From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Oct 26 01:51:38 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 93ABC106566C for ; Tue, 26 Oct 2010 01:51:38 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from amvandemore@gmail.com) Received: from mail-fx0-f54.google.com (mail-fx0-f54.google.com [209.85.161.54]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 19B068FC13 for ; Tue, 26 Oct 2010 01:51:37 +0000 (UTC) Received: by fxm17 with SMTP id 17so3599052fxm.13 for ; Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:51:37 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:received:in-reply-to :references:date:message-id:subject:from:to:cc:content-type; bh=wmmlO1fimNL23PNefDri4PGD2D5enKVx3VL1nC3wEU0=; b=FZvuT3QEGTwZBn680/CJGnKAnazX0MdOSOHn9NsWKqQlGj24PXT2NT6/nlLSKpxnrj ZAD6ZDMf8y2kBZJPkiWr9wK4Sx0l6Qze9oPVZ+0QKFwA0zXLpGoU9I8eb2ZR5FtN1v9T 5tcEYLQ4SGH8Cn6yUukBtGjVwoyjKgzDxwuKI= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type; b=GlTumCaugCAZ9yZAHk9uc3YexsPv0rkDHC+nFVIo1OJwh+6XUHMq7mZEr8RPN3Azu5 1Ck2w4QKM5VYX+lKx0hRqEaf8U6uhEU/h+XgSC0H2pKrkFGsyz3WtFqrFESRfO9AXFOO o4qIdOe1AvuITPNWtDFvNV+UTyMIKSeYmd9b0= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.223.86.76 with SMTP id r12mr289866fal.86.1288057896912; Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:51:36 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.223.108.194 with HTTP; Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:51:36 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <4CC61FF7.9050605@centurytel.net> References: <4CC61FF7.9050605@centurytel.net> Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2010 20:51:36 -0500 Message-ID: From: Adam Vande More To: "Michael D. Norwick" Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD 8.1-RELEASE Installation success X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2010 01:51:38 -0000 On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 7:25 PM, Michael D. Norwick wrote: > Good Day; > > It is with some pleasure that I have finally succeeded in building an > operative workstation with a custom kernel and world, Xorg 1.7.5, > KDE4-4.5.2 from ports, most common network applications as well as Firefox3, > and Thunderbird 3.1.5. The machine is an older Dell GX270 P4 2.4 GHz PC > with 3G of ram and an ATI Radeon video adapter. > This install has not been without it's trials. > 4 weeks ago I backed up all my data and reformatted from Debian 'lenny' to > GPT/ZFS/8.1-RELEASE. The next two weeks did not go so well. While I tried > hard to get ZFS formatted drives to work reliably, intermittent unexplained > core dumps with reboots gave me cause for concern. I finally reinstalled > msdos boot records and formatted the drives UFS. That install has lasted 2 > more weeks. I liked ZFS v14 and would like to try it again when I get more > current hardware with more ram and SATA drives. > My next challenge was building KDE4, Firefox, and Thunderbird from ports. > KDE4 and friends (QT4) took days on this machine to build, install and > setup. I initially installed the ports tree using portsnap but was having > so much trouble building the mozilla stuff from ports I moved to cvsup and > portupgrade. This is also what I used to install the kernel and base source > tree. Several iterations of make - clean and deinstall/reinstall along with > cvsup'ing ports a couple of times finally got me to a working browser and > mail client. > I have had a time getting Flash working with Firefox. I have not yet got > the plugin working in Firefox but Opera, using linux-f10 allows my kids view > their on-line home school lessons. Audio was somewhat of a challenge to get > sound from an AC97 on-board audio chipset. snd_hda was the module that > eventually provided the needed audio driver for this chipset. I think I > forgot what configuring this stuff was like during my 'hamm', 'bo', and > 'slink', debian days. > > My thanks to the entire FreeBSD/KDE development team on allowing me to > experience the fruit of their efforts. I still like turning the knobs > myself. I'll keep reading the manuals. :) > >From a clean install: portsnap fetch extract cd /usr/ports/ports-mgmt/portmaster make install clean && rehash portmaster -d x11-servers/xorg-server x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard x11-drivers/{YOUR VIDEO DRIVER PORT} -- (Could also use the nvidia binary.) echo 'dbus_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf echo 'hald_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf Follow handbook entries on sound, browser, and any other items . Flashblock makes flash much more bearable and it's not very intrusive like noscript. Time spent on this method is considerable especially with slow hardware, but you have a nice updated system and the build process is quite reliable IME. 99% of the time is spent in compiling, there is very little to 0 time spent in troubleshooting if you are practiced in the area. Upgrading an existing install is another matter entirely, on fast hardware I prefer to clean out all installed packages and start from scratch. -- Adam Vande More