A few questions from a current linux user

[Polytropon]

Hi!

On Thu, 7 Aug 2008 23:20:08 -0400, "Krishna Mohan Gundu" <gkmohan at gmail.com> wrote:
> 1) Is a feature similar to magic SysRq in linux necessary for FreeBSD?
> (As I understand there is no such feature in FreeBSD)

As far as I know, most window managers are able to be configured in
a way that you can assign differnt functionalities like shutting the
system down to a custom key combination (WindowMaker can); if a
xdm like login manager (in the state of "nobody logged in") can,
I'm not sure.

On the text mode consoles, Ctrl-Alt-Del can be used to shut the
system down, but the feature can be disabled (kernel configuration).



> 2) Is it possible to compile multiple versions of gcc? If so what is
> the best way to do it?

For example from ports, but I'm not sure if you can define which
binaries are acutally used; at least you should be able to run the
compiler from within the port's work/ directory (you don't install
the port, then), as long as there are no problems with depending
libraries.



> 3) Is it possible to perform a binary update from one release to
> another? If so can you please point me to the documentation?

The tool freebsd-update can be used to achieve this goal. The
command

	% man freebsd-update

is a good start for learning more.



> How are
> config files updated in this case? (Could not locate documentation on
> binup)

I think mergemaster can be used to do this; you usually run this
program if you perform an update using the make command ("make
update", "make buildworld", "make buildkernel" etc.).



> 4) If a binary update leads to an unstable system, how easy it is to
> backtrack to an earlier working version along with working config
> files?

An update set provided via freebsd-update should not render a system
unstable / unusable; at least it's possible that the system is not
in a working state when the update process gets interrupted at a
critical point, but I never had such a problem. In the worst case,
you can restore the base system from the installation CD (or via
bootonly + network) and try the update again.



> 5) Does FreeBSD have support for PCMCIA-USB cards?

Don't know.




-- 
Polytropon
>From Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...