FreeBSD 5.3-BETA6 Available

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Posted by michael on Monday September 27, 2004 @06:47AM from the not-quite-done dept.

ulib writes "The FreeBSD 5.3 testing cycle goes on with a brand new BETA Release. Eager for the Final? Then try this Beta out (mirrors) and help them find/fix bugs! Here are the announcement (check it for fixes, enhancements & known issues), the schedule (could be updated soon), and the todo list."

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ULE scheduler? by nacturation · 2004-09-27 07:00 · Score: 4, Informative

The open issues page shows the SCHED_ULE as "needs testing" for the 5.3 release -- the last release still used the old 4BSD scheduler. Have the issues with preemption been ironed out?

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1. Re:ULE scheduler? by endx7 · 2004-09-27 08:11 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  The open issues page shows the SCHED_ULE as "needs testing" for the 5.3 release -- the last release still used the old 4BSD scheduler. Have the issues with preemption been ironed out?
  Work has been done to make it more stable, but SCHED_ULE (especially with preemption) still isn't stable enough, so SCHED_4BSD will be default in 5.3
2. Re:ULE scheduler? by molnarcs · 2004-09-27 10:09 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  The funny thing is that one of the reasons for switching back to 4BSD was problems with preemption. I tried options PREEMPTION with 5.3BETA3 and BETA5 _with SCHED_4BSD, and had exactly the same problems as with ULE (and preemption).
  I've been using ULE since last year december (5.1) and I never had any problems with it. In fact, it performs much better, especially on the desktop (interactivity remains better while building in the background for instance). I will continue to use it for this reasons, despite not being the default.
Am I ready to take the BSD plunge? by museumpeace · 2004-09-27 07:22 · Score: 5, Interesting

I bought a cheap [e-mahcine] 2.4gHz box with the intention of just reformating XP to oblivion and loading up a Linux...but now here is BSD. Hmmm the install instructions at the BSD site look detailed. Last time I tried this was with RH 6.something, I was using an even cheaper machine with an oddball graphics card...never did get X windows or any thing but command line mode [which would have served my purposes]. I guess what I really want before wiping windows off my box is a throrough HW compatibility list...one size DOES NOT fit all PC's.

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SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
1. Re:Am I ready to take the BSD plunge? by beholder77 · 2004-09-27 07:40 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  You could try to load up the first install disc, or even better the miniinst disc if you don't want to waste bandwidth, and see during the boot messages if all the hardware in your box is probed.
  
  Don't worry if it can't find your sound card though, install kernels don't have multimedia features.
  
  However, as a hard core BSD user, I would say if you're looking for a desktop replacement, you may not find the joy here. First, getting BSD up and running as a desktop requires a bit of work and a certain comfort level working with the command line.
  
  Being Bi-OS-ual (I swing Linux and BSD where necessary ;), I would recommend either Knoppix 2.6 or Fedora Core 2 as a better starter unix. With these, you won't be dropped to a prompt after a fairly mimimalist install to fend for yourself. You'll also get a chance to run a ton of pre-configured desktop applications, so when you finally do attempt the BSD desktop, you'll know what you want to install beforehand.
  
  If however you're wanting to setup your first server environment, I would recommend FreeBSD over everything else. You will learn unix the proper way, which is at the command line and manually configuring your service config files. (Yes I've used Debian and Gentoo for this in the past, and I still think FreeBSD is better suited).
  
  --
  Success is as dangerous as failure, hope as hollow as fear.
2. Re:Am I ready to take the BSD plunge? by Kurt+Russell · 2004-09-27 07:48 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  The FreeBSD install process is easy. Check here to see if the stuff in your box is listed. I am almost positive that box will work.
3. Re:Am I ready to take the BSD plunge? by Brandybuck · 2004-09-27 08:47 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  what I really want before wiping windows off my box is a throrough HW compatibility list
  
  See the Hardware Notes page. This page is for 5.2.1 because 5.3 is still in beta, but you can get the latest page off of CVS or on the beta ISO.
  
  While this page isn't thorough, it should meet most people's needs. Thoroughness would require a vastly larger document. For example, not every USB flash drive is listed, but 9999 out of the 10,000 available will work with FreeBSD out of the box.
  
  If you have hardware that is not mentioned, then ask about it on a support forum.
  
  --
  Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
4. Re:Am I ready to take the BSD plunge? by torako · 2004-09-27 08:59 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  FreeBSD can make a pretty good desktop machine. It has a really lean base system and using the ports system you can get all the software you want.
  Once you get your GUI running you won't notice any difference.
  In terms of administration and setup I'd compare FreeBSD with Slackware Linux. You will need to do some config file editing to get stuff done, but FreeBSD has a very well documented and easy-to-understand configuration system (you can basically set all the important system preferences in the /etc/rc.conf file).
  Give it a shot, you just might like it.
5. Re:Am I ready to take the BSD plunge? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-09-27 09:03 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  you could also try FreeSBIE http://www.freesbie.org/, a very nice freeBSD live CD. it worked fine on my DELL laptop (except for the wireless card, but that's expected) and on another old DELL PIII desktop I had lying around but of course since your machine is new YMMV.
  
  s.
6. Re:Am I ready to take the BSD plunge? by Korpo · 2004-09-27 09:41 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Yeah, you can get everything with Ports, but you have to compile it! That's a serious investment in time, even with a multi-GHz P4, if you long for a recent - say - KDE? (You sure want _THAT_ or a full Gnome on a desktop machine, in recent versions).
  
  I actually have a pal sitting in the lab next to me, doing Ports compiles and configuring since days because he wants to "truely evaluate" the system (he has a P4 with good horse power and HT).
  
  Accepted: The base system is a perfect match for the kernel, lean and mean, but that won't give you you most stuff considered to be part of a full desktop. And X, Gnome and KDE are not as neatly adapted to FreeBSD as the base system, not by far. Recent versions need to be compiled. You aren't suggesting a base system is enough, aren't you? Command line is fine, but X would be nice. And Slackware isn't a very popular distro by today's standards...
  
  5.x is very performant system that is in its strengths a true match for Linux 2.6.x. It replaced a lot of code though, and as 2.6.x, needs time to mature - it's beta for a reason and not yet fully stable. 4.x is the tried and true proven solution. I bet 4.x and the base system are one of the most stable and reliable foundations for a server out there, but not the most performant and scalable one. 5.x is not stable yet, it still has teething troubles: Even it's new and powerful SCHED_ULE (O(1)-Scheduler) is not fully stable yet. It's a good and commendable design, though (the whole kernel), as always.
  
  A beginner is for sure in for more fun than he expected with the Ports tree. It's a solution that works, but does not really increase usability a lot for BSD beginners.
7. Re:Am I ready to take the BSD plunge? by Bishop · 2004-09-27 09:45 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Install FreeBSD 4.10. It is the current stable version of FreeBSD. 4.10 will give you a good idea of all that FreeBSD has to offer. FreeeBSD 4.10 is not outdated. It was released in May 2004 and includes gnome 2.6 and KDE 3.2.2.
  
  The FreeBSD install is easy provided that you follow the documentation. If you don't have a second computer on which to view the installation guide, print it out.
8. Re:Am I ready to take the BSD plunge? by Brandybuck · 2004-09-27 09:53 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Yeah, you can get everything with Ports, but you have to compile it!
  
  If you don't want to compile ports, then use prebuilt packages! Why is this so hard of a concept to understand?
  
  --
  Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
9. Re:Am I ready to take the BSD plunge? by molnarcs · 2004-09-27 10:18 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  As he ^ said. FreeBSD has package management similar to Debian's apt. Packages might be somewhat outdated compared to ports (but they are built from ports! once in a month if I know correctly).
  apt-get install postfix = pkg_add -r postfix
  or if you have portupgrade installed:
  portinstall -PP postfix
  But that's not all! You can combine the two:
  portinstall -P postfix
  will try to install the latest version from packages, but if it can't find it it will build the port! FreeBSD's port/package management is one (if not THE) best I ever seen.
10. Re:Am I ready to take the BSD plunge? by ValourX · 2004-09-27 13:25 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  I would say that OpenBSD is a better starter server; it's easier to secure and the afterboot man page tells you pretty much everything you have to know to get started with a variety of different services. The man pages in OpenBSD are just outstanding, and the quality of the code is unmatched.
  
  If only it had the desktop apps I need, I'd use it as a desktop machine. As it is, I have it on my laptop so I can learn to do more through the CLI (email, IRC, learning vi, maybe get into C programming).
  
  And this is coming from someone who uses FreeBSD as his main workstation OS.
  
  -Jem
11. Re:Am I ready to take the BSD plunge? by drmerope · 2004-09-27 19:48 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  Not to mention that this upcoming release will have ndis support enabled by default... which should allow you to use a binary windows driver to get your card up and running.
12. Re:Am I ready to take the BSD plunge? by Orlando · 2004-09-27 20:02 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  First, getting BSD up and running as a desktop requires a bit of work and a certain comfort level working with the command line.
  
  The instant workstation meta-port may take some of the pain (fun :) out of the experience :
  
  http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/h andbook/desktop-summary.html
  
  --
  -= This is a self-referential sig =-
13. Re:Am I ready to take the BSD plunge? by R.Caley · 2004-09-28 00:24 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  I didn't say X doesn't come with FreeBSD. I said: It's not part of the base system.
  This is rather theological from the POV of a normal user. X is shipped with the system, is installed as part of the normal instalation (if you like), is declared in /etc/mtree/, it's in /usr, not /usr/local and so on.
  That it isn't part of the base system is interesting for developers, but from the POV of a user you'd be hard pushed to notice any difference in status between X and, say, OpenSSH.
  
  --
  _O_ .|< The named which can be named is not the true named
14. Re:Am I ready to take the BSD plunge? by chrysalis · 2004-09-28 07:18 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  KDE 3.2.2 *is* outdated. We're at 3.3, you know?
  
  --
  {{.sig}}
4.x series by nurb432 · 2004-09-27 12:34 · Score: 4, Informative

Since you are new to FBSD, dont try the 5.x series just yet.. Its not 100% done, yet.. almost..but not quite..

Stick with the 4.x ( stable, released ) series for the moment, if you are going to try it TODAY.. so you dont get left with a bad impression by starting out with a TESTING version.....

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---- Booth was a patriot ----
/. is great for plungers by museumpeace · 2004-09-28 01:41 · Score: 4, Interesting

/. posters:
Thanks for all the information for a newbie taking the BSD plunge. This is /. at its best: a lot of people who know what they are talking about and willing to pass on what they know.
BTW, entirely by accident, I found an HP site where you can try out BSD. They are running FreeBSD 5.2.1. You sign up for an account and get to play on their machine. HP puts up the service as a way to show off its high performance systems [alpha's, 64-bit itaniums and other cool tools headed for obsolescence:( ]. I wonder if HP's choice of BSD as one of the OS's for testdriving their hottest boxes implys that they think BSD is less likely to get in the way of demanding computations than some other OS's we shant name.

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One /. article for every beta? by chrysalis · 2004-09-28 06:50 · Score: 2, Insightful

Is there really a need to announce *every* beta version of the development branch of FreeBSD?

If you need to follow what's going on in the CVS tree, there are mailing-lists for that.

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{{.sig}}
1. Re:One /. article for every beta? by CoolGopher · 2004-09-28 19:13 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Okay, I'll bite.
  
  I think it's really good that FreeBSD is getting this amount of attention - the plunge from FreeBSD 4 to 5 is *huge*, and hence needs lots of testing to ensure we don't have a repeat of the 3->4 saga (if you weren't around back then, there were numerous issues in the early FBSD4.x releases, and the jump from 3 to 4 wasn't as big as it is from 4 to 5).
  
  If you dislike seeing the BSD posts, don't worry, BETA6 is the last scheduled beta (though there will be RC1 shortly).
  
  Also somebody mentioned that *BSD is dead... :-P
2. Re:One /. article for every beta? by DashEvil · 2004-09-29 07:28 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Hey, Gopher boy.
  
  Check the schedule again. :) There will be a BETA7.
  
  --
  -If God wanted people to be better than me, he would have made them that way.
3. Re:One /. article for every beta? by softweyr · 2004-09-29 16:28 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Is there really a need to announce *every* beta version of the development branch of FreeBSD?
  Yes, and we're going to do at least 27 more just to irritate you.
BSD is rice!! by devphaeton · 2004-09-28 08:58 · Score: 2, Funny

So if i keep doing a make world up to each new Beta as it comes out, does that mean i'm in danger of becoming a Gentoo RiceBoi?? :-D

(p.s.: me 3 FreeBSD and Debian)

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