From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Apr 23 12:37:01 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B56BB16A4CE for ; Fri, 23 Apr 2004 12:37:01 -0700 (PDT) Received: from gamera.svk.isite.net (mail.isite.net [205.217.158.16]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 927FD43D45 for ; Fri, 23 Apr 2004 12:37:01 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from jrhett@isite.net) Received: from anubis.svk.isite.net (anubis.svk.isite.net [205.217.158.5]) by gamera.svk.isite.net (8.12.10/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i3NJb1qa025867 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA bits=168 verify=NO) for ; Fri, 23 Apr 2004 12:37:01 -0700 (PDT) Received: from anubis.svk.isite.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) i3NJb10G008757 for ; Fri, 23 Apr 2004 12:37:01 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from jrhett@localhost)i3NJb0ln008756 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Fri, 23 Apr 2004 12:37:00 -0700 (PDT) Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 12:37:00 -0700 From: Joe Rhett To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20040423193700.GA5329@isite.net> Mail-Followup-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2i Organization: Isite Services, Inc. Subject: Items missing from the handbook and/or FAQs. X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 19:37:01 -0000 Sorry, it's been quite a while since I've played with FreeBSD and some things are taking a while to get used to. The configuration system has come a long way... but the documentation seems to be lacking a bit. This is a quick list of items that I had to struggle through without references from the documentation. I have figured most of them out from reading through the rc and init scripts, but that's hardly an easy way to handle this. version: 4.9-stable installed from ISO images. hardware: Sony VAIO PCG-F350 (not relevant, because I have no hardware issues...) 1. How to disable ppp ? The handbook has lots of information on how to configure it. Apparently I chose to enable it during install (I don't remember this) and I'm trying to get rid of the ppp0 and sl0 interfaces. The answer was to copy related parameters from /etc/defaults/rc.conf to /etc/rc.conf and change them. (The handbook actually does say "modify rc.conf" but it doesn't say what items should be modified!) 2. How to configure a wireless card? If you're coming from any other unixy OS, you're going to be looking for iwconfig and relatives. Just a note somewhere that all wireless configuration is handled through ifconfig would have saved me some time. Also a note to create /etc/start_if.{ifname} to put the wireless options in would also have saved me reading through the rc scripts. I asusme that's a general case for all interfaces, but it could bear repeating in the wireless documentation. (when there is some...) 3. Choosing filesystem types During setup you can create filesystems other than FreeBSD, but you are supposed to magickally know their filesystem type numbers. The setup documenation and the fdisk tools only tell you the filesystem numbers for freebsd, linux and dos. An option to get a list would be nice. Documentation of the filesystem types would be nice too. (I had to use fdisk on a linux system to get the filesystem numbers I needed) 4. Why is xdm still listed as the way to set up X? Okay, I'm certain that a bunch of people will respond to tell me that gnome and kde are evil and should be destroyed, but the vast majority of people are expecting modern graphical interfaces. Suggestion: put a gdm configuration script there right next to the xdm configuration. The people who love twm know what to do to make it happy. Forcing people who aren't in love with twm and startx to hack at and make their own gdm startup scripts doesn't make much sense. (yes, there is an example gdm startup script, but it won't work be default and you have to search for it, edit it, move it to the proper directory, etc....) 5. Why doesn't the gdm package set up the gdm user? Running gdm fails because of the lack of a gdm user. Why isn't this handled by the package installation script? LEFTOVER: There's a few things I'm still hacking at and haven't solved yet. I'll probably figure these out in the next few hours, but anyone who wants to clue-by-four me would be appreciated. 1. How to put DHCP on the wireless card? I still haven't figured this out. I run dhclient on the interface by hand after every reboot and it works fine, but I'm assuming there is some standard method of telling the system that wi0 should be a dhcp-managed, right? 2. What is interface faith0 ? It took a ridiculous amount of searching to determine that faith0 was an ipv4 -> ipv6 interface. And I can find nothing about how to disable it. (and if you say compile a new kernel and make world, excuse me while I puke) -- Joe Rhett Chief Geek JRhett@Isite.Net Isite Services, Inc.