Items missing from the handbook and/or FAQs.

[Joe Rhett]

On Fri, Apr 23, 2004 at 10:36:46PM +0200, Marc Fonvieille wrote:
> > get rid of the ppp0 and sl0 interfaces.  The answer was to copy related
> > parameters from /etc/defaults/rc.conf to /etc/rc.conf and change them.
> > 
> > (The handbook actually does say "modify rc.conf" but it doesn't say what
> > items should be modified!)
> >
> 
> Wrong, read
> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/kernelconfig-config.html
> about sl and ppp

Maybe it's just me, but would you look for bathroom cleaning information 
in a manual about your oven?  Neither would I.  If you need to edit the
kernel to disable PPP, then this should be noted in the PPP configuration
documentation.

> > Also a note to create /etc/start_if.{ifname} to put the wireless options in
> > would also have saved me reading through the rc scripts.  I asusme that's a
> > general case for all interfaces, but it could bear repeating in the wireless
> > documentation. (when there is some...)
> > 
> 
> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/network-wireless.html
> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/network-bluetooth.html
 
I'm not certain what you are trying to say here, since both of these
links fail to mention what I stated above.  They give you the basic
commands, but leave you with the impression that you'll have to type
these every time you want to configure the interface.  Even just a few
links to other relevant documentation would greatly improve these
sections.

> > 3. Choosing filesystem types
> > 
> > During setup you can create filesystems other than FreeBSD, but you are
> > supposed to magickally know their filesystem type numbers.  The setup
> > documenation and the fdisk tools only tell you the filesystem numbers for
> > freebsd, linux and dos.  An option to get a list would be nice.
> > Documentation of the filesystem types would be nice too. (I had to use
> > fdisk on a linux system to get the filesystem numbers I needed) 
> 
> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install-pre.html
> especially 2.2.3.1 Disk Layouts for the i386

Naturally, I can browse the freebsd website while I'm partitioning the
disk... makes sense to me.

Now how about the real question I raised, which is integrated
documentation?  An option to see a list of disk types...?

> > Suggestion: put a gdm configuration script there right next to the xdm
> > configuration. The people who love twm know what to do to make it happy.
> > Forcing people who aren't in love with twm and startx to hack at and make
> > their own gdm startup scripts doesn't make much sense.
> > 
> > (yes, there is an example gdm startup script, but it won't work be default
> > and you have to search for it, edit it, move it to the proper directory,
> > etc....)
> 
> Well XDM and KDM are covered in the Handbook, we can't cover everything.
 
I'm not talking about documentation, I'm talking about sensible defaults.
It's not a lack of documentation, it's a lack of useful setup scripts.

Straight up: I'm building this system to set up a test environment for a
client.  When I got done with the installation and there was no usable
windows environment and no usable mail client, and no usable network
interface ... I was pretty much ready to tell the client to find a modern
OS.

I mean, hello, Unix systems came better working out the box in the
mid-80s.  Why are we going backwards?

> > 1. How to put DHCP on the wireless card?
> > 
> > I still haven't figured this out. I run dhclient on the interface by hand
> > after every reboot and it works fine, but I'm assuming there is some 
> > standard method of telling the system that wi0 should be a dhcp-managed, right?
> 
> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/network-dhcp.html
 
Alright, on this one when I re-read it I found what I was looking for.
It could be more clear, but it is there.

> > 2. What is interface faith0 ?
> > 
> > It took a ridiculous amount of searching to determine that faith0 was an
> > ipv4 -> ipv6 interface.  And I can find nothing about how to disable it.
> > (and if you say compile a new kernel and make world, excuse me while I puke)
> > 
> 
> man faith
 
man faith returns information on what it is, with nothing at all about
how to enable or disable it.

-- 
Joe Rhett                                                      Chief Geek
JRhett at Isite.Net                                      Isite Services, Inc.