Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 21:39:50 +0000 From: neal <kneel.pardoe@virgin.net> To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: newby needing help Message-ID: <46FD74A6.7060808@virgin.net> In-Reply-To: <20070927212854.GA18018@slackbox.xs4all.nl> References: <46FC1C65.6060801@virgin.net> <20070927212854.GA18018@slackbox.xs4all.nl>
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Roland Smith wrote: > On Thu, Sep 27, 2007 at 09:11:01PM +0000, neal wrote: >> I've checked out all the main functions I want from FreeBSD and had them >> all working (hehe, but since broke some) so I'm happy it will do the things >> I want so far. >> >> First question, what is recommended regarding doing updates. Is it best to >> just do all of them? > > It depends. If the update of the base system concerns something that you > use, I would definitely install it. That's the problem though, same with linux, there are obvious things that I would update but there are likely items that I would never have a clue if I needed them or not. As I'm going to do a completely fresh install on a clean system I might just try doing all upgrades right from the start and see how it goes from there. > > The best way to keep the base system up-to-date is using csup (which is > still referenced in the Handbook in §20.3 as cvsup). > > For updating the ports tree I can recommend portsnap. For updating the > ports themselves I use portmaster. > >> I have always had problems doing this e.g. with >> Mandrake and other Linuxs and so am reluctant, but if it is usual I'll give >> it a try. > > The upgrade tools on FreeBSD work quite well. But if you're rebuilding > your own ports it can take quite some time depending on your machine. I've been using the Package Manager so far but will look into using a command prompt at some later time. > >> (I'm also reluctant as I assume a full update will update xorg to >> 7.3 and I have 7.2 installed with the latest nvidia 9# driver and it works >> beautifully so would rather stay with that. > > There is a new beta driver available. Yes, I've read about it here. > >> I have read the Handbook, but still have a problem understanding how to map >> my ext2 and ext3 partitions to the UFS notation. e.g. > > The notation is a BSD thing, it has nothing to do with UFS. ok. >> I have a drive hda, >> it has a swap an unused space and four partitions one of which is my home >> partition hda7. How do I refer to this home partition using ad0??? >> notation > > If you do 'ls ad0*' you'll see what is available. Remember that what DOS > and Linux calls partitions are called slices in FreeBSD. Partitions in > FreeBSD are subdivisions of a slice. E.g. ad0s1a is partition a of slice > 1 of ad0. Customarily, slice b is used for swap, and slice c is > unused. You can see this with the 'bsdlabel' command. OK, I've done that. this is the result for the drive currently being used by linux. ------------------------- [pineal@localhost /usr/home/pineal]$ ls /dev/ad0* /dev/ad0 /dev/ad0s2 /dev/ad0s6 /dev/ad0s8 /dev/ad0s1 /dev/ad0s5 /dev/ad0s7 /dev/ad0s9 ------------------------- The number of apparent slices (those with a ad0s[n] designation) seen by BSD is one more than the number of linux partitions I actually have. No I haven't miss-counted. I have 1 swapfile partition and five partitions hda5-9 used by linux. btw I tried to run the bsdlabel command but it returns "no valid label found" for both ad0 and ad1. >> (as this is what I understand I need to do, if not please enlighten). I >> have installed the ext2fs utilities/drivers and can mount an ext2 fs >> written on dvd without problems. > > I would recommend converting the disk to native UFS2 filesystems. I'm > not sure if mounting an ext2 slice read/write is such a good idea. Make > (in Linux, e.g. Knoppix) a tarball of your data and seve it to another disk or > CD,DVD. Reslice and format the disk with sysinstall, and restore your > backup. Maybe I didn't make myself clear here. I have an existing in-use Linux system. I want to be able to access the /home partition as it contains all my personal data that I will need to move over to FreeBSD when I do the new install. > You might find §16.3 of the Handbook enlightening. did you mean from Ch 16 "3. Why will chmod not change the permissions on symlinks?" > >> I intend to do a completely fresh install and would like to compile for my >> specific pc kit. Would I be best doing this following installation and >> initial setting up? > > Yes. Read Chapter 4 of the Handbook about ports. My FreeBSD page has > some tips about setting port variables in make.conf; > http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/freebsd/index.html > > Roland Had a quick look at your 'page', looks useful. thank you for your help Roland neal.
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