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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!paladin.american.edu!zombie.ncsc.mil!news.mathworks.com!news.kei.com!nntp.coast.net!agis!vtc.tacom.army.mil!news2.acs.oakland.edu!newshub.gmr.com!news.delcoelect.com!c23peg From: c23peg@mail.delcoelect.com (Perry Grieb) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Newbie 2.1 Impressions Date: 2 Jan 1996 18:50:21 GMT Organization: Delco Electronics Corp. Lines: 75 Distribution: world Message-ID: <4cbupd$gpr@kocrsv08.delcoelect.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: koptsy15.delcoelect.com Originator: c23peg@koptsy15 I just got the 2.1 CD (Walnut Creek) over the holidays and want to post a newbie's first impressions of FreeBSD. FYI, I have used linux for a year. The Install: I did the novice install (cuz I am a FreeBSD novice!) and used a 200M partition. Based on how the 200M was split (sliced?) up, I quickly ran out of disk space. I have about 200M worth of linux on a 400M drive which I've been adding to over time, so it was a shock how fast the FreeBSD filesystem filled up. I had to delete X as I was at full 100% utilization. Next time I'll try to make /var smaller. Also, I would eventually want to put swap on a different drive than the main filesystem. I assume this can be done? My current pc is a 386 with a couple of 420M IDE drives, which I hope to ditch some day. I probably won't use the novice install next time and see what happens... The Success: It was easy as pie to get more virtual consoles and to spawn getty (vt100 mode) on a serial port. Easier than in linux (but I guess linux gave me some experience in that area). I also got lynx instal- led and pointed at the html handbook and had some enjoyable reading. I did not get all the way through the handbook yet. Adding a new user was painless (well, almost). The Failure: Under "novice" I could not get FreeBSD to use a partition created by the OS/2 fdisk. Therefore I could not use the OS/2 boot manager. When I hit this snag, I just went ahead and installed the FreeBSD boot manager. I haven't tried getting to linux from it yet (but why worry now?). Is my problem here that I am not really a novice? Should I have used a different install selection? The "To Do" List: I am now trying to figure out how to configure the keyboard and swap the left cntl key and caps lock key. I did this in linux and I believe it can be done in FreeBSD. I guess I need to boot up linux and review exactly what I did... Any pointers in this area would be appreciated. I found the tcsh shell difficult to use, even though I use it at work (on a Sun SPARCstation LX). Somehow, at work, we have up/down arrows working for command history (like bash). Well, it's just one of those things to investigate later. Also, file protections seem to be different than under linux. I could not "su root". I think there was an installation or configuration screen that I may have blown past too fast here. I did not think it was important at the time. Probably just some misconfigured "group" somewhere (/etc/passwd or /usr/home?). More Questions: Is there any way to prevent the login sequence from asking what your terminal type is? This seems almost un-necessary since this info is basically already in /etc/ttys?!? Conclusions: Well, it sure seems solid enough after several hours of use. Yea, big deal, I only ran 1500 processes. I need a faster computer and bigger hard drive to do FreeBSD justice. It's just a minimum system so far. Looks nice however. Real nice. Thanks to all for a great looking package. -- c23peg@kocrsv01.delcoelect.com Perry Grieb M/S: CT-40D, Ph: 1-0486