diff --git a/en/support.sgml b/en/support.sgml index 3cc65a107a..af78f9aa7f 100644 --- a/en/support.sgml +++ b/en/support.sgml @@ -1,496 +1,506 @@ + %includes; ]> - + &header;

Mailing lists

Mailing lists are the primary support channel for FreeBSD users, with numerous mailing lists covering different topic areas. When in doubt about what list to post a question to, post to freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG. You can browse or search the mailing list archives at www.freebsd.org.

Several non-English mailing lists are also available:

If you create other freebsd mailing lists, let us know about them.

Newsgroups

There are a few FreeBSD specific newsgroups, along with numerous other newsgroups on topics of interest to FreeBSD users, though the mailing lists remain the most reliable way to get in touch with the FreeBSD developers. For miscellaneous FreeBSD discussion, see comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc. For important announcements, see comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.announce.

The BSD Usenet News Searcher have archives of all BSD-related Usenet newsgroups from June 1992 onwards.

WEB Resources

GNATS Problem Report Database

Current FreeBSD problem reports are tracked using the GNATS database.

Problem reports may also be submitted to the development team using the send-pr(1) command on a FreeBSD system or by sending an email message to freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.ORG. Please note that send-pr is preferred since messages sent to the mailing list are not tracked as official problem reports!

CVS Repository

CVS (the Concurrent Version System) is the tool we use for keeping our sources under control. Every change (with accompanying log message explaining its purpose) from FreeBSD 2.0 to the present is stored here, and can be easily viewed from here (click on the link). To obtain a complete copy of the FreeBSD CVS repository or any of the development branches inside it, you may choose any one of following options:

  • cvsup if you're looking for on-demand, low overhead access using a custom utility (written in Modula-3 no less).
  • anoncvs if you're looking for on-demand access that has higher overhead than cvsup (in terms of wall time and bytes xferred) but is easier to use for checking out small pieces of the tree and requires nothing more than the cvs tools already bundled with FreeBSD.
  • CTM if you're looking for very low overhead, batch-mode access (basically, patches through email) access.
  • The web interface if you're looking to simply browse the repository in search of a specific change or file revision.
  • Finally, if you've got bandwidth to burn or you prefer / are forced to use FTP, you can simply mirror the CVS repository from ftp.freebsd.org.

Mirrors of the CVS Repository cgi script are available in California, Germany, Japan and Spain (English, Spanish).

User Groups

FreeBSD's widespread popularity has spawned a number of user groups around the world. If you know of a FreeBSD user group not listed here, let us know about it.

  • The Rhode Island Free Unix Group supports every form of UNIX that can be obtained freely. They can be contacted at: http://users.tmok.com/~rifug or by e-mail at: rifug@entropy.tmok.com
  • BAFUG (Bay Area FreeBSD Users Group) meets semi-monthly at Silicon Reef. Those interested in attending should visit the web site or send mail to the mailing list

  • The Danish *BSD user group, BSD/DK, is being created. Send mail subscription request to bsd-dk-request@hotel.prosa.dk. No initial meeting planned yet.

  • BSDHH (BSD User Group Hamburg) meets on the first Wednesday of the month at 7.00pm in the Chinese restaurant Lotosbluete, Loewenstrasse 22 in Hamburg-Eppendorf/Germany. Most members are FreeBSD users, although users of all BSD flavors are welcome.

    • +
  • + The BSD User Group, + Sydney (BUGS) was formed in April 1999 and will have its first + meeting on Sunday 16 May at midday at the Kwantung Palace Chinese + restaurant on the corner of Government Rd (off Pacific Highway) + and Pound Rd, Hornsby, approximately 100m south of Hornsby + Station. Be there, eat, get to know each other and plan the rest + of your lives. +
    • +
  • The FreeBSD UKUG (FreeBSD UK User's Group) exists for the benefit of FreeBSD - users in the United Kingdom. Please follow the link for details. -

    • + users in the United Kingdom. Please follow the link for + details.

  • FUUNM (Free Unix Users of New Mexico) meets on the 2nd Saturday of the month from 4:30-6:00pm at the Farris Engineering Center, room 141, University of new Mexico. This is not specifically a FreeBSD user group, but if you are in the area, your presence is welcome. The group operates a mailing list (fuunm@astro.phys.unm.edu). Contact Alan Lundin for more information.

  • FreeBSD-Milwaukee Wisconsin meets occasionally and has a mailing list: freebsd-mke-l@ns.sol.net. send mail to freebsd-mke-l-request@ns.sol.net to subscribe.

  • RUUG (Reno Unix Users Group) meets monthly in Reno Nevada and discusses the use of FreeBSD and Linux. Contact Eric Blood or Todd Crenshaw for more information.

    • -
  • Washington DC (DC Metropolitan Area) FreeBSD User Group is now +
  • washington DC (DC Metropolitan Area) FreeBSD User Group is now forming. Please contact Richard Cramer, Sytex Access Ltd. at 703-425-2515, or preferred, email at rcramer@sytex.net to be put on a member distribution list. Initial meeting to be held in May.

  • Yavapai Free Unix Users Group is now forming for *BSD/Linux, etc., users in Northern Arizona. Please contact Russell Carter ( rcarter@consys.com) for details.

  • BSD.fr is a group for people who talk french and we are doing a mailing list by Cc (we dont have majordomo). Please contact Malartre malartre@aei.ca for more information.

  • HUMBUG (Home Unix Machine - Brisbane User Group) Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Mailing lists are handled by majordomo@humbug.org.au - announce, general and chat.. More information at the web page. Meetings are held fortnightly at the University of Queensland. Contact president@humbug.org.au for further information.

  • KULUA (Kansas Unix & Linux Users Association) is a Free Unix user group based in Lawrence, Kansas, but with users throughout eastern Kansas and western Missouri. We have about 120 members and meet biweekly. Visit the web site or email kulua@kulua.org for more information.

  • TFUG: Tucson Free Unix Group, Arizona.

  • The Israeli BSD Users Group is an effort to promote the use of *BSD throught the country, and to act as a center of information for all BSD users. It is run by us, currently FreeBSD users. However, All *BSD Variants users are welcome aboard. We have a mailing list, hosted at bsd-il@osem.co.il. To subscribe, simply send mail to majordomo@osem.co.il, with the line "subscribe bsd-il" as the message body.

  • The Yahoo Club group is a foundation for a Los Angeles based BSD user group.

  • The Chicago FreeBSD Users Group (ChiFUG).

  • The South Australian FreeBSD Users Group (SAFUG) was formed in April 1999 and has yet to have an inaugural meeting. If you're in the Adelaide area, or just plain curious, check out the web site, or send mail to Christine Jaeger with your details (and include a picture if you're brave!) -

    • +
  • The Seattle FreeBSD Users Group (SeaFUG) meets on a monthly basis. Those interested in attending should vist the web site or contact Bill Swingle for more info. -

    • +
  • HOUFUG (Houston FreeBSD Users Group) is now forming. Our first meeting will be on March 27th. Please contact Ingrid Fuller or join our mailing list. To subscribe, simply send mail to majordomo@cityscope.net, with the line "subscribe hou-freebsd youremailaddress" as the message body.

  • The Windsor Unix Users Group (Windsor, Ontario, Canada) is now forming for *BSD, Solaris, SCO, etc. This is not specifically a FreeBSD user group, but we do already have members running FreeBSD. The group operates a mailing list (wuug-list@unixpower.org). More information can be found by going to the web site for WUUG, which is located at http://unix.windsor.on.ca/

  • The Phoenix BSD Users group is fully open for businness. I now have the mailing list setup and ready to go. If anyone else here is from the phoenix area please feel free to join in http://bsd.phoenix.az.us.

FreeBSD Development Projects

In addition to the mainstream development path of FreeBSD, a number of developer groups are working on the cutting edge to expand FreeBSD's range of applications in new directions.

FreeBSD Security Guide

Security resources available to FreeBSD users: PGP Key for Security Officers, advisories, patches and mailing lists.

Commercial Consulting Services

Whether you are just starting out with FreeBSD, or need to complete a large project, a consultant or two might be your answer.

General UNIX Information

The X Window System

  • The XFree86 Project provides users of a variety of Intel based Unix systems, including FreeBSD, with an excellent X Window system.
  • The WINE project is working to provide the ability to run MS-Windows software on Intel based Unix systems such as FreeBSD, NetBSD and Linux. More information is available from the WINE FAQ.

Hardware

  • The comp.answers pc-hardware-faq is a great reference for people building their own machines.
  • Laptop users looking for PCCARD (aka PCMCIA) support not already provided in the FreeBSD base distribution should see the PAO distribution page for the latest and greatest experimental laptop support.
  • Intel Secrets -- What Intel Doesn't Want You To Know - lots of information about Intel chips.
  • Aad Offerman's Chip List - reference material on chips used in PC clones.
  • ASUS makes motherboards that work well with FreeBSD.
  • The FreeBSD hardware guide makes some specific recommendations for hardware that's known to work well with FreeBSD.

Related Operating System Projects

  • NetBSD is another free 4.4BSD-Lite based operating system which runs on several different architectures.
  • OpenBSD is another 4.4BSD derivative.
  • Linux is another free Unix-like system.
  • Lites is a 4.4 BSD Lite based server and emulation library that provides free unix functionality to a Mach based system.
  • The GNU HURD project is another effort to develop a free Unix-like operating system.
&footer; diff --git a/en/usergroups.sgml b/en/usergroups.sgml index ed75645038..2704cd8f18 100644 --- a/en/usergroups.sgml +++ b/en/usergroups.sgml @@ -1,496 +1,506 @@ + %includes; ]> - + &header;

Mailing lists

Mailing lists are the primary support channel for FreeBSD users, with numerous mailing lists covering different topic areas. When in doubt about what list to post a question to, post to freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG. You can browse or search the mailing list archives at www.freebsd.org.

Several non-English mailing lists are also available:

If you create other freebsd mailing lists, let us know about them.

Newsgroups

There are a few FreeBSD specific newsgroups, along with numerous other newsgroups on topics of interest to FreeBSD users, though the mailing lists remain the most reliable way to get in touch with the FreeBSD developers. For miscellaneous FreeBSD discussion, see comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc. For important announcements, see comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.announce.

The BSD Usenet News Searcher have archives of all BSD-related Usenet newsgroups from June 1992 onwards.

WEB Resources

GNATS Problem Report Database

Current FreeBSD problem reports are tracked using the GNATS database.

Problem reports may also be submitted to the development team using the send-pr(1) command on a FreeBSD system or by sending an email message to freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.ORG. Please note that send-pr is preferred since messages sent to the mailing list are not tracked as official problem reports!

CVS Repository

CVS (the Concurrent Version System) is the tool we use for keeping our sources under control. Every change (with accompanying log message explaining its purpose) from FreeBSD 2.0 to the present is stored here, and can be easily viewed from here (click on the link). To obtain a complete copy of the FreeBSD CVS repository or any of the development branches inside it, you may choose any one of following options:

  • cvsup if you're looking for on-demand, low overhead access using a custom utility (written in Modula-3 no less).
  • anoncvs if you're looking for on-demand access that has higher overhead than cvsup (in terms of wall time and bytes xferred) but is easier to use for checking out small pieces of the tree and requires nothing more than the cvs tools already bundled with FreeBSD.
  • CTM if you're looking for very low overhead, batch-mode access (basically, patches through email) access.
  • The web interface if you're looking to simply browse the repository in search of a specific change or file revision.
  • Finally, if you've got bandwidth to burn or you prefer / are forced to use FTP, you can simply mirror the CVS repository from ftp.freebsd.org.

Mirrors of the CVS Repository cgi script are available in California, Germany, Japan and Spain (English, Spanish).

User Groups

FreeBSD's widespread popularity has spawned a number of user groups around the world. If you know of a FreeBSD user group not listed here, let us know about it.

  • The Rhode Island Free Unix Group supports every form of UNIX that can be obtained freely. They can be contacted at: http://users.tmok.com/~rifug or by e-mail at: rifug@entropy.tmok.com
  • BAFUG (Bay Area FreeBSD Users Group) meets semi-monthly at Silicon Reef. Those interested in attending should visit the web site or send mail to the mailing list

  • The Danish *BSD user group, BSD/DK, is being created. Send mail subscription request to bsd-dk-request@hotel.prosa.dk. No initial meeting planned yet.

  • BSDHH (BSD User Group Hamburg) meets on the first Wednesday of the month at 7.00pm in the Chinese restaurant Lotosbluete, Loewenstrasse 22 in Hamburg-Eppendorf/Germany. Most members are FreeBSD users, although users of all BSD flavors are welcome.

    • +
  • + The BSD User Group, + Sydney (BUGS) was formed in April 1999 and will have its first + meeting on Sunday 16 May at midday at the Kwantung Palace Chinese + restaurant on the corner of Government Rd (off Pacific Highway) + and Pound Rd, Hornsby, approximately 100m south of Hornsby + Station. Be there, eat, get to know each other and plan the rest + of your lives. +
    • +
  • The FreeBSD UKUG (FreeBSD UK User's Group) exists for the benefit of FreeBSD - users in the United Kingdom. Please follow the link for details. -

    • + users in the United Kingdom. Please follow the link for + details.

  • FUUNM (Free Unix Users of New Mexico) meets on the 2nd Saturday of the month from 4:30-6:00pm at the Farris Engineering Center, room 141, University of new Mexico. This is not specifically a FreeBSD user group, but if you are in the area, your presence is welcome. The group operates a mailing list (fuunm@astro.phys.unm.edu). Contact Alan Lundin for more information.

  • FreeBSD-Milwaukee Wisconsin meets occasionally and has a mailing list: freebsd-mke-l@ns.sol.net. send mail to freebsd-mke-l-request@ns.sol.net to subscribe.

  • RUUG (Reno Unix Users Group) meets monthly in Reno Nevada and discusses the use of FreeBSD and Linux. Contact Eric Blood or Todd Crenshaw for more information.

    • -
  • Washington DC (DC Metropolitan Area) FreeBSD User Group is now +
  • washington DC (DC Metropolitan Area) FreeBSD User Group is now forming. Please contact Richard Cramer, Sytex Access Ltd. at 703-425-2515, or preferred, email at rcramer@sytex.net to be put on a member distribution list. Initial meeting to be held in May.

  • Yavapai Free Unix Users Group is now forming for *BSD/Linux, etc., users in Northern Arizona. Please contact Russell Carter ( rcarter@consys.com) for details.

  • BSD.fr is a group for people who talk french and we are doing a mailing list by Cc (we dont have majordomo). Please contact Malartre malartre@aei.ca for more information.

  • HUMBUG (Home Unix Machine - Brisbane User Group) Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Mailing lists are handled by majordomo@humbug.org.au - announce, general and chat.. More information at the web page. Meetings are held fortnightly at the University of Queensland. Contact president@humbug.org.au for further information.

  • KULUA (Kansas Unix & Linux Users Association) is a Free Unix user group based in Lawrence, Kansas, but with users throughout eastern Kansas and western Missouri. We have about 120 members and meet biweekly. Visit the web site or email kulua@kulua.org for more information.

  • TFUG: Tucson Free Unix Group, Arizona.

  • The Israeli BSD Users Group is an effort to promote the use of *BSD throught the country, and to act as a center of information for all BSD users. It is run by us, currently FreeBSD users. However, All *BSD Variants users are welcome aboard. We have a mailing list, hosted at bsd-il@osem.co.il. To subscribe, simply send mail to majordomo@osem.co.il, with the line "subscribe bsd-il" as the message body.

  • The Yahoo Club group is a foundation for a Los Angeles based BSD user group.

  • The Chicago FreeBSD Users Group (ChiFUG).

  • The South Australian FreeBSD Users Group (SAFUG) was formed in April 1999 and has yet to have an inaugural meeting. If you're in the Adelaide area, or just plain curious, check out the web site, or send mail to Christine Jaeger with your details (and include a picture if you're brave!) -

    • +
  • The Seattle FreeBSD Users Group (SeaFUG) meets on a monthly basis. Those interested in attending should vist the web site or contact Bill Swingle for more info. -

    • +
  • HOUFUG (Houston FreeBSD Users Group) is now forming. Our first meeting will be on March 27th. Please contact Ingrid Fuller or join our mailing list. To subscribe, simply send mail to majordomo@cityscope.net, with the line "subscribe hou-freebsd youremailaddress" as the message body.

  • The Windsor Unix Users Group (Windsor, Ontario, Canada) is now forming for *BSD, Solaris, SCO, etc. This is not specifically a FreeBSD user group, but we do already have members running FreeBSD. The group operates a mailing list (wuug-list@unixpower.org). More information can be found by going to the web site for WUUG, which is located at http://unix.windsor.on.ca/

  • The Phoenix BSD Users group is fully open for businness. I now have the mailing list setup and ready to go. If anyone else here is from the phoenix area please feel free to join in http://bsd.phoenix.az.us.

FreeBSD Development Projects

In addition to the mainstream development path of FreeBSD, a number of developer groups are working on the cutting edge to expand FreeBSD's range of applications in new directions.

FreeBSD Security Guide

Security resources available to FreeBSD users: PGP Key for Security Officers, advisories, patches and mailing lists.

Commercial Consulting Services

Whether you are just starting out with FreeBSD, or need to complete a large project, a consultant or two might be your answer.

General UNIX Information

The X Window System

  • The XFree86 Project provides users of a variety of Intel based Unix systems, including FreeBSD, with an excellent X Window system.
  • The WINE project is working to provide the ability to run MS-Windows software on Intel based Unix systems such as FreeBSD, NetBSD and Linux. More information is available from the WINE FAQ.

Hardware

  • The comp.answers pc-hardware-faq is a great reference for people building their own machines.
  • Laptop users looking for PCCARD (aka PCMCIA) support not already provided in the FreeBSD base distribution should see the PAO distribution page for the latest and greatest experimental laptop support.
  • Intel Secrets -- What Intel Doesn't Want You To Know - lots of information about Intel chips.
  • Aad Offerman's Chip List - reference material on chips used in PC clones.
  • ASUS makes motherboards that work well with FreeBSD.
  • The FreeBSD hardware guide makes some specific recommendations for hardware that's known to work well with FreeBSD.

Related Operating System Projects

  • NetBSD is another free 4.4BSD-Lite based operating system which runs on several different architectures.
  • OpenBSD is another 4.4BSD derivative.
  • Linux is another free Unix-like system.
  • Lites is a 4.4 BSD Lite based server and emulation library that provides free unix functionality to a Mach based system.
  • The GNU HURD project is another effort to develop a free Unix-like operating system.
&footer;