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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.Hawaii.Edu!news.lava.net!nntp.reed.edu!usenet.ee.pdx.edu!cs.uoregon.edu!news.uoregon.edu!tezcat!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!howland.erols.net!news.sprintlink.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news-pull.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!news-dc-9.sprintlink.net!neonramp.com!cynjut.neonramp.com!cynjut.neonramp.com!not-for-mail From: burgess@cynjut.neonramp.com (Dave Burgess) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.announce,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.announce,comp.answers,news.answers,comp.unix.openbsd.announce Subject: [comp.unix.bsd] NetBSD, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD FAQ (Part 2 of 10) Supersedes: <386bsd-faq-2-854352003@cynjut.neonramp.com> Followup-To: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc Date: 13 Feb 1997 02:00:09 -0600 Organization: Dave's House in Omaha Lines: 414 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu,cgd@sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu Expires: 03/03/97 02:00:03 CDT Message-ID: <386bsd-faq-2-855820804@cynjut.neonramp.com> References: <386bsd-faq-1-855820804@cynjut.neonramp.com> Reply-To: burgess@cynjut.neonramp.com (BSD FAQ Maintainer) NNTP-Posting-Host: cynjut.neonramp.com Keywords: FAQ 386bsd NetBSD FreeBSD !Linux X-Posting-Frequency: Posted on/about the 13th and the 27th of every month. Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.announce:362 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.announce:475 comp.answers:22245 news.answers:6159 Posted-By: auto-faq 3.1.1.2 Archive-name: 386bsd-faq/part2 Section 1. (General Network Information) General information This section of the FAQ is about the electronic support network that exists for 386bsd and its off-spring. 1.0 I just downloaded all of 386bsd version 0.1 and I can't get [some feature] to work? Do you have any suggestions? Yes. Get FreeBSD, OpenBSD, or NetBSD. 1.1 Minimum hardware configuration recommended There has been considerable debate about what the REAL minimum configuration for *BSD is. Some would claim that it is the smallest computer that an installation will succeed on. Others claim that it is the smallest usable computer (based on RAM and speed constraints) and others would claim that it should be based on using 'X'-windows. The smallest installable platform is an 80386, using an MGA card, with at least 2Meg of RAM and a 20 Megabyte hard disk. While not all SCSI cards (especially EISA) are supported, a great many are either in the base distribution or through patches. Thanks to the new shared library code in FreeBSD and NetBSD, a 20Meg installation should be easier now (in spite of the more advanced functionality) than it ever was before. A comfortable installation which includes source and binary distributions, as well as other utilities will work in about 100Meg of hard drive. 'X' requires at least a Hercules MGA; for masochists only, from what I understand. See section 8 for more details. 1.4 Where to get the source and binaries 1.4.1 Where can I get the distribution on CD ROM? In a new joint venture, John Cargille, DiscNet, Inc., and InfoMagic, Inc. are pleased to announce their joint release of the BSDisc. This collaboration should be beneficial to all of our customers, since it brings to bear more experience, more support capability, and economies of scale in production. The BSDisc is scheduled to ship every six months or so. The current (November 1995) disk is a two CD set with the following: - NetBSD 1.1 - distribution sets for x86, sparc, mac68k, and amiga - expanded source tree for all architectures - FreeBSD 2.1.5 - distribution sets for x86 - expanded source and binary trees for x86 - XFree86 binaries for both FreeBSD and NetBSD - X11R6 (xc as well as contrib) - BSD-related news archive - various Answers to Frequently asked Question (FAQs) The BSDisc is available both for single-issue purchases, or on a buying plan. Single-issue price is $35.00; subscription pricing is $19.50 (or less) per issue, for a minimum length of 3 issues. (Those prices do not include S/H.) For single-issue purchases, contact InfoMagic at: +1-800-800-6613 InfoMagic, Inc. Tel: +1-602-526-9565 PO Box 30370 Fax: +1-602-526-9573 Flagstaff, AZ 86003-0370 e-mail: orders@Infomagic.com info@infomagic.com For information about subscriptions, contact DiscNet at: DiscNet, Inc. +1-608-846-9838 841 Acker Pkwy DeForest, WI 53532 email: bsdisc-info@grilled.cs.wisc.edu bsdisc-orders@grilled.cs.wisc.edu European subscriptions, email: bsdisc@altona.ppp.net I received this note from Jordan back in 1993. It is now sorely out of date, since there have been many releases of FreeBSD since then. The ordering info is still correct. While I will _always_ encourage obtaining FreeBSD through "free" channels (the Internet, friends, suspicious individuals in dark alleys), and given that none of us will make any money from CD sales, or ever have from FreeBSD in general given that WC's sponsorship is confined to the loan of centralized development hardware and network access, I still hope that some of you will find the CD distribution medium convenient enough to order a FreeBSD CD from Walnut Creek, thus indirectly supporting our future development work. If this marriage between commercial and free software interests proves to be mutually beneficial (which still remains to be seen, from Walnut Creek's point of view), it is my hope that it may serve as a model for similar future endeavors. It is an unfortunate fact that developing free software at this scale costs money, even with the developers donating their time and efforts, and financing some of it through the sale of convenient distribution media is one of the least venal ways I know of going about it. This CD contains a full FreeBSD 1.0.2 source & binary release, the sources and binaries for XFree86 2.0, and numerous sources from the FreeBSD "ports collection". Where space permitted, sources were provided in both "packed" and "unpacked" forms for easy access both as an on-line resource and as a source for compressed downloads in BBS or release-construction situations. The CD is fully ISO9660 compatible and has been mastered using RockRidge extensions for long filenames on systems that support it (like FreeBSD! :-). It is, of course, possible to install the system off the CD from scratch, given some basic willingness to read a little documentation and a few blank floppy disks. [ Ed Note. You would be surprised the number of people that do not see this paragraph...DBB] For the sake of convenience, I append the ordering information distilled from FreeBSD's /usr/src/RELNOTES.FreeBSD below. Ordering information: Walnut Creek CDROM 4041 Pike Lane, Suite D Concord CA 94520 1-800-786-9907, +1-510-674-0783, +1-510-674-0821 (fax) Or via the Internet from orders@cdrom.com. A current catalog can be obtained via ftp from ftp.cdrom.com:/cdrom/catalog. They accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and ship COD within the United States. California residents please add 8.25% sales tax. roman@public.btr.com (Roman Yanovsky roman@btr.com) sent in this note. I have edited it down some, but left in the bulk of the stuff in case you need more information: Subject: Linux Slackware and FreeBSD CD-ROM with X-windows etc. Trans-Ameritech presents "The best Linux plus FreeBSD CDROM ever" [ Linux stuff deleted ] * For hacker's reference an uncompressed FreeBSD source tree is provided. * On the BSD side there is a full source and binary distribution of the "final" FreeBSD 1.0 * If you have questions or problems Trans-Ameritech provides free support via e-mail within 24 hours. * We ship the same day as we get the order. The new CDROM is available for $30 plus shipping/handling. If you are a current customer, it is only $20. New releases will be available every 3 month. Subscription is available. Trans-Ameritech Enterprises, Inc. 2342A Walsh Ave. Santa Clara, CA 95051 Tel. 408/727-3883 FAX: 408/727-3882 This information is offered with no warranties, guarantees, franchise offers, or recommendations. 1.5.3 *BSD system mailing lists. With the elimination of the old 386bsd mailing lists, the only mailing lists that are still available are the ones for FreeBSD and NetBSD. Information about the NetBSD lists and how to use majordomo (the list handler) is available by mailing to majordomo@sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu. There are four mailing lists for FreeBSD and they are: FreeBSD-hackers: for hackers FreeBSD-questions: misc questions FreeBSD-bugs: bug reports FreeBSD-current: discussion of -current (in development) Send to FreeBSD-hackers-request@freefall.cdrom.com to be added to the hackers list, and *-questions-request@freefall... to be added to the questions list. For information about the NetBSD mailing lists, see the NetBSD Mailing List FAQ that is posted regularly by Chris Demetriou in comp.os.386bsd.announce. 1.5.4 System Updates. There are at least two different ways of getting the updates for the current source tree for both FreeBSD and NetBSD. The first is the traditional FTP method, and the other is using a utility called 'sup'. This program keeps a log of the source modules that have been updated and sends out only those files that have been changed. Included below are some sample instructions from John Brezak <brezak@apollo.hp.com> on how to run sup for NetBSD. The sup procedures for FreeBSD are similar and are available via ftp from freefall.cdrom.com in the ~/ftp/pub/sup directory. This directory contains the sup program, a man page, a sample sup-file and full instructions for maintaining your sources via 'sup. 1.6 Documentation available There are two types of documentation for *BSD. First is the set that covers the operation and theory used in BSD-Unix. 1.6.1 BSD manuals The full set of BSD documentation is available via anonymous FTP from ocf.berkeley.edu in /pub/Library/Computer/doc4.3. To print this documentation on *BSD systems, replace the ditroff references in the Makefile with 'groff -e -t -msU {SRC} >out.ps' to generate PostScript format files. Use different options to make the output conform to other print styles. The etc distribution also comes with a documentation directory /usr/share/doc which has nearly 3Meg of documentation about *BSD. In addition, on-line manuals are available in the binary distribution set. It contains specific information on the use of UNIX utilities and commands. Type "man man" for information on the online manual. 1.6.2 BSD books For learning how to work in the Unix environment, the standard text is "The Unix Programming Environment," by Kernighan and Pike. For Unix Administration, the best is "Unix System Administration Handbook," by Nemeth, Snyder and Seebass. For systems level programming (i.e., systems calls), I recommend "Advanced Unix Programming," by Marc Rochkind. Unfortunately it is out-dated and oriented towards System V. A new book "Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment," by W. Richard Stevens is very up-to-date, and an excellent reference, especially for dealing with POSIX standards issues. For network programming, "Unix Network Programming," by W. Richard Stevens is highly regarded. The 4.3BSD Unix Manuals contain loads of invaluable tutorials and historical papers in addition to hard copies of on-line documentation. The six volume set is available from Usenix for $60.00 (email: office@usenix.org) The 4.4 BSD Unix Manuals are the authoritative source for information about the 4.4 BSD release, and by inference the NetBSD and FreeBSD systems. They are available from O'Reilly and Associates (the Nutshell series people). In addition the the six volume set, there is a CD included (at a price) of the entire 4.4 release. Combine this with the NetBSD 1.0 or FreeBSD 2.0 systems, and you should have a commercial quality operating system available in no time. I recommend you look at "The AWK Programming Language," by Aho, Weinberger and Kernighan. This is a very nice prototyping language - powerful and easy to use. Another excellent reference book for *BSD is "The Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD UNIX Operating system" by Samuel J. Leffler, Marshall Kirk McKusick, Michael J. Karels, John S. Quarterman, 1989, Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-06196-1. While this book is out of date in many sections, it is purported to be an excellent source of historical information, if nothing else. Chris Demetriou recommends the sections on the treatment of file systems, caching and the networking layer. The sections in this books which do not apply to *BSD include the VM section, bootstrapping, and autoconfig. Here is a list from Hellmuth Michaelis (duplicative as it may seem to have all of these lists) for more information on *BSD: UNIX AND UNIX DEVICE DRIVERS ---------------------------- Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. "UNIX Programmer's Manual, Seventh Edition, Volume 2". Revised and Expanded Version. Holt, Rinehart and Winston 1983 George Pajari, "Writing Unix Device Drivers" Addison Wesley 1992 Janet I. Egan and Thomas J. Teixeira, "Writing a UNIX Device Driver" John Wiley & Sons 1989, especially the 30 page appendix handling the unique features of the BSD system. Janet I. Egan and Thomas J. Teixeira, "Writing a UNIX Device Driver" Second Edition. John Wiley &*BSD1992 Leffler, McKusick, Karels, Quarterman, "The Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD UNIX Operating System" Addison Wesley 1988, corrected Reprint 1989 Leffler, McKusick, "The Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD UNIX Operating System, Answer Book" Addison Wesley 1991 Leffler, McKusick, Karels, Quarterman, "The Design and Implementation of the 4.4BSD UNIX Operating System" available in fine book stores everywhere Maurice J. Bach, "The Design of the UNIX Operating System" Prentice-Hall 1986 Sun Microsystems Inc., "Writing Device Drivers" Part No. 800-3851-10, Revision A of 27 March 1990 Hewlett-Packard Company, "HP-UX Driver Development Guide", Part No. 98577-90013, First Edition 07/91 W. Richard Stevens, "Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment", Addison Wesley 1992 Phillip M. Adams, Clovis L. Tondo, "Writing Unix Device Drivers in C", Prentice Hall 1993 Peter Kettle, Steve Statler, "Writing Device Drivers for SCO UNIX, A Practical Approach", Addison Wesley 1993 In addition, there are many other books which, for one reason or another, have not made it into this brief list. Rest assured that this is not intended to be an exhaustive list by any means. There is also some documentation associated with the pcvt console driver. Since this documentation is part of the normal distribution on both FreeBSD and NetBSD, and DOES document a device driver, it should be considered a good source for more insight into writing device drivers. 1.6.6 The O'Reilly and Associates BSD 4.4 Set. O'Reilly and Associates puts out a five book series that includes all of the documentation for BSD 4.4. In addition, they also sell a CD-ROM with all of the publicly releasable BSD-4.4 code that is available. These books are good references (perhaps not perfect, since many changes to the system have been made even since these books were produced) but they do provide a great deal of background and rationale for the system and the history for much of the system. 1.6.7 Other FAQ's on the net that are relevant Most FAQs are available by anonymous FTP from rtfm.mit.edu and via Usenet News in news.answers and/or comp.answers. This FAQ is no exception (I hope). 1.7.1 Official distribution sites FreeBSD's 'home' is FreeBSD.cdrom.com (the home disk of Walnut Creek). The portions of FreeBSD (versions less than 2.0) that were encumbered are distributed with the tolerance of AT&T/USL/Novell/SCO/whoever owns the source for SysV this week. All FreeBSD versions (with version number >= 2.0) are based solely on the freely redistributable BSD 4.4 sources. NetBSD's 'home' is now ftp.NetBSD.Org. All versions of NetBSD since 0.9 have replaced the kernel code from the 4.3 distribution with the source from the 4.4 distribution. The only code still in NetBSD from the 4.3 distribution is some user program code that was uncontested in the USL/UCB agreement. OpenBSD's 'home' is ftp.openbsd.org. It was based on NetBSD Version 1.0, so it is (by definition) clean. There are (at least) two things which differentiate OpenBSD from NetBSD. One big difference here is that nearly anyone can write changes to the kernel code in the -current line and make their updates available. Another is OpenBSD is hosted in Canada, and therefore has no export restrictions on any of it's code (specifically the encryption code for DES). -- Dave Burgess (The man of a thousand E-Mail addresses) *bsd FAQ Maintainer / SysAdmin for the NetBSD system in my spare bedroom "Just because something is stupid doesn't mean there isn't someone that doesn't want to do it...."