1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838
839
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882
883
884
885
886
887
888
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
918
919
920
921
922
923
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969
970
971
972
973
974
975
976
977
978
979
980
981
982
983
984
985
986
987
988
989
990
991
992
993
994
995
996
997
998
999
1000
1001
1002
1003
1004
1005
1006
1007
1008
1009
1010
1011
1012
1013
1014
1015
1016
1017
1018
1019
1020
1021
1022
1023
1024
1025
1026
1027
1028
1029
1030
1031
1032
1033
1034
1035
1036
1037
1038
1039
1040
1041
1042
1043
1044
1045
1046
1047
1048
1049
1050
1051
1052
1053
1054
1055
1056
1057
1058
1059
1060
1061
1062
1063
1064
1065
1066
1067
1068
1069
1070
1071
1072
1073
1074
1075
1076
1077
1078
1079
1080
1081
1082
1083
1084
1085
1086
1087
1088
1089
1090
1091
1092
1093
1094
1095
1096
1097
1098
1099
1100
1101
1102
1103
1104
1105
1106
1107
1108
1109
1110
1111
1112
1113
1114
1115
1116
1117
1118
1119
1120
1121
1122
1123
1124
1125
1126
1127
1128
1129
1130
1131
1132
1133
1134
1135
1136
1137
1138
1139
1140
1141
1142
1143
1144
1145
1146
1147
1148
1149
1150
1151
1152
1153
1154
1155
1156
1157
1158
1159
1160
1161
1162
1163
1164
1165
1166
1167
1168
1169
1170
1171
1172
1173
1174
1175
1176
1177
1178
1179
1180
1181
1182
1183
1184
1185
1186
1187
1188
1189
1190
1191
1192
1193
1194
1195
1196
1197
1198
1199
1200
1201
1202
1203
1204
1205
1206
1207
1208
1209
1210
1211
1212
1213
1214
1215
1216
1217
1218
1219
1220
1221
1222
1223
1224
1225
1226
1227
1228
1229
1230
1231
1232
1233
1234
1235
1236
1237
1238
1239
1240
1241
1242
1243
1244
1245
1246
1247
1248
1249
1250
1251
1252
1253
1254
1255
1256
1257
1258
1259
1260
1261
1262
1263
1264
1265
1266
1267
1268
1269
1270
1271
1272
1273
1274
1275
1276
1277
1278
1279
1280
1281
1282
1283
1284
1285
1286
1287
1288
1289
1290
1291
1292
1293
1294
1295
1296
1297
1298
1299
1300
1301
1302
1303
1304
1305
1306
1307
1308
1309
1310
1311
1312
1313
1314
1315
1316
1317
1318
1319
1320
1321
1322
1323
1324
1325
1326
1327
1328
1329
1330
1331
1332
1333
1334
1335
1336
1337
1338
1339
1340
1341
1342
1343
1344
1345
1346
1347
1348
1349
1350
1351
1352
1353
1354
1355
1356
1357
1358
1359
1360
1361
1362
1363
1364
1365
1366
1367
1368
1369
1370
1371
1372
1373
1374
1375
1376
1377
1378
1379
1380
1381
1382
1383
1384
1385
1386
1387
1388
1389
1390
1391
1392
1393
1394
1395
1396
1397
1398
1399
1400
1401
1402
1403
1404
1405
1406
1407
1408
1409
1410
1411
1412
1413
1414
1415
1416
1417
1418
1419
1420
1421
1422
1423
1424
1425
1426
1427
1428
1429
1430
1431
1432
1433
1434
1435
1436
1437
1438
1439
1440
1441
1442
1443
1444
1445
1446
1447
1448
1449
1450
1451
1452
1453
1454
1455
1456
1457
1458
1459
1460
1461
1462
1463
1464
1465
1466
1467
1468
1469
1470
1471
1472
1473
1474
1475
1476
1477
1478
1479
1480
1481
1482
1483
1484
1485
1486
1487
1488
1489
1490
1491
1492
1493
1494
1495
1496
1497
1498
1499
1500
1501
1502
1503
1504
1505
1506
1507
1508
1509
1510
1511
1512
1513
1514
1515
1516
1517
1518
1519
1520
1521
1522
1523
1524
1525
1526
1527
1528
1529
1530
1531
1532
1533
1534
1535
1536
1537
1538
1539
1540
1541
1542
1543
1544
1545
1546
1547
1548
1549
1550
1551
1552
1553
1554
1555
1556
1557
1558
1559
1560
1561
1562
1563
1564
1565
1566
1567
1568
1569
1570
1571
1572
1573
1574
1575
1576
1577
1578
1579
1580
1581
1582
1583
1584
1585
1586
1587
1588
1589
1590
1591
1592
1593
1594
1595
1596
1597
1598
1599
1600
1601
1602
1603
1604
1605
1606
1607
1608
1609
1610
1611
1612
1613
1614
1615
1616
1617
1618
1619
1620
1621
1622
1623
1624
1625
1626
1627
1628
1629
1630
1631
1632
1633
1634
1635
1636
1637
1638
1639
1640
1641
1642
1643
1644
1645
1646
1647
1648
1649
1650
1651
1652
1653
1654
1655
1656
1657
1658
1659
1660
1661
1662
1663
1664
1665
1666
1667
1668
1669
1670
1671
1672
1673
1674
1675
1676
1677
1678
1679
1680
1681
1682
1683
1684
1685
1686
1687
1688
1689
1690
1691
1692
1693
1694
1695
1696
1697
1698
1699
1700
1701
1702
1703
1704
1705
1706
1707
1708
1709
1710
1711
1712
1713
1714
1715
1716
1717
1718
1719
1720
1721
1722
1723
1724
1725
1726
1727
1728
1729
1730
1731
1732
1733
1734
1735
1736
1737
1738
1739
1740
1741
1742
1743
1744
1745
1746
1747
1748
1749
1750
1751
1752
1753
1754
1755
1756
1757
1758
1759
1760
1761
1762
1763
1764
1765
1766
1767
1768
1769
1770
1771
1772
1773
1774
1775
1776
1777
1778
1779
1780
1781
1782
1783
1784
1785
1786
1787
1788
1789
1790
1791
1792
1793
1794
1795
1796
1797
1798
1799
1800
1801
1802
1803
1804
1805
1806
1807
1808
1809
1810
1811
1812
1813
1814
1815
1816
1817
1818
1819
1820
1821
1822
1823
1824
1825
1826
1827
1828
1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
1834
1835
1836
1837
1838
1839
1840
1841
1842
1843
1844
1845
1846
1847
1848
1849
1850
1851
1852
1853
1854
1855
1856
1857
1858
1859
1860
1861
1862
1863
1864
1865
1866
1867
1868
1869
1870
1871
1872
1873
1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893
1894
1895
1896
1897
1898
1899
1900
1901
1902
1903
1904
1905
1906
1907
1908
1909
1910
1911
1912
1913
1914
1915
1916
1917
1918
1919
1920
1921
1922
1923
1924
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937
1938
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
2027
2028
2029
2030
2031
2032
2033
2034
2035
2036
2037
2038
2039
2040
2041
2042
2043
2044
2045
2046
2047
2048
2049
2050
2051
2052
2053
2054
2055
2056
2057
2058
2059
2060
2061
2062
2063
2064
2065
2066
2067
2068
2069
2070
2071
2072
2073
2074
2075
2076
2077
2078
2079
2080
2081
2082
2083
2084
2085
2086
2087
2088
2089
2090
2091
2092
2093
2094
2095
2096
2097
2098
2099
2100
2101
2102
2103
2104
2105
2106
2107
2108
2109
2110
2111
2112
2113
2114
2115
2116
2117
2118
2119
2120
2121
2122
2123
2124
2125
2126
2127
2128
2129
2130
2131
2132
2133
2134
2135
2136
2137
2138
2139
2140
2141
2142
2143
2144
2145
2146
2147
2148
2149
2150
2151
2152
2153
2154
2155
2156
2157
2158
2159
2160
2161
2162
2163
2164
2165
2166
2167
2168
2169
2170
2171
2172
2173
2174
2175
2176
2177
2178
2179
2180
2181
2182
2183
2184
2185
2186
2187
2188
2189
2190
2191
2192
2193
2194
2195
2196
2197
2198
2199
2200
2201
2202
2203
2204
2205
2206
2207
2208
2209
2210
2211
2212
2213
2214
2215
2216
2217
2218
2219
2220
2221
2222
2223
2224
2225
2226
2227
2228
2229
2230
2231
2232
2233
2234
2235
2236
2237
2238
2239
2240
2241
2242
2243
2244
2245
2246
2247
2248
2249
2250
2251
2252
2253
2254
2255
2256
2257
2258
2259
2260
2261
2262
2263
2264
2265
2266
2267
2268
2269
2270
2271
2272
2273
2274
2275
2276
2277
2278
2279
2280
2281
2282
2283
2284
2285
2286
2287
2288
2289
2290
2291
2292
2293
2294
2295
2296
2297
2298
2299
2300
2301
2302
2303
2304
2305
2306
2307
2308
2309
2310
2311
2312
2313
2314
2315
2316
2317
2318
2319
2320
2321
2322
2323
2324
2325
2326
2327
2328
2329
2330
2331
2332
2333
2334
2335
2336
2337
2338
2339
2340
2341
2342
2343
2344
2345
2346
2347
2348
2349
2350
2351
2352
2353
2354
2355
2356
2357
2358
2359
2360
2361
2362
2363
2364
2365
2366
2367
2368
2369
2370
2371
2372
2373
2374
2375
2376
2377
2378
2379
2380
2381
2382
2383
2384
2385
2386
2387
2388
2389
2390
2391
2392
2393
2394
2395
2396
2397
2398
2399
2400
2401
2402
2403
2404
2405
2406
2407
2408
2409
2410
2411
2412
2413
2414
2415
2416
2417
2418
2419
2420
2421
2422
2423
2424
2425
2426
2427
2428
2429
2430
2431
2432
2433
2434
2435
2436
2437
2438
2439
2440
2441
2442
2443
2444
2445
2446
2447
2448
2449
2450
2451
2452
2453
2454
2455
2456
2457
2458
2459
2460
2461
2462
2463
2464
2465
2466
2467
2468
2469
2470
2471
2472
2473
2474
2475
2476
2477
2478
2479
2480
2481
2482
2483
2484
2485
2486
2487
2488
2489
2490
2491
2492
2493
2494
2495
2496
2497
2498
2499
2500
2501
2502
2503
2504
2505
2506
2507
2508
2509
2510
2511
2512
2513
2514
2515
2516
2517
2518
2519
2520
2521
2522
2523
2524
2525
2526
2527
2528
2529
2530
2531
2532
2533
2534
2535
2536
2537
2538
2539
2540
2541
2542
2543
2544
2545
2546
2547
2548
2549
2550
2551
2552
2553
2554
2555
2556
2557
2558
2559
2560
2561
2562
2563
2564
2565
2566
2567
2568
2569
2570
2571
2572
2573
2574
2575
2576
2577
2578
2579
2580
2581
2582
2583
2584
2585
2586
2587
2588
2589
2590
2591
2592
2593
2594
2595
2596
2597
2598
2599
2600
2601
2602
2603
2604
2605
2606
2607
2608
2609
2610
2611
2612
2613
2614
2615
2616
2617
2618
2619
2620
2621
2622
2623
2624
2625
2626
2627
2628
2629
2630
2631
2632
2633
2634
2635
2636
2637
2638
2639
2640
2641
2642
2643
2644
2645
2646
2647
2648
2649
2650
2651
2652
2653
2654
2655
2656
2657
2658
2659
2660
2661
2662
2663
2664
2665
2666
2667
2668
2669
2670
2671
2672
2673
2674
2675
2676
2677
2678
2679
2680
2681
2682
2683
2684
2685
2686
2687
2688
2689
2690
2691
2692
2693
2694
2695
2696
2697
2698
2699
2700
2701
2702
2703
2704
2705
2706
2707
2708
2709
2710
2711
2712
2713
2714
2715
2716
2717
2718
2719
2720
2721
2722
2723
2724
2725
2726
2727
2728
2729
2730
2731
2732
2733
2734
2735
2736
2737
2738
2739
2740
2741
2742
2743
2744
2745
2746
2747
2748
2749
2750
2751
2752
2753
2754
2755
2756
2757
2758
2759
2760
2761
2762
2763
2764
2765
2766
2767
2768
2769
2770
2771
2772
2773
2774
2775
2776
2777
2778
2779
2780
2781
2782
2783
2784
2785
2786
2787
2788
2789
2790
2791
2792
2793
2794
2795
2796
2797
2798
2799
2800
2801
2802
2803
2804
2805
2806
2807
2808
2809
2810
2811
2812
2813
2814
2815
2816
2817
2818
2819
2820
2821
2822
2823
2824
2825
2826
2827
2828
2829
2830
2831
2832
2833
2834
2835
2836
2837
2838
2839
2840
2841
2842
2843
2844
2845
2846
2847
2848
2849
2850
2851
2852
2853
2854
2855
2856
2857
2858
2859
2860
2861
2862
2863
2864
2865
2866
2867
2868
2869
2870
2871
2872
2873
2874
2875
2876
2877
2878
2879
2880
2881
2882
2883
2884
2885
2886
2887
2888
2889
2890
2891
2892
2893
2894
2895
2896
2897
2898
2899
2900
2901
2902
2903
2904
2905
2906
2907
2908
2909
2910
2911
2912
2913
2914
2915
2916
2917
2918
2919
2920
2921
2922
2923
2924
2925
2926
2927
2928
2929
2930
2931
2932
2933
2934
2935
2936
2937
2938
2939
2940
2941
2942
2943
2944
2945
2946
2947
2948
2949
2950
2951
2952
2953
2954
2955
2956
2957
2958
2959
2960
2961
2962
2963
2964
2965
2966
2967
2968
2969
2970
2971
2972
2973
2974
2975
2976
2977
2978
2979
2980
2981
2982
2983
2984
2985
2986
2987
2988
2989
2990
2991
2992
2993
2994
2995
2996
2997
2998
2999
3000
3001
3002
3003
3004
3005
3006
3007
3008
3009
3010
3011
3012
3013
3014
3015
3016
3017
3018
3019
3020
3021
3022
3023
3024
3025
3026
3027
3028
3029
3030
3031
3032
3033
3034
3035
3036
3037
3038
3039
3040
3041
3042
3043
3044
3045
3046
3047
3048
3049
3050
3051
3052
3053
3054
3055
3056
3057
3058
3059
3060
3061
3062
3063
3064
3065
3066
3067
3068
3069
3070
3071
3072
3073
3074
3075
3076
3077
3078
3079
3080
3081
3082
3083
3084
3085
3086
3087
3088
3089
3090
3091
3092
3093
3094
3095
3096
3097
3098
3099
3100
3101
3102
3103
3104
3105
3106
3107
3108
3109
3110
3111
3112
3113
3114
3115
3116
3117
3118
3119
3120
3121
3122
3123
3124
3125
3126
3127
3128
3129
3130
3131
3132
3133
3134
3135
3136
3137
3138
3139
3140
3141
3142
3143
3144
3145
3146
3147
3148
3149
3150
3151
3152
3153
3154
3155
3156
3157
3158
3159
3160
3161
3162
3163
3164
3165
3166
3167
3168
3169
3170
3171
3172
3173
3174
3175
3176
3177
3178
3179
3180
3181
3182
3183
3184
3185
3186
3187
3188
3189
3190
3191
3192
3193
3194
3195
3196
3197
3198
3199
3200
3201
3202
3203
3204
3205
3206
3207
3208
3209
3210
3211
3212
3213
3214
3215
3216
3217
3218
3219
3220
3221
3222
3223
3224
3225
3226
3227
3228
3229
3230
3231
3232
3233
3234
3235
3236
3237
3238
3239
3240
3241
3242
3243
3244
3245
3246
3247
3248
3249
3250
3251
3252
3253
3254
3255
3256
3257
3258
3259
3260
3261
3262
3263
3264
3265
3266
3267
3268
3269
3270
3271
3272
3273
3274
3275
3276
3277
3278
3279
3280
3281
3282
3283
3284
3285
3286
3287
3288
3289
3290
3291
3292
3293
3294
3295
3296
3297
3298
3299
3300
3301
3302
3303
3304
3305
3306
3307
3308
3309
3310
3311
3312
3313
3314
3315
3316
3317
3318
3319
3320
3321
3322
3323
3324
3325
3326
3327
3328
3329
3330
3331
3332
3333
3334
3335
3336
3337
3338
3339
3340
3341
3342
3343
3344
3345
3346
3347
3348
3349
3350
3351
3352
3353
3354
3355
3356
3357
3358
3359
3360
3361
3362
3363
3364
3365
3366
3367
3368
3369
3370
3371
3372
3373
3374
3375
3376
3377
3378
3379
3380
3381
3382
3383
3384
3385
3386
3387
3388
3389
3390
3391
3392
3393
3394
3395
3396
3397
3398
3399
3400
3401
3402
3403
3404
3405
3406
3407
3408
3409
3410
3411
3412
3413
3414
3415
3416
3417
3418
3419
3420
3421
3422
3423
3424
3425
3426
3427
3428
3429
3430
3431
3432
3433
3434
3435
3436
3437
3438
3439
3440
3441
3442
3443
3444
3445
3446
3447
3448
3449
3450
3451
3452
3453
3454
3455
3456
3457
3458
3459
3460
3461
3462
|
<!DOCTYPE linuxdoc PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD linuxdoc//EN">
<article>
<title>Frequently Asked Questions for FreeBSD 2.X
<author>The FreeBSD FAQ Team, <tt/FAQ@FreeBSD.ORG/
<date> $Id: freebsd-faq.sgml,v 1.58 1996/08/04 15:21:53 roberto Exp $
<abstract>
This is the FAQ for FreeBSD systems version 2.X All entries are
assumed to be relevant to FreeBSD 2.0.5+, unless otherwise noted.
Any entries with a <XXX> are under construction.
</abstract>
<toc>
<sect>
<heading>Preface</heading>
<p>
Welcome to the FreeBSD 2.X FAQ !
<sect1>
<heading>What is the purpose of this FAQ?</heading>
<p>
As is usual with Usenet FAQs, this document aims to cover the most
frequently asked questions concerning the FreeBSD operating system
(and of course answer them!). Although originally intended to reduce
bandwidth and avoid the same old questions being asked over and over
again, FAQs have become recognised as valuable information resources.
Every effort has been made to make this FAQ as informative as
possible; if you have any suggestions as to how it may be improved,
please feel free to mail them to the
<url url="mailto:questions@FreeBSD.ORG" name="FreeBSD-questions
Mailing list"> or to <url url="mailto:faq@FreeBSD.ORG"
name="FreeBSD FAQ mailing list">
<sect1>
<heading>What is FreeBSD?</heading>
<p>
Briefly, FreeBSD 2.X is a UN*X type operating system based on
U.C. Berkeley's 4.4BSD-lite release for the i386 platform. It is
also based indirectly on William Jolitz's port of U.C. Berkeley's
Net/2 to the i386, known as 386BSD. However, a very considerable
number of bug fixes and enhancements have been made to the original
code base, resulting in an extremely powerful and highly sophisticated
operating system.
FreeBSD is used by companies, Internet Service Providers, researchers,
computer professionals, students and home users all over the world
in their work, education and recreation. See some of them in the
<url url="http://www.freebsd.org/gallery.html" name="FreeBSd Gallery.">
For a more detailed description of FreeBSD, see the Introduction to
<url url="http://www.freebsd.org/handbook" name="FreeBSD Handbook.">
<sect1>
<heading>What are the goals of FreeBSD?</heading>
<p>
The goals of the FreeBSD Project are to provide software that may
be used for any purpose and without strings attached. Many of us
have a significant investment in the code (and project) and would
certainly not mind a little financial renumeration now and then,
but we're definitely not prepared to insist on it. We believe
that our first and foremost "mission" is to provide code to any
and all comers, and for whatever purpose, so that the code gets
the widest possible use and provides the widest possible benefit.
This is, I believe, one of the most fundamental goals of Free
Software and one that we enthusiastically support.
That code in our source tree which falls under the GNU Public License
(GPL) or GNU Library Public License (GLPL) comes with slightly more
strings attached, though at least on the side of enforced
access rather than the usual opposite. Due to the additional
complexities that can evolve in the commercial use of GPL software,
we do, however, endeavor to replace such software with submissions
under the more relaxed BSD copyright whenever possible.
<sect1>
<heading>Why is it called FreeBSD?</heading>
<p>
<itemize>
<item>It may be used free of charge, even by commercial users.
<item>Full source for the operating system is freely available, and
the minimum possible restrictions have been placed upon its
use, distribution and incorporation into other work (commercial
or non-commercial).
<item>Anyone who has an improvement and/or bug fix is free to submit
their code and have it added to the source tree (subject to
one or two obvious provisos).
</itemize>
For those of our readers whose first language is not English, it may be
worth pointing out that the word ``free'' is being used in two ways here,
one meaning ``at no cost'', the other meaning ``you can do whatever you
like''. Apart from one or two things you <tt /cannot/ do with the
FreeBSD code, for example pretending you wrote it, you really can do
whatever you like with it.
<sect1>
<heading>What is the latest version of FreeBSD?</heading>
<p>
Version 2.1.5 is the latest version; it was released in mid-July.
<sect1>
<heading>What is FreeBSD-current?</heading>
<p>
FreeBSD-current is the development version of the operating system,
which will in due course become version 2.2. As such, it is really
only of interest to developers working on the system. See the section
``Staying current with FreeBSD'' in the
<url url="http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/" name="FreeBSD Handbook">
<sect1>
<heading> What are ``snapshots''?<label id="snapshots"></heading>
<p>
Every now and again, a ``snapshot'' is taken of the development
code, which is prepared as if it were an official release; recently,
CDROMs have even been cut from the snapshots. The intention is to:-
<itemize>
<item>Test the latest version of the installation routine.
<item>Allow people who would like to run -current, but who don't
have the time and/or bandwidth to follow it on a day-to-day
basis, an easy way to do so.
<item>
Preserve a fixed reference point as to when the code was
reasonably reliable.
<item>Ensure that a new feature in need of testing has the
greatest possible number of potential testers.
</itemize>
The astute reader will have noticed that the last two items are
somewhat mutually incompatible. As snapshots are based on
development code, no claim is made that a snapshot is regarded as
being of ``production quality'' - for that, you will have to use
official releases.
<sect1>
<heading> What about FreeBSD-stable?</heading>
<p>
Back when FreeBSD 2.0.5 was released, we branched FreeBSD
development into two parts. One branch was named -stable, with the
intention that only well-tested bug fixes and small incremental
enhancements would be made to it (for Internet Service Providers
and other commercial enterprises for whom sudden shifts or
experimental features are quite undesirable). The other branch was
-current, which essentially has been one unbroken line since 2.0
was released. If a little ASCII art would help, this is how it
looks:
<p>
2.0
|
|
|
2.0.5 ---> 2.1 ---> 2.1.5 [-stable]
|
|
[-current] 2.2-SNAPs
|
|
2.2 (scheduled for Q4 '96)
|
|
.
<p>
The -current branch is slowly progressing towards 2.2 and beyond,
whereas the -stable branch will effectively end with 2.1.5.
<sect1>
<heading>Why is the -stable branch ending with 2.1.5? </heading>
<p>
While we'd certainly like to be able to continue both branches of
development, we've found that the version control tools available to
us are not particularly well-suited for this; in fact, they quickly
result in a maintenance nightmare for any branch which lives much
beyond 2-3 months. The -stable branch has, by contrast, lasted for
well over a year and what little sanity the FreeBSD developers have
left would be in serious jeopardy if we continued in this way.
Perhaps in the future we'll figure out another model which gives
everyone what they want, and we are working on such a model, but in
the meantime it's probably best to think of -stable coming to an end
with 2.1.5-RELEASE.
<sect1>
<heading> When are FreeBSD releases made?</heading>
<p>
As a general principle, the FreeBSD core team only release a new
version of FreeBSD when they believe that there are sufficient new
features and/or bug fixes to justify one, and are satisfied that the
changes made have settled down sufficiently to avoid compromising the
stability of the release. Many users regard this caution as one of
the best things about FreeBSD, although it can be a little
frustrating when waiting for all the latest goodies to become
available...
<p>
Releases are made about every 6 months on average.
<sect1>
<heading> Is FreeBSD only available for PCs?</heading>
<p>
At present, yes. If your machine has a different architecture, we
suggest you look at
<htmlurl url="http://www.netbsd.org/" name="NetBSD">
or
<htmlurl url="http://www.openbsd.org/" name="OpenBSD">.
<sect1>
<heading> Who is responsible for FreeBSD?</heading>
<p>
The key decisions concerning the FreeBSD project, such as the
overall direction of the project and who is allowed to add code to
the source tree, are made by a ``core team'' consisting of 14
people. There is a much larger group, of about 50 people, who can
make changes to the source tree.
<p>
However, most non-trivial changes are discussed in advance in the
mailing lists, and there are no restrictions on who may take part
in the discussion.
<sect1>
<heading>Where can I get FreeBSD?<label id="where-get"></heading>
<p>
The distribution is available via anonymous ftp from:
<url url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.ORG/pub/FreeBSD/" name="the FreeBSD FTP site">
For the current release, 2.1.0R, look in:
<url url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.ORG/pub/FreeBSD/2.1.0-RELEASE/" name="FreeBSD 2.1.0-RELEASE">
FreeBSD is also available via CDROM, from the following place(s):
Walnut Creek CDROM<newline>
4041 Pike Lane, Suite D-386<newline>
Concord, CA 94520 USA<newline>
Orders: (800)-786-9907<newline>
Questions: (510)-674-0783<newline>
FAX: (510)-674-0821<newline>
email: <url url="mailto:orders@cdrom.com" name="WC Orders address"> <newline>
WWW: <url url="http://www.cdrom.com/" name="WC Home page"><newline>
In Australia, you may find it at:
Advanced Multimedia Distributors<newline>
Factory 1/1 Ovata Drive<newline>
Tullamarine, Victoria<newline>
Melbourne<newline>
Australia<newline>
Voice: +61 3 9338 67777<newline>
CDROM Support BBS<newline>
17 Irvine St<newline>
Peppermint Grove WA 6011<newline>
Voice: +61 9 385-3793<newline>
Fax: +61 9 385-2360<newline>
And in the UK:
The Public Domain & Shareware Library<newline>
Winscombe House, Beacon Rd<newline>
Crowborough<newline>
Sussex. TN6 1UL<newline>
Voice: +44 01892 663298<newline>
Fax: +44 01892 667473<newline>
(Do not dial the leading zero if calling from outside the UK).
<sect1>
<heading>What FreeBSD mailing lists are available?</heading>
<p>
The following mailing lists are provided for FreeBSD users and
developers. For more information, send to
<majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG> and include a single line saying
``help'' in the body of your message.
<descrip>
<tag/announce/ For announcements about or on FreeBSD.
<tag/hackers/ Useful for persons wishing to work on the internals.
<tag/questions/ General questions on FreeBSD.
<tag/bugs/ Where bugs should be sent.
<tag/SCSI/ Mailing list for SCSI developers.
<tag/current/ This is the mailing list for communications
between the developers and users of freebsd-current. It also
carries announcements and discussions on current. <tt
/Required/ reading for anyone using freebsd-current!
<tag/security/ For issues dealing with system security.
<tag/platforms/ Deals with ports to non-Intel platforms.
<tag/ports/ Discussion of the Ports collection.
<tag/fs/ Discussion of FreeBSD Filesystems.
<tag/hardware/ Discussion on hardware requirements for
FreeBSD.
<tag/committers/ All CVS commit messages
<tag/chat/ Miscellaneous chit-chat that does not belong
anywhere else, humour, etc.
<tag/hubs/ This the mailing-list for all of the generous
people who manage the ``regional'' part of the <tt/freebsd.org/
domain.
<tag/users-groups/ For the local area Users Groups coordinators.
</descrip>
<p>
The FreeBSD-commit list has been broken up into groups dealing
with different areas of interest. Please see the FreeBSD mailing
list FAQ in:
<url url="http://www.freebsd.org/How/handbook/eresources:mail.html" name="Handbook entry on mailing-lists">
<p>
<sect1>
<heading>How can I get on the mailing lists?</heading>
<p>
Example:
<p>
To subscribe to the <tt/questions/ list, you'll to send a message
containing the following command in the <bf/body/ of the message
(the subject will be ignored):
<verb>
subscribe questions john.smith@foo.bar (John Smith)
</verb>
<p>
Unsubscribing is just as easy:-
<verb>
unsubscribe questions john.smith@foo.bar (John Smith)
</verb>
Just remember to send your request
to
<url url="mailto:Majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG" name="the mail administrator">
and <bf/not/ to the list itself! (The last thing the subscribed
users want to see is administrative requests...)
<sect1>
<heading>What FreeBSD news groups are available?</heading>
<p>
There are two newsgroups currently dedicated to FreeBSD:
<descrip>
<tag/comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.announce/ For announcements
<tag/comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc/ General discussion
</descrip>
The following newsgroups may also be of interest to
general BSD enthusiasts:
<descrip>
<tag><tt/comp.unix.bsd/</tag>
General BSD topics
</descrip>
<tt>/usr/ports/news</tt> contains a number of ready-ported
programs not only for reading Usenet News, but even setting
up and running your own News server! You'll find trn, TIN,
Cnews, INN and others there.
For French-speaking people, the <tt/fr.comp.os.bsd/ group is for
you; there is also a Japanese newsgroup, <tt /fj.os.bsd.freebsd/.
If you do not receive these newsgroups, ask your system
administrator to get them for you.
</sect1>
<sect1>
<heading>Is there anything about FreeBSD on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) ?</heading>
<p>
There are two channels about FreeBSD on IRC:
<enum>
<item>The main channel is #FreeBSD on the EFNET. You can
use your regular IRC server for it.
<item>You can point your IRC client to <tt/irc.FreeBSD.org/
This server is on BSDnet and hosts #FreeBSD. This
is not the same channel.
</enum>
<sect1>
<heading>Books on FreeBSD</heading>
<p>
There is a FreeBSD Documentation Project which you may contact (or
even better, join) on the <tt>doc</tt> mailing list:
<url url="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.ORG" name="<doc@FreeBSD.ORG>">.
A FreeBSD ``handbook'' is being created, and can be found as:
<url url="http://www.freebsd.org/How/handbook/" name="the FreeBSD Handbook">
Note that this is a work in progress, and so parts may be incomplete.
However, as FreeBSD 2.X is based upon Berkeley 4.4BSD-Lite, most
of the 4.4BSD manuals are applicable to FreeBSD 2.X. O'Reilly
and Associates publishes these manuals:
4.4BSD System Manager's Manual <newline>
By Computer Systems Research Group, UC Berkeley <newline>
1st Edition June 1994, 804 pages <newline>
ISBN: 1-56592-080-5 <NEWLINE>
4.4BSD User's Reference Manual <newline>
By Computer Systems Research Group, UC Berkeley <newline>
1st Edition June 1994, 905 pages <newline>
ISBN: 1-56592-075-9 <NEWLINE>
4.4BSD User's Supplementary Documents <newline>
By Computer Systems Research Group, UC Berkeley <newline>
1st Edition July 1994, 712 pages <newline>
ISBN: 1-56592-076-7 <NEWLINE>
4.4BSD Programmer's Reference Manual <newline>
By Computer Systems Research Group, UC Berkeley <newline>
1st Edition June 1994, 886 pages <newline>
ISBN: 1-56592-078-3 <NEWLINE>
4.4BSD Programmer's Supplementary Documents <newline>
By Computer Systems Research Group, UC Berkeley <newline>
1st Edition July 1994, 596 pages <newline>
ISBN: 1-56592-079-1 <NEWLINE>
A description of these can be found via WWW as:
<url url="http://gnn.com/gnn/bus/ora/category/bsd.html"
name="4.4BSD books description">
A good book on system administration is:
Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Scott Seebass & Trent R. Hein,<newline>
``Unix System Administration Handbook'', Prentice-Hall, 1995<newline>
ISBN: 0-13-151051-7<newline>
<bf/NOTE/ make sure you get the second edition, with a red cover,
instead of the first edition.
This book covers the basics, as well as TCP/IP, DNS, NFS,
SLIP/PPP, sendmail, INN/NNTP, printing, etc.. It's expensive
(approx. US$45-$55), but worth it. It also
includes a CDROM with the sources for various tools; most of
these, however, are also on the FreeBSD 2.1.0R CDROM (and the
FreeBSD CDROM often has newer versions).
<sect1>
<heading>Other sources of information.</heading>
<p>
One good source of additional information is the
``[comp.unix.bsd] NetBSD, FreeBSD, and 386BSD (0.1)
FAQ''. Much of the information is relevant to FreeBSD, and this
FAQ is posted around twice a month to the following newsgroups:
<verb>
comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.announce
comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.announce
comp.answers
news.answers
</verb>
If you have WWW access, the FreeBSD home page is at:
<url url="http://www.freebsd.org/" name="Main FreeBSD page">
The FreeBSD handbook has a pretty complete
<url url="http://www.FreeBSD.ORG/How/handbook/bibliography.html" name="Bibliography">
<sect>
<heading>Installation</heading>
<p>
<sect1>
<heading>Which file do I download to get FreeBSD?</heading>
<p>
I'll answer that in a minute, but first a few words of explanation
might be in order. FreeBSD is not an application that you can
run from inside an existing DOS/Windows setup, it is an operating
system in its own right (in the same way as Windows NT or OS/2).
To install it involves making a ``primary partition'' for it on
the hard disk and arranging for it to be booted at system startup.
(FreeBSD gives you the option of installing a boot manager, so you
will be able to choose which operating system to use every time the
system starts up. Alternatively, you can use the boot managers
provided with oher operating systems, such as OS/2 or Linux).
Obviously, this is not as simple as using an operating system that
those nice people you bought your PC from pre-installed for you,
but it's not too difficult provided you read (and, if possible, print
out) all the instructions before starting. It may be a lot to
read, but it's very complete. You should also make full note of the
exhortations to back everything up first and the legal disclaimers.
These are not there for amusement value - we mean it! However,
most people find the installation goes fairly smoothly.
If you are able to be connected to the Internet for the duration
of the FreeBSD installation (lucky you!), the simplest way to
install FreeBSD is to download
<url
url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.ORG/pub/FreeBSD/2.1.5-RELEASE/floppies/boot.flp"
name="the boot image,"> make a boot floppy, boot with it and watch it
pull down all the necessary files. Depending on connection speed and
how much of FreeBSD you wish to install, this could take several hours
(even the minimal installation requires downloading about 15MB of
compressed files).
For people who do not have good Internet connectivity, the best
way to install FreeBSD is to buy a CDROM (see <ref id="where-get"
name="Where to get FreeBSD"> for details). Unfortunately, this
is problematic for some people, as the support for IDE CDROMs in
FreeBSD is still in alpha (not because of some violent antipathy
towards IDE CDROMs, but simply due to a lack of people with the
necessary combination of skill, inclination and time). If you have
an IDE CDROM, you should use the
<url
url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.ORG/pub/FreeBSD/2.1.5-RELEASE/floppies/atapi.flp"
name="special boot floppy for IDE CDROMs."> If that doesn't work
for you, the alternative is to use one of the methods in the next
paragraph.
Finally, if you already have a copy of the necessary files, FreeBSD
can be installed from floppy disks, a DOS hard disk partition or
tape or over a network via SLIP, PPP, NFS, PLIP and Ethernet.
<sect1>
<heading>Where are the instructions for installing FreeBSD?</heading>
<p>
Installation instructions can be found as:
<url url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.ORG/pub/FreeBSD/2.1.5-RELEASE/INSTALL"
name="INSTALL from 2.1.5R">
Release notes are also available as:
<url url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.ORG/pub/FreeBSD/2.1.5-RELEASE/RELNOTES"
name="RELNOTES from 2.1.5R">
On the CDROM, the following files are in the top-most directory:
<verb>
HARDWARE.TXT -- Hardware information
INSTALL -- Installation instructions
README.TXT -- Basic README file
RELNOTES -- Release notes
</verb>
<sect1>
<heading>What do I need to run FreeBSD?</heading>
<p>
you'll need a 386 or better PC, with 4 MB or more of RAM and at
least 60 MB of hard disk space. It can run with a low end MDA
card but to run X11R6, a VGA or better video card is needed.
See the section on <ref id="hardware" name="Hardware compatibility">
<sect1>
<heading>I have only 4 MB of RAM. Can I install FreeBSD?</heading>
<p>
The latest version of FreeBSD (2.1.5) will install on a 4MB
system, provided you use the <url
url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.ORG/pub/FreeBSD/2.1.5-RELEASE/floppies/boot4.flp"
name="special boot floppy for 4MB systems.">
FreeBSD 2.1.0 does not install with 4 MB. To be exact: it does
not install with 640 kB base + 3 MB extended memory. If your
motherboard can remap some of the ``lost'' memory out of the
640kB to 1MB region, then you may still be able to get FreeBSD
2.1.0 up.
Try to go into your BIOS setup and look for a ``remap'' option.
Enable it. You may also have to disable ROM shadowing.
It may be easier to get 4 more MB just for the install. Build a
custom kernel with only the options you need and then get the 4
MB out again.
You may also install 2.0.5 and then upgrade your system to 2.1.0
with the ``upgrade'' option of the 2.1.0 installation program.
After the installation, if you build a custom kernel, it will run
in 4 MB. Someone has even succeeded in booting with 2 MB (the
system was almost unusable though :-))
<sect1>
<heading>Can Windows 95 co-exist with FreeBSD?</heading>
<p>
Install Windows 95 first, after that FreeBSD. FreeBSD's boot
manager will then manage to boot Win95 and FreeBSD.
<sect1>
<heading>How can I have more than one operating system on my PC?</heading>
<p>
Have a look at <url url="http://www.in.net/~jayrich/doc/multios.html" name="The multi-OS page.">
<sect1>
<heading>Can I install on an IDE disk with bad blocks?</heading>
<p>
FreeBSD's bad block (the ``<tt/bad144/'' command) handling is
still not 100% (to put it charitably) and it must
unfortunately be said that if you've got an IDE or ESDI drive
with lots of bad blocks, then FreeBSD is probably not for you!
That said, it does work on thousands of IDE based systems, so
you'd do well to try it first before simply giving up.
<sect1>
<heading>Can I use compressed DOS filesystems from FreeBSD?</heading>
<p>
No. If you are using a utility such as Stacker(tm) or
DoubleSpace(tm), FreeBSD will only be able to use whatever
portion of the filesystem you leave uncompressed. The rest of
the filesystem will show up as one large file (the
stacked/dblspaced file!). <bf/DO NOT REMOVE THAT FILE!/ You will
probably regret it greatly!
It is probably better to create another uncompressed DOS primary
partition and use this for communications between DOS and
FreeBSD.
<sect1>
<heading>Can I mount my DOS extended partitions?</heading>
<p>
Yes. DOS extended partitions are mapped in at the end of
the other ``slices'' in FreeBSD, e.g. your D: drive might
be /dev/sd0s5, your E: drive /dev/sd0s6, and so on. This
example assumes, of course, that your extended partition is
on SCSI drive 0. For IDE drives, substitute ``wd'' for ``sd''
and so on. You otherwise mount them exactly like you would
mount any other DOS drive, e.g.:
<p>
mount -t msdos /dev/sd0s5 /dos_d
<sect1>
<heading>Strange things happen when I boot the install floppy!</heading>
<p>
If you're seeing things like the machine grinding to a halt or
spontaneously rebooting when you try to boot the install floppy,
here are three questions to ask yourself:-
<enum>
<item>Did you use a new, freshly-formatted, error-free floppy
(preferably a brand-new one striaght out of the box), as
opposed to the magazine coverdisk that's been lying under
the bed for the last three years)?
<item>Did you download the floppy image in binary (or image) mode?
(don't be embarrassed, even the best of us have made this
mistake at least once when FTP'ing things!)
<item>If you're using one of these new-fangled operating systems
like Windows95 or Windows NT, did you shut it down and restart
the system in plain, honest DOS? It seems these OS's can
interfere with programs that write directly to hardware, as
the disk creation program does; even running it inside a DOS
shell in the GUI can cause this problem.
</enum>
There have also been reports of Netscape causing problems when
downloading the boot floppy, so it's probably best to use a different
FTP client if you can.
<sect1>
<heading>Help! I can't install from tape!</heading>
<p>
If you are installing 2.1.0R from tape, you must create the tape
using a tar blocksize of 10 (5120 bytes). The default tar
blocksize is 20 (10240 bytes), and tapes created using this
default size cannot be used to install 2.1.0R; with these tapes,
you will get an error that complains about the record size being
too big.
<sect1>
<heading>Can I install on my laptop over PLIP (Parallel Line IP)?</heading>
<p>
Connect the two computers using a Laplink parallel cable to use
this feature:
<verb>
+----------------------------------------+
|A-name A-End B-End Descr. Port/Bit |
+----------------------------------------+
|DATA0 2 15 Data 0/0x01 |
|-ERROR 15 2 1/0x08 |
+----------------------------------------+
|DATA1 3 13 Data 0/0x02 |
|+SLCT 13 3 1/0x10 |
+----------------------------------------+
|DATA2 4 12 Data 0/0x04 |
|+PE 12 4 1/0x20 |
+----------------------------------------+
|DATA3 5 10 Strobe 0/0x08 |
|-ACK 10 5 1/0x40 |
+----------------------------------------+
|DATA4 6 11 Data 0/0x10 |
|BUSY 11 6 1/0x80 |
+----------------------------------------+
|GND 18-25 18-25 GND - |
+----------------------------------------+
</verb>
<sect1>
<heading>Which geometry should I use for a disk drive?<label id="geometry"></heading>
<p>
(By the "geometry" of a disk, we mean the number of cylinders,
heads and sectors/track on a disk - I'll refer to this as
C/H/S for convenience. This is how the PC's BIOS works out
which area on a disk to read/write from).
This seems to cause a lot of confusion for some reason. First
of all, the <tt /physical/ geometry of a SCSI drive is totally
irrelevant, as FreeBSD works in term of disk blocks. In fact, there
is no such thing as "the" physical geometry, as the sector density
varies across the disk - what manufacturers claim is the "true"
physical geometry is usually the geometry that they've worked out
results in the least wasted space. For IDE disks, FreeBSD does
work in terms of C/H/S, but all modern drives will convert this
into block references internally as well.
All that matters is the <tt /logical/ geometry - the answer that the
BIOS gets when it asks "what is your geometry" and then uses to access
the disk. As FreeBSD uses the BIOS when booting, it's very important
to get this right. In particular, if you have more than one operating
system on a disk, they must all agree on the geometry, otherwise you
will have serious problems booting!
For SCSI disks, the geometry to use depends on whether extended
translation support is turned on in your controller (this is
often referred to as "support for DOS disks >1GB" or something
similar). If it's turned off, then use N cylinders, 64 heads
and 32 sectors/track, where 'N' is the capacity of the disk in
MB. For example, a 2GB disk should pretend to have 2048 cylinders,
64 heads and 32 sectors/track.
If it <tt /is/ turned on (it's often supplied this way to get around
certain limitations in MSDOS) and the disk capacity is more than 1GB,
use M cylinders, 63 heads (*not* 64), and 255 sectors per track, where
'M' is the disk capacity in MB divided by 7.844238 (!). So our
example 2GB drive would have 261 cylinders, 63 heads and 32 sectors
per track.
If you are not sure about this, or FreeBSD fails to detect the
geometry correctly during installation, the simplest way around
this is usually to create a small DOS partition on the disk. The
correct geometry should then be detected (and you can always remove
the DOS partition in the partition editor if you don't want to keep
it).
Alternatively, there is a freely available utility distributed with
FreeBSD called ``<tt/pfdisk.exe/'' (located in the <tt>tools</tt>
subdirectory on the FreeBSD CDROM or on the various FreeBSD
ftp sites) which can be used to work out what geometry the other
operating systems on the disk are using. You can then enter this
geometry in the partition editor.
<sect1>
<heading>Any restrictions on how I divide the disk up?</heading>
<p>
Yes. You must make sure that your root partition is below 1024
cylinders so the BIOS can boot the kernel from it. (Note that this
is a limitation in the PC's BIOS, not FreeBSD).
For a SCSI drive, this will normally imply that the root partition
will be in the first 1024MB (or in the first 4096MB if extended
translation is turned on - see previous question). For IDE, the
corresponding figure is 504MB.
<sect1>
<heading>When I boot FreeBSD I get ``Missing Operating System''.</heading>
<p>
This is classically a case of FreeBSD and DOS or some other OS
conflicting over their ideas of disk <ref id="geometry"
name="geometry."> You will have to reinstall FreeBSD, but obeying the
instructions given above will almost always get you going.
<sect1>
<heading>I can't get past the boot manager's `F?' prompt.</heading>
<p>
This is another symptom of the problem described in the preceding
question. Your BIOS geometry and FreeBSD geometry settings do
not agree! If your controller or BIOS supports cylinder
translation (often marked as ``>1GB drive support''), try
toggling its setting and reinstalling FreeBSD.
<sect1>
<heading>How can I add my new hard disk to my FreeBSD system?</heading>
<p>
The easiest way to do this is from the installation program. You can
start the installation program by running /stand/sysinstall as root
(note however that this will require kernel support for running
gzipped executables - the one shipped with FreeBSD does <tt /not/
support this).
<p>
Alternatively, if you still have the install floppy, you can just
reboot from that.
<p>
Select the ``Express Mode for Experts'' option, which will put you
straight into the fdisk editor, and create a single slice on the
disk. (Make sure you are editing the right disk!) Press `w' to write
your changes to the disk. Say ``No'' when asked if you want to
remain compatible with other operating systems, and ``Yes'' when
asked if you know what you're doing.
<p>
Pressing `q' to quit will transfer you to the disklabel editor.
Divide up your FreeBSD slice according to taste and press `w' when
you are happy with the way it looks. Again, say ``Yes'' when asked
for confirmation, and press `q' to quit.
<p>
At this point, you will be asked if you wish to commit your changes.
Do <tt /not/ do this! Instead, keep pressing the `escape' key until
you exit the installation program. If you booted from the install
floppy, the system will reboot at this point. Remember to remove the
floppy from the drive first!
<p>
All we need to do now is to put a filesystem on the disk. Just typing
newfs followed by the device name will do this. For example, if the
new disk is your second SCSI drive and you put its FreeBSD slice on
slice 1, the command would be:-
<verb>
newfs /dev/sd1s1
</verb>
``newfs'' will choose sensible default values which will be good
enough for most purposes; if you need to tune the filesystem, the man
page for newfs describes all the options. A common optimisation is to
use the option `-i 2048' to put more inodes on a disk which is going
to be used for a news spool (the default is to have an inode for
every 4096 bytes of data - note that there was an error in the man
page in 2.1.0 in this respect).
<p>
If that sentence did not make any sense to you, you definitely do not
need to worry about tuning your filesystem! :-)
<sect1>
<heading>I have bad blocks on my hard drive!</heading>
<p>
With SCSI drives, the drive should be capable of re-mapping
these automatically. However, many drives are shipped with
this feature disabled, for some mysterious reason...
To enable this, you'll need to edit the first device page mode,
which can be done on FreeBSD by giving the command (as root)
<verb>
scsi -f /dev/rsd0c -m 1 -e -P 3
</verb>
and changing the values of AWRE and ARRE from 0 to 1:-
<verb>
AWRE (Auto Write Reallocation Enbld): 1
ARRE (Auto Read Reallocation Enbld): 1
</verb>
For other drive types, you are dependent on support from the
operating system. Unfortunately, the ``bad144'' command that
FreeBSD supplies for this purpose needs a considerable amount
of work done on it...
IDE drives are <em/supposed/ to come with built-in bad-block
remapping; if you have documentation for your drive, you may want
to see if this feature has been disabled on your drive. However,
ESDI, RLL, and ST-506 drives normally do not do this.
<sect1>
<heading>I have 32MB of RAM. Will this cause any problems?<label id="bigram"></heading>
<p>
No. FreeBSD 2.X comes with bounce buffers which allows your bus
mastering controller access to greater than 16MB. (Note that this
should only be required if you are using ISA devices, although
one or two broken EISA and VLB devices may need it as well).
<sect1>
<heading>I keep seeing messages like ``<tt/ed1: timeout/''.</heading>
<p>
This is usually caused by an interrupt conflict (e.g., two boards
using the same IRQ). FreeBSD prior to 2.0.5R used to be tolerant
of this, and the network driver would still function in the
presence of IRQ conflicts. However, with 2.0.5R and later, IRQ
conflicts are no longer tolerated. Boot with the -c option and
change the ed0/de0/... entry to match your board.
<sect1>
<heading>Do I need to install the complete sources?</heading>
<p> In general, no. However, we would strongly recommend that you
install, at a minimum, the ``<tt/base/'' source kit, which
includes several of the files mentioned here, and the
``<tt/sys/'' (kernel) source kit, which includes sources for the
kernel. There is nothing in the system which requires the
presence of the sources to operate, however, except for the
kernel-configuration program <tt/config(8)/. With the exception
of the kernel sources, our build structure is set up so that you
can read-only mount the sources from elsewhere via NFS and still
be able to make new binaries. (Because of the kernel-source
restriction, we recommend that you not mount this on
<tt>/usr/src</tt> directly, but rather in some other location
with appropriate symbolic links to duplicate the top-level
structure of the source tree.)
Having the sources on-line and knowing how to build a system with
them will make it much easier for you to upgrade to future
releases of FreeBSD.
<sect1>
<heading>I live outside the US. Can I use DES encryption?</heading>
<p> If it is not absolutely imperative that you use DES style
encryption, you can use FreeBSD's default encryption for even
<bf/better/ security, and with no export restrictions. FreeBSD
2.0's password default scrambler is now <bf/MD5/-based, and is
more CPU-intensive to crack with an automated password cracker
than DES.
Since the DES encryption algorithm cannot legally be exported
from the US, non-US users should not download this software (as
part of the <tt/secrdist/ from US FTP sites.
There is however a replacement libcrypt available, based on
sources written in Australia by David Burren. This code is now
available on some non-US FreeBSD mirror sites. Sources for the
unencumbered libcrypt, and binaries of the programs which use it,
can be obtained from the following FTP sites:
<descrip>
<tag/South Africa/
<tt>ftp://ftp.internat.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD</tt><newline>
<tt>ftp://storm.sea.uct.ac.za/pub/FreeBSD</tt>
<tag/Brazil/
<tt>ftp://ftp.iqm.unicamp.br/pub/FreeBSD</tt>
<tag/Finland/
<tt>ftp://nic.funet.fi/pub/unix/FreeBSD/eurocrypt</tt>
</descrip>
The non-US <tt/securedist/ can be used as a direct replacement
for the encumbered US <tt/securedist/. This <tt/securedist/
package is installed the same way as the US package (see
installation notes for details). If you are going to install DES
encryption, you should do so as soon as possible, before
installing other software.
Non-US users should please not download any encryption software
from the USA. This can get the maintainers of the sites from
which the software is downloaded into severe legal difficulties.
A non-US distribution of Kerberos is also being developed, and
current versions can generally be obtained by anonymous FTP from
<tt>braae.ru.ac.za</tt>.
There is a mailing list for the discussion of non-US encryption
software. For more information, send an email message with a
single line saying ``<tt/help/'' in the body of your message to
<tt><majordomo@braae.ru.ac.za></tt>.
</sect1>
</sect>
<sect>
<heading>Hardware compatibility <label id="hardware"></heading>
<p>
<sect1>
<heading>What kind of hard drives does FreeBSD run on?</heading>
<p>
IDE and SCSI hard drives are supported. FreeBSD also
supports ST-506 (sometimes called ``MFM''), RLL, and ESDI
drives, which are usually connected to WD-1002, WD-1003, or
WD-1006/7 controllers (although clones should also work).
<sect1>
<heading>What SCSI controllers are supported?</heading>
<p>
FreeBSD supports the following SCSI controllers:
<descrip>
<tag/Adaptec/
AH-152x Series <ISA> <newline>
AH-154x Series <ISA> <newline>
AH-174x Series <EISA> <newline>
Sound Blaster SCSI (AH-152x compat) <ISA> <newline>
AH-2742/2842 Series <ISA/EISA> <newline>
AH-2820/2822/2825 Series (Narrow/Twin/Wide) <VLB> <newline>
AH-294x and aic7870 MB controllers (Narrow/Twin/Wide) <PCI><newline>
AH-394x (Narrow/Twin/Wide)
<tag/Buslogic/
BT-445 Series <VLB> (but see section <ref id="bigram"
name="on 32 MB machines">) <newline>
BT-545 Series <ISA> <newline>
BT-742 Series <EISA><newline>
BT-747 Series <EISA><newline>
BT-946 Series <PCI> <newline>
BT-956 Series <PCI> <newline>
<tag/Future Domain/
TMC-950 Series <ISA> <newline>
<tag/PCI Generic/
NCR 53C81x based controllers <PCI> <newline>
NCR 53C82x based controllers <PCI> <newline>
NCR 53C860/75 based controllers <PCI> <newline>
<tag/ProAudioSpectrum/
Zilog 5380 based controllers <ISA> <newline>
Trantor 130 based controllers <ISA> <newline>
<tag/DTC/
DTC 3290 EISA SCSI in AHA-154x emulation.<newline>
<tag/Seagate/
ST-01/02 Series <ISA><newline>
<tag/UltraStor/
UH-14f Series <ISA><newline>
UH-24f Series <EISA> <newline>
UH-34f Series <VLB><newline>
<tag/Western Digital/
WD7000 <ISA> <No scatter/gather>
</descrip>
<sect1>
<heading>What CD-ROM drives are supported by FreeBSD?</heading>
<p>
Any SCSI drive connected to a supported controller.
<itemize>
<item>Mitsumi LU002 (8bit), LU005 (16bit) and FX001D (16bit 2x
Speed).
<item>Sony CDU 31/33A<newline>
<item>Sound Blaster Non-SCSI CD-ROM<newline>
<item>Matsushita/Panasonic CD-ROM<newline>
<item>ATAPI compatible IDE CD-ROMs (should be considered
<bf/experimental/)
</itemize>
All non-SCSI cards are known to be extremely slow compared to
SCSI drives.
<sect1>
<heading>What multi-port serial cards are supported by FreeBSD?</heading>
<p>
<itemize>
<item>AST/4 in shared IRQ mode,
<item>ARNET 8 port in shared IRQ mode,
<item>BOCA 4/8/16 port cards in shared IRQ mode,
<item>Cyclades 8/16 port <Alpha>,
<item>Cronyx/Sigfgma multiport sync/async,
<item>RISCom/8 multiport card,
<item>SCCSI Usenet II in shared IRQ mode,
<item>STB 4 port i shared IRQ mode,
</itemize>
Some unnamed clone cards have also been known to work, especially
those that claim to be AST compatible.
A Digiboard driver is currently in alpha stage. If you want to
test it, take the file in
<url url="ftp://freefall.FreeBSD.ORG/pub/incoming"
name="the incoming directory">
Check the <tt/sio(4)/ man page to get more information on
configuring such cards.
<sect1>
<heading>Does FreeBSD support Adaptec's AHA-2xxx SCSI adapters?</heading>
<p>
FreeBSD supports the AHA-2xxx line of adapters. The GPL portions
of the old drivers have been re-written and they are now fully
under the Berkeley style copyright. However, the 2920 is <bf /not/
currently supported.
<sect1>
<heading>I have a Mumbleco bus mouse. How do I set it up?</heading>
<p>
FreeBSD supports the Logitech and ATI Inport bus mice. You need
to add the following line to the kernel config file and recompile
for the Logitech and ATI mice:
<verb>
device mse0 at isa? port 0x23c tty irq5 vector mseintr
</verb>
<sect1>
<heading>I have a PS/2 mouse (``keyboard'' mouse) How do I use it?<label id="ps2mouse"></heading>
<p>
You'll have to add the following lines to your kernel
configuration file and recompile:
<verb>
device psm0 at isa? port "IO_KBD" conflicts tty irq 12 vector psmintr
# Options for psm:
options PSM_NO_RESET #don't reset mouse hardware (some laptops)
</verb>
<p>
See the <url url="http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/kernelconfig.html"
name="Handbook entry on configuring the kernel">
if you've no experience with building kernels.
Once you have a kernel detecting psm0 correctly at boot time,
make sure that an entry for psm0 exists in /dev. You can do this
by typing:
<verb>
cd /dev; sh MAKEDEV psm0
</verb>
When logged in as root.
<p>
Note: Some PS/2 mouse controllers have a problem
where the presence of the psm0 driver will cause the keyboard to
lock up (which is why this driver is not present by default in the
GENERIC kernel). This can sometimes be fixed by bouncing the
NumLock key during the boot process. Also suggest going into CMOS
setup and toggling any value for Numlock On/Off at boot time. The
real fix is, of course, to merge the PS/2 mouse driver with syscons.
Any volunteers? :)
<sect1>
<heading>I have a laptop with a track-ball mouse.</heading>
<p>
Please refer to the answer to the previous question.
<sect1>
<heading>What types of tape drives are supported under FreeBSD?</heading>
<p>
FreeBSD supports SCSI, QIC-02 and QIC-40/80 (Floppy based) tape
drives. This includes 8-mm (aka Exabyte) and DAT drives.
The QIC-40/80 drives are known to be slow.
<sect1>
<heading>What sound cards are supported by FreeBSD?</heading>
<p>
FreeBSD supports the SoundBlaster, SoundBlaster Pro, SoundBlaster
16, Pro Audio Spectrum 16, AdLib and Gravis UltraSound sound
cards. There is also limited support for MPU-401 and compatible
MIDI cards. The SoundBlaster 16 ASP cards are not yet
supported. The Microsoft Sound System is also supported.
<bf/NOTE/ This is only for sound! This driver does not support
CD-ROMs, SCSI or joysticks on these cards.
<sect1>
<heading>What network cards does FreeBSD support?</heading>
<p>
There is support for the following cards:
<descrip>
<tag/``de'' driver/
DEC DC21x40 and compatible PCI controllers<newline>
(including 21140 100bT cards) <newline>
<tag/``ed'' driver/
NE2000 and 1000<newline>
WD/SMC 8003, 8013 and Elite Ultra (8216)<newline>
3Com 3c503 <newline>
And clones of the above <newline>
<tag/``le'' driver/
DEC EtherWORKS II and EtherWORKS III controllers. <newline>
<tag/``ie'' driver/
AT&T EN100/StarLAN 10 <newline>
3COM 3c507 Etherlink 16/TP<newline>
NI5210 <newline>
<tag/``is'' driver/
Isolan AT 4141-0 <newline>
Isolink 4110 <newline>
<tag/``el'' driver/
3com 3c501 (does not support Multicast or DMA)
<tag/``eg'' driver/
3com 3c505 Etherlink/+
<tag/``ze'' driver/
IBM PCMCIA credit card adapter
<tag/``lnc'' drive/
Lance/PCnet cards (Isolan, Novell NE2100, NE32-VL)(*)
<tag/``ep'' driver/
3com 3c509 (Must disable PNP support on card)
<tag/``ix'' driver/
Intel InterExpress
<tag/``cx'' driver/
Cronyx/Sigma multiport Sync/Async (Cisco and PPP framing)
<tag/``zp'' driver/
3Com PCMCIA Etherlink III (aka 3c589)
<tag/``fea'' driver/
DEC DEFEA EISA FDDI controller
<tag/``fpa'' driver/
DEC DEFPA PCI FDDI controller
<tag/``fe'' driver/
Fujitsu MB86960A/MB86965A Ethernet cards
</descrip>
<bf/NOTE/ PCMCIA Ethernet cards from IBM and National
Semiconductor.
<bf/NOTE/ Drivers marked with (*) are known to have problems.
<bf/NOTE/ We also support TCP/IP over parallel lines. At this point
we are incompatible with other versions, but we hope to correct
this in the near future.
<sect1>
<heading>I don't have a math co-processor.</heading>
<p>
<tt /Note/ This will only affect 386/486SX/486SLC owners - other
machines will have one built into the CPU.
<p>
In general this will not cause any problems, but there are
circumstances where you will take a hit, either in performance or
accuracy of the math emulation code (see the section <ref id="emul"
name="on FP emulation">). In particular, drawing arcs in X will be
VERY slow. It is highly recommended that you buy a math
co-processor; it's well worth it.
<bf/NOTE/ Some math co-processors are better than others. It pains
us to say it, but nobody ever got fired for buying Intel. Unless
you're sure it works with FreeBSD, beware of clones.
<sect1>
<heading>What other devices does 2.X support?</heading>
<p>
Here is a listing of drivers that do not fit into any of the
above areas.
<descrip>
<tag><tt/b004.c/</tag>
Driver for B004 compatible Transputer boards <newline>
<tag>``ctx'' driver</tag>
Driver for CORTEX-I Frame grabber <newline>
<tag>``gp'' driver</tag>
Driver for National Instruments AT-GPIB and<newline>
AT-GPIB/TNT boards
<tag>``pca'' driver</tag>
Driver for PC speakers to allow the playing of audio files
<tag>``spigot'' driver</tag>
Driver for the Creative Labs Video Spigot
<tag>``gsc'' driver</tag>
Driver for the Genuis GS-4500 Hand scanner
<tag>``joy'' driver</tag>
Driver for a joystick
<tag/``labpc'' driver/
Driver for National Instrument's Lab-PC and Lab-PC+
<tag/``uart'' driver/
Stand-alone 6850 UART for MIDI
<tag/``nic'' driver/
Dr Neuhaus NICCY 3008, 3009 & 5000 ISDN cards
<tag/``psm'' driver/
PS/2 mouse port
<tag><tt/tw.c/</tag>
Driver for the X-10 POWERHOUSE <newline>
</descrip>
<!--
<sect1>
<heading>I am about to buy a new machine. What do you recommend?</heading>
<p>
See the <htmlurl url="handbook/hw.html" name="hardware section">
of the handbook.
-->
<sect1>
<heading>I have a lap-top with power management.</heading>
<p>
FreeBSD supports APM on certain machines. Please look in the
<tt/LINT/ kernel config file under <tt/APM/.
<sect1>
<heading>FreeBSD does not recognise my Bustek 742a EISA SCSI.</heading>
<p>
This info is specific to the 742a but may also cover other
Buslogic cards. (Bustek = Buslogic)
There are 2 general ``versions'' of the 742a card. They are
hardware revisions A-G, and revisions H - onwards. The revision
letter is located after the Assembly number on the edge of the
card. The 742a has 2 ROM chips on it, one is the BIOS chip and
the other is the Firmware chip. FreeBSD doesn't care what
version of BIOS chip you have but it does care about what version
of firmware chip. Buslogic will send upgrade ROMS out if you
call their tech support dept. The BIOS and Firmware chips are
shipped as a matched pair. You must have the most current
Firmware ROM in your adapter card for your hardware revision.
The REV A-G cards can only accept BIOS/Firmware sets up to
2.41/2.21. The REV H- up cards can accept the most current
BIOS/Firmware sets of 4.70/3.37. The difference between the
firmware sets is that the 3.37 firmware supports ``round robin''
The Buslogic cards also have a serial number on them. If you
have a old hardware revision card you can call the Buslogic RMA
department and give them the serial number and attempt to
exchange the card for a newer hardware revision. If the card is
young enough they will do so.
FreeBSD 2.1 only supports Firmware revisions 2.21 onward. If you
have a Firmware revision older than this your card will not be
recognized as a Buslogic card. It may be recognized as an
Adaptec 1540, however. The early Buslogic firmware contains an
AHA1540 ``emulation'' mode. This is not a good thing for an EISA
card, however.
If you have an old hardware revision card and you obtain the 2.21
firmware for it, you will need to check the position of jumper W1
to B-C, the default is A-B.
The 742a EISA cards never had the ``> 16MB'' problem mentioned in
the section <ref id="bigram" name="on 32 MB machines">. This is a
problem that occurs with the Vesa-Local Buslogic SCSI cards.
<sect>
<heading>Commercial Applications</heading>
<p>
<bf/NOTE/ This section is still very sparse, though we're hoping, of
course, that companies will add to it! :) The FreeBSD group has no
financial interest in any of the companies listed here but simply
lists them as a public service (and feels that commercial interest
in FreeBSD can have very positive effects on FreeBSD's long-term
viability). We encourage commercial software vendors to send their
entries here for inclusion.
<sect1>
<heading>Where can I get Motif for FreeBSD?</heading>
<p>Contact <url url="http://www.xinside.com" name="X Inside, Inc.">
for a Motif v2.0 distribution for FreeBSD 2.1 (tested also with
2.2-current as of May 10, 1996).
This distribution includes:
<itemize>
<item>OSF/Motif manager, xmbind, panner, wsm.
<item>Development kit with uil, mrm, xm, xmcxx, include and Imake files.
<item>Static and dynamic libraries.
<item>Demonstration applets.
<item>Preformatted man pages.
</itemize>
<p>Be sure to specify that you want the FreeBSD version of Motif
when ordering! Versions for BSDI and Linux are also sold by
<em>X Inside.</em></p>
<sect1>
<heading>Are there any commercial high-performance X servers?<label id="xinside"></heading>
<p>
Yes, <url url="http://www.xinside.com" name="X Inside, Inc.">
sells their Accelerated-X product for FreeBSD and other Intel
based systems.
This high performance X Server offers easy configuration, support
for multiple concurrent video boards and is distributed in binary
form only.
Price is $99.50 (promotional price for Linux/FreeBSD
version) for the 1.1 version, which is available now.
This product is for FreeBSD 1.1 and runs under 2.0 with the
FreeBSD 1.1 compatibility libs (``<tt/compat1xdist/'').
<descrip>
<tag/More info/
<url url="http://www.xinside.com/" name="X inside WWW page">
<tag/or/
<url url="ftp://ftp.xinside.com/accelx/1.1/prodinfo.txt"
name="Products information">
<tag/or/
<url url="mailto:info@xinside.com" name="Info E-mail address">
<tag/or/
phone +1 (303) 298-7478.
</descrip>
<sect1>
<heading>Are there any Database systems for FreeBSD?</heading>
<p>
Yes! Conetic Software Systems has ported their C/base and C/books
database systems to FreeBSD 2.0.5 and higher.
<descrip>
<tag/For more information/
<url url="http://www.conetic.com/" name="Conetic Software Systems">
<tag/or mail/
<url url="mailto:info@conetic.com" name="Information E-mail address">
</descrip>
<sect1>
<heading>Any other applications I might be interested in?</heading>
<p>
RenderMorphics, Ltd. sells a high-speed 3D rendering package for
FreeBSD called ``Reality Lab'' (tm).
Send email to <url url="mailto:info@render.com"
name="info@render.com">
or call: +44(0)71-251-4411 / FAX: +44(0)71-251-0939
This package is also for FreeBSD 1.1.5 but has been tested and
shown to run under FreeBSD 2.0 with the ``<tt/compat1xdist/''
installed.
Thanks must be extended to all of these companies for showing
enough faith in FreeBSD to port their products to it. While we
get no direct benefit from the sales of these products, the
indirect benefits of FreeBSD proving itself to be a successful
platform for such commercial interests will be immense! We wish
these companies every measure of success, and can only hope that
others are encouraged to follow suit.
</sect1>
<sect>
<heading>User Applications</heading>
<sect1>
<heading>I want to run X, how do I go about it?</heading>
<p>
First, get the XFree86(tm) distribution of X11R6 from
<tt/XFree86.cdrom.com/ The version you want for FreeBSD 2.X and
later is <tt/XFree86 3.1.1/. Follow the instructions for
installation carefully. You may then wish to read the
documentation for the <tt/ConfigXF86/ tool, which assists you in
configuring XFree86(tm) for your particular graphics
card/mouse/etc.
You may also wish to investigate the Xaccel server, which is
available at a very reasonable price. See section
<ref id="xinside" name="on Xaccel"> for more details.
<sect1>
<heading>ghostscript gives lots of errors with my 386/486SX.<label id="emul"></heading>
<p>
You don't have a math co-processor, right?
You will need to add the alternative math emulator to your kernel;
you do this by adding the following to your kernel config file
and it will be compiled in.
<verb>
options GPL_MATH_EMULATE
</verb>
<bf/NOTE/ You will need to remove the <tt/MATH_EMULATE/
option when you do this.
<sect1>
<heading>Is there an easy way to get hold of applications?</heading>
<p>
Yes. We support the concept of a ``package'', which is
essentially a gzipped binary distribution with a little extra
intelligence embedded in it for doing any custom installation
work required. Packages can also be installed or uninstalled
again easily without having to know the gory details. CDROM
people will have a <tt>packages/</tt> directory on their CD,
others can get the currently available packages from:
<url url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.ORG/pub/FreeBSD/packages"
name="FreeBSD's packages">
Note that all ports may not be available as packages, and that
new packages are constantly being added. It is always a good
idea to check periodically to see which packages are available.
A <tt/README/ file in the packages directory provides more
details on the care and feeding of the package software, so no
explicit details will be given here.
<sect1>
<heading>When I run a SCO/iBCS2 application, it bombs on <tt/socksys/.</heading>
<p>
You first need to edit the <tt>/etc/sysconfig</tt> in the last
section to change the following variable to <tt/YES/:
<code>
# Set to YES if you want ibcs2 (SCO) emulation loaded at startup
ibcs2=NO
</code>
It will load the <tt/ibcs2/ kernel module at startup.
You'll then need to set up /compat/ibcs2/dev to look like:
<code>
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 9 Oct 15 22:20 X0R@ -> /dev/null
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 7 Oct 15 22:20 nfsd@ -> socksys
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root wheel 0 Oct 28 12:02 null
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 9 Oct 15 22:20 socksys@ -> /dev/null
crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 41, 1 Oct 15 22:14 spx
</code>
You just need socksys to go to <tt>/dev/null</tt> to fake the
open & close. The code in -current will handle the rest.
This is much cleaner than the way it was done before. If you
want the <tt/spx/ driver for a local socket X connection, define
<tt/SPX_HACK/ when you compile the system.
<sect1>
<heading>How do I configure INN (Internet News) for my machine?</heading>
<p>After installing the inn package or port, the
<htmlurl url="http://elwing.unibe.ch/%7Eguggis/faqs/inn/inn-faq.home.html" name="INN FAQ"> may be an excellent place to start.
<sect>
<heading>Miscellaneous Questions</heading>
<p>
<sect1>
<heading>Why does FreeBSD consume far more swap space than Linux?</heading>
<p>
It doesn't. You might mean ``why does my swap seem full?''. If
that is what you really meant, it's because putting stuff in swap
rather than discarding it makes it faster to recover than if the
pager had to go through the file system to pull in clean
(unmodified) blocks from an executable.
The actual amount of dirty pages that you can have in core at
once is not reduced; the clean pages are displaced as necessary.
<sect1>
<heading>How can I add more swap space?</heading>
<p>(by Werner Griessl)
<p>Here is an example for 64Mb vn-swap (<tt>/usr/swap0</tt>)
<p>
<enum>
<item>
create a vn-device
<verb>
cd /dev; sh ./MAKEDEV vn0
</verb>
<item>
create a swapfile (<tt>/usr/swap0</tt>)
<verb>
dd if=/dev/zero of=/usr/swap0 bs=1024k count=64
</verb>
<item>
put into /etc/rc.local the line
<verb>
vnconfig -ce /dev/vn0c /usr/swap0 swap
</verb>
<item>
reboot the machine
</enum>
<p>
You must also have a kernel with the line
<verb>
pseudo-device vn #Vnode driver (turns a file into a device)
</verb>
in your config-file.
</sect1>
<sect1>
<heading>Why doesn't chmod change the permissions on symlinks?</heading>
<p>
You have to use either ``<tt/-H/'' or ``<tt/-L/'' together with
the ``<tt/-R/'' option to make this work. See the <tt/chmod(1)/
and <tt/symlink(7)/ man pages for more info.
<bf/WARNING/ the ``<tt/-R/'' option does a <bf/RECURSIVE/
<tt/chmod/. Be careful about specifying directories or symlinks
to directories to <tt/chmod/. If you want to change the
permissions of a directory referenced by a symlink, use
<tt/chmod(1)/ without any options and follow the symlink with a
trailing slash (``<tt>/</tt>''). For example, if ``<tt/foo/'' is
a symlink to directory ``<tt/bar/'', and you want to change the
permissions of ``<tt/foo/'' (actually ``<tt/bar/''), you would do
something like:
<verb>
chmod 555 foo/
</verb>
With the trailing slash, <tt/chmod/ will follow the symlink,
``<tt/foo/'', to change the permissions of the directory,
``<tt/bar/''.
<sect1>
<heading>When I mount a CDROM, I get ``Incorrect super block''.</heading>
<p>
You have to tell <tt/mount(8)/ the type of the device that you
want to mount. By default, <tt/mount(8)/ will assume the
filesystem is of type ``<tt/ufs/''. You want to mount a CDROM
filesystem, and you do this by specifying the ``<tt/-t cd9660/''
option to <tt/mount(8)/. This does, of course, assume that the
CDROM contains an ISO 9660 filesystem, which is what most CDROMs
have. As of 1.1R, FreeBSD also understands the Rock Ridge
(long filename) extensions.
As an example, if you want to mount the CDROM device,
``<tt>/dev/cd0c</tt>'', under <tt>/mnt</tt>, you would execute:
<verb>
mount -t cd9660 /dev/cd0c /mnt
</verb>
Note that your device name (``<tt>/dev/cd0c</tt>'' in this
example) could be different, depending on the CDROM interface.
Note that the ``<tt/-t cd9660/'' option just causes the
``<tt/mount_cd9660/'' command to be executed, and so the
above example could be shortened to:
<verb>
mount_cd9660 /dev/cd0c /mnt
</verb>
<sect1>
<heading>When I mount a CDROM, I get ``Device not configured''.</heading>
<p>
This generally means that there is no CDROM in the CDROM drive,
or the drive is not visible on the bus. Feed the drive
something, and/or check its master/slave status if it is
IDE (ATAPI).
<sect1>
<heading>How can I use the NT loader to boot FreeBSD?</heading>
<p>
The general idea is that one copies the first sector of your
native root Linux or FreeBSD partition into a file in the DOS/NT
partition. Assuming one names that file something like
<tt>c:\bootsect.lnx</tt> or <tt>c:\bootsect.bsd</tt>
(inspired by <tt>c:\bootsect.dos</tt>) one can then edit the
<tt>c:\boot.ini</tt> file to come up with something like
this:
<verb>
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows NT"
C:\BOOTSECT.LNX="Linux"
C:\BOOTSECT.BSD="FreeBSD"
C:\="DOS"
</verb>
This procedure assumes that DOS, NT, Linux, FreeBSD, or whatever
have been installed into their respective fdisk partitions on the
<bf/same/ disk. In my case DOS & NT are in the first fdisk
partition, Linux in the second, and FreeBSD in the third. I also
installed Linux and FreeBSD to boot from their native partitions,
not the disk MBR, and without delay.
Mount a DOS-formatted floppy (if you've converted to NTFS) or the
FAT partition, under, say, <tt>/mnt</tt>.
In Linux:
<verb>
dd if=/dev/sda2 of=/mnt/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1
</verb>
In FreeBSD:
<verb>
dd if=/dev/rsd0a of=/mnt/bootsect.bsd bs=512 count=1
</verb>
Reboot into DOS or NT. NTFS users copy the <tt/bootsect.lnx/
and/or the <tt/bootsect.bsd/ file from the floppy to
<tt/C:\/. Modify the attributes (permissions) on
<tt/boot.ini/ with:
<verb>
attrib -s -r c:\boot.ini
</verb>
Edit to add the appropriate entries from the example
<tt/boot.ini/ above, and restore the attributes:
<verb>
attrib -r -s c:\boot.ini
</verb>
If Linux or FreeBSD are booting from the MBR, restore it with the
DOS ``<tt>fdisk /mbr</tt>'' command after you reconfigure them to
boot from their native partitions.
<sect1>
<heading>My printer is ridiculously slow. What can I do ?</heading>
<p>
If it's parallel, and the only problem is that it's terribly
slow, try setting your printer port into ``polled'' mode:
<verb>
lptcontrol -p
</verb>
Some newer HP printers are claimed not to work correctly in
interrupt mode, apparently due to some (not yet exactly
understood) timing problem.
<sect1>
<heading>My keyboard locks up after switching between vtys.</heading>
<p>
Try adding the following option in your kernel configuration file
and recompile it.
<verb>
options ASYNCH
</verb>
See the section on <ref id="make-kernel" name="building a
kernel"> if you've no experience with building kernels.
<sect1>My bus mouse locks up spontaneously.</heading>
<p>
Please refer to the answer to the previous question.
<sect1>
<heading>Can I run DOS binaries under FreeBSD?</heading>
<p>
Not yet, though BSDI has just donated their <tt/rundos/ DOS emulation
subsystem which we're now working on integrating and enhancing.
Send mail to
<url url="mailto:emulation@freebsd.org"
name="The FreeBSD emulation discussion list">
if you're interested in joining this effort!
For now, there is a neat utility called ``<tt/pcemu/'' in the
ports collection which emulates an 8088 and enough BIOS services
to run DOS text mode applications. It requires the X Window
System (provided as XFree86 3.1.2).
<sect1>
<heading>My programs occasionally die with ``Signal 11'' errors.</heading>
<p>
This can be caused by bad hardware (memory, motherboard, etc.).
Try running a memory-testing program on your PC. Note that, even
though every memory testing program you try will report your
memory as being fine, it's possible for slightly marginal memory
to pass all memory tests, yet fail under operating conditions
(such as during busmastering DMA from a SCSI controller like the
Adaptec 1542).
<sect1>
<heading>Help! X Window menus and dialog boxes don't work right!</heading>
<p>
Try turning off the Num Lock key.
If your Num Lock key is on by default at boot-time, you may add
the following line in the ``<tt/Keyboard/'' section of the
<tt/XF86config/ file.
<verb>
# Let the server do the NumLock processing. This should only be required
# when using pre-R6 clients
ServerNumLock
</verb>
<sect1>
<heading>When I boot, the screen goes black and loses sync!</heading>
<p>
This is a known problem with the ATI Mach 64 video card.
The problem is that this card uses address <tt/2e8/, and
the fourth serial port does too. Due to a bug (feature?) in the
sio.c driver it will touch this port even if you don't have the
fourth serial port, and <bf/even/ if you disable sio3 (the fourth
port) which normally uses this address.
Until the bug has been fixed, you can use this workaround:
<enum>
<item> Enter <tt/-c/ at the bootprompt.
(This will put the kernel into configuration mode).
<item> Disable <tt/sio0/, <tt/sio1/, <tt/sio2/ and <tt/sio3/
(all of them). This way the sio driver doesn't get activated
-> no problems.
<item> Type exit to continue booting.
</enum>
If you want to be able to use your serial ports,
you'll have to build a new kernel with the following
modification: in <tt>/usr/src/sys/i386/isa/sio.c</tt> find the
one occurrence of the string <tt/0x2e8/ and remove that string
and the preceding comma (keep the trailing comma). Now follow
the normal procedure of building a new kernel.
Even after applying these workarounds, you may still find that
X Window does not work properly. Some newer ATI Mach 64 video
cards (notably ATI Mach Xpression) do not run with the current
version of <tt/XFree86/; the screen goes black when you start
X Window, or it works with strange problems. You can get
a beta-version of a new X-server that works better, by looking at
<url url="http://www.xfree86.org" name="the XFree86 site">
and following the links to the new beta release. Get the
following files:
<tt>AccelCards, BetaReport, Cards, Devices, FILES, README.ati,
README.FreeBSD, README.Mach64, RELNOTES, VGADriver.Doc,
X312BMa64.tgz</tt>
Replace the older files with the new versions and make sure you
run <tt/xf86config/ again.
<sect1>
<heading>What is a virtual console?</heading>
<p>
Virtual consoles, put simply, enable you to have several
simultaneous sessions on the same machine without doing anything
complicated like setting up a network or running X.
<p>
When the system starts, it will display a login prompt on
the monitor after displaying all the boot messages. You can
then type in your login name and password and start working (or
playing!) on the first virtual console.
<p>
At some point, you will probably wish to start another
session, perhaps to look at documentation for a program
you are running or to read your mail while waiting for an
FTP transfer to finish. Just do Alt-F2 (hold down the Alt
key and press the F2 key), and you will find a login prompt
waiting for you on the second ``virtual console''! When you
want to go back to the original session, do Alt-F1.
<p>
The default FreeBSD installation has three virtual consoles
enabled, and Alt-F1, Alt-F2, and Alt-F3 will switch between
these virtual consoles.
<sect1>
<heading>How do I access the virtual consoles from X?</heading>
<p>
If the console is currently displaying X Window, you can use
Ctrl-Alt-F1, etc. to switch to a virtual console. Note, however,
that once you've switched away from X Window to a virtual
terminal, you use only the Alt- function key to switch to another
virtual terminal or back to X Window. You do not also press the
Ctrl key; the Ctrl-Alt-function key combination is used only when
switching from X Window to a virtual terminal.
<sect1>
<heading>How do I increase the number of virtual consoles?</heading>
<p>
Edit <tt>/etc/ttys</tt> and add entries for ``<tt/ttyv4/'' to
``<tt/ttyvc/'' after the comment on ``Virtual terminals'' (delete
the leading whitespace in the following example):
<verb>
# Edit the existing entry for ttyv3 in /etc/ttys and change
# "off" to "on".
ttyv3 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure
ttyv4 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure
ttyv5 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure
ttyv6 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure
ttyv7 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure
ttyv8 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure
ttyv9 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure
ttyva "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure
ttyvb "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure
</verb>
Use as many or as few as you want. The more virtual terminals
you have, the more resources that are used; this can be important
if you have 8MB RAM or less. You may also want to change the
``<tt/secure/'' to ``<tt/insecure/''.
<bf/IMPORTANT NOTE/ if you want to run X Window, you <bf/MUST/
leave a virtual terminal unused (or turned off). For example, if
you want to attach a virtual terminal to all of your twelve
Alt-function keys, you can only attach virtual terminals to
eleven of them. The last must be left unused, because X Windows
will use it, and you will use the last Alt-function key to switch
back to X Window (after you have switched from X Window to a
virtual console via a Ctrl-Alt-function key). The easiest way to
do this is to disable a console by turning it off. For example,
if you have a keyboard with twelve function keys, you would
change settings for virtual terminal 12 from:
<verb>
ttyvb "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure
</verb>
to:
<verb>
ttyvb "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 off secure
</verb>
If your keyboard has only ten function keys, you would end up with:
<verb>
ttyv9 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 off secure
ttyva "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 off secure
ttyvb "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 off secure
</verb>
(You could also just delete these lines.)
Once you have edited <tt>/etc/ttys</tt>, the next step is to make
sure that you have enough virtual terminal devices. The easiest
way to do this is:
<verb>
cd /dev
./MAKEDEV vty12 # For 12 devices
</verb>
Next, the easiest (and cleanest) way to activate the virtual
consoles is to reboot. However, if you really don't want to
reboot, you can just shut down X Window and execute (as
<tt/root/):
<verb>
kill -HUP 1
</verb>
It's imperative that you completely shut down X Window if it is
running, before running this command. If you don't, your system
will probably appear to hang/lock up after executing the kill
command.
<sect1>
<heading>How do I start XDM from the <tt>/etc/ttys</tt> file ?</heading>
<p>
Starting xdm via /etc/ttys is a Bad Thing. I don't know why this
crept into some README file.
Start it from your <tt/rc.local/, and be explicit about how it
has to start. If this is your last action in <tt/rc.local/, put
a ``<tt/sleep 1/'' behind, to allow <tt/xdm/ to properly
daemonize before the <tt/rc/ shell exits.
<tt/xdm/ should be started without any arguments (i.e., as a
daemon).
The Xserver config file (default:
<tt>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xservers</tt>) should contain the
line:
<code>
:0 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X :0 vt08 -wm
</code>
Of course, you can omit the ``<tt/-wm/'' if you don't like it,
but the `<tt/`vt08/'' is quite important -- it must point to a vt
that won't be used by <tt/getty/'s about a second later.
<sect1>
<heading>What is this thing called ``<tt/sup/'', and how do I use it?</heading>
<p>
SUP stands for Software Update Protocol, and was developed by CMU
for keeping their development trees in sync. We use it to keep
remote sites in sync with our central development sources.
Unless you have direct Internet connectivity, and don't care too
much about the cost/duration of the sessions, you shouldn't use
sup. For those ``low/expensive-bandwidth'' applications, we have
developed <tt/CTM/, see the section <ref id="ctm" name="on CTM">
for more about that.
To use it, you need to have direct Internet connectivity (not
just mail or news). First, pick up the <tt/sup.tgz/ package
from:
<url url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.ORG/pub/FreeBSD/packages/sup.tgz"
name="The SUP package">
Second, read the <url
url="http://www.freebsd.org/How/handbook/sup.html"
name="Handbook entry on SUP">
This file describes how to setup sup on your machine. You may
also want to look at
<tt>/usr/src/share/examples/sup/*-supfile</tt>, or you may grab
updated supfiles from:
<url url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.ORG/pub/FreeBSD/FAQ/extras"
name="Updated SUP files">
which are a set of supfiles for supping from <tt/FreeBSD.ORG/.
<sect1>
<heading>How cool is FreeBSD?</heading>
<p>
Q. Has anyone done any temperature testing while running FreeBSD?
I know Linux runs cooler than dos, but have never seen a mention of
FreeBSD. It seems to run really hot.
<p>
A. No, but we have done numerous taste tests on blindfolded
volunteers who have also had 250 micrograms of LSD-25
administered beforehand. 35% of the volunteers said that FreeBSD
tasted sort of orange, whereas Linux tasted like purple haze.
Neither group mentioned any particular variances in temperature
that I can remember. We eventually had to throw the results of
this survey out entirely anyway when we found that too many
volunteers were wandering out of the room during the tests, thus
skewing the results. I think most of the volunteers are at Apple
now, working on their new ``scratch and sniff'' GUI. It's a
funny old business we're in!
Seriously, Linux uses the ``<tt/HALT/'' instruction when the
system is idle thus lowering its energy consumption and therefore
the heat it generates.
<sect1>
<heading>Who's scratching in my memory banks??</heading>
<p>
Q. Is there anything "odd" that FreeBSD does when compiling the
kernel which would cause the memory to make a scratchy sound? When
compiling (and for a brief moment after recognizing the floppy drive
upon startup, as well), a strange scratchy sound emanates from what
appears to be the memory banks.
<p>
A. Yes! You'll see frequent references to ``daemons'' in the BSD
documentation, and what most people don't know is that this
refers to genuine, non-corporeal entities that now possess your
computer. The scratchy sound coming from your memory is actually
high-pitched whispering exchanged among the daemons as they best
decide how to deal with various system administration tasks.
If the noise gets to you, a good ``<tt>fdisk /mbr</tt>'' from DOS
will get rid of them, but don't be surprised if they react
adversely and try to stop you. In fact, if at any point during
the exercise you hear the satanic voice of Bill Gates coming from
the built-in speaker, take off running and don't ever look back!
Freed from the counterbalancing influence of the BSD daemons, the
twin demons of DOS and Windows are often able to re-assert total
control over your machine to the eternal damnation of your soul.
Given a choice, I think I'd prefer to get used to the scratchy
noises, myself!
<sect1>
<heading>How do I create customized installation disks?</heading>
<p>
The entire process of creating installation disks and source and
binary archives is automated by various targets in
<tt>/usr/src/release/Makefile</tt>. The information there should
be enough to get you started. However, it should be said that this
involves doing a ``make world'' and will therefore take up a lot of
time and disk space.
<sect1>
<heading>``make world'' clobbers my existing installed binaries.</heading>
<p>
Yes, this is the general idea; as its name might suggest,
``make world'' rebuilds every system binary from scratch, so
you can be certain of having a clean and consistent
environment at the end (which is why it takes so long).
<p>
If the environment variable <tt/DESTDIR/ is defined while running
``<tt/make world/'' or ``<tt/make install/'', the newly-created
binaries will be deposited in a directory tree identical to the
installed one, rooted at <tt>${DESTDIR}</tt>.
Some random combination of shared libraries modifications and
program rebuilds can cause this to fail in ``<tt/make world/'',
however.
<sect1>
<heading>When my system boots, it says ``(bus speed defaulted)''.</heading>
<p>
The Adaptec 1542 SCSI host adapters allow the user to configure
their bus access speed in software. Previous versions of the
1542 driver tried to determine the fastest usable speed and set
the adapter to that. We found that this breaks some users'
systems, so you now have to define the ``<tt/TUNE_1542/'' kernel
configuration option in order to have this take place. Using it
on those systems where it works may make your disks run faster,
but on those systems where it doesn't, your data could be
corrupted.
<sect1>
<heading>Can I follow current with limited Internet access?<label id="ctm"></heading>
<p>
Yes, you can do this <tt /without/ downloading the whole source tree
by using the
<url
url="http://www.freebsd.org/How/handbook/handbook/ctm.html"
name="CTM facility.">
<sect1>
<heading>How did you split the distribution up into 240k files?</heading>
<p>
Newer BSD based systems have a ``<tt/-b/'' option to split that
allows them to split files on arbitrary byte boundaries.
Here is an example from <tt>/usr/src/Makefile</tt>.
<verb>
bin-tarball:
(cd ${DISTDIR}; \
tar cf - . \
gzip --no-name -9 -c | \
split -b 240640 - \
${RELEASEDIR}/tarballs/bindist/bin_tgz.)
</verb>
<sect1>
<heading><XXX> I'd like to browse the system dumps after a panic.</heading>
<sect1>
<heading>I've written a kernel extension, who do I send it to?</heading>
<p>
Please take a look at:
<url url="http://www.FreeBSD.ORG/How/handbook/submitters.html"
name="The Handbook entry on how to submit code.">
And thanks for the thought!
<sect1>
<heading>When I run xconsole, I get ``Couldn't open console''.</heading>
<p>
If you start X with 'startx', the permissions on /dev/console will
<tt /not/ get changed, resulting in things like ``xterm -C'' and
``xconsole'' not working.
<p>
This is because of the way console permissions are set by default.
On a multi-user system, one doesn't necessarily want just any user
to be able to write on the system console. For users who are logging
directly onto a machine with a VTY, the <tt/fbtab(5)/ file exists
to solve such problems.
In a nutshell, make sure an uncommented line of the form
<verb>
/dev/ttyv0 0600 /dev/console
</verb>
is in <tt>/etc/fbtab</tt> and it will ensure that whomever logs
in on <tt>/dev/ttyv0</tt> will own the console.
</sect1>
<sect1>
<heading>How are Plug N Play ISA cards detected and initialised?</heading>
<p>
By: Frank Durda IV <tt><uhclem@nemesis.lonestar.org></tt>
In a nutshell, there a few I/O ports that all of the PnP boards
respond to when the host asks if anyone is out there. So when
the PnP probe routine starts, he asks if there are any PnP boards
present, and all the PnP boards respond with their model # to
a I/O read of the same port, so the probe routine gets a wired-OR
``yes'' to that question. At least one bit will be on in that
reply. Then the probe code is able to cause boards with board
model IDs (assigned by Microsoft/Intel) lower than X to go
``off-line''. It then looks to see if any boards are still
responding to the query. If the answer was ``<tt/0/'', then
there are no boards with IDs above X. Now probe asks if there
are any boards below ``X''. If so, probe knows there are boards
with a model numbers below X. Probe then asks for boards greater
than X-(limit/4) to go off-line. If repeats the query. By
repeating this semi-binary search of IDs-in-range enough times,
the probing code will eventually identify all PnP boards present
in a given machine with a number of iterations that is much lower
than what 2^64 would take.
The IDs are two 32-bit fields (hence 2ˆ64) + 8 bit checksum.
The first 32 bits are a vendor identifier. They never come out
and say it, but it appears to be assumed that different types of
boards from the same vendor could have different 32-bit vendor
ids. The idea of needing 32 bits just for unique manufacturers
is a bit excessive.
The lower 32 bits are a serial #, ethernet address, something
that makes this one board unique. The vendor must never produce
a second board that has the same lower 32 bits unless the upper
32 bits are also different. So you can have multiple boards of
the same type in the machine and the full 64 bits will still be
unique.
The 32 bit groups can never be all zero. This allows the
wired-OR to show non-zero bits during the initial binary search.
Once the system has identified all the board IDs present, it will
reactivate each board, one at a time (via the same I/O ports),
and find out what resources the given board needs, what interrupt
choices are available, etc. A scan is made over all the boards
to collect this information.
This info is then combined with info from any ECU files on the
hard disk or wired into the MLB BIOS. The ECU and BIOS PnP
support for hardware on the MLB is usually synthetic, and the
peripherals don't really do geniune PnP. However by examining
the BIOS info plus the ECU info, the probe routines can cause the
devices that are PnP to avoid those devices the probe code cannot
relocate.
Then the PnP devices are visited once more and given their I/O,
DMA, IRQ and Memory-map address assignments. The devices will
then appear at those locations and remain there until the next
reboot, although there is nothing that says you can't move them
around whenever you want.
There is a lot of oversimplification above, but you should get
the general idea.
Microsoft took over some of the primary printer status ports to
do PnP, on the logic that no boards decoded those addresses for
the opposing I/O cycles. I found a genuine IBM printer board
that did decode writes of the status port during the early PnP
proposal review period, but MS said ``tough''. So they do a
write to the printer status port for setting addresses, plus that
use that address + <tt/0x800/, and a third I/O port for reading
that can be located anywhere between <tt/0x200/ and <tt/0x3ff/.
<sect>
<heading>Kernel Configuration</heading>
<p>
<sect1>
<heading>I'd like to customize my kernel. Is it difficult?<label id="make-kernel"></heading>
<p>
Not at all! First, you need either the complete
<tt/srcdist/ or, at the minimum, the <tt/kerndist/ loaded on your
system. This provides the necessary sources for building the
kernel, as, unlike most commercial UNIX vendors, we have a policy
of <bf/NOT/ shipping our kernel code in binary object form.
Shipping the source takes a bit more space, but it also means
that you can refer to the actual kernel sources in case of
difficulty or to further your understanding of what's
<bf/really/ happening.
Once you have the <tt/kerndist/ or <tt/srcdist/ loaded, do this:
<enum>
<item> <tt>cd /usr/src/sys/i386/conf</tt>
<item> <tt/cp GENERIC MYKERNEL/
<item> <tt/vi MYKERNEL/
<item> <tt/config MYKERNEL/
<item> <tt>cd ../../compile/MYKERNEL</tt>
<item> <tt/make depend/
<item> <tt/make all/
<item> <tt/make install/
<item> <tt/reboot/
</enum>
Step 2 may not be necessary if you already have a kernel
configuration file from a previous release of FreeBSD 2.X. -
simply bring your old one over and check it carefully for any
drivers that may have changed boot syntax or been rendered
obsolete.
A good kernel config file to look into is <tt/LINT/, which
contains entries for <bf/all/ possible kernel options and
documents them fairly well. The <tt/GENERIC/ kernel config file
is used to build the initial release you probably loaded (unless
you upgraded in-place) and contains entries for the most common
configurations. It's a pretty good place to start from.
If you don't need to make any changes to <tt/GENERIC/, you can
also skip step 3, where you customize the kernel for your
configuration. Step 8 should only be undertaken if steps 6 and 7
succeed. This will copy the new kernel image to
<tt>/kernel</tt> and <bf/BACK UP YOUR OLD ONE IN/
<tt>/kernel.old</tt>! It's very important to remember this in
case the new kernel fails to work for some reason - you can still
select <tt>/kernel.old</tt> at the boot prompt to boot the old
one. When you reboot, the new kernel will boot by default.
If the compile in step 7 falls over for some reason, then it's
recommended that you start from step 4 but substitute
<tt/GENERIC/ for <tt/MYKERNEL/. If you can generate a
<tt/GENERIC/ kernel, then it's likely something in your special
configuration file that's bad (or you've uncovered a bug!). If
the build of the <tt/GENERIC/ kernel does <bf/NOT/ succeed, then
it's very likely that your sources are somehow corrupted.
Finally, if you need to see your original boot messages again to
compile a new kernel that's better tailored to your hardware, try
the <tt/dmesg(8)/ command. It should print out all the boot-time
messages printed by your old kernel, some of which may be quite
helpful in configuring the new one.
<sect1>
<heading>My kernel compiles fail because <tt/_hw_float/ is missing.</heading>
<p>
Let me guess. You removed <tt/npx0/ from your kernel configuration
file because you don't have a math co-processor, right? Wrong! :-)
The <tt/npx0/ is <bf/MANDATORY/. Even if you don't have a
mathematic co-processor, you <bf/must/ include the <tt/npx0/
device.
<sect1>
<heading>Interrupt conflicts with multi-port serial code.</heading>
<p>
Q. When I compile a kernel with multi-port serial code, it tells me
that only the first port is probed and the rest skipped due to
interrupt conflicts. How do I fix this?
<p>
A. The problem here is that FreeBSD has code built-in to keep the
kernel from getting trashed due to hardware or software
conflicts. The way to fix this is to leave out the IRQ settings
on other ports besides the first. Here is a example:
<verb>
#
# Multiport high-speed serial line - 16550 UARTS
#
device sio2 at isa? port 0x2a0 tty irq 5 flags 0x501 vector siointr
device sio3 at isa? port 0x2a8 tty flags 0x501 vector siointr
device sio4 at isa? port 0x2b0 tty flags 0x501 vector siointr
device sio5 at isa? port 0x2b8 tty flags 0x501 vector siointr
</verb>
<sect1>
<heading>How do I enable support for QIC-40/80 drives?</heading>
<p>
You need to uncomment the following line in the generic config
file (or add it to your config file), add a ``<tt/flags 0x1/''
on the <tt/fdc/ line and recompile.
<verb>
controller fdc0 at isa? port "IO_FD1" bio irq 6 drq 2 flags 0x1 vector fdintr
disk fd0 at fdc0 drive 0 ^^^^^^^^^
disk fd1 at fdc0 drive 1
#tape ft0 at fdc0 drive 2
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
</verb>
Next, you create a device called <tt>/dev/ft0</tt> by going into
<tt>/dev</tt> and run the following command:
<verb>
sh MAKEDEV ft0
</verb>
for the first device. <tt/ft1/ for a second one and so on.
You will have a device called <tt>/dev/ft0</tt>, which you can
write to through a special program to manage it called
``<tt/ft/'' - see the man page on <tt/ft/ for further details.
Versions previous to <tt/-current/ also had some trouble dealing
with bad tape media; if you have trouble where <tt/ft/ seems to
go back and forth over the same spot, try grabbing the latest
version of <tt/ft/ from <tt>/usr/src/sbin/ft</tt> in
<tt/-current/ and try that.
<sect1>
<heading>Does FreeBSD support System V IPC primitives?</heading>
<p>
Yes, FreeBSD supports System V-style IPC. This includes shared
memory, messages and semaphores. You need to add the following
lines to your kernel config to enable them.
<verb>
options SYSVSHM
options "SHMMAXPGS=64" # 256Kb of sharable memory
options SYSVSEM # enable for semaphores
options SYSVMSG # enable for messaging
</verb>
Recompile and install.
<sect1>
<heading>I have 128 MB of RAM but the system only uses 64 MB.</heading>
<p>
Due to the manner in which FreeBSD gets the memory size from the
BIOS, it can only detect 16 bits worth of Kbytes in size (65535
Kbytes = 64MB). If you have more than 64MB, FreeBSD will only see
the first 64MB. To work around this problem, you need to use the
kernel option specified below. There is a way to get complete
memory information from the BIOS, but we don't have room in the
bootblocks to do it. Someday when lack of room in the bootblocks
is fixed, we'll use the extended BIOS functions to get the full
memory information...but for now we're stuck with the kernel
option.
<code>
options "MAXMEM=<n>"
</code>
Where <tt/n/ is your memory in Kilobytes. For a 128 MB machine,
you'd want to use <tt/131072/
<sect1>
<heading>FreeBSD 2.0 panics with ``kmem_map too small!''</heading>
<p>
<tt /Note/ The message may also be ``mb_map too small!''
<p>
The panic indicates that the system ran out of virtual memory for
network buffers (specifically, mbuf clusters). You can increase
the amount of VM available for mbuf clusters by adding:
<code>
options "NMBCLUSTERS=<n>"
</code>
to your kernel config file, where <n> is a number in the
range 512-4096, depending on the number of concurrent TCP
connections you need to support. I'd recommend trying 2048 - this
should get rid of the panic completely. You can monitor the
number of mbuf clusters allocated/in use on the system with
<tt/netstat -m/.
<sect1>
<heading>Will FreeBSD ever support other architectures?</heading>
<p>
Several different groups have expressed interest in working on
multi-architecture support for FreeBSD. If you are interested in
doing so, please contact the developers at
<tt><platforms@FreeBSD.ORG></tt> for more information on our
strategy for porting.
<sect1>
<heading>I need a major number for a device driver I've written.</heading>
<p>
This depends on whether or not you plan on making the driver
publicly available. If you do, then please send us a copy of the
driver source code, plus the appropriate modifications to
<tt>files.i386</tt>, a sample configuration file entry, and the
appropriate <tt>MAKEDEV</tt> code to create any special files
your device uses. If you do not, or are unable to because of
licensing restrictions, then character major number 32 and block
major number 8 have been reserved specifically for this purpose;
please use them. In any case, we'd appreciate hearing about your
driver on <tt><hackers@FreeBSD.ORG></tt>.
</sect1>
<sect>
<heading>System Administration</heading>
<sect1>
<heading>Where are the system start-up configuration files?</heading>
<p>
As of 2.0.5R, the primary configuration file is
<tt>/etc/sysconfig</tt>. All the options are to be specified in
this one and the other one (<tt>/etc/rc</tt> and
<tt>/etc/netstart</tt>) just include it.
Look in the <tt>/etc/sysconfig</tt> file and change the value to
match your system. This file is filled with comments to show what
to put in there.
The <tt>/etc/rc.local</tt> is here as always and is the place to
put additional services like <tt/INN/ or a <tt/http/ server.
The <tt>/etc/rc.serial</tt> is for serial port initialization
(e.g. locking the port characteristics, and so on.).
The <tt>/etc/rc.i386</tt> is for Intel-specifics setting like the
iBCS2 emulation.
Starting with 2.1.0R, you can have "local" startup files in a
directory specified in <tt>/etc/sysconfig</tt>:
<verb>
# Location of local startup files.
local_startup=/usr/local/etc/rc.local.d
</verb>
Each file ending in <tt/.sh/ will be executed in alphabetic
order.
If you want to have a proper order without changing all the file
names, you can use a scheme similar to the following with digits
prepended to each file name to insure order:
<verb>
10news.sh
15httpd.sh
20ssh.sh
</verb>
It can be seen as ugly (or SysV :-)) but it provides a simple and
regular scheme for locally-added packages without resorting to
magical editing of <tt>/etc/rc.local</tt>.
<sect1>
<heading>How do I add a user easily?</heading>
<p>
Use the <tt/adduser/ command.
There is another package called ``<tt/new-account/'' also written
in Perl by Ollivier Robert. Ask
<tt><roberto@FreeBSD.ORG></tt> about it. It is currently
under further development.
<sect1>
<heading>I'm having problems setting up my printer.</heading>
<p>
Please have a look at the Handbook entry on printing. It
should cover most of your problem. See the
<url
url="http://www.freebsd.org/How/handbook/printing.html"
name="Handbook entry on printing.">
</sect1>
<sect1>
<heading>The keyboard mappings are wrong for my system.</heading>
<p>
The kbdcontrol program has an option to load a keyboard map file.
Under <tt>/usr/share/syscons/keymaps</tt> are a number of map
files. Choose the one relevant to your system and load it.
<verb>
kbdcontrol -l uk.iso
</verb>
Both the <tt>/usr/share/syscons/keymaps</tt> and the <tt/.kbd/
extension are assumed by <tt/kbdcontrol(1)/.
This can be configured in <tt>/etc/sysconfig</tt>. See the
appropriate comments in this file.
In 2.0.5R and later, everything related to text fonts, keyboard
mapping is in <tt>/usr/share/examples/syscons</tt>.
The following mappings are currently supported:
<itemize>
<item>Danish (both ISO and cp865),
<item>French (ISO only),
<item>German (both ISO and cp850),
<item>Russian,
<item>Swedish (both ISO and cp850),
<item>U.K. (both ISO and cp850),
<item>Spain,
<item>U.S.A. (ISO only),
<item>Dvorak US.
</itemize>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<heading>``CMAP busy panic'' when rebooting with a new kernel.</heading>
<p>
The logic that attempts to detect an out of data
<tt>/var/db/kvm_*.db</tt> files sometimes fails and using a
mismatched file can sometimes lead to panics.
If this happens, reboot single-user and do:
<verb>
rm /var/db/kvm_*.db
</verb>
<sect1>
<heading>I can't get user quotas to work properly.</heading>
<p>
<enum>
<item>Don't turn on quotas on '/',
<item>Put the quota file on the file system that the quotas are
to be enforced on. ie:
<verb>
FS QUOTA FILE
/usr /usr/admin/quotas
/home /home/admin/quotas
...
</verb>
</enum>
<sect>
<heading>Networking</heading>
<sect1>
<heading>Where can I get information on ``diskless booting''?</heading>
<p>
``Diskless booting'' means that the FreeBSD box is booted over a
network, and reads the necessary files from a server instead of
its hard disk. For full details, please read
<url url="http://www.FreeBSD.ORG/How/handbook/diskless.html"
name="the Handbook entry on diskless booting">
<sect1>
<heading>Can a FreeBSD box be used as a dedicated network router?</heading>
<p>
Internet standards and good engineering practice prohibit us from
providing packet forwarding by default in FreeBSD. You can
however enable this feature by changing the following variable to
<tt/YES/ in <tt>/etc/sysconfig</tt>:
<verb>
# If you want this host to be a gateway, set to YES.
gateway=YES
</verb>
This option will put the <tt/sysctl/ variable
<tt/net.inet.ip.forwarding/ to <tt/1/.
In most cases, you will also need to run a routing process to
tell other systems on your network about your router; FreeBSD
comes with the standard BSD routing daemon <tt/routed(8)/, or for
more complex situations you may want to try <em/GaTeD/ (available
by FTP from <tt/ftp.gated.Merit.EDU/) which supports FreeBSD as
of 3_5Alpha7.
It is our duty to warn you that, even when FreeBSD is configured
in this way, it does not completely comply with the Internet
standard requirements for routers; however, it comes close enough
for ordinary usage.
<sect1>
<heading>Can I connect my Win95 box to the Internet via FreeBSD?</heading>
<p>
Typically, people who ask this question have two PC's at home, one
with FreeBSD and one with Win95; the idea is to use the FreeBSD
box to connect to the Internet and then be able to access the
Internet from the Windows95 box through the FreeBSD box. This
is really just a special case of the previous question.
There's a useful document available which explains how to set
FreeBSD up as a <url url="http://www.ssimicro.com/~jeremyc/ppp.html"
name="PPP Dialup Router">
<sect1>
<heading>Does FreeBSD support SLIP and PPP?</heading>
<p>
Yes. See the man pages for <tt/slattach(8)/ and/or <tt/pppd(8)/
if you're using FreeBSD to connect to another site. If you're
using FreeBSD as a server for other machines, look at the man
page for <tt/sliplogin(8)/.
You can also have a look at the SLIP/PPP/Use PPP sections of the
handbook in <tt>/usr/share/doc/handbook</tt> or use the following
links:
<url url="http://www.FreeBSD.ORG/How/handbook/slips.html"
name="Handbook entry on SLIP (server side)">
<url url="http://www.FreeBSD.ORG/How/handbook/slipc.html"
name="Handbook entry on SLIP (client side)">
<url url="http://www.FreeBSD.ORG/How/handbook/ppp.html"
name="Handbook entry on PPP (kernel version)">
<url url="http://www.FreeBSD.ORG/How/handbook/userppp.html"
name="Handbook entry on SLIP (user-mode version)">
<sect1>
<heading>I can connect with IJPPP but it doesn't work right!</heading>
<p>
A possible cause for this is IJPPPs' use of predictor1
compression. One way of determining if you have this problem
is to look at your log and if you have protocol errors then this is
most likely it.
These can be shut off with:
<verb>
deny pred1
disable pred1
</verb>
Use these two before you dial out and it should work.
<sect1>
<heading>I can't create a <tt>/dev/ed0</tt> device!</heading>
<p>
In the Berkeley networking framework, network interfaces are only
directly accessible by kernel code. Please see the
<tt>/etc/netstart</tt> file and the manual pages for the various
network programs mentioned there for more information. If this
leaves you totally confused, then you should pick up a book
describing network administration on another BSD-related
operating system; with few significant exceptions, administering
networking on FreeBSD is basically the same as on SunOS 4.0 or
Ultrix.
<sect1>
<heading>How can I setup Ethernet aliases?</heading>
<p>
Add ``<tt/netmask 0xffffffff/'' to your <tt/ifconfig/
command-line like the following:
<verb>
ifconfig ed0 alias 204.141.95.2 netmask 0xffffffff
</verb>
<sect1>
<heading>How do I get my 3C503 to use the other network port?</heading>
<p>
If you want to use the other ports, you'll have to specify an
additional parameter on the <tt/ifconfig(1)/ command line. The
default port is ``<tt/link0/''. To use the AUI port instead of
the BNC one, use ``<tt/link2/''.
<sect1>
<heading>I'm having problems with NFS to/from FreeBSD.</heading>
<p>
Certain PC network cards are better than others (to put it
mildly) and can sometimes cause problems with network intensive
applications like NFS.
See
<url
url="http://www.freebsd.org/How/handbook/nfs.html"
name="the Handbook entry on NFS">
for more information on
this topic.
<sect1>
<heading>Why can't I NFS-mount from a Linux box?</heading>
<p>
Some versions of the Linux NFS code only accept mount requests
from a privileged port; try
<verb>
mount -o -P linuxbox:/blah /mnt
</verb>
<sect1>
<heading>Why can't I NFS-mount from a Sun box?</heading>
<p>
Sun workstations running SunOS 4.X only accept mount requests
from a privileged port; try
<verb>
mount -o -P sunbox:/blah /mnt
</verb>
<sect1><heading>I'm having problems talking PPP to NeXTStep machines.</heading>
<p>
Try disabling the TCP extensions in <tt>/etc/sysconfig</tt> by
changing the following variable to NO:
<verb>
tcp_extensions=NO
</verb>
Xylogic's Annex boxes are also broken in this regard and you must
use the above change to connect thru them.
<sect1>
<heading>How do I enable IP multicast support?</heading>
<p>
Multicast host operations are fully supported in FreeBSD 2.0 by
default. If you want your box to run as a multicast router, you
will need to load the <tt/ip_mroute_mod/ loadable kernel module
and run <tt/mrouted/.
For more information:
<verb>
Product Description Where
--------------- ----------------------- ---------------------------------------
faq.txt Mbone FAQ ftp.isi.edu:/mbone/faq.txt
imm/immserv IMage Multicast ftp.hawaii.edu:/paccom/imm.src.tar.Z
for jpg/gif images.
nv Network Video. ftp.parc.xerox.com:
/pub/net-reseach/exp/nv3.3alpha.tar.Z
vat LBL Visual Audio Tool. ftp.ee.lbl.gov:
/conferencing/vat/i386-vat.tar.Z
wb LBL White Board. ftp.ee.lbl.gov:
/conferencing/wb/i386-wb.tar.Z
mmcc MultiMedia Conference ftp.isi.edu:
Control program /confctrl/mmcc/mmcc-intel.tar.Z
rtpqual Tools for testing the ftp.psc.edu:/pub/net_tools/rtpqual.c
quality of RTP packets.
vat_nv_record Recording tools for vat ftp.sics.se:archive/vat_nv_record.tar.Z
and nv.
</verb>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<heading>Which network cards are based on the DEC PCI chipset?</heading>
<p>
Here is a list compiled by Glen Foster
<tt/<gfoster@driver.nsta.org>/:
<code>
Vendor Model
- --------------------------------------------------------
ASUS PCI-L101-TB
Accton ENI1203
Cogent EM960PCI
Compex ENET32-PCI
D-Link DE-530
DEC DE435
Danpex EN-9400P3
JCIS Condor JC1260
Linksys EtherPCI
Mylex LNP101
SMC EtherPower 10/100 (Model 9332)
SMC EtherPower (Model 8432)
TopWare TE-3500P
Zynx ZX342
</code>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<heading>Why do I have to use the FQDN for hosts on my site?</heading>
<p>
You will probably find that the host is actually in a different
domain; for example, if you are in foo.bar.edu and you wish to reach
a host called ``mumble'' in the bar.edu domain, you will have to
refer to it by the fully-qualified domain name, ``mumble.bar.edu'',
instead of just ``mumble''.
<p>
Traditionally, this was allowed by BSD BIND resolvers. However
the current version of <em>BIND</em> that ships with FreeBSD
no longer provides default abbreviations for non-fully
qualified domain names other than the domain you are in.
So an unqualified host <tt>mumble</tt> must either be found
as <tt>mumble.foo.bar.edu</tt>, or it will be searched for
in the root domain.
<p>
This is different from the previous behaviour, where the
search continued across <tt>mumble.bar.edu</tt>, and
<tt>mumble.edu</tt>. Have a look at RFC 1535 for why this
was considered bad practice, or even a security hole.
<p>
As a good workaround, you can place the line
<p><tt>
search foo.bar.edu bar.edu
</tt><p>
instead of the previous
<p><tt>
domain foo.bar.edu
</tt><p>
into your <tt>/etc/resolv.conf</tt>. However, make sure
that the search order does not go beyond the ``boundary
between local and public administration'', as RFC 1535
calls it.
</sect1>
<sect1><heading>Sendmail says ``mail loops back to myself''</heading>
<p>
This is answered in the sendmail FAQ as follows:-
<verb>
* I'm getting "Local configuration error" messages, such as:
553 relay.domain.net config error: mail loops back to myself
554 <user@domain.net>... Local configuration error
How can I solve this problem?
You have asked mail to the domain (e.g., domain.net) to be
forwarded to a specific host (in this case, relay.domain.net)
by using an MX record, but the relay machine doesn't recognize
itself as domain.net. Add domain.net to /etc/sendmail.cw
(if you are using FEATURE(use_cw_file)) or add "Cw domain.net"
to /etc/sendmail.cf.
</verb>
<p>
The sendmail FAQ is in <tt>/usr/src/usr.sbin/sendmail</tt>
and is recommended reading if you want to do any
``tweaking'' of your mail setup.
<sect1>
<heading>How do I use sendmail for mail delivery with UUCP?</heading>
<p>
The sendmail configuration that ships with FreeBSD is
suited for sites that connect directly to the Internet.
Sites that wish to exchange their mail via UUCP must install
another sendmail configuration file.
<p>
Tweaking <tt>/etc/sendmail.cf</tt> manually is considered
something for purists. Sendmail version 8 comes with a
new approach of generating config files via some <tt>m4</tt>
preprocessing, where the actual hand-crafted configuration
is on a higher abstraction level. You should use the
configuration files under
<verb>
/usr/src/usr.sbin/sendmail/cf
</verb>
If you didn't install your system with full sources,
the sendmail config stuff has been
broken out into a separate source distribution tarball just
for you. Assuming you've got your CD-ROM mounted, do:
<verb>
cd /usr/src
tar -xvzf /cdrom/dists/src/ssmailcf.aa
</verb>
Don't panic, this is only a few hundred kilobytes in size.
The file <tt>README</tt> in the <tt>cf</tt> directory can
serve as a basic introduction to m4 configuration.
<p>
For UUCP delivery, you are best advised to use the
<em>mailertable</em> feature. This constitutes a database
that sendmail can use to base its routing decision upon.
<p>
First, you have to create your <tt>.mc</tt> file. The
directory <tt>/usr/src/usr.sbin/sendmail/cf/cf</tt> is the
home of these files. Look around, there are already a few
examples. Assuming you have named your file <tt>foo.mc</tt>,
all you need to do in order to convert it into a valid
<tt>sendmail.cf</tt> is:
<verb>
cd /usr/src/usr.sbin/sendmail/cf/cf
make foo.cf
cp foo.cf /etc/sendmail.cf
</verb>
A typical <tt>.mc</tt> file might look like:
<verb>
include(`../m4/cf.m4')
VERSIONID(`Your version number')
OSTYPE(bsd4.4)
FEATURE(nodns)
FEATURE(nocanonify)
FEATURE(mailertable)
define(`UUCP_RELAY', your.uucp.relay)
define(`UUCP_MAX_SIZE', 200000)
MAILER(local)
MAILER(smtp)
MAILER(uucp)
Cw your.alias.host.name
Cw youruucpnodename.UUCP
</verb>
The <em>nodns</em> and <em>nocanonify</em> features will
prevent any usage of the DNS during mail delivery. The
<em>UUCP_RELAY</em> clause is needed for bizarre reasons,
don't ask. Simply put an Internet hostname there that
is able to handle .UUCP pseudo-domain addresses; most likely,
you will enter the mail relay of your ISP there.
<p>
Once you've got this, you need this file called
<tt>/etc/mailertable</tt>. A typical example of this
gender again:
<verb>
#
# makemap hash /etc/mailertable.db < /etc/mailertable
#
horus.interface-business.de uucp-dom:horus
.interface-business.de uucp-dom:if-bus
interface-business.de uucp-dom:if-bus
.heep.sax.de smtp8:%1
horus.UUCP uucp-dom:horus
if-bus.UUCP uucp-dom:if-bus
. uucp-dom:sax
</verb>
As you can see, this is part of a real-life file. The first
three lines handle special cases where domain-addressed mail
should not be sent out to the default route, but instead to
some UUCP neighbour in order to ``shortcut'' the delivery
path. The next line handles mail to the local Ethernet
domain that can be delivered using SMTP. Finally, the UUCP
neighbours are mentioned in the .UUCP pseudo-domain notation,
to allow for a ``uucp-neighbour!recipient'' override of the
default rules. The last line is always a single dot, matching
everything else, with UUCP delivery to a UUCP neighbour that
serves as your universal mail gateway to the world. All of
the node names behind the <tt>uucp-dom:</tt> keyword must
be valid UUCP neighbours, as you can verify using the
command <tt>uuname</tt>.
<p>
As a reminder that this file needs to be converted into a
DBM database file before being usable, the command line to
accomplish this is best placed as a comment at the top of
the mailertable. You always have to execute this command
each time you change your mailertable.
<p>
Final hint: if you are uncertain whether some particular
mail routing would work, remember the <tt>-bt</tt> option to
sendmail. It starts sendmail in <em>address test mode</em>;
simply enter ``0 '', followed by the address you wish to
test for the mail routing. The last line tells you the used
internal mail agent, the destination host this agent will be
called with, and the (possibly translated) address. Leave
this mode by typing Control-D.
<verb>
j@uriah 191% sendmail -bt
ADDRESS TEST MODE (ruleset 3 NOT automatically invoked)
Enter <ruleset> <address>
> 0 foo@interface-business.de
rewrite: ruleset 0 input: foo @ interface-business . de
...
rewrite: ruleset 0 returns: $# uucp-dom $@ if-bus $: foo \
< @ interface-business . de >
> ^D
j@uriah 192%
</verb>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<heading>``Permission denied'' for all networking operations.</heading>
<p>
If you have compiled your kernel with the <tt/IPFIREWALL/
option, you need to be aware that the default policy as of
2.1.5R (this actually changed during 2.1-STABLE development)
is to deny all packets that are not explicitly allowed.
<p>
If you had unintentionally misconfigured your system for
firewalling, you can restore network operability by typing
the following while logged in as root:
<verb>
ipfw add 65534 allow all from any to any
</verb>
For further information on configuring a FreeBSD firewall,
see the <url url="http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/handbook.html" name="FreeBSD Handbook.">
</sect1>
<sect>
<heading>Serial Communications</heading>
<p>
This section answers common questions about serial communications
with FreeBSD.
<sect1>
<heading>How do I tell if FreeBSD found my serial ports?</heading>
<p>
As the FreeBSD kernel boots, it will probe for the serial ports
in your system for which the kernel was configured. You can
either watch your system closely for the messages it prints or
run the command
<verb>
dmesg | grep sio
</verb>
after your system's up and running.
Here's some example output from the above command:
<verb>
sio0 at 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 on isa
sio0: type 16550A
sio1 at 0x2f8-0x2ff irq 3 on isa
sio1: type 16550A
</verb>
This shows two serial ports. The first is on irq 4, is using
port address <tt/0x3f8/, and has a 16550A-type UART chip. The
second uses the same kind of chip but is on irq 3 and is at port
address <tt/0x2f8/. Internal modem cards are treated just like
serial ports---except that they always have a modem ``attached''
to the port.
The <tt/GENERIC/ kernel includes support for two serial ports
using the same irq and port address settings in the above
example. If these settings aren't right for your system, or if
you've added modem cards or have more serial ports than your
kernel is configured for, just reconfigure your kernel. See
section <ref id="make-kernel" name="about building a kernel"> for
more details.
<sect1>
<heading>How do I tell if FreeBSD found my modem cards?</heading>
<p>
Please refer to the answer to the previous question.
<sect1>
<heading>I just upgraded to 2.0.5 and my <tt/tty0X/ are missing!</heading>
<p>
Don't worry, they have been merged with the <tt/ttydX/ devices.
You'll have to change any old configuration files you have, though.
<sect1>
<heading>How do I access the serial ports on FreeBSD?</heading>
<p>
The third serial port, <tt/sio2/ (known as COM3 in DOS), is on
<tt>/dev/cuaa2</tt> for dial-out devices, and on
<tt>/dev/ttyd2</tt> for dial-in devices. What's the difference
between these two classes of devices?
You use <tt/ttydX/ for dial-ins. When opening
<tt>/dev/ttydX</tt> in blocking mode, a process will wait for the
corresponding <tt/cuaaX/ device to become inactive, and then wait
for the carrier detect line to go active. When you open the
<tt/cuaaX/ device, it makes sure the serial port isn't already in
use by the <tt/ttydX/ device. If the port's available, it
``steals'' it from the <tt/ttydX/ device. Also, the <tt/cuaXX/
device doesn't care about carrier detect. With this scheme and
an auto-answer modem, you can have remote users log in and you
can still dialout with the same modem and the system will take
care of all the conflicts.
<sect1>
<heading>How do I enable support for a multiport serial card?</heading>
<p>
Again, the section on kernel configuration provides information
about configuring your kernel. For a multiport serial card,
place an <tt/sio/ line for each serial port on the card in the
kernel configuration file. But place the irq and vector
specifiers on only one of the entries. All of the ports on the
card should share one irq. For consistency, use the last serial
port to specify the irq. Also, specify the
<tt/COM_MULTIPORT/ option.
The following example is for an AST 4-port serial card on irq 7:
<verb>
options "COM_MULTIPORT"
device sio4 at isa? port 0x2a0 tty flags 0x781
device sio5 at isa? port 0x2a8 tty flags 0x781
device sio6 at isa? port 0x2b0 tty flags 0x781
device sio7 at isa? port 0x2b8 tty flags 0x781 irq 7 vector siointr
</verb>
The flags indicate that the master port has minor number 7
(<tt/0x700/), diagnostics enabled during probe (<tt/0x080/), and
all the ports share an irq (<tt/0x001/).
<sect1>
<heading>Can FreeBSD handle multiport serial cards sharing irqs?</heading>
<p>
Not yet. You'll have to use a different irq for each card.
<sect1>
<heading>How can I set the default serial parameters for a port?</heading>
<p>
The <tt/ttydX/ (or <tt/cuaaX/) device is the regular device
you'll want to open for your applications. When a process opens
the device, it'll have a default set of terminal I/O settings.
You can see these settings with the command
<verb>
stty -a -f /dev/ttyd1
</verb>
When you change the settings to this device, the settings are in
effect until the device is closed. When it's reopened, it goes
back to the default set. To make changes to the default set, you
can open and adjust the settings of the ``initial state'' device.
For example, to turn on <tt/CLOCAL/ mode, 8 bits, and
<tt>XON/XOFF</tt> flow control by default for ttyd5, do:
<verb>
stty -f /dev/ttyid5 clocal cs8 ixon ixoff
</verb>
A good place to do this is in <tt>/etc/rc.serial</tt>. Now, an
application will have these settings by default when it opens
<tt/ttyd5/. It can still change these settings to its liking,
though.
You can also prevent certain settings from being changed by an
application by making adjustments to the ``lock state'' device.
For example, to lock the speed of <tt/ttyd5/ to 57600 bps, do
<verb>
stty -f /dev/ttyld5 57600
</verb>
Now, an application that opens <tt/ttyd5/ and tries to change the
speed of the port will be stuck with 57600 bps.
Naturally, you should make the initial state and lock state
devices writable only by <tt/root/. The <tt/MAKEDEV/ script does
<bf/NOT/ do this when it creates the device entries.
<sect1>
<heading>How can I enable dialup logins on my modem?</heading>
<p>
So you want to become an Internet service provider, eh? First,
you'll need one or more modems that can auto-answer. Your modem
will need to assert carrier-detect when it detects a carrier and
not assert it all the time. It will need to hang up the phone
and reset itself when the data terminal ready (<tt/DTR/) line
goes from on to off. It should probably use <tt>RTS/CTS</tt>
flow control or no local flow control at all. Finally, it must
use a constant speed between the computer and itself, but (to be
nice to your callers) it should negotiate a speed between itself
and the remote modem.
For many Hayes command-set--compatible modems, this command will
make these settings and store them in nonvolatile memory:
<verb>
AT &ero;C1 &ero;D3 &ero;K3 &ero;Q6 S0=1 &ero;W
</verb>
See the section <ref id="direct-at" name="on sending AT
commands"> below for information on how to make these settings
without resorting to an MS-DOS terminal program.
Next, make an entry in <tt>/etc/ttys</tt> for the modem. This
file lists all the ports on which the operating system will await
logins. Add a line that looks something like this:
<verb>
ttyd1 "/usr/libexec/getty std.57600" dialup on insecure
</verb>
This line indicates that the second serial port
(<tt>/dev/ttyd1</tt>) has a modem connected running at 57600 bps
and no parity (<tt/std.57600/, which comes from the file
<tt>/etc/gettytab</tt>). The terminal type for this port is
``dialup.'' The port is ``on'' and is ``insecure''---meaning
root logins on the port aren't allowed. For dialin ports like
this one, use the <tt/ttydX/ entry.
It's common practice to use ``dialup'' as the terminal type.
Many users set up in their .profile or .login files a prompt for
the actual terminal type if the starting type is dialup. The
example shows the port as insecure. To become root on this port,
you have to login as a regular user, then ``<tt/su/'' to
<tt/root/. If you use ``secure'' then <tt/root/ can login in
directly.
After making modifications to <tt>/etc/ttys</tt>, you need to
send a hangup or <tt/HUP/ signal to the <tt/init/ process:
<verb>
kill -1 1
</verb>
This forces the init process to reread <tt>/etc/ttys</tt>. The
init process will then start getty processes on all ``on'' ports.
You can find out if logins are available for your port by typing
<verb>
ps -ax | grep '[t]tyd1'
</verb>
You should see something like:
<verb>
747 ?? I 0:00.04 /usr/libexec/getty std.57600 ttyd1
</verb>
<sect1>
<heading>How can I connect a dumb terminal to my FreeBSD box?</heading>
<p>
If you're using another computer as a terminal into your FreeBSD
system, get a null modem cable to go between the two serial
ports. If you're using an actual terminal, see its accompanying
instructions.
Then, modify <tt>/etc/ttys</tt>, like above. For example, if
you're hooking up a WYSE-50 terminal to the fifth serial port,
use an entry like this:
<verb>
ttyd4 "/usr/libexec/getty std.38400" wyse50 on secure
</verb>
This example shows that the port on <tt>/dev/ttyd4</tt> has a
wyse50 terminal connected at 38400 bps with no parity
(<tt/std.38400/ from <tt>/etc/gettytab</tt>) and <tt/root/ logins
are allowed (secure).
<sect1>
<heading>Why can't I run <tt/tip/ or <tt/cu/?</heading>
<p>
On your system, the programs <tt/tip/ and <tt/cu/ are probably
executable only by <tt/uucp/ and group <tt/dialer/. You can use
the group <tt/dialer/ to control who has access to your modem or
remote systems. Just add yourself to group dialer.
Alternatively, you can let everyone on your system run <tt/tip/
and <tt/cu/ by typing:
<verb>
chmod 4511 /usr/bin/tip
</verb>
You don't have to run this command for <tt/cu/, since <tt/cu/ is
just a hard link to <tt/tip/.
<sect1>
<heading>My stock Hayes modem isn't supported---what can I do?</heading>
<p>
Actually, the man page for <tt/tip/ is out of date. There is a
generic Hayes dialer already built in. Just use
``<tt/at=hayes/'' in your <tt>/etc/remote</tt> file.
The Hayes driver isn't smart enough to recognize some of the
advanced features of newer modems---messages like <tt/BUSY/,
<tt/NO DIALTONE/, or <tt/CONNECT 115200/ will just confuse it.
You should turn those messages off when you use <tt/tip/ (using
<tt/ATX0&W/).
Also, the dial timeout for <tt/tip/ is 60 seconds. Your modem
should use something less, or else tip will think there's a
communication problem. Try <tt/ATS7=45&W/.
Actually, as shipped <tt/tip/ doesn't yet support it fully. The
solution is to edit the file <tt/tipconf.h/ in the directory
<tt>/usr/src/usr.bin/tip/tip</tt> Obviously you need the source
distribution to do this.
Edit the line ``<tt/#define HAYES 0/'' to ``<tt/#define HAYES
1/''. Then ``<tt/make/'' and ``<tt/make install/''. Everything
works nicely after that.
<sect1>
<heading>How am I expected to enter these AT commands?<label id="direct-at"></heading>
<p>
Make what's called a ``<tt/direct/'' entry in your
<tt>/etc/remote</tt> file. For example, if your modem's hooked
up to the first serial port, <tt>/dev/cuaa0</tt>, then put in the
following line:
<verb>
cuaa0:dv=/dev/cuaa0:br#19200:pa=none
</verb>
Use the highest bps rate your modem supports in the br
capability. Then, type ``<tt/tip cuaa0/'' and you'll be
connected to your modem.
If there is no <tt>/dev/cuaa0</tt> on your system, do this:
<verb>
cd /dev
MAKEDEV cuaa0
</verb>
<p>
Or use cu as root with the following command:
<verb>
cu -l``line'' -s``speed''
</verb>
with line being the serial port (e.g.<tt>/dev/cuaa0</tt>)
and speed being the speed (e.g.<tt>57600</tt>).
When you done entering the AT commands hit <tt>~.</tt> to exit.
<sect1>
<heading>The <tt/@/ sign for the pn capability doesn't work!</heading>
<p>
The <tt/@/ sign in the phone number capability tells tip to look in
<tt>/etc/phones</tt> for a phone number. But the <tt/@/ sign is
also a special character in capability files like
<tt>/etc/remote</tt>. Escape it with a backslash:
<verb>
pn=\@
</verb>
<sect1>
<heading>How can I dial a phone number on the command line?</heading>
<p>
Put what's called a ``<tt/generic/'' entry in your
<tt>/etc/remote</tt> file. For example:
<verb>
tip115200|Dial any phone number at 115200 bps:\
:dv=/dev/cuaa0:br#115200:at=hayes:pa=none:du:
tip57600|Dial any phone number at 57600 bps:\
:dv=/dev/cuaa0:br#57600:at=hayes:pa=none:du:
</verb>
Then you can things like ``<tt/tip -115200 5551234/''. If you
prefer <tt/cu/ over <tt/tip/, use a generic cu entry:
<verb>
cu115200|Use cu to dial any number at 115200bps:\
:dv=/dev/cuaa1:br#57600:at=hayes:pa=none:du:
</verb>
and type ``<tt/cu 5551234 -s 115200/''.
<sect1>
<heading>Do I have to type in the bps rate every time I do that?</heading>
<p>
Put in an entry for <tt/tip1200/ or <tt/cu1200/, but go ahead and
use whatever bps rate is appropriate with the br
capability. <tt/tip/ thinks a good default is 1200 bps which is
why it looks for a ``<tt/tip1200/'' entry. You don't have to use
1200 bps, though.
<sect1>
<heading>I access a number of hosts through a terminal server.</heading>
<p>
Rather than waiting until you're connected and typing
``<tt/CONNECT <host>/'' each time, use tip's <tt/cm/
capability. For example, these entries in
<tt>/etc/remote</tt>:
<verb>
pain|pain.deep13.com|Forrester's machine:\
:cm=CONNECT pain\n:tc=deep13:
muffin|muffin.deep13.com|Frank's machine:\
:cm=CONNECT muffin\n:tc=deep13:
deep13:Gizmonics Institute terminal server:\
:dv=/dev/cua02:br#38400:at=hayes:du:pa=none:pn=5551234:
</verb>
will let you type ``<tt/tip pain/'' or ``<tt/tip muffin/'' to
connect to the hosts pain or muffin; and ``<tt/tip deep13/'' to
get to the terminal server.
<sect1>
<heading>Can tip try more than one line for each site?</heading>
<p>
This is often a problem where a university has several modem lines
and several thousand students trying to use them...
<p>
Make an entry for your university in <tt>/etc/remote</tt>
and use <tt>\@</tt> for the <tt/pn/ capability:
<verb>
big-university:\
:pn=\@:tc=dialout
dialout:\
:dv=/dev/cuaa3:br#9600:at=courier:du:pa=none:
</verb>
Then, list the phone numbers for the university in
<tt>/etc/phones</tt>:
<verb>
big-university 5551111
big-university 5551112
big-university 5551113
big-university 5551114
</verb>
<tt/tip/ will try each one in the listed order, then give up. If
you want to keep retrying, run <tt/tip/ in a while loop.
<sect1>
<heading>Why do I have to hit CTRL+P twice to send CTRL+P once?</heading>
<p>
CTRL+P is the default ``force'' character, used to tell <tt/tip/
that the next character is literal data. You can set the force
character to any other character with the <tt/~s/ escape, which
means ``set a variable.''
Type ``<tt/~sforce=<single-char>/'' followed by a newline.
<tt/<single-char>/ is any single character. If you leave
out <tt/<single-char>/, then the force character is the nul
character, which you can get by typing CTRL+2 or CTRL+SPACE. A
pretty good value for <tt/<single-char>/ is SHIFT+CTRL+6,
which I've seen only used on some terminal servers.
You can have the force character be whatever you want by
specifying the following in your <tt>$HOME/.tiprc</tt>
file:
<verb>
force=<single-char>
</verb>
<sect1>
<heading>Suddenly everything I type is in UPPER CASE??</heading>
<p>
You must've pressed CTRL+A, <tt/tip/'s ``raise character,''
specially designed for people with broken caps-lock keys. Use
<tt/~s/ as above and set the variable ``raisechar'' to something
reasonable. In fact, you can set it to the same as the force
character, if you never expect to use either of these features.
Here's a sample .tiprc file perfect for Emacs users who need to
type CTRL+2 and CTRL+A a lot:
<verb>
force=^^
raisechar=^^
</verb>
The ^^ is SHIFT+CTRL+6.
<sect1>
<heading>How can I do file transfers with <tt/tip/?</heading>
<p>
If you're talking to another UNIX system, you can send and
receive files with <tt/~p/ (put) and <tt/~t/ (take). These
commands run ``<tt/cat/'' and ``<tt/echo/'' on the remote system
to accept and send files. The syntax is:
<verb>
~p <local-file> [<remote-file>]
~t <remote-file> [<local-file>]
</verb>
There's no error checking, so you probably should use another
protocol, like zmodem.
<sect1>
<heading>How can I run zmodem with <tt/tip/?</heading>
<p>
To receive files, start the sending program on the remote end.
Then, type ``<tt/~C rz/'' to begin receiving them locally.
To send files, start the receiving program on the remote end.
Then, type ``<tt/~C sz <files>/'' to send them to the
remote system.
</sect>
<sect>
<heading>ACKNOWLEDGMENTS</heading>
<p>
<code>
If you see a problem with this FAQ, or wish to submit an entry,
please mail us at <FAQ@FreeBSD.ORG>. We appreciate your
feedback, and cannot make this a better FAQ without your help!
FreeBSD Core Team
</code>
<descrip>
<tag/James Raynard/
Acting FAQ caretaker
<tag/Ollivier Robert/
FreeBSD FAQ maintenance man
<tag/Gary Clark II/
FreeBSD Doc Team
<tag/Jordan Hubbard/
Janitorial services (I don't do windows)
<tag/Doug White/
Services above and beyond the call of duty on freebsd-questions
<tag/Joerg Wunsch/
Services above and beyond the call of duty on Usenet
<tag/Garrett Wollman/
Networking and formatting
<tag/Jim Lowe/
Multicast information
<tag/The FreeBSD Team/
Kvetching, moaning, submitting data
</descrip>
And to any others we've forgotten, apologies and heartfelt thanks!
</article>
|