On Jun 22, 2012 10:42 AM, "Eitan Adler" <li...@eitanadler.com> wrote: > > On 21 June 2012 04:24, Fred Morcos <fred.mor...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > Introduction and background > > q) Is it possible to run a FreeBSD system without much building? In > > other words, can I survive by depending on packages and only resorting > > to ports when really needed? > > To an extent. It is currently possible to use only packages, but they > tend to be out of date and upgrading is non-easy without a third party > tool (such as portmaster or portupgrade). > There is currently active work to fix these issues in a project called > pkgng. This will likely become the default in the next couple of > months. > > > q) Where does the FreeBSD project stand on this matter? From what I > > noticed is that the base system seems to adhere to the tranditional > > flat text files for configuration and simple tools that do a good job, > > leaving it up to the user to combine those small tools to create > > larger, more complex ones (a UNIX inheritance). > > FreeBSD tends to be conservative. The project won't implement a > complex daemon without clear benefits and specific discussion on the > pros and cons. > > > q) Is a FreeBSD stable base system with "current" high-level > > components possible? Will it avoid the issues I experienced on > > Linux-based systems? > > Generally, yes. There will likely be some adjustment period as you > learn how FreeBSD works, but most people have few problems. > > > q) I would assume UFS with J+SU is "fast enough" for a laptop? > > Yes. Most people call it "SU+J" ;). > Don't use it for an SSD though > > > q) Does ZFS make sense on a laptop? Any advantages of using it over > > USF with J+SU? I am not interested in any striping or mirroring on > > the laptops, but the compression features is very attractive for the > > HDDs in the first laptop. > > ZFS is ram hog. How much ram does your laptop have? > > > q) The second laptop has an SSD, would UFS with/without J and > > with/without SU or ZFS make more sense for it? > > Make sure to enable TRIM support if your SSD supports it. > > > q) Can I live with a desktop environment (Gnome or KDE) and desktop > > applications (Firefox, Libreoffice, etc) by relying only on packages? > > Sort of. With pkgng this will become a lot easier. If you are > currently willing to deal with out of date packages until pkgng > becomes default (or want to work with non-default technology now) it > will be possible. > > > q) Does the NVIDIA binary driver work reliably? I would like to hear > > personal experiences with that. > > Yes. This has never been the cause of any problem for me > > > q) Does the bsdinstall align partitions to device blocks by default > > for optimal speed? If not, I have found that I can use gpart with -a > > and -b which will require me to calculate the start and end offsets of > > each partition manually. Is there a tool that can automatically do > > that for me? > > You said you had an SSD: it doesn't matter. > > > q) Adding tmpmfs="YES" to /etc/rc.conf is analogous to a tmpfs /tmp on > > Linux-based systems, correct? > > Yes. > > > Any other directories that might make > > sense to have as an mfs (ie, in /var)? > > Don't use tmpfs for anything in /var > > > q) Is there a place where all sysctl variables are documented? It > > occurred to me when I was trying to find the memory usage on my system > > but `sysctl -a | grep mem' shows a whole bunch of stuff. > > You can try sysctl -ad but most of the systls are either documented in > man pages or not at all. :( > > > q) How can I set proxy settings system-wide? Same for PACKAGESITE (for > > the pkg_* tools), how can I set a mirror system-wide? /etc/profile? > > Same as any other unix system. It depends on what shell you use. > > > q) I noticed all file/data-sizes are in bytes (ls, dd, etc), is there > > a way to change that system-wide to be in human-readable format? > > usually adding -h (for "human") helps. Also try setting BLOCKSIZE. > each program might have some more explanation in the man page. > > > > > System > > > > To assess my understanding, the system is split into kernel, base, > > documentation, games, lib32 (on 64-bit systems) and ports. > > This distinction is rarely used. The only place that cares for these > differences is the installer. > > > There is > > another split between base and ports where base includes everything > > previously mentioned minus ports. > > This is the one that matters > > >Now, there are 3 "branches" of the > > base system: RELEASE, STABLE and CURRENT. RELEASE means 9.0 and stays > > that way until 10.0 is released. STABLE means 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, > > etc. CURRENT means "trunk" in SVN terms. Is all that correct? > > This is incorrect. > > RELEASE are all releases: There is 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, etc. > STABLE is a misnomer: it is a *development* branch but the ABI / KPI > is kept stable. > CURRENT is "HEAD" and where new commits go before being "MFCed" or > Merged From Current to -stable. Releases are branched from -STABLE. > -STABLE is branched from -HEAD. > > > Also, > > when somewhere is mentioned `make world', this means to rebuild all > > installed ports which doesn't include base, I assume? > > "make world" is always wrong. "make buildworld" is closer. > In source land "world" is everything but the kernel. Ports are not related. > > > > q) The files in /etc/rc.d are all executable, from my understanding, > > those files will get executed and it is their duty to check the > > variable `<rc-script-name>_enable' for whether they should start or > > not. Wouldn't it be more efficient to chmod -x or +x them to > > disable/enable? > > For a variety of reasons, no. They do more than just check *_enable in > complex cases. > > > q) Is there a tool that can test a set of mirrors for connection time > > and speed (for packages and ports)? Analogous to Archlinux's > > rankmirrors? > > looks in ports-mgmt/ there is fastestmirrors or something like that. I > ran it once and forgot about it ;) > > > q) Is it possible for the pkg_* tools (especially pkg_add -r) to > > display progress? > > no. > > > q) I noticed in the ports collection that there were some outdated > > packages (skype-2.2, gimp-2.6), should I report that and where? (A > > PR?) > > skype is out of date cause the newer ones don't work. > Generally, reporting out of date ports as PRs with patches (or to > po...@freebsd.org without patches might help) is a good thing. > > Larger ports tend to be actively maintained. For gimp try asking > gn...@freebsd.org for progress. > > > q) Is it possible to have the ports system compile into an mfs (to > > avoid disk access)? > > Yes. Set WRKDIRPREFIX in /etc/make.conf to a mfs disk > > > q) Is it possible to have the user asked to change their password the > > first time they log in (using an OTP) in a simple way? I looked at > > OPIE but it seems to be much more complex than what I need. > > Look at pw -e ? > > > Hope I helped and didn't disappoint too much :) > > -- > Eitan Adler > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to " freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"
packages in /current/Latest are generrally up to date, sometimes trail ports a couple of days. its quite easy to pkg_delete --force and pkg_add new version to upgrade... i've been doing this for some time without problems. its trivial to make a python script to check for latest version avail and upgrade, i haven't timed it but 700 or so package updates take about 30 mins.. i look forward to pkgng, on low power devices build from ports can take a week and then some. :) Waitman Gobble San Jose California USA _______________________________________________ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"
