Index: head/share/FAQ/FreeBSD.FAQ =================================================================== --- head/share/FAQ/FreeBSD.FAQ (revision 6758) +++ head/share/FAQ/FreeBSD.FAQ (revision 6759) @@ -1,902 +1,902 @@ FreeBSD Frequently Asked Questions For Version 2.0 Please mail all suggestions and additions to -Revision: $Id: FreeBSD.FAQ,v 1.17 1995/02/25 23:42:14 roberto Exp $ +Revision: $Id: FreeBSD.FAQ,v 1.18 1995/02/26 21:27:29 gclarkii Exp $ All entries are assumed to be relevant to FreeBSD 2.0. Any entries with a are under construction. Table of Contents ----------------- 0 Preface 1 Installation 2 Hardware Compatibility 3 Commercial applications 4 User Applications 5 Miscellaneous Questions 6 Kernel Configuration 7 System Administration 8 Networking 9 Serial Communications 0 Preface --------- Welcome to the FreeBSD 2.0 FAQ! This document tries to answer some of the most frequently asked questions about FreeBSD 2.0. If there's something you're having trouble with and you do not see it here, please send email to: Some of the instructions here will also refer to auxiliary utilities in the /usr/src/share/FAQ directory. CDROM purchasers and net folks who've grabbed the FreeBSD 2.0 `srcdist' will have these files. If you don't have the source distribution, then you can either grab the whole thing from: ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.ORG/pub/FreeBSD/FreeBSD-current Or you can grab only those files you're interested in straight out of the FreeBSD-current distribution in: ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.ORG/pub/FreeBSD/FreeBSD-current/src 0.1: What is FreeBSD? FreeBSD 2.0 is a UN*X type operating system based on U.C. Berkeley's 4.4BSD-lite release for the i386 platform. It is also based indirectly on William Jolitz's port of U.C. Berkeley's Net/2 to the i386, 386BSD. There have been many additions and bug fixes made throughout the entire system, some of the highlights of which are: More robust and extensive PC device support System V-style IPC, messaging and semaphores Shared Libraries Much improved virtual memory code Better console driver support Network booting (diskless) support Yellow Pages support Full support of the PCI bus Loadable kernel modules Too many additional utilities and applications to mention 0.2: What are the FreeBSD mailing lists, and how can I get on them? The following mailing lists are provided for FreeBSD users and developers. For more information, send to and include a single line saying ``help'' in the body of your message. announce: For announcements about or on FreeBSD. hackers: Useful for persons wishing to work on the internals. questions: General questions on FreeBSD. bugs: Where bugs should be sent. SCSI: Mailing list for SCSI developers. current: This list is for persons wishing to run FreeBSD-current and carries announcements and discussions on current. security: For issues dealing with system security. platforms: Deals with ports to non-Intel platforms ports: Discussion of /usr/ports/??? fs: Discussion of FreeBSD Filesystems hardware: Discussion on hardware requirements for FreeBSD. The FreeBSD-commit list has been broken up into groups dealing with different areas of interest. Please see the FreeBSD mailing list FAQ in: /usr/src/share/FAQ/mailing-list.FAQ 0.3: What are the various FreeBSD news groups? While there are no groups currently dedicated to FreeBSD, you may find the following groups useful. comp.os.386bsd.announce: For announcements comp.os.386bsd.apps: For applications comp.os.386bsd.questions: For questions comp.os.386bsd.development: For working on the internals comp.os.386bsd.bugs: About bugs comp.os.386bsd.misc: For items that don't fit anywhere else NOTE: These groups cover all the *BSDs (FreeBSD, NetBSD, 386BSD). comp.os.bsd: General BSD topics, maybe of intrest NOTE: As of the date of this writing, there is has been a break up of newsgroups into groups for each OS. These groups can be found under ``comp.unix.bsd''. 1 Installation -------------- 1.1: I want to install FreeBSD onto a SCSI disk that has more than 1024 cylinders. How do I do it? This depends. If you don't have DOS (or another operating system) on the system, you can just keep the drive in native mode and simply make sure that your root partition is below 1024 so the BIOS can boot the kernel from it. It you also have DOS/some other OS on the drive then your best bet is to find out what parameters that it thinks you have before installing FreeBSD. When FreeBSD's installation procedure prompts you for these values, you should then enter them rather than simply going with the defaults. There is a freely available utility distributed with FreeBSD called `pfdisk' (located in the tools/dos-tools subdirectory) which can be used for this purpose. 1.2: When I boot FreeBSD it says ``Missing Operating System''. See question 1.2. This is classically a case of FreeBSD and DOS or some other OS conflicting over their ideas of disk geometry. You will have to reinstall FreeBSD, but obeying the instructions given above will almost always get you going. 1.3: When I install the boot manager and try to boot FreeBSD for the first time, it just comes back with the boot manager prompt again. This is another symptom of the problem described in 1.2. Your BIOS geometry and FreeBSD geometry settings do not agree! If your controller or BIOS supports cylinder translation (often marked as ">1GB drive support"), try toggling its setting and reinstalling FreeBSD. 1.4: I have an IDE drive with lots of bad blocks on it and FreeBSD doesn't seem to install properly. FreeBSD's bad block (bad144) handling is still not 100% (to put it charitably) and it must unfortunately be said that if you've got an IDE or ESDI drive with lots of bad blocks, then FreeBSD is probably not for you! That said, it does work on thousands of IDE based systems, so you'd do well to try it first before simply giving up. IDE drives are *supposed* to come with built-in bad-block remapping; if you have documentation for your drive, you may want to see if this feature has been disabled on your drive. However, ESDI, RLL, and ST-506 drives normally do not do this. 1.5: I have 32MB of memory, should I expect any special problems? No. FreeBSD 2.0 comes with bounce buffers which allows your bus mastering controller access to greater than 16MB. 1.6: Do I need to install the complete sources? In general, no. However, we would strongly recommend that you install, at a minimum, the `base' source kit, which includes several of the files mentioned here, and the `sys' (kernel) source kit, which includes sources for the kernel. There is nothing in the system which requires the presence of the sources to operate, however, except for the kernel-configuration program config(8). With the exception of the kernel sources, our build structure is set up so that you can read-only mount the sources from elsewhere via NFS and still be able to make new binaries. (Because of the kernel-source restriction, we recommend that you not mount this on /usr/src directly, but rather in some other location with appropriate symbolic links to duplicate the top-level structure of the source tree.) Having the sources on-line and knowing how to build a system with them will make it much easier for you to upgrade to future releases of FreeBSD. 1.7: DES encryption software can not be exported from the United States. If I live outside the US, how can I encrypt passwords? If it is not absolutely imperative that you use DES style encryption, you can use FreeBSD's default encryption for even _better_ security, and with no export restrictions. FreeBSD 2.0's password default scrambler is now MD5 based, and is more CPU-intensive to crack with an automated password cracker than DES. Since the DES encryption algorithm cannot legally be exported from the US, non-US users should not download this software (as part of the secrdist) from US FTP sites. There is however a replacement libcrypt available, based on sources written in Australia by David Burren. This code is now available on some non-US FreeBSD mirror sites. Sources for the unencumbered libcrypt, and binaries of the programs which use it, can be obtained from the following FTP sites: South Africa: braae.ru.ac.za:/pub/FreeBSD/securedist/ owl.und.ac.za (currently uncertain) Iceland: ftp.veda.is:/pub/crypt/FreeBSD/ The non-US securedist can be used as a direct replacement for the encumbered US securedist. This securedist package is installed the same way as the US package (see installation notes for details). If you are going to install DES encryption, you should do so as soon as possible, before installing other software. Non-US users should please not download any encryption software from the USA. This can get the maintainers of the sites from which the software is downloaded into severe legal difficulties. A non-US distribution of Kerberos is also being developed, and current versions can generally be obtained by anonymous FTP from braae.ru.ac.za. There is a mailing list for the discussion of non-US encryption software. For more information, send an email message with a single line saying ``help'' in the body of your message to . 2 Hardware compatibility ------------------------ 2.1: What kind of hard drives does FreeBSD run on? FreeBSD supports ST-506 (sometimes called ``MFM''), RLL, and ESDI drives, which are usually connected to WD-1002, WD-1003, or WD-1006 controllers (although clones should also work). FreeBSD also supports IDE and SCSI hard drives. 2.2: What SCSI controllers are supported? FreeBSD supports the following SCSI controllers: Adaptec AH-154x Series AH-174x Series AH-152x Series AH-2742/2842 Series AH-2820/2822/2825 Series Buslogic BT-445 Series (but see section 1.5) BT-545 Series BT-742 Series BT-747 Series BT-964 Series Future Domain TMC-950 Series PCI Generic NCR 53C810 based controllers ProAudioSpectrum Zilog 5380 based controllers SCSI-2 controllers Seagate ST-01/02 Series UltraStor UH-14f Series UH-34f Series 2.3: What CD-ROM drives are supported by FreeBSD? Any SCSI drive connected to a supported controller. Mitsumi LU002(8bit), LU005(16bit) and FX001D(16bit 2x Speed). NOTE: The Mitsumi IDE CD-ROMs are NOT supported. FreeBSD does NOT support drives connected to a Sound Blaster or non-SCSI SONY or Panasonic drives at this time. A general rule of thumb when selecting a CDROM drive for FreeBSD use is to buy a very standard SCSI model; they cost more, but deliver very solid performance in return. Do not be fooled by very cheap drives that, in turn, deliver VERY LOW performance! As always, you get what you pay for. FreeBSD also does not support any of the ``IDE'' CD-ROM interfaces. The Mitsumi driver is known to be extremely slow compared to SCSI drives. 2.4: What multi-port serial cards are supported by FreeBSD? AST/4 and BOCA 4/8/16 port cards. Some unnamed clone cards have also been known to work, especially those that claim to be AST compatible. Check the sio(4) man page to get more information on configuring such cards. 2.5: Does FreeBSD support the AHA-2742/2842 SCSI adapters from Adaptec? Yes, though portions of the sources are currently GPL'd (that is to say, distributed under the GNU Public License), so be aware of the fact should you wish to distribute kernel binaries compiled with it - you MUST also provide the sources to the driver with the kernel image to stay legal with the GPL! This is easily enough done by simply including the contents of /usr/src/sys/gnu/{aic7770,misc} on whatever media you distribute the kernel. We are working to get the GPL restriction removed, but for now you should at least be aware of it. NOTE: This support has been greatly upgraded in the lastest SNAP and current. 2.6: I have a Mumbleco bus mouse. Is it supported and if so, how do I set it up for XFree86? FreeBSD supports the Logitech and ATI Inport bus mice. You need to add the following line to the kernel config file and recompile for the Logitech and ATI mice: device mse0 at isa? port 0x23c tty irq6 vector mseintr 2.7: I have a PS/2 mouse (`keyboard' mouse) [Alternatively: I have a laptop with a track-ball mouse]. How do I use it? 2.8: What types of tape drives are supported under FreeBSD? FreeBSD supports SCSI, QIC-02 and QIC-40/80 (Floppy based) tape drives. This includes 8-mm (aka Exabyte) and DAT drives. 2.9: What sound cards are supported by FreeBSD? FreeBSD supports the SoundBlaster, SoundBlaster Pro, Pro Audio Spectrum 16, AdLib and Gravis UltraSound sound cards. There is also limited support for MPU-401 and compatible MIDI cards. The SoundBlaster 16 and SoundBlaster 16 ASP cards are not yet supported. NOTE: This is only for sound! This driver does not support CD-ROMs, SCSI or joysticks on these cards. 2.10: What network cards does FreeBSD support? There is support for the following cards: `ed' driver: NE2000 and 1000 WD/SMC 8003, 8013 and Elite Ultra (8216) 3Com 3c503 And clones of the above `de' driver: DEC and compatible PCI controllers. `le' driver: DEC LANCE ethernet based controllers. `ie' driver: AT&T EN100/StarLAN 10 3Com 3c507 `is' driver: Isolan AT 4141-0 Isolink 4110 `ep' driver: 3com 3c509 (*) `el' driver: 3com 3c501 (*) `ze' driver: IBM PCMCIA credit card adapter `lnc' driver: Unknown Lance based (*) Note: Drivers marked with (*) are known to have problems. Note: We also support TCP/IP over parallel lines. At this point we are incompatiable with other versions, but we hope to correct this in the near future. 2.11: I have a 386/486sx/486SLC machine without a math co-processor. Will this cause me any problems? Generally no, but there are circumstances where you will take a hit, either in performance or accuracy of the math emulation code (see section 4.1). In particular, drawing arcs in X will be VERY slow. It is highly recommended that you lay out the $50 or so for a math co-processor; it's well worth it. NOTE: Some math co-processors are better than others. It pains us to say it, but nobody ever got fired for buying Intel. Unless you're sure it works with FreeBSD, beware of clones. 2.12: What other devices does 2.X support? Here is a listing of drivers that do not fit into any of the above areas. b004.c Driver for B004 compatiable Transputer boards ctx.c Driver for CORTEX-I Frame grabber cx.c Driver for CRONYX-SIGMA sync/async serial board gpib.c Driver for National Instruments AT-GPIB and AT-GPIB/TNT boards pcaudio.c Driver for PC speakers to allow the playing of audio files tw.c Driver for the X-10 POWERHOUSE 2.13: I am about to buy a new machine to run FreeBSD on and want an idea of what other people are running. Is there list of other systems anywhere? Yes. Please look at the file Systems.FAQ. This file is a listing of hardware that people are running in their machines. Please note, this is a raw listing of equipment that other users have sent in, and does not constitute any kind of endorsement by the FreeBSD Project. 2.14: I have a lap-top with power management. Can FreeBSD take advantage of this? Yes it can on certain machines. Please look in the LINT kernel config file under APM. 3 Commercial Applications ------------------------- Note: This section is still very sparse, though we're hoping, of course, that companies will add to it! :) The FreeBSD group has no financial interest in any of the companies listed here but simply lists them as a public service (and feels that commercial interest in FreeBSD can have very positive effects on FreeBSD's long-term viability). We encourage commercial software vendors to send their entries here for inclusion. 3.1: Where can I get Motif for FreeBSD? You can purchase Motif 1.2.3 for FreeBSD (SWiM) from the ACC Bookstore, P.O. Box 3364, Westport CT. 06880. 1-800-546-7274 or FAX: 1-203-454-2582 This software works flawlessly for for FreeBSD 1.1.5 but has shown one problem with 2.0 in that the "uil" program core dumps. This is apparently because of the way uil is installed, and it's quite possible that ACC will have a fixed version by the time you read this. No other compatibility problems with the programs or libraries have been found, and ACC can hardly be blamed for failing to work perfectly with a brand-new release they haven't even seen yet! :) 3.2: Are there any commercial X servers for some of the high-end graphics cards like the Matrox or #9 I-128, or offering 8/16/24 bit deep pallettes? Yes, X Inside Incorporated sells their Accelerated-X product for FreeBSD and other Intel based systems. This high performance X Server offers easy configuration, support for multiple concurrent video boards and is distributed in binary form only. Price is $99.50 (promotional price for Linux/FreeBSD version) for the 1.1 version, which is available now. This product is for FreeBSD 1.1 and runs under 2.0 with the FreeBSD 1.1 compatibility libs (`compat1xdist'). More info: URL http://www.xinside.com/ or URL ftp://ftp.xinside.com/accelx/1.1/prodinfo.txt or email info@xinside.com or phone +1(303)384-9999 3.3: Any other applications I might be interested in? RenderMorphics, Ltd. sells a high-speed 3D rendering package for FreeBSD called "Reality Lab" (tm). Send email to info@render.com or call: +44(0)71-251-4411 / FAX: +44(0)71-251-0939 This package is also for FreeBSD 1.1.5 but has been tested and shown to run under FreeBSD 2.0 with the compat1xdist installed. Thanks must be extended to all of these companies for showing enough faith in FreeBSD to port their products to it. While we get no direct benefit from the sales of these products, the indirect benefits of FreeBSD proving itself to be a successful platform for such commercial interests will be immense! We wish these companies every measure of success, and can only hope that others are encouraged to follow suit. 4 User Applications ------------------- 4.1: I want to run X, how do I go about it? First, get the XFree86 distribution of X11R6 from XFree86.cdrom.com. The version you want for FreeBSD 2.X and later is XFree86 3.1.1. Follow the instructions for installation carefully. You may then wish to read the documentation for the ConfigXF86 tool, which assists you in configuring XFree86 for your particular graphics card/mouse/etc. You may also wish to investigate the Xaccel server, which is available at a very reasonable price. See section 3.2 for more details. 4.2: I've been trying to run ghostscript on a 386 (or 486sx) with no math co-processor and I keep getting errors. What's up? You will need to add the alternate math emulator to your kernel, you do this by adding the following to your kernel config file and it will be compiled in. options GPL_MATH_EMULATE NOTE: You will need to remove the MATH_EMULATE option when you do this. 4.2: I want all this neat software, but I haven't got the space or CPU power to compile it all myself. Is there any way of getting binaries? Yes. We support the concept of a `package', which is essentially a gzipped binary distribution with a little extra intelligence embedded in it for doing any custom installation work required. Packages can also be installed or deinstalled again easily without having to know the gory details. CDROM people will have a packages/ directory on their CD, others can get the currently available packages from: ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.ORG:pub/FreeBSD/packages Note that all ports may not be available as packages, and that new packages are constantly being added. It is always a good idea to check periodically to see which packages are available. A README file in the packages directory provides more details on the care and feeding of the package software, so no explicit details will be given here. 5 Miscellaneous Questions ---------------- 5.1: I've heard of something called FreeBSD-current. How do I run it, and where can I get more information? Read the file /usr/src/share/FAQ/FreeBSD.current.policy, it will tell you all you need to know. 5.2: What is this thing called `sup', and how do I use it? SUP stands for Software Update Protocol, and was developed by CMU for keeping their development trees in sync. We use it to keep remote sites in sync with our central development sources. To use it, you need to have direct internet connectivity (not just mail or news). First, pick up the sup_bin.tgz package from: ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.ORG:pub/FreeBSD/packages/sup_bin.tgz Second, read the file /usr/src/share/FAQ/FreeBSD.sup.faq. This file describes how to setup sup on your machine. You may also want to look at /usr/src/share/FAQ/FreeBSD.*.supfile, which are a set of supfiles for supping from FreeBSD.ORG. 5.3: How do I create customized installation disks that I can give out to other people at my site? The entire process of creating installation disks and source and binary archives is automated by various targets in /usr/src/etc/Makefile. The information there should be enough to get you started. 5.4: How do I re-build my system without clobbering the existing installed binaries? If you define the environment variable DESTDIR while running `make world' or `make install', the newly-created binaries will be deposited in a directory tree identical to the installed one, rooted at ${DESTDIR}. Some random combination of shared libraries modifications and program rebuilds can cause this to fail in `make world', however. 5.5: When my system booted, it told me that ``(bus speed defaulted)''. What does that mean? The Adaptec 1542 SCSI host adapters allow the user to configure their bus access speed in software. Previous versions of the 1542 driver tried to determine the fastest usable speed and set the adapter to that. We found that this breaks some users' systems, so you now have to define the ``TUNE_1542''' kernel configuration option in order to have this take place. Using it on those systems where it works may make your disks run faster, but on those systems where it doesn't, your data could be corrupted. 5.6: I would like to track changes to current and do not have net access. Is there any way besides downloading the whole tree? -Yes, Poul-Henning has set up a source tracking list. Please email -majordomo@ref.tfs.com with a body of "get ctm-src-cur README" for -futher information. +Yes, you can use the CTM facility. Check out the ctm.FAQ file or + ftp://freefall.cdrom.com/pub/CTM/README +for more information. 5.7: How do I split up large binary files into smaller 240k files like the distribution does? Newer BSD based systems have a "-b" option to split that allows them to split files on arbitary byte bondaries. Here is an example from /usr/src/Makefile. bin-tarball: (cd ${DISTDIR}; \ tar cf - . \ gzip --no-name -9 -c | \ split -b 240640 - \ ${RELEASEDIR}/tarballs/bindist/bin_tgz.) 5.8: I've had a couple of system panics and would like to be able browse the system dumps. The normal kernel is stripped and I don't want to run a bloated kernel. What can I do? 5.9: I just got a Perl application and it's bombing looking for *.ph. Where is it? There was a minor SNAFU in the 2.0-R bindist and they got left out. If you have the source, you just have to do a "make install" from /usr/src/gnu/usr.bin/perl/lib and everything will be fine. Or you may ftp to phoenix-gw.gbdata.com and grab them from ~/pub/perl/libs.tar.gz. 6 Kernel Configuration ---------------------- 6.0: Ok, so how DO I compile my own kernel, anyway? Before you can compile a kernel, you need either the complete srcdist or, at the minimum, the kerndist loaded on your system. This provides the necessary sources for building the kernel, as we have a policy of NOT shipping our kernels in linkable object form as most commercial UNIX vendors do. Shipping the source takes a bit more space, but it also means that you can refer to the actual kernel sources in case of difficulty or to further your understanding of what's *actually* happening. Anyway, to answer the question, once you have the kerndist or srcdist loaded, do this: 6.0.1: cd /usr/src/sys/i386/conf 6.0.2: cp GENERIC MYKERNEL 6.0.3: vi MYKERNEL 6.0.4: config MYKERNEL 6.0.5: cd ../../compile/MYKERNEL 6.0.6: make all 6.0.7: make install 6.0.8: reboot Step 6.0.2 may not be necessary if you already have a kernel configuration file from a previous release of FreeBSD 2.x. - simply bring your old one over and check it carefully for any drivers that may have changed boot syntax or been rendered obsolete. A good kernel config file to look into is LINT, which contains entries for *all* possible kernel options and documents them fairly well. The GENERIC kernel config file is used to build the initial release you probably loaded (unless you upgraded in-place) and contains entries for the most common configurations. It's a pretty good place to start from. If you don't need to make any changes to GENERIC, you can also skip step 6.0.3, where you customize the kernel for your configuration. Step 6.0.7 should only be undertaken if step 6.0.6 succeeds. This will copy the new kernel image to /kernel and BACK UP YOUR OLD ONE IN /kernel.old! It's very important to remember this in case the new kernel fails to work for some reason - you can still select /kernel.old at the boot prompt to boot the old one. When you reboot, the new kernel will boot by default. If the compile in 6.0.6 falls over for some reason, then it's recommended that you start from step 6.0.4 but substitute GENERIC for MYKERNEL. If you can generate a GENERIC kernel, then it's likely something in your special configuration file that's bad (or you've uncovered a bug!). If the build of the GENERIC kernel does NOT succeed, then it's very likely that your sources are somehow corrupted. Finally, if you need to see your original boot messages again to compile a new kernel that's better tailored to your hardware, try the `dmesg' command. It should print out all the boot-time messages printed by your old kernel, some of which may be quite helpful in configuring the new one. 6.1: When I compile a kernel with multi-port serial code, it tells me that only the first port is probed and the rest skipped due to interrupt conflicts. How do I fix this? The problem here is that FreeBSD has code built-in to keep the kernel from getting trashed due to hardware or software conflicts. The way to fix this is to leave out the IRQ settings on other ports besides the first. Here is a example: # # Multiport high-speed serial line - 16550 UARTS # device sio2 at isa? port 0x2a0 tty irq 5 flags 0x501 vector siointr device sio3 at isa? port 0x2a8 tty flags 0x501 vector siointr device sio4 at isa? port 0x2b0 tty flags 0x501 vector siointr device sio5 at isa? port 0x2b8 tty flags 0x501 vector siointr 6.2: FreeBSD is supposed to come with support for QIC-40/80 drives but when I look, I can't find it. You need to uncomment the following line in the generic config file (or add it to your config file) and recompile. controller fdc0 at isa? port "IO_FD1" bio irq 6 drq 2 vector fdintr disk fd0 at fdc0 drive 0 disk fd1 at fdc0 drive 1 #tape ft0 at fdc0 drive 2 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ You will have a device called /dev/ft0, which you can write to through a special program to manage it called `ft' - see the man page on ft for further details. Versions previous to -current also had some trouble dealing wiht bad tape media; if you have trouble where ft seems to go back and forth over the same spot, try grabbing the latest version of ft from /usr/src/sbin/ft in current and try that. 6.3: Does FreeBSD support IPC primitives like those in System V? Yes, FreeBSD supports System V-style IPC. This includes shared memory, messages and semaphores. You need to add the following lines to your kernel config to enable them. options SYSVSHM options "SHMMAXPGS=64" # 256Kb of sharable memory options SYSVSEM # enable for semaphores options SYSVMSG # enable for messaging Recompile and install. 6.4: Will FreeBSD ever support other architectures? Several different groups have expressed interest in working on multi-architecture support for FreeBSD. If you are interested in doing so, please contact the developers at for more information on our strategy for porting. 6.5: I just wrote a device driver for a Foobar Systems, Inc. Integrated Adaptive Gronkulator card. How do I get the appropriate major numbers assigned? This depends on whether or not you plan on making the driver publicly available. If you do, then please send us a copy of the driver source code, plus the appropriate modifications to files.i386, a sample configuration file entry, and the appropriate MAKEDEV code to create any special files your device uses. If you do not, or are unable to because of licensing restrictions, then character major number 32 and block major number 8 have been reserved specifically for this purpose; please use them. In any case, we'd appreciate hearing about your driver on . 7 System Administration ----------------------- 7.1: How do I add a user easily? I read the man page and am more confused than ever! [Alternatively: I didn't read the man page, I never read man pages! :-) ] Use the adduser command. 7.2: I'm trying to use my printer and keep running into problems. I tried looking at /etc/printcap, but it's close to useless. Any ideas? 8 Networking ------------ 8.2: I've heard that you can use a FreeBSD box as a dedicated network router - is there any easy support for this? Internet standards and good engineering practice prohibit us from providing packet forwarding by default in FreeBSD. You can enable this support by adding `options GATEWAY' to your kernel configuration file and recompiling. In most cases, you will also need to run a routing process to tell other systems on your network about your router; FreeBSD comes with the standard BSD routing daemon routed(8), or for more complex situations you may want to try GateD (available by FTP from gated.Cornell.edu) which supports FreeBSD as of 3_5Alpha7. It is our duty to warn you that, even when FreeBSD is configured in this way, it does not completely comply with the Internet standard requirements for routers; however, it comes close enough for ordinary usage. 8.3: Does FreeBSD support SLIP and PPP? Yes. See the man pages for slattach(8) and/or pppd(8) if you're using FreeBSD to connect to another site. If you're using FreeBSD as a server for other machines, look at the man page for sliplogin(8). You may also want to take a look at the slip FAQ in: /usr/src/share/FAQ/Slip.FAQ 8.4: How do I get my network set up? I don't see how to make my /dev/ed0 device! In the Berkeley networking framework, network interfaces are only directly accessible by kernel code. Please see the /etc/netstart file and the manual pages for the various network programs mentioned there for more information. If this leaves you totally confused, then you should pick up a book describing network administration on another BSD-related operating system; with few significant exceptions, administering networking on FreeBSD is basically the same as on SunOS 4.0 or Ultrix. 8.5: How do I get my 3C503 to use the other network port? Use `ifconfig ed0' to see whether the ALTPHYS flag is set, and then use either `ifconfig ed0 altphys' if it was off, or `ifconfig ed0 -altphys' if it was on. 8.6: I'm having problems with NFS to/from FreeBSD and my Wuffotronics Workstation / generic NFS appliance, where should I look first? Certain PC network cards are better than others (to put it mildly) and can sometimes cause problems with network intensive applications like NFS. See /usr/src/share/FAQ/NFS.FAQ for more information on this topic. 8.8: I want to enable IP multicast support on my FreeBSD box, how do I do it? [Alternatively: What the heck IS multicasting and what applications make use of it?] Multicast host operations are fully supported in FreeBSD 2.0 by default. If you want your box to run as a multicast router, you will need to load the ip_mroute_mod loadable kernel module and run mrouted. For more information: Product Description Where --------------- ----------------------- --------------------------------------- faq.txt Mbone FAQ ftp.isi.edu:/mbone/faq.txt imm/immserv IMage Multicast ftp.hawaii.edu:/paccom/imm.src.tar.Z for jpg/gif images. nv Network Video. ftp.parc.xerox.com: /pub/net-reseach/exp/nv3.3alpha.tar.Z vat LBL Visual Audio Tool. ftp.ee.lbl.gov: /conferencing/vat/i386-vat.tar.Z wb LBL White Board. ftp.ee.lbl.gov: /conferencing/wb/i386-wb.tar.Z mmcc MultiMedia Conference ftp.isi.edu: Control program /confctrl/mmcc/mmcc-intel.tar.Z rtpqual Tools for testing the ftp.psc.edu:/pub/net_tools/rtpqual.c quality of RTP packets. vat_nv_record Recording tools for vat ftp.sics.se:archive/vat_nv_record.tar.Z and nv. 9 Serial Communications ----------------------- NOTE: Anyone wishing to submit a FAQ entry on how to get tip and cu working would have it much appreciated! We all use Kermit over here! :-) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you see a problem with this FAQ, or wish to submit an entry, please mail us at . We appreciate your feedback, and cannot make this a better FAQ without your help! FreeBSD Core Team ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Gary Clark II - FreeBSD FAQ maintenance man (For one last time:)) Jordan Hubbard - Janitorial services (I don't do windows) Garrett Wollman - Networking and formatting Robert Oliver, Jr. - Ideas and dumb questions (That made me think) Ollivier Robert - Invaluable feedback and contributions Jim Lowe - Multicast information The FreeBSD Team - Kvetching, moaning, submitting data And to any others we've forgotten, apologies and heartfelt thanks! Index: head/share/FAQ/ctm.FAQ =================================================================== --- head/share/FAQ/ctm.FAQ (nonexistent) +++ head/share/FAQ/ctm.FAQ (revision 6759) @@ -0,0 +1,120 @@ +# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- +# "THE BEER-WARE LICENSE" (Revision 42): +# wrote this file. As long as you retain this notice you +# can do whatever you want with this stuff. If we meet some day, and you think +# this stuff is worth it, you can buy me a beer in return. Poul-Henning Kamp +# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- +# +# Mon Feb 27 00:06:22 PST 1995 +# + + Obtaining FreeBSD-current sources using CTM. + ============================================ + +CTM is a method to keep a remote directory-tree in sync with a central one. +It has been developed for FreeBSD usage, but other people might use it as +time goes by, but little if any documentations exists on this time on the +process of creating deltas. + + +Why should I use CTM ? +---------------------- +CTM will give you a local copy of the "FreeBSD-current" sources. +If you are an active developer on FreeBSD, but have lousy or non-existent +TCP/IP connectivity, CTM is made for you. +You will need to pick up up to four deltas per day (or you can have them +arrive in email automatically) and sizes are as small as we can do it: +typically less than 5K, one delta in ten is like 10-50K and every now and +then a biggie of 100K+ comes around. + +You need to make yourself aware of the caveats of following the "current" +sources, refer to the relevant FAQ for more info on that topic. + +Only if you have commit priviledge, or are similary authorized, can you get +access to the cvs tree by the same means. Contact phk@FreeBSD.org for that. + +What do I need to use CTM ? +--------------------------- +You need two things. The "ctm" program and the stuff to feed it. "ctm" is +in the FreeBSD-current tree from version 2.0.0 and forward. (src/usr.sbin/ctm) + +The "deltas" you feed ctm can be had two ways, ftp or email. + + +FTP-access: +----------- +The CTM-deltas can be found on the following sites: + + ftp://freefall.cdrom.com/pub/CTM + + +eMail-access: +------------- +Send email to majordomo@freebsd.org, subscribe to the list "ctm-src-cur". +Use the ctm_rmail program to unpack and apply the emails with. You can +actually use the ctm_rmail program directly from a entry in /etc/aliases +if you want. Check the "ctm_rmail" man page. + + +How to get started. +------------------- +You need to get up to speed. Every now and then I will produce a special +additional delta: a delta from nothing. You can recognize these in two +ways, the are large: 25 to 30 Megabytes gzip'ed, and they have an 'A' +appended to the number. (src-cur.0341A.gz for instance). You will also +need all deltas with higher numbers. + +Now working... +-------------- +To apply the deltas, simply say + + cd /where/ever/you/want/the/stuff + ctm -v -v /where/you/store/your/deltas/src-cur.* + +Unless it feels very secure about the entire thing, ctm will not touch +your tree. To check out a delta you can add a "-c", then ctm will never +touch you tree. + +There are other options to ctm as well, look in the sources. It's a +little bit confusing right now, but it will become better I hope. + +I would be very happy if somebody will help with the "user-interface" +part, as I have realized that I can't make up my mind on what options +should do what, how and when... + +ctm understands deltas which have been put through gzip, so you don't need +to gunzip them first. + +That's really all there is to it. Everytime you get a new delta, you +run it through ctm. + +Don't remove the deltas, if they are hard to download again. You just might +want to keep them around in case something bad happens. Even if you only have +floppy disks, consider using "fdwrite" to make a copy. + + +Plans: +------ +Tons of them. Don't forget to tell me what you want though... + + +Misc. stuff: +------------ +If you are a frequent or valuable contributor to FreeBSD, I will be willing +to arrange special services, one option is delivery via ftp or rcp to a +machine closer to you. You need to have earned this, since it takes time +to do, but I'll be all the more happy to do it for you then. + +Thanks! +------- +Bruce Evans, for his pointed pen and invaluable comments. +Soren Schmidt, for patience. +Stephen McKay, wrote ctm_[rs]mail, much appreceiated. +Jordan Hubbard, for being so stubborn that I had to make it better. +All the users, I hope you like it... + +Comments ? +---------- +email phk@FreeBSD.org + +Poul-Henning Property changes on: head/share/FAQ/ctm.FAQ ___________________________________________________________________ Added: svn:keywords ## -0,0 +1 ## +FreeBSD=%H \ No newline at end of property Index: head/share/FAQ/current-policy.FAQ =================================================================== --- head/share/FAQ/current-policy.FAQ (revision 6758) +++ head/share/FAQ/current-policy.FAQ (revision 6759) @@ -1,162 +1,170 @@ THE FREEBSD CURRENT POLICY -Last updated: $Date: 1994/09/11 10:56:05 $ +Last updated: $Date: 1994/10/03 03:48:39 $ This document attempts to explain the rationale behind FreeBSD-current, what you should expect should you decide to run it, and states some prerequisites for making sure the process goes as smoothly as possible. 1. What is FreeBSD-current? FreeBSD-current is, quite literally, nothing more than a daily snapshot of the working sources for FreeBSD. These include work in progress, experimental changes, and transitional mechanisms that may or may not be present in the next official release of the software. While many of us compile almost daily from FreeBSD-current sources, there are periods of time when the sources are literally uncompilable. These problems are generally resolved as expeditiously as possible, but whether or not FreeBSD-current sources bring disaster or greatly desired functionality can literally be a matter of which part of any given 24 hour period you grabbed them in! Please read on.. Under certain circumstances we will sometimes make binaries for parts of FreeBSD-current available, but only because we're interested in getting something tested, not because we're in the business of providing binary releases of current. If we don't offer, please don't ask! It takes far too much time to do this as a general task. 2. Who needs FreeBSD-current? FreeBSD-current is made generally available for 3 primary interest groups: 1. Members of the FreeBSD group who are actively working on one part or another of the source tree and for whom keeping `current' is an absolute requirement. 2. Members of the FreeBSD group who are active ALPHA/BETA testers and willing to spend time working through problems in order to ensure that FreeBSD-current remains as sane as possible. These are also people who wish to make topical suggestions on changes and the general direction of FreeBSD. 3. Peripheral members of the FreeBSD (or some other) group who merely wish to keep an eye on things and use the current sources for reference purposes (e.g. for *reading*, not running). These people also make the occasional comment or contribute code. 3. What is FreeBSD-current _NOT_? 1. A fast-track to getting pre-release bits because there's something you heard was pretty cool in there and you want to be the first on your block to have it. 2. A quick way of getting bug fixes. 3. In any way "officially supported" by us. We do our best to help people genuinely in one of the 3 "legitimate" FreeBSD-current catagories, but we simply DO NOT HAVE THE TIME to help every person who jumps into FreeBSD-current with more enthusiasm than knowledge of how to deal with experimental system software. This is not because we're mean and nasty people who don't like helping people out (we wouldn't even be doing FreeBSD if we were), it's literally because we can't answer 400 messages a day AND actually work on FreeBSD! I'm sure if given the choice between having us answer lots of questions or continue to improve FreeBSD, most of you would vote for us improving it (and so would we! :-). 4. Ok. I still think I "qualify" for FreeBSD-current, so what do I do? 1. Join the freebsd-hackers and freebsd-commit mailing lists. This is not just a good idea, it's ESSENTIAL. If you aren't on freebsd-hackers, you won't read the comments that people are making about the current state of the system and thus will end up stumbling over a lot of problems that others have already found and solved. Even more importantly, you will miss out on potentially critical information (e.g. "Yo, Everybody! Before you rebuild /usr/src, you MUST rebuild the kernel or your system will crash horribly!"). The freebsd-commit list will allow you to see the commit log entry for each change as its made. This can also contain important information, and will let you know what parts of the system are being actively changed. To join these lists, send mail to `majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG' and say: subscribe freebsd-hackers subscribe freebsd-commit In the body of your message. Optionally, you can also say `help' and MajorDomo will send you full help on how to subscribe and unsubscribe to the various other mailing lists we support. 2. Grab the sources from ftp.FreeBSD.ORG. You can do this in - two ways: + three ways: - 1. Use the CMU `sup' program (Software Update Protocol). - This is the most recommended method, since it allows you - to grab the entire collection once and then only what's + 1. Using the CTM facility. Read the ctm.FAQ file for more + information. Unless you have a good TCP/IP connection at + a flat rate, this is the way to do it. + + 2. Use the CMU `sup' program (Software Update Protocol). + This is the second most recommended method, since it allows + you to grab the entire collection once and then only what's changed from then on. Many people run sup from cron and keep their sources up-to-date automatically. + The problem is that sup does not use the bandwidth efficient, + unless the round-trip is very fast. If the cost of connection + or the duration of the session is a concern, use CTM. + To get a binary of the sup program for FreeBSD, as well as the documentation and some sample configuration files, look in: FreeBSD.ORG:~ftp/pub/sup - 2. Use ftp. The source tree for FreeBSD-current is always + 3. Use ftp. The source tree for FreeBSD-current is always "exported" on: ftp.FreeBSD.ORG:~ftp/pub/FreeBSD/FreeBSD-current We use `wu-ftpd' which allows compressed/tar'd grabbing of whole trees. e.g. you see: usr.bin/lex You can do: ftp> cd usr.bin ftp> get lex.tar.Z And it will get the whole directory for you as a compressed tar file. - 3. If you're grabbing the sources to run, and not just look at, - then grab ALL of current, not just selected portions. The - reason for this is that various parts of the source depend on - updates elsewhere and trying to compile just a subset is almost - guaranteed to get you into trouble. + 3. If you're grabbing the sources to run, and not just look at, + then grab ALL of current, not just selected portions. The + reason for this is that various parts of the source depend on + updates elsewhere and trying to compile just a subset is almost + guaranteed to get you into trouble. - 4. Before compiling current, read the Makefile in /usr/src - carefully. You'll see one-time targets like `bootstrapld' - which *MUST* be run as part of the upgrading process. Reading - freebsd-hackers will keep you up-to-date on other bootstrapping - procedures that sometimes become necessary as we move towards - the next release. + 4. Before compiling current, read the Makefile in /usr/src + carefully. You'll see one-time targets like `bootstrapld' + which *MUST* be run as part of the upgrading process. Reading + freebsd-hackers will keep you up-to-date on other bootstrapping + procedures that sometimes become necessary as we move towards + the next release. - 5. Be active! If you're running FreeBSD-current, we want to know - what you have to say about it, especially if you have suggestions - for enhancements or bug fixes. Suggestions with accompanying code - are received most enthusiastically! :-) + 5. Be active! If you're running FreeBSD-current, we want to know + what you have to say about it, especially if you have suggestions + for enhancements or bug fixes. Suggestions with accompanying code + are received most enthusiastically! :-) Thank you for taking the time to read this all the way through. We're always very keen to remain "open" and share the fruits of our labor with the widest possible audience, but sharing development sources has always had certain pitfalls associated with it (which is why most commercial organizations won't even consider it) and I want to make sure that people at least come into this with their eyes open, and don't make the leap unless they're good at working without a net! Jordan