Linux User Needs Help Learning Freebsd

[qwijibow 0]

Recently, i decided that FreeBSD was somthing i wasnted to be able to say i could use, and afdmin comfortably.I was reading several comparasons between GNU/Linux (what i currently use) and f'BSD.Apart from the differences in the Licences, and they way they were developed, and of cource the history, they were very very similar.Ive used and become comfortable with several Linux distro's inclusing Linux From Scratch, Slackware, Gentoo Mandrake, Fedora/Redhat, and maybe a few others, LOL.After becomming comfortable with linux, i started university, where i used SUN's UNIX (Called Solaris)This was easy, I didnt even have to think, my brain stayed in linux mode, and i successfully used solaris UNIX just fine.I wrongly asumed the same would be true for Free BSD UNIX.I downloaded the install CD's for FreeBSD 5.4.Upon choosing what packages to use, i selected The defaults for a USER + X (normal desktop machione with graphical interfaces)I also, selected to use the BSD boot loader on MBR (replacing GRUB)So i was left with a dual booting system, Gentoo GNU/LINUX and FreeBSD.I booted FreeBSD and found myself completely lost.X couldnt start, i found the config file, and tried to open it for editing...nano (not installed)emacs (not installed)vim (not installed)vi (not installed)and completely alien to the package management system, i did not know how to install them.i tried Xorgconfig, which provided the familiar config tool, but i became completely lost again trying to find the device node of my USB mouse...maybe the driver wasnt loaded?oops, the drivers are named differently to Linux....i dont know if usb drivers were loaded, nor how to load more, nor what there are called to load in the first place.without a web browser i couldnt find any online documentation.the man pages helped a little, but not enough.to make things worse, although the FreeBSD loader found my linux partitons, it didnt know how to boot it, and i didnt know how to configure it.Then i did wht i always moan at Linux Newbies for doing... running back to the safe and familiar.. ahhhh get a bg hug from Larry the cow, and Tux the penguin, and GU the.. um... that is that thing ? a moose ? LOLIt seems i need more help getting started with FreeBSD.Are there any guides / tutorials specifically written for GNU/Linux users on learning FreeBSD ?thanks.I doubt ill find a OS i like more that GNU/Linux Gentoo... but if i dont try, ill never know, maybe im a BSD enthusiats who just doesnt know it yet.

[madcrow 0]

Yipes. I'm glad that I surpressed the urge to try out FreeBSD on an older computer. It sounds like Linux is much more user-friendly.

[optykal 0]

Hey there!

I'm kinda in the same boat here. I have worked with many linux disros and also with Solaris (which I still use at uni! hehe! -most people dont know its still on there!) I'm pretty sure for uni this semester I have to play around with BSD UNIX.

I haven't installed it yet but I have had a look around at some places for some info on how to set it up correctly and know what to do if it craps out. Not that that really matters too much, destroying kernels and the like is part of the learning experience! (I'm still trying to decide wether it is worth the bother of downloading it now or waiting to snatch if off a friend.)

Anyway, I found this DIRECTORY which contains a fair whack of docs and the like for freeBSD. If you check it out, there is an article in there somewhere for new BSD and linux users on how to set-up and run freeBSD. The exact link for this article is HERE if you want to check that out.

A lot of the stuff is totally for noobs but there are some other little things which sounded interesting. Anyway, if you do find some stuff on freeBSD that you found helpful, it would be cool if you could post it, I'm sure not only myself would benefit from it!

Hope that link provides any help. Either way, if you google stuff, there tends to be a lot of results that come up, wether or not any of it is helpful is another story!

[hatim 0]

the choice of OS all depends on waht you want to do. Some of my SystemAdmin freinds find FreeBSD to be more stable and secure for Mid-High volume servers.Linux is good..cause it works good. It may not be the most technically sound OS on the drawing board. Gentoo is great but it is not the ideal solution for Enterprise or more than 2-3 stations IMO. Although i read that its catching up with devel team at IBM and most of mozilla project uses gentoo.If you want to give some other OSes a try i would recomend cherryOS and AmigaOS. I have done some reading on them and havent tried them my self ..Tell us how you find them if you try them out.cheers

[qwijibow 0]

Ahhh Amiga OS.The first Disk operating system i had (DOS, not to be confused with anything whatsoever to do with microsoft) was Amiga Workbench 3.1(before that i had a ZX spectrum, but that wasnt much of an OS, just an interpreter you could use for scripting, and poking machine code into memory, lol.)Those tutorials are more about using UNIX.I know how to use UNIX, i dont know how to use the BSD kernel or package management.for example, i wouldnt have to think twice in linux to load absend usb mouse drivers...modporbe usbcore ohci_hcd ehci_hcd usb_hidand linux kernel would place the device node at /dev/input/mouse1 (or mouse0 if the ps2 mouse driver was omitted or not loaded)but i wouldnt know what drivers to load in BSD kernel, nor how to load them, nor where the kernel would place the device node.also, i lothe sh. and bash doesnt seem to be installed by default in BSD.i need info on the package management systems, and the kernel.google rpovids loads of info on how to use UNIX, but not much on the BSD kernel / package management.thanks anyways.

[the empty calorie 0]

Well, I've actually had pretty good luck with OpenBSD...much simpler than Linux to me. And according to your post...it's a bit surprising, ad I've always heard that OpenBSD is the least friendly BSD, and blah, but I didn't have near as much trouble as that with OpenBSD. X started just fine out of the box and everything. Maybe you might want to try that out? And as for the BSD bootloader....I still haven't been able to correctly use that thing. If I want to boot my second hard drive (running BeOS VIMBA), then it won't let me... I'm noticing all this "funny behaviour" in Debian GNU/Linux as opposed to OpenBSD of before...Well, good luck, and if f'BSD keeps at it, o'BSD might be a lot nicer to you.

[badinfluence 0]

i still left grub to boot and dont choose overwrite the current MBR. during FreeBSD sysinstall, when asking boot loader, i just choose option 3 "don't touch the current boot loader". Later goto linux /boot/menu.lst and just simply add these

title FreeBSD 5.4 root (hd0,3,a)kernel /boot/loader

for X, i install the package from sysinstall first then i configure as follow

# Xorg -configure# Xorg -config xorg.conf.new

black dot screen come out and check whether curosr X working and if everything okay go back to shell by Crtl+Alt+Backspace
(you may see some error but as long as you see the black dot screen and your mouse is moving then it okay)

and copy the config file by

# cp xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf

now if you startx, may be go in to window manager if you installed.
if not, install Gnome or KDE from sysinstall first and after that update this

GNOME

echo "/usr/X11R6/bin/gnome-session" > ~/.xinitrc

or

KDE

echo "exec startkde" > ~/.xinitrc

and just startx!!

reference article:
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

[iGuest 3]

Hello.

About editor. Try using ee - easy editor. It's really easy-to-use and is installed in any standart configuration of FreeBSD. I myself like vim, you can install it in the end of setup process, as an additional package. All other useful software can be installed on that stage, like perl, php, emacs, apache, bc, gcc, bash and other, to wich linux users are used to. Simply the installation process as divided into installation of main system and additional packages. It seems more convinient for me, but you may not agree. Later on you can install those packages using pkg_add at any time.

Talking about the docs, in process of learning FreeBSD for an advanced UNIX user I find most helpful FreeBSD Handbook. It will simply show you how is this or that thing done in FreeBSD. Generally, I find *BSD systems, aspecially OpenBSD better documentated that linux. Linux is quickly-developed system, so there are a lot of undocumented, or bad documented features. That isn't so in *BSD.

Once you have mastered FreeBSD, it will be much easier for you to migrate on OpenBSD, wich I count as the best UNIX like operating system I've ever used, and I've used lots of them: starting from original MULTICS, AT&T UNIX, BSD, Solaris, HPUX to different linux & *BSD, like OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, DragonflyBSD, BSDi, theSDB, myBSD and so on.

OpenBSD team considers security, clear strinct code and documentation most essential. When a bug is found in a code wich was inherited by all UNIX-like systems, starting from SYSV, you can be almost sure that openbsd team has removed it from it's code years ago. As they say: "Only one remote hole in the default install, in more than 8 years!", and it is true. I have been working on development of such OS's like SuSE Linux and Free/NetBSD (a lot of code is used in both of them), then I've started coding for OpenBSD project. I can say that I like the stuff very much - this are people, who work for idea, not for money, as other developers (yes, linux & freebsd too).

Also, talking about the documentation, a mistake in it is treated as a big hole and is removed within 12 hours after it was found. There are a lot of guides, specialized on almost every potic you can be interested in.

But, I must warn you - it's only for experiensed users, most likely programmers and/or system administrators. If you ask a question, you have to know where to ask it - by all means, not in the kernel developers mailing list, if you are asking about installation process! Developers aren't interested in finding new users, they know, for whom they are doing all that - for thamselves! But they will always help you.

If you want a powerfull, secure by default system - then OpenBSD is your choice. FreeBSD is a bit easier to use, but not so much, that it would cost all OpenBSD security.

Listen, guys, don't think am offtoping, I just want you not to waste the time and try the thing that is really better.