New user - small file server questions and quick GUI question

[Adam Vande More]

On Mon, Dec 28, 2009 at 3:49 PM, Kaya Saman <kayasaman at optiplex-networks.com
> wrote:

> Hi guys,
>
> first up I hope I am in the right place as my questions are of a generic
> nature about FreeBSD as I consider myself a new user not having much mileage
> with the OS as of yet!
>
> Secondly I just wanted to wish everyone a happy Christmas and New Year also
> since we are in that period :-)
>
> I will start with my GUI question as I believe that it is something simple:
>
> I attempted an install of 7.2 stable on my laptop and subsequently
> installed X11also. Now I didn't have any Xorg.conf file but each time I
> tried to start X from the CLI using the normal startx command (read the
> documentation through fully beforehand) but I didn't manage to get the mouse
> or keyboard to even work let alone starting the Gnome2 interface.
>
> Now I don't have that particular machine with me now as it's in another
> country but just wanted to know a few possible causes for the issue. I am
> guessing it's probably tied into not having the xorg.conf file but I will
> install a VM of it soon and be more specific with logs etc.... as I am used
> to Linux and Sun Solaris I know this is really ad-hoc and frowned upon way
> of asking which will probably earn me minus brownie points but just wanted a
> quick idea of what maybe so when the time comes I can investigate further!
>

Running with no xorg.conf is fine, but you need to make sure dbus and hal
are started at boot.  Follow the handbook for best results.

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/x-config.html


>
> The second and main question that I wish to ask is more to do with peoples
> opinions or experienced BSD users advice:
>
> I am looking to setup a small file server which I will use as DNS and NTP
> server also. The reason for selecting FreeBSD is that the system I about to
> install onto doesn't have much memory (not sure how much but probably in the
> region of 300-500MB perhaps) and although Linux would definitely suite this
> kind of system as Solaris needs round 2GB or so for OpenSolaris, I am quite
> interested to learn FreeBSD but also take advantage of the ZFS file system
> which is standard now in version 8.
>
> I won't be installing a GUI on this machine since it is going to be a
> server so I would like to know if BSD has a small footprint memory and CPU
> wise for me to run on the machine in question which is a PIV?
>
> Also just to make sure: NFS, Samba, NTPd, and ISC's Bind are all supported
> on FreeBSD aren't they?? I know this is a bit of an RTFM issue here but for
> example the Solaris implementation of NTP and even SNMP are slightly
> different from the GNU or GPL based ones in Linux so therefor I have to ask
> :-)
>

If you're concerned about system resources, at least from a minimalist
perspective, then ZFS is not for you.  Solaris can't help you with that
either, ZFS is hungry.  ZFS is also not "standard", but considered
production ready.  UFS is still the standard, and the only filesystem
supported by the installer without resorting to tricks.

All the other services work well on FreeBSD.


-- 
Adam Vande More