Date: Tue, 1 Aug 2000 14:31:33 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jason C. Wells" <jcwells@nwlink.com> To: Mark Thornton <mark@corridor.net> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Problem installing... Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.96.1000801135704.16365A-100000@utah> In-Reply-To: <010e01bffbed$d88cf2c0$04d05a3f@corridor.net>
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On Tue, 1 Aug 2000, Mark Thornton wrote: > If the stable version of the OS isn't enerally available then what is the > point A stable version is available IAW the links I sent you. > I don't want a release, I want stable. And BTW, any release is not an unstable version. In fact, any given release is merely a code freeze of the stable branch with a stamp of approval from the release engineer. > This is for a production machine. If there is a process to move from > release to stable then that's fine too, but the docs do not say > explicitly how to do it. In fact the docs are very wishy washy on the > whole install thing. http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/cutting-edge.html Did you start here? Read the entire chapter #18. If you can't make sense of it then -stable is probably not for you. > That is very disappointing to me in that everything else in my exposure > to FreeBSD has been very well documented and stable. The OS was > preinstalled as 3.2-STABLE on a machine I purchased that was running a > particular application. Perhaps this is the source of confusion. Stable is _NOT_ a release. Stable is a development branch. You saw it as pre-installed. In most cases folks won't know of stable's existence until they have been using FreeBSD for a while. As I said, stable is an advanced topic. In deciding to run stable you skipped volumes of tribal wisdom and concluded that the whole mess was confusing. Let's start over! At any given moment in time the -stable source code changes. As a result, none of the infrastructure that surrounds a numbered release exists. There are no -stable install floppies. There are no -stable ISOs. 4.1-STABLE on one day may be different from 4.1-STABLE on another day. One does not _install_ -stable per se. One tracks the -stable delopment branch using CVSup. Then one chooses to build world at an opportune moment. You will find documents that refer to this as "staying stable". > To upgrade the app I need to upgrade the OS first. This is the only unix > type system that I have had any luck at all with stability. The system > is in fact a dual boot to FreeBSD or Linux. The vendor keeps providing > Linux fixes, but everytime I run in Linux mode I get kernel panics, but > the FreeBSD has never crashed. Cool! I am glad you have had success with FreeBSD. > I want to learn how to install/upgrade it and begin to replace my buggy > Linux machines. Start tracking -stable and you will learn exactly this. > I guess I'm just frustrated. I've grown weary of the Linux know-nothings who > peddle other peoples work with no support and bad docs. I am hoping for much > better with FreeBSD because it seems to be supported by a much more > professional group of people. You have to read the links that I sent you. This is really a training issue. The docs are there. The docs work. The docs also provide reading beyond the simple "do this, do that". They explain the why's and what's too. That stuff is important. Stable is not for the timid or the novice. That is why you see no mention of it in the install docs. (Remember, you don't install stable, you track it.) If you read Chapter 18 in the handbook and you still are left wanting, then send a specific question _to the list_ and I am sure someone will help. Hope this helps, Jason C. Wells To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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