From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon May 9 01:21:12 2011 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 4C2AE106564A for ; Mon, 9 May 2011 01:21:12 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from noeldude@gmail.com) Received: from mail-iy0-f182.google.com (mail-iy0-f182.google.com [209.85.210.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 138438FC1D for ; Mon, 9 May 2011 01:21:11 +0000 (UTC) Received: by iyj12 with SMTP id 12so5650014iyj.13 for ; Sun, 08 May 2011 18:21:11 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:message-id:date:from:user-agent:mime-version:to :subject:references:in-reply-to:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; bh=zu6IVYiLbqTf5ZcWCI5+MDJh4gSVFMCcTgByLZtBUZU=; b=c2QVPUkxZ5ENEIihFEtvtGJmvGsGeFldRDvTLZJXVmwQkr4Js3jn9gdaVJSgBEO03L NQNwQeI2M6PsLoZb/m1e6Aprt9lO7DniGpWuWlWZPpIIVi3pGWXCYmiwjkh6YaxOjr83 k/0hkCvAVxqWCNDW3OYHhJRsu3I5vSk3BuK2c= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:user-agent:mime-version:to:subject:references :in-reply-to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=BJXCUkQYDcLjDPU3UITckrbBdTS4ge8F7BiYt9ejbIsa/lNWXyMxyEk+KsMvOOGjip 03Wy5TgXoAqbGbBQO0ue1+cgqhXNPLaSoXmB0fMKYaFNG1tdlfGQt5ST/yA1q5wmwdNp 5BsQ59+maYzbEMnABgvtSZJDSFCPg8HnRv+bM= Received: by 10.42.28.3 with SMTP id l3mr197342icc.256.1304902197642; Sun, 08 May 2011 17:49:57 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [10.147.34.6] ([12.107.221.64]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id 19sm2402021ibx.18.2011.05.08.17.49.55 (version=SSLv3 cipher=OTHER); Sun, 08 May 2011 17:49:56 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <4DC73A33.2@gmail.com> Date: Sun, 08 May 2011 19:49:55 -0500 From: Noel User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.17) Gecko/20110414 Thunderbird/3.1.10 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: Newbie Needing Help 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: Mon, 09 May 2011 01:21:12 -0000 On 5/8/2011 7:17 PM, John or Judy Hixson wrote: > At the risk of being told to get out of here and never come back (until you know enough to not need to come back), I need help on some very elementary stuff. I haven't found anywhere else to ask these questions and am therefore taking my chances. Welcome. > I'm trying to learn some FreeBSD in anticipation of eventually admining a FBSD server for my church office network. I've installed FreeBSD 7.4 on an old PC and am trying to follow along while reading Unless you have some specific need for a legacy version, I would strongly suggest installing the latest production version. Right now that's 8.2. > Michael Lucas' book (2nd ed.). Right now my problem is with the command line. Lucas make a statement as follows: "If you want to see a comprehensive list of loader variables, check the default configuration file." Since there is no command "check", I have no idea what to use. What command will He means to view the contents of the file with "cat" or "more". The shell or command line is where most of the action happens in FreeBSD and other unix-like operating systems. While it might look primitive to a newcomer, once you lean it you find it to be more powerful and you can imagine. I would probably help to read some books or websites on "basic unix operation" or "unix shell basics". No, I don't have any specific ones to recommend, but I'll bet there's a great one within the first 5 google responses. Good luck! -- Noel