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From: tmonroe@soda.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU (Anthony Monroe)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: BUGS in FreeBSD (Re: Linux vs. FreeBSD)
Date: 19 Jun 1995 22:54:54 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Undergraduate Association, UC Berkeley
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Message-ID: <3s4v7u$3ko@agate.berkeley.edu>
References: <3qfhhv$7uc@titania.pps.pgh.pa.us> <3s323f$87p@agate.berkeley.edu> <3s47ev$gi@news.nynexst.com> <3s4fci$prm@agate.berkeley.edu>
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(stands up) Hi, I'm Nick's roommate who's been having with problems with 
rwhod, and I'm a FreeBSD user.  (No twelve-step programs for me, thank
you...)

In article <3s4fci$prm@agate.berkeley.edu>,
Nick Kralevich <nickkral@sextans.EECS.Berkeley.EDU> wrote:
>
>BTW, the bugs and non-features are:
>  Inability to turn on or off BROADCAST or POINTOPOINT flag for 
>    loopback device.

No comment here; the problems I've been having with rwhod have been puzzling,
but it's not that big of a deal; the "network" we have between our two
computers is a hardwired serial line.  rwhod is nice, but I can live without
it.  (Up until I decided to experiment with it, I hardly ever typed "rwho"
on any system...)

>  Packets are still transmitted even though the UP flag is not turned
>    on in an interface.  "ifconfig -a" reports the interface as being
>    down, but packets are still transmitted.  To test this, start up
>    a SLIP connection, then type "ifconfig sl[whatever] down" and see
>    if you can still use your connection.  You shouldn't be able to.

Big deal.  It works, what do I care? :)  I'm guessing that what it does,
on bootup, is assume that all network interfaces are up if you don't 
EXPLICITLY tell them not to work (ifconfig xyz down).  I don't find anything
wrong with that, considering how much of the network I usually use; I don't
really want to worry about ifconfigging unless I'm setting the machine up.
The FreeBSD core team may feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. 

>  non-feature:  The "rwhod" doesn't check connections to make sure they
>    are still valid before sending packets out.  All the interfaces
>    are registered on startup, and are never updated.  (BTW, Linux has
>    the exact same problem with it's "rwhod" command).  The program was
>    written this way, so I consider it a non-feature instead of a bug.

Non-feature?  Are we using the politically correct term here?  It could very
well be a bug in the code.  If you think it's wrong, fix it.  I guess it's
a matter of perspective...

>Actually, if someone has an answer for these problems, I would really
>enjoy hearing them.  FreeBSD has given my roommate nothing but problems
>(although he claims he enjoys it).  :)

I have had my share of problems, but I am, on the whole, very pleased with
my system.  (I'm even more pleased now that the matcd driver is working :)
Of course it will give me problems.  Even commercial OS'es give people 
problems.  I know Linux gives you problems sometimes; every OS has bugs.

Random comment about stability: I never really managed to crash my system
under 2.0 (or even 2.0-alpha!), so I guess that I won't notice the large
improvement in stability much... :)

--
tmonroe@csua.berkeley.edu   	"Experimental Non-Rabbit"   	   Tony Monroe
http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~tmonroe/	 Computer Weenie and Weirdo in General