Re: Newbie: 4.9 / 5.2.1 / 4.10 ??

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• In reply to: Geoffrey Lane: "Newbie: 4.9 / 5.2.1 / 4.10 ??"
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Date: Fri, 7 May 2004 18:29:57 +0200 (CEST)
To: Geoffrey Lane <mgjscdhl@nb.sympatico.ca>

On Fri, 7 May 2004, Geoffrey Lane wrote:

> I'm fairly familiar with linux and have been running redhat for a few years
> now. I'm looking for something I have more control over and isn't bloated
> with alot of stuff I don't need...
> BSD is on the top of my list, there are only a few set backs for me to make
> the switch:
>
> 1) should I download and install the "new technology" releases or use the 4.x
> branch and what are the differences?
Hi!

Well, depends on what you want/need. For your desktop, or some station
to simply play around with it, the new tech release is fine, and stable
enough for everydays use. It also is (as newbie) the better thing to
learn, when you in any case have to learn FreeBSD.

> 2) How do they differ (new tech/4.9)?
4.x to 5.x has a remodelled rc structure, its been remodelled in 5.x
towards a bit more modularity.

Also under the hood are the most changes, like better SMP, new
scheduler, etc. Visible to the end-user are in most cases only the
different rc. structure, and that some things like devfs make static
devices obsolete, and that some commands like disklabel have been
replaced by newer programs like bsdlabel. So basically no biiig deal,
but significant to newbies...

> 3) Are new technology (eg. 5.2.x) considered the unstable branch?
Its not like debian, at least not exactly. In terms of maturity etc.,
yes, you could think of it as kind of "unstable", alas it does not
reflect the actual differences, as 4.x and 5.x are completely different
branches with different kernels...

> 4) Can freebsd use a linux swap space?
No.

> 5) What is this geometry bug and can it be fixed How?
>
Hmm, geometry issues are a lot, my notebook also has some messed-up
geometry (thanks, Compaq) and I cannot dual-boot FreeBSD and WinXP,
which would sometimes a nice feature @work.
A colleague managed some dirty tricks with partition magic and Suse 8,
but I cannot recommend this.

Another approach would be the purchase of some different disk, and put
it in the box. For testing purposes I use personally some old and cheap
SCSI-disks, and some used controller, that you can get on ebay for about
20 bucks altogether. 2 GB is ok for text mode, and one of my graphical
workstations with X11 has a 4GB disk in and more than 1GB free.
So you would bypass geometry bugs, since the bootloader has not to deal
with geometry and can point to another disk.

HTH
Olaf

-- 
Olaf Hoyer        ohoyer@gaff.hhhr.ision.net
Fuerchterliche Erlebniss geben zu raten,
ob der, welcher sie erlebt, nicht etwas Fuerchterliches ist.
(Nietzsche, Jenseits von Gut und Boese)
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• Previous message: Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P.: "Re: Newbie: 4.9 / 5.2.1 / 4.10 ??"
• In reply to: Geoffrey Lane: "Newbie: 4.9 / 5.2.1 / 4.10 ??"
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