*BSD News Article 92466


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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
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From: caussep@sphynx.fdn.fr (Philippe CAUSSE)
Subject: Re: FreeBSD vs. Linux
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]
Organization: individual - paris - france
Message-ID: <E7nt90.H5@sphynx.fdn.fr>
References: <01bc39ca$4cb6d9c0$232c3d9b@muna019>
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 16:46:12 GMT
Lines: 89
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:38157

Andreas Hinterleitner (ahinterleitn@bangate.eur.compaq.com) wrote:
: I did some experiments with Linux (2.0.29) and FreeBSD (2.1.5) on a x86 and
: Pentium platform and encountered FreeBSD not so well adapted to the PC
: Hardware as Linux is.

: Some of my problems with FreeBSD:

: - stderr and stdout seems to be hard wired with ttyv0; this causes strange
: effects on the screen when e.g. a login on ttyv1 is done
Uh ! Strange... I never had any such troubles with it !
Looks like somthing jammed during your install...

: - midnight commander acts strange on some keystrokes and mouse movements
: (CTRL+O doesn't work at all: once I disabled the panels, I cannot bring
: them back!)
Sorry, never used it...

: - color X-terminals (e.g. rxvt) don't use color by default (still don't
: know how to change this)
You have to installe the proper entry in your termcap:
	1) edit /usr/share/misc/termcap
	2) Add the entry for rxvt
	3) cd to /usr/share/misc
	4) re-compile the termcap database with cap_mkdb
	5) run color-aware programs
	6) enjoy :-)

: - the APM on my Compaq LTE Elite doesn't work correctly, even with apm
: driver present (return from standby: screen is still black);
No info on this subject...

: also the kernel reports "sio0: not found on 0x3f8" - the PC setup shows
: COM1 at exactly this address and a 16550 compatible UART is used (Linux has
: no problems with this!)
Second time I see this... sounds like Compaq's hardware is 100% compatible
with Compaq, not with the std PC architecture!

: - because of the absence of a nice window manager in the FreeBSD version
: that I use, I decided to work with olvwm - with the result, that some xview
: programs that are part of the "usual" xview distribution are missing
: (props, textedit)
Get one of these "wonderful linux file managers" and compile it on your
FreeBSD box, there aren't any reasons why it should not run on FreeBSD:
both have POSIX-ish interface to directories, both have XFree86, both
have GCC.
IMHO, you'll regret your command line some day...

: - my DEL key doesn't act as normal but like the BACKSPACE key (DEL should
: delete the character below the actual cursor position and work to the
: right, not to the left!)
Depends on which console driver you're using.
It's a pure matter of personal taste, but my choice went for the PCVT
driver (VT220 compat.) where keystrokes are clearly following the DEC
standard (interesting when you're rloging to a Sun box...).
This driver is not fooled with BS/DEL confusions...
If you want BS, use Shift+ "<-", if you want DEL, simply press "<-".
Anyway, both drivers (PCVT & SCO-like) can be dynamically reconfigured.
Choice is your's!

: - the FreeBSD "handbook" is only a poor basis for obtaining general
: information about FreeBSD as other documentation is also; I ordered some
: books to get in depth information; kernel parameters are sparsely commented
Have a look at the on-line handbook, it's far more advanced than the HTML
pages supplied with 2.1.5-R.
Next, you should probably spend a couple of nights reading the 4.4BSD books
from O'Reilly & Associates. The most important ones are:
	4.4BSD System Manager's Manual (SMM)
	4.4BSD User's Reference Manual (URM)
	4.4BSD Programmers Reference Manual (PRM)

You can also read:
	4.4BSD User's Supplementary Documents (USD)
	4.4BSD Programmer's Supplementary Documents (PSD)

They are quite cheap and real value for money.

: I like FreeBSD and ordered version 2.1.7, and I also want to use this OS in
: the future (together with Linux). Can anyone give me some clues to help me
: with my problems?

Try to find a friend in your neighbourhood who's already keen on BSD, he'll
certainly be able to explain those things better than I am in Usenet!

Cheers,
Philippe.
-- 
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P. Causse			http://www.fdn.fr/~pcausse
4.4BSD/X11R6/Motif-2.0/C++	mailto:caussep@sphynx.fdn.fr (UUCP)