Re: newbie documentation (was: Re: Contributing to FreeBSD documentation (was: Re: no ath0 on new system with good card))
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Steve Franks wrote: > I have another section to add to my previous post: > > At some point in your dealings, you may introduce a typo into a > critical startup file, such as rc.conf, loader.conf, fstab, or > similar, and reach the following upon reboot: > > "" > "Press enter for /bin/sh:" > > To recover: While it's always nice when someone takes an interest in improving our documentation, what you have below is missing some key ingredients. > 0. press enter > 1. cd /etc > 2. cat fstab (if you don't know the partitions & disks to mount already) It's very possible that cat won't be in your path when you do this, so you might have to say /bin/cat. Similarly throughout the rest of your post. More importantly, it's crucial to run at least 'fsck -p' before trying to mount anything. If the only things you'll be mounting are in fstab already, that's all you have to type. If you need to mount something that isn't in fstab, you'll have to specify it by device, such as 'fsck -p /dev/ad2s1e'. If the prune isn't enough, then you will have to do 'fsck -y /dev/' for anything that didn't come up clean. > 3. mount /dev/adXs1Y /usr (gives you the edit command) (find X and Y > in your fstab file) > 4. mount /dev/adXs1Z / (gives you write acess to /etc) (find X and Z > in your fstab) First, if the slices you're mounting are in your fstab, you don't have to specify the device name, just 'mount /' is enough. Second, you should always mount the / partition read/write before you try to mount anything else. Assuming that all your slices came up clean after fsck, it is probably simpler to do 'mount -a' (or 'mount -a -t nonfs' if you have NFS mounts in your fstab without the noauto flag) than to type them all out by hand. > 5. edit blah ( i.e. rc.conf) to fix the typo > 6. init 6 You're much better off to just type 'exit' when you're done fixing stuff. That will take you out of the subshell, and back into the normal rc startup process. Hope this helps, Doug - -- This .signature sanitized for your protection -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (MingW32) iD8DBQFFtAOeyIakK9Wy8PsRAiiyAJ92/0/nYm7d952zEglKoDF0KOvcQQCfTS51 TwAQySkJy3SPd6vIZMNSXI8= =Ye1F -END PGP SIGNATURE- ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: newbie documentation (was: Re: Contributing to FreeBSD documentation (was: Re: no ath0 on new system with good card))
I have another section to add to my previous post: At some point in your dealings, you may introduce a typo into a critical startup file, such as rc.conf, loader.conf, fstab, or similar, and reach the following upon reboot: "" "Press enter for /bin/sh:" To recover: 0. press enter 1. cd /etc 2. cat fstab (if you don't know the partitions & disks to mount already) 3. mount /dev/adXs1Y /usr (gives you the edit command) (find X and Y in your fstab file) 4. mount /dev/adXs1Z / (gives you write acess to /etc) (find X and Z in your fstab) 5. edit blah ( i.e. rc.conf) to fix the typo 6. init 6 This has helped keep me from reaching for the install disk more than once, and it took a long time to figure out intuitively - think it might give the newbie's a 'leg-up' Steve On 1/17/07, Steve Franks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: On 1/16/07, Giorgos Keramidas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 2007-01-16 15:47, Steve Franks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > So, this is what I have so for. It was a bit late at night, so I appologise > > if my tone is a bit silly at times...where do we go from here? Steve > > [snip nicely written stuff about freezes during installation and first > post install steps] > > Fantastic! This looks like something that would fit quite nicely with > the section ``Installing FreeBSD > Troubleshooting'', in the Handbook. > > Do you mind if I integrate this with the section? Does it look like the > right place for you to write this stuff? Will you be able to review it > and let me know if it looks ok? Sounds good to me. > You can read the current Handbook section at: > > http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install-trouble.html Hmmm. Yes, I don't think the current page provides much actual help for newbies. Can we make sure to put links to all the appropriate man pages ( i.e. device.hints) in my text when we insert it? I've found the man online to be way more useful than I expected for people who are willing to read. We also could use some driver gurus to make my list of things to disable, and things to *not* disable both longer and correct - I admit I wrote that on my windows box, because my laptop bios disables the system (on purpose) when you put a non-compaq bsd-friendly network card in it. Go big brother. This is why I want to get the whole world to run *nix. > Regards, > Giorgos It occurs to me that a new option on the boot menu of the .iso installer that opens a version of this page in links or equiv might be most useful for newbies (I'm at work, so I can't check if it's there already). It might be useful to point to that doc if the .iso installer is started in safemode as well. Steve -- Steve Franks, KE7BTE Staff Engineer La Palma Devices, LLC http://www.lapalmadevices.com (520) 312-0089 -- Steve Franks, KE7BTE Staff Engineer La Palma Devices, LLC http://www.lapalmadevices.com (520) 312-0089 ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Contributing to FreeBSD documentation (was: Re: no ath0 on new system with good card)
On 1/16/07, Giorgos Keramidas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: On 2007-01-16 15:47, Steve Franks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > So, this is what I have so for. It was a bit late at night, so I appologise > if my tone is a bit silly at times...where do we go from here? Steve [snip nicely written stuff about freezes during installation and first post install steps] Fantastic! This looks like something that would fit quite nicely with the section ``Installing FreeBSD > Troubleshooting'', in the Handbook. Do you mind if I integrate this with the section? Does it look like the right place for you to write this stuff? Will you be able to review it and let me know if it looks ok? Sounds good to me. You can read the current Handbook section at: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install-trouble.html Hmmm. Yes, I don't think the current page provides much actual help for newbies. Can we make sure to put links to all the appropriate man pages ( i.e. device.hints) in my text when we insert it? I've found the man online to be way more useful than I expected for people who are willing to read. We also could use some driver gurus to make my list of things to disable, and things to *not* disable both longer and correct - I admit I wrote that on my windows box, because my laptop bios disables the system (on purpose) when you put a non-compaq bsd-friendly network card in it. Go big brother. This is why I want to get the whole world to run *nix. Regards, Giorgos It occurs to me that a new option on the boot menu of the .iso installer that opens a version of this page in links or equiv might be most useful for newbies (I'm at work, so I can't check if it's there already). It might be useful to point to that doc if the .iso installer is started in safemode as well. Steve -- Steve Franks, KE7BTE Staff Engineer La Palma Devices, LLC http://www.lapalmadevices.com (520) 312-0089 ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Contributing to FreeBSD documentation (was: Re: no ath0 on new system with good card)
On 1/7/07, Giorgos Keramidas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: On 2007-01-07 08:54, Steve Franks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Apologies on not hitting the list. Alyays forget to reply-all. No problem. I just didn't copy the list because I wasn't sure I should. > So, I figured I'd try to fix the safe-mode end of things on my own, > and I found a post several years old (looked like it even could have > been yours) about safemode, which doesn't show up anywhere on the > freebsd site. So I did what it said and grep'd boot/beastie.4th for > safemode, which came up with this suprisingly total solution: > > add apic.0.disabled="1" to boot/device.hints. Not only does my system > come up in regular boot mode, but, as you suspected, the pccard works > too, so all appears well. Excellent news! Thanks for sharing the answer :) > So my final question, what in all the land is an "apic", "Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller". This is the part of your system which assigns priorities to interrupt lines of a device. The full details are probably too technical for some percentage of our user base, but more details can be found at the following pages: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Programmable_Interrupt_Controller http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmable_Interrupt_Controller http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_8259 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_APIC_Architecture > and why isn't apic or safemode mentioned in the handbook, manpages, or > even on the freebsd site? IIRC it is mentioned in the Developer's Handbook, but you are right that it should be in the main Handbook too. > Further, I'd like to write a handbook page on "freebsd and laptops", > because we're on my third one here now, and I'm starting to get the > drift of what could usefully be added to the handbook, namely a > thourough discussion of booting and device.hints. That would be great! If you can help writing such a section for the Handbook, a lot of users will be highly indebted to you, for sure :) > I presume someone 'peer-reviews' handbook submissions for correctness > and format? I recall reading somewhere about contributing, but I get > the impression you are involved enough to tell me whether it's a bad > idea or not. Yes, you are right. We have peer reviews. A lot of the documentation changes are filtered through the freebsd-doc mailing list, where documentation people hang out. Patches are mailed back and forth; edited; fixed for technical accuracy, syntax and grammar correctness; adapted to our writing style; expanded as necessary; and eventually committed to our documentation source code. You can definitely contribute as much as you feel, whenever you feel you have the time, and in any way you consider appropriate. We have a short article which describes how you can contribute to the FreeBSD Project, in general: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/contributing/ Most of it applies directly to documentation too. Please skim through this article; it should be a good start. About your last question now... Yes, it's a good idea. Not just a good idea, though. It's an *excellent* idea. One of the "chicken and egg" problems documentation writing usually has to face is that: * New users don't know enough about the system, so they frequently pose good questions. These questions would result in higher quality documentation if properly channeled through experienced documentation writers, but you have to convince the new users that they can actually *help* by not knowing it all. * Once new users step over the thin line between being newcomers to the system and being experienced in some area, we have lost all the "insight" they can provide about how a new user thinks. As a result, it's easier to write documentation if we are targetting a very experienced, very technical audience. But, IMHO, the contributions of new users -- in the form of "interesting" questions" -- are at least as valuable, if not more :) Regards, Giorgos So, this is what I have so for. It was a bit late at night, so I appologise if my tone is a bit silly at times...where do we go from here? Steve So, you've burned the latest FreeBSD .iso file, pop it in your drive, anticipation rising, and *freeze*!! Hopes & Dreams go tricking away...what next? Well, the first thing is to realize that alot of people have worked very hard in their spare time to get things to the point where they are. Unfortunately, new hardware is always one step ahead. All FreeBSD drivers are written by the users - not the paid engineers of the hardware companies, so some delay at times is inevitable - there are many exceptions, however! Just compare the sata & raid support in FreeBSD to that in Windows XP. But back to moving forward: one of those new or imcompatible pieces of hardware (in most cases) has just frozen up your fresh install - what to do? First, restart the computer, and choose "3 - safe mode" from
