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Xref: sserve comp.os.386bsd.announce:37 comp.os.386bsd.questions:1992 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!constellation!osuunx.ucc.okstate.edu!moe.ksu.ksu.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!agate!usenet From: burgess@hrd769.brooks.af.mil (Dave Burgess) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.announce,comp.os.386bsd.questions Subject: FAQ_00 Followup-To: comp.os.386bsd.questions Date: 25 Apr 1993 16:09:17 -0700 Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 162 Sender: cgd@agate.berkeley.edu Approved: 386bsd-announce-request@agate.berkeley.edu Message-ID: <9304212127.AA25488@hrd769.brooks.af.mil> NNTP-Posting-Host: agate.berkeley.edu Content-Type: text X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL20] Content-Length: 6304 Frequently Asked Questions 386BSD 0.1 EXTREMELY UNOFFICIAL Original FAQ by: Terry Lambert terry_lambert@gateway.novell.com terry@icarus.weber.edu New FAQ by: TSgt Dave Burgess NCOIC Armstrong Laboratory Management Systems Office Brooks AFB, TX burgess@hrd769.brooks.af.mil Last Update: 10 Apr 93 Section 0. (Basic FAQ information) 0.0 Introduction The 386BSD 0.1 operating system is a derivitive of the Berkeley Net/2 release. The definitive "man without whom we would have nothing" in this effort has been William Jolitz. For more information, download the code. 386BSD is fully redistributable and is intended as a research OS. As such, many contributions to the system are provided through interaction by people who communicate via many means. Many new and innovative features have been added to 386BSD since it's original release in June of '92. There is an 'unofficial' patchkit which is available from many anonymous FTP sources which makes 386BSD more stable and usable. Many problems associated with the use of 386BSD Version 0.1 can be solved through the application of patches from the patchkit. In addition, many common Unix packages have been ported with varying degrees of difficulty. 386BSD is available completely free of charge. It is also available on CD-ROM and many other methods, most of which end up charging for 'media and handling costs'. It is available by Anonymous FTP and through FTP-Mail. 386BSD comes in three distinct pieces, each of which is exclusive of the other two. These distributions are called the 'bindist', 'srcdist', and 'etcdist'. The bindist can be unloaded from its native form (on about 10 diskettes) and loaded onto a 42Meg hard drive partition. It is a fully functional system, including gcc 1.39, all executables for normal Unix style operation, and many other things. The etc distribution includes MANY additional programs (all with source) which extend the functionality of 386BSD. The srcdist is the source code for 386bsd, along with all of the header files not included in the bindist. All of the distributions and compilation files will fit onto 180Meg of hard drive (barely). 0.1 About this FAQ This FAQ consists of 11 parts: Section 0. Basic FAQ information Section 1. General Network Information Section 2. Common installation questions Section 3. Kernel Building and Maintenance Section 4. Kernel Additions Section 5. Kernel Replacement Parts Section 6. Interaction with MS-DOS Section 7. System Communication Section 8. "Supported" Hardware List Section 9. "Supported" Software List Section 10. Applications 0.2 Is 386bsd better than (your favorite operating system name here)? I decided to put this in section 0, primarily because it by far the most asked and least useful question in comp.os.386bsd.questions. No. It is not. Nor is it any worse. It is DIFFERENT. There are alternative Operating Systems available, both free and commercial. 386bsd and Linux are examples of "free" Unix sytle Operating Systems. Here are a brief list of differences between 386bsd and other systems: 1. 386bsd will not run DOS applications (yet). There is currently no DOS emulator. People are working on it. If you want to help, contact Nate and tell him. He will put you in contact with the right people. 2. 386bsd is not binary compatible with anything; yet. If you want to add binary compatibility with some other system, contact Bill and Lynne, or Nate, and volunteer. 3. 386bsd does not feel like SysV; Linux does. 4. 386bsd feels like BSD; Linux doesn't. Clifford Stoll talks about the 'West Coast/East Coast' feeling of BSD/SysV in his book "The Cockoo's Egg". In keeping with that, BSD is West Coast, Linux is East Coast. If you don't believe me, just look at the primary archive sites. Linux is available from MIT, BSD is available from Berkeley. Can't get much more 'Coast' than that. 5. Linux and 386bsd share two vitally important facets. Both are free and both include source. They are both excellent, and both fill a niche that the other would gladly leave available. 0.3 How to add your pet answer to the FAQ. This is the trickiest part of this section of the FAQ. There are only two criteria for getting an entry made into the FAQ: 1. Your answer should answer a question that seems to come up with some regularity, or at least perplexes a group of people from time to time. 2. Your answer should be technically correct. In other words, answers like 'RTFM' and 'everybody knows that' are not really good candidates for the FAQ. These answers should spell out, in a reasonable level of detail, precisely how to fix the the question asked, or explain the basis for the answer and leave the implementation of the answer to the questioner. All answers MUST include a question. This is not as obvious as it would seem at first glance. An answer could solve many problems, especially in the realms of system halts or other catastrophies. Since I (Dave) am no Unix guru, I rely HEAVILY on the input of other people to make the FAQ a success. Many questions in the FAQ have been made largely irrelevent through the patchkits, but that doesn't means they may not reappear. That is why the old FAQ questions are still here. New FAQ questions should be added. I will try to attribute the question/answer to the author, but I personally think this is a waste of good disk space. As long as the answers get out, that should be reward enough :-) 0.4 Administrivia. Send all question/answer pairs to burgess@hrd769.brooks.af.mil. If you are going to post the Q/A to the net, then do that, but be sure to mark it as a FAQ entry. I will get it from the net as easily as I do my E-Mail. Your Q/A will be formatted to look more or less like the others and be added. Corrections, deletions, flames, snivels, and whines should be addressed directly to me here. Either way, I will be sure to send out a reply letting you know what I have done with your submission. One last thing. I will assume that I am infalible. :-) I will not notice any mistakes that you may find. If you find a mistake and don't tell me, it will very likely stay a mistake. -- Please send submissions for comp.os.386bsd.announce to: 386bsd-announce@agate.berkeley.edu