View Full Version : For my next trick...
Well, Gentoo Linux rocks but it is time to move on to my next project...getting FreeBSD 4.5 installed. I am just about to blow away the Gentoo install and try my hand at the BSD install which should be fun. If things don't work out, I will definitley be putting Gentoo back on.
Wish me luck :)
theresa
3rd May 2002, 10:47
:baa: :baa: Good Luck Phill :baa: :baa:
Thanks Theresa, things are going pretty smoothly. FreeBSD is installed, just adding the software I need.
Just downloading XFree86-4 before adding KDE. This needs to be done to give me a nice pretty GUI instead of the current command line. This is a good option for people who can't get Gentoo working. The FreeBSD manual is AWESOME!! Check out www.freebsd.org
I had the FreeBSD iso's burnt for a month already. I'll get around to installing it one of these days. Is there no chance for a dual boot with FreeBSD? Please keep us informed on your progress because I plan to jump in pretty soon too. :idea:
Hey Miles, dual boot is possible...it is one of the options when installing the MBR.
I had downloaded all the 3 ISO's a while back, but never used them as I decided that the packages will be out of date by now. I downloaded the mini-iso (170Mb) and selected an FTP install so all the latest packages are installed. This is done automagically after selecting ftp install :cool:
I now have XFree86 4.x installed, gfx card and monitor working and tested at 1600x1200 perfectly. Now to customise the kernel for SMP and then to install a proper desktop. I liked KDE3 so this will probably be my choice.
This is so much fun, I am learning heaps and FreeBSD is looking very cool. The filesystem layout is excellent and makes it very easy to find what you want, much more organised than some of the Linux distro's I have used.
This might be a good weekend to give it a go. I like your idea of getting to latest packages so I'll dl the little iso today. I'll lose my 55 day uptime but the lure of learning is too strong. I can't resist anymore.:cool: :D
Everything is going well....I have the new kernel customised and installed and SMP is working fine. Just downloading and compiling KDE3 which I know from the last time I compiled, will take ages.
PS, did I mention TheHandbook(TM) rocks!! :D
:cool: KDE3 (http://www.kde.org/) installed and running great, Webmin (http://www.webmin.com/) installed and running and 2x Genome clients now crunching away!
Too easy!! :baa:
Standard install started. The bytes are coming my way at 50K per/sec. :)
FreeBSD is up, running and crunchin' away. :cool:
EOC_Jason would be so proud :)
Ok, I have been messing with FreeBSD for a while now. My observations:
Stable so far.
Install was tricky, but not out of the reach of somebody with a little *nix knowledge (me!).
Very structured filesystem makes it easy to find stuff.
Excellent handbook.
SMP isn't as good as under Linux (yet).
It is noticably slower on the desktop than my Gentoo install....KDE just isn't as slick.
Gentoo is similar to FreeBSD in many ways, but is much better in others. Gentoo is the fastest distro I have used to date and now that I have tried it's only competition I think I will swap back. I am sure the speed difference is down to the SMP kernel under FreeBSD not being very mature. FreeBSD5 is supposed to give much better support for multiple processors, so I will retry when it is released. On a single CPU machine, FreeBSD may be as quick or quicker than Linux.
I give it 8 out of 10 :)
It might take a while to get a good impression of FreeBSD for me. I had to sort more than a few glitches at install. I think I might set this box up as a iceWM machine. Learn a new GUI and pick up some more command line tricks. :cool:
OT: We need some more smilies.
Hey Phil is Gentoo Linux a new distribution. I was curious. My friend was telling me that there was a distribution out there that was pretty easy to install and was pretty good at find all of your hardware and configuring it. I installed Debian linux on two different machines. The one machine had a Cd drive that was hooked to a sound blaster card so after it installed the base system i had to go through a lot of trouoble to get the stuff I need from the CD so I could recompile the kernel to support the CD and that was pretty much my first experience with Linux. The second machine had an ATAPI CD so it was much easier. But I still had some troubles with setting up the modem cause it was a winmodem. Ended up buying an external. Well anyway i was just curious.
Originally posted by NealI
Hey Phil is Gentoo Linux a new distribution. I was curious. My friend was telling me that there was a distribution out there that was pretty easy to install and was pretty good at find all of your hardware and configuring it. I installed Debian linux on two different machines. The one machine had a Cd drive that was hooked to a sound blaster card so after it installed the base system i had to go through a lot of trouoble to get the stuff I need from the CD so I could recompile the kernel to support the CD and that was pretty much my first experience with Linux. The second machine had an ATAPI CD so it was much easier. But I still had some troubles with setting up the modem cause it was a winmodem. Ended up buying an external. Well anyway i was just curious.
Gentoo is a new distro, but will require tweaking like Debian. The latest Mandrake (8.2) and Red Hat 7.2 do a very good job at finding and installing all your hardware.
OMG I have been away a while,
I logged in and got this message:
Your personal referral code is: this link
There have been 9108 posts in 719 threads since your last visit!
The time now is 23:16.
You last visited: 02-12-2002 05:54.
Sorry I have been away so long... I was lurking on the forum tonite and saw this thread (and the other one related to gentoo) and had to reply.
I have recently put gentoo linux on my main box and firewall and I love it! (And that is coming from a hardcore Slackware user :) )
The thing that caught my eye on this thread was phil installing different *nix. (It just sounded a lot like me for a minute. ;) )
I have installed a lot of different *nix's in the past looking for the right system (mostly linux, But some BSD); FreeBSD was very cool but for a server system it just didn't cut it on the desktop, IMHO. Maybe I didn't spend enough time with it, I don't know. As a server though it rocked. We used it at work for a while as an email server until my boss figured out what a linux freak I was and we switched, to SuSE. I recently installed OpenBSD on a very old system at home, (486 16MB) just to play around and that is proving to be fun.
Anyways the point of this post is (if there is one) I love my gentoo linux system, although it's not for the meek, I have learned so much more about my system since installing it. And that made the whole install worthwhile. Also I wanted to say what fun it is installing new OS's. But mainly I just wanted to put my 2 cents in and get back into the posting thing. ;) Plus let you all know that I am still crunching and haven't forgotten about the project, just been too busy to get on the forums lately.
Well that's about it,
I'm outta here for the night.
Talk to ya'll later.
-kirek
Hey kirek, nice seeing you about again....I was wondering where you had gone as you seemed to always hang in the linux forum :)
Yup, like you I am searching for the perfect *nix. So far, Gentoo is very close on what I want. I also have found the install fun and a great way to learn my system properly.....there is nothing like hands on experience. I have RH7.3 here ready to burn, but I don't think it'll replace my Gentoo system.
eldiablo
9th May 2002, 08:07
Originally posted by phil
Hey kirek, nice seeing you about again....I was wondering where you had gone as you seemed to always hang in the linux forum :)
Yup, like you I am searching for the perfect *nix. So far, Gentoo is very close on what I want. I also have found the install fun and a great way to learn my system properly.....there is nothing like hands on experience. I have RH7.3 here ready to burn, but I don't think it'll replace my Gentoo system.
I think Gentoo's combining Linux with a ports tree is what puts it over the top.
Originally posted by eldiablo
I think Gentoo's combining Linux with a ports tree is what puts it over the top.
I agree, ports was one of my favorite things about freeBSD. It makes it so easy...
And gentoo makes it easier to update your system:
emerge --update system
to update your main stuff and:
emerge --update world
to update all the rest of the packages you have installed. (except gcc and kernel) It's so cool.
-kirek
:cool:
Thanks for the info Phil!!
I think that when I get back to the linux box I might give Gentoo a try! I don't mind tweaking to much and I kinda like the challege.
Originally posted by NealI
Thanks for the info Phil!!
I think that when I get back to the linux box I might give Gentoo a try! I don't mind tweaking to much and I kinda like the challege.
It is worth the install just to learn more about the system :)
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