORACLE_TERM=xterm
&prompt.root; export ORACLE_HOME=/oracle/IDS
&prompt.root; cd /ORACLE_HOME/orainst_sap
&prompt.root; ./orainstConfirm all Screens with Enter until the software is
installed, except that one has to deselect the
Oracle On-Line Text Viewer , as this is
not currently available for Linux. Oracle then wants to
relink with i386-glibc20-linux-gcc
instead of the available gcc,
egcs or i386-redhat-linux-gcc
.Due to time constrains I decided to use the binaries
from an Oracle 8.0.5 PreProduction
release, after the first
attempt at getting the version from the RDBMS-CD working,
failed, and finding / accessing the correct RPMs was a
nightmare at that time.Installing the Oracle 8.0.5 Pre-Production release for
Linux (Kernel 2.0.33)This installation is quite easy. Mount the CD, start the
installer. It will then ask for the location of the Oracle
home directory, and copy all binaries there. I did not
delete the remains of my previous RDBMS-installation tries,
though.Afterwards, Oracle Database could be started with no
problems.Continue with SAP R/3 InstallationFirst check the environment settings of users
idsamd
(<sid>adm) and
oraids (ora<sid>). They should now
both have the files .profile ,
.login and .cshrc
which are all using hostname. In case the
system's hostname is the fully qualified name, you need to
change hostname to hostname
-s within all three files.Database LoadAfterwards, R3SETUP can either be restarted or continued
(depending on whether exit was chosen or not). R3SETUP then
creates the tablespaces and loads the data from EXPORT1 to
EXPORT6 (remember, it is an IDES system, otherwise it would
only be EXPORT1 to EXPORT3) with R3load into the
database.When the database load is finished (might take a few
hours), some passwords are requested. For test
installations, one can use the well known default passwords
(use different ones if security is an issue!):QuestionInputEnter Password for sapr3sap<ret>Confirum Password for sapr3sap<ret>Enter Password for syschange_on_install<ret>Confirm Password for syschange_on_install<ret>Enter Password for systemmanager<ret>Confirm Password for systemmanager<ret>At this point I had a few problems with
dipgntab.ListenerStart the Oracle-Listener as user
oraids (ora<sid>) as follows:umask 0; lsnrctl startOtherwise you might get ORA-12546 as the sockets will not
have the correct permissions. See SAP note 072984.Post-installation StepsRequest SAP R/3 License KeyThis is needed, as the temporary license is only valid for
four weeks. Do not forget to enter the correct Operating System:
(X) Other: FreeBSD 4.3 Stable. First get
the hardware key. Log on as user idsadm and
call saplicense:&prompt.root; /sapmnt/IDS/exe/saplicense -getCalling saplicense without options
gives a list of options. Upon receiving the license key, it can
be installed using&prompt.root; /sapmnt/IDS/exe/saplicense -installYou are then required to enter the following
values:SAP SYSTEM ID = <SID, 3 chars>
CUSTOMER KEY = <hardware key, 11 chars>
INSTALLATION NO = <installation, 10 digits>
EXPIRATION DATE = <yyyymmdd, usually "99991231">
LICENSE KEY = <license key, 24 chars>Creating UsersCreate a user within client 000 (for some tasks required
to be done within client 000, but with a user different from
users sap* and
ddic). As a username, I usually choose
wartung (or
service in English). Profiles
required are sap_new and
sap_all. For additional safety the
passwords of default users within all clients should be
changed (this includes users sap* and
ddic).Configure Transport System, Profile, Operation Modes, Etc.Within client 000, user different from ddic
and sap*, do at least the following:TaskTransactionConfigure Transport System, eg as Stand-Alone
Transport Domain EntitySTMSCreate / Edit Profile for SystemRZ10Maintain Operation Modes and InstancesRZ04These and all the other post-installation steps are
thoroughly described in SAP installation guides.Edit init<sid>.sap (initIDS.sap)The file
/oracle/IDS/dbs/initIDS.sap contains
the SAP backup profile. Here the size of the tape to be
used, type of compression and so on need to be defined. To
get this running with sapdba /
brbackup, I changed the following
values:compress = hardware
archive_function = copy_delete_save
cpio_flags = "-ov --format=newc --block-size=128 --quiet"
cpio_in_flags = "-iuv --block-size=128 --quiet"
tape_size = 38000M
tape_address = /dev/nsa0
tape_address_rew = /dev/sa0Explanations:compress The tape I use is a HP DLT1
which does hardware compression.archive_function This defines the
default behavior for saving Oracle archive logs: New logfiles
are saved to tape, already saved logfiles are saved again and
are then deleted. This prevents lots of trouble if one needs to
recover the database, and one of the archive-tapes has gone
bad.cpio_flags Default is to use -B which
sets blocksize to 5120 Bytes. For DLT-Tapes, HP recommends at
least 32K blocksize, so I used --block-size=128 for
64K. --format=newc is needed I have inode numbers greater than
65535. The last option --quiet is needed as otherwise
brbackup
complains as soon as cpio outputs the
numbers of blocks saved.cpio_in_flags Flags needed for
loading data back from tape. Format is recognized
automagically.tape_size This usually gives the raw
storage capability of the tape. For security reason (we use
hardware compression), thevalue is slightly lower than the
actual value.tape_address The non-rewindable
device to be used with cpio.tape_address_rew The rewindable device to be
used with cpio.Problems During InstallationOSUSERSIDADM_IND_ORA During R3SETUPIf R3SETUP complains at this stage, edit file
CENTRDB.R3S. Locate [OSUSERSIDADM_IND_ORA] and edit the
following values:HOME=/home/idsadm (was empty)
STATUS=OK (had status ERROR)
Then you can restart R3SETUP with:&prompt.root; ./R3SETUP -f CENTRDB.R3SOSUSERDBSID_IND_ORA During R3SETUPPossibly R3SETUP also complains at this stage. Just edit
CENTRDB.R3S. Locate [OSUSERDBSID_IND_ORA] and edit the
following value in that section:STATUS=OKThen just restart R3SETUP again:&prompt.root; ./R3SETUP -f CENTRDB.R3Soraview.vrf FILE NOT FOUND During Oracle InstallationYou have not deselected Oracle On-Line Text Viewer
before starting the installation. This is marked for installation even
though this option is currently not available for Linux. Deselect this
product inside the Oracle installation menu and restart installation.TEXTENV_INVALID During R3SETUP, RFC or SAPGUI StartIf this error is encountered, the correct locale is
missing. SAP note 0171356 lists the necessary RPMs that need
be installed (eg saplocales-1.0-3,
saposcheck-1.0-1 for RedHat 6.1). In case
you ignored all the related errors and set the corresponding
status from ERROR to OK (in CENTRDB.R3S) every time R3SETUP
complained and just restarted R3SETUP, the SAP-System will not
be properly configured and you will then not be able to
connect to the system with a
sapgui, even though the system
can be started. Trying to connect with the old Linux
sapgui gave the following
messages:Sat May 5 14:23:14 2001
*** ERROR => no valid userarea given [trgmsgo. 0401]
Sat May 5 14:23:22 2001
*** ERROR => ERROR NR 24 occured [trgmsgi. 0410]
*** ERROR => Error when generating text environment. [trgmsgi. 0435]
*** ERROR => function failed [trgmsgi. 0447]
*** ERROR => no socket operation allowed [trxio.c 3363]
SpeicherzugriffsfehlerThis behavior is due to SAP R/3 being unable to
correctly assign a locale and also not being properly
configured itself (missing entries in some database
tables). To be able to connect to SAP, add the following
entries to file DEFAULT.PFL (see note 0043288):abap/set_etct_env_at_new_mode =0
install/collate/active =0
rscp/TCP0B =TCP0B
Restart the SAP system. Now one can connect to the
system, even though country-specific language settings might
not work as expected. After correcting country-settings
(and providing the correct locales), these entries can be
removed from DEFAULT.PFL and the SAP system can be
restarted.ORA-12546. Start Listener with Correct PermissionsStart the Oracle Listener as user
oraids with the following commands:&prompt.root; umask 0; lsnrctl startOtherwise one might get ORA-12546 as the sockets will not
have the correct permissions. See SAP note 0072984.[DIPGNTAB_IND_IND] During R3SETUPIn general, see SAP note 0130581 (R3SETUP step
DIPGNTAB
terminates). During this specific installation, for some
reasons the installation process was not using the proper
SAP system name "IDS", but the empty string "" instead. This
lead to some minor problems with accessing directories, as
the paths are generated dynamically using <sid> (in
this case IDS). So instead of accessing:/usr/sap/IDS/SYS/...
/usr/sap/IDS/DVMGS00the following path were used:/usr/sap//SYS/...
/usr/sap/D00iTo continue with the installation, I created a link and an
additional directory:&prompt.root; pwd
/compat/linux/usr/sap
&prompt.root; ls -l
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 3 idsadm sapsys 512 May 5 11:20 D00
drwxr-x--x 5 idsadm sapsys 512 May 5 11:35 IDS
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root sapsys 7 May 5 11:35 SYS -> IDS/SYS
drwxrwxr-x 2 idsadm sapsys 512 May 5 13:00 tmp
drwxrwxr-x 11 idsadm sapsys 512 May 4 14:20 trans I also found SAP notes (0029227 and 0008401) describing
this behavior.[RFCRSWBOINI_IND_IND] During R3SETUPSet STATUS of the offending step from ERROR to OK (file
CENTRDB.R3S) and restart R3SETUP. After
installation, you have to execute the report
RSWBOINS from transaction SE38. See SAP
note 0162266 for additional information about phase
RFCRSWBOINI and
RFCRADDBDIF.[RFCRADDBDIF_IND_IND] During R3SETUPSet STATUS of the offending step from ERROR to OK (file
CENTRDB.R3S) and restart R3SETUP. After
installation, you have to execute the report
RADDBDIF from transaction SE38.
See SAP note 0162266 for further information.Advanced TopicsIf you are curious as to how the Linux binary compatibility
works, this is the section you want to read. Most of what follows
is based heavily on an email written to &a.chat; by Terry Lambert
tlambert@primenet.com (Message ID:
<199906020108.SAA07001@usr09.primenet.com>).How Does It Work?execution class loaderFreeBSD has an abstraction called an execution class
loader. This is a wedge into the &man.execve.2; system
call.What happens is that FreeBSD has a list of loaders, instead of
a single loader with a fallback to the #!
loader for running any shell interpreters or shell scripts.Historically, the only loader on the Unix platform examined
the magic number (generally the first 4 or 8 bytes of the file) to
see if it was a binary known to the system, and if so, invoked the
binary loader.If it was not the binary type for the system, the
&man.execve.2; call returned a failure, and the shell attempted to
start executing it as shell commands.The assumption was a default of whatever the current
shell is.Later, a hack was made for &man.sh.1; to examine the first two
characters, and if they were :\n, then it
invoked the &man.csh.1; shell instead (we believe SCO first made
this hack).What FreeBSD does now is go through a list of loaders, with a
generic #! loader that knows about interpreters
as the characters which follow to the next whitespace next to
last, followed by a fallback to
/bin/sh.ELFFor the Linux ABI support, FreeBSD sees the magic number as an
ELF binary (it makes no distinction between FreeBSD, Solaris,
Linux, or any other OS which has an ELF image type, at this
point).SolarisThe ELF loader looks for a specialized
brand, which is a comment section in the ELF
image, and which is not present on SVR4/Solaris ELF
binaries.For Linux binaries to function, they must be
branded as type Linux;
from &man.brandelf.1;:&prompt.root; brandelf -t Linux fileWhen this is done, the ELF loader will see the
Linux brand on the file.ELFbrandingWhen the ELF loader sees the Linux brand,
the loader replaces a pointer in the proc
structure. All system calls are indexed through this pointer (in
a traditional Unix system, this would be the
sysent[] structure array, containing the system
calls). In addition, the process flagged for special handling of
the trap vector for the signal trampoline code, and sever other
(minor) fix-ups that are handled by the Linux kernel
module.The Linux system call vector contains, among other things, a
list of sysent[] entries whose addresses reside
in the kernel module.When a system call is called by the Linux binary, the trap
code dereferences the system call function pointer off the
proc structure, and gets the Linux, not the
FreeBSD, system call entry points.In addition, the Linux mode dynamically
reroots lookups; this is, in effect, what the
union option to FS mounts
(not the unionfs!) does. First, an attempt
is made to lookup the file in the
/compat/linux/original-path
directory, then only if that fails, the
lookup is done in the
/original-path
directory. This makes sure that binaries that require other
binaries can run (e.g., the Linux toolchain can all run under
Linux ABI support). It also means that the Linux binaries can
load and exec FreeBSD binaries, if there are no corresponding
Linux binaries present, and that you could place a &man.uname.1;
command in the /compat/linux directory tree
to ensure that the Linux binaries could not tell they were not
running on Linux.In effect, there is a Linux kernel in the FreeBSD kernel; the
various underlying functions that implement all of the services
provided by the kernel are identical to both the FreeBSD system
call table entries, and the Linux system call table entries: file
system operations, virtual memory operations, signal delivery,
System V IPC, etc… The only difference is that FreeBSD
binaries get the FreeBSD glue functions, and
Linux binaries get the Linux glue functions
(most older OS's only had their own glue
functions: addresses of functions in a static global
sysent[] structure array, instead of addresses
of functions dereferenced off a dynamically initialized pointer in
the proc structure of the process making the
call).Which one is the native FreeBSD ABI? It does not matter.
Basically the only difference is that (currently; this could
easily be changed in a future release, and probably will be after
this) the FreeBSD glue functions are
statically linked into the kernel, and the Linux glue functions
can be statically linked, or they can be accessed via a kernel
module.Yeah, but is this really emulation? No. It is an ABI
implementation, not an emulation. There is no emulator (or
simulator, to cut off the next question) involved.So why is it sometimes called Linux emulation?
To make it hard to sell FreeBSD! Really, it
is because the historical implementation was done at a time when
there was really no word other than that to describe what was
going on; saying that FreeBSD ran Linux binaries was not true, if
you did not compile the code in or load a module, and there needed
to be a word to describe what was being loaded—hence
the Linux emulator.
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/multimedia/chapter.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/multimedia/chapter.sgml
index 3b4f8a3e32..5ceb0bf41c 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/multimedia/chapter.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/multimedia/chapter.sgml
@@ -1,368 +1,368 @@
MosesMooreContributed by SoundSynopsisFreeBSD supports a wide variety of sound cards, allowing you
to enjoy high fidelity output from your computer. This includes
the ability to record and playback audio in the MPEG Audio Layer
3 (MP3), WAV, and Ogg Vorbis formats as well as many other
formats. The FreeBSD Ports Collection also contains
applications allowing you to edit your recorded audio, add sound
effects, and control attached MIDI devices.After reading this chapter you will know:How to locate your sound card.How to configure your system so that your sound card is
recognized.Methods to test that your card is working using
sample applications.How to troubleshoot your sound setup.Before reading this chapter you should:Know how to configure and install a new kernel ()
+ linkend="kernelconfig">).
Locating the Correct DevicePCIISAsound cardsBefore you begin, you should know the model of the card you
have, the chip it uses, and whether it is a PCI or ISA card.
FreeBSD supports a wide variety of both PCI and ISA cards. If you
do not see your card in the following list, check the &man.pcm.4;
manual page. This is not a complete list; however, it does list
some of the most common cards.Crystal 4237, 4236, 4232, 4231Yamaha OPL-SAxOPTi931Ensoniq AudioPCI 1370/1371ESS Solo-1/1ENeoMagic 256AV/ZXSound Blaster Pro, 16, 32, AWE64, AWE128, LiveCreative ViBRA16Advanced Asound 100, 110, and Logic ALS120ES 1868, 1869, 1879, 1888Gravis UltraSoundAureal Vortex 1 or 2kernelconfigurationThe driver you use in your kernel depends on the kind of card
you have. The sections below provide more information and what
you will need to add to your kernel
configuration.Creative, Advance, and ESS Sound CardsIf you have one of the above cards, you will need to
adddevice pcmto your kernel. If you have a PnP ISA card, you will also
need to adddevice sbcto your kernel. For a non-PnP ISA card, adddevice pcmanddevice sbc0 at isa? port0x220 irq 5 drq 1 flags 0x15to your kernel. Those are the default settings. You may
need to change the IRQ, etc. See the &man.sbc.4; manual page for
more information.The Sound Blaster Live is not supported under FreeBSD 4.0
without a patch, which this document will not cover. It is
recommended that you update to the latest -STABLE before
trying to use this card.Gravis UltraSound CardsFor a PnP ISA card, you will need to adddevice pcmanddevice guscto your kernel. If you have a non-PnP ISA card, you will
need to adddevice pcmanddevice gus0 at isa? port 0x220 irq 5 drq 1 flags 0x13to your kernel. You may need to change the IRQ, etc. See
the &man.gusc.4; manual page for more information.Crystal Sound CardsFor Crystal cards, you will need bothdevice pcmanddevice csain your kernel.Generic SupportFor PnP ISA or PCI cards, you will need to adddevice pcmto your kernel configuration. If you have a non-PnP ISA
sound card that does not have a bridge driver, you will need
to adddevice pcm0 at isa? irq 10 drq 1 flags 0x0to your kernel configuration. You may need to change the
IRQ, etc., to match your hardware configuration.Recompiling the KernelAfter adding the driver(s) you need to your kernel
configuration, you will need to recompile your kernel. Please see
of the handbook for
more information.Creating and Testing the Device Nodesdevice nodesAfter you reboot, log in and run cat
/dev/sndstat. You should see output similar to the
following:FreeBSD Audio Driver (newpcm) Sep 21 2000 18:29:53
Installed devices:
pcm0: <Aureal Vortex 8830> at memory 0xfeb40000 irq 5 (4p/1r +channels duplex)If you see an error message, something went wrong earlier. If
that happens, go through your kernel configuration file again and
make sure you chose the correct device.If it reported no errors and returned
pcm0, su to
root and do the following:&prompt.root; cd /dev
&prompt.root; sh MAKEDEV snd0If it reported no errors and returned
pcm1, su to
root and do the following:&prompt.root; cd /dev
&prompt.root; sh MAKEDEV snd1Please note that either of the above commands will
not create a
/dev/snd device! Instead it creates a
group of device nodes including:DeviceDescription/dev/audioSPARC-compatible audio device/dev/dspDigitized voice device/dev/dspWLike /dev/dsp, but 16 bits
per sample/dev/midiRaw midi access device/dev/mixerControl port mixer device/dev/musicLevel 2 sequencer interface/dev/sequencerSequencer device/dev/pssProgrammable device interfaceIf all goes well, you should now have a functioning sound
card. If you do not, see the next section.Common Problemsdevice nodeI get an unsupported subdevice XX error!One or more of the device nodes was not created
correctly. Repeat the steps above.I/O portI get a sb_dspwr(XX) timed out error!The I/O port is not set correctly.IRQI get a bad irq XX error!The IRQ is set incorrectly. Make sure that the set IRQ
and the sound IRQ are the same.I get a xxx: gus pcm not attached, out of
memory
error. What causes that?If this happens, it is because there is not enough
available memory to use the device.
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/printing/chapter.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/printing/chapter.sgml
index e3f4ee989b..b70d51c713 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/printing/chapter.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/printing/chapter.sgml
@@ -1,4886 +1,4886 @@
SeanKellyContributed by JimMockRestructured and updated by PrintingSynopsisLPD spooling systemprintingFreeBSD can be used to print to a wide variety of printers, from the
oldest impact printer to the latest laser printers, and everything in
between, allowing you to produce high quality printed output from the
applications you run.FreeBSD can also be configured to act as a print server on a
network; in this capacity FreeBSD can receive print jobs from a variety
of other computers, including other FreeBSD computers, Windows and MacOS
hosts. FreeBSD will ensure that one job at a time is printed, and can
keep statistics on which users and machines are doing the most printing,
produce banner pages showing who's printout is who's, and
more.After reading this chapter you will know:
- How to configure the FreeBSD print spooler
+ How to configure the FreeBSD print spooler.How to install print filters, to handle special print jobs
differently, including converting incoming documents to print
- formats that your printers understand
+ formats that your printers understand.
- How to enable header, or banner pages on your printout
+ How to enable header, or banner pages on your printout.
- How to print to printers connected to other computers
+ How to print to printers connected to other computers.How to print to printers connected directly to the
- network
+ network.
How to control printer restrictions, including limiting the size
- of print jobs, and preventing certain users from printing
+ of print jobs, and preventing certain users from printing.
How to keep printer statistics, and account for printer
- usage
+ usage.
- How to troubleshoot printing problems
+ How to troubleshoot printing problems.Before reading this chapter you should:Know how to configure and install a new kernel
- ()
+ ().
IntroductionIn order to use printers with FreeBSD, you will need to set
them up to work with the Berkeley line printer spooling system,
also known as the LPD spooling system.
It is the standard printer control system in FreeBSD. This
chapter introduces the LPD spooling
system, often simply called LPD, and
will guide you through its configuration.If you are already familiar with
LPD or another printer spooling
system, you may wish to skip to section Setting up the spooling
system.LPD controls everything about a
host's printers. It is responsible for a number of things:It controls access to attached printers and printers
attached to other hosts on the network.print jobsIt enables users to submit files to be printed; these
submissions are known as jobs.It prevents multiple users from accessing a printer at the
same time by maintaining a queue for each
printer.It can print header pages (also known
as banner or burst
pages) so users can easily find jobs they have printed in a
stack of printouts.It takes care of communications parameters for printers
connected on serial ports.It can send jobs over the network to a
LPD spooler on another host.It can run special filters to format jobs to be printed for
various printer languages or printer capabilities.It can account for printer usage.Through a configuration file
(/etc/printcap), and by providing the special
filter programs, you can enable the LPD
system to do all or some
subset of the above for a great variety of printer hardware.Why You Should Use the SpoolerIf you are the sole user of your system, you may be wondering
why you should bother with the spooler when you do not need access
control, header pages, or printer accounting. While it is
possible to enable direct access to a printer, you should use the
spooler anyway since:LPD prints jobs in the background;
you do not have to wait
for data to be copied to the printer.TeXLPD can conveniently run a job
to be printed through
filters to add date/time headers or convert a special file
format (such as a TeX DVI file) into a format the printer will
understand. You will not have to do these steps
manually.Many free and commercial programs that provide a print
feature usually expect to talk to the spooler on your system.
By setting up the spooling system, you will more easily
support other software you may later add or already
have.Basic SetupTo use printers with the LPD spooling
system, you will need to
set up both your printer hardware and the
LPD software. This
document describes two levels of setup:See section Simple Printer
Setup to learn how to connect a printer, tell
LPD how to
communicate with it, and print plain text files to the
printer.See section Advanced
Printer Setup to find out how to print a variety of
special file formats, to print header pages, to print across a
network, to control access to printers, and to do printer
accounting.Simple Printer SetupThis section tells how to configure printer hardware and the
LPD software to use the printer.
It teaches the basics:Section Hardware
Setup gives some hints on connecting the printer to a
port on your computer.Section Software
Setup shows how to setup the
LPD spooler configuration
file (/etc/printcap).If you are setting up a printer that uses a network protocol
to accept data to print instead of a serial or parallel interface,
see Printers With
Networked Data Stream Interfaces.Although this section is called Simple Printer
Setup, it is actually fairly complex. Getting the printer
to work with your computer and the LPD
spooler is the hardest
part. The advanced options like header pages and accounting are
fairly easy once you get the printer working.Hardware SetupThis section tells about the various ways you can connect a
printer to your PC. It talks about the kinds of ports and
cables, and also the kernel configuration you may need to enable
FreeBSD to speak to the printer.If you have already connected your printer and have
successfully printed with it under another operating system, you
can probably skip to section Software Setup.Ports and CablesNearly all printers you can get for a PC today support one
or both of the following interfaces:printerserialSerial interfaces use a serial
port on your computer to send data to the printer. Serial
interfaces are common in the computer industry and cables
are readily available and also easy to construct. Serial
interfaces sometimes need special cables and might require
you to configure somewhat complex communications
options.printerparallelParallel interfaces use a
parallel port on your computer to send data to the
printer. Parallel interfaces are common in the PC market.
Cables are readily available but more difficult to
construct by hand. There are usually no communications
options with parallel interfaces, making their
configuration exceedingly simple.centronicsparallel printersParallel interfaces are sometimes known as
Centronics interfaces, named after the
connector type on the printer.In general, serial interfaces are slower than parallel
interfaces. Parallel interfaces usually offer just
one-way communication (computer to printer) while serial
gives you two-way. Many newer parallel ports and printers
can communicate in both directions under FreeBSD when a
IEEE1284 compliant cable is used.PostScriptUsually, the only time you need two-way communication with
the printer is if the printer speaks PostScript. PostScript
printers can be very verbose. In fact, PostScript jobs are
actually programs sent to the printer; they need not produce
paper at all and may return results directly to the computer.
PostScript also uses two-way communication to tell the
computer about problems, such as errors in the PostScript
program or paper jams. Your users may be appreciative of such
information. Furthermore, the best way to do effective
accounting with a PostScript printer requires two-way
communication: you ask the printer for its page count (how
many pages it has printed in its lifetime), then send the
user's job, then ask again for its page count. Subtract the
two values and you know how much paper to charge the
user.Parallel PortsTo hook up a printer using a parallel interface, connect
the Centronics cable between the printer and the computer.
The instructions that came with the printer, the computer, or
both should give you complete guidance.Remember which parallel port you used on the computer.
The first parallel port is /dev/lpt0 to
FreeBSD; the second is /dev/lpt1, and so
on.Serial PortsTo hook up a printer using a serial interface, connect the
proper serial cable between the printer and the computer. The
instructions that came with the printer, the computer, or both
should give you complete guidance.If you are unsure what the proper serial
cable is, you may wish to try one of the following
alternatives:A modem cable connects each pin
of the connector on one end of the cable straight through
to its corresponding pin of the connector on the other
end. This type of cable is also known as a
DTE-to-DCE cable.null-modem cableA null-modem cable connects some
pins straight through, swaps others (send data to receive
data, for example), and shorts some internally in each
connector hood. This type of cable is also known as a
DTE-to-DTE cable.A serial printer cable, required
for some unusual printers, is like the null-modem cable,
but sends some signals to their counterparts instead of
being internally shorted.baud rateparityflow control protocolYou should also set up the communications parameters for
the printer, usually through front-panel controls or DIP
switches on the printer. Choose the highest
bps (bits per second, sometimes
baud rate) rate that both your computer
and the printer can support. Choose 7 or 8 data bits; none,
even, or odd parity; and 1 or 2 stop bits. Also choose a flow
control protocol: either none, or XON/XOFF (also known as
in-band or software) flow control.
Remember these settings for the software configuration that
follows.Software SetupThis section describes the software setup necessary to print
with the LPD spooling system in FreeBSD.
Here is an outline of the steps involved:Configure your kernel, if necessary, for the port you
are using for the printer; section Kernel Configuration tells
you what you need to do.Set the communications mode for the parallel port, if
you are using a parallel port; section Setting the
Communication Mode for the Parallel Port gives
details.Test if the operating system can send data to the printer.
Section Checking Printer
Communications gives some suggestions on how to do
this.Set up LPD for the printer by
modifying the file
/etc/printcap. You will find out how
to do this later in this chapter.Kernel ConfigurationThe operating system kernel is compiled to work with a
specific set of devices. The serial or parallel interface for
your printer is a part of that set. Therefore, it might be
necessary to add support for an additional serial or parallel
port if your kernel is not already configured for one.To find out if the kernel you are currently using supports
a serial interface, type:&prompt.root; dmesg | grep sioNWhere N is the number of the
serial port, starting from zero. If you see output similar to
the following:sio2 at 0x3e8-0x3ef irq 5 on isa
sio2: type 16550Athen the kernel supports the port.To find out if the kernel supports a parallel interface,
type:&prompt.root; dmesg | grep lptNWhere N is the number of the
parallel port, starting from zero. If you see output similar
to the following lpt0 at 0x378-0x37f on isa
then the kernel supports the port.You might have to reconfigure your kernel in order for the
operating system to recognize and use the parallel or serial
port you are using for the printer.To add support for a serial port, see the section on
kernel configuration. To add support for a parallel port, see
that section and the section that
follows.Adding /dev Entries for the
PortsEven though the kernel may support communication along a
serial or parallel port, you will still need a software
interface through which programs running on the system can
send and receive data. That is what entries in the
/dev directory are for.To add a /dev entry for a
port:Become root with the &man.su.1; command. Enter the
root password when prompted.Change to the /dev
directory:&prompt.root; cd /devType:&prompt.root; ./MAKEDEV portWhere port is the device
entry for the port you want to make. Use
lpt0 for the first parallel port,
lpt1 for the second, and so on; use
ttyd0 for the first serial port,
ttyd1 for the second, and so on.Type:&prompt.root; ls -l portto make sure the device entry got created.Setting the Communication Mode for the Parallel
PortWhen you are using the parallel interface, you can choose
whether FreeBSD should use interrupt-driven or polled
communication with the printer.The interrupt-driven method is
the default with the GENERIC kernel. With this method,
the operating system uses an IRQ line to determine when
the printer is ready for data.The polled method directs the
operating system to repeatedly ask the printer if it is
ready for more data. When it responds ready, the kernel
sends more data.The interrupt-driven method is somewhat faster but uses up
a precious IRQ line. You should use whichever one
works.You can set the communications mode in two ways: by
configuring the kernel or by using the &man.lptcontrol.8;
program.To set the communications mode by configuring
the kernel:Edit your kernel configuration file. Look for or add
an lpt0 entry. If you are setting up
the second parallel port, use lpt1
instead. Use lpt2 for the third port,
and so on.If you want interrupt-driven mode, add the
irq specifier:device lpt0 at isa? port? tty irq N vector lptintrWhere N is the IRQ
number for your computer's parallel port.If you want polled mode, do not add the
irq specifier:device lpt0 at isa? port? tty vector lptintrSave the file. Then configure, build, and install the
kernel, then reboot. See kernel configuration for
more details.To set the communications mode with
&man.lptcontrol.8;:Type:&prompt.root; lptcontrol -i -u Nto set interrupt-driven mode for
lptN.Type:&prompt.root; lptcontrol -p -u Nto set polled-mode for
lptN.You could put these commands in your
/etc/rc.local file to set the mode each
time your system boots. See &man.lptcontrol.8; for more
information.Checking Printer CommunicationsBefore proceeding to configure the spooling system, you
should make sure the operating system can successfully send
data to your printer. It is a lot easier to debug printer
communication and the spooling system separately.To test the printer, we will send some text to it. For
printers that can immediately print characters sent to them,
the program &man.lptest.1; is perfect: it generates all 96
printable ASCII characters in 96 lines.PostScriptFor a PostScript (or other language-based) printer, we
will need a more sophisticated test. A small PostScript
program, such as the following, will suffice:%!PS
100 100 moveto 300 300 lineto stroke
310 310 moveto /Helvetica findfont 12 scalefont setfont
(Is this thing working?) show
showpageThe above PostScript code can be placed into a file and
used as shown in the examples appearing in the following
sections.PCLWhen this document refers to a printer language, it is
assuming a language like PostScript, and not Hewlett
Packard's PCL. Although PCL has great functionality, you
can intermingle plain text with its escape sequences.
PostScript cannot directly print plain text, and that is the
kind of printer language for which we must make special
accommodations.Checking a Parallel PrinterprinterparallelThis section tells you how to check if FreeBSD can
communicate with a printer connected to a parallel
port.To test a printer on a parallel
port:Become root with &man.su.1;.Send data to the printer.If the printer can print plain text, then use
&man.lptest.1;. Type:&prompt.root; lptest > /dev/lptNWhere N is the number
of the parallel port, starting from zero.If the printer understands PostScript or other
printer language, then send a small program to the
printer. Type:&prompt.root; cat > /dev/lptNThen, line by line, type the program
carefully as you cannot edit a
line once you have pressed RETURN
or ENTER. When you have finished
entering the program, press
CONTROL+D, or whatever your end
of file key is.Alternatively, you can put the program in a file
and type:&prompt.root; cat file > /dev/lptNWhere file is the
name of the file containing the program you want to
send to the printer.You should see something print. Do not worry if the
text does not look right; we will fix such things
later.Checking a Serial PrinterprinterserialThis section tells you how to check if FreeBSD can
communicate with a printer on a serial port.To test a printer on a serial
port:Become root with &man.su.1;.Edit the file /etc/remote. Add
the following entry:printer:dv=/dev/port:br#bps-rate:pa=paritybits-per-secondserial portparityWhere port is the device
entry for the serial port (ttyd0,
ttyd1, etc.),
bps-rate is the
bits-per-second rate at which the printer communicates,
and parity is the parity
required by the printer (either even,
odd, none, or
zero).Here is a sample entry for a printer connected via
a serial line to the third serial port at 19200 bps with
no parity:printer:dv=/dev/ttyd2:br#19200:pa=noneConnect to the printer with &man.tip.1;.
Type:&prompt.root; tip printerIf this step does not work, edit the file
/etc/remote again and try using
/dev/cuaaN
instead of
/dev/ttydN.Send data to the printer.If the printer can print plain text, then use
&man.lptest.1;. Type:~$lptestIf the printer understands PostScript or other
printer language, then send a small program to the
printer. Type the program, line by line,
very carefully as backspacing
or other editing keys may be significant to the
printer. You may also need to type a special
end-of-file key for the printer so it knows it
received the whole program. For PostScript
printers, press CONTROL+D.Alternatively, you can put the program in a file
and type:~>fileWhere file is the
name of the file containing the program. After
&man.tip.1; sends the file, press any required
end-of-file key.You should see something print. Do not worry if the
text does not look right; we will fix that later.Enabling the Spooler: The /etc/printcap
FileAt this point, your printer should be hooked up, your kernel
configured to communicate with it (if necessary), and you have
been able to send some simple data to the printer. Now, we are
ready to configure LPD to control access
to your printer.You configure LPD by editing the file
/etc/printcap. The
LPD spooling system
reads this file each time the spooler is used, so updates to the
file take immediate effect.printercapabilitiesThe format of the &man.printcap.5; file is straightforward.
Use your favorite text editor to make changes to
/etc/printcap. The format is identical to
other capability files like
/usr/share/misc/termcap and
/etc/remote. For complete information
about the format, see the &man.cgetent.3;.The simple spooler configuration consists of the following
steps:Pick a name (and a few convenient aliases) for the
printer, and put them in the
/etc/printcap file; see the
Naming the Printer
section for more information on naming.header pagesTurn off header pages (which are on by default) by
inserting the sh capability; see the
Suppressing Header
Pages section for more information.Make a spooling directory, and specify its location with
the sd capability; see the Making the Spooling
Directory section for more information.Set the /dev entry to use for the
printer, and note it in /etc/printcap
with the lp capability; see the Identifying the Printer
Device for more information. Also, if the printer is
on a serial port, set up the communication parameters with
the fs, fc,
xs, and xc
capabilities; which is discussed in the Configuring Spooler
Communications Parameters section.Install a plain text input filter; see the Installing the Text
Filter section for details.Test the setup by printing something with the
&man.lpr.1; command. More details are available in the
Trying It Out and
Troubleshooting
sections.Language-based printers, such as PostScript printers,
cannot directly print plain text. The simple setup outlined
above and described in the following sections assumes that if
you are installing such a printer you will print only files
that the printer can understand.Users often expect that they can print plain text to any of
the printers installed on your system. Programs that interface
to LPD to do their printing usually
make the same assumption.
If you are installing such a printer and want to be able to
print jobs in the printer language and
print plain text jobs, you are strongly urged to add an
additional step to the simple setup outlined above: install an
automatic plain-text-to-PostScript (or other printer language)
conversion program. The section entitled Accommodating Plain
Text Jobs on PostScript Printers tells how to do
this.Naming the PrinterThe first (easy) step is to pick a name for your printer
It really does not matter whether you choose functional or
whimsical names since you can also provide a number of aliases
for the printer.At least one of the printers specified in the
/etc/printcap should have the alias
lp. This is the default printer's name.
If users do not have the PRINTER environment
variable nor specify a printer name on the command line of any
of the LPD commands,
then lp will be the
default printer they get to use.Also, it is common practice to make the last alias for a
printer be a full description of the printer, including make
and model.Once you have picked a name and some common aliases, put
them in the /etc/printcap file. The name
of the printer should start in the leftmost column. Separate
each alias with a vertical bar and put a colon after the last
alias.In the following example, we start with a skeletal
/etc/printcap that defines two printers
(a Diablo 630 line printer and a Panasonic KX-P4455 PostScript
laser printer):#
# /etc/printcap for host rose
#
rattan|line|diablo|lp|Diablo 630 Line Printer:
bamboo|ps|PS|S|panasonic|Panasonic KX-P4455 PostScript v51.4:In this example, the first printer is named
rattan and has as aliases
line, diablo,
lp, and Diablo 630 Line
Printer. Since it has the alias
lp, it is also the default printer. The
second is named bamboo, and has as aliases
ps, PS,
S, panasonic, and
Panasonic KX-P4455 PostScript v51.4.Suppressing Header Pagesprintingheader pagesThe LPD spooling system will
by default print a
header page for each job. The header
page contains the user name who requested the job, the host
from which the job came, and the name of the job, in nice
large letters. Unfortunately, all this extra text gets in the
way of debugging the simple printer setup, so we will suppress
header pages.To suppress header pages, add the sh
capability to the entry for the printer in
/etc/printcap. Here is an example
/etc/printcap with sh
added:#
# /etc/printcap for host rose - no header pages anywhere
#
rattan|line|diablo|lp|Diablo 630 Line Printer:\
:sh:
bamboo|ps|PS|S|panasonic|Panasonic KX-P4455 PostScript v51.4:\
:sh:Note how we used the correct format: the first line starts
in the leftmost column, and subsequent lines are indented with
a single TAB. Every line in an entry except the last ends in
a backslash character.Making the Spooling Directoryprinter spoolprint jobsThe next step in the simple spooler setup is to make a
spooling directory, a directory where
print jobs reside until they are printed, and where a number
of other spooler support files live.Because of the variable nature of spooling directories, it
is customary to put these directories under
/var/spool. It is not necessary to
backup the contents of spooling directories, either.
Recreating them is as simple as running &man.mkdir.1;.It is also customary to make the directory with a name
that is identical to the name of the printer, as shown
below:&prompt.root; mkdir /var/spool/printer-nameHowever, if you have a lot of printers on your network,
you might want to put the spooling directories under a single
directory that you reserve just for printing with
LPD. We
will do this for our two example printers
rattan and
bamboo:&prompt.root; mkdir /var/spool/lpd
&prompt.root; mkdir /var/spool/lpd/rattan
&prompt.root; mkdir /var/spool/lpd/bambooIf you are concerned about the privacy of jobs that
users print, you might want to protect the spooling
directory so it is not publicly accessible. Spooling
directories should be owned and be readable, writable, and
searchable by user daemon and group daemon, and no one else.
We will do this for our example printers:&prompt.root; chown daemon:daemon /var/spool/lpd/rattan
&prompt.root; chown daemon:daemon /var/spool/lpd/bamboo
&prompt.root; chmod 770 /var/spool/lpd/rattan
&prompt.root; chmod 770 /var/spool/lpd/bambooFinally, you need to tell LPD
about these directories
using the /etc/printcap file. You
specify the pathname of the spooling directory with the
sd capability:#
# /etc/printcap for host rose - added spooling directories
#
rattan|line|diablo|lp|Diablo 630 Line Printer:\
:sh:sd=/var/spool/lpd/rattan:
bamboo|ps|PS|S|panasonic|Panasonic KX-P4455 PostScript v51.4:\
:sh:sd=/var/spool/lpd/bamboo:Note that the name of the printer starts in the first
column but all other entries describing the printer should be
indented with a tab and each line escaped with a
backslash.If you do not specify a spooling directory with
sd, the spooling system will use
/var/spool/lpd as a default.Identifying the Printer DeviceIn the Adding
/dev Entries for the Ports
section, we identified which entry in the
/dev directory FreeBSD will use to
communicate with the printer. Now, we tell
LPD that
information. When the spooling system has a job to print, it
will open the specified device on behalf of the filter program
(which is responsible for passing data to the printer).List the /dev entry pathname in the
/etc/printcap file using the
lp capability.In our running example, let us assume that
rattan is on the first parallel port, and
bamboo is on a sixth serial port; here are
the additions to /etc/printcap:#
# /etc/printcap for host rose - identified what devices to use
#
rattan|line|diablo|lp|Diablo 630 Line Printer:\
:sh:sd=/var/spool/lpd/rattan:\
:lp=/dev/lpt0:
bamboo|ps|PS|S|panasonic|Panasonic KX-P4455 PostScript v51.4:\
:sh:sd=/var/spool/lpd/bamboo:\
:lp=/dev/ttyd5:If you do not specify the lp capability
for a printer in your /etc/printcap file,
LPD uses /dev/lp
as a default.
/dev/lp currently does not exist in
FreeBSD.If the printer you are installing is connected to a
parallel port, skip to the section entitled, Installing the Text
Filter. Otherwise, be sure to follow the instructions
in the next section.Configuring Spooler Communication ParametersprinterserialFor printers on serial ports, LPD
can set up the bps rate,
parity, and other serial communication parameters on behalf of
the filter program that sends data to the printer. This is
advantageous since:It lets you try different communication parameters by
simply editing the /etc/printcap
file; you do not have to recompile the filter
program.It enables the spooling system to use the same filter
program for multiple printers which may have different
serial communication settings.The following /etc/printcap
capabilities control serial communication parameters of the
device listed in the lp capability:br#bps-rateSets the communications speed of the device to
bps-rate, where
bps-rate can be 50, 75, 110,
134, 150, 200, 300, 600, 1200, 1800, 2400, 4800, 9600,
19200, or 38400 bits-per-second.fc#clear-bitsClears the flag bits
clear-bits in the
sgttyb structure after
opening the device.fs#set-bitsSets the flag bits
set-bits in the
sgttyb structure.xc#clear-bitsClears local mode bits
clear-bits after opening the
device.xs#set-bitsSets local mode bits
set-bits.For more information on the bits for the
fc, fs,
xc, and xs capabilities,
see the file
/usr/include/sys/ioctl_compat.h.When LPD opens the device
specified by the
lp capability, it reads the flag bits in
the sgttyb structure; it clears any bits in
the fc capability, then sets bits in the
fs capability, then applies the resultant
setting. It does the same for the local mode bits as
well.Let us add to our example printer on the sixth serial
port. We will set the bps rate to 38400. For the flag bits,
we will set the TANDEM,
ANYP, LITOUT,
FLUSHO, and PASS8 flags.
For the local mode bits, we will set the
LITOUT and PASS8
flags:bamboo|ps|PS|S|panasonic|Panasonic KX-P4455 PostScript v51.4:\
:sh:sd=/var/spool/lpd/bamboo:\
:lp=/dev/ttyd5:fs#0x82000c1:xs#0x820:Installing the Text Filterprint filtersWe are now ready to tell LPD
what text filter to use to
send jobs to the printer. A text filter,
also known as an input filter, is a
program that LPD runs when it
has a job to print. When LPD
runs the text filter for a printer, it sets the filter's
standard input to the job to print, and its standard output to
the printer device specified with the lp
capability. The filter is expected to read the job from
standard input, perform any necessary translation for the
printer, and write the results to standard output, which will
get printed. For more information on the text filter, see
the Filters
section.For our simple printer setup, the text filter can be a
small shell script that just executes
/bin/cat to send the job to the printer.
FreeBSD comes with another filter called
lpf that handles backspacing and
underlining for printers that might not deal with such
character streams well. And, of course, you can use any other
filter program you want. The filter lpf is
described in detail in section entitled lpf: a Text
Filter.First, let us make the shell script
/usr/local/libexec/if-simple be a simple
text filter. Put the following text into that file with your
favorite text editor:#!/bin/sh
#
# if-simple - Simple text input filter for lpd
# Installed in /usr/local/libexec/if-simple
#
# Simply copies stdin to stdout. Ignores all filter arguments.
/bin/cat && exit 0
exit 2Make the file executable:&prompt.root; chmod 555 /usr/local/libexec/if-simpleAnd then tell LPD to use it by specifying it with the
if capability in
/etc/printcap. We will add it to the two
printers we have so far in the example
/etc/printcap:#
# /etc/printcap for host rose - added text filter
#
rattan|line|diablo|lp|Diablo 630 Line Printer:\
:sh:sd=/var/spool/lpd/rattan:\ :lp=/dev/lpt0:\
:if=/usr/local/libexec/if-simple:
bamboo|ps|PS|S|panasonic|Panasonic KX-P4455 PostScript v51.4:\
:sh:sd=/var/spool/lpd/bamboo:\
:lp=/dev/ttyd5:fs#0x82000e1:xs#0x820:\
:if=/usr/local/libexec/if-simple:Turn on LPD&man.lpd.8; is run from /etc/rc,
controlled by the lpd_enable variable. This
variable defaults to NO. If you have not done
so already, add the line:lpd_enable="YES"to /etc/rc.conf, and then either restart
your machine, or just run &man.lpd.8;.&prompt.root; lpdTrying It OutYou have reached the end of the simple
LPD setup.
Unfortunately, congratulations are not quite yet in order,
since we still have to test the setup and correct any
problems. To test the setup, try printing something. To
print with the LPD system, you
use the command &man.lpr.1;,
which submits a job for printing.You can combine &man.lpr.1; with the &man.lptest.1;
program, introduced in section Checking Printer
Communications to generate some test text.To test the simple LPD
setup:Type:&prompt.root; lptest 20 5 | lpr -Pprinter-nameWhere printer-name is a the
name of a printer (or an alias) specified in
/etc/printcap. To test the default
printer, type &man.lpr.1; without any
argument. Again, if you are testing a printer that expects
PostScript, send a PostScript program in that language instead
of using &man.lptest.1;. You can do so by putting the program
in a file and typing lpr
file.For a PostScript printer, you should get the results of
the program. If you are using &man.lptest.1;, then your
results should look like the following:!"#$%&'()*+,-./01234
"#$%&'()*+,-./012345
#$%&'()*+,-./0123456
$%&'()*+,-./01234567
%&'()*+,-./012345678To further test the printer, try downloading larger
programs (for language-based printers) or running
&man.lptest.1; with different arguments. For example,
lptest 80 60 will produce 60 lines of 80
characters each.If the printer did not work, see the Troubleshooting
section.Advanced Printer SetupThis section describes filters for printing specially formatted
files, header pages, printing across networks, and restricting and
accounting for printer usage.Filtersprint filtersAlthough LPD handles network protocols,
queuing, access control,
and other aspects of printing, most of the real
work happens in the filters. Filters are
programs that communicate with the printer and handle its device
dependencies and special requirements. In the simple printer setup,
we installed a plain text filter—an extremely simple one that
should work with most printers (section Installing the Text
Filter).However, in order to take advantage of format conversion, printer
accounting, specific printer quirks, and so on, you should understand
how filters work. It will ultimately be the filter's responsibility
to handle these aspects. And the bad news is that most of the time
you have to provide filters yourself. The good
news is that many are generally available; when they are not, they are
usually easy to write.Also, FreeBSD comes with one,
/usr/libexec/lpr/lpf, that works with many
printers that can print plain text. (It handles backspacing and tabs
in the file, and does accounting, but that is about all it does.)
There are also several filters and filter components in the FreeBSD
Ports Collection.Here is what you will find in this section:Section How Filters
Work, tries to give an overview of a filter's role in the
printing process. You should read this section to get an
understanding of what is happening under the hood
when LPD uses filters. This knowledge
could help you anticipate
and debug problems you might encounter as you install more and
more filters on each of your printers.LPD expects every printer to be
able to print plain text by
default. This presents a problem for PostScript (or other
language-based printers) which cannot directly print plain text.
Section Accommodating
Plain Text Jobs on PostScript Printers tells you what you
should do to overcome this problem. You should read this
section if you have a PostScript printer.PostScript is a popular output format for many programs. Even
some people (myself included) write PostScript code directly. But
PostScript printers are expensive. Section Simulating PostScript on
Non-PostScript Printers tells how you can further modify
a printer's text filter to accept and print PostScript data on a
non-PostScript printer. You should read
this section if you do not have a PostScript printer.Section Conversion
Filters tells about a way you can automate the conversion
of specific file formats, such as graphic or typesetting data,
into formats your printer can understand. After reading this
section, you should be able to set up your printers such that
users can type lpr -t to print troff data, or
lpr -d to print TeX DVI data, or lpr
-v to print raster image data, and so forth. I
recommend reading this section.Section Output
Filters tells all about a not often used feature of
LPD:
output filters. Unless you are printing header pages (see Header Pages),
you can probably skip that section altogether.Section lpf: a Text
Filter describes lpf, a fairly
complete if simple text filter for line printers (and laser
printers that act like line printers) that comes with FreeBSD. If
you need a quick way to get printer accounting working for plain
text, or if you have a printer which emits smoke when it sees
backspace characters, you should definitely consider
lpf.How Filters WorkAs mentioned before, a filter is an executable program started
by LPD to handle the device-dependent part of
communicating with the printer.When LPD wants to print a file in a
job, it starts a filter
program. It sets the filter's standard input to the file to print,
its standard output to the printer, and its standard error to the
error logging file (specified in the lf
capability in /etc/printcap, or
/dev/console by default).troffWhich filter LPD starts and the
filter's arguments depend on
what is listed in the /etc/printcap file and
what arguments the user specified for the job on the
&man.lpr.1; command line. For example, if the user typed
lpr -t, LPD would
start the troff filter, listed
in the tf capability for the destination printer.
If the user wanted to print plain text, it would start the
if filter (this is mostly true: see Output Filters for
details).There are three kinds of filters you can specify in
/etc/printcap:The text filter, confusingly called the
input filter in
LPD documentation, handles
regular text printing. Think of it as the default filter.
LPD
expects every printer to be able to print plain text by default,
and it is the text filter's job to make sure backspaces, tabs,
or other special characters do not confuse the printer. If you
are in an environment where you have to account for printer
usage, the text filter must also account for pages printed,
usually by counting the number of lines printed and comparing
that to the number of lines per page the printer supports. The
text filter is started with the following argument list:
filter-name-c-wwidth-llength-iindent-n login-h hostacct-file
where
appears if the job is submitted with lpr
-lwidthis the value from the pw (page
width) capability specified in
/etc/printcap, default 132lengthis the value from the pl (page
length) capability, default 66indentis the amount of the indentation from lpr
-i, default 0loginis the account name of the user printing the
filehostis the host name from which the job was
submittedacct-fileis the name of the accounting file from the
af capability.printerfiltersA conversion filter converts a specific
file format into one the printer can render onto paper. For
example, ditroff typesetting data cannot be directly printed,
but you can install a conversion filter for ditroff files to
convert the ditroff data into a form the printer can digest and
print. Section Conversion
Filters tells all about them. Conversion filters also
need to do accounting, if you need printer accounting.
Conversion filters are started with the following arguments:
filter-name-xpixel-width-ypixel-height-n login-h hostacct-file
where pixel-width is the value
from the px capability (default 0) and
pixel-height is the value from the
py capability (default 0).The output filter is used only if there
is no text filter, or if header pages are enabled. In my
experience, output filters are rarely used. Section Output Filters describe
them. There are only two arguments to an output filter:
filter-name-wwidth-llength
which are identical to the text filters and
arguments.Filters should also exit with the
following exit status:exit 0If the filter printed the file successfully.exit 1If the filter failed to print the file but wants
LPD to
try to print the file again. LPD
will restart a filter if it exits with this status.exit 2If the filter failed to print the file and does not want
LPD to try again.
LPD will throw out the file.The text filter that comes with the FreeBSD release,
/usr/libexec/lpr/lpf, takes advantage of the
page width and length arguments to determine when to send a form
feed and how to account for printer usage. It uses the login, host,
and accounting file arguments to make the accounting entries.If you are shopping for filters, see if they are LPD-compatible.
If they are, they must support the argument lists described above.
If you plan on writing filters for general use, then have them
support the same argument lists and exit codes.Accommodating Plain Text Jobs on PostScript Printersprint jobsIf you are the only user of your computer and PostScript (or
other language-based) printer, and you promise to never send plain
text to your printer and to never use features of various programs
that will want to send plain text to your printer, then you do not
need to worry about this section at all.But, if you would like to send both PostScript and plain text
jobs to the printer, then you are urged to augment your printer
setup. To do so, we have the text filter detect if the arriving job
is plain text or PostScript. All PostScript jobs must start with
%! (for other printer languages, see your printer
documentation). If those are the first two characters in the job,
we have PostScript, and can pass the rest of the job directly. If
those are not the first two characters in the file, then the filter
will convert the text into PostScript and print the result.How do we do this?printerserialIf you have got a serial printer, a great way to do it is to
install lprps. lprps is a
PostScript printer filter which performs two-way communication with
the printer. It updates the printer's status file with verbose
information from the printer, so users and administrators can see
exactly what the state of the printer is (such as toner
low or paper jam). But more
importantly, it includes a program called psif
which detects whether the incoming job is plain text and calls
textps (another program that comes with
lprps) to convert it to PostScript. It then uses
lprps to send the job to the printer.lprps is part of the FreeBSD Ports Collection
(see The Ports Collection). You can
fetch, build and install it yourself, of course. After installing
lprps, just specify the pathname to the
psif program that is part of
lprps. If you installed lprps
from the ports collection, use the following in the serial
PostScript printer's entry in
/etc/printcap::if=/usr/local/libexec/psif:You should also specify the rw capability;
that tells LPD to open the printer in
read-write mode.If you have a parallel PostScript printer (and therefore cannot
use two-way communication with the printer, which
lprps needs), you can use the following shell
script as the text filter:#!/bin/sh
#
# psif - Print PostScript or plain text on a PostScript printer
# Script version; NOT the version that comes with lprps
# Installed in /usr/local/libexec/psif
#
read first_line
first_two_chars=`expr "$first_line" : '\(..\)'`
if [ "$first_two_chars" = "%!" ]; then
#
# PostScript job, print it.
#
echo "$first_line" && cat && printf "\004" && exit 0
exit 2
else
#
# Plain text, convert it, then print it.
#
( echo "$first_line"; cat ) | /usr/local/bin/textps && printf "\004" && exit 0
exit 2
fiIn the above script, textps is a program we
installed separately to convert plain text to PostScript. You can
use any text-to-PostScript program you wish. The FreeBSD Ports
Collection (see The Ports Collection)
includes a full featured text-to-PostScript program called
a2ps that you might want to investigate.Simulating PostScript on Non-PostScript PrintersPostScriptemulatingGhostscriptPostScript is the de facto standard for
high quality typesetting and printing. PostScript is, however, an
expensive standard. Thankfully, Alladin
Enterprises has a free PostScript work-alike called
Ghostscript that runs with FreeBSD.
Ghostscript can read most PostScript files and can render their
pages onto a variety of devices, including many brands of
non-PostScript printers. By installing Ghostscript and using a
special text filter for your printer, you can make your
non-PostScript printer act like a real PostScript printer.Ghostscript is in the FreeBSD Ports Collection, if you
would like to install it from there. You can fetch, build, and
install it quite easily yourself, as well.To simulate PostScript, we have the text filter detect if it is
printing a PostScript file. If it is not, then the filter will pass
the file directly to the printer; otherwise, it will use Ghostscript
to first convert the file into a format the printer will
understand.Here is an example: the following script is a text filter
for Hewlett Packard DeskJet 500 printers. For other printers,
substitute the argument to the
gs (Ghostscript) command. (Type gs
-h to get a list of devices the current installation of
Ghostscript supports.)#!/bin/sh
#
# ifhp - Print Ghostscript-simulated PostScript on a DeskJet 500
# Installed in /usr/local/libexec/hpif
#
# Treat LF as CR+LF:
#
printf "\033&k2G" || exit 2
#
# Read first two characters of the file
#
read first_line
first_two_chars=`expr "$first_line" : '\(..\)'`
if [ "$first_two_chars" = "%!" ]; then
#
# It is PostScript; use Ghostscript to scan-convert and print it.
#
# Note that PostScript files are actually interpreted programs,
# and those programs are allowed to write to stdout, which will
# mess up the printed output. So, we redirect stdout to stderr
# and then make descriptor 3 go to stdout, and have Ghostscript
# write its output there. Exercise for the clever reader:
# capture the stderr output from Ghostscript and mail it back to
# the user originating the print job.
#
exec 3>&1 1>&2
/usr/local/bin/gs -dSAFER -dNOPAUSE -q -sDEVICE=djet500 \
-sOutputFile=/dev/fd/3 - && exit 0
#
/usr/local/bin/gs -dSAFER -dNOPAUSE -q -sDEVICE=djet500 -sOutputFile=- - \
&& exit 0
else
#
# Plain text or HP/PCL, so just print it directly; print a form feed
# at the end to eject the last page.
#
echo $first_line && cat && printf "\033&l0H" &&
exit 0
fi
exit 2Finally, you need to notify LPD of
the filter via the if capability::if=/usr/local/libexec/hpif:That is it. You can type lpr plain.text and
lpr whatever.ps and both should print
successfully.Conversion FiltersAfter completing the simple setup described in Simple Printer Setup, the first
thing you will probably want to do is install conversion filters for
your favorite file formats (besides plain ASCII text).Why Install Conversion Filters?TeXprinting dvi filesConversion filters make printing various kinds of files easy.
As an example, suppose we do a lot of work with the TeX
typesetting system, and we have a PostScript printer. Every time
we generate a DVI file from TeX, we cannot print it directly until
we convert the DVI file into PostScript. The command sequence
goes like this:&prompt.user; dvips seaweed-analysis.dvi
&prompt.user; lpr seaweed-analysis.psBy installing a conversion filter for DVI files, we can skip
the hand conversion step each time by having
LPD do it for us.
Now, each time we get a DVI file, we are just one step away from
printing it:&prompt.user; lpr -d seaweed-analysis.dviWe got LPD to do the DVI file
conversion for us by specifying
the option. Section Formatting and Conversion
Options lists the conversion options.For each of the conversion options you want a printer to
support, install a conversion filter and
specify its pathname in /etc/printcap. A
conversion filter is like the text filter for the simple printer
setup (see section Installing
the Text Filter) except that instead of printing plain
text, the filter converts the file into a format the printer can
understand.Which Conversions Filters Should I Install?You should install the conversion filters you expect to use.
If you print a lot of DVI data, then a DVI conversion filter is in
order. If you have got plenty of troff to print out, then you
probably want a troff filter.The following table summarizes the filters that
LPD works
with, their capability entries for the
/etc/printcap file, and how to invoke them
with the lpr command:File type/etc/printcap capabilitylpr optioncifplotcfDVIdfplotgfditroffnfFORTRAN textrftroffrfrastervfplain textifnone, , or
In our example, using lpr -d means the
printer needs a df capability in its entry in
/etc/printcap.fortranDespite what others might contend, formats like FORTRAN text
and plot are probably obsolete. At your site, you can give new
meanings to these or any of the formatting options just by
installing custom filters. For example, suppose you would like to
directly print Printerleaf files (files from the Interleaf desktop
publishing program), but will never print plot files. You could
install a Printerleaf conversion filter under the
gf capability and then educate your users that
lpr -g mean print Printerleaf
files.Installing Conversion FiltersSince conversion filters are programs you install outside of
the base FreeBSD installation, they should probably go under
/usr/local. The directory
/usr/local/libexec is a popular location,
since they are specialized programs that only
LPD will run;
regular users should not ever need to run them.To enable a conversion filter, specify its pathname under the
appropriate capability for the destination printer in
/etc/printcap.In our example, we will add the DVI conversion filter to the
entry for the printer named bamboo. Here is
the example /etc/printcap file again, with
the new df capability for the printer
bamboo.#
# /etc/printcap for host rose - added df filter for bamboo
#
rattan|line|diablo|lp|Diablo 630 Line Printer:\
:sh:sd=/var/spool/lpd/rattan:\
:lp=/dev/lpt0:\
:if=/usr/local/libexec/if-simple:
bamboo|ps|PS|S|panasonic|Panasonic KX-P4455 PostScript v51.4:\
:sh:sd=/var/spool/lpd/bamboo:\
:lp=/dev/ttyd5:fs#0x82000e1:xs#0x820:rw:\
:if=/usr/local/libexec/psif:\
:df=/usr/local/libexec/psdf:The DVI filter is a shell script named
/usr/local/libexec/psdf. Here is that
script:#!bin/sh
#
# psdf - DVI to PostScript printer filter
# Installed in /usr/local/libexec/psdf
#
# Invoked by lpd when user runs lpr -d
#
exec /usr/local/bin/dvips -f | /usr/local/libexec/lprps "$@"This script runs dvips in filter mode (the
argument) on standard input, which is the job
to print. It then starts the PostScript printer filter
lprps (see section Accommodating Plain
Text Jobs on PostScript Printers) with the arguments
LPD
passed to this script. lprps will use those
arguments to account for the pages printed.More Conversion Filter ExamplesSince there is no fixed set of steps to install conversion
filters, let me instead provide more examples. Use these as
guidance to making your own filters. Use them directly, if
appropriate.This example script is a raster (well, GIF file, actually)
conversion filter for a Hewlett Packard LaserJet III-Si
printer:#!/bin/sh
#
# hpvf - Convert GIF files into HP/PCL, then print
# Installed in /usr/local/libexec/hpvf
PATH=/usr/X11R6/bin:$PATH; export PATH
giftopnm | ppmtopgm | pgmtopbm | pbmtolj -resolution 300 \
&& exit 0 \
|| exit 2It works by converting the GIF file into a portable anymap,
converting that into a portable graymap, converting that into a
portable bitmap, and converting that into LaserJet/PCL-compatible
data.Here is the /etc/printcap file with an
entry for a printer using the above filter:#
# /etc/printcap for host orchid
#
teak|hp|laserjet|Hewlett Packard LaserJet 3Si:\
:lp=/dev/lpt0:sh:sd=/var/spool/lpd/teak:mx#0:\
:if=/usr/local/libexec/hpif:\
:vf=/usr/local/libexec/hpvf:The following script is a conversion filter for troff data
from the groff typesetting system for the PostScript printer named
bamboo:#!/bin/sh
#
# pstf - Convert groff's troff data into PS, then print.
# Installed in /usr/local/libexec/pstf
#
exec grops | /usr/local/libexec/lprps "$@"The above script makes use of lprps again
to handle the communication with the printer. If the printer were
on a parallel port, we would use this script instead:#!/bin/sh
#
# pstf - Convert groff's troff data into PS, then print.
# Installed in /usr/local/libexec/pstf
#
exec gropsThat is it. Here is the entry we need to add to
/etc/printcap to enable the filter::tf=/usr/local/libexec/pstf:Here is an example that might make old hands at FORTRAN blush.
It is a FORTRAN-text filter for any printer that can directly
print plain text. We will install it for the printer
teak:#!/bin/sh
#
# hprf - FORTRAN text filter for LaserJet 3si:
# Installed in /usr/local/libexec/hprf
#
printf "\033&k2G" && fpr && printf "\033&l0H" &&
exit 0
exit 2And we will add this line to the
/etc/printcap for the printer
teak to enable this filter::rf=/usr/local/libexec/hprf:Here is one final, somewhat complex example. We will add a
DVI filter to the LaserJet printer teak
introduced earlier. First, the easy part: updating
/etc/printcap with the location of the DVI
filter::df=/usr/local/libexec/hpdf:Now, for the hard part: making the filter. For that, we need
a DVI-to-LaserJet/PCL conversion program. The FreeBSD Ports
Collection (see The Ports Collection)
has one: dvi2xx is the name of the package.
Installing this package gives us the program we need,
dvilj2p, which converts DVI into LaserJet IIp,
LaserJet III, and LaserJet 2000 compatible codes.dvilj2p makes the filter
hpdf quite complex since
dvilj2p cannot read from standard input. It
wants to work with a filename. What is worse, the filename has to
end in .dvi so using
/dev/fd/0 for standard input is problematic.
We can get around that problem by linking (symbolically) a
temporary file name (one that ends in .dvi)
to /dev/fd/0, thereby forcing
dvilj2p to read from standard input.The only other fly in the ointment is the fact that we cannot
use /tmp for the temporary link. Symbolic
links are owned by user and group bin. The
filter runs as user daemon. And the
/tmp directory has the sticky bit set. The
filter can create the link, but it will not be able clean up when
done and remove it since the link will belong to a different
user.Instead, the filter will make the symbolic link in the current
working directory, which is the spooling directory (specified by
the sd capability in
/etc/printcap). This is a perfect place for
filters to do their work, especially since there is (sometimes)
more free disk space in the spooling directory than under
/tmp.Here, finally, is the filter:#!/bin/sh
#
# hpdf - Print DVI data on HP/PCL printer
# Installed in /usr/local/libexec/hpdf
PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH; export PATH
#
# Define a function to clean up our temporary files. These exist
# in the current directory, which will be the spooling directory
# for the printer.
#
cleanup() {
rm -f hpdf$$.dvi
}
#
# Define a function to handle fatal errors: print the given message
# and exit 2. Exiting with 2 tells LPD to do not try to reprint the
# job.
#
fatal() {
echo "$@" 1>&2
cleanup
exit 2
}
#
# If user removes the job, LPD will send SIGINT, so trap SIGINT
# (and a few other signals) to clean up after ourselves.
#
trap cleanup 1 2 15
#
# Make sure we are not colliding with any existing files.
#
cleanup
#
# Link the DVI input file to standard input (the file to print).
#
ln -s /dev/fd/0 hpdf$$.dvi || fatal "Cannot symlink /dev/fd/0"
#
# Make LF = CR+LF
#
printf "\033&k2G" || fatal "Cannot initialize printer"
#
# Convert and print. Return value from dvilj2p does not seem to be
# reliable, so we ignore it.
#
dvilj2p -M1 -q -e- dfhp$$.dvi
#
# Clean up and exit
#
cleanup
exit 0Automated Conversion: An Alternative To Conversion
FiltersAll these conversion filters accomplish a lot for your
printing environment, but at the cost forcing the user to specify
(on the &man.lpr.1; command line) which one to use.
If your users are not particularly computer literate, having to
specify a filter option will become annoying. What is worse,
though, is that an incorrectly specified filter option may run a
filter on the wrong type of file and cause your printer to spew
out hundreds of sheets of paper.Rather than install conversion filters at all, you might want
to try having the text filter (since it is the default filter)
detect the type of file it has been asked to print and then
automatically run the right conversion filter. Tools such as
file can be of help here. Of course, it will
be hard to determine the differences between
some file types—and, of course, you can
still provide conversion filters just for them.apsfilterprinterfiltersapsfilterThe FreeBSD Ports Collection has a text filter that performs
automatic conversion called apsfilter. It can
detect plain text, PostScript, and DVI files, run the proper
conversions, and print.Output FiltersThe LPD spooling system supports one
other type of filter that
we have not yet explored: an output filter. An output filter is
intended for printing plain text only, like the text filter, but
with many simplifications. If you are using an output filter but no
text filter, then:LPD starts an output filter once
for the entire job instead
of once for each file in the job.LPD does not make any provision
to identify the start or the
end of files within the job for the output filter.LPD does not pass the user's
login or host to the filter, so
it is not intended to do accounting. In fact, it gets only two
arguments:filter-name-wwidth-llengthWhere width is from the
pw capability and
length is from the
pl capability for the printer in
question.Do not be seduced by an output filter's simplicity. If you
would like each file in a job to start on a different page an output
filter will not work. Use a text filter (also
known as an input filter); see section Installing the Text Filter.
Furthermore, an output filter is actually more
complex in that it has to examine the byte stream being
sent to it for special flag characters and must send signals to
itself on behalf of LPD.However, an output filter is necessary if
you want header pages and need to send escape sequences or other
initialization strings to be able to print the header page. (But it
is also futile if you want to charge header
pages to the requesting user's account, since
LPD does not give any
user or host information to the output filter.)On a single printer, LPD
allows both an output filter and text or other filters. In
such cases, LPD will start the
output filter
to print the header page (see section Header Pages)
only. LPD then expects the
output filter to stop
itself by sending two bytes to the filter: ASCII 031
followed by ASCII 001. When an output filter sees these two bytes
(031, 001), it should stop by sending SIGSTOP
to itself. When
LPD's
done running other filters, it will restart the output filter by
sending SIGCONT to it.If there is an output filter but no text
filter and LPD is working on a plain
text job, LPD uses the output
filter to do the job. As stated before, the output filter will
print each file of the job in sequence with no intervening form
feeds or other paper advancement, and this is probably
not what you want. In almost all cases, you
need a text filter.The program lpf, which we introduced earlier
as a text filter, can also run as an output filter. If you need a
quick-and-dirty output filter but do not want to write the byte
detection and signal sending code, try lpf. You
can also wrap lpf in a shell script to handle any
initialization codes the printer might require.lpf: a Text FilterThe program /usr/libexec/lpr/lpf that comes
with FreeBSD binary distribution is a text filter (input filter)
that can indent output (job submitted with lpr
-i), allow literal characters to pass (job submitted
with lpr -l), adjust the printing position for
backspaces and tabs in the job, and account for pages printed. It
can also act like an output filter.lpf is suitable for many printing
environments. And although it has no capability to send
initialization sequences to a printer, it is easy to write a shell
script to do the needed initialization and then execute
lpf.page accountingaccountingprinterIn order for lpf to do page accounting
correctly, it needs correct values filled in for the
pw and pl capabilities in the
/etc/printcap file. It uses these values to
determine how much text can fit on a page and how many pages were in
a user's job. For more information on printer accounting, see Accounting for Printer
Usage.Header PagesIf you have lots of users, all of them using
various printers, then you probably want to consider header
pages as a necessary evil.banner pagesheader pagesheader pagesHeader pages, also known as banner or
burst pages identify to whom jobs belong after
they are printed. They are usually printed in large, bold letters,
perhaps with decorative borders, so that in a stack of printouts they
stand out from the real documents that comprise users' jobs. They
enable users to locate their jobs quickly. The obvious drawback to a
header page is that it is yet one more sheet that has to be printed
for every job, their ephemeral usefulness lasting not more than a few
minutes, ultimately finding themselves in a recycling bin or rubbish
heap. (Note that header pages go with each job, not each file in a
job, so the paper waste might not be that bad.)The LPD system can provide header
pages automatically for your
printouts if your printer can directly print
plain text. If you have a PostScript printer, you will need an
external program to generate the header page; see Header Pages on
PostScript Printers.Enabling Header PagesIn the Simple Printer
Setup, we turned off header pages by specifying
sh (meaning suppress header) in the
/etc/printcap file. To enable header pages for
a printer, just remove the sh capability.Sounds too easy, right?You are right. You might have to provide
an output filter to send initialization strings to the printer.
Here is an example output filter for Hewlett Packard PCL-compatible
printers:#!/bin/sh
#
# hpof - Output filter for Hewlett Packard PCL-compatible printers
# Installed in /usr/local/libexec/hpof
printf "\033&k2G" || exit 2
exec /usr/libexec/lpr/lpfSpecify the path to the output filter in the
of capability. See Output Filters for more
information.Here is an example /etc/printcap file for
the printer teak that we introduced earlier; we
enabled header pages and added the above output filter:#
# /etc/printcap for host orchid
#
teak|hp|laserjet|Hewlett Packard LaserJet 3Si:\
:lp=/dev/lpt0:sd=/var/spool/lpd/teak:mx#0:\
:if=/usr/local/libexec/hpif:\
:vf=/usr/local/libexec/hpvf:\
:of=/usr/local/libexec/hpof:Now, when users print jobs to teak, they get
a header page with each job. If users want to spend time searching
for their printouts, they can suppress header pages by submitting
the job with lpr -h; see Header Page Options for
more &man.lpr.1; options.LPD prints a form feed character
after the header page. If
your printer uses a different character or sequence of characters
to eject a page, specify them with the ff
capability in /etc/printcap.Controlling Header PagesBy enabling header pages, LPD will
produce a long
header, a full page of large letters identifying the
user, host, and job. Here is an example (kelly printed the job
named outline from host rose): k ll ll
k l l
k l l
k k eeee l l y y
k k e e l l y y
k k eeeeee l l y y
kk k e l l y y
k k e e l l y yy
k k eeee lll lll yyy y
y
y y
yyyy
ll
t l i
t l
oooo u u ttttt l ii n nnn eeee
o o u u t l i nn n e e
o o u u t l i n n eeeeee
o o u u t l i n n e
o o u uu t t l i n n e e
oooo uuu u tt lll iii n n eeee
r rrr oooo ssss eeee
rr r o o s s e e
r o o ss eeeeee
r o o ss e
r o o s s e e
r oooo ssss eeee
Job: outline
Date: Sun Sep 17 11:04:58 1995LPD appends a form feed after this
text so the job starts on a
new page (unless you have sf (suppress form
feeds) in the destination printer's entry in
/etc/printcap).If you prefer, LPD can make a
short header;
specify sb (short banner) in the
/etc/printcap file. The header page will look
like this:rose:kelly Job: outline Date: Sun Sep 17 11:07:51 1995Also by default, LPD prints the
header page first, then the job.
To reverse that, specify hl (header last) in
/etc/printcap.Accounting for Header PagesUsing LPD's built-in header pages
enforces a particular paradigm
when it comes to printer accounting: header pages must be
free of charge.Why?Because the output filter is the only external program that will
have control when the header page is printed that could do
accounting, and it is not provided with any user or
host information or an accounting file, so it has no
idea whom to charge for printer use. It is also not enough to just
add one page to the text filter or any of the
conversion filters (which do have user and host information) since
users can suppress header pages with lpr -h.
They could still be charged for header pages they did not print.
Basically, lpr -h will be the preferred option of
environmentally-minded users, but you cannot offer any incentive to
use it.It is still not enough to have each of the
filters generate their own header pages (thereby being able to
charge for them). If users wanted the option of suppressing the
header pages with lpr -h, they will still get
them and be charged for them since LPD
does not pass any knowledge
of the option to any of the filters.So, what are your options?You can:Accept LPD's paradigm and make
header pages free.Install an alternative to LPD,
such as
LPRng. Section
Alternatives to the
Standard Spooler tells more about other spooling
software you can substitute for LPD.
Write a smart output filter. Normally,
an output filter is not meant to do anything more than
initialize a printer or do some simple character conversion. It
is suited for header pages and plain text jobs (when there is no
text (input) filter). But, if there is a text filter for the
plain text jobs, then LPD will start
the output filter only for
the header pages. And the output filter can parse the header
page text that LPD generates to
determine what user and host to
charge for the header page. The only other problem with this
method is that the output filter still does not know what
accounting file to use (it is not passed the name of the file
from the af capability), but if you have a
well-known accounting file, you can hard-code that into the
output filter. To facilitate the parsing step, use the
sh (short header) capability in
/etc/printcap. Then again, all that might
be too much trouble, and users will certainly appreciate the
more generous system administrator who makes header pages
free.Header Pages on PostScript PrintersAs described above, LPD can generate
a plain text header page
suitable for many printers. Of course, PostScript cannot directly
print plain text, so the header page feature of
LPD is
useless—or mostly so.One obvious way to get header pages is to have every conversion
filter and the text filter generate the header page. The filters
should use the user and host arguments to generate a suitable
header page. The drawback of this method is that users will always
get a header page, even if they submit jobs with lpr
-h.Let us explore this method. The following script takes three
arguments (user login name, host name, and job name) and makes a
simple PostScript header page:#!/bin/sh
#
# make-ps-header - make a PostScript header page on stdout
# Installed in /usr/local/libexec/make-ps-header
#
#
# These are PostScript units (72 to the inch). Modify for A4 or
# whatever size paper you are using:
#
page_width=612
page_height=792
border=72
#
# Check arguments
#
if [ $# -ne 3 ]; then
echo "Usage: `basename $0` <user> <host> <job>" 1>&2
exit 1
fi
#
# Save these, mostly for readability in the PostScript, below.
#
user=$1
host=$2
job=$3
date=`date`
#
# Send the PostScript code to stdout.
#
exec cat <<EOF
%!PS
%
% Make sure we do not interfere with user's job that will follow
%
save
%
% Make a thick, unpleasant border around the edge of the paper.
%
$border $border moveto
$page_width $border 2 mul sub 0 rlineto
0 $page_height $border 2 mul sub rlineto
currentscreen 3 -1 roll pop 100 3 1 roll setscreen
$border 2 mul $page_width sub 0 rlineto closepath
0.8 setgray 10 setlinewidth stroke 0 setgray
%
% Display user's login name, nice and large and prominent
%
/Helvetica-Bold findfont 64 scalefont setfont
$page_width ($user) stringwidth pop sub 2 div $page_height 200 sub moveto
($user) show
%
% Now show the boring particulars
%
/Helvetica findfont 14 scalefont setfont
/y 200 def
[ (Job:) (Host:) (Date:) ] {
200 y moveto show /y y 18 sub def }
forall
/Helvetica-Bold findfont 14 scalefont setfont
/y 200 def
[ ($job) ($host) ($date) ] {
270 y moveto show /y y 18 sub def
} forall
%
% That is it
%
restore
showpage
EOFNow, each of the conversion filters and the text filter can call
this script to first generate the header page, and then print the
user's job. Here is the DVI conversion filter from earlier in this
document, modified to make a header page:#!/bin/sh
#
# psdf - DVI to PostScript printer filter
# Installed in /usr/local/libexec/psdf
#
# Invoked by lpd when user runs lpr -d
#
orig_args="$@"
fail() {
echo "$@" 1>&2
exit 2
}
while getopts "x:y:n:h:" option; do
case $option in
x|y) ;; # Ignore
n) login=$OPTARG ;;
h) host=$OPTARG ;;
*) echo "LPD started `basename $0` wrong." 1>&2
exit 2
;;
esac
done
[ "$login" ] || fail "No login name"
[ "$host" ] || fail "No host name"
( /usr/local/libexec/make-ps-header $login $host "DVI File"
/usr/local/bin/dvips -f ) | eval /usr/local/libexec/lprps $orig_argsNotice how the filter has to parse the argument list in order to
determine the user and host name. The parsing for the other
conversion filters is identical. The text filter takes a slightly
different set of arguments, though (see section How Filters
Work).As we have mentioned before, the above scheme, though fairly
simple, disables the suppress header page option (the
option) to lpr. If users
wanted to save a tree (or a few pennies, if you charge for header
pages), they would not be able to do so, since every filter's going
to print a header page with every job.To allow users to shut off header pages on a per-job basis, you
will need to use the trick introduced in section Accounting for
Header Pages: write an output filter that parses the
LPD-generated header page and produces a PostScript version. If the
user submits the job with lpr -h, then
LPD will
not generate a header page, and neither will your output filter.
Otherwise, your output filter will read the text from
LPD and send
the appropriate header page PostScript code to the printer.If you have a PostScript printer on a serial line, you can make
use of lprps, which comes with an output filter,
psof, which does the above. Note that
psof does not charge for header pages.Networked Printingprinternetworknetwork printingFreeBSD supports networked printing: sending jobs to remote
printers. Networked printing generally refers to two different
things:Accessing a printer attached to a remote host. You install a
printer that has a conventional serial or parallel interface on
one host. Then, you set up LPD to
enable access to the printer
from other hosts on the network. Section Printers Installed on
Remote Hosts tells how to do this.Accessing a printer attached directly to a network. The
printer has a network interface in addition (or in place of) a
more conventional serial or parallel interface. Such a printer
might work as follows:It might understand the LPD
protocol and can even queue
jobs from remote hosts. In this case, it acts just like a
regular host running LPD. Follow
the same procedure in
section Printers
Installed on Remote Hosts to set up such a
printer.It might support a data stream network connection. In this
case, you attach the printer to one host on the
network by making that host responsible for spooling jobs and
sending them to the printer. Section Printers with
Networked Data Stream Interfaces gives some
suggestions on installing such printers.Printers Installed on Remote HostsThe LPD spooling system has built-in
support for sending jobs to
other hosts also running LPD (or are
compatible with LPD). This
feature enables you to install a printer on one host and make it
accessible from other hosts. It also works with printers that have
network interfaces that understand the
LPD protocol.To enable this kind of remote printing, first install a printer
on one host, the printer host, using the simple
printer setup described in Simple
Printer Setup. Do any advanced setup in Advanced Printer Setup that you
need. Make sure to test the printer and see if it works with the
features of LPD you have enabled.
Also ensure that the
local host has authorization to use the
LPD
service in the remote host (see Restricting Jobs
from Remote Printers).printernetworknetwork printingIf you are using a printer with a network interface that is
compatible with LPD, then the
printer host in
the discussion below is the printer itself, and the
printer name is the name you configured for the
printer. See the documentation that accompanied your printer and/or
printer-network interface.If you are using a Hewlett Packard Laserjet then the printer
name text will automatically perform the LF to
CRLF conversion for you, so you will not require the
hpif script.Then, on the other hosts you want to have access to the printer,
make an entry in their /etc/printcap files with
the following:Name the entry anything you want. For simplicity, though,
you probably want to use the same name and aliases as on the
printer host.Leave the lp capability blank, explicitly
(:lp=:).Make a spooling directory and specify its location in the
sd capability. LPD
will store jobs here
before they get sent to the printer host.Place the name of the printer host in the
rm capability.Place the printer name on the printer
host in the rp
capability.That is it. You do not need to list conversion filters, page
dimensions, or anything else in the
/etc/printcap file.Here is an example. The host rose has two
printers, bamboo and rattan.
We will enable users on the host orchid to print
to those printers.
Here is the /etc/printcap file for
orchid (back from section Enabling Header
Pages). It already had the entry for the printer
teak; we have added entries for the two printers
on the host rose:#
# /etc/printcap for host orchid - added (remote) printers on rose
#
#
# teak is local; it is connected directly to orchid:
#
teak|hp|laserjet|Hewlett Packard LaserJet 3Si:\
:lp=/dev/lpt0:sd=/var/spool/lpd/teak:mx#0:\
:if=/usr/local/libexec/ifhp:\
:vf=/usr/local/libexec/vfhp:\
:of=/usr/local/libexec/ofhp:
#
# rattan is connected to rose; send jobs for rattan to rose:
#
rattan|line|diablo|lp|Diablo 630 Line Printer:\
:lp=:rm=rose:rp=rattan:sd=/var/spool/lpd/rattan:
#
# bamboo is connected to rose as well:
#
bamboo|ps|PS|S|panasonic|Panasonic KX-P4455 PostScript v51.4:\
:lp=:rm=rose:rp=bamboo:sd=/var/spool/lpd/bamboo:Then, we just need to make spooling directories on
orchid:&prompt.root; mkdir -p /var/spool/lpd/rattan /var/spool/lpd/bamboo
&prompt.root; chmod 770 /var/spool/lpd/rattan /var/spool/lpd/bamboo
&prompt.root; chown daemon:daemon /var/spool/lpd/rattan /var/spool/lpd/bambooNow, users on orchid can print to
rattan and bamboo. If, for
example, a user on orchid typed
&prompt.user; lpr -P bamboo -d sushi-review.dvi
the LPD system on orchid
would copy the job to the spooling
directory /var/spool/lpd/bamboo and note that it was a
DVI job. As soon as the host rose has room in its
bamboo spooling directory, the two
LPDs would transfer the
file to rose. The file would wait in rose's
queue until it was finally printed. It would be converted from DVI to
PostScript (since bamboo is a PostScript printer) on
rose.Printers with Networked Data Stream InterfacesOften, when you buy a network interface card for a printer, you
can get two versions: one which emulates a spooler (the more
expensive version), or one which just lets you send data to it as if
you were using a serial or parallel port (the cheaper version).
This section tells how to use the cheaper version. For the more
expensive one, see the previous section Printers Installed on
Remote Hosts.The format of the /etc/printcap file lets
you specify what serial or parallel interface to use, and (if you
are using a serial interface), what baud rate, whether to use flow
control, delays for tabs, conversion of newlines, and more. But
there is no way to specify a connection to a printer that is
listening on a TCP/IP or other network port.To send data to a networked printer, you need to develop a
communications program that can be called by the text and conversion
filters. Here is one such example: the script
netprint takes all data on standard input and
sends it to a network-attached printer. We specify the hostname of
the printer as the first argument and the port number to which to
connect as the second argument to netprint. Note
that this supports one-way communication only (FreeBSD to printer);
many network printers support two-way communication, and you might
want to take advantage of that (to get printer status, perform
accounting, etc.).#!/usr/bin/perl
#
# netprint - Text filter for printer attached to network
# Installed in /usr/local/libexec/netprint
#
$#ARGV eq 1 || die "Usage: $0 <printer-hostname> <port-number>";
$printer_host = $ARGV[0];
$printer_port = $ARGV[1];
require 'sys/socket.ph';
($ignore, $ignore, $protocol) = getprotobyname('tcp');
($ignore, $ignore, $ignore, $ignore, $address)
= gethostbyname($printer_host);
$sockaddr = pack('S n a4 x8', &AF_INET, $printer_port, $address);
socket(PRINTER, &PF_INET, &SOCK_STREAM, $protocol)
|| die "Can't create TCP/IP stream socket: $!";
connect(PRINTER, $sockaddr) || die "Can't contact $printer_host: $!";
while (<STDIN>) { print PRINTER; }
exit 0;We can then use this script in various filters. Suppose we had
a Diablo 750-N line printer connected to the network. The printer
accepts data to print on port number 5100. The host name of the
printer is scrivener. Here is the text filter for the
printer:#!/bin/sh
#
# diablo-if-net - Text filter for Diablo printer `scrivener' listening
# on port 5100. Installed in /usr/local/libexec/diablo-if-net
#
exec /usr/libexec/lpr/lpf "$@" | /usr/local/libexec/netprint scrivener 5100Restricting Printer Usageprinterrestricting access toThis section gives information on restricting printer usage. The
LPD system lets you control who can access
a printer, both locally or
remotely, whether they can print multiple copies, how large their jobs
can be, and how large the printer queues can get.Restricting Multiple CopiesThe LPD system makes it easy for
users to print multiple copies
of a file. Users can print jobs with lpr -#5
(for example) and get five copies of each file in the job. Whether
this is a good thing is up to you.If you feel multiple copies cause unnecessary wear and tear on
your printers, you can disable the option to
&man.lpr.1; by adding the sc capability to the
/etc/printcap file. When users submit jobs
with the option, they will see:lpr: multiple copies are not allowedNote that if you have set up access to a printer remotely (see
section Printers
Installed on Remote Hosts), you need the
sc capability on the remote
/etc/printcap files as well, or else users will
still be able to submit multiple-copy jobs by using another
host.Here is an example. This is the
/etc/printcap file for the host
rose. The printer rattan is
quite hearty, so we will allow multiple copies, but the laser
printer bamboo is a bit more delicate, so we will
disable multiple copies by adding the sc
capability:#
# /etc/printcap for host rose - restrict multiple copies on bamboo
#
rattan|line|diablo|lp|Diablo 630 Line Printer:\
:sh:sd=/var/spool/lpd/rattan:\
:lp=/dev/lpt0:\
:if=/usr/local/libexec/if-simple:
bamboo|ps|PS|S|panasonic|Panasonic KX-P4455 PostScript v51.4:\
:sh:sd=/var/spool/lpd/bamboo:sc:\
:lp=/dev/ttyd5:fs#0x82000e1:xs#0x820:rw:\
:if=/usr/local/libexec/psif:\
:df=/usr/local/libexec/psdf:Now, we also need to add the sc capability on
the host orchid's
/etc/printcap (and while we are at it, let us
disable multiple copies for the printer
teak):#
# /etc/printcap for host orchid - no multiple copies for local
# printer teak or remote printer bamboo
teak|hp|laserjet|Hewlett Packard LaserJet 3Si:\
:lp=/dev/lpt0:sd=/var/spool/lpd/teak:mx#0:sc:\
:if=/usr/local/libexec/ifhp:\
:vf=/usr/local/libexec/vfhp:\
:of=/usr/local/libexec/ofhp:
rattan|line|diablo|lp|Diablo 630 Line Printer:\
:lp=:rm=rose:rp=rattan:sd=/var/spool/lpd/rattan:
bamboo|ps|PS|S|panasonic|Panasonic KX-P4455 PostScript v51.4:\
:lp=:rm=rose:rp=bamboo:sd=/var/spool/lpd/bamboo:sc:By using the sc capability, we prevent the
use of lpr -#, but that still does not prevent
users from running &man.lpr.1;
multiple times, or from submitting the same file multiple times in
one job like this:&prompt.user; lpr forsale.sign forsale.sign forsale.sign forsale.sign forsale.signThere are many ways to prevent this abuse (including ignoring
it) which you are free to explore.Restricting Access To PrintersYou can control who can print to what printers by using the Unix
group mechanism and the rg capability in
/etc/printcap. Just place the users you want
to have access to a printer in a certain group, and then name that
group in the rg capability.Users outside the group (including root) will be greeted with
lpr: Not a member of the restricted group
if they try to print to the controlled printer.As with the sc (suppress multiple copies)
capability, you need to specify rg on remote
hosts that also have access to your printers, if you feel it is
appropriate (see section Printers Installed on
Remote Hosts).For example, we will let anyone access the printer
rattan, but only those in group
artists can use bamboo. Here
is the familiar /etc/printcap for host
rose:#
# /etc/printcap for host rose - restricted group for bamboo
#
rattan|line|diablo|lp|Diablo 630 Line Printer:\
:sh:sd=/var/spool/lpd/rattan:\
:lp=/dev/lpt0:\
:if=/usr/local/libexec/if-simple:
bamboo|ps|PS|S|panasonic|Panasonic KX-P4455 PostScript v51.4:\
:sh:sd=/var/spool/lpd/bamboo:sc:rg=artists:\
:lp=/dev/ttyd5:fs#0x82000e1:xs#0x820:rw:\
:if=/usr/local/libexec/psif:\
:df=/usr/local/libexec/psdf:Let us leave the other example
/etc/printcap file (for the host
orchid) alone. Of course, anyone on
orchid can print to bamboo. It
might be the case that we only allow certain logins on
orchid anyway, and want them to have access to the
printer. Or not.There can be only one restricted group per printer.Controlling Sizes of Jobs Submittedprint jobsIf you have many users accessing the printers, you probably need
to put an upper limit on the sizes of the files users can submit to
print. After all, there is only so much free space on the
filesystem that houses the spooling directories, and you also need
to make sure there is room for the jobs of other users.print jobscontrollingLPD enables you to limit the maximum
byte size a file in a job
can be with the mx capability. The units are in
BUFSIZ blocks, which are 1024 bytes. If you put
a zero for this
capability, there will be no limit on file size; however, if no
mx capability is specified, then a default limit
of 1000 blocks will be used.The limit applies to files in a job, and
not the total job size.LPD will not refuse a file that is
larger than the limit you
place on a printer. Instead, it will queue as much of the file up
to the limit, which will then get printed. The rest will be
discarded. Whether this is correct behavior is up for
debate.Let us add limits to our example printers
rattan and bamboo. Since
those artists' PostScript files tend to be large, we will limit them
to five megabytes. We will put no limit on the plain text line
printer:#
# /etc/printcap for host rose
#
#
# No limit on job size:
#
rattan|line|diablo|lp|Diablo 630 Line Printer:\
:sh:mx#0:sd=/var/spool/lpd/rattan:\
:lp=/dev/lpt0:\
:if=/usr/local/libexec/if-simple:
#
# Limit of five megabytes:
#
bamboo|ps|PS|S|panasonic|Panasonic KX-P4455 PostScript v51.4:\
:sh:sd=/var/spool/lpd/bamboo:sc:rg=artists:mx#5000:\
:lp=/dev/ttyd5:fs#0x82000e1:xs#0x820:rw:\
:if=/usr/local/libexec/psif:\
:df=/usr/local/libexec/psdf:Again, the limits apply to the local users only. If you have
set up access to your printers remotely, remote users will not get
those limits. You will need to specify the mx
capability in the remote /etc/printcap files as
well. See section Printers Installed on
Remote Hosts for more information on remote
printing.There is another specialized way to limit job sizes from remote
printers; see section Restricting Jobs
from Remote Printers.Restricting Jobs from Remote PrintersThe LPD spooling system provides
several ways to restrict print
jobs submitted from remote hosts:Host restrictionsYou can control from which remote hosts a local
LPD accepts requests with the files
/etc/hosts.equiv and
/etc/hosts.lpd.
LPD checks to see if an
incoming request is from a host listed in either one of these
files. If not, LPD refuses the
request.The format of these files is simple: one host name per
line. Note that the file
/etc/hosts.equiv is also used by the
&man.ruserok.3; protocol, and affects programs like
&man.rsh.1; and &man.rcp.1;, so be careful.For example, here is the
/etc/hosts.lpd file on the host
rose:orchid
violet
madrigal.fishbaum.deThis means rose will accept requests from
the hosts orchid, violet,
and madrigal.fishbaum.de. If any
other host tries to access rose's
LPD, the job will be refused.Size restrictionsYou can control how much free space there needs to remain
on the filesystem where a spooling directory resides. Make a
file called minfree in the spooling
directory for the local printer. Insert in that file a number
representing how many disk blocks (512 bytes) of free space
there has to be for a remote job to be accepted.This lets you insure that remote users will not fill your
filesystem. You can also use it to give a certain priority to
local users: they will be able to queue jobs long after the
free disk space has fallen below the amount specified in the
minfree file.For example, let us add a minfree
file for the printer bamboo. We examine
/etc/printcap to find the spooling
directory for this printer; here is bamboo's
entry:bamboo|ps|PS|S|panasonic|Panasonic KX-P4455 PostScript v51.4:\
:sh:sd=/var/spool/lpd/bamboo:sc:rg=artists:mx#5000:\
:lp=/dev/ttyd5:fs#0x82000e1:xs#0x820:rw:mx#5000:\
:if=/usr/local/libexec/psif:\
:df=/usr/local/libexec/psdf:The spooling directory is given in the sd
capability. We will make three megabytes (which is 6144 disk blocks)
the amount of free disk space that must exist on the filesystem for
LPD to accept remote jobs:&prompt.root; echo 6144 > /var/spool/lpd/bamboo/minfree
User restrictionsYou can control which remote users can print to local
printers by specifying the rs capability in
/etc/printcap. When
rs appears in the entry for a
locally-attached printer, LPD will
accept jobs from remote
hosts if the user submitting the job also
has an account of the same login name on the local host.
Otherwise, LPD refuses the job.This capability is particularly useful in an environment
where there are (for example) different departments sharing a
network, and some users transcend departmental boundaries. By
giving them accounts on your systems, they can use your
printers from their own departmental systems. If you would
rather allow them to use only your
printers and not your computer resources, you can give them
token accounts, with no home directory and a
useless shell like /usr/bin/false.Accounting for Printer UsageaccountingprinterSo, you need to charge for printouts. And why not? Paper and ink
cost money. And then there are maintenance costs—printers are
loaded with moving parts and tend to break down. You have examined
your printers, usage patterns, and maintenance fees and have come up
with a per-page (or per-foot, per-meter, or per-whatever) cost. Now,
how do you actually start accounting for printouts?Well, the bad news is the LPD spooling
system does not provide
much help in this department. Accounting is highly dependent on the
kind of printer in use, the formats being printed, and
your requirements in charging for printer
usage.To implement accounting, you have to modify a printer's text
filter (to charge for plain text jobs) and the conversion filters (to
charge for other file formats), to count pages or query the printer
for pages printed. You cannot get away with using the simple output
filter, since it cannot do accounting. See section Filters.Generally, there are two ways to do accounting:Periodic accounting is the more common
way, possibly because it is easier. Whenever someone prints a
job, the filter logs the user, host, and number of pages to an
accounting file. Every month, semester, year, or whatever time
period you prefer, you collect the accounting files for the
various printers, tally up the pages printed by users, and charge
for usage. Then you truncate all the logging files, starting with
a clean slate for the next period.Timely accounting is less common,
probably because it is more difficult. This method has the
filters charge users for printouts as soon as they use the
printers. Like disk quotas, the accounting is immediate. You can
prevent users from printing when their account goes in the red,
and might provide a way for users to check and adjust their
print quotas. But this method requires some database
code to track users and their quotas.The LPD spooling system supports both
methods easily: since you
have to provide the filters (well, most of the time), you also have to
provide the accounting code. But there is a bright side: you have
enormous flexibility in your accounting methods. For example, you
choose whether to use periodic or timely accounting. You choose what
information to log: user names, host names, job types, pages printed,
square footage of paper used, how long the job took to print, and so
forth. And you do so by modifying the filters to save this
information.Quick and Dirty Printer AccountingFreeBSD comes with two programs that can get you set up with
simple periodic accounting right away. They are the text filter
lpf, described in section lpf: a Text Filter, and
&man.pac.8;, a program to gather and total
entries from printer accounting files.As mentioned in the section on filters (Filters),
LPD starts
the text and the conversion filters with the name of the accounting
file to use on the filter command line. The filters can use this
argument to know where to write an accounting file entry. The name
of this file comes from the af capability in
/etc/printcap, and if not specified as an
absolute path, is relative to the spooling directory.LPD starts lpf
with page width and length
arguments (from the pw and pl
capabilities). lpf uses these arguments to
determine how much paper will be used. After sending the file to
the printer, it then writes an accounting entry in the accounting
file. The entries look like this:2.00 rose:andy
3.00 rose:kelly
3.00 orchid:mary
5.00 orchid:mary
2.00 orchid:zhangYou should use a separate accounting file for each printer, as
lpf has no file locking logic built into it, and
two lpfs might corrupt each other's entries if
they were to write to the same file at the same time. An easy way
to insure a separate accounting file for each printer is to use
af=acct in /etc/printcap.
Then, each accounting file will be in the spooling directory for a
printer, in a file named acct.When you are ready to charge users for printouts, run the
&man.pac.8; program. Just change to the spooling directory for
the printer you want to collect on and type pac.
You will get a dollar-centric summary like the following: Login pages/feet runs price
orchid:kelly 5.00 1 $ 0.10
orchid:mary 31.00 3 $ 0.62
orchid:zhang 9.00 1 $ 0.18
rose:andy 2.00 1 $ 0.04
rose:kelly 177.00 104 $ 3.54
rose:mary 87.00 32 $ 1.74
rose:root 26.00 12 $ 0.52
total 337.00 154 $ 6.74These are the arguments &man.pac.8; expects:Which printer to summarize.
This option works only if there is an absolute path in the
af capability in
/etc/printcap.Sort the output by cost instead of alphabetically by user
name.Ignore host name in the accounting files. With this
option, user smith on host
alpha is the same user
smith on host gamma.
Without, they are different users.Compute charges with price
dollars per page or per foot instead of the price from the
pc capability in
/etc/printcap, or two cents (the
default). You can specify price as
a floating point number.Reverse the sort order.Make an accounting summary file and truncate the
accounting file.name…Print accounting information for the given user
names only.In the default summary that &man.pac.8; produces, you see the
number of pages printed by each user from various hosts. If, at
your site, host does not matter (because users can use any host),
run pac -m, to produce the following
summary: Login pages/feet runs price
andy 2.00 1 $ 0.04
kelly 182.00 105 $ 3.64
mary 118.00 35 $ 2.36
root 26.00 12 $ 0.52
zhang 9.00 1 $ 0.18
total 337.00 154 $ 6.74To compute the dollar amount due,
&man.pac.8; uses the pc capability in the
/etc/printcap file (default of 200, or 2 cents
per page). Specify, in hundredths of cents, the price per page or
per foot you want to charge for printouts in this capability. You
can override this value when you run &man.pac.8; with the
option. The units for the
option are in dollars, though, not hundredths of cents. For
example,
&prompt.root; pac -p1.50
makes each page cost one dollar and fifty cents. You can really
rake in the profits by using this option.Finally, running pac -s will save the summary
information in a summary accounting file, which is named the same as
the printer's accounting file, but with _sum
appended to the name. It then truncates the accounting file. When
you run &man.pac.8; again, it rereads the
summary file to get starting totals, then adds information from the
regular accounting file.How Can You Count Pages Printed?In order to perform even remotely accurate accounting, you need
to be able to determine how much paper a job uses. This is the
essential problem of printer accounting.For plain text jobs, the problem is not that hard to solve: you
count how many lines are in a job and compare it to how many lines
per page your printer supports. Do not forget to take into account
backspaces in the file which overprint lines, or long logical lines
that wrap onto one or more additional physical lines.The text filter lpf (introduced in lpf: a Text Filter) takes
into account these things when it does accounting. If you are
writing a text filter which needs to do accounting, you might want
to examine lpf's source code.How do you handle other file formats, though?Well, for DVI-to-LaserJet or DVI-to-PostScript conversion, you
can have your filter parse the diagnostic output of
dvilj or dvips and look to see
how many pages were converted. You might be able to do similar
things with other file formats and conversion programs.But these methods suffer from the fact that the printer may not
actually print all those pages. For example, it could jam, run out
of toner, or explode—and the user would still get
charged.So, what can you do?There is only one sure way to do
accurate accounting. Get a printer that can
tell you how much paper it uses, and attach it via a serial line or
a network connection. Nearly all PostScript printers support this
notion. Other makes and models do as well (networked Imagen laser
printers, for example). Modify the filters for these printers to
get the page usage after they print each job and have them log
accounting information based on that value
only. There is no line counting nor
error-prone file examination required.Of course, you can always be generous and make all printouts
free.Using PrintersprinterusageThis section tells you how to use printers you have setup with
FreeBSD. Here is an overview of the user-level commands:&man.lpr.1;Print jobs&man.lpq.1;Check printer queues&man.lprm.1;Remove jobs from a printer's queueThere is also an administrative command, &man.lpc.8;, described in
the section Administrating the
LPD
Spooler, used to control printers and their queues.All three of the commands &man.lpr.1;, &man.lprm.1;, and &man.lpq.1;
accept an option to specify on which
printer/queue to operate, as listed in the
/etc/printcap file. This enables you to submit,
remove, and check on jobs for various printers. If you do not use the
option, then these commands use the printer
specified in the PRINTER environment variable. Finally,
if you do not have a PRINTER environment variable, these
commands default to the printer named lp.Hereafter, the terminology default printer
means the printer named in the PRINTER environment
variable, or the printer named lp when there is no
PRINTER environment variable.Printing JobsTo print files, type:&prompt.user; lpr filename...printingThis prints each of the listed files to the default printer. If
you list no files, &man.lpr.1; reads data to
print from standard input. For example, this command prints some
important system files:&prompt.user; lpr /etc/host.conf /etc/hosts.equivTo select a specific printer, type:&prompt.user; lpr -P printer-namefilename...This example prints a long listing of the current directory to the
printer named rattan:&prompt.user; ls -l | lpr -P rattanBecause no files were listed for the
&man.lpr.1; command, lpr read the data to print
from standard input, which was the output of the ls
-l command.The &man.lpr.1; command can also accept a wide variety of options
to control formatting, apply file conversions, generate multiple
copies, and so forth. For more information, see the section Printing Options.Checking Jobsprint jobsWhen you print with &man.lpr.1;, the data you wish to print is put
together in a package called a print job, which is sent
to the LPD spooling system. Each printer
has a queue of jobs, and
your job waits in that queue along with other jobs from yourself and
from other users. The printer prints those jobs in a first-come,
first-served order.To display the queue for the default printer, type &man.lpq.1;.
For a specific printer, use the option. For
example, the command
&prompt.user; lpq -P bamboo
shows the queue for the printer named bamboo. Here
is an example of the output of the lpq
command:bamboo is ready and printing
Rank Owner Job Files Total Size
active kelly 9 /etc/host.conf, /etc/hosts.equiv 88 bytes
2nd kelly 10 (standard input) 1635 bytes
3rd mary 11 ... 78519 bytesThis shows three jobs in the queue for bamboo.
The first job, submitted by user kelly, got assigned job
number 9. Every job for a printer gets a unique job number.
Most of the time you can ignore the job number, but you will need it
if you want to cancel the job; see section Removing Jobs for details.Job number nine consists of two files; multiple files given on the
&man.lpr.1; command line are treated as part of a single job. It
is the currently active job (note the word active
under the Rank column), which means the printer should
be currently printing that job. The second job consists of data
passed as the standard input to the &man.lpr.1; command. The third
job came from user mary; it is a much larger
job. The pathname of the file she is trying to print is too long to
fit, so the &man.lpq.1; command just shows three dots.The very first line of the output from &man.lpq.1; is also useful:
it tells what the printer is currently doing (or at least what
LPD thinks the printer is doing).The &man.lpq.1; command also support a option
to generate a detailed long listing. Here is an example of
lpq -l:waiting for bamboo to become ready (offline ?)
kelly: 1st [job 009rose]
/etc/host.conf 73 bytes
/etc/hosts.equiv 15 bytes
kelly: 2nd [job 010rose]
(standard input) 1635 bytes
mary: 3rd [job 011rose]
/home/orchid/mary/research/venus/alpha-regio/mapping 78519 bytesRemoving JobsIf you change your mind about printing a job, you can remove the
job from the queue with the &man.lprm.1; command. Often, you can
even use &man.lprm.1; to remove an active job, but some or all of the
job might still get printed.To remove a job from the default printer, first use
&man.lpq.1; to find the job number. Then type:&prompt.user; lprm job-numberTo remove the job from a specific printer, add the
option. The following command removes job number
10 from the queue for the printer bamboo:&prompt.user; lprm -P bamboo 10The &man.lprm.1; command has a few shortcuts:lprm -Removes all jobs (for the default printer) belonging to
you.lprm userRemoves all jobs (for the default printer) belonging to
user. The superuser can remove other
users' jobs; you can remove only your own jobs.lprmWith no job number, user name, or
appearing on the command line,
&man.lprm.1; removes the currently active job on the
default printer, if it belongs to you. The superuser can remove
any active job.Just use the option with the above shortcuts
to operate on a specific printer instead of the default. For example,
the following command removes all jobs for the current user in the
queue for the printer named rattan:&prompt.user; lprm -P rattan -If you are working in a networked environment, &man.lprm.1; will
let you remove jobs only from the
host from which the jobs were submitted, even if the same printer is
available from other hosts. The following command sequence
demonstrates this:&prompt.user; lpr -P rattan myfile
&prompt.user; rlogin orchid
&prompt.user; lpq -P rattan
Rank Owner Job Files Total Size
active seeyan 12 ... 49123 bytes
2nd kelly 13 myfile 12 bytes
&prompt.user; lprm -P rattan 13
rose: Permission denied
&prompt.user; logout
&prompt.user; lprm -P rattan 13
dfA013rose dequeued
cfA013rose dequeued
Beyond Plain Text: Printing OptionsThe &man.lpr.1; command supports a number of options that control
formatting text, converting graphic and other file formats, producing
multiple copies, handling of the job, and more. This section
describes the options.Formatting and Conversion OptionsThe following &man.lpr.1; options control formatting of the
files in the job. Use these options if the job does not contain
plain text or if you want plain text formatted through the
&man.pr.1; utility.TeXFor example, the following command prints a DVI file (from the
TeX typesetting system) named fish-report.dvi
to the printer named bamboo:&prompt.user; lpr -P bamboo -d fish-report.dviThese options apply to every file in the job, so you cannot mix
(say) DVI and ditroff files together in a job. Instead, submit the
files as separate jobs, using a different conversion option for each
job.All of these options except and
require conversion filters installed for the
destination printer. For example, the option
requires the DVI conversion filter. Section Conversion
Filters gives details.Print cifplot files.Print DVI files.Print FORTRAN text files.Print plot data.Indent the output by number
columns; if you omit number, indent
by 8 columns. This option works only with certain conversion
filters.Do not put any space between the and
the number.Print literal text data, including control
characters.Print ditroff (device independent troff) data.-pFormat plain text with &man.pr.1; before printing. See
&man.pr.1; for more information.Use title on the
&man.pr.1; header instead of the file name. This option has
effect only when used with the
option.Print troff data.Print raster data.Here is an example: this command prints a nicely formatted
version of the &man.ls.1; manual page on the default printer:&prompt.user; zcat /usr/share/man/man1/ls.1.gz | troff -t -man | lpr -tThe &man.zcat.1; command uncompresses the source of the
&man.ls.1; manual page and passes it to the &man.troff.1;
command, which formats that source and makes GNU troff
output and passes it to &man.lpr.1;, which submits the job
to the LPD spooler. Because we
used the
option to &man.lpr.1;, the spooler will convert the GNU
troff output into a format the default printer can
understand when it prints the job.Job Handling OptionsThe following options to &man.lpr.1; tell
LPD to handle the job
specially:-# copiesProduce a number of copies of
each file in the job instead of just one copy. An
administrator may disable this option to reduce printer
wear-and-tear and encourage photocopier usage. See section
Restricting
Multiple Copies.This example prints three copies of
parser.c followed by three copies of
parser.h to the default printer:&prompt.user; lpr -#3 parser.c parser.h-mSend mail after completing the print job. With this
option, the LPD system will send
mail to your account when it
finishes handling your job. In its message, it will tell you
if the job completed successfully or if there was an error,
and (often) what the error was.-sDo not copy the files to the spooling directory, but make
symbolic links to them instead.If you are printing a large job, you probably want to use
this option. It saves space in the spooling directory (your
job might overflow the free space on the filesystem where the
spooling directory resides). It saves time as well since
LPD
will not have to copy each and every byte of your job to the
spooling directory.There is a drawback, though: since
LPD will refer to the
original files directly, you cannot modify or remove them
until they have been printed.If you are printing to a remote printer,
LPD will
eventually have to copy files from the local host to the
remote host, so the option will save
space only on the local spooling directory, not the remote.
It is still useful, though.-rRemove the files in the job after copying them to the
spooling directory, or after printing them with the
option. Be careful with this
option!Header Page OptionsThese options to &man.lpr.1; adjust the text that normally
appears on a job's header page. If header pages are suppressed for
the destination printer, these options have no effect. See section
Header Pages
for information about setting up header pages.-C textReplace the hostname on the header page with
text. The hostname is normally the
name of the host from which the job was submitted.-J textReplace the job name on the header page with
text. The job name is normally the
name of the first file of the job, or
stdin if you are printing standard
input.-hDo not print any header page.At some sites, this option may have no effect due to the
way header pages are generated. See Header
Pages for details.Administrating PrintersAs an administrator for your printers, you have had to install,
set up, and test them. Using the &man.lpc.8; command, you
can interact with your printers in yet more ways. With &man.lpc.8;,
you canStart and stop the printersEnable and disable their queuesRearrange the order of the jobs in each queue.First, a note about terminology: if a printer is
stopped, it will not print anything in its queue.
Users can still submit jobs, which will wait in the queue until the
printer is started or the queue is
cleared.If a queue is disabled, no user (except root)
can submit jobs for the printer. An enabled
queue allows jobs to be submitted. A printer can be
started for a disabled queue, in which case it
will continue to print jobs in the queue until the queue is
empty.In general, you have to have root privileges to use the
&man.lpc.8; command. Ordinary users can use the &man.lpc.8; command
to get printer status and to restart a hung printer only.Here is a summary of the &man.lpc.8; commands. Most of the
commands take a printer-name argument to
tell on which printer to operate. You can use all
for the printer-name to mean all printers
listed in /etc/printcap.abort
printer-nameCancel the current job and stop the printer. Users can
still submit jobs if the queue is enabled.clean
printer-nameRemove old files from the printer's spooling directory.
Occasionally, the files that make up a job are not properly
removed by LPD, particularly if
there have been errors during
printing or a lot of administrative activity. This command
finds files that do not belong in the spooling directory and
removes them.disable
printer-nameDisable queuing of new jobs. If the printer is running, it
will continue to print any jobs remaining in the queue. The
superuser (root) can always submit jobs, even to a disabled
queue.This command is useful while you are testing a new printer
or filter installation: disable the queue and submit jobs as
root. Other users will not be able to submit jobs until you
complete your testing and re-enable the queue with the
enable command.down printer-namemessageTake a printer down. Equivalent to
disable followed by stop.
The message appears as the printer's
status whenever a user checks the printer's queue with
&man.lpq.1; or status with lpc
status.enable
printer-nameEnable the queue for a printer. Users can submit jobs but
the printer will not print anything until it is started.help
command-namePrint help on the command
command-name. With no
command-name, print a summary of the
commands available.restart
printer-nameStart the printer. Ordinary users can use this command if
some extraordinary circumstance hangs
LPD, but they cannot start
a printer stopped with either the stop or
down commands. The
restart command is equivalent to
abort followed by
start.start
printer-nameStart the printer. The printer will print jobs in its
queue.stop
printer-nameStop the printer. The printer will finish the current job
and will not print anything else in its queue. Even though the
printer is stopped, users can still submit jobs to an enabled
queue.topq printer-namejob-or-usernameRearrange the queue for
printer-name by placing the jobs with
the listed job numbers or the jobs
belonging to username at the top of
the queue. For this command, you cannot use
all as the
printer-name.up
printer-nameBring a printer up; the opposite of the
down command. Equivalent to
start followed by
enable.&man.lpc.8; accepts the above commands on the command line. If
you do not enter any commands, &man.lpc.8; enters an interactive mode,
where you can enter commands until you type exit,
quit, or end-of-file.Alternatives to the Standard SpoolerIf you have been reading straight through this manual, by now you
have learned just about everything there is to know about the
LPD
spooling system that comes with FreeBSD. You can probably appreciate
many of its shortcomings, which naturally leads to the question:
What other spooling systems are out there (and work with
FreeBSD)?LPRngLPRngLPRng, which purportedly means
LPR: the Next
Generation is a complete rewrite of PLP. Patrick Powell
and Justin Mason (the principal maintainer of PLP) collaborated to
make LPRng. The main site for
LPRng is http://www.astart.com/lprng/LPRng.html.TroubleshootingAfter performing the simple test with &man.lptest.1;, you might
have gotten one of the following results instead of the correct
printout:It worked, after awhile; or, it did not eject a full
sheet.The printer printed the above, but it sat for awhile and
did nothing. In fact, you might have needed to press a
PRINT REMAINING or FORM FEED button on the printer to get any
results to appear.If this is the case, the printer was probably waiting to
see if there was any more data for your job before it printed
anything. To fix this problem, you can have the text filter
send a FORM FEED character (or whatever is necessary) to the
printer. This is usually sufficient to have the printer
immediately print any text remaining in its internal buffer.
It is also useful to make sure each print job ends on a full
sheet, so the next job does not start somewhere on the middle
of the last page of the previous job.The following replacement for the shell script
/usr/local/libexec/if-simple prints a
form feed after it sends the job to the printer:#!/bin/sh
#
# if-simple - Simple text input filter for lpd
# Installed in /usr/local/libexec/if-simple
#
# Simply copies stdin to stdout. Ignores all filter arguments.
# Writes a form feed character (\f) after printing job.
/bin/cat && printf "\f" && exit 0
exit 2It produced the staircase effect.You got the following on paper:!"#$%&'()*+,-./01234
"#$%&'()*+,-./012345
#$%&'()*+,-./0123456MS-DOSOS/2ASCIIYou have become another victim of the staircase
effect, caused by conflicting interpretations of
what characters should indicate a new line. Unix-style
operating systems use a single character: ASCII code 10, the
line feed (LF). MS-DOS, OS/2, and others uses a pair of
characters, ASCII code 10 and ASCII code
13 (the carriage return or CR). Many printers use the MS-DOS
convention for representing new-lines.When you print with FreeBSD, your text used just the line
feed character. The printer, upon seeing a line feed
character, advanced the paper one line, but maintained the
same horizontal position on the page for the next character
to print. That is what the carriage return is for: to move
the location of the next character to print to the left edge
of the paper.Here is what FreeBSD wants your printer to do:Printer received CRPrinter prints CRPrinter received LFPrinter prints CR + LFHere are some ways to achieve this:Use the printer's configuration switches or control
panel to alter its interpretation of these characters.
Check your printer's manual to find out how to do
this.If you boot your system into other operating systems
besides FreeBSD, you may have to
reconfigure the printer to use a an
interpretation for CR and LF characters that those other
operating systems use. You might prefer one of the other
solutions, below.Have FreeBSD's serial line driver automatically
convert LF to CR+LF. Of course, this works with printers
on serial ports only. To enable this
feature, set the CRMOD bit
in fs
capability in the /etc/printcap file
for the printer.Send an escape code to the
printer to have it temporarily treat LF characters
differently. Consult your printer's manual for escape
codes that your printer might support. When you find the
proper escape code, modify the text filter to send the
code first, then send the print job.PCLHere is an example text filter for printers that
understand the Hewlett-Packard PCL escape codes. This
filter makes the printer treat LF characters as a LF and
CR; then it sends the job; then it sends a form feed to
eject the last page of the job. It should work with
nearly all Hewlett Packard printers.#!/bin/sh
#
# hpif - Simple text input filter for lpd for HP-PCL based printers
# Installed in /usr/local/libexec/hpif
#
# Simply copies stdin to stdout. Ignores all filter arguments.
# Tells printer to treat LF as CR+LF. Ejects the page when done.
printf "\033&k2G" && cat && printf "\033&l0H" && exit 0
exit 2Here is an example /etc/printcap
from a host called orchid. It has a single printer
attached to its first parallel port, a Hewlett Packard
LaserJet 3Si named teak. It is using the
above script as its text filter:#
# /etc/printcap for host orchid
#
teak|hp|laserjet|Hewlett Packard LaserJet 3Si:\
:lp=/dev/lpt0:sh:sd=/var/spool/lpd/teak:mx#0:\
:if=/usr/local/libexec/hpif:It overprinted each line.The printer never advanced a line. All of the lines of
text were printed on top of each other on one line.This problem is the opposite of the
staircase effect, described above, and is much rarer.
Somewhere, the LF characters that FreeBSD uses to end a line
are being treated as CR characters to return the print
location to the left edge of the paper, but not also down a
line.Use the printer's configuration switches or control panel
to enforce the following interpretation of LF and CR
characters:Printer receivesPrinter printsCRCRLFCR + LFThe printer lost characters.While printing, the printer did not print a few characters
in each line. The problem might have gotten worse as the
printer ran, losing more and more characters.The problem is that the printer cannot keep up with the
speed at which the computer sends data over a serial line
(this problem should not occur with printers on parallel
ports). There are two ways to overcome the problem:If the printer supports XON/XOFF flow control, have
FreeBSD use it by specifying the TANDEM bit in the
fs capability.If the printer supports carrier flow control, specify
the MDMBUF bit in the
fs capability.
Make sure the cable connecting the printer to the computer
is correctly wired for carrier flow control.If the printer does not support any flow control, use
some combination of the NLDELAY,
TBDELAY, CRDELAY,
VTDELAY, and BSDELAY
bits in the fs capability
to add appropriate delays to the stream of data sent to
the printer.It printed garbage.The printer printed what appeared to be random garbage,
but not the desired text.This is usually another symptom of incorrect
communications parameters with a serial printer. Double-check
the bps rate in the br capability, and the
parity bits in the fs and
fc capabilities; make sure the printer is
using the same settings as specified in the
/etc/printcap file.Nothing happened.If nothing happened, the problem is probably within
FreeBSD and not the hardware. Add the log file
(lf) capability to the entry for the
printer you are debugging in the
/etc/printcap file. For example, here is
the entry for rattan, with the
lf capability:rattan|line|diablo|lp|Diablo 630 Line Printer:\
:sh:sd=/var/spool/lpd/rattan:\
:lp=/dev/lpt0:\
:if=/usr/local/libexec/if-simple:\
:lf=/var/log/rattan.logThen, try printing again. Check the log file (in our
example, /var/log/rattan.log) to see any
error messages that might appear. Based on the messages you
see, try to correct the problem.If you do not specify a lf capability,
LPD uses
/dev/console as a default.
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/serialcomms/chapter.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/serialcomms/chapter.sgml
index 2f1afb17d2..83f88ae128 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/serialcomms/chapter.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/serialcomms/chapter.sgml
@@ -1,2593 +1,2593 @@
Serial CommunicationsSynopsisserial communicationsUnix has always had support for serial communications. In fact,
the very first Unix machines relied on serial lines for user input
and output. Things have changed a lot from the days when the average
terminal consisted of a 10-character-per-second serial
printer and a keyboard. This chapter will cover some of the ways in
which FreeBSD uses serial communications.After reading this chapter you will know:How to connect terminals to your FreeBSD
system.How to use a modem to dial out to remote
hosts.How to allow remote users to login to your
system with a modem.How to boot your system from a serial
console.Before reading this chapter you should:Know how to configure and install a new kernel ()
- Understand Unix permissions and processes ()
+ linkend="kernelconfig">).
+ Understand Unix permissions and processes ().Have access to the technical manual for the
serial hardware (modem or multi-port card) that you would like
to use with FreeBSD.IntroductionTerminologybits-per-secondbpsBits per Second — the rate at which data is
transmittedDTEDTEData Terminal Equipment — for example, your
computerDCEDCEData Communications Equipment — your modemRS-232RS-232C cablesEIA standard for hardware serial communicationsWhen talking about communications data rates, the authors
do not use the term baud. Baud refers to the
number of electrical state transitions that may be made in a
period of time, while bps (bits per second) is
the correct term to use (at least it does not
seem to bother the curmudgeons quite a much).Cables and PortsTo connect a modem or terminal to your FreeBSD system, you
will need a serial port on your computer and the proper cable to connect
to your serial device. If you are already familiar with your
hardware and the cable it requires, you can safely skip this
section.CablesThere are several different kinds of serial cables. The
two most common types for our purposes are null-modem cables
and standard ("straight") RS-232 cables. The documentation
for your hardware should describe the type of cable
required.Null-modem Cablesnull-modem cableA null-modem cable passes some signals straight through, like
signal ground, but switches other signals. For
example, the send data pin on one end goes to the
receive data pin on the other end.If you like making your own cables, you can construct
a null-modem cable for use with
terminals. This table shows the RS-232C signal names and the pin
numbers on a DB-25 connector.SignalPin #Pin #SignalTxD2connects to3RxDRxD3connects to2TxDDTR20connects to6DSRDSR6connects to20DTRSG7connects to7SGDCD8connects to4RTSRTS45CTSCTS5connects to8DCDFor DCD to RTS, connect pins 4 to 5 internally in the
connector hood, and then to pin 8 in the remote
hood.Standard RS-232C CablesRS-232C cablesA standard serial cable passes all the RS-232C signals
straight-through. That is, the send data pin on one
end of the cable goes to the send data pin on the
other end. This is the type of cable to connect a modem to your
FreeBSD system, and the type of cable needed for some
terminals.PortsSerial ports are the devices through which data is transferred
between the FreeBSD host computer and the terminal. This section
describes the kinds of ports that exist and how they are addressed
in FreeBSD.Kinds of PortsSeveral kinds of serial ports exist. Before you purchase or
construct a cable, you need to make sure it will fit the ports on
your terminal and on the FreeBSD system.Most terminals will have DB25 ports. Personal computers,
including PCs running FreeBSD, will have DB25 or DB9 ports. If you
have a multiport serial card for your PC, you may have RJ-12 or
RJ-45 ports.See the documentation that accompanied the hardware for
specifications on the kind of port in use. A visual inspection of
the port often works, too.Port NamesIn FreeBSD, you access each serial port through an entry in
the /dev directory. There are two different
kinds of entries:Call-in ports are named
/dev/ttydN
where N is the port number,
starting from zero. Generally, you use the call-in port for
terminals. Call-in ports require that the serial line assert
the data carrier detect (DCD) signal to work.Call-out ports are named
/dev/cuaaN.
You usually do not use the call-out port for terminals, just
for modems. You may use the call-out port if the serial cable
or the terminal does not support the carrier detect
signal.If you have connected a terminal to the first serial port
(COM1 in MS-DOS parlance), then you want to
use /dev/ttyd0 to refer to the terminal. If
it is on the second serial port (also known as
COM2), it is
/dev/ttyd1, and so forth.Kernel ConfigurationFreeBSD supports four serial ports by default. In the
MS-DOS world, these are known as
COM1:,
COM2:,
COM3:, and
COM4:. FreeBSD currently supports
dumb multiport serial interface cards, such as
the BocaBoard 1008 and 2016, as well as more
intelligent multi-port cards such as those made by Digiboard
and Stallion Technologies. The default kernel only looks for
the standard COM ports, though.To see if your kernel recognizes any of your serial ports, watch
for messages while the kernel is booting, or use the
/sbin/dmesg command to replay the kernel's boot
messages. In particular, look for messages that start with the
characters sio.To view just the messages that have the word
sio, use the command:&prompt.root; /sbin/dmesg | grep 'sio'For example, on a system with four serial ports, these are the
serial-port specific kernel boot messages:sio0 at 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 on isa
sio0: type 16550A
sio1 at 0x2f8-0x2ff irq 3 on isa
sio1: type 16550A
sio2 at 0x3e8-0x3ef irq 5 on isa
sio2: type 16550A
sio3 at 0x2e8-0x2ef irq 9 on isa
sio3: type 16550AIf your kernel does not recognize all of your serial
ports, you will probably need to configure a custom FreeBSD
kernel for your system. For detailed information on
configuring your kernel, please see .The relevant device lines for your kernel configuration
file would look like this:device sio0 at isa? port "IO_COM1" tty irq 4 vector siointr
device sio1 at isa? port "IO_COM2" tty irq 3 vector siointr
device sio2 at isa? port "IO_COM3" tty irq 5 vector siointr
device sio3 at isa? port "IO_COM4" tty irq 9 vector siointrYou can comment-out or completely remove lines for devices
you do not have. Please see the &man.sio.4; manual page for
complete information on how to write configuration lines for
multiport boards. Be careful if you are using a configuration
file that was previously used for a different version of
FreeBSD because the device flags have changed between
versions.port "IO_COM1" is a substitution for
port 0x3f8, IO_COM2 is
0x2f8, IO_COM3 is
0x3e8, and IO_COM4 is
0x2e8, which are fairly common port addresses for
their respective serial ports; interrupts 4, 3, 5, and 9 are fairly
common interrupt request lines. Also note that regular serial ports
cannot share interrupts on ISA-bus PCs
(multiport boards have on-board electronics that allow all the
16550A's on the board to share one or two interrupt request
lines).Device Special FilesMost devices in the kernel are accessed through device
special files, which are located in the
/dev directory. The sio
devices are accessed through the
/dev/ttydN (dial-in)
and /dev/cuaaN
(call-out) devices. FreeBSD also provides initialization devices
(/dev/ttyidN and
/dev/cuai0N) and
locking devices
(/dev/ttyldN and
/dev/cual0N). The
initialization devices are used to initialize communications port
parameters each time a port is opened, such as
crtscts for modems which use
CTS/RTS signaling for flow control. The locking
devices are used to lock flags on ports to prevent users or programs
changing certain parameters; see the manual pages &man.termios.4;,
&man.sio.4;, and &man.stty.1; for
information on the terminal settings, locking and initializing
devices, and setting terminal options, respectively.Making Device Special FilesFreeBSD 5.0 includes the devfs
filesystem which automatically creates device nodes as
needed. If you are running a version of FreeBSD with
devfs enabled then you can safely skip
this section.A shell script called MAKEDEV in the
/dev directory manages the device special
files. To use MAKEDEV to make dial-up device
special files for COM1: (port 0),
cd to /dev and issue the
command MAKEDEV ttyd0. Likewise, to make dial-up
device special files for COM2: (port 1),
use MAKEDEV ttyd1.MAKEDEV not only creates the
/dev/ttydN device
special files, but also creates the
/dev/cuaaN,
/dev/cuaiaN,
/dev/cualaN,
/dev/ttyldN,
and
/dev/ttyidN
nodes.After making new device special files, be sure to check the
permissions on the files (especially the
/dev/cua* files) to make sure that only users
who should have access to those device special files can read and
write on them — you probably do not want to allow your average
user to use your modems to dial-out. The default permissions on the
/dev/cua* files should be sufficient:crw-rw---- 1 uucp dialer 28, 129 Feb 15 14:38 /dev/cuaa1
crw-rw---- 1 uucp dialer 28, 161 Feb 15 14:38 /dev/cuaia1
crw-rw---- 1 uucp dialer 28, 193 Feb 15 14:38 /dev/cuala1These permissions allow the user uucp and
users in the group dialer to use the call-out
devices.Serial Port ConfigurationttydcuaaThe ttydN (or
cuaaN) device is the
regular device you will want to open for your applications. When a
process opens the device, it will have a default set of terminal I/O
settings. You can see these settings with the command&prompt.root; stty -a -f /dev/ttyd1When you change the settings to this device, the settings are in
effect until the device is closed. When it is reopened, it goes back to
the default set. To make changes to the default set, you can open and
adjust the settings of the initial state device. For
example, to turn on mode, 8 bit communication,
and flow control by default for ttyd5,
type:&prompt.root; stty -f /dev/ttyid5 clocal cs8 ixon ixoffrc filesrc.serialSystem-wide initialization of the serial devices is
controlled in /etc/rc.serial. This file
affects the default settings of serial devices.To prevent certain settings from being changed by an
application, make adjustments to the lock state
device. For example, to lock the speed of
ttyd5 to 57600 bps, type:&prompt.root; stty -f /dev/ttyld5 57600Now, an application that opens
ttyd5 and tries to change the speed of
the port will be stuck with 57600 bps.MAKEDEVNaturally, you should make the initial state and lock state devices
writable only by the root account.SeanKellyContributed by TerminalsterminalsTerminals provide a convenient and low-cost way to access the power
of your FreeBSD system when you are not at the computer's console or on
a connected network. This section describes how to use terminals with
FreeBSD.Uses and Types of TerminalsThe original Unix systems did not have consoles. Instead, people
logged in and ran programs through terminals that were connected to
the computer's serial ports. It is quite similar to using a modem and
some terminal software to dial into a remote system to do text-only
work.Today's PCs have consoles capable of high quality graphics, but
the ability to establish a login session on a serial port still exists
in nearly every Unix-style operating system today; FreeBSD is no
exception. By using a terminal attached to a unused serial port, you
can log in and run any text program that you would normally run on the
console or in an xterm window in the X Window
System.For the business user, you can attach many terminals to a FreeBSD
system and place them on your employees' desktops. For a home user, a
spare computer such as an older IBM PC or a Macintosh can be a
terminal wired into a more powerful computer running FreeBSD. You can
turn what might otherwise be a single-user computer into a powerful
multiple user system.For FreeBSD, there are three kinds of terminals:Dumb terminalsPCs acting as terminalsX terminalsThe remaining subsections describe each kind.Dumb TerminalsDumb terminals are specialized pieces of hardware that let you
connect to computers over serial lines. They are called
dumb because they have only enough computational power
to display, send, and receive text. You cannot run any programs on
them. It is the computer to which you connect them that has all the
power to run text editors, compilers, email, games, and so
forth.There are hundreds of kinds of dumb terminals made by many
manufacturers, including Digital Equipment Corporation's VT-100 and
Wyse's WY-75. Just about any kind will work with FreeBSD. Some
high-end terminals can even display graphics, but only certain
software packages can take advantage of these advanced
features.Dumb terminals are popular in work environments where workers do
not need access to graphic applications such as those provided by
the X Window System.PCs Acting As TerminalsIf a dumb terminal has just
enough ability to display, send, and receive text, then certainly
any spare personal computer can be a dumb terminal. All you need is
the proper cable and some terminal emulation
software to run on the computer.Such a configuration is popular in homes. For example, if your
spouse is busy working on your FreeBSD system's console, you can do
some text-only work at the same time from a less powerful personal
computer hooked up as a terminal to the FreeBSD system.X TerminalsX terminals are the most sophisticated kind of terminal
available. Instead of connecting to a serial port, they usually
connect to a network like Ethernet. Instead of being relegated to
text-only applications, they can display any X application.We introduce X terminals just for the sake of completeness.
However, this chapter does not cover setup,
configuration, or use of X terminals.ConfigurationThis section describes what you need to configure on your FreeBSD
system to enable a login session on a terminal. It assumes you have
already configured your kernel to support the serial port to which the
terminal is connected—and that you have connected it.Recall from that the
init process is responsible for all process
control and initialization at system startup. One of the
tasks performed by init is to read the
/etc/ttys file and start a
getty process on the available terminals.
The getty process is responsible for
reading a login name and starting the login
program.Thus, to configure terminals for your FreeBSD system the
following steps should be taken as root :Add a line to /etc/ttys for the entry in
the /dev directory for the serial port if it
is not already there.Specify that /usr/libexec/getty be run on
the port, and specify the appropriate
getty type from the
/etc/gettytab file.Specify the default terminal type.Set the port to on.Specify whether the port should be
secure.Force init to reread the
/etc/ttys file.As an optional step, you may wish to create a custom
getty type for use in step 2 by making an
entry in /etc/gettytab. This chapter does
not explain how to do so; you are encouraged to see the
&man.gettytab.5; and the &man.getty.8; manual pages for more
information.Adding an Entry to /etc/ttysThe /etc/ttys file lists all of the ports
on your FreeBSD system where you want to allow logins. For example,
the first virtual console ttyv0 has an entry in
this file. You can log in on the console using this entry. This
file also contains entries for the other virtual consoles, serial ports,
and pseudo-ttys. For a hardwired terminal, just list the serial
port's /dev entry without the
/dev part.A default FreeBSD install includes a
/etc/ttys file with support for the first
four serial ports: ttyd0 through
ttyd3. If you are attaching a terminal
to one of those ports, you do not need to add another entry.Adding Terminal Entries to
/etc/ttysSuppose we would like to connect two terminals to the
system: a Wyse-50 and an old 286 IBM PC running
Procomm terminal software
emulating a VT-100 terminal. We connect the Wyse to the
second serial port and the 286 to the sixth serial port (a
port on a multiport serial card). The corresponding
entries in the /etc/ttys file would
look like this:ttyd1 "/usr/libexec/getty std.38400" wy50 on insecure
ttyd5 "/usr/libexec/getty std.19200" vt100 on insecure
The first field normally specifies the name of
the terminal special file as it is found in
/dev.The second field is the command to execute for
this line, which is usually &man.getty.8;.
getty initializes and opens the
line, sets the speed, prompts for a user name and then
executes the &man.login.1; program.The getty program accepts one
(optional) parameter on its command line, the
getty type. A
getty type tells about
characteristics on the terminal line, like bps rate
and parity. The getty program reads
these characteristics from the file
/etc/gettytab.The file /etc/gettytab
contains lots of entries for terminal lines both old
and new. In almost all cases, the entries that start
with the text std will work for
hardwired terminals. These entries ignore parity.
There is a std entry for each bps
rate from 110 to 115200. Of course, you can add your
own entries to this file. The &man.gettytab.5; manual
page provides more information.When setting the getty
type in the /etc/ttys file, make
sure that the communications settings on the terminal
match.For our example, the Wyse-50 uses no parity and
connects at 38400 bps. The 286 PC uses no parity and
connects at 19200 bps.The third field is the type of terminal usually
connected to that tty line. For dial-up ports,
unknown or
dialup is typically used in this
field since users may dial up with practically any
type of terminal or software. For hardwired
terminals, the terminal type does not change, so you
can put a real terminal type from the &man.termcap.5;
database file in this field.For our example, the Wyse-50 uses the real
terminal type while the 286 PC running
Procomm will be set to
emulate at VT-100. The fourth field specifies if the port should be
enabled. Putting on here will have
the init process start the program
in the second field, getty. If you
put off in this field, there will
be no getty, and hence no logins on
the port.The final field is used to specify whether the
port is secure. Marking a port as secure means that
you trust it enough to allow the
root account (or any account with
a user ID of 0) to login from that port. Insecure
ports do not allow root logins.
On an insecure port, users must login from
unprivileged accounts and then use &man.su.1; or a
similar mechanism to gain superuser privileges.It is highly recommended that you use "insecure"
even for terminals that are behind locked doors. It
is quite easy to login and use su
if you need superuser privileges.Force init to Reread
/etc/ttysAfter making the necessary changes to the
/etc/ttys file you should send a SIGHUP
(hangup) signal to the init process to
force it to re-read its configuration file. For example :&prompt.root; kill -HUP 1If everything is set up correctly, all cables are in
place, and the terminals are powered up, then a
getty process should be running on each
terminal and you should see login prompts on your terminals
at this point.Troubleshooting Your ConnectionEven with the most meticulous attention to detail, something could
still go wrong while setting up a terminal. Here is a list of
symptoms and some suggested fixes.No login prompt appearsMake sure the terminal is plugged in and powered up. If it
is a personal computer acting as a terminal, make sure it is
running terminal emulation software on the correct serial
port.Make sure the cable is connected firmly to both the terminal
and the FreeBSD computer. Make sure it is the right kind of
cable.Make sure the terminal and FreeBSD agree on the bps rate and
parity settings. If you have a video display terminal, make
sure the contrast and brightness controls are turned up. If it
is a printing terminal, make sure paper and ink are in good
supply.Make sure that a getty process is running
and serving the terminal. For example, to get a list of
running getty processes with
ps, type:&prompt.root; ps -axww|grep gettyYou should see an entry for the terminal. For
example, the following display shows that a
getty is running on the second serial
port ttyd1 and is using the
std.38400 entry in
/etc/gettytab:22189 d1 Is+ 0:00.03 /usr/libexec/getty std.38400 ttyd1If no getty process is running, make sure
you have enabled the port in /etc/ttys.
Also remember to run kill -HUP 1
after modifying the ttys file.Garbage appears instead of a login promptMake sure the terminal and FreeBSD agree on the bps rate and
parity settings. Check the getty processes
to make sure the
correct getty type is in use. If
not, edit /etc/ttys and run kill
-HUP 1.Characters appear doubled; the password appears when
typedSwitch the terminal (or the terminal emulation software)
from half duplex or local echo to
full duplex.GuyHelmerContributed by SeanKellyAdditions by Dial-in Servicedial-in serviceConfiguring your FreeBSD system for dial-in service is very
similar to connecting terminals except that you are dealing with
modems instead of terminals.External v.s. Internal ModemsExternal modems seem to be more convenient for dial-up, because
external modems often can be semi-permanently configured via
parameters stored in non-volatile RAM and they usually provide
lighted indicators that display the state of important RS-232
signals. Blinking lights impress visitors, but lights are also very
useful to see whether a modem is operating properly.Internal modems usually lack non-volatile RAM, so their
configuration may be limited only to setting DIP switches. If your
internal modem has any signal indicator lights, it is probably
difficult to view the lights when the system's cover is in
place.Modems and CablesmodemIf you are using an external modem, then you will of
course need the proper cable. A standard RS-232C serial
cable should suffice as long as all of the normal signals
are wired :Transmitted Data (SD)Received Data (RD)Request to Send (RTS)Clear to Send (CTS)Data Set Ready (DSR)Data Terminal Ready (DTR)Carrier Detect (CD)Signal Ground (SG)FreeBSD needs the RTS and
CTS signals for flow-control at speeds above
2400bps, the CD signal to detect when a call has
been answered or the line has been hung up, and the
DTR signal to reset the modem after a session is
complete. Some cables are wired without all of the needed signals,
so if you have problems, such as a login session not going away when
the line hangs up, you may have a problem with your cable.Like other Unix-like operating systems, FreeBSD uses the
hardware signals to find out when a call has been answered
or a line has been hung up and to hangup and reset the modem
after a call. FreeBSD avoids sending commands to the modem
or watching for status reports from the modem. If you are
familiar with connecting modems to PC-based bulletin board
systems, this may seem awkward.Serial Interface ConsiderationsFreeBSD supports NS8250-, NS16450-, NS16550-, and NS16550A-based
EIA RS-232C (CCITT V.24) communications interfaces. The 8250 and
16450 devices have single-character buffers. The 16550 device
provides a 16-character buffer, which allows for better system
performance. (Bugs in plain 16550's prevent the use of the
16-character buffer, so use 16550A's if possible). Because
single-character-buffer devices require more work by the operating
system than the 16-character-buffer devices, 16550A-based serial
interface cards are much preferred. If the system has many active
serial ports or will have a heavy load, 16550A-based cards are
better for low-error-rate communications.Quick OverviewgettyAs with terminals, init spawns a
getty process for each configured serial
port for dial-in connections. For example, if a modem is
attached to /dev/ttyd0, the command
ps ax might show this: 4850 ?? I 0:00.09 /usr/libexec/getty V19200 ttyd0When a user dials the modem's line and the modems connect, the
CD line is asserted by the modem. The kernel
notices that carrier has been detected and completes
getty's open of the port. getty
sends a login: prompt at the specified initial line
speed. getty watches to see if legitimate
characters are received, and, in a typical configuration, if it finds
junk (probably due to the modem's connection speed being different
than getty's speed), getty tries
adjusting the line speeds until it receives reasonable
characters./usr/bin/loginAfter the user enters his/her login name,
getty executes
/usr/bin/login, which completes the login
by asking for the user's password and then starting the user's
shell.Configuration FilesThere are three system configuration files in the
/etc directory that you will probably need to
edit to allow dial-up access to your FreeBSD system. The first,
/etc/gettytab, contains configuration information
for the /usr/libexec/getty daemon. Second,
/etc/ttys holds information that tells
/sbin/init what tty devices
should have getty processes running on them.
Lastly, you can place port initialization commands in the
/etc/rc.serial script.There are two schools of thought regarding dial-up modems on Unix.
One group likes to configure their modems and systems so that no matter
at what speed a remote user dials in, the local computer-to-modem
RS-232 interface runs at a locked speed. The benefit of this
configuration is that the remote user always sees a system login
prompt immediately. The downside is that the system does not know
what a user's true data rate is, so full-screen programs like Emacs
will not adjust their screen-painting methods to make their response
better for slower connections.The other school configures their modems' RS-232 interface to vary
its speed based on the remote user's connection speed. For example,
V.32bis (14.4 Kbps) connections to the modem might make the modem run
its RS-232 interface at 19.2 Kbps, while 2400 bps connections make the
modem's RS-232 interface run at 2400 bps. Because
getty does not understand any particular modem's
connection speed reporting, getty gives a
login: message at an initial speed and watches the
characters that come back in response. If the user sees junk, it is
assumed that they know they should press the
Enter key until they see a recognizable
prompt. If the data rates do not match, getty sees
anything the user types as junk, tries going to the next
speed and gives the login: prompt again. This
procedure can continue ad nauseam, but normally only takes a keystroke
or two before the user sees a good prompt. Obviously, this login
sequence does not look as clean as the former
locked-speed method, but a user on a low-speed
connection should receive better interactive response from full-screen
programs.The authors will try to give balanced configuration information,
but is biased towards having the modem's data rate follow the
connection rate./etc/gettytab/etc/gettytab/etc/gettytab is a &man.termcap.5;-style
file of configuration information for &man.getty.8;. Please see the
&man.gettytab.5; manual page for complete information on the
format of the file and the list of capabilities.Locked-Speed ConfigIf you are locking your modem's data communications rate at a
particular speed, you probably will not need to make any changes
to /etc/gettytab.Matching-Speed ConfigYou will need to setup an entry in
/etc/gettytab to give
getty information about the speeds you wish to
use for your modem. If you have a 2400 bps modem, you can
probably use the existing D2400 entry.#
# Fast dialup terminals, 2400/1200/300 rotary (can start either way)
#
D2400|d2400|Fast-Dial-2400:\
:nx=D1200:tc=2400-baud:
3|D1200|Fast-Dial-1200:\
:nx=D300:tc=1200-baud:
5|D300|Fast-Dial-300:\
:nx=D2400:tc=300-baud:If you have a higher speed modem, you will probably need to
add an entry in /etc/gettytab; here is an
entry you could use for a 14.4 Kbps modem with a top interface
speed of 19.2 Kbps:#
# Additions for a V.32bis Modem
#
um|V300|High Speed Modem at 300,8-bit:\
:nx=V19200:tc=std.300:
un|V1200|High Speed Modem at 1200,8-bit:\
:nx=V300:tc=std.1200:
uo|V2400|High Speed Modem at 2400,8-bit:\
:nx=V1200:tc=std.2400:
up|V9600|High Speed Modem at 9600,8-bit:\
:nx=V2400:tc=std.9600:
uq|V19200|High Speed Modem at 19200,8-bit:\
:nx=V9600:tc=std.19200:This will result in 8-bit, no parity connections.The example above starts the communications rate at 19.2 Kbps
(for a V.32bis connection), then cycles through 9600 bps (for
V.32), 2400 bps, 1200 bps, 300 bps, and back to 19.2 Kbps.
Communications rate cycling is implemented with the
nx= (next table) capability.
Each of the lines uses a tc= (table
continuation) entry to pick up the rest of the
standard settings for a particular data rate.If you have a 28.8 Kbps modem and/or you want to take
advantage of compression on a 14.4 Kbps modem, you need to use a
higher communications rate than 19.2 Kbps. Here is an example of
a gettytab entry starting a 57.6 Kbps:#
# Additions for a V.32bis or V.34 Modem
# Starting at 57.6 Kbps
#
vm|VH300|Very High Speed Modem at 300,8-bit:\
:nx=VH57600:tc=std.300:
vn|VH1200|Very High Speed Modem at 1200,8-bit:\
:nx=VH300:tc=std.1200:
vo|VH2400|Very High Speed Modem at 2400,8-bit:\
:nx=VH1200:tc=std.2400:
vp|VH9600|Very High Speed Modem at 9600,8-bit:\
:nx=VH2400:tc=std.9600:
vq|VH57600|Very High Speed Modem at 57600,8-bit:\
:nx=VH9600:tc=std.57600:If you have a slow CPU or a heavily loaded system and you do
not have 16550A-based serial ports, you may receive sio
silo errors at 57.6 Kbps./etc/ttys/etc/ttysConfiguration of the /etc/ttys file
was covered in .
Configuration for modems is similar but we must pass a
different argument to getty and specify a
different terminal type. The general format for both
locked-speed and matching-speed configurations is:ttyd0 "/usr/libexec/getty xxx" dialup onThe first item in the above line is the device special file for
this entry — ttyd0 means
/dev/ttyd0 is the file that this
getty will be watching. The second item,
"/usr/libexec/getty
xxx"
(xxx will be replaced by the initial
gettytab capability) is the process
init will run on the device. The third item,
dialup, is the default terminal type. The fourth
parameter, on, indicates to
init that the line is operational. There can be
a fifth parameter, secure, but it should only be
used for terminals which are physically secure (such as the system
console).The default terminal type (dialup in the
example above) may depend on local preferences.
dialup is the traditional default terminal type
on dial-up lines so that users may customize their login scripts to
notice when the terminal is dialup and
automatically adjust their terminal type. However, the author finds
it easier at his site to specify vt102 as the
default terminal type, since the users just use VT102 emulation on
their remote systems.After you have made changes to /etc/ttys,
you may send the init process a
HUP signal to re-read the file. You can use the
command
&prompt.root; kill -HUP 1
to send the signal. If this is your first time setting up the
system, though, you may want to wait until your modem(s) are properly
configured and connected before signaling init.
Locked-Speed ConfigFor a locked-speed configuration, your
ttys entry needs to have a fixed-speed entry
provided to getty. For a modem whose port
speed is locked at 19.2 Kbps, the ttys entry
might look like this:ttyd0 "/usr/libexec/getty std.19200" dialup onIf your modem is locked at a different data rate,
substitute the appropriate value for
std.speed
instead of std.19200. Make sure that
you use a valid type listed in
/etc/gettytab.Matching-Speed ConfigIn a matching-speed configuration, your
ttys entry needs to reference the appropriate
beginning auto-baud (sic) entry in
/etc/gettytab. For example, if you added the
above suggested entry for a matching-speed modem that starts at
19.2 Kbps (the gettytab entry containing the
V19200 starting point), your
ttys entry might look like this:ttyd0 "/usr/libexec/getty V19200" dialup on/etc/rc.serialrc filesrc.serialHigh-speed modems, like V.32, V.32bis, and V.34 modems,
need to use hardware (RTS/CTS) flow
control. You can add stty commands to
/etc/rc.serial to set the hardware flow
control flag in the FreeBSD kernel for the modem
ports.For example to set the termios flag
crtscts on serial port #1's
(COM2:) dial-in and dial-out initialization
devices, the following lines could be added to
/etc/rc.serial :# Serial port initial configuration
stty -f /dev/ttyid1 crtscts
stty -f /dev/cuai01 crtsctsModem SettingsIf you have a modem whose parameters may be permanently set in
non-volatile RAM, you will need to use a terminal program (such as
Telix under MS-DOS or tip under FreeBSD) to set the
parameters. Connect to the modem using the same communications speed
as the initial speed getty will use and configure
the modem's non-volatile RAM to match these requirements:CD asserted when connectedDTR asserted for operation; dropping DTR
hangs up line and resets modemCTS transmitted data flow controlDisable XON/XOFF flow controlRTS received data flow controlQuiet mode (no result codes)No command echoPlease read the documentation for your modem to find out what
commands and/or DIP switch settings you need to give it.For example, to set the above parameters on a USRobotics
Sportster 14,400 external modem, one could give these commands to
the modem:ATZ
AT&C1&D2&H1&I0&R2&WYou might also want to take this opportunity to adjust other
settings in the modem, such as whether it will use V.42bis and/or MNP5
compression.The USR Sportster 14,400 external modem also has some DIP switches
that need to be set; for other modems, perhaps you can use these
settings as an example:Switch 1: UP — DTR NormalSwitch 2: Do not care (Verbal Result Codes/Numeric Result
Codes)Switch 3: UP — Suppress Result CodesSwitch 4: DOWN — No echo, offline commandsSwitch 5: UP — Auto AnswerSwitch 6: UP — Carrier Detect NormalSwitch 7: UP — Load NVRAM DefaultsSwitch 8: Do not care (Smart Mode/Dumb Mode)Result codes should be disabled/suppressed for dial-up modems to
avoid problems that can occur if getty mistakenly
gives a login: prompt to a modem that is in command
mode and the modem echoes the command or returns a result
code. This sequence can result in a extended, silly conversation
between getty and the modem.Locked-speed ConfigFor a locked-speed configuration, you will need to configure the
modem to maintain a constant modem-to-computer data rate independent
of the communications rate. On a USR Sportster 14,400 external
modem, these commands will lock the modem-to-computer data rate at
the speed used to issue the commands:ATZ
AT&B1&WMatching-speed ConfigFor a variable-speed configuration, you will need to configure
your modem to adjust its serial port data rate to match the incoming
call rate. On a USR Sportster 14,400 external modem, these commands
will lock the modem's error-corrected data rate to the speed used to
issue the commands, but allow the serial port rate to vary for
non-error-corrected connections:ATZ
AT&B2&WChecking the Modem's ConfigurationMost high-speed modems provide commands to view the modem's
current operating parameters in a somewhat human-readable fashion.
On the USR Sportster 14,400 external modems, the command
ATI5 displays the settings that are stored in the
non-volatile RAM. To see the true operating parameters of the modem
(as influenced by the USR's DIP switch settings), use the commands
ATZ and then ATI4.If you have a different brand of modem, check your modem's
manual to see how to double-check your modem's configuration
parameters.TroubleshootingHere are a few steps you can follow to check out the dial-up modem
on your system.Checking out the FreeBSD SystemHook up your modem to your FreeBSD system, boot the system, and,
if your modem has status indication lights, watch to see whether the
modem's DTR indicator lights when the
login: prompt appears on the system's console
— if it lights up, that should mean that FreeBSD has started a
getty process on the appropriate communications
port and is waiting for the modem to accept a call.If the DTR indicator does not light, login to
the FreeBSD system through the console and issue a ps
ax to see if FreeBSD is trying to run a
getty process on the correct port. You should see
a lines like this among the processes displayed: 114 ?? I 0:00.10 /usr/libexec/getty V19200 ttyd0
115 ?? I 0:00.10 /usr/libexec/getty V19200 ttyd1If you see something different, like this: 114 d0 I 0:00.10 /usr/libexec/getty V19200 ttyd0and the modem has not accepted a call yet, this means that
getty has completed its open on the
communications port. This could indicate a problem with the cabling
or a mis-configured modem, because getty should
not be able to open the communications port until
CD (carrier detect) has been asserted by the
modem.If you do not see any getty processes waiting
to open the desired
ttydN port,
double-check your entries in /etc/ttys to see
if there are any mistakes there. Also, check the log file
/var/log/messages to see if there are any log
messages from init or getty
regarding any problems. If there are any messages, triple-check the
configuration files /etc/ttys and
/etc/gettytab, as well as the appropriate
device special files /dev/ttydN, for any
mistakes, missing entries, or missing device special files.Try Dialing InTry dialing into the system; be sure to use 8 bits, no parity, 1
stop bit on the remote system. If you do not get a prompt right
away, or get garbage, try pressing Enter
about once per second. If you still do not see a
login: prompt after a while, try sending a
BREAK. If you are using a high-speed modem to do
the dialing, try dialing again after locking the dialing modem's
interface speed (via AT&B1 on a USR
Sportster, for example).If you still cannot get a login: prompt, check
/etc/gettytab again and double-check
thatThe initial capability name specified in
/etc/ttys for the line matches a name of a
capability in /etc/gettytabEach nx= entry matches another
gettytab capability nameEach tc= entry matches another
gettytab capability nameIf you dial but the modem on the FreeBSD system will not answer,
make sure that the modem is configured to answer the phone when
DTR is asserted. If the modem seems to be
configured correctly, verify that the DTR line is
asserted by checking the modem's indicator lights (if it has
any).If you have gone over everything several times and it still does
not work, take a break and come back to it later. If it still does
not work, perhaps you can send an electronic mail message to the
&a.questions;describing your modem and your problem, and the good
folks on the list will try to help.Dial-out Servicedial-out serviceThe following are tips to getting your host to be able to connect
over the modem to another computer. This is appropriate for
establishing a terminal session with a remote host.This is useful to log onto a BBS.This kind of connection can be extremely helpful to get a file on
the Internet if you have problems with PPP. If you need to FTP
something and PPP is broken, use the terminal session to FTP it. Then
use zmodem to transfer it to your machine.My Stock Hayes Modem Is Not Supported, What Can I Do?Actually, the manual page for tip is out of date.
There is a generic Hayes dialer already built in. Just use
at=hayes in your /etc/remote
file.The Hayes driver is not smart enough to recognize some of the
advanced features of newer modems—messages like
BUSY, NO DIALTONE, or
CONNECT 115200 will just confuse it. You should
turn those messages off when you use tip (using
ATX0&W).Also, the dial timeout for tip is 60 seconds.
Your modem should use something less, or else tip will think there is
a communication problem. Try ATS7=45&W.Actually, as shipped tip does not yet support
it fully. The solution is to edit the file
tipconf.h in the directory
/usr/src/usr.bin/tip/tip Obviously you need the
source distribution to do this.Edit the line #define HAYES 0 to
#define HAYES 1. Then make and
make install. Everything works nicely after
that.How Am I Expected to Enter These AT Commands?/etc/remoteMake what is called a direct entry in your
/etc/remote file. For example, if your modem is
hooked up to the first serial port, /dev/cuaa0,
then put in the following line:cuaa0:dv=/dev/cuaa0:br#19200:pa=noneUse the highest bps rate your modem supports in the br capability.
Then, type tip cuaa0 and you will be connected to
your modem.If there is no /dev/cuaa0 on your system, do
this:&prompt.root; cd /dev
&prompt.root; MAKEDEV cuaa0Or use cu as root with the following
command:&prompt.root; cu -lline -sspeedline is the serial port
(e.g./dev/cuaa0) and
speed is the speed
(e.g.57600). When you are done entering the AT
commands hit ~. to exit.The @ Sign for the pn Capability Does Not
Work!The @ sign in the phone number capability tells
tip to look in /etc/phones for a phone number.
But the @ sign is also a special character in
capability files like /etc/remote. Escape it
with a backslash:pn=\@How Can I Dial a Phone Number on the Command Line?Put what is called a generic entry in your
/etc/remote file. For example:tip115200|Dial any phone number at 115200 bps:\
:dv=/dev/cuaa0:br#115200:at=hayes:pa=none:du:
tip57600|Dial any phone number at 57600 bps:\
:dv=/dev/cuaa0:br#57600:at=hayes:pa=none:du:Then you can things like:&prompt.root; tip -115200 5551234If you prefer cu over tip,
use a generic cu entry:cu115200|Use cu to dial any number at 115200bps:\
:dv=/dev/cuaa1:br#57600:at=hayes:pa=none:du:and type:&prompt.root; cu 5551234 -s 115200Do I Have to Type in the bps Rate Every Time I Do That?Put in an entry for tip1200 or
cu1200, but go ahead and use whatever bps rate is
appropriate with the br capability. tip thinks a
good default is 1200 bps which is why it looks for a
tip1200 entry. You do not have to use 1200 bps,
though.I Access a Number of Hosts through a Terminal Server.Rather than waiting until you are connected and typing
CONNECT <host> each time, use tip's
cm capability. For example, these entries in
/etc/remote:pain|pain.deep13.com|Forrester's machine:\
:cm=CONNECT pain\n:tc=deep13:
muffin|muffin.deep13.com|Frank's machine:\
:cm=CONNECT muffin\n:tc=deep13:
deep13:Gizmonics Institute terminal server:\
:dv=/dev/cuaa2:br#38400:at=hayes:du:pa=none:pn=5551234:will let you type tip pain or tip
muffin to connect to the hosts pain or muffin; and
tip deep13 to get to the terminal server.Can Tip Try More Than one Line for each Site?This is often a problem where a university has several modem lines
and several thousand students trying to use them...Make an entry for your university in
/etc/remote and use @ for the
pn capability:big-university:\
:pn=\@:tc=dialout
dialout:\
:dv=/dev/cuaa3:br#9600:at=courier:du:pa=none:Then, list the phone numbers for the university in
/etc/phones:big-university 5551111
big-university 5551112
big-university 5551113
big-university 5551114tip will try each one in the listed order, then
give up. If you want to keep retrying, run tip in
a while loop.Why Do I Have to Hit
CtrlP
Twice to Send
CtrlP
Once?CtrlP is the default force character, used to tell
tip that the next character is literal data. You
can set the force character to any other character with the
~s escape, which means set a
variable.Type
~sforce=single-char
followed by a newline. single-char is any
single character. If you leave out
single-char, then the force character is
the nul character, which you can get by typing
Ctrl2
or
CtrlSPACE.
A pretty good value for single-char is
ShiftCtrl6, which is only used on some terminal
servers.You can have the force character be whatever you want by
specifying the following in your $HOME/.tiprc
file:force=<single-char>Suddenly Everything I Type Is in UPPER CASE??You must have pressed
CtrlA, tip's
raise character, specially designed for people with
broken caps-lock keys. Use ~s as above and set the
variable raisechar to something reasonable. In
fact, you can set it to the same as the force character, if you never
expect to use either of these features.Here is a sample .tiprc file perfect for
Emacs users who need to type
Ctrl2
and
CtrlA
a lot:force=^^
raisechar=^^The ^^ is
ShiftCtrl6.How Can I Do File Transfers with tip?If you are talking to another Unix system, you can send and
receive files with ~p (put) and
~t (take). These commands run
cat and echo on the remote
system to accept and send files. The syntax is:~plocal-fileremote-file~tremote-filelocal-fileThere is no error checking, so you probably should use another
protocol, like zmodem.How Can I Run zmodem with tip?To receive files, start the sending program on the remote end.
Then, type ~C rz to begin receiving them
locally.To send files, start the receiving program on the remote end.
Then, type ~C sz files
to send them to the remote system.KazutakaYOKOTAContributed by BillPaulBased on a document by Setting Up the Serial Consoleserial consoleIntroductionFreeBSD boot on a system with only
a dumb terminal on a serial port as a console. Such a configuration
should be useful for two classes of people: system administrators who
wish to install FreeBSD on machines that have no keyboard or monitor
attached, and developers who want to debug the kernel or device
drivers.As described in , FreeBSD employs a three stage
bootstrap. The first two stages are in the boot block code which is
stored at the beginning of the FreeBSD slice on the boot disk. The
boot block will then load and run the boot loader
(/boot/loader) as the third stage code.In order to set up the serial console you must configure the boot
block code, the boot loader code and the kernel.Serial Console ConfigurationPrepare a serial cable.null-modem cableYou will need either a null-modem cable or a standard serial
cable and a null-modem adapter. See for
a discussion on serial cables.Unplug your keyboard.Most PC systems probe for the keyboard during the Power-On
Self-Test (POST) and will generate an error if the keyboard is not
detected. Some machines complain loudly about the lack of a
keyboard and will not continue to boot until it is plugged
in.If your computer complains about the error, but boots anyway,
then you do not have to do anything special. (Some machines with
Phoenix BIOS installed merely say Keyboard
failed and continue to boot normally.)If your computer refuses to boot without a keyboard attached
then you will have to configure the BIOS so that it ignores this
error (if it can). Consult your motherboard's manual for details
on how to do this.Setting the keyboard to Not installed in the
BIOS setup does not mean that you will not
be able to use your keyboard. All this does is tell the BIOS
not to probe for a keyboard at power-on so that it will not
complain if the keyboard is not plugged in. You can leave the
keyboard plugged in even with this flag set to Not
installed and the keyboard will still work.If your system has a PS/2 mouse, chances are very good that
you may have to unplug your mouse as well as your keyboard.
This is because PS/2 mice share some hardware with the keyboard,
and leaving the mouse plugged in can fool the keyboard probe
into thinking the keyboard is still there. It is said that a
Gateway 2000 Pentium 90MHz system with an AMI BIOS that behaves
this way. In general this is not a problem since the mouse is
not much good without the keyboard anyway.Plug a dumb terminal into COM1:
(sio0).If you do not have a dumb terminal, you can use an old PC/XT
with a modem program, or the serial port on another Unix box. If
you do not have a COM1:
(sio0), get one. At this time, there is
no way to select a port other than COM1:
for the boot blocks without recompiling the boot blocks. If you
are already using COM1: for another
device, you will have to temporarily remove that device and
install a new boot block and kernel once you get FreeBSD up and
running. (It is assumed that COM1: will
be available on a file/compute/terminal server anyway; if you
really need COM1: for something else
(and you cannot switch that something else to
COM2: (sio1)),
then you probably should not even be bothering with all this in
the first place.)Make sure the configuration file of your kernel has
appropriate flags set for COM1:
(sio0).Relevant flags are:0x10Enables console support for this unit. The other
console flags are ignored unless this is set. Currently, at
most one unit can have console support; the first one (in
config file order) with this flag set is preferred. This
option alone will not make the serial port the console. Set
the following flag or use the option
described below, together with this flag.0x20Forces this unit to be the console (unless there is
another higher priority console), regardless of the
option discussed below. This flag
replaces the COMCONSOLE option in FreeBSD
versions 2.X. The flag 0x20 must be used
together with the flag.0x40Reserves this unit (in conjunction with
0x10) and makes the unit
unavailable for normal access. You should not set
this flag to the serial port unit which you want to
use as the serial console. The only use of this
flag is to designate the unit for kernel remote
debugging. See The
Developer's Handbook for more information on
remote debugging.In FreeBSD 4.0-CURRENT or later the semantics of the
flag 0x40 are slightly different and
there is another flag to specify a serial port for remote
debugging.Example:device sio0 at isa? port "IO_COM1" tty flags 0x10 irq 4See the &man.sio.4; manual page for more details.If the flags were not set, you need to run UserConfig (on a
different console) or recompile the kernel.Create boot.config in the root directory
of the a partition on the boot drive.This file will instruct the boot block code how you would like
to boot the system. In order to activate the serial console, you
need one or more of the following options—if you want
multiple options, include them all on the same line:Toggles internal and serial consoles. You can use this
to switch console devices. For instance, if you boot from
the internal (video) console, you can use
to direct the boot loader and the kernel
to use the serial port as its console device. Alternatively,
if you boot from the serial port, you can use the
to tell the boot loader and the kernel
to use the video display as the console instead.Toggles single and dual console configurations. In the
single configuration the console will be either the internal
console (video display) or the serial port, depending on the
state of the option above. In the dual
console configuration, both the video display and the
serial port will become the console at the same time,
regardless of the state of the option.
However, that the dual console configuration takes effect
only during the boot block is running. Once the boot loader
gets control, the console specified by the
option becomes the only console.Makes the boot block probe the keyboard. If no keyboard
is found, the and
options are automatically set.Due to space constraints in the current version of the
boot blocks, the option is capable of
detecting extended keyboards only. Keyboards with less
than 101 keys (and without F11 and F12 keys) may not be
detected. Keyboards on some laptop computers may not be
properly found because of this limitation. If this is to
be the case with your system, you have to abandon using
the option. Unfortunately there is no
workaround for this problem.Use either the option to select the
console automatically, or the option to
activate the serial console.You may include other options described in &man.boot.8; as
well.The options, except for , will be passed to
the boot loader (/boot/loader). The boot
loader will determine which of the internal video or the serial
port should become the console by examining the state of the
option alone. This means that if you specify
the option but not the
option in /boot.config, you can use the
serial port as the console only during the boot block; the boot
loader will use the internal video display as the console.Boot the machine.When you start your FreeBSD box, the boot blocks will echo the
contents of /boot.config to the console. For
example;/boot.config: -P
Keyboard: noThe second line appears only if you put in
/boot.config and indicates presence/absence
of the keyboard. These messages go to either serial or internal
console, or both, depending on the option in
/boot.config.OptionsMessage goes tononeinternal consoleserial consoleserial and internal consolesserial and internal consoles, keyboard presentinternal console, keyboard absentserial consoleAfter the above messages, there will be a small pause before
the boot blocks continue loading the boot loader and before any
further messages printed to the console. Under normal
circumstances, you do not need to interrupt the boot blocks, but
you may want to do so in order to make sure things are set up
correctly.Hit any key, other than Enter, at the console to
interrupt the boot process. The boot blocks will then prompt you
for further action. You should now see something like:>> FreeBSD/i386 BOOT
Default: 0:wd(0,a)/boot/loader
boot:Verify the above message appears on either the serial or
internal console or both, according to the options you put in
/boot.config. If the message appears in the
correct console, hit Enter to continue the boot
process.If you want the serial console but you do not see the prompt
on the serial terminal, something is wrong with your settings. In
the meantime, you enter and hit Enter/Return
(if possible) to tell the boot block (and then the boot loader and
the kernel) to choose the serial port for the console. Once the
system is up, go back and check what went wrong.After the boot loader is loaded and you are in the third stage of
the boot process you can still switch between the internal console and
the serial console by setting appropriate environment variables in the
boot loader. See .SummaryHere is the summary of various settings discussed in this section
and the console eventually selected.Case 1: You Set the flags to 0x10 for sio0device sio0 at isa? port "IO_COM1" tty flags 0x10 irq 4Options in /boot.configConsole during boot blocksConsole during boot loaderConsole in kernelnothinginternalinternalinternalserialserialserialserial and internalinternalinternalserial and internalserialserial, keyboard presentinternalinternalinternal, keyboard absentserial and internalserialserialCase 2: You Set the flags to 0x30 for sio0device sio0 at isa? port "IO_COM1" tty flags 0x30 irq 4Options in /boot.configConsole during boot blocksConsole during boot loaderConsole in kernelnothinginternalinternalserialserialserialserialserial and internalinternalserialserial and internalserialserial, keyboard presentinternalinternalserial, keyboard absentserial and internalserialserialTips for the Serial ConsoleSetting a Faster Serial Port SpeedBy default the serial port settings are set to 9600 baud, 8
bits, no parity, 1 stop bit. If you wish to change the speed, you
need to recompile at least the boot blocks. Add the following line
to /etc/make.conf and compile new boot
blocks:BOOT_COMCONSOLE_SPEED=19200If the serial console is configured in some other way than by
booting with , or if the serial console used by
the kernel is different from the one used by the boot blocks, then
you must also add the following option to the kernel configuration
file and compile a new kernel:options CONSPEED=19200Using Serial Port Other Than sio0 for
the ConsoleUsing a port other than sio0 as the
console requires some recompiling. If you want to use another
serial port for whatever reasons, recompile the boot blocks, the
boot loader and the kernel as follows.Get the kernel source.Edit /etc/make.conf and set
BOOT_COMCONSOLE_PORT to the address of the
port you want to use (0x3F8, 0x2F8, 0x3E8 or 0x2E8). Only
sio0 through
sio3 (COM1:
through COM4:) can be used; multiport
serial cards will not work. No interrupt setting is
needed.Create a custom kernel configuration file and add
appropriate flags for the serial port you want to use. For
example, if you want to make sio1
(COM2:) the console:device sio1 at isa? port "IO_COM2" tty flags 0x10 irq 3ordevice sio1 at isa? port "IO_COM2" tty flags 0x30 irq 3The console flags for the other serial ports should not be
set.Recompile and install the boot blocks:&prompt.root; cd /sys/boot/i386/boot2
&prompt.root; make
&prompt.root; make installRecompile and install the boot loader:&prompt.root; cd /sys/boot/i386/loader
&prompt.root; make
&prompt.root; make installRebuild and install the kernel.Write the boot blocks to the boot disk with
&man.disklabel.8; and boot from the new kernel.Entering the DDB Debugger from the Serial LineIf you wish to drop into the kernel debugger from the serial
console (useful for remote diagnostics, but also dangerous if you
generate a spurious BREAK on the serial port!) then you should
compile your kernel with the following options:options BREAK_TO_DEBUGGER
options DDBGetting a Login Prompt on the Serial ConsoleWhile this is not required, you may wish to get a
login prompt over the serial line, now that you
can see boot messages and can enter the kernel debugging session
through the serial console. Here is how to do it.Open the file /etc/ttys with an editor
and locate the lines:ttyd0 "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600" unknown off secure
ttyd1 "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600" unknown off secure
ttyd2 "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600" unknown off secure
ttyd3 "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600" unknown off securettyd0 through ttyd3
corresponds to COM1 through
COM4. Change off to
on for the desired port. If you have changed the
speed of the serial port, you need to change
std.9600 to match the current setting, e.g.
std.19200.You may also want to change the terminal type from
unknown to the actual type of your serial
terminal.After editing the file, you must kill -HUP 1
to make this change take effect.Changing Console from the Boot LoaderPrevious sections described how to set up the serial console by
tweaking the boot block. This section shows that you can specify the
console by entering some commands and environment variables in the
boot loader. As the boot loader is invoked as the third stage of the
boot process, after the boot block, the settings in the boot loader
will override the settings in the boot block.Setting up the Serial ConsoleYou can easily specify the boot loader and the kernel to use the
serial console by writing just one line in
/boot/loader.rc:set console=comconsoleThis will take effect regardless of the settings in the boot
block discussed in the previous section.You had better put the above line as the first line of
/boot/loader.rc so as to see boot messages on
the serial console as early as possible.Likewise, you can specify the internal console as:set console=vidconsoleIf you do not set the boot loader environment variable
console, the boot loader, and subsequently the
kernel, will use whichever console indicated by the
option in the boot block.In versions 3.2 or later, you may specify the console in
/boot/loader.conf.local or
/boot/loader.conf, rather than in
/boot/loader.rc. In this method your
/boot/loader.rc should look like:include /boot/loader.4th
startThen, create /boot/loader.conf.local and
put the following line there.console=comconsoleorconsole=vidconsoleSee &man.loader.conf.5; for more information.At the moment, the boot loader has no option equivalent to the
option in the boot block, and there is no
provision to automatically select the internal console and the
serial console based on the presence of the keyboard.Using Serial Port Other than sio0 for
the ConsoleYou need to recompile the boot loader to use a serial port other
than sio0 for the serial console. Follow the
procedure described in .CaveatsThe idea here is to allow people to set up dedicated servers that
require no graphics hardware or attached keyboards. Unfortunately,
while most systems will let you boot without a keyboard, there
are quite a few that will not let you boot without a graphics adapter.
Machines with AMI BIOSes can be configured to boot with no graphics
adapter installed simply by changing the `graphics adapter' setting in
the CMOS configuration to `Not installed.'However, many machines do not support this option and will refuse
to boot if you have no display hardware in the system. With these
machines, you will have to leave some kind of graphics card plugged in,
(even if it is just a junky mono board) although you will not have to
attach a monitor into it. You might also try installing an AMI
BIOS.
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/sound/chapter.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/sound/chapter.sgml
index 3b4f8a3e32..5ceb0bf41c 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/sound/chapter.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/sound/chapter.sgml
@@ -1,368 +1,368 @@
MosesMooreContributed by SoundSynopsisFreeBSD supports a wide variety of sound cards, allowing you
to enjoy high fidelity output from your computer. This includes
the ability to record and playback audio in the MPEG Audio Layer
3 (MP3), WAV, and Ogg Vorbis formats as well as many other
formats. The FreeBSD Ports Collection also contains
applications allowing you to edit your recorded audio, add sound
effects, and control attached MIDI devices.After reading this chapter you will know:How to locate your sound card.How to configure your system so that your sound card is
recognized.Methods to test that your card is working using
sample applications.How to troubleshoot your sound setup.Before reading this chapter you should:Know how to configure and install a new kernel ()
+ linkend="kernelconfig">).
Locating the Correct DevicePCIISAsound cardsBefore you begin, you should know the model of the card you
have, the chip it uses, and whether it is a PCI or ISA card.
FreeBSD supports a wide variety of both PCI and ISA cards. If you
do not see your card in the following list, check the &man.pcm.4;
manual page. This is not a complete list; however, it does list
some of the most common cards.Crystal 4237, 4236, 4232, 4231Yamaha OPL-SAxOPTi931Ensoniq AudioPCI 1370/1371ESS Solo-1/1ENeoMagic 256AV/ZXSound Blaster Pro, 16, 32, AWE64, AWE128, LiveCreative ViBRA16Advanced Asound 100, 110, and Logic ALS120ES 1868, 1869, 1879, 1888Gravis UltraSoundAureal Vortex 1 or 2kernelconfigurationThe driver you use in your kernel depends on the kind of card
you have. The sections below provide more information and what
you will need to add to your kernel
configuration.Creative, Advance, and ESS Sound CardsIf you have one of the above cards, you will need to
adddevice pcmto your kernel. If you have a PnP ISA card, you will also
need to adddevice sbcto your kernel. For a non-PnP ISA card, adddevice pcmanddevice sbc0 at isa? port0x220 irq 5 drq 1 flags 0x15to your kernel. Those are the default settings. You may
need to change the IRQ, etc. See the &man.sbc.4; manual page for
more information.The Sound Blaster Live is not supported under FreeBSD 4.0
without a patch, which this document will not cover. It is
recommended that you update to the latest -STABLE before
trying to use this card.Gravis UltraSound CardsFor a PnP ISA card, you will need to adddevice pcmanddevice guscto your kernel. If you have a non-PnP ISA card, you will
need to adddevice pcmanddevice gus0 at isa? port 0x220 irq 5 drq 1 flags 0x13to your kernel. You may need to change the IRQ, etc. See
the &man.gusc.4; manual page for more information.Crystal Sound CardsFor Crystal cards, you will need bothdevice pcmanddevice csain your kernel.Generic SupportFor PnP ISA or PCI cards, you will need to adddevice pcmto your kernel configuration. If you have a non-PnP ISA
sound card that does not have a bridge driver, you will need
to adddevice pcm0 at isa? irq 10 drq 1 flags 0x0to your kernel configuration. You may need to change the
IRQ, etc., to match your hardware configuration.Recompiling the KernelAfter adding the driver(s) you need to your kernel
configuration, you will need to recompile your kernel. Please see
of the handbook for
more information.Creating and Testing the Device Nodesdevice nodesAfter you reboot, log in and run cat
/dev/sndstat. You should see output similar to the
following:FreeBSD Audio Driver (newpcm) Sep 21 2000 18:29:53
Installed devices:
pcm0: <Aureal Vortex 8830> at memory 0xfeb40000 irq 5 (4p/1r +channels duplex)If you see an error message, something went wrong earlier. If
that happens, go through your kernel configuration file again and
make sure you chose the correct device.If it reported no errors and returned
pcm0, su to
root and do the following:&prompt.root; cd /dev
&prompt.root; sh MAKEDEV snd0If it reported no errors and returned
pcm1, su to
root and do the following:&prompt.root; cd /dev
&prompt.root; sh MAKEDEV snd1Please note that either of the above commands will
not create a
/dev/snd device! Instead it creates a
group of device nodes including:DeviceDescription/dev/audioSPARC-compatible audio device/dev/dspDigitized voice device/dev/dspWLike /dev/dsp, but 16 bits
per sample/dev/midiRaw midi access device/dev/mixerControl port mixer device/dev/musicLevel 2 sequencer interface/dev/sequencerSequencer device/dev/pssProgrammable device interfaceIf all goes well, you should now have a functioning sound
card. If you do not, see the next section.Common Problemsdevice nodeI get an unsupported subdevice XX error!One or more of the device nodes was not created
correctly. Repeat the steps above.I/O portI get a sb_dspwr(XX) timed out error!The I/O port is not set correctly.IRQI get a bad irq XX error!The IRQ is set incorrectly. Make sure that the set IRQ
and the sound IRQ are the same.I get a xxx: gus pcm not attached, out of
memory
error. What causes that?If this happens, it is because there is not enough
available memory to use the device.
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/users/chapter.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/users/chapter.sgml
index 0ccf88b880..d363c38f50 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/users/chapter.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/users/chapter.sgml
@@ -1,1027 +1,1028 @@
NeilBlakey-MilnerContributed by Users and Basic Account ManagementSynopsisFreeBSD allows multiple users to use the computer at the same time.
Obviously, only one of those users can be sat in front of the screen and
keyboard at any one time, but any number of users can log in through the
network to get their work done. To use the system every user must have
an account.After reading this chapter you will know:The differences between the various user accounts on a FreeBSD
- system
+ system.
- How to add user accounts
+ How to add user accounts.
- How to remove user accounts
+ How to remove user accounts.How to change account details, such as the user's full name, or
- preferred shell
+ preferred shell.
How to set limits on a per-account basis, to control the
resources such as memory and CPU time that accounts and groups of
- accounts are allowed to access
+ accounts are allowed to access.
- How to use groups to make account management easier
+ How to use groups to make account management easier.Before reading this chapter you should:
- Read
+ Understand the basics of Unix and FreeBSD ().IntroductionAll access to the system is achieved via accounts, and all
processes are run by users, so user and account management are
of integral importance on FreeBSD systems.Every account on a FreeBSD system has certain information associated
with it to identify the account.User nameThe user name as it would be typed at the
login: prompt. User names must be unique across
the computer; you may not have two users with the same
user name. There are a number of rules for creating valid user
names, documented in &man.passwd.5;; you would typically use user
names that consist of eight or fewer all lower case
characters.PasswordEach account has a password associated with it. The password
may be blank, in which case no password will be required to access
the system. This is normally a very bad idea; every account
should have a password.User ID (UID)The UID is a number from 0 to 65536 used to uniquely identify
the user to the system. Internally FreeBSD uses the UID to
identify users—any FreeBSD commands that allow you to
specify a user name will convert it to the UID before working with
it. This means that you can have several accounts with different
user names but the same UID. As far as FreeBSD is concerned these
accounts are one user. It is unlikely you will ever need to do
this.Group ID (GID)The GID is a number from 0 to 65536 used to uniquely identify
the primary group that the user belongs to. Groups are a
mechanism for controlling access to resources based on a user's
GID rather than their UID. This can significantly reduce the size
of some configuration files. A user may also be in more than one
group.Login classLogin classes are an extension to the group mechanism that
provide additional flexibility when tailoring the system to
different users.Password change timeBy default FreeBSD does not force users to change their
passwords periodically. You can enforce this on a per-user basis,
forcing some or all of your users to change their passwords after
a certain amount of time has elapsed.Account expiry timeBy default FreeBSD does not expire accounts. If you are
creating accounts that you know have a limited lifespan, for
example, in a school where you have accounts for the students,
then you can specify when the account expires. After the expiry
time has elapsed the account can not be used to log in to the
system, although the account's directories and files will
remain.User's full nameThe user name uniquely identifies the account to FreeBSD, but
does not necessarily reflect the user's real name. This
information can be associated with the account.Home directoryThe home directory is the full path to a directory on the
system in which the user will start when logging on to the
system. A common convention is to put all user home directories
under
/home/username.
The user would store their personal files in their home directory,
and any directories they may create in there.User shellThe shell provides the default environment users use to
interact with the system. There are many different kinds of
shells, and experienced users will have their own preferences,
which can be reflected in their account settings.There are three main types of accounts; the Superuser, system users, and user accounts. The Superuser
account, usually called root, is used to
manage the system with no limitations on privileges. System
users run services. Finally, user accounts are used by real
people, who log on, read mail, and so forth.The Superuser Accountaccountssuperuser (root)The superuser account, usually called
root, comes preconfigured to facilitate
system administration, and should not be used for day-to-day
tasks like sending and receiving mail, general exploration of
the system, or programming.This is because the superuser, unlike normal user accounts,
can operate without limits, and misuse of the superuser account
may result in spectacular disasters. User accounts are unable
to destroy the system by mistake, so it is generally best to use
normal user accounts whenever possible, unless you especially
need the extra privilege.You should always double and triple-check commands you issue
as the superuser, since an extra space or missing character can
mean irreparable data loss.So, the first thing you should do after reading this
chapter, is to create an unprivileged user account for yourself
for general usage, if you have not already. This applies equally
whether you are running a multi-user or single-user machine.
Later in this chapter, we discuss how to create additional
accounts, and how to change between the normal user and
superuser.System AccountsaccountssystemSystem users are those used to run services such as DNS,
mail, web servers, and so forth. The reason for this is
security; if all services ran as the superuser, they could
act without restriction.accountsdaemonaccountsoperatorExamples of system users are daemon,
operator, bind (for
the Domain Name Service), and news. Often
sysadmins create httpd to run web servers
they install.accountsnobodynobody is the generic unprivileged
system user. However, it is important to keep in mind that the
more services that use nobody, the more
files and processes that user will become associated with, and
hence the more privileged that user becomes.User AccountsaccountsuserUser accounts are the primary means of access for real
people to the system, and these accounts insulate the user and
the environment, preventing the users from damaging the system
or other users, and allowing users to customize their
environment without affecting others.Every person accessing your system should have a unique user
account. This allows you to find out who is doing what, prevent
people from clobbering each others' settings or reading each
others' mail, and so forth.Each user can set up their own environment to accommodate
their use of the system, by using alternate shells, editors, key
bindings, and language.Modifying Accountsaccountsmodifyingpw is a powerful and flexible
tool to modify all aspects of user accounts. For most tasks
however, adduser and
rmuser are recommended to add and
remove accounts respectively.chpass allows both the system
administrator and normal users to adjust passwords, shells, and
personal information. If you are only interested in changing a
password then the passwd command is
usually quicker.adduseraccountsaddingadduser/usr/share/skelskeleton directoryadduser is a simple program for
adding new users. It creates entries in the system
passwd and group
files. It will also create a home directory for the new user,
copy in the default configuration files ("dotfiles") from
/usr/share/skel, and can optionally mail
the new user a welcome message.To create the initial configuration file, use
adduser -s -config_create.
The makes adduser
default to
quiet. We use later when we want to
change defaults.
Next, we configure adduser
defaults, and create our first user account, since using
root for normal usage is evil and
nasty.Configuring adduser&prompt.root; adduser -v
Use option ``-silent'' if you don't want to see all warnings and questions.
Check /etc/shells
Check /etc/master.passwd
Check /etc/group
Enter your default shell: csh date no sh tcsh zsh [sh]: zsh
Your default shell is: zsh -> /usr/local/bin/zsh
Enter your default HOME partition: [/home]:
Copy dotfiles from: /usr/share/skel no [/usr/share/skel]:
Send message from file: /etc/adduser.message no
[/etc/adduser.message]: no
Do not send message
Use passwords (y/n) [y]: y
Write your changes to /etc/adduser.conf? (y/n) [n]: y
Ok, let's go.
Don't worry about mistakes. I will give you the chance later to correct any input.
Enter username [a-z0-9_-]: jru
Enter full name []: J. Random User
Enter shell csh date no sh tcsh zsh [zsh]:
Enter home directory (full path) [/home/jru]:
Uid [1001]:
Enter login class: default []:
Login group jru [jru]:
Login group is ``jru''. Invite jru into other groups: guest no
[no]: wheel
Enter password []:
Enter password again []:
Name: jru
Password: ****
Fullname: J. Random User
Uid: 1001
Gid: 1001 (jru)
Class:
Groups: jru wheel
HOME: /home/jru
Shell: /usr/local/bin/zsh
OK? (y/n) [y]: y
Added user ``jru''
Copy files from /usr/share/skel to /home/jru
Add another user? (y/n) [y]: n
Goodbye!
&prompt.root;In summary, we changed the default shell to
zsh (an additional shell found in
packages), and turned off the sending of a welcome mail to
added users. We then saved the configuration, and then
created an account for jru, and we made
sure jru is in wheel
group (which we will see is important later).The password you type in is not echoed, nor are asterisks
displayed. Make sure you do not mistype the password twice.
Just use adduser without arguments
from now on, and you will not have to go through changing the
defaults. If the program asks you to change the defaults,
exit the program, and try the
option.rmuserrmuseraccountsremovingYou can use rmuser to
completely remove a user from the system.
rmuser performs the following
steps:Removes the user's &man.crontab.1; entry (if
any).Removes any &man.at.1; jobs belonging to the
user.Kills all processes owned by the user.Removes the user from the system's local password
file.Removes the user's home directory (if it is owned by
the user).Removes the incoming mail files belonging to the user
from /var/mail.Removes all files owned by the user from temporary
file storage areas such as /tmp.Finally, removes the username from all groups to which
it belongs in /etc/group.
If a group becomes empty and the group name is the
same as the username, the group is removed; this
complements the per-user unique groups created by
&man.adduser.8;.rmuser cannot be used to remove
superuser accounts, since that is almost always an indication
of massive destruction.By default, an interactive mode is used, which attempts to
make sure you know what you are doing.rmuser Interactive Account Removal&prompt.root; rmuser jru
Matching password entry:
jru:*:1001:1001::0:0:J. Random User:/home/jru:/usr/local/bin/tcsh
Is this the entry you wish to remove? y
Remove user's home directory (/home/jru)? y
Updating password file, updating databases, done.
Updating group file: trusted (removing group jru -- personal group is empty) done.
Removing user's incoming mail file /var/mail/jru: done.
Removing files belonging to jru from /tmp: done.
Removing files belonging to jru from /var/tmp: done.
Removing files belonging to jru from /var/tmp/vi.recover: done.
&prompt.root;pwpwpw is a command line utility to
create, remove, modify, and display users and groups, and functions
as an editor of the system user and group files. This section
describes its use for users. The Groups section below describes its
use for groups.It is designed to be useful both as a directly executed
command and for use from shell scripts.For detailed information, please see &man.pw.8;.chpasschpasschpass changes user database
information such as passwords, shells, and personal
information.Only system administrators, as the superuser, may change
other users' information and passwords with
chpass.When passed no options, aside from an optional username,
chpass displays an editor
containing user information. When the user exists from the
editor, the user database is updated with the new
information.Interactive chpass by Superuser#Changing user database information for jru.
Login: jru
Password: *
Uid [#]: 1000
Gid [# or name]: 1000
Change [month day year]:
Expire [month day year]:
Class:
Home directory: /home/jru
Shell: /usr/local/bin/tcsh
Full Name: J. Random User
Office Location:
Office Phone:
Home Phone:
Other information:The normal user can change only a small subsection of this
information, and only for themselves.Interactive chpass by Normal User#Changing user database information for jru.
Shell: /usr/local/bin/tcsh
Full Name: J. Random User
Office Location:
Office Phone:
Home Phone:
Other information:chfn and chsh are
just links to chpass, as
are ypchpass,
ypchfn, and
ypchsh. NIS support is automatic, so
specifying the yp before the command is
not necessary.passwdpasswdaccountschanging passwordpasswd is the usual way to
change your own password as a user, or another user's password
as the superuser.Users must type in their original password before
changing their password, to prevent an unauthorized person
from changing their password when the user is away from
their console.Changing Your Password&prompt.user; passwd
Changing local password for jru.
Old password:
New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: updating the database...
passwd: doneChanging Another User's Password as the Superuser&prompt.root; passwd jru
Changing local password for jru.
New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: updating the database...
passwd: doneyppasswd is just a link to
passwd. NIS support is automatic, so
specifying the yp before the command is
not necessary.Limiting Userslimiting usersaccountslimitingIf you run a multi-user system, chances are that you do not trust
all of your users not to damage your system. FreeBSD provides a
number of ways a system administrator can limit the amount of system
resources an individual user can use. These limits are generally
divided into two sections: disk quotas, and other resource
limits.quotaslimiting usersquotasdisk quotasDisk quotas are a way for the system administrator to tell the
filesystem the amount of disk space a user may use; moreover, they
provide a way to quickly check on the disk usage of a user without
having to calculate it every time. Quotas are discussed in .The other resource limits include ways to limit the amount of
CPU, memory, and other resources a user may consume. These are
defined using login classes and are discussed here./etc/login.confLogin classes are defined in
/etc/login.conf. The precise semantics are
beyond the scope of this section, but are described in detail in the
&man.login.conf.5; manual page. It is sufficient to say that each
user is assigned to a login class (default by
default), and that each login class has a set of login capabilities
associated with it. A login capability is a
name=value
pair, where name is a well-known
identifier and value is an arbitrary
string processed accordingly depending on the name. Setting up login
classes and capabilities is rather straight-forward, and is also
described in &man.login.conf.5;.Resource limits are different from plain vanilla login
capabilities in two ways. First, for every limit, there is a soft
(current) and hard limit. A soft limit may be adjusted by the user
or application, but may be no higher than the hard limit. The latter
may be lowered by the user, but never raised. Second, most resource
limits apply per process to a specific user, not the user as a whole.
Note, however, that these differences are mandated by the specific
handling of the limits, not by the implementation of the login
capability framework (i.e., they are not really
a special case of login capabilities).And so, without further ado, below are the most commonly used
resource limits (the rest, along with all the other login
capabilities, may be found in &man.login.conf.5;).coredumpsizecoredumpsizelimiting userscoredumpsizeThe limit on the size of a core file generated by a program
is, for obvious reasons, subordinate to other limits on disk
usage (e.g., filesize, or disk quotas).
Nevertheless, it is often used as a less-severe method of
controlling disk space consumption: since users do not generate
core files themselves, and often do not delete them, setting this
may save them from running out of disk space should a large
program (e.g., emacs) crash.cputimecputimelimiting userscputimeThis is the maximum amount of CPU time a user's process may
consume. Offending processes will be killed by the kernel.
This is a limit on CPU time
consumed, not percentage of the CPU as displayed in some
fields by &man.top.1; and &man.ps.1;. A limit on the
latter is, at the time of this writing, not possible, and
would be rather useless: a compiler—probably a
legitimate task—can easily use almost 100% of a CPU
for some time.filesizefilesizelimiting usersfilesizeThis is the maximum size of a file the user may possess.
Unlike disk quotas, this limit is
enforced on individual files, not the set of all files a user
owns.maxprocmaxproclimiting usersmaxprocThis is the maximum number of processes a user may be
running. This includes foreground and background processes
alike. For obvious reasons, this may not be larger than the
system limit specified by the kern.maxprocsysctl. Also note that setting this
too small may hinder a
user's productivity: it is often useful to be logged in
multiple times or execute pipelines. Some tasks, such as
compiling a large program, also spawn multiple processes (e.g.,
&man.make.1;, &man.cc.1;, and other intermediate
preprocessors).memorylockedmemorylockedlimiting usersmemorylockedThis is the maximum amount a memory a process may have
requested to be locked into main memory (e.g., see
&man.mlock.2;). Some system-critical programs, such as
&man.amd.8;, do this so that their getting swapped out does not
contribute to a system's thrashing in time of trouble.memoryusememoryuselimiting usersmemoryuseThis is the maximum amount of memory a process may consume
at any given time. It includes both core memory and swap
usage. This is not a catch-all limit for restricting memory
consumption, but it is a good start.openfilesopenfileslimiting usersopenfilesThis is the maximum amount of files a process may have
open. In FreeBSD, files are also used to represent sockets and
IPC channels; thus, be careful not to set this too low. The
system-wide limit for this is defined by the
kern.maxfilessysctl.sbsizesbsizelimiting userssbsizeThis is the limit on the amount of network memory, and thus
mbufs, a user may consume. This originated as a response to an
old DoS attack by creating a lot of sockets, but can be
generally used to limit network communications.stacksizestacksizelimiting usersstacksizeThis is the maximum size a process' stack may grow to.
This alone is not sufficient to limit the amount of memory a
program may use; consequently, it should be used in conjunction
with other limits.There are a few other things to remember when setting resource
limits. Following are some general tips, suggestions, and
miscellaneous comments.Processes started at system startup by
/etc/rc are assigned to the
daemon login class.Although the /etc/login.conf that comes
with the system is a good source of reasonable values for most
limits, only you, the administrator, can know what is appropriate
for your system. Setting a limit too high may open your system
up to abuse, while setting it too low may put a strain on
productivity.Users of the X Window System (X11) should probably be granted
more resources than other users. X11 by itself takes a lot of
resources, but it also encourages users to run more programs
simultaneously.Remember that many limits apply to individual processes, not
the user as a whole. For example, setting
openfiles to 50 means
that each process the user runs may open up to 50 files. Thus,
the gross amount of files a user may open is the value of
openfiles multiplied by the value of
maxproc. This also applies to memory
consumption.For further information on resource limits and login classes and
capabilities in general, please consult the relevant manual pages:
&man.cap.mkdb.1;, &man.getrlimit.2;, &man.login.conf.5;.Personalizing UsersLocalization is an environment set up by the system
administrator or user to accommodate different languages,
character sets, date and time standards, and so on. This is
discussed in the localization
chapter.Groupsgroups/etc/groupsaccountsgroupsA group is simply a list of users. Groups are identified by
their group name and gid (group ID). In FreeBSD (and most other Unix
systems), the two factors the kernel uses to decide whether a process
is allowed to do something is its user ID and list of groups it
belongs to. Unlike a user ID, a process has a list of groups
associated with it. You may hear some things refer to the "group ID"
of a user or process; most of the time, this just means the first
group in the list.The group name to group ID map is in
/etc/group. This is a plain text file with four
colon-delimited fields. The first field is the group name, the
second is the encrypted password, the third the group ID, and the
fourth the comma-delimited list of members. It can safely be edited
by hand (assuming, of course, that you do not make any syntax
errors!). For a more complete description of the syntax, see the
&man.group.5; manual page.If you do not want to edit /etc/group
manually, you can use the &man.pw.8; command to add and edit groups.
For example, to add a group called teamtwo and
then confirm that it exists you can use:Adding a Group Using &man.pw.8;&prompt.root; pw groupadd teamtwo
&prompt.root; pw groupshow teamtwo
teamtwo:*:1100:The number 1100 above is the group ID of the
group teamtwo. Right now,
teamtwo has no members, and is thus rather
useless. Let's change that by inviting jru to
the teamtwo group.Adding Somebody to a Group Using &man.pw.8;&prompt.root; pw groupmod teamtwojru
&prompt.root; pw groupshow teamtwo
teamtwo:*:1100:jruThe argument to the option is a
comma-delimited list of users who are members of the group. From the
preceding sections, we know that the password file also contains a
group for each user. The latter (the user) is automatically added to
the group list by the system; the user will not show up as a member
when using the groupshow command to &man.pw.8;,
but will show up when the information is queried via &man.id.1; or
similar tool. In other words, &man.pw.8; only manipulates the
/etc/group file; it will never attempt to read
additionally data from /etc/passwd.Using &man.id.1; to Determine Group Membership&prompt.user; idjru
uid=1001(jru) gid=1001(jru) groups=1001(jru), 1100(teamtwo)As you can see, jru is a member of the
groups jru and
teamtwo.For more information about &man.pw.8;, see its manual page, and
for more information on the format of
/etc/group, consult the &man.group.5; manual
page.
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x11/chapter.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x11/chapter.sgml
index 9495b03589..9d738eb88f 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x11/chapter.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x11/chapter.sgml
@@ -1,1394 +1,1394 @@
The X Window SystemSynopsisFreeBSD uses XFree86 to provide users with a powerful
graphical user interface. XFree86 is a open-source
implementation of the X Window System. The following chapter
will cover installation and configuration of XFree86 on your
FreeBSD system. For more information on X11 and to see whether
your video card is supported, check the XFree86 web site.After reading this chapter you will know:How to install and configure XFree86.The various components of the X window system, and how they
- interoperate
+ interoperate.
- How to install and use different window managers
- How to use TrueType fonts in XFree86
+ How to install and use different window managers.
+ How to use TrueType fonts in XFree86.How to setup your system for graphical logins (XDM).Before reading this chapter you should:Know how to install additional third-party
- software ()
+ software ().
Installing XFree86XFree86 is available as a port
and as a package, making it easy to install. You can also
download the binaries directly from the XFree86 organization and
install them by hand, following the instructions provided by the
XFree86 group.Your only decision is which version of XFree86 to run.
XFree86 3.X is the maintenance branch of XFree86 development.
It is very stable, and it supports a huge number of graphics
cards. However, no new development is happening there. XFree86
4.X is a redesign of XFree86. As well as introducing many new
features (including much better support for fonts and
anti-aliasing), XFree86 4.X supports slightly fewer graphics
cards.If your card is supported we recommend you run 4.X. If it
is not then run 3.X.The rest of this chapter will explain how to configure
XFree86, and suggest various programs for X that you might want
to try.ChristopherShumwayContributed by XFree86 ConfigurationIntroductionThis chapter will introduce the steps necessary to install
and configure the XFree86
X Windows System under FreeBSD.
Once the server is installed and configured properly. The user
can read to setup their desktop
environment.XFree86 4.XXFree86Before You StartBefore the user is to start configuration of
XFree86-4, the the following
information will need to be known about the target
system:Monitor specificationsVideo Adapter chipsetVideo Adapter memoryhorizontal scan ratevertical scan rateThe specifications for the target system's monitor are
used by XFree86 to determine the
resolution and refresh rate to run at. These specifications can
usually be obtained from the documentation that came with the
target system's monitor or from the manufacturer's website.
There are two ranges of numbers that are needed, the horizontal
scan rate and the vertical synchronization rate.The video adapter's chipset defines what driver module
XFree86 uses to talk to the graphics
hardware. With most chipsets, this can be automatically
determined, but it is still useful to know in case the automatic
detection does not work correctly.Video memory on the graphic adapter determines the
resolution and color depth the target system can run at. This
is important to know so the user knows the limitations of the
target system.Installing XFree86 4.X SoftwareXFree86 4 can be installed
using the FreeBSD ports system or using &man.pkg.add.1;. If the
user is building XFree86-4 from
source and has USA_RESIDENT set in
/etc/make.conf, the user may first have to
fetch Wraphelp.c if XDM-AUTHORIZATION-1
support is desired. This file is to be placed in the port's
files/ sub-directory before the port is
built.Configuring XFree86 4.XConfiguration of XFree86 4.X is
a several step process. The first step is to build an initial
configuration file with the configure option to
XFree86. As the super user, simply
run:&prompt.root; XFree86 -configureThis will generate a skeleton
XFree86 configuration file in the
current working directory called
XF86Config.new. The
XFree86 program will attempt to probe
the graphics hardware on the system and will write a
configuration file to load the proper drivers for the detected
hardware on the target system.The next step is to test the currently existing
configuration to verify that XFree86
can work with the graphics
hardware on the target system. To preform this task, the user
needs to run:&prompt.root; XFree86 -xf86config XF86Config.newIf the user is presented with a black and grey grid and an
X mouse cursor, then the configuration was successful. To exit
the test, just press ctrl, alt and backspace simultaneously.XFree86 4 TuningNext, the user needs to tune the
XF86Config.new configuration file to their
personal taste. Open up the file in a text editor such as
&man.emacs.1; or &man.ee.1;. The first thing the user will want to
do is add the frequencies for the target system's monitor.
These are usually expressed as a horizontal and vertical
synchronization rate. These values are added to the
XF86Config.new file under the "Monitor"
section as such:Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Monitor Model"
Horizsync 30-107
VertRefresh 48-120
EndSectionThe Horizsync and
VertRefresh keywords may not exist in the
user's configuration file. If they do not, they need to be
added, with the correct horizontal synchronization rate placed
after the Horizsync keyword and the vertical
synchronization rate after the VertRefresh
keyword. In the example above the target monitor's rates where
entered.XF86ConfigWhile the XF86Config.new
configuration file is still open in an editor, next the user
needs to select what the default resolution and color depth is
desired. This is defined in the Screen
section.Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultColorDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768"
EndSubSection
EndSectionThe DefaultColorDepth keyword describes
the color depth the user wishes to run at by default. This can
be overridden with the -bpp command line
switch to XFree861. The Modes keyword describes the
resolution the user wishes to run at for the given color depth.
In the example above, the default color depth is twenty four
bits per pixel. At this color depth, the accepted resolution is
one thousand twenty four pixels by seven hundred and sixty eight
pixels.If a user wants to run at a resolution of one thousand
twenty four pixels by seven hundred sixty eight pixels at twenty
four bits per pixel, then the user needs to add the
DefaultColorDepth keyword with the value of
twenty four, and add to the "Display"
subsection with the desired Depth the Modes keyword with the
resolution the user wishes to run at. Note that only VESA
standard modes are supported as defined by the target system's
graphics hardware.Finally, the user can write out the configuration file and
test it using the test mode given above. If all is well, then
the configuration file needs to be installed in a common
location where XFree861 can source it in the future.
This is typically /etc/X11/XF86Config or
/usr/X11R6/etc/X11/XF86Config.&prompt.root; cp XF86Config.new /etc/X11/XF86ConfigOnce the configuration file has been placed in a common
location, XFree86 can then be used through &man.xdm.1;. In
order to use startx1 the user will have to install
the X11/wrapper port.Advanced Configuration TopicsConfiguration with Intel i810 Graphics ChipsetsIntel i810 graphic chipsetConfiguration with Intel i810 integrated chipsets
requires the agpgart AGP programming interface for
XFree86 to be able to drive the
card. To enable the agpgart programming
interface, the agp.ko kernel loadable
module needs to be loaded into the kernel with
&man.kldload.8;. This can be done automatically with the
&man.loader.8;. Simply add this line to
/boot/loader.conf to have the loader load
agp.ko at boot time:agp_load="YES"Next, a device node needs to be created for the
programming interface. To create the AGP device node, run
&man.MAKEDEV.8; in the /dev directory as
such:&prompt.root; cd /dev
&prompt.root; sh MAKEDEV agpgartThis will allow the user to configure the graphics
hardware as any other graphics board.Understanding XIf you are familiar with using windowing systems that ship with
other operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows, or MacOS, then you
may find your first introduction to X to be something of a culture
shock.Today, as Unix desktop environments such as
KDE and GNOME become
more prevalent it is less necessary to understand all the
behind-the-scenes interaction between the various X components, or what
those components actually are. However, one of X's strengths is its
underlying design, which lends a great deal of flexibility, and makes it
possible to do things with X that are impossible with other, more rigid,
systems.Why X?X is not the first window system written for Unix, but it is the
most popular. X's original development team had worked on another
window system before writing X. That system's name was
W (for Window, obviously). X is just
the next letter in the Roman alphabet.X can be referred to variously as X, X
Window System, X11, and other terms.
X Windows is to be avoided wherever possible; see
&man.X.1; for more information.The X Client/Server ModelX was designed from the beginning to be network-centric, and
adopts a client-server model. In the X model, the
X server runs on the computer that has the keyboard,
monitor, and mouse attached. The server is responsible for managing
the display, handling input from the keyboard and mouse, and so on.
Each X application (such as XTerm, or
Netscape) is a client. A
client sends messages to the server such as Please draw a
window at these coordinates, and the server sends back
messages such as The user just clicked on your OK
button.If you are using FreeBSD in a home or small office environment
where you only have one computer then you will be running the X
server and the X clients on the same computer. However, if you have
many machines running FreeBSD it is perfectly possible to run the X
server on the computer by your desk (which might be quite a low
specification machine) and run your X applications (the clients) on
the powerful expensive server that serves your office. In this
scenario the communication between the X client and server takes
place over the network.This confuses a lot of people, because the X terminology is
exactly backward to what they expect. They expect the X
server to be the big powerful machine down the hall, and
the X client to be the machine on their
desk.As long as you remember that the X server is the machine with
the monitor and keyboard, and the X clients are the programs that
display the windows you will not get confused.There is an interesting side-effect to this design. There is
nothing in the forces the client and server machines to be running
the same operating system, or even to be running on the same type of
computer. It is perfectly feasible to run an X server on Microsoft
Windows or Apple's MacOS, and there are various free and commercial
applications available that do exactly that.The X server that ships with FreeBSD is called
XFree86, and is available for free, under a
license very similar to the FreeBSD license. Commercial X servers for
FreeBSD are also available, should you want one.The Window ManagerThe X design philosophy is much like the Unix design philosophy,
tools, not policy. By this we mean that X (and Unix)
does not try to dictate to the end user how they should accomplish
whatever task they are trying to solve. Instead, they aim to provide
the user tools to do the job, and it is the user's responsibility to
decide how to use those tools.This philosophy extends to X not dictating what windows should
look like on screen, how you move them around with your mouse, what
keystrokes you should use to move between windows (i.e.,
AltTab, if you are familiar with Windows), what the title bars on
each window should look like, whether or not they have close buttons
on them, and so on.Instead, X delegates this responsibility to an application called
the Window Manager. There are dozens of window
managers available for X; AfterStep,
Enlightenment,
ctwm, ftwm,
sawfish, twm,
WindowMaker and more. Each of these
window managers provides a different look and feel; some of them
support virtual desktops some of them allow you to
completely customize the keystrokes you can use to manage your
desktop; some have a Start button, or similar device;
some are themeable, allowing you to completely change
the look-and-feel of your desktop by applying a new theme. These
window managers, and many more, are available in the
x11-wm category of the Ports Collection.In addition, the KDE and GNOME desktop environments both have
their own window managers which integrate tightly with the desktop,
although both of them allow you to replace the default window manager
with your own choice.Each window manager also has a different configuration mechanism;
some expect you to write a configuration file by hand; others feature
GUI tools for carrying most of the configuration tasks; at least one
(sawfish) has a configuration file written
in a dialect of the Lisp language, which is very powerful (if you are
in to that sort of thing).As you can imagine, this flexibility comes with a price. It can
be very difficult for documents such as this one to guide you through
choosing and configuring a window manager because the available choice
is so wide.Focus PolicyAnother feature the window manager is responsible for is the
mouse focus policy. Each windowing system, be it X,
Microsoft Windows, or some other has an abstraction called the
focus, and at any one time only one window can have
the focus. The window that has the focus is the window that will
receive all your key presses and mouse clicks.You are probably familiar with a focus policy commonly called
click-to-focus. This means that you must click on
the window you want to have the focus. The window may then come to
the top of the stack, and all your key presses will now be directed
to this window, even if you move the mouse outside the window. To
give the focus to another window you must first click in it.X does not support any particular focus policy. Instead, the
window manager controls which window has the focus at any one time.
Different window managers will support different focus methods. All
of them support click to focus, and the majority of them support
several others.The two other most popular focus policies are:focus-follows-mouseWith this policy, the window that is under the mouse
pointer is the window that has the focus. This may not
necessarily be the window that is on top of all the other
windows. You can change the focus by pointing at another
window, there is no need to click in it as well.After getting used to this policy it can be very
disorientating going back to another system that uses
click-to-focus.sloppy-focusThis policy is a small extension to focus-follows-mouse.
With focus-follows-mouse, if you move the mouse over the
background (or desktop, also called the root window) then no
window has the focus, and your key presses go nowhere.If you use sloppy-focus and move the mouse pointer on the
root window then the last window that had the focus will keep
it.Your window manager will almost certainly support other
policies, and variations on these two, so make sure you read the
documentation it is supplied with.WidgetsThe X approach of providing tools and not policy extends to the
widgets that you see on screen in each application.Widget is a GUI term for all the items in the user
interface that you can click on and manipulate in some way; buttons,
checkboxes, radio buttons, icons, lists, and so on. Microsoft Windows
Developer documentation calls these things
controls.Microsoft Windows and Apple's MacOS both have a very rigid widget
policy. Application developers are supposed to ensure that their
applications share a common look and feel. X was designed long before
either of these windowing systems, when research into GUI systems was
in its infancy, and it was felt that it would not be sensible to
mandate a particular graphical style, or set of widgets that have to
be adhered to. If you examine the evolution of the Windows or MacOS
GUI over the past ten years you will see many examples of how the
interfaces have been altered over time to reflect new thinking in the
art of Human/Computer Interaction.The upshot of this is that you can not expect X applications to
have a common look and feel. There are several popular widget sets
(and variations), including the original Athena widget set (developed
at MIT), Motif (on which the widget set in
Microsoft Windows was modeled, all bevelled edges and three shades of
grey), OpenLook, and others.Most newer X applications today will use a modern-looking widget
set, probably either Qt, used by KDE, or
GTK, used by the
GNOME
project. In this respect we are beginning to see a convergence in
look-and-feel on the Unix desktop, which certainly makes things easier
for the novice user. However, the sudden rise in popularity of
theming, where window managers make it possible to
dramatically personally your desktop and alter the look and feel of
the widgets risks confusing the issue once more.MurrayStokelyContributed by Using Fonts in XFree86Type1 FontsThe default fonts that ship with
XFree86 are less than ideal for typical
desktop publishing applications. Large presentation fonts show up
jagged and unprofessional looking and small fonts in Netscape are
almost completely unintelligible. However, there are several
free, high quality Type1 (PostScript) fonts available which
can be readily used
with XFree86, either version 3.X or
version 4.X. For instance, the URW font collection
(x11-fonts/urwfonts) includes
high quality versions of standard type1 fonts (Times Roman,
Helvetica, Palatino and others). The Freefont collection
(x11-fonts/freefont) includes
many more fonts, but most of them are intended for use in
graphics software such as the Gimp, and are not complete
enough to serve as screen fonts. In addition,
XFree86 can be configured to use
TrueType fonts with a minimum of effort: see the
section on TrueType fonts later.To install the above Type1 font collections from the ports
collection you can run the following commands.&prompt.root; cd /usr/ports/x11-fonts/urwfonts
&prompt.root; make install cleanAnd likewise with the freefont or other collections. To tell the X server
that these fonts exist, you can add an appropriate line
to your XF86Config file (in
/etc/ for XFree86
version 3, or in /etc/X11/ for version 4),
which reads:FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/URW/"Alternatively, at the command line in your X session you can
write:&prompt.user; xset fp+ /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/URW
&prompt.user; xset fp rehashThis will work but will be lost when you log out from this
session, unless you add it to your startup file
(~/.xinitrc for a normal
startx session,
or ~/.xsession when logging in through a
graphical login manager like XDM).
A third way is to use the new
XftConfig file: see the
section on anti-aliasing, later.
TrueType FontsXFree86 4.0 has built in support
for rendering TrueType fonts. There are two different modules
that can enable this functionality. The "freetype" module is used
in this example because it is more consistent with the other font
rendering back-ends. To enable the freetype module just add the
following line to the module section of your
/etc/X11/XF86Config file.Load "freetype"For XFree86 3.3.X you will need
to run a separate TrueType font
server. Xfstt is commonly used for
this purpose. To install x11-servers/Xfstt on
your FreeBSD system simply install the port from
/usr/ports/x11-servers/XfsttYou should now make a directory for your TrueType fonts
(e.g. /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType)
and copy all of your TrueType fonts into this directory. Keep in
mind that you cannot take TrueType fonts directly from a
Macintosh; they must be in Unix/DOS/Windows format for use by
XFree86. Once you have copied the
files into this directory you need to use
ttmkfdir to create a
fonts.dir file so that the X font renderer
knows that you have installed these new files. There is a FreeBSD
port for x11-fonts/ttmkfdir in
/usr/ports/x11-fonts/ttmkfdir.&prompt.root; cd /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType
&prompt.root; ttmkfdir > fonts.dirNow you need to add your TrueType directory to your fonts
path. This is just the same as described above for Type1 fonts, that is, use
&prompt.user; xset fp+ /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType
&prompt.user; xset fp rehash
or add a line to the
XF86Config file.That's it. Now Netscape,
Gimp,
StarOffice, and all of your other X
applications should now recognize your installed TrueType
fonts. Extremely small fonts (as with text in a high resolution
display on a web page) and extremely large fonts (within
StarOffice) will look much better
now.Anti-Aliasing Your FontsStarting with version 4.0.2, XFree86
supports anti-aliased
fonts. Currently, most software has not been updated to take
advantage of this new functionality. However, Qt (the toolkit
for the KDE desktop) does; so if you
are running XFree86 4.0.2
(or higher), Qt 2.3 (or higher) and KDE,
all your KDE/Qt applications can be made to use anti-aliased
fonts.To configure anti-aliasing, you need to create (or edit, if
it already exists) the file
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XftConfig. Several
advanced things can be done with this file; this section
describes only the simplest possibilities.First, you need to tell the X server about the fonts which you
want anti-aliased. To do that, for each font directory you have
a line, which looks like this:dir "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/Type1"And likewise for the other font directories (URW, truetype, etc)
containing fonts you would like anti-aliased. Anti-aliasing makes
sense only for scalable fonts (basically, Type1 and TrueType) so
do not include bitmap font directories here. The
directories which you included here can now be commented out
of your XF86Config file.Next, you may not want to anti-alias normal-sized text.
(Antialiasing makes borders slightly fuzzy, which makes very
small text more readable and removes "staircases" from large text,
but can cause eyestrain if applied to normal text.) To exclude
point sizes between 9 and 13 from anti-aliasing, include these
lines:match
any size > 8
any size < 14
edit
antialias = false;You may also find that the spacing for some monospaced fonts
gets messed up when you turn on anti-aliasing. This seems to
be an issue with KDE, in particular.
One possible fix for this
is to force the spacing for such fonts to be 100: add the
following lines:match any family == "fixed" edit family =+ "mono";
match any family == "console" edit family =+ "mono";(this aliases the other common names for fixed fonts as "mono"),
and then add:match any family == "mono" edit spacing = 100;Supposing you want to use the
Lucidux fonts whenever
monospaced fonts are required (these look nice, and do not seem
to suffer from the spacing problem), you could replace that last
line with these:match any family == "mono" edit family += "LuciduxMono";
match any family == "Lucidux Mono" edit family += "LuciduxMono";
match any family == "LuciduxMono" edit family =+ "Lucidux Mono";(the last lines alias different equivalent family names).Finally, you want to allow users to add commands to this
file, via their personal .xftconfig
files. To do this, add a last line:includeif "~/.xftconfig"That's all; anti-aliasing should be enabled the next
time you start the X server. However, note that your programs must
know how to take advantage of it. At the present time, the toolkit
Qt does, so the entire KDE environment
can use anti-aliased fonts
(see on
KDE for
details); there are patches for gtk+ to do the same,
so if compiled against such a patched gtk+, the GNOME environment
and Mozilla can also use anti-aliased fonts.Anti-aliasing is still new to FreeBSD and
XFree86;
configuring it should get easier with time, and it will soon be
supported by many more applications.SethKingsleyContributed by The X Display ManagerOverviewThe X Display Manager (XDM) is
an optional part of the X Window System that is used for login
session management. This is useful for several types of
situations, including minimal X Terminals (see
), desktops, and large network display
servers. Since the X Window System is network and protocol
independent, there are a wide variety of possible configurations
for running X clients and servers on different machines
connected by a network. XDM provides
a graphical interface for choosing which display server to
connect to, and entering authorization information such as a
login and password combination.You may think of XDM as
providing the same functionality to the user as the
&man.getty.8; utility (see for
details). That is, it performs system logins to the display
being connected to and then runs a session manager on behalf of
the user (usually an X window
manager). XDM then waits for this
program to exit, signaling that the user is done and should be
logged out of the display. At this point,
XDM can display the login and display
chooser screens for the next user to login.Using XDMThe XDM daemon program is
located in /usr/X11R6/bin/xdm. You can run
this program at any time as root and it will start managing the
X display on the local machine. If you want
XDM to run in the background every
time the machine boots up, a convenient way to do this is by
adding an entry to /etc/ttys. For more
information about the format and usage of this file, see . There is a line in the default
/etc/ttys file for running the
XDM daemon on a virtual terminal:
ttyv8 "/usr/X11R6/bin/xdm -nodaemon" xterm off secure
By default this entry is disabled, and in order to enable it you
will need to change field 5 from off to
on and then restart &man.init.8; using the
directions in . The first field, the
name of the terminal this program will manage, is
ttyv8. This means that XDM
will start running on the 9th virtual terminal.Configuring XDMThe XDM configuration directory
is located in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm. In
this directory you will see several files used to change the
behavior and appearance of
XDM. Typically you will find these
files:FileDescriptionXaccessClient authorization ruleset.XresourcesDefault X resource values.XserversList of remote and local displays to manage.XsessionDefault session script for logins.Xsetup_*xdm-configGlobal configuration for all displays running on
this machine.xdm-errorsErrors generated by the server program.xdm-pidThe process ID of the currently running XDM.Also in this directory are a few scripts and programs used
to setup the desktop when XDM is
running. In the next few sections I will briefly describe the
purpose of each of these files. The exact syntax and usage of
all of these files is described in &man.xdm.1;The default configuration is a simple rectangular login
window with the hostname of the machine displayed at the top in
a large font and Login: and
Password: prompts below. This is a good starting
point if you are planning to design your own look and feel for
the XDM screens.XaccessThe protocol for connecting to
XDM controlled displays is called
the X Display Manager Connection Protocol (XDMCP). This file
is basically just a ruleset for controlling XDMCP connections
from remote machines. By default, it allows any client to
connect, but you will see this will not matter because the
default xdm-config file does not listen
for remote connections.XresourcesThis is an application-defaults file for the display
chooser and the login screens. This is where you can customize
the appearance of the login program. The format is identical
to the app-defaults file described in the XFree86
documentation.XserversThis is a list of the remote displays the chooser should
provide as choices.XsessionThis is the default session script for
XDM to run after a user has logged
in. Normally each user will have a customized session script
in ~/.xsessionrc that overrides this
script.Xsetup_*These files contain scripts that will be run automatically
before displaying the chooser or login interfaces. There is a
script for each display being used, named
Xsetup_followed by the local display
number (for instance Xsetup_0). Typically
these scripts will run one or two programs in the background
such as xconsole.xdm-configThis file contains settings in the form of app-defaults
that are applicable to every display that this installation
manages.xdm-errorsThis file contains the output of the X servers that
XDM is trying to run. If a display
that XDM is trying to start hangs
for some reason, this is a good place to look for error
messages. These messages are also written to the user's
~/.xsession-errors file on a per-session
basisRunning a Network Display ServerIn order for other clients to connect to your display
server, you will need to edit the access control rules, and
enable the connection listener. By default these are set to
conservative values, which is a good decision security-wise. To
get XDM to listen for connections
first comment out a line in the xdm-config
file:
! SECURITY: do not listen for XDMCP or Chooser requests
! Comment out this line if you want to manage X terminals with xdm
DisplayManager.requestPort: 0
and then restart XDM. Remember that
comments in app-defaults files begin with a !
character, not a #. After this, you may need to
put more strict access controls in place. Look at the example
entries in Xaccess file, and refer to the
&man.xdm.1; manual page.Replacements for XDMSeveral replacements for the default
XDM program exist. One of them,
KDM (bundled with
KDE) is described in a later section. Apart from various
visual improvements and cosmetic frills, it can be easily
configured to let users choose their window manager of choice
at the time they log in.ValentinoVaschettoContributed by Desktop EnvironmentsThis section describes the different desktop environments
available for X-Windows on FreeBSD. For our purposes a "desktop
environment" will mean anything ranging from a simple window
manager, to a complete suite of desktop applications such as
KDE or GNOME.
GNOMEAbout GNOMEGNOME is a user-friendly
desktop environment that enables users to easily use and
configure their computers. GNOME
includes a panel (for starting applications and displaying
status), a desktop (where data and applications can be
placed), a set of standard desktop tools and applications, and
a set of conventions that make it easy for applications to
cooperate and be consistent with each other. Users of other
operating systems or environments should feel right at home
using the powerful graphics-driven environment that
GNOME provides.Installing GNOMETo install GNOME from the network,
simply type:&prompt.root; pkg_add -r gnomeIf you would rather build
GNOME from source, then use the
ports tree:&prompt.root; cd /usr/ports/x11/gnome
&prompt.root; make install cleanOnce GNOME is installed, we
must have the X server start GNOME
instead of a default window manager. If you have already
customized your .xinitrc file then you
should simply replace the line that starts your current window
manager with one that starts
/usr/X11R6/bin/gnome-session instead. If you
have not added anything special to your configuration file,
then it is enough to simply type:&prompt.root; echo "/usr/X11R6/bin/gnome-session" > ~/.xinitrcThat's it. Type startx and you will be in the
GNOME desktop environment.If you are running a display manager like
XDM, this will not work. Instead,
you should create an executable .xsession
file with the same command in it. To do this, edit your file
(if you already have one) and replace the existing
window manager command with
/usr/X11R6/bin/gnome-session; or else,&prompt.root; echo "#!/bin/sh" > ~/.xsession
&prompt.root; echo "/usr/X11R6/bin/gnome-session" >> ~/.xsession
&prompt.root; chmod +x ~/.xsessionAnother option is to configure your display manager to
allow choosing the window manager at login time; the section on
KDE2 details
explains how to do this for kdm, the
display manager of KDE.KDE2About KDE2KDE is an easy to use
contemporary desktop environment. Some of the things that
KDE brings to the user are:A beautiful contemporary desktopA desktop exhibiting complete network transparencyAn integrated help system allowing for convenient,
consistent access to help on the use of the
KDE desktop and its
applicationsConsistent look and feel of all
KDE applicationsStandardized menu and toolbars, keybindings, color-schemes, etc.Internationalization: KDE
is available in more than 40 languagesCentralized consisted dialog driven desktop configurationA great number of useful
KDE applicationsKDE has an office application
suite based on KDE's
KParts technology consisting
of a spread-sheet, a presentation application, an organizer, a
news client and more. KDE is also
comes with a web browser called
Konqeuror, which represents already
a solid competitor to other existing web browsers on Unix
systems. More information on KDE
can be found on the KDE
websiteInstalling KDE2At the time of writing, a package for kde2 does not
exist yet. No problem! The ports tree hides all the
complexity of building a package from source. To install
KDE2, do this :&prompt.root; cd /usr/ports/x11/kde2
&prompt.root; make install cleanThis command will fetch all the necessary files from the
Internet, configure and compile KDE2,
install the applications, and then clean up after itself.Now you are going to have to tell the X server to launch
KDE2 instead of a default window manager.
Do this by typing this:&prompt.root; echo "/usr/X11R6/bin/startkde" > ~/.xinitrcNow, whenever you go into X-Windows,
KDE2 will be your
desktop. (Note: this will not work if you are logging in via
a display manager like xdm. In that
case you have two options: create an
.xsession file as described in the
section on GNOME, but
with the /usr/X11R6/bin/startkde
command instead of the gnome-session
command; or, configure your display manager to allow
choosing a desktop at login time. Below it is explained how
to do this for kdm,
KDE's display manager.)More Details on KDE2Now that KDE2 is installed on
your system, you will find that you can learn a lot from its
help pages, or just by pointing and clicking at various menus.
Windows or Mac users will feel quite at home.The best reference for KDE is
the on-line documentation. KDE
comes with its own web browser,
Konqueror, dozens of useful
applications, and extensive documentation. This section only
discusses somewhat technical things which are difficult to
learn just by random exploration.The KDE display managerIf you are an administrator on a multi-user system, you
may like to have a graphical login screen to welcome users.
You can use xdm, as described
earlier. However, KDE includes an
alternative, KDM, which is designed
to look more attractive and include more login-time options.
In particular, users can easily choose (via a menu) which
desktop environment (KDE2,
GNOME, or something else) to run
after logging on. If you are slightly adventurous and you want
this added flexibility and visual appeal, read on.To begin with, run the KDE2
control panel, kcontrol, as
root. Note: it is generally considered
unsafe to run your entire X environment as
root. Instead, run your window manager
as a normal user, open a terminal window (such as
xterm or KDE's
konsole, become root
with su (you need to be in the
wheel
group in /etc/group for this), and then
type kcontrol. Click on the icon on the left marked "System", then on
"Login manager". On the right you will see various configurable
options, which the KDE manual will
explain in greater detail. Click on "sessions" on the right.
Depending on what window managers or desktop environments you
have currently installed, you can type their names in "New
type" and add them. (These are just labels so far, not
commands, so you can write KDE and
GNOME rather than
startkde or gnome-session.)
Include a label failsafe. Play with the other menus as you like (those are mainly
cosmetic and self-explanatory). When you are done, click on
"Apply" at the bottom, and quit the control center. To make sure kdm understands
what your above labels (KDE,
GNOME etc) mean, you need to edit
some more files: the same ones used by xdm. In your terminal window, as root,
edit the file
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xsession. You
will come across a section in the middle looking like this (by
default):case $# in
1)
case $1 in
failsafe)
exec xterm -geometry 80x24-0-0
;;
esac
esacYou will need to add a few lines to this section.
Assuming the labels you gave earlier were KDE2 and GNOME,
the following will do:case $# in
1)
case $1 in
KDE2)
exec /usr/X11R6/bin/startkde
;;
GNOME)
exec /usr/X11R6/bin/gnome-session
;;
failsafe)
exec xterm -geometry 80x24-0-0
;;
esac
esacTo make sure your KDE choice
of a login-time desktop background is also honored, you will
need to add the following line to
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xsetup_0:/usr/X11R6/bin/kdmdesktopNow, you need only to make sure
kdm is started at the next bootup.
To learn how to do this, read the section on xdm, and do the same thing replacing
references to the xdm program by
kdm.That's it. Your next login screen should have a pretty
face and lots of menus.Anti-aliased FontsTired of blocky staircase edges to your fonts under X11?
Tired of unreadable text in web browsers? Well, no
more.Starting with version 4.0.2,
XFree86 supports anti-aliasing via
its "RENDER" extension, and starting with version 2.3, Qt (the
toolkit used by KDE) supports this
extension. Configuring this is described in on antialiasing X11 fonts. So if you are
running up-to-date software, anti-aliasing is possible on your
KDE2 desktop. Just go to your KDE2
menu, go to Preferences -> Look and Feel -> Style, and click
on the checkbox "Use Anti-Aliasing for Fonts and Icons".
That's all. If you are running a Qt application which is not
part of KDE, you may need to set
the environment variable QT_XFT to true before starting your
program.XFCEAbout XFCEXFCE is based on the gtk+
toolkit used by GNOME, but is much
more lightweight and meant for those who want a simple,
efficient desktop which is nevertheless easy to use and
configure. Visually, it looks very much like
CDE, found on commercial Unix
systems. Some of XFCE's features
are:A simple, easy-to-handle desktopFully configurable via mouse, with drag and
drop, etc Main panel similar to CDE, with menus, applets and
app launchersIntegrated window manager, file manager,
sound manager, GNOME compliance module, and other things Themeable (since it uses gtk+) Fast, light and efficient: ideal for
older/slower machines or machines with memory limitations More information on XFCE
can be found on the XFCE
website.Installing XFCEA binary package for xfce
exists (at the time of writing). To install, simply do
this:&prompt.root; pkg_add -r xfce Alternatively, you may prefer to build from source.
The ports tree comes to the rescue again: &prompt.root; cd /usr/ports/x11-wm/xfce
&prompt.root; make install clean All necessary source packages (including dependencies)
will be automagically fetched, built and installed, and
the build areas cleaned up afterwards.Now you want to tell the X server to launch
XFCE the next time you start
X. Simply type this:&prompt.root; echo "/usr/X11R6/bin/startxfce" > ~/.xinitrcThe next time you start X, XFCE will be your
desktop. (Note, as before:
if you are logging in via a display manager like
xdm, you should either create an
.xsession, as described in the
section on GNOME, but
with the /usr/X11R6/bin/startxfce
command; or, configure your display manager to allow
choosing a desktop at login time, as explained in
the section on kdm.)