*BSD News Article 58735


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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