I quit

[James Jhai]

On Sunday 09 January 2005 01:53 am, william gatlin wrote:
> Hello, 
>  
> I have spent at least two weeks of my free time downloading 5.3 and trying to get it to work.  After figuring out 
> how to get an ISO image, windows couldn't do it because netscape insisted on modifying the file, I loaded it and 
> got a lot of error code 1 messages that I never did figure out.  I changed the partitioning and allowed 1/2 a gig 
> for the root directory and loaded it again. 

Remember when you first started using windows? It probably took you a good year to get a decent feel for how to use it.
FreeBSD will be much quicker... we really do have a kick-ass support system.
 
You can install into a partition that small, but it would be better to setup at least 3Gb and do a full install. This will 
allow you access to all the options, docs, man pages, ports, etc.. Seeing as how hard drives are very cheep now, it would be worth
getting another one if you must keep windows and you don't have the space. The head aches you will save your self by installing everything
on the FreeBSD cd will be worth the $50+ bucks you spend. As you get to know FreeBSD better you will have a better idea of what you don't
want/need.

You can install everything into one partition, though its recommended to make a few different partitions:

For a full install this would be a decent guideline:

/	200mb
/var  200mb-500mb
/usr	2gb+ (anything new installed from ports or pkg_add will install into this /dir/ so give it all the space you can spare
swap 2x the ram (NOTE: you can also make a swapfile (the handbook has a step-by-step on this, see below for handbook location)

Also you might want to creat a seperate partition for /usr/home and /etc so if you ever need to do a full reinstall, all settings will be stored on these
partitions.

Another option is to just do backups of these directories if you don't want to mess with the partitions.

>  
> All seemed to go well untill I tryed to configure the X.org windowing system.  Nothing in /stand/sysinstall would 
> do any configuration of X.  Went to the net and got instructions.  Finally got X to work and found vidtune. 
>

To configure xorg from the command line you'll want to use:

xorgcfg

> Kdm comes up with a log in screen which just leads to another log in screen.  ctrl-alt-backspace won't turn x off 
> as it keeps comming back on it's own.  Nothing leads to a window manager other than the little one that comes with 
> X. 
>  
> I re-downloaded the window managers from the net and hoped that would fix it. It didn't.  I'm sure that the trouble 
> is in some little config file somewhere or another  but I just don't have the time as I need a running system 
> going. 

Most config files (%90+) are in 3 places:

/etc/ 				(network wide config)
/usr/local/etc/ 			(local system config)
/usr/home/username/ 	(user specific stuff)

The file you want is:

/etc/ttys is the file

Find a line like this and make sure its says "off" and not "on"

ttyv8  "/usr/X11R6/bin/kdm -nodaemon"  xterm   on secure

This will disable kdm and you will get a console login prompt after the system boots.
After logining in to the console you can start xorg up with the command:

startx

For this to work you will need to add a line to /usr/home/username/.xinitrc ( ~/.xinitrc for short ) or you will get the default window manager.
For kde add this to ~/.xinitrc:

startkde

Quick way to write this to the file:
echo startkde > ~/.xinitrc

If you don't have a desktop installed yet you will need to install it (sounds like you do if you have kdm starting up).
as root do:

pkg_add -r kde3

or

cd /usr/ports/x11/kde3
make install clean

The second option will take a looooong time (1-3 days) as it will download the source for everything and compile it!

This is also assuming that you have a connection established to the internet. It sounded like you do.

> My opinion is that x.org isn't integrated quite well enough yet for prime time. My BSD books don't have the new 
> commands and other information to be of any use and the Man pages that downloaded were of no help either. 

The man pages should have been installed when you installed the system, no need to download anything.
man man

The handbook is probably the best source of info if you want something that is a little easier to read, as manpages don't have a good index as of yet. 
If you installed it, it will be in:

/usr/share/doc/handbook

You will need a web browser as it is in html format, if you don't have xorg up and running, install lynx or links. They are command line web browsers.
You will find them in the ports or you can:

pkg_add -r lynx
pkg_add -r links

Then:

cd /usr/share/doc/handbook
man lynx
lynx ./index.html

You can also access the handbook from a link on:
http://www.freebsd.org/
or directly from this email at:
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/index.html
  
> So for now I'm going to try to load Slackware and hope that maybe in a year BSD will be easier to wade through.  I 
> have to admit a bit of sorrow in having to do this as I wanted them both on the same machine. 

Slackware was my first unix like os, FreeBSD is way better (imo), the ports system makes life much easier for installing/updating 3rd party software. Also fbsd
is stabler then linux. Though linux seems to be a little more cutting edge as far as *some* hardware and a *few* desktop apps. Keeps this in mind, *BSD makes a 
better production system (server for mission critical stuff), Linux will allow you to run a *little* more hardware/software, but its not going to be as stable.
  
> At the same time I wish to communicate my respect and admiration for the great job the BSD community is doing and 
> hope in no way to communicate any disregaurd for everyones efforts. 
>  
> Right now I have to have Windows up and running also and am watching it go into a self destruct mode from somthing 
> that it downloaded from the net all by it's self with no human operator touching it.  There are so many Popups I 
> had to pull the net cable just to stop it.  They don't get no respect. 

Windows is designed to go into self destruct mode, it so they can sell upgrades and new hardware.
  
> It is my hope that the various Windows emulators will/are working well enough to run some of my mission critical 
> programs.  Espesially 'Trade Station' .  I can't imagine having thousands of dollars riding on Microsoft 
> reliability. 

Use vmware if you need to run windows apps.
Never used "Trade Station", but what vmware does is allows you to run windows in a gui on your desktop. It will be a little slugish, so its not very good for 
games or sound/vidio editing software, but it should work fine for your trading software. Keep in mind you will have to install windows into vmware, so its going to take 
more hard drive space. You will also need space for any windows apps you install. Vmware uses a virtual drive that it will create. the Default is 4gb.

Like I said in the start of this email, you will probably want to get another hard drive. It would be better then getting a whole new PC like someone else suggested :-p
If worse comes to worse, everyone can always use another hard drive no matter what os they use. ;-)

> Thank You--------Bill Gatlin
Your welcome. Much success to you.

-- 
- James