Re: need help choosing appropriate BSD distro

t2000kw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On 23 Jun 2007 18:59:59 -0700, Marco S Hyman <marc@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Instead of all this hand wringing why not burn a copy of the install
CD, boot using the burned CD, and see if it supports your network card.
It may. It supports a lot. On the wireless side the install CD
supports . . .

I would if I could--that's not the issue. To save you from reading
back through this thread, this is the gist of the problem:

From what I see there is no "install CD" iso image to obtain and I'd
have to find a way to make a custom install CD. Another person said
that the only way to get an official install CD is to buy one, but I
don't want to take the chance. Some of the BSD branches offer install
CDs.

I have an Atheros card and NetBSD appears to support it (the lights
were blinking), but it ran out of room after switching between disc 1
and 2 fourteen times to install some software packages. (I gave it 4
GB to use.)

Here's where I checked for a full install CD iso image:

http://mirror.planetunix.net/pub/OpenBSD/4.1/i386/

I see none. Some of the titles appear to be install CDs but take a
look at the file size and you'll see what I see.

There are one or two more BSDs to try yet before I give up on it.
_____
Please don't be too hasty!

I started using OBSD at release 2.6 after RedHat Linux v6.2 and later v9.0 about 2000. I used OBSD for a firewall initially. The OBSD firewall ran perfectly for six years, and only last fall 2006 i changed over to OBSD release 3.9. The firewall performance was so good that i decided to use OBSD as my main desktop workstation as well. Read on.

The best way to figure out how to get going with OBSD is to fetch a copy of the boot CD iso (release 4.1), and burn a copy, or instead, fetch a copy of the boot floppy (release 4.1) image (if your computer still has a floppy drive) and cut a floppy boot disk. I suggest that you practice installing OBSD on a machine that has a) a separate hard disk (2 to 4 Gb) you can afford to clobber (e.g. play with), and b) a supported NIC (wireless or otherwise). While reading the (very good) info on the OBSD web site on another machine, go through the motions of the installation process. You will soon learn how that works. I can now install a base system via FTP in less than 20 minutes of actual time in front of the machine. You can do the same. I support the OBSD group and purchase an official CD about every two years. Most of my installs are via ftp.

Customising the system so that it becomes a nice workstation (if that is your goal) takes some time. You you need to be prepared to spend another half day or so to install the various packages you want to use. There is a good write up on the net about how to build a good workstation. I have modified that procedure a bit, and it is somewhere on my system. If you want a copy, i would be more than happy to post it on my web server. Your knowledge of Linux will be very valuable in the OBSD case.

If you want to dual boot, say, Windows 2K, XP and OBSD, have a look at GAG. That works for me since i use two hard disks in the same machine. OBSD is rock solid, easy to understand, and can run Linux binaries directly such as OpenOffice. The latter (OO) may now be available as a package under OBSD. I saw some notes about that some time ago, but have not checked yet.

There are several really good window managers you can try. I prefer my own heavily customised version of fvwm2 (which is the default window manager with OBSD). I also tried fluxbox, and like it as well. It has features that come from the Windows environment.

Good luck.
--
Regards / JCH
.

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