Freebsd. An Installation Report An attempt to document live freeBSD installation

I need hosting. Well, how to get those golden points? Hope you wouldn’t mind if I tell my FreeBSD story.A little foreword. I’m working in a pure MS shop, where Open Source is big NO-NO. Nevertheless I have a small test-bed LAN where I can test whatever I think is appropriate. Lately not the latest and greatest but quite decent server has been decommissioned. I had been using Debian Linux workstation already for quite a while, so I’ve decided to setup a Debian Linux server into W2k3 LAN. Honestly, I don’t like to give up, but this time I had to. The machine is HP Netserver LH3000 U3. The older Debian distribution version (Called woody) installs base system but does not recognize NIC, so I could not connect to mirror site to continue installation. The newer stable version completely refuses to recognize NetRAID controller and does not go even as far as the base system. Describing everything what I’ve tried would be way too long, so just the result. I’ve given up. What’s next to try? The criteria was that it should be not as huge as Debian (The whole distro is 14 CDs), and it should be somewhere nearby so that it would not take me forever to download. It turned out to be FreeBSD.Hope you would not mind if I continue later on….

Carry on - installation adventures are always fun to read about - and you never know who it might help in similar problems in future. Also do post back any problems that you faced and actually managed to solve it on your own, along with HOW YOU DID IT. Simply keep posting original stuff and you'd have your golden points in no time.

OMG YOU STOPPED THE THE MOST CLIFFHANGER MOMENT EVER! AAAH!~Hehe, I'll assume freeBSD worked But yea I know I wanted to try debian out once but I couldn't bring myself to care enough to download/burn all the install media when there were comaprable distro's out there on 1 cd and just download the rest as you need it heh.Where I work currently I also had toruble getting linux onto my box as it's a temporarily unused Dell Poweredge server and the sata raid was incompatible with the base installers for a couple distro's we tried (we don't have the documentation for the actual type of raid controller so coulnd't even try loading drivers for it) Finally ubuntu managed to handle it on its own so thats where my story ends haha. Make sure to finish yours so In know if the poor old server ever got to be alive again

kool, but have you tried other distributions like Fedora, Ubuntu or SuSE? They're stable and usually support all NIC. Also, Debian (older versions) are all 2.4.x based and they may not have the drivers for your NIC.Usually, if Linux don't have drivers for 'em, I don't think FreeBSD would.xboxrulz

OK, show goes on...
I went to https://www.freebsd.org/, spent some time looking around, reading to make sure I know what I'm doing. Though quite a few questions, it did not look too scary, so I went to http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ and grabbed all three disk images (ISOs ) of FreeBSD6.0, which was the latest at that time. One for basic system and network install, and two for complete distribution (Doesn't it seem, well... a little bit too light-weight comparing to 14 CDs Debian distribution?) just in case network install does not work. Burned CDs on my Debian machine. Then I have opened FreeBSD handbook as a single file from http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/, saved it to the local disk and hit Print. (This has been the first rake I've stepped on. For those who wonders how rakes are related to the subject you might wish to check up the thread at http://forums.xisto.com/topic/88591-topic/?findpost=1064337135 for explanation. The HandBook turned out to be 1300 plus pages, took several hours to print out on an HP DeskJet, has eaten month's supply of paper and cartridges). Everything seems ready to commence the installation. Popped Network Install CD into the retired guy, reboot. Carefully reading prompts, suggestions and handbook and mainly accepting defaults has completed base system installation in about twenty min, another 15 min for initial configuration like creating a user. Another reboot and here you are, welcome, please login. Too good to be true. Nevertheless, I'm logging-in as root. It works. Running some basic commands like ls and ps, works. What about something more complicated? Starting GNOME? Works. KDE? Works, got this beautifull masterpice of GUI design. Unbelievable. Happy end? Well, I'll tell you next time

kool, I was about to suggest you DesktopBSD/PCBSD.xboxrulz

The HandBook turned out to be 1300 plus pages, took several hours to print out on an HP DeskJet, has eaten month's supply of paper and cartridges).

You actually took such a massive print?

Wouldn't it have been cheaper to have referred to it in another computer or maybe a laptop even?

Happy end? Well, I'll tell you next time

I sure hope so. This is turning out to be quite an interesting read. Hehe ... maybe you should call this "The Chronicles of aciminsk" .

kool, I was about to suggest you DesktopBSD/PCBSD.
xboxrulz

May be later on. When the saga is over

You actually took such a massive print?
Wouldn't it have been cheaper to have referred to it in another computer or maybe a laptop even?
I sure hope so. This is turning out to be quite an interesting read. Hehe ... maybe you should call this "The Chronicles of aciminsk" .

Yeah, know it's foollish. But sometimes could not resist doing foollish things

Yeah, know it's foollish. But sometimes could not resist doing foollish things

Hehe ... I hear ya. Happens to the best of us sometimes .

So, where did I leave?Yeah, about happy end... Not yet. I have to use the server for something. So, let's add some useful stuff and do a test web server. Easy.#pkg_add -r mcAnd you have Midnight commander.#mcWorks, great...#pkg_add -r mysqlA little bit of humming, installed.#cd /user/local/bin#mysql_safe --user=mysql &No error messages#ps -ax | grep mysqlLists mysql daemon running. Great#mysqladmin -u root statusStatistics displayed. CoolLet's do Apache#pkg_add -r apache2Brake for a smoke, done#/usr/local/sbin/httpd -k startNo error messages. Good#ps -ax | grep httpdapache daemon running. Go to my Debian machine, open Mozilla, type in URL192.xxx.xxx.xxxGet this lovely Apache feather. Think that I'm probably not that bad in BSDDo PHP. Go back to the server...#pkg_add -r phpYees, done#vi test.phpmake this little test file<?php phpinfo()?>Save it to the apache document root. Go back to my Mozilla, type in192.xxx.xxx.xxx/test.phpHere you are. I'm php info page, I'm here....One might say that it just could not be that easy and fast. Yeah, but who cares about those little shadows during the happy hour?Well, enough for today.Still to be continued if you do not mind...

Haha maaan you know how to weave a story... everytime I check this post its like "here is a small piece of the puzzle, but wait awhile before I give you the rest" hehe. Keeps me commin back for more tho B)Glad to see it went fairly smoothly up until this point at least. Maybe after you are done with it you can have a bonfire with the install docs haha :|

Haha maaan you know how to weave a story... everytime I check this post its like "here is a small piece of the puzzle, but wait awhile before I give you the rest" hehe. Keeps me commin back for more tho
Glad to see it went fairly smoothly up until this point at least. Maybe after you are done with it you can have a bonfire with the install docs haha :|

I better keep it at my desk to impress whoever comes (the boss especially)

Well, the story of success seems to become a little bit boring. So, to wrap it up, a final touch. When the feet started to feel mileage of running between server and workstation, I’ve configured ssh (Secure Shell). Men, I was impressed. Add terminal Server Client for W2K3, and you can access W2K3 and BSD servers from the comfort of your armchair… Cool!Next time I'll start discovering the rakes....

lol. So this FreeBSD installation is for your server, i assume?xboxrulz

lol. So this FreeBSD installation is for your server, i assume?
xboxrulz

Yes, decommissioned HP Netserver LH3000u. (Huge box btw) I have mentioned it somewhere at the beginning

As you might have guessed, it's not the end of the whole story. What would be better, continue it here or start a new thread?