FreeBSD for the common man(or woman) (was: > upgrade 7.2

[Manolis Kiagias]

James Phillips wrote:
> Put another way: I want a reliable, backed-up file-server before playing around on my "workstation" that would be a separate computer.
>
> I want to build myself a "sand-box" so I don't have to worry about breaking stuff that is unrelated.
>
> Another way of asking the question:
>
> How much of a learning curve is configuring FreeBSD (for Samba, NFS, DVD burning (backups) expected to be? Am I reading too much because of a learning disability, or do I really need to read and understand that much detail? 
>
> I have some experience with Dos/Windows, and Linux (mainly Debian based).
>
>
>   


Windows experience won't help much - mainly due to the fact Windows
forces the users (and admins) to a completely different way of thinking
than FreeBSD.  The various wizards abstract way too many parts of the
system, to the point where you can configure services you don't really
understand (i.e. a DNS server is a few clicks away and there are many
'recommended' defaults along the way).  This is mostly not possible in
FreeBSD. You do need some level of understanding before making a
particular feature to work, though you are not expected to be an expert
on the subject. The level of course varies with the feature (sendmail is
orders of magnitude more difficult than NFS).
Linux experience will definitely help. Watch out for Linux-specific docs
and differences in commands.

Getting on with your questions:

NFS is part of the base system. It is easy to configure and works with
Linux clients as well. Read section 29.3.2 here:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/network-nfs.html

Samba is a port you can install from net/samba3.  Some simple
instructions are provided, section 29.9.2:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/network-samba.html

The main settings file, smb.conf, can probably be used with little to no
changes from a Linux machine (if you have one configured). Don't forget
to use pdbedit to add samba users (this is documented in the handbook)

For DVD burning (from the command line, I assume) use the
sysutils/dvd+rw-tools port. If using an atapi burner, load the atapicam
driver at startup by adding atapicam_load="YES" to /boot/loader.conf.
This will create a /dev/cd0 from your /dev/acd0 device (it emulates a
SCSI device).  Then use the instructions in 18.7.3:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/creating-dvds.html

You can definitely start testing these in a virtual machine or test
system and come back with any questions. And take your time reading the
docs and actually understanding the way the system works. This will make
you a lot more confident.