Hi All,
Brain-dead observations and questions follow- run for your lives!
I have always wanted to look at a "real UNIX" distribution of some kind,
and recently got a FreeBSD CD. I visited the Web site and noted that the
version on my CD is just a bit old. Nonetheless, I gathered some
supported hardware from the PC bone yard at work and built myself a
400MHz PII, 224MB RAM, 3COM 3C905B-TX NIC, nVIDIA RIVA TNT2 64 Video.
The FSB is 100MHz and it has 512kB L2 Cache. I added a 14GB UATA Mode 2
disk and tested it out with Ubuntu first to make sure I had built a
"sound" PC. It worked like a charm.
Then I read a little more from the FreeBSD Web site and set about the
task of installing. After two attempts, I got it on there and it works
great. Well, it works. I didn't install much in the way of packages
during setup, so now I have to figure out how to do that post install.
Although I did remember how to hand configure X with xf86config, I was
blown away by the fact that I had to do that at all. "Gary," said I to
myself, said I, "welcome to 1997 and Slackware all over again!"
I saw the boot-up hardware detection process recognize my hardware,
including the worthless nVIDIA card. So how come I had to hand configure
X after another piece of software already identified it? There ought to
be a warning on the CD: "Warning! This UNIX software is designed to be
infinitely flexible and ultimately configurable. And that means you will
be doing a lot of double-takes, and saying things like, 'What the...'"
Okay, all sarcasm aside, is it really necessary for the install of a
"modern UNIX" to be counter-intuitive and seemingly antiquated? Is there
a point to that? Is this a rite of passage kind of thing? I have always
wanted to install and fiddle with something close to the real thing, but
I ignorantly expected it to dance circles around the problems I have
encountered with Windows over the years. I mean, Ubuntu "warty" dances
circles around the trouble I had today, and it installs in total text
mode. Don't get me wrong, I'm comfortable at a command line, but... Oh
well, I guess I just don't get it. I stopped /getting it/, I suppose,
when, after many years of doing it every day with DOS and Windows, it
became a real nuisance to fix Windows for people. Maybe the sheer magic
of spending hours banging my head on a problem all weekend, like I used
to when I managed the company network, has been lost. Now, at least most
of the time when I install an OS, I just want the blasted thing to
install and work. I sure picked the wrong OS for that kind of thing!
<Whine - snivel> ...delay... <chuckle>
I suppose I still have a little bit of spit and vinegar left in me, and
a curiosity that often proves nearly fatal, so I think I will do some
more installs and see if I can figure out what is happening to the data
obtained during the initial hardware detection process. Maybe it isn't
being written to a data cache for later use. I hope that's not the case,
because no explanation will make me appreciate a choice to throw away
good data and force an installer to manually configure the graphics
server. BTW, I had to do that 4 times, after a successful install,
before I finally picked a mouse configuration it liked. I would have
used the more modern xf86conf, but I read somewhere that it has a
reputation for being a nightmare. After all, I wasn't trying to be a
glutton for punishment. Maybe I made a mistake in that choice.
<Whew! This guy is long winded...>
Final question: I read some time back that a couple of people in the
group like and use FreeBSD. If that is still the case, do you mind if I
shoot the occasional question your way? I will more than likely need the
help now and then.
Thanks a bunch for the help (and the flames I'm about to endure <chuckle>)!
-Gary
--
Gary L. Allen
Engineer, Certified Computer Professional
Windows? "The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is ta' stop up the
drain." -Scotty
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