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FreeBSD 4.10 Released
lorand writes "After some delay (initially scheduled to be released on May 5th) the long awaited 4.10 version of FreeBSD was released today. It features a large merge of the USB code from the -CURRENT development branch, some conservative updates to a number of programs in the base system and many bugfixes. The detailed release notes can be found here. Use one of the many mirrors
if you need to get the ISOs."
feargal adds "There are no sweeping changes from 4.9, mostly a consolidation of security and bug fixes.
Looking forward, it is also the first in a new 'Errata Branch' which increases the scope of fixes applied. In the past only critical security fixes were applied to the release branch. The Errata branch will include local DoS fixes and well-tested non-security fixes."
But the 4.X branch just won't die. Can't wait till 5.x gets ironed out.On a serious note it is good that they maintain the 4.x, It is good stuff.
BTW - FreeBSD seems to be included on distrowatch now (good thing!) and there is even a nice review there of the 5.x branch. There are even some nice tips included in the review :)
From 4.10-Release Announcement:
The current plans are for one more FreeBSD 4.X release which will be FreeBSD 4.11-RELEASE. It is expected the upcoming FreeBSD 5.3 release will have reached the maturity level most users will be able to migrate to 5.X.
So probably no more new-feature-development in 4.X. Just keeping it stable.
Take a look here if you'd like a more detailed reason as to why someone might want to use BSD over Linux.
I, too, was at first impressed when I saw that.
However, if you check out their FAQ here, you will see that the uptime cannot be measured that high for HP-UX, Linux or Solaris. Therefore, this really doesn't say much other than the fact that BSD's uptime counter is programmed better than other Unices.
Version "numbers" aren't conventionally decimal numbers, at least in the Unix world; instead, you split the version up at the dots and compare succesive components, so 4.10 comes between 4.9 and 4.11, 4.100 is the version after 4.99, and so on. As a number, 4.10 would usually denote "four point one zero", but as a version number it's "four point ten" (or even "four dot ten", I suppose).
It looks less strange in a version numbering scheme with three or more components (Linux 2.4.26, Perl 5.8.1, Apache 1.3.20) where it's obvious that you're not dealing with decimal numbers. It's also consistent with the way sections are numbered in many textbooks, RFCs, W3C standards, etc. (chapter 1 section 2 would be headed "1.2", its subsection 20 would be headed "1.2.20".)
Most projects' second (minor) version number never reaches 10, since there's a new major release at least once every 10 minor releases (e.g. Apache 1.3 followed by 2.0, or Debian 2.2 followed by 3.0).
(A few projects do use decimal numbers: Perl used to, so the version before Perl 5.6.0 was something like Perl 5.00503, which would be Perl 5.5.3 in the new system.)
Actually, most userland packages/programs does NOT originate from Linux, but from 4.4 BSDLite.
/Joachim
Also note that for all the userland programs in the base install are in the same source tree. The programs are developed by FreeBSD users/developers for FreeBSD. The tools thereby evolves with the system.
Some GNU tools, gcc, binutils and gdb are such examples are imported into the system, but most other things are clearly not.
If I would venture, I would say that FreeBSD nowadays import/share more developments/updates and programs in the base systems with the other BSDs (Net, Open, DragonFly) than Linux. Most Linux stuff is in the ports.
Wrong!
o p/article.html
This is the most popular FreeBSD-Laptop site. gerda.univie.ac.at/freebsd-laptops/
This is a great resource if your laptop is old. www.cse.ucsc.edu/~dkulp/fbsd/laptop.html
Here you can read an article about FreeBSD on laptops. www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/lapt
If you need more FreeBSD resources, then visit www.n0dez.com/freebsd/
If you've got a 32-bit PCMCIA card on your laptop, use FreeBSD 5.2.1-RELEASE. The 5.x branch supports 32-bit PCMCIA cards. In fact, I'm running FreeBSD 5.2.1-RELEASE on an old laptop without a hitch.
I assume that you are not using portupgrade, since you say that FreeBSD doesn't have an automatic update system. Give it a look, it's well worth it.
I haven't used FreeBSD on a workstation since I got a Mac, but it's a great server OS.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
I ruined my system by deleting stuff from /usr/lib - and nothing would compile. I could reinstall stuff from the CD but that would be a forced downgrade and its just too unconvenient. But thanks to the fact that the entire OS (the 'world' - which is different from gentoo's world: world is the OS in freebsd land, and ports are programs installed on top of the os) build is self contained in /usr/obj, even though I didn't even have a working gcc, I could repair the system with one command: make installworld and a reboot. Oh yes, its a good idea to keep /usr/obj - because you have an OS reinstall one command away, and you don't have to fumble with config files, reinstalling ports, etc...
So I had the handbook open on one desktop, going through the text file on a terminal, following the book point by point, commenting out unnecessary stuff, putting in some lines - than after 5 minutes, I noticed that I can't scroll down any further. I said: what? First I thought I edited the wrong file. I checked the handbook ... and saw that the next page is a different chapter. Even then, I was a bit bewildered: that was it?? Yes.
Many folks would think that by using FreeBSD one can earn geek points, cause it sounds more 'difficult' - this is not the case. If you see someone feeling cool cause he uses freebsd, you can be sure he is bluffing. FreeBSD is easy! Of course, it caters to those who are not antagonistic towards the command line, but anyone who used slackware or debian would easily learn FreeBSD - if he or she is willing to read. Their handbook (see it on their homepage) is the best OS documentation I ever read, their man pages are superb, and configuration is much easier than any linux was for me. In other words: it is a great learning platform, thanks to the great documentation and the consistency and cleanness of the system. Forget about synthetic benchmarks and bsd vs. linux flamefests. FreeBSD is fun, and is an excellent desktop system, and ports just works (no freaking use-flags, its the job of port maintainers to provide lean and mean yet rich experience with the ports - now almost 11000!).
There are also free binary security updates for freebsd - one of the developers (and ./ user with the nick cpercive) provides them.
Also, you can specify a remote site when adding packages. The fruitsalad project provides fresh binary kde packages. I think you would install it with pkg_add -r url_to_their_ftp_repository. Someone (who was also a deb user) asked me for an incentive to try out freebsd. I told him this: if you are 100% satisfied and not curious about it, don't try it. Otherwise, I think its a great OS and it is very rewarding (and convenient) - so go ahead! Also, the community is very friendly and helpful (and before I switched, I came from mandrakeusers and pclinuxonline, so you might guess that I had high standards :)) - www.bsdforums.org is invaluable if you want help :)
pkg_version -v
Make sure to have an updated ports tree!
While there are easy ways to install packages (pkg_add -r, as mentioned in another post), I can't really see a reason not to upgrade from source. Take a look at /etc/defaults/make.conf, copy it to /etc/make.conf and make whatever changes you need. Then install the sysutils/portupgrade package. Add a couple lines like so to your new make.conf:
s -supfile"
/usr/share/examples/cvsup/ports-supfile to your "somewhere" dir and change the server listed in that file to one of the cvs mirrors.
/usr/ports && make update && portupgrade -ak
SUP_UPDATE="yes"
PORTSSUPFILE="/somewhere/port
then copy
Now, to update, all you need to do is something like:
cd
That will update all packages from source using your compiler options. Your system will still be usable while that's going on.
And the muscular cyborg German dudes dance with sexy French Canadians
Only hitch is getting ATI drivers working for 3D support (currently you're stuck with 2d and thats it) since the binary only drivers are written for linux only. You're pretty much stuck with NVIDIA if you want anything reasonable (which you should be running, right?) I'm not trying to nag, just my freebsd 4.9 box is lifesupport for my ati8500, however i was able to get tv in working just fine through GATOS, and i don't really game on that box, its just something to toy with. that aside freebsd's video support is lacking in some respects, however im sure somethign will eventually make it a reality.
Man blir trött av att gå och göra ingenting.
FreeBSD jails can be used for virtual hosting; UML can be used for it too. But for various types of kernel debugging, experimentation with network setups and the like, the ability to run a kernel as a user process is really useful. It's just a pity that (last I checked) the UML ports to operating systems other than Linux hadn't got very far :-(
Pretend that something especially witty is here. Thanks.
FreeBSD is unique and special.
......
These features attracts me:
- Native IPSEC support. The IPSEC support has been tightly integrated into the kernel and the base utilities.
- Random IP ID. Make the increment of ID field in IP packets to be randomize instead of 1.
- Shadow Process. Users except root view their own process.
All the above featues are included in the source/cvs without downloading any patch, a big plus.
There are also many other features or pros of FreeBSD. To name a few:
BSD's secure level, sealth firewall, stable TCP/IP stack and VM, random ephemeral port allocation (ported from OpenBSD) and
You are allowed to go and do something else while it compiles this is not Windows!
The basic choice is between waiting for it to download, and getting a generic package which may or may not work with the libraries you have to hand etc (consider RedHat RPM hell) and waiting for it to compile and getting something which should use what you have or get what it needs.
I think that an automated system for installation/upgrading of software packages are a must for desktop installations
Then close that window and get on with some work.
_O_
.|< The named which can be named is not the true named
Redhat, at least, does this, I know because one of our client's machines got this behaviour when it was upgraded.
It is also evil beyond belief and whoever thought of it should be lynched, but that is a religious issue.
_O_
.|< The named which can be named is not the true named
To use a specific ftp for getting your packages,
a ges-4-stable/All/
.. etc .. it's in the handbook)
.tgz files. For pkg_add -r to install a package, you just specify it the name of the file without the .tgz ... it's that easy.
:P (i know i am ;)
set the PACKAGESITE environment variable (it's explained in the pkg_add manpage).
I usually have PACKAGESITE setup like this:
setenv PACKAGESITE ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/pack
Notice that it's a complete path to a directory with all the packages in it, and you NEED the trailing slash.
Now you can do a:
pkg_add -r kde-3.2.2
and everything will work. (you must install XFree86 too, since the kde metapackage will only install the X11 libraries, (just do a pkg_add -r XFree86-4.3.0,1) and then configure XFree86 by running XFree86 -configure
Anyway, if you're wondering what the hell the package names are for using with the pkg_add -r command, just ftp to the site and directory that's in the PACKAGESITE variable and do an ls.
You should see a list of a whole bunch of
The fact that FreeBSD has such a HUGE selection of precompiled packages available for easy install gives the user great power. You can go from Minimal FreeBSD to Desktop Workstation FreeBSD in 30 minutes !!!
Enjoy the freebsd package system