*BSD News Article 69487


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From: cskinner@bml.ca (Chris K. Skinner)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,list.freebsd-questions,local.freebsd.questions
Subject: Re: FreeBSD 2.1 Documentation and Installation of "Everything" to 2.1 Gig drive.
Date: Mon, 27 May 1996 02:32:21 GMT
Organization: Bytown Marine Limited, Nepean/Kanata, Ont, Canada
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Doug,

You have identified many new avenues for me to investigate.
The learning curve has steepend again, back into a shear
rock-face cliff.

My next efforts will be to config the partially working
httpd/apache www server so that it serves up Dos sourced
.htm files rather than just .html plus some other rough
edges also therein.  Then some more work on named/DNS/bind.
Then samba.  Then NFS/NIS.  Then X-windows some more.

Boy, it's a hard life.  Regards, Chris K. Skinner.

At 11:14 AM 5/24/96 -0400, "Doug Santry" <dsantry@on.bell.ca> wrote:

>>1.  There are configuration files all over the place, each one with a
>>    different name or "file extension" and so on.

>Don't know what you mean by "file extension" but most of what you need is under
>/etc

>>    to take into consideration existing settings and overwrites some
>>    hand-crafted settings with the old, non-functional defaults.

>Well, good advice for a new guy is *before* changing a config file, copy it
>from xxx to xxx.dist, then edit xxx and copy is to xxx.current, this does
>two things for you, if you fucked it up, restore the xxx.dist, if xxx gets
>trashed, you can restore xxx.current, since new people are ussaully curious
>and edit everything in sight, it will save you some pain.

>>3.  X-windows:  wow--it's quite a bit different than Win3.1x or Win95!

>Yup, X is far more powerful...and different.

>>1.  What is the name of each config file and its location?

>sort of silly

>>2.  Does one edit each config file or is there a config utility
>>    program to manipulate the file?

>case by case basis.  good example is /etc/passwd, you can edit it or use the
>adduser facility.

>>    obvious user interface operational differences and concentrate on the

>have to since X is simply an API and server, the GUI behaviour depends 
>greatly on the window manager you are using, OpenWindows is *very* different
>from Motif which is very different from twm which is very different...

>X is a windows server, *not* a window manager.

>>    setup steps.  What steps can be made to bridge any deficiencies
>>    that X-windows might not have over MS-windows like file type

>Actually, just cuz you don't know how to use it, doesn't mean they are
>(X) is inferior to Windows.  But you'll learn!

>>    associations, OLE2, TTFonts, DDE, NetDDE, filesharing, icon

>file type associations, actually os2 has that, windows does it only at an
>application level, X does the same thing, there are applications for X similar
>to your "file manager".  OLE2 is inferior to CORBA, who cares about TTFonts,
>X has DDE and NetDDE, filesharing??? what do you mean here? Unix and X wins
>this one hands down no matter how I interpret this

>>    files in a program manager or file manager user interface
>>    shell program--I dunno, I'm no expert--other stuff?

>There is a freeware file manager-esqu app for X, but you see, Unix is a
>different "culture" than windows.  It is more command line oriented cuz we
>like it that way.  99% of Unix folks use X to simply have command line windows
>side by side, not flashy GUI things.  We hate Bob and all the other crap
>that MS puts out.  There is nothing wrong with it, Unix is just different.
>For instance, mainframe MIS folks have a different "culture" as well.  If
>we wanted X to look and behave like windows, we would have done it a long
>time ago, you'll find most of the people use Linux and FreeBSD *hate* MS
>and everything they make.  Unix will never be "easy" to use nor look and act
>like windows.  We don't want it to.  FreeBSD and Linux are for "power users"
>who are rebelling against AOL, MS and the rest of the trendy computer crap
>out there.  So there is a "culture shift" associated with using these free
>Unixes.  You will also find they are vert friendly and will bend over
>backwards to help get you running...

>>or / root disk file blocks and got a disk full error in the middle of

>When is askes you how you want to slice your partition, make only 2 slices,
>multiply the amount of RAM you have by 2, make this your swap, and the rest
>of your disk stick it under /, then /var and /use will go under / automatically
>and you won't have that problem anymore.

>>In an effort to make the learning curve less trial and error,
>>I've purchased the "Linux Network Administrator's Guide" from

>You are not admining a 'net', you are admining a node, grab the nutshell
>book "Essential System administration"(O'Reilly & Assc) and also check out
>some syadmin web sites.

>>A question for Walnut Creek support:  what's the 2nd BSD 2.1
>>CD-Rom for; I've looked at it but it seems to have similar stuff
>>on it as the first one?

>Nope, the first is labelled "installation disc" and the second one should
>be "live filesystem".  The first has all the packages/ports on it and all
>tools for installation.  The second one is what a installed system looks
>like.  It is the complete file tree for an installed system which comes
>in handy sometimes!  Like when you trash a binary by accident like /bin/ls
>or something.  Instead of reinstalling the system, just mount the cdrom and
>copy /cdrom/bin/ls to /bin/ls, it also has the source code, so you can grab
>an individual piece of it instead of installing wonking great chunks of it
>at install time.

>DJS

>dsantry@maccs.dcss.mcmaster