Suggestions for www.freebsd.org and questions

[Lowell Gilbert]

"Peter Leftwich" <Hostmaster at Video2Video.Com> writes:

> Hi everyone.  I was studying up on
> http://www.freebsd.org/releases/5.4R/installation-i386.html
> which I have at home on two CD-Rs and which I plan to install this
> weekend - hhooot whoot!!
> 
> Some suggestions for the freebsd.org webmaster.  Perhaps others
> might find these useful as well?
> 
> [1] I think the URL above ought to have a sort of organized, list of
> contents at the top such as
> 
> 1.3 Topic1
> 1.4 Topic2
> 1.5 Topic-Or-FAQ-Question3...
> 
> The list would be a Table of Contents at the beginning, with each
> section **hyperlinked** for easier, faster knowledge transference.

That sounds like a good idea, if done well.  
Sounds like a good way for you to contribute.

> [2] I noticed that the links below are general instructions, but
> maybe having two very similar documents throws off some people
> 
> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/index.html
> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/install.html

Um, that's the main index versus the installation chapter index.
They kind of have to be separate; it's a hierarchy of topics.
Maybe if you showed a suggestion, it would be clearer what you meant.

> [2] Lastly, some background - I came to the site seeking general
> install recommendations, such as about suggested mountpoints and
> slices (partition) ideology and sizes.  Has this been asked before? 
> I have a 200GB HDD and no definite plan about setting up slices and
> dirs!!

Ah.  Another #2.  Very tricky.  :-)

It depends on how you use it.  Nobody's managed to come up with a
description that covers everybody.

Greg Lehey ("Complete FreeBSD") recommends not partitioning at all
unless you have a specific reason otherwise.  I do that on my laptop
(or did, when my laptop had a functioning disk drive).  I tend to
partition specifically to make backups convenient.

> [3] Disk space required?  I realize the website gives minimum
> recommendations such as 160mb and 24mb RAM for example.  Is it a
> good idea to set up an OS-only slice / bare minimum / then have a
> separate slice for my binaries and XFree86?

That's typically "/" vs. "/usr".  Very common; the installer does that
for you.

> [4] FOUR is here as a great tip if you have not seen this page:
> http://gerda.univie.ac.at/freebsd-laptops/index.pl great idea!!  but
> it would be neat if each 'datasheet' or 'lab report' if you will,
> linked to the product listed at an official company URL e.g.
> http://store.ibm.com/products.php?ThinkpadXYZ1000

That's not official documentation, but it does accept comments from
anyone; you can add any links you think helpful.

-- 
Lowell Gilbert, embedded/networking software engineer, Boston area
		http://be-well.ilk.org/~lowell/