Re: using ports or gems (easy_install)
On Tue, 28 May 2013 15:06:15 +0200 Albert Shih albert.s...@obspm.fr wrote: Le 28/05/2013 ? 14:50:25+0700, Olivier Nicole a écrit Hi, I would like to known how you manage your gem (ruby) or easyinstall (python). Do you use ports ? or directly gems or easyinstall ? or both ? As far as I can, I use ports, for consistency. Me too. But what you do when you cannot ? (Like the ports don't exist) ? I see three possibility : 1/ write the ports (unfortunately not for me) 2/ wait until someone does (many time it's impossible) 3/ use easy_install or gem It is easy to learn. I would strongly suggest learning it, even if you just maintain the ports yourself and don't contribute them to the ports tree. Doing so will drastically improve the manageability of your system. http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/ ___ 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
Re: FreeBSD 9 and Windows XP
On Sat, 9 Mar 2013 12:07:41 -0800 (PST) leeoliveshackelf...@surewest.net wrote: Good afternoon, FreeBSD enthusiasts. Can FreeBSD 9.1 be installed on a computer on which Windows XP currently resides? If so, how can this installation be done? In particular, is there a way to install 9.1 so that it can be booted from the traditional master boot record? It is important that, when I am done, I can still boot to Windows XP, as I must run some applications not available on FreeBSD. If the idea I am proposing is not feasible with version 9.1, will it work with 8.3? Any comments are appreciated. If this question has already been asked many times before, please just let me know where to look to find the answer. Thanks. Newbie502 When I did it, I shrunk the Windows partition and installed FreeBSD to the a new partition created on the free space of the drive. The multiboot version of the MBR stuff for FreeBSD should be able to handle it for you with out issue. I've not done it with 9.1, but when I did it with 6 way back when, it worked nicely. signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Re: What is your favorite board for a micro system?
On Sat, 09 Mar 2013 00:53:27 +0100 Erik Nørgaard norga...@locolomo.org wrote: Hi! What is your favorite mini/micro/nano/pico-itx platform for home projects? I currently run a home server on an Intel mini-itx board but was looking around for something fun to play with with the following specs: - mini-itx or smaller, low profile - fanless - low power 12V external PSU - 1 LAN, preferably 2 - 2 USB2/3 - Flash bootable, but with option for hdd boot - GPIO would be fun - hdmi out would be nice I have tried VIA boards but found they were flacky... Any suggestion regarding ARM vs Intel based? Can't think of any off hand in that small of form factor, but I strongly suggest looking to see what you can find running an Intel Atom. I've been very happy with those and their related chipsets so far for microATX boards. signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Re: question about my new Dell 3010
On Sun, 9 Dec 2012 15:47:06 -0800 Gary Kline kl...@thought.org wrote: Rats:: xvidtune gave me Video modes are not settable on this chip. how cheap can you get? no, the question is: what chip/video card do I need that will get me [at least] 1920x1280? Unless you wish to get the the KMS stuff working like Warren Block suggested, I strongly advise getting a Nvidia card as of currently that is the easiest and most reliable way to get good 3D under FreeBSD. ___ 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
freebsd-update from recent 8-STABLE to 9.0-RELEASE issues
Howdy! Any one have any idea what is going on below? [root@shiela]/root# uname -a FreeBSD shiela.vulpes.vvelox.net 8.3-PRERELEASE FreeBSD 8.3-PRERELEASE #0: Sat Feb 25 04:55:35 CST 2012 kits...@shiela.vulpes.vvelox.net:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/sheila amd64 [root@shiela]/root# freebsd-update -r 9.0-RELEASE upgrade Looking up update.FreeBSD.org mirrors... 3 mirrors found. Fetching public key from update5.FreeBSD.org... failed. Fetching public key from update4.FreeBSD.org... failed. Fetching public key from update3.FreeBSD.org... failed. No mirrors remaining, giving up. Exit 1 [root@shiela]/root# ___ 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
Re: Understanding XDM
On Sun, 24 Jun 2012 22:19:54 +0200 Christian Graulund cutu...@gmail.com wrote: snip The others have answered your questions concerning DM v. WM, but if you are finding XDM annoying to configure, you may possible wish to take a look at slim, x11/slim. ___ 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
Re: printing jpeg slides to a Postscript printer
On Mon, 25 Jun 2012 11:15:36 +0200 Matthias Apitz g...@unixarea.de wrote: Hello, I have 10 jpeg slides (screen shoots) and I want to print them to a Postscript printer (CUPS controlled), on each page 2 slides. I know I could make some presentation from them or wrap them into a HTML file, but I was thinking there must be some easy way with some tool from our ports. Any idea? Thanks in advance I would just load them up in print them in Libreoffice and print them once I was happy with how the page layout looked. ___ 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
Re: freebsd-update from recent 8-STABLE to 9.0-RELEASE issues
On Mon, 25 Jun 2012 12:26:12 +0100 RW rwmailli...@googlemail.com wrote: On Mon, 25 Jun 2012 04:21:18 -0500 Zane C. B-H. wrote: Howdy! Any one have any idea what is going on below? [root@shiela]/root# uname -a FreeBSD shiela.vulpes.vvelox.net 8.3-PRERELEASE FreeBSD 8.3-PRERELEASE #0: Sat Feb 25 04:55:35 CST 2012 kits...@shiela.vulpes.vvelox.net:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/sheila amd64 [root@shiela]/root# freebsd-update -r 9.0-RELEASE upgrade Looking up update.FreeBSD.org mirrors... 3 mirrors found. Fetching public key from update5.FreeBSD.org... failed. Fetching public key from update4.FreeBSD.org... failed. Fetching public key from update3.FreeBSD.org... failed. No mirrors remaining, giving up. Exit 1 [root@shiela]/root# freebsd-update doesn't support development branches, you have to go from security branch to security branch. I know it can't be used to update to stable, but I've not encountered any thing in the documentation saying it can't be used to update from stable it to a release. ___ 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
Re: freebsd-update from recent 8-STABLE to 9.0-RELEASE issues
On Mon, 25 Jun 2012 14:12:36 +0100 RW rwmailli...@googlemail.com wrote: On Mon, 25 Jun 2012 06:53:45 -0500 Zane C. B-H. wrote: On Mon, 25 Jun 2012 12:26:12 +0100 RW rwmailli...@googlemail.com wrote: freebsd-update doesn't support development branches, you have to go from security branch to security branch. I know it can't be used to update to stable, but I've not encountered any thing in the documentation saying it can't be used to update from stable it to a release. From the man page: ... the FreeBSD Security Team only builds updates for releases shipped in binary form by the FreeBSD Release Engineering Team Right, that is exactly what I was referring to. 9.0-RELEASE is one of those as far as I know. It is ambiguous as to if that means being upgraded from or to and the error message given does not indicate what is being upgraded from is not supported, so I am a bit confused on if this is to be expected or not. ___ 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
Re: Strange case of vanishing disk
On Mon, 04 Jun 2012 12:20:13 +0100 Kaya Saman kayasa...@gmail.com wrote: On 06/04/2012 04:42 AM, Zane C. B-H. wrote: On Mon, 04 Jun 2012 02:06:57 +0100 Kaya Samankayasa...@gmail.com wrote: snip I've just tried this and lost my whole system. My boot disk is not labeled to work with ahci as it just has standard formatting on there. Need to remove the ahci_load=YES from /boot/loader.conf file now. Ack, my apologies. Forgot about that. Yeah, you will need to do it from the loader prompt if you want to test it. Unless you are booting off of gmirror or have /etc/fstab configured with something else that will automatically be found, you will have a problem. But from the loader prompt it should be... load /boot/kernel/ahci.kp show rootdev If rootdev shows any thing other than shows boot device as ad, rewrite it as ada, using the set command. See loader(8). This will get it to boot, although it will error and drop to single user mode as /etc/fstab contains the old stuff. Just manually mount everything and continue. At this point it should be up and running and able to test it out. ___ 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
Re: vpn speed loss
On Fri, 1 Jun 2012 11:48:45 +0200 Beni Brinckman beni.brinck...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, I'm running FreeBSD 9.0-RELEASE (pc-bsd 9.0 actuallly) on amd64 and I'm using a vpn connexion. My problem is the enormous speed loss i'm having when I'm using the vpn connexion. I have tried Openvpn and mpd5 (with a pptp and l2pt connexion) and the max speed (according to various speedtests) is 5 to 6MB. Without the vpn I'm having 45-50 MB... My vpn service has servers in several European countries and US, Canada, etc. The speed stays the same. So I don't think it is a specific bsd problem but the lines/connexion between ISP's. Is this the normal speed when using a vpn (independently of the used program to connect) ? Because from 45-50 back to 5-6 is a big step backward... Thanks for any insights here. With OpenVPN, you should not be seeing that big of a drop, with the real limiting factor being the CPU time available for it. You can easily check top and see if that is the case. If you get 45-50MBps between the two locations with out VPN, baring any firewall issues at either end, it is likely a configuration issue in regards to the networking of the machines in question or the VPN software or a CPU resource issue. One of the first areas I would check is the MTU being used on the network interfaces, figure out what the max MTU for the path is, and make sure the VPN software is not sending packets larger than that. You may also want to take a look at tuning(7). ___ 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
Re: Strange case of vanishing disk
On Mon, 04 Jun 2012 02:06:57 +0100 Kaya Saman kayasa...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, this is a very strange issue but I guess will either be related to 2 things, PSU not being powerful enough or disk controller simply being crap. Here's what's going on. I have a little Chenbro 4 disk mini-ITX NAS server with 2x 2TB disks and 2x4TB disks as storage - all spread out over 2 ZFS storage pools. Additionally I am running the root file system on a 40GB SSD. The strange thing with this is that I recently installed the 4TB disks and they're brand new. One disk connected to the system board works fine and shows up as online and on one of the channels using atacontrol list. The other disk is connected to a Startech.com Jmicron based 2x SATA RAID controller card. The disk connected to the controller card is having issues. At first the drive wouldn't be seen by the system then after a while all of a sudden it was there. No reboots, no io scans nothing it just appeared. After blasting it with IO for a few days the disk has now vanished again. I had this error in dmesg for a while: ad4: TIMEOUT - READ_DMA retrying (1 retry left) LBA=113337535 I have tried to use pciconf -lbvv to show the connected interfaces and the JMICRON comes up fine: atapci0@pci0:2:0:0:class=0x010400 card=0x2366197b chip=0x2366197b rev=0x02 hdr=0x00 vendor = 'JMicron Technology Corp.' device = 'JMicron JMB366 AHCI/IDE Controller (JMB36X)' class = mass storage subclass = RAID bar [10] = type I/O Port, range 32, base 0xd040, size 8, enabled bar [14] = type I/O Port, range 32, base 0xd030, size 4, enabled bar [18] = type I/O Port, range 32, base 0xd020, size 8, enabled bar [1c] = type I/O Port, range 32, base 0xd010, size 4, enabled bar [20] = type I/O Port, range 32, base 0xd000, size 16, enabled bar [24] = type Memory, range 32, base 0xd051, size 8192, enabled So why isn't the disk? I reckon as stated at the beginning that either the 180Watt PSU inside the system isn't enough or the controller is just really poor?? Could anyone suggest anything to look into, I'm sure I've covered all the bases but just incase there is something else I can do with this one?? Greetings, It looks like you are using the default ATA drive with that. I would suggest trying the AHCI driver and see if that works better. kldload ahci ___ 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
Re: email hosting - How do you do it?
On Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:51:05 -0700 Peter fb...@peterk.org wrote: Hello, I've been on qmail/vpopmail combo forever and am looking to build a new, mail server. As some one who has was once a unix admin for a ISP that ran Qmail for a SMTP server, I can safely say you should avoid it like the plague. Managing it is a bloody PITA given how incomplete it is in so many ways. First choice so far is postfix, but almost all the virtual hosting 'howtos' require an SQL database, or editing files by hand. The SQL part seems like an overkill for ~20-50 email accounts, the editing files by hand seems like a pain and requires me doing everything but I'd rather let people manage their own domains. Postfix is a great choice. A lot more manageable than Qmail and it is pleasantly fast, easy to configure, and integrates nicely with Dovecot. If you are just dealing with a single domain, I would strongly suggest looking into just using system users. This works fairly nicely and you can lock down access via PAM. In regards to authentication, you will need to look into something other than the master.passwd stuff authentication as that is only usable as root. I would strongly suggest LDAP. In regards to managing users/groups in LDAP I would suggest sysutils/p5-Plugtools . It is something I wrong awhile back and maintain, so if you have any requests for add on to, please just let me know. Just curious on how everyone else does small/medium/large email hosting so that the users have an easy option to change passwords, manage their domains, quotas, vacation auto responders, etc. ? My setup involves... backend - The backend server runs LDAP and has a nice bit of disk space shared via NFs. frontend - The frontend servver runs all the external facing stuff, webmail(horde), more web stuff, Dovecot(POP3/IMAP/Sieve), and Postfix(SMTP). NFS - Used for sharing home directories. LDAP - Used for authentication, addressbooks, and user/groups. Dovecot - Use for POP3/IMAP/Sieve. Postfix - Used for SMTP. syslogd - Used for centralized logging for logging from the frontend to the backend. Horde - It makes a truely kick ass webmail system. It is nice as allows easy integration of Sieve and LDAP addressooks. ZFS/gmirror - Gmirror backed ZFS pools work really nicely for if you need large amounts of storage. ___ 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
Re: Smartcam (or can you use linux dev driver + program)
On Sun, 15 Jan 2012 01:49:06 -0800 Lyubomir Grigorov lyubo...@grigorovl.eu wrote: snip QUESTION Is it even possible to use the Linux dev driver under FreeBSD? Since Smartcam is a 2-part suite: driver and application. The Linux compatibility layer for FreeBSD does not include the ability to use Linux kernel modules. It concerns it's self with providing support for the non-kernel stuff. If it's not possible to use linuxator, will it be possible to use the source to create a FreeBSD version of the dev driver? I assume the program will be easier to port than the actual driver. With out any changes, no. The Linux kernel and FreeBSD kernel are two very different items. If you are looking to port it, below are some links that would be a good place to start off with reading. http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/arch-handbook/index.html http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/developers-handbook/index.html http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/index.html http://www.freebsd.org/docs/books.html ___ 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
Re: Probable Hardware Failure
On Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:12:24 -0800 Doug Hardie bc...@lafn.org wrote: I have a pretty old desktop that has been around quite awhile. It has started periodic crashes. No log messages. However, the core status files all show double fault. I am confident this is a hardware issue, but is there any easy way to determine if its power or memory related? Those are the primary candidates although memory is also possible. We really need to replace the entire unit, but that might be a bit more salable if I can present convincing evidence of the cause of the problem. In regards to the RAM, I would strongly suggest memtest86/memtest86+. When you begin seeing odd issues like that, it can be a handy tool to use for a quick RAM check. ___ 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
Re: umass to /dev/da* mapping
On Mon, 5 Dec 2011 17:08:15 + Mike Clarke jmc-freeb...@milibyte.co.uk wrote: I have a fairly simple perl script which is run by devd when I plug in a USB memory stick. The script sets up some permissions and a link to make life easy for a user to mount the memory stick. This normally works fine but there are problems if the memory stick is already inserted before booting. Normally my internal 4 slot memory card reader is detected as umass0 with devices da[0-3] and when the USB memory stick is inserted it comes up as umass1 with device da4 and my script works on that assumption. If the USB stick is present on booting then it appears as da0 on umass0 and the card reader is da[1-4] on umass1 so the script fails. Is there any convenient way for my script to determine which da* devices correspond to the umass device name? Why are you using a custom Perl script for this instead of the built in tools for this? Below is how I have it setup on my system... In /etc/devfs.rules... [localrules=10] add path 'da*s*' mode 0660 group 5001 In /etc/rc.conf... devfs_system_ruleset=localrules In /etc/sysctl.conf... vfs.usermount=1 And what group 5001 is... [kitsune@vixen42]/etc getent group 5001 devDAaccess:*:5001:kitsune [kitsune@vixen42]/etc Allows the group devDAaccess to access /dev/da*s* and mount it. For more reading on this, I suggest the following man files... devfs.rules(5) rc.conf(5) devfs(8) ___ 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
Re: X11 - keyboard driver unloaded, how to load it again
On Wed, 7 Dec 2011 08:48:20 +0100 Sebastian Chmielewski chmi...@o2.pl wrote: Hi, I've an USB Mouse - Microsoft Wireless Mouse 1000, which is recognized also as a keyboard: ugen1.3: vendor 0x192f at usbus1 (disconnected) ums0: at uhub2, port 2, addr 3 (disconnected) ugen0.5: Microsoft at usbus0 ukbd0: Microsoft Microsoft 2.4GHz Transceiver v8.0, class 0/0, rev 2.00/6.56, addr 5 on usbus0 kbd2 at ukbd0 ums0: Microsoft Microsoft 2.4GHz Transceiver v8.0, class 0/0, rev 2.00/6.56, addr 5 on usbus0 ums0: 5 buttons and [XYZT] coordinates ID=26 ums0: 0 buttons and [T] coordinates ID=0 uhid0: Microsoft Microsoft 2.4GHz Transceiver v8.0, class 0/0, rev 2.00/6.56, addr 5 on usbus0 After disconnecting this mouse kbd module was unloaded by X: [ 40002.703] (**) Microsoft 2.4GHz Transceiver v8.0: always reports core events [ 40002.703] (**) Microsoft 2.4GHz Transceiver v8.0: always reports core events [ 40002.704] (**) Option Protocol standard [ 40002.704] (**) Option XkbRules base [ 40002.704] (**) Option XkbModel pc105 [ 40002.704] (**) Option XkbLayout pl [ 40002.704] (**) Option XkbOptions terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp [ 40002.709] (**) Option config_info hal:/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_45e_745_noserial_if0 [ 40002.709] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device Microsoft 2.4GHz Transceiver v8.0 (type: KEYBOARD) [ 47161.229] (II) 3rd Button detected: disabling emulate3Button [ 49888.691] (II) config/hal: removing device Microsoft 2.4GHz Transceiver v8.0 [ 49888.696] (II) UnloadModule: kbd [ 49888.696] (II) Unloading kbd Question is: how to prevent this behavior in X and how to reload module 'kbd' under working X session (I can connect through ssh to this machine). I would suggest just disabling HAL support for x11-server/xorg-server and just statically configuring the file. The only thing you may possibly want to do after that is make sure moused is started if you are have any non-USB mice on that system as well. ___ 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
Re: umass to /dev/da* mapping
On Wed, 7 Dec 2011 12:51:47 + Mike Clarke jmc-freeb...@milibyte.co.uk wrote: On Wednesday 07 December 2011, Zane C. B-H. wrote: Why are you using a custom Perl script for this instead of the built in tools for this? Below is how I have it setup on my system... In /etc/devfs.rules... [localrules=10] add path 'da*s*' mode 0660 group 5001 Because devfs only relates to boot time and I want to deal with usb sticks inserted while the system is running. The allocation of device numbers is dynamic and depends on what other umass devices are already connected. Normally my internal memory card reader is allocated da[0-3] at boot time and the memory stick will appear as da4 when subsequently inserted but if it's already plugged in when the system boots then it appears as da0 and the card reader is da[1-4]. If I insert an extra memory stick it will be allocated the next available device number. I don't want the user to have to hunt around to determine which device to mount so my script takes the umass device number supplied by devd and determines the relevant da* device then it sets the permission to 660 for that device and creates a link, /dev/usbstick, pointing to it. All the user then has to do is mount /dev/usbstick on his mount point. Following the earlier tip from Polytropon I now have a working script which does exactly what I need. Still you will want to investigate what I've mentioned. It will drastically simplify permission stuff as well as make automatic. The devfs stuff is just not boottime only, but will be applied to any new device added etc post boot. ___ 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
Re: umass to /dev/da* mapping
On Wed, 7 Dec 2011 08:39:30 -0700 (MST) Warren Block wbl...@wonkity.com wrote: On Wed, 7 Dec 2011, Zane C. B-H. wrote: Still you will want to investigate what I've mentioned. It will drastically simplify permission stuff as well as make automatic. The devfs stuff is just not boottime only, but will be applied to any new device added etc post boot. Are you sure of that? Seems like devfs permissions are only applied when devfs(8) apply/applyset commands are run, directly or through /etc/rc.d/devfs. Yeah, I am sure of that. It is what I have setup here. /etc/devfs.conf - This one only affects boot time stuff. /dec/devfs.rules - This one contains the rules will be applied during and post boot. It will also require you to specify which to use in /etc/rc.conf as this file can contain multiple rule sets. ___ 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
Re: A quality operating system
On Fri, 19 Aug 2011 23:47:04 -0500 Evan Busch antiequal...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, I make decisions about hardware and software for those who work with me. Talking with my second in command this morning, we reached a quandary. Ron is completely pro-Linux and pro-Windows, and against FreeBSD. What is odd about this is that he's the biggest UNIX fanatic I know, not only all types of UNIX (dating back quite some time) but also all Unix-like OSen. I told him I was considering FreeBSD because of greater stability and security. He asked me a question that stopped me dead: What is a quality operating system? In his view, and now mine, a quality operating system is reliable, streamlined and clearly organized. Over the past few years, FreeBSD has drifted off-course in this department, in his view. Let me share the points he made that I consider valid (I have deleted two as trivial, and added one of my own): (1) Lack of direction. FreeBSD is still not sure whether it is a desktop OS, or a server OS. It is easy for the developers to say well, it's whatever you want, but this makes the configuration process more involved. This works against people who have to use these operating systems to get anything done. There is no difference between the two, only what one uses it as. In his view, a crucial metric here is the ability to estimate time required for any task. It may be a wide window, but it should not be as wide as anywhere from 30 minutes to 96 hours. In his experience, FreeBSD varies widely on this front because in the name of keeping options open, standardization of interface and process has been deprecated. This makes zero sense with out any further information. (2) Geek culture. Geek culture is the oldest clique on the internet. Their goal is to make friends with no one who is not like them. As a result, they specialize in the arcane, disorganized and ambiguous. This forces people to go through the same hoops they went through. This makes them happy, and drives away people who need to use operating systems to achieve real-world results. They reduce a community to hobbyists only. (3) Horrible documentation. This is my specialty and has been since the early 1980s. The FreeBSD documentation is wordy, disorganized, inconsistent and highly selective in what it mentions. It is not the product of professionals but it also not the product of volunteers with a focus on communication. It seems pro-forma, as in, it's in the documentation, so don't bother me. The web site compounds this error by pointing us in multiple directions instead of to a singular resource. It is bad enough that man pages are separate from your main documentation tree, but now you have doubled or trebled the workload required of you without any benefit to the end user. I find it questionable if the person saying this has ever dealt with either Windows or Linux in any notable manner. Windows has documentation and lots of it. Every single bit of it extremely disorganized. In general with Linux I've found it is generally missing lots of information when it is present at all. (4) Elitism. To a developer, looking at some inconsistent or buggy interface and thinking, If they can't do this, they don't belong using FreeBSD anyway is too easy of a thought. Yet it looks to me like this happens quite a bit, and this is for the elite has become the default orientation. This is problematic in that there are people out there who are every bit as smart as you, or smarter, but are not specialized in computers. They want to use computers to achieve results; you may want to play around with your computer as an activity, but that is not so for everyone. Inconsistent and/or buggy? With out context this is pointless. (5) Hostile community. For the last several weeks, I have been observing the FreeBSD community. Two things stand out: many legitimate questions go ignored, and for others, response is hostile resulting in either incorrect answers, haughty snubs, and in many cases, a refusal to admit when the problem is FreeBSD and not the user. In particular, the community is oblivious to interfaces and chunks of code that have illogical or inconsistent interfaces, are buggy, or whose function does not correspond to what is documented (even in the manpages). And this person likes Linux? (6) Selective fixes. I am guilty of this too, sometimes, but when you hope to build an operating system, it is a poor idea. Programmers work on what they want to work on. This leaves much of the unexciting stuff in a literal non-working state, and the entire community oblivious to it or uncaring. As Ron detailed, huge parts of FreeBSD are like buried land mines just waiting to detonate. They are details that can invoke that 30 minute to 96 hour time period instantly, usually right before you need to get something done. No context... (7) Disorganized website. The
wpa_cli issues
Is there any way to undefine a variable once it has been set? ___ 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
Re: wpa_cli issues
On Fri, 19 Aug 2011 09:14:54 -0500 (CDT) Robert Bonomi bon...@mail.r-bonomi.com wrote: From owner-freebsd-questi...@freebsd.org Fri Aug 19 07:41:44 2011 Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2011 07:22:34 -0500 From: Zane C. B-H. v.ve...@vvelox.net To: FreeBSD Questions freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: wpa_cli issues Is there any way to undefine a variable once it has been set? *As(stated*, the answer involves the offspring of the mating of a rhinoceros and an elephand. =GUESSING= that you mean a shell 'envionment variable', the answer is 'yes'. _How_ one can do it depends on the shell (*unspecified*!) being used. 'unsetenv' _may_ do the trick. Alternatively a variable assignment with no value (.e.g VARIABLE=) may work. Blarg? None of these is even vaguely related to my question about wpa_cli, as stated in the subject. ___ 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
Re: wpa_cli issues
On Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:05:01 -0400 Chris Brennan xa...@xaerolimit.net wrote: On 8/19/2011 10:26 AM, Zane C. B-H. wrote: Blarg? None of these is even vaguely related to my question about wpa_cli, as stated in the subject. WTF is 'Blarg'? How about you give us a little more context and offer to converse with us instead of treating us like machines who blindly spit out answers (right or wrong, doesn't matter, you've equated us to machines!) Robert did the best he could with the little bit of information you gave us. Even after reading your e-mail, I was left wondering what variables (with in or without wpa_cli) you were talking about and also jumped to the conclusion of shell environment variables. A rather blunt note for you (and I've learned this first hand). If you are rude on an Open Source mailing-list, the chances of you getting help drop, dramatically. The chances of you getting flamed for your rudeness become guaranteed. Nothing I said was intended as rude and was phrased in a neutral manner. Personally this knee jerk reaction to assume I was being hostile etc is a lot more annoying and insulting than any thing. As to any confusion as to what I was talking about I am still lost as to how some one would come any thing shell related given wpa_cli was very specifically stated in the subject. I actually though there was a a Robert was trying to be an ass with his reply about shell related stuff given that. ___ 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
Re: wpa_cli issues
On Fri, 19 Aug 2011 12:51:16 -0500 Dan Nelson dnel...@allantgroup.com wrote: In the last episode (Aug 19), Zane C. B-H. said: On Fri, 19 Aug 2011 09:14:54 -0500 (CDT) Robert Bonomi bon...@mail.r-bonomi.com wrote: From: Zane C. B-H. v.ve...@vvelox.net Is there any way to undefine a variable once it has been set? *As(stated*, the answer involves the offspring of the mating of a rhinoceros and an elephand. =GUESSING= that you mean a shell 'envionment variable', the answer is 'yes'. _How_ one can do it depends on the shell (*unspecified*!) being used. 'unsetenv' _may_ do the trick. Alternatively a variable assignment with no value (.e.g VARIABLE=) may work. Blarg? None of these is even vaguely related to my question about wpa_cli, as stated in the subject. wpa_cli only understands a fixed list of variables to set, and it doesn't make sense to undefine them. You can set them back to their default values, but they must have a value. Defaults from looking at the source: EAPOL::heldPeriod = 60 EAPOL::startPeriod = 30 EAPOL::maxStart = 3 EAPOL::authPeriod = 30 dot11RSNAConfigPMKLifetime = 43200 dot11RSNAConfigPMKReauthThreshold = 70 dot11RSNAConfigSATimeout = 60 Running set from within wpa_cli should print these values, too, according to the manpage. That is for stuff set via set, but when it comes to the individual network variables, not all of these have a default value other than not defined, AFAIK, and setting them back to the defaults as far as I can tell is impossible for some. A example of this is the bssid variable. Once this has been set, I've been unable to find any way to remove it via wpa_cli. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks. :) ___ 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
