Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2000 23:04:53 -0500 (CDT) From: Brennan W Stehling <brennan@offwhite.net> To: Eric Ogren <eogren@earthlink.net> Cc: David Murphy <drjolt@redbrick.dcu.ie>, freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: make world failed Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.10.10004032251140.38593-100000@home.offwhite.net> In-Reply-To: <03d301bf9de6$4f694080$0200000a@dinternet.dyn.ml.org>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
It sounds like you would be a great candidate for writing some upgrade documentation. It is very easy to read the way you write and your years of experience would give you some clue what problems to avoid... perfect for a documentation writer. I first purchased a FreeBSD cd at version 3.0 and then one at 3.3. It looks like I will either burn a 4.0 iso or buy a cd. I like to buy because I try to support the efforts. (I also buy great shirts from copyleft.net where they make nice donations with each purchase) Since I started pretty much at 3.0 as a heavy duty user I am not familiar with a major upgrade. I was under the impression that upgrading to 4.0 STABLE from 3.4 STABLE would be as simple as following the instructions in makeworld.html. We all know now that is not the case. I seem to have the BSD Search Engine working on www.greasydaemon.com. I have it indexing all of the content on about 10 bsd related websites and it seems to run quite fast. A search for "ifconfig alias" shows results across several sites. I think it will help me a great deal. (I did it with htdig and it was very easy) What I have learned while running FreeBSD for the last couple of years is that you cannot simply read some documentation and do your job to adminster the system. A lot of strange and unexpected things arise and the only way to master the system is to learn the hard way at times and remember the experience. And sometimes you can take the advice of consultants and friends who know better than yourself. My first 4 months were not easy, but after pushing through the tough installs of SSLeay and PostgreSQL and many other systems I learned how to cope and how to get the information that I needed. Learning to find and absorb the information was the key. Now things are much easier for me, but I still run into problems. I do not think that will ever change. There is always something more to learn, but fortunately now I know many more places to find the information. Brennan Stehling - web developer and sys admin projects: www.onmilwaukee.com | www.sncalumni.com fortune: Swipple's Rule of Order: He who shouts the loudest has the floor. On Mon, 3 Apr 2000, Eric Ogren wrote: > Hi- > > IMO this thread has gone on long enough. However, since I'm hypocritical, > I'm going to post one (and hopefully only one) message regarding it. > > > > 1) The responsibility for locating available documentation > > > rests with the user. > > Who else should the responsibility fall on? Blindly doing things on > ANY operating system is a bad idea. Just because WinNT/Win2000 > has a more user-friendly administration interface doesn't mean that > your average person should just start screwing around in the control panel. > Any user should read the documentation, especially with anything > related to system maintenance. I know that people generally don't like > to do this, but it's still necessary: we try to make software > as user-friendly as possible, but computers, and specifically OSs are > still complicated. > > and, just a kind of general comment on the documentation: > > The RELNOTES, ERRATA, and README files AFAIK have always > been mostly associated with a binary release. If you were simply doing a > binary > upgrade (which I believe we reccommend for those who don't follow > the -stable/-current > lists), you wouldn't have to know that you can't simply do a "cd /usr/src && > make world" > to upgrade between major version #s. > Personally, I feel that, given as probably 90% of FreeBSD users buy/burn a > CD or > simply download FreeBSD from the net, cluttering up the > relnotes/errata/readme files > with instructions on how to upgrade from source would just needlessly a) > confuse the > majority of users and b) put unnecessary information into these files. > > As has been pointed out to you, the handbook does say that those who wish > to use -stable / -current (ie upgrade via source) MUST read the -stable > and -current > mailing lists. I don't know how else we can make it more clear that > upgrading from > source is not advised for newbies or people that are not willing to put in > the time > to read [or at least skim] the mailing list. > > The one big problem that I see is that the makeworld.html file does not yet > have > any caveats regarding the 3.x -> 4.0 upgrade. This should definitely be > fixed, and > I believe Nik Clayton (doc project manager) is/has prepared patches to fix > this. > > How else would you suggest that this is made more clear? > > I'm not trying to flame you; I'm trying to get your opinion. I've been > using FreeBSD > for 3 or 4 years now, and I've been thinking of trying to get more involved > in some way. > Maybe writing some documentation to clarify the upgrade process could be a > way > to get started. Since it seems you don't feel that users should be forced to > submit > their own docs, could you at least tell a [prospective] doc-guy where else > he should put pointers in? > > > thanks, > Eric > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?Pine.BSF.4.10.10004032251140.38593-100000>