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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!btnet!zetnet.co.uk!dispatch.news.demon.net!demon!jraynard.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail From: james@jraynard.demon.co.uk (James Raynard) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.misc Subject: Re: What to install with FreeBSD? Date: 17 May 1996 01:30:19 -0000 Organization: A FreeBSD Box Lines: 111 Message-ID: <4ngkrb$irb@jraynard.demon.co.uk> References: <4nf96k$m8t@news.indy.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost.demon.co.uk X-NNTP-Posting-Host: jraynard.demon.co.uk Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:19525 comp.os.linux.misc:104163 In article <4nf96k$m8t@news.indy.net>, Ivan Samuelson <bolski@indy.net> wrote: >I'm currently running Linux, but I'd like to also try FreeBSD. However, >I am unsure of what I need to download in order to install. I have the >boot floppy (atapi one), but what dirs under the 2.1.0-RELEASE directory >do I need? I've downloaded the /bin, /compat1x, /compat20, /des, /dict, >/floppies, /games, /info, /manpages, /proflibs, and /src and /XF86312. > >Will this give me everything I need? This will give you an extremely complete Unix system, perhaps more than you need, even 8-) > What exactly do each of these give >me in the way of programs? Is there a list somewhere on the net that >explains what each directory contains? I've read the FAQ and the >Handbook, and neither one seems to explain exactly what you need to >download in the way of packages in order to even get a minimal installation. Have a look at the files with README.TXT, INSTALL.TXT - I'm sure one of them has a list of what they all are. A minimal installation requires a boot floppy (atapi if you have an IDE CDROM, boot.flp otherwise), the root floppy and the bin dist. I'd also strongly recommend the info and manpage dists which have the closest you'll get to online documentation in Unix; also part of the src dist. The compat dists are for compatibility with earlier versions of FreeBSD - unless you have a special reason for wanting them (eg you're trying to install a program which only works on 2.0), they can safely be ignored. The des dist relates to DES encryption, although the one that comes with FreeBSD is better and can be downloaded legally from outside the USA, unlike DES. Don't bother with this unless you really need it. The dict dist is a dictionary file for use by spell checkers, which is nice but not essential. The games dist is a set of character-based games which are, dare I say it, not all that exciting. The proflibs dist is probably of interest only to developers - it allows you to find out where the road-blocks are in code you've written. The src dist is the complete source for the system (yes, really!). Unless you're interested in seeing how it all works, or plan on running the development versions of FreeBSD, you can ignore most of this. However, the kernel source is strongly recommended, as you will need this to customise your kernel (not compulsory in most cases, but definitely well worth doing). Finally, XF86312 is the X window system. It may take a bit of fiddling to set up, and you really need 16M of RAM for decent performance, but most of us couldn't live without it (as on Linux, I suspect). Have a look at the README file in the directory to find out what all the files mean (there's only about 3 or 4 that are essential). However, you don't need to worry too much about all this, as you are given various options in the installation - minimal installation, user's installation with X and kernel source, developer's installation, etc and the install program on the boot floppy is intelligent enough to pull down what it needs over FTP without you having to download it by hand. >I've considered getting the Walnut Creek CD-ROM, which I'm sure would >really simplify things for me, but I don't feel like shelling out $40 for >it only to find that I really would rather continue running Linux. I understand there are other places where you can get it more cheaply - WC sells it at a premium deliberately and uses the extra to support the FreeBSD project (hope I got that right! 8-) >I guess my main question is which DIRs do I really need for a full UNIX >installation that allows me to: > a) compile programs > b) have TCP/IP > c) have TEX/Latex > d) have EMACS > e) have PINE, ELM, etc. > f) Tcl/Tk > g) do PPP and SLIP over a telephone line a, b and g are covered by the bin dist, the rest are all available in ports. Again, these can be installed very simply if you are net-connected at the time (or have the CD). >Also, I saw a couple of dirs with huge files in them. I didn't download >them, but I was curious as to what they were. Specifically, they are the >/commerce, /xperimnt directories, as well as the following files in the >XF86312 directory: XF86-co.tgz and XF86-xc.tgz The commerce dist is, commercial programs that have been made available to FreeBSD users and xperimnt is, well, experimental code. XF86-co.tgz consists of a number of programs that have been contributed to the XFree86 project and XF86-xc.tgz is the source code needed to rebuild the whole of X. >Thanks for any help in this information. Also, if anyone has any tips on >what to install and what is useful, I'd appreciate it. Hope this helps. >Again, my main reason for trying BSD is to see if it would better suit my >needs. Although, I do know that it supports my Ditto 420 Floppy drive >whereas I've been having a heck of a time getting it to work under Linux >(Slackware 3.0). Good luck. -- James Raynard, Edinburgh, Scotland jraynard@dial.pipex.com james@jraynard.demon.co.uk