From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jan 24 16:38:26 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 7883416A4CE for ; Sat, 24 Jan 2004 16:38:26 -0800 (PST) Received: from lorax.ldc.upenn.edu (lorax.ldc.upenn.edu [158.130.16.184]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DF2C643D31 for ; Sat, 24 Jan 2004 16:38:22 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from fuzz@ldc.upenn.edu) Received: by lorax.ldc.upenn.edu (Postfix, from userid 32822) id 10EC833C32; Sat, 24 Jan 2004 19:38:22 -0500 (EST) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by lorax.ldc.upenn.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0FB7C33C31; Sat, 24 Jan 2004 19:38:22 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2004 19:38:21 -0500 (EST) From: "Jason M. Leonard" To: Jesse Guardiani In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20040124181544.U56768@lorax.ldc.upenn.edu> References: <200401232340.40104.bsd@elkins.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Why BSD? 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: Sun, 25 Jan 2004 00:38:26 -0000 On Sat, 24 Jan 2004, Jesse Guardiani wrote: > Jeff Elkins wrote: > > > This is not a troll. > > > > I've installed FreeBSD 5.2 on a spare SCSI drive and am compiling kernels, > > updating ports, etc,etc. Thus far, other than some minor hassles, it's > > equivilent to my Debian sid. > > > > I have to ask: Why FreeBSD rather than Linux? > > > > Honest question. > > For me, this question has been answered twice in different attempts to "give > linux a try". I'm a Sys Admin, and we run FreeBSD almost exclusively at work. > However, every new employee we hire walks into the building with an attitude > that Linux is somehow better than FreeBSD because they're heard so much about > it and haven't heard anything about FreeBSD. So, on two separate occasions, I > decided to "give linux a try". Both ended miserably: > *snip* > > Occasion 2.) Got sick of Win 98 SE on my wife's computer, so I decided to "give > Linux a second chance". > > This time I WANTED to go with Red Hat, since it's arguably the most popular > Linux distro. However, one look at their new licensing made me change > my mind in favor of Gentoo - The most BSD-like Linux distro. > > Maybe I was doing something wrong, but I couldn't find an automated > install process. I had to read a text file and copy and paste install > commands by HAND to get Gentoo installed. This was painful and tedious. > It took probably 4 hours to install. Their motto is "freedom of choice" > or something similar. Well where is my freedom to choose a quick install??? > > Pros: Very nice BSD-like portage system. Top notch. > > Cons: Terrible install process. Took forever. A couple of weeks ago I acquired a 4x50 slot Overland Neo tape library for the purpose of backing up several 1T volumes that live on FreeBSD file servers. Unfortunately I could not find backup server software for FreeBSD that would allow me to back up volumes that span multiple tapes. I had had good luck with BRU back in my UUNET days, so I decided to give their BRU-Pro software, which offers a FreeBSD client, a whirl. The server software only runs on Linux, but I really needed to get these backups done and so I said to myself "one Linux box won't be so bad". I, too, had heard of the "BSD-like" Gentoo and decided to start there. After over three painful hours of installtion my machine just hung following a reboot. Joy. It was about 5am. I downloaded the next Linux distro I could find ISOs for--Mandrake 9.2. Much to my surprise the Mandrake install was quick and painless. Woot! I thought I was home free. But then I read this on the BRU-Pro site: "Requirements: Linux system Running kernel 2.2.19 - 2.2.25 or 2.4.23" Hmm, I was running 2.4.22. Maybe that was close enough? "If you choose to use a 2.4 kernel older than 2.4.23 or the updated RH 2.4.9-34, you're literally gambling with your data!" "These are the ONLY kernel revisions we support." I guess not. And lo, I began to learn about upgrading the Linux kernel. For about half an hour, then I decided this was taking up way too much of my life and decided to go the RPM route. Except--DUN DUNH--there is no 2.4.23 RPM kernel upgrade for Mandrake because apparently they are having some sort of issue with it. GREAT! So then I read this: "If you are having issues with BRU-Pro on your system, we recommend Red Hat 6.2 with the 2.2.19 kernel, Mandrake 7.2 w/2.2.19, Mandrake 8.0, or Caldera 2.4 as the best version of Linux." Red Hat, 6.2, eh? Yes, fine, at this point I'll try anything. I download. I burn ISOs. The installer crashes halfway through the install, not surprising considering my box is a dual Xeon with 2G RAM. Hours pass, I will spare the details, but after trying to match up several different distros of Linux to this chart: "Linux users running BRU-Pro 2.0 under a 2.4.x kernel need to be aware of SCSI subsystem issues in the various 2.4.x kernels. We have run tests and researched all 2.4.x kernels through 2.4.20 and have discovered the following: (GREEN = good, RED = bad). * 2.4.2-2 Shipped with Red Hat 7.1 - Stable * 2.4.2 Stock - Issues with SCSI Generic under Adaptec and Symbios chipsets * 2.4.3 Stock - Stable * 2.4.4/5/6 Stock - __alloc errors on SCSI I/O * 2.4.6-2 Shipped in Red Hat 7.2 BETA - Stable * 2.4.7 Stock - Stable * 2.4.8/9/10/11 Stock - Issues with busfree and __alloc errors * 2.4.9-34 Red Hat - Stable (Most stable kernel for Red Hat 7.2) (***USE THIS KERNEL***) * 2.4.12/13/14 Stock - Stable, but ENOSPACE bug * 2.4.18-3 Red Hat - Stock kernel for 7.3 - UPGRADE THIS! Lots of SG errors * 2.4.18-10 Red Hat - Stable (Latest Kernel for 7.3), ENOSPACE bug and problems with the 3c59x driver * 2.4.19 Stock - Bad, ENOSPACE bug and problems with the 3c59x driver * 2.4.20-19.9 - Bad, ENOSPACE bug back again. * 2.4.20 plus st patch - Stable, ENOSPACE bug fixed" I finally wound up back with Mandrake 9.2 running a 2.4.24 "experimental" kernel that seems to do the trick. Sort of. The whole thing is rather cranky and buggy, but following a few fits and starts it does eventually get my data on tape. Needless to say, I will be implementing a better--and no doubt Linuxless--backup solution as soon as possible. :Fuzz