1.2.1 What Can FreeBSD Do?

FreeBSD has many noteworthy features. Some of these are:

• Preemptive multitasking with dynamic priority adjustment to ensure smooth and fair sharing of the computer between applications and users, even under the heaviest of loads.

• Multi-user facilities which allow many people to use a FreeBSD system simultaneously for a variety of things. This means, for example, that system peripherals such as printers and tape drives are properly shared between all users on the system or the network and that individual resource limits can be placed on users or groups of users, protecting critical system resources from over-use.

• Strong TCP/IP networking with support for industry standards such as SLIP, PPP, NFS, DHCP, and NIS. This means that your FreeBSD machine can interoperate easily with other systems as well as act as an enterprise server, providing vital functions such as NFS (remote file access) and email services or putting your organization on the Internet with WWW, FTP, routing and firewall (security) services.

• Memory protection ensures that applications (or users) cannot interfere with each other. One application crashing will not affect others in any way.

• FreeBSD is a 32-bit operating system (64-bit on the Alpha) and was designed as such from the ground up.

• The industry standard X Window System (X11R6) provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for the cost of a common VGA card and monitor and comes with full sources.

• Binary compatibility with many programs built for Linux, SCO, SVR4, BSDI and NetBSD.

• Thousands of ready-to-run applications are available from the FreeBSD ports and packages collection. Why search the net when you can find it all right here?

• Thousands of additional and easy-to-port applications are available on the Internet. FreeBSD is source code compatible with most popular commercial Unix systems and thus most applications require few, if any, changes to compile.

• Demand paged virtual memory and ``merged VM/buffer cache'' design efficiently satisfies applications with large appetites for memory while still maintaining interactive response to other users.

• SMP support for machines with multiple CPUs.

• A full complement of C, C++, Fortran, and Perl development tools. Many additional languages for advanced research and development are also available in the ports and packages collection.

• Source code for the entire system means you have the greatest degree of control over your environment. Why be locked into a proprietary solution at the mercy of your vendor when you can have a truly open system?

• Extensive online documentation.

• And many more!

FreeBSD is based on the 4.4BSD-Lite release from Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California at Berkeley, and carries on the distinguished tradition of BSD systems development. In addition to the fine work provided by CSRG, the FreeBSD Project has put in many thousands of hours in fine tuning the system for maximum performance and reliability in real-life load situations. As many of the commercial giants struggle to field PC operating systems with such features, performance and reliability, FreeBSD can offer them now!

The applications to which FreeBSD can be put are truly limited only by your own imagination. From software development to factory automation, inventory control to azimuth correction of remote satellite antennae; if it can be done with a commercial Unix product then it is more than likely that you can do it with FreeBSD too! FreeBSD also benefits significantly from literally thousands of high quality applications developed by research centers and universities around the world, often available at little to no cost. Commercial applications are also available and appearing in greater numbers every day.

Because the source code for FreeBSD itself is generally available, the system can also be customized to an almost unheard of degree for special applications or projects, and in ways not generally possible with operating systems from most major commercial vendors. Here is just a sampling of some of the applications in which people are currently using FreeBSD:

• Internet Services: The robust TCP/IP networking built into FreeBSD makes it an ideal platform for a variety of Internet services such as:

  • FTP servers

  • World Wide Web servers (standard or secure [SSL])

  • Firewalls and NAT (``IP masquerading'') gateways

  • Electronic Mail servers

  • USENET News or Bulletin Board Systems

  • And more...

  With FreeBSD, you can easily start out small with an inexpensive 386 class PC and upgrade all the way up to a quad-processor Xeon with RAID storage as your enterprise grows.

• Education: Are you a student of computer science or a related engineering field? There is no better way of learning about operating systems, computer architecture and networking than the hands on, under the hood experience that FreeBSD can provide. A number of freely available CAD, mathematical and graphic design packages also make it highly useful to those whose primary interest in a computer is to get other work done!

• Research: With source code for the entire system available, FreeBSD is an excellent platform for research in operating systems as well as other branches of computer science. FreeBSD's freely available nature also makes it possible for remote groups to collaborate on ideas or shared development without having to worry about special licensing agreements or limitations on what may be discussed in open forums.

• Networking: Need a new router? A name server (DNS)? A firewall to keep people out of your internal network? FreeBSD can easily turn that unused 386 or 486 PC sitting in the corner into an advanced router with sophisticated packet-filtering capabilities.

• X Window workstation: FreeBSD is a fine choice for an inexpensive X terminal solution, either using the freely available XFree86 server or one of the excellent commercial servers provided by X Inside. Unlike an X terminal, FreeBSD allows many applications to be run locally if desired, thus relieving the burden on a central server. FreeBSD can even boot ``diskless'', making individual workstations even cheaper and easier to administer.

• Software Development: The basic FreeBSD system comes with a full complement of development tools including the renowned GNU C/C++ compiler and debugger.

FreeBSD is available in both source and binary form on CDROM and via anonymous FTP. Please see Appendix A for more information about obtaining FreeBSD.

1.2.2 Who uses FreeBSD?

FreeBSD is used to power some of the biggest sites on the Internet, including:

• Yahoo!

• Apache

• Blue Mountain Arts

• Pair Networks

• Sony Japan

• Netcraft

• Weathernews

• Supervalu

• TELEHOUSE America

• Sophos Anti-Virus

• JMA Wired

and many more.

1.3.1 A Brief History of FreeBSD

The FreeBSD project had its genesis in the early part of 1993, partially as an outgrowth of the ``Unofficial 386BSD Patchkit'' by the patchkit's last 3 coordinators: Nate Williams, Rod Grimes and myself.

Our original goal was to produce an intermediate snapshot of 386BSD in order to fix a number of problems with it that the patchkit mechanism just was not capable of solving. Some of you may remember the early working title for the project being ``386BSD 0.5'' or ``386BSD Interim'' in reference to that fact.

386BSD was Bill Jolitz's operating system, which had been up to that point suffering rather severely from almost a year's worth of neglect. As the patchkit swelled ever more uncomfortably with each passing day, we were in unanimous agreement that something had to be done and decided to assist Bill by providing this interim ``cleanup'' snapshot. Those plans came to a rude halt when Bill Jolitz suddenly decided to withdraw his sanction from the project without any clear indication of what would be done instead.

It did not take us long to decide that the goal remained worthwhile, even without Bill's support, and so we adopted the name ``FreeBSD'', coined by David Greenman. Our initial objectives were set after consulting with the system's current users and, once it became clear that the project was on the road to perhaps even becoming a reality, I contacted Walnut Creek CDROM with an eye toward improving FreeBSD's distribution channels for those many unfortunates without easy access to the Internet. Walnut Creek CDROM not only supported the idea of distributing FreeBSD on CD but also went so far as to provide the project with a machine to work on and a fast Internet connection. Without Walnut Creek CDROM's almost unprecedented degree of faith in what was, at the time, a completely unknown project, it is quite unlikely that FreeBSD would have gotten as far, as fast, as it has today.

The first CDROM (and general net-wide) distribution was FreeBSD 1.0, released in December of 1993. This was based on the 4.3BSD-Lite (``Net/2'') tape from U.C. Berkeley, with many components also provided by 386BSD and the Free Software Foundation. It was a fairly reasonable success for a first offering, and we followed it with the highly successful FreeBSD 1.1 release in May of 1994.

Around this time, some rather unexpected storm clouds formed on the horizon as Novell and U.C. Berkeley settled their long-running lawsuit over the legal status of the Berkeley Net/2 tape. A condition of that settlement was U.C. Berkeley's concession that large parts of Net/2 were ``encumbered'' code and the property of Novell, who had in turn acquired it from AT&T some time previously. What Berkeley got in return was Novell's ``blessing'' that the 4.4BSD-Lite release, when it was finally released, would be declared unencumbered and all existing Net/2 users would be strongly encouraged to switch. This included FreeBSD, and the project was given until the end of July 1994 to stop shipping its own Net/2 based product. Under the terms of that agreement, the project was allowed one last release before the deadline, that release being FreeBSD 1.1.5.1.

FreeBSD then set about the arduous task of literally re-inventing itself from a completely new and rather incomplete set of 4.4BSD-Lite bits. The ``Lite'' releases were light in part because Berkeley's CSRG had removed large chunks of code required for actually constructing a bootable running system (due to various legal requirements) and the fact that the Intel port of 4.4 was highly incomplete. It took the project until November of 1994 to make this transition, at which point it released FreeBSD 2.0 to the net and on CDROM (in late December). Despite being still more than a little rough around the edges, the release was a significant success and was followed by the more robust and easier to install FreeBSD 2.0.5 release in June of 1995.

We released FreeBSD 2.1.5 in August of 1996, and it appeared to be popular enough among the ISP and commercial communities that another release along the 2.1-STABLE branch was merited. This was FreeBSD 2.1.7.1, released in February 1997 and capping the end of mainstream development on 2.1-STABLE. Now in maintenance mode, only security enhancements and other critical bug fixes will be done on this branch (RELENG_2_1_0).

FreeBSD 2.2 was branched from the development mainline (``-CURRENT'') in November 1996 as the RELENG_2_2 branch, and the first full release (2.2.1) was released in April 1997. Further releases along the 2.2 branch were done in the summer and fall of '97, the last of which (2.2.8) appeared in November 1998. The first official 3.0 release appeared in October 1998 and spelled the beginning of the end for the 2.2 branch.

The tree branched again on Jan 20, 1999, leading to the 4.0-CURRENT and 3.X-STABLE branches. From 3.X-STABLE, 3.1 was released on February 15, 1999, 3.2 on May 15, 1999, 3.3 on September 16, 1999, 3.4 on December 20, 1999, and 3.5 on June 24, 2000, which was followed a few days later by a minor point release update to 3.5.1, to incorporate some last-minute security fixes to Kerberos. This will be the final release in the 3.X branch.

There was another branch on March 13, 2000, which saw the emergence of the 4.X-STABLE branch, now considered to be the "current -stable branch". There have been several releases from it so far: 4.0-RELEASE came out in March 2000, 4.1 was released in July 2000, 4.2 in November 2000, 4.3 in April 2001, and 4.4 in September 2001. There will be more releases along the 4.X-stable (RELENG_4) branch well into 2002.

Long-term development projects continue to take place in the 5.0-CURRENT (trunk) branch, and SNAPshot releases of 5.0 on CDROM (and, of course, on the net) are continually made available from the snapshot server as work progresses.

1.3.2 FreeBSD Project Goals

The goals of the FreeBSD Project are to provide software that may be used for any purpose and without strings attached. Many of us have a significant investment in the code (and project) and would certainly not mind a little financial compensation now and then, but we are definitely not prepared to insist on it. We believe that our first and foremost ``mission'' is to provide code to any and all comers, and for whatever purpose, so that the code gets the widest possible use and provides the widest possible benefit. This is, I believe, one of the most fundamental goals of Free Software and one that we enthusiastically support.

That code in our source tree which falls under the GNU General Public License (GPL) or Library General Public License (LGPL) comes with slightly more strings attached, though at least on the side of enforced access rather than the usual opposite. Due to the additional complexities that can evolve in the commercial use of GPL software we do, however, prefer software submitted under the more relaxed BSD copyright when it is a reasonable option to do so.

1.3.3 The FreeBSD Development Model

The development of FreeBSD is a very open and flexible process, FreeBSD being literally built from the contributions of hundreds of people around the world, as can be seen from our list of contributors. We are constantly on the lookout for new developers and ideas, and those interested in becoming more closely involved with the project need simply contact us at the FreeBSD technical discussions mailing list <freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org>. The FreeBSD announcements mailing list <freebsd-announce@FreeBSD.org> is also available to those wishing to make other FreeBSD users aware of major areas of work.

Useful things to know about the FreeBSD project and its development process, whether working independently or in close cooperation:

In summary, our development model is organized as a loose set of concentric circles. The centralized model is designed for the convenience of the users of FreeBSD, who are thereby provided with an easy way of tracking one central code base, not to keep potential contributors out! Our desire is to present a stable operating system with a large set of coherent application programs that the users can easily install and use, and this model works very well in accomplishing that.

All we ask of those who would join us as FreeBSD developers is some of the same dedication its current people have to its continued success!

1.3.4 The Current FreeBSD Release

FreeBSD is a freely available, full source 4.4BSD-Lite based release for Intel i386, i486, Pentium, Pentium Pro, Celeron, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium IV (or compatible), Xeon, DEC Alpha and SPARC64 based computer systems. It is based primarily on software from U.C. Berkeley's CSRG group, with some enhancements from NetBSD, OpenBSD, 386BSD, and the Free Software Foundation.

Since our release of FreeBSD 2.0 in late 94, the performance, feature set, and stability of FreeBSD has improved dramatically. The largest change is a revamped virtual memory system with a merged VM/file buffer cache that not only increases performance, but also reduces FreeBSD's memory footprint, making a 5 MB configuration a more acceptable minimum. Other enhancements include full NIS client and server support, transaction TCP support, dial-on-demand PPP, integrated DHCP support, an improved SCSI subsystem, ISDN support, support for ATM, FDDI, Fast and Gigabit Ethernet (1000 Mbit) adapters, improved support for the latest Adaptec controllers, and many hundreds of bug fixes.

We have also taken the comments and suggestions of many of our users to heart and have attempted to provide what we hope is a more sane and easily understood installation process. Your feedback on this (constantly evolving) process is especially welcome!

In addition to the base distributions, FreeBSD offers a ported software collection with thousands of commonly sought-after programs. At the time of this printing, there were over 8,200 ports! The list of ports ranges from http (WWW) servers, to games, languages, editors, and almost everything in between. The entire ports collection requires approximately 210 MB of storage, all ports being expressed as ``deltas'' to their original sources. This makes it much easier for us to update ports, and greatly reduces the disk space demands made by the older 1.0 ports collection. To compile a port, you simply change to the directory of the program you wish to install, type make install, and let the system do the rest. The full original distribution for each port you build is retrieved dynamically off the CDROM or a local FTP site, so you need only enough disk space to build the ports you want. Almost every port is also provided as a pre-compiled ``package'', which can be installed with a simple command (pkg_add) by those who do not wish to compile their own ports from source.

A number of additional documents which you may find very helpful in the process of installing and using FreeBSD may now also be found in the /usr/share/doc directory on any machine running FreeBSD 2.1 or later. You may view the locally installed manuals with any HTML capable browser using the following URLs:

You can also view the master (and most frequently updated) copies at http://www.FreeBSD.org/.

2.2.1 Inventory Your Computer

Before installing FreeBSD you should attempt to inventory the components in your computer. The FreeBSD installation routines will show you the components (hard disks, network cards, CDROM drives, and so forth) with their model number and manufacturer. FreeBSD will also attempt to determine the correct configuration for these devices, which includes information about IRQ and IO port usage. Due to the vagaries of PC hardware this process is not always completely successful, and you may need to correct FreeBSD's determination of your configuration.

If you already have another operating system installed, such as Windows or Linux, it is a good idea to use the facilities provided by those operating systems to see how your hardware is already configured. If you are really not sure what settings an expansion card is using, you may find it printed on the card itself. Popular IRQ numbers are 3, 5, and 7, and IO port addresses are normally written as hexadecimal numbers, such as 0x330.

We recommend you print or write down this information before installing FreeBSD. It may help to use a table, like this:

2.2.2 Backup Your Data

If the computer you will be installing FreeBSD on contains valuable data then ensure you have it backed up, and that you have tested the backups before installing FreeBSD. The FreeBSD installation routine will prompt you several times before writing any data to your disk, but once that process has started it cannot be undone.

2.2.3 Decide Where to Install FreeBSD

If you want FreeBSD to use all your disk, then there is nothing more to concern yourself with at this point -- you can skip to the next section.

However, if you need FreeBSD to co-exist with other operating systems then you need to have a rough understanding of how data is laid out on the disk, and how this affects you.

    >>>show device
    dka0.0.0.4.0               DKA0           TOSHIBA CD-ROM XM-57  3476
    dkc0.0.0.1009.0            DKC0                       RZ1BB-BS  0658
    dkc100.1.0.1009.0          DKC100             SEAGATE ST34501W  0015
    dva0.0.0.0.1               DVA0
    ewa0.0.0.3.0               EWA0              00-00-F8-75-6D-01
    pkc0.7.0.1009.0            PKC0                  SCSI Bus ID 7  5.27
    pqa0.0.0.4.0               PQA0                       PCI EIDE
    pqb0.0.1.4.0               PQB0                       PCI EIDE

2.2.4 Collect Your Network Configuration Details

If you intend to connect to a network as part of your FreeBSD installation (for example, if you will be installing from an FTP site, or an NFS server), then you need to know your network configuration. You will be prompted for this information during the installation so that FreeBSD can connect to the network to complete the install.

2.2.5 Check for FreeBSD Errata

Although the FreeBSD project strives to ensure that each release of FreeBSD is as stable as possible, bugs do occasionally creep into the process. On very rare occasions those bugs affect the installation process. As these problems are discovered and fixed they are noted in the FreeBSD Errata, posted on the FreeBSD web site. You should check the errata before installing to make sure that there are no late-breaking problems which you should be aware of.

Information about all the releases, including the errata for each release, can be found on the release information section of the FreeBSD web site.

2.2.6 Obtain the FreeBSD installation files

The FreeBSD installation process can install FreeBSD from files located in the any of the following places:

Local media

• A CDROM

• A DOS partition on the same computer

• A tape

• Floppy disks

Network

• An FTP site, going through a firewall, or using an HTTP proxy, as necessary

• An NFS server

• A dedicated parallel or serial connection

If you have purchased FreeBSD on CD or DVD then you already have everything you need, and should proceed to the next section (Preparing the Boot Media).

If you have not obtained the FreeBSD installation files you should skip ahead to Section 2.13 which explains how to prepare to install FreeBSD from any of the above. After reading that section, you should come back here, and read on to Section 2.2.7.

2.2.7 Prepare the Boot Media

The FreeBSD installation process is started by booting your computer into the FreeBSD installer--it is not a program you run within another operating system. Your computer normally boots using the operating system installed on your hard disk, but it can also be configured to use a ``bootable'' floppy disk. It may also be able to boot from a disk in the CDROM drive.

To create boot floppy images, follow these steps:

You are now ready to start installing FreeBSD.

2.3.1 Booting

2.3.2 Kernel Configuration

The kernel is the core of the operating system. It is responsible for many things, including access to all the devices you may have on your system, such as hard disks, network cards, sound cards, and so on. Each piece of hardware supported by the FreeBSD kernel has a driver associated with it. Each driver has a two or three letter name, such as sa for the SCSI sequential access driver, or sio for the Serial I/O driver (which manages COM ports).

When the kernel starts, each driver checks the system to see whether or not the hardware it supports exists on your system. If it does, then the driver configures the hardware and makes it available to the rest of the kernel.

This checking is commonly referred to as device probing. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to do this in a safe way. Some hardware drivers do not co-exist well, and probing for one piece of hardware can sometimes leave another in an inconsistent state. This is a basic limitation of the PC design.

Many older devices are called ISA devices--as opposed to PCI devices. The ISA specification requires each device to have some information hard coded into it, typically the Interrupt Request Line number (IRQ) and IO port address that the driver uses. This information is commonly set by using physical jumpers on the card, or by using a DOS based utility.

This was often a source of problems, because it was not possible to have two devices that shared the same IRQ or port address.

Newer devices follow the PCI specification, which does not require this, as the devices are supposed to cooperate with the BIOS, and be told which IRQ and IO port addresses to use.

If you have any ISA devices in your computer then FreeBSD's driver for that device will need to be configured with the IRQ and port address that you have set the card to. This is why carrying out an inventory of your hardware (see Section 2.2.1) can be useful.

Unfortunately, the default IRQs and memory ports used by some drivers clash. This is because some ISA devices are shipped with IRQs or memory ports that clash. The defaults in FreeBSD's drivers are deliberately set to mirror the manufacturer's defaults, so that, out of the box, as many devices as possible will work.

This is almost never an issue when running FreeBSD day-to-day. Your computer will not normally contain two pieces of hardware that clash, because one of them would not work (irrespective of the operating system you are using).

It becomes an issue when you are installing FreeBSD for the first time because the kernel used to carry out the install has to contain as many drivers as possible, so that many different hardware configurations can be supported. This means that some of those drivers will have conflicting configurations. The devices are probed in a strict order, and if you own a device that is probed late in the process, but conflicted with an earlier probe, then your hardware might not function or be probed correctly when you install FreeBSD.

Because of this, the first thing you have the opportunity to do when installing FreeBSD is look at the list of drivers that are configured into the kernel, and either disable some of them, if you do not own that device, or confirm (and alter) the driver's configuration if you do own the device but the defaults are wrong.

This probably sounds much more complicated than it actually is.

Figure 2-1 shows the first kernel configuration menu. We recommend that you choose the Start kernel configuration in full-screen visual mode option, as it presents the easiest interface for the new user.

The kernel configuration screen (Figure 2-2) is then divided into four sections.

1. A collapsible list of all the drivers that are currently marked as ``active'', subdivided into groups such as Storage, and Network. Each driver is shown as a description, its two or three letter driver name, and the IRQ and memory port used by that driver. In addition, if an active driver conflicts with another active driver then CONF is shown next to the driver name. This section also shows the total number of conflicting drivers that are currently active.

2. Drivers that have been marked inactive. They remain in the kernel, but they will not probe for their device when the kernel starts. These are subdivided into groups in the same way as the active driver list.

3. More detail about the currently selected driver, including its IRQ and memory port address.

4. Information about the keystrokes that are valid at this point in time.

At this point there will always be conflicts listed. Do not worry about this, it is to be expected; all the drivers are enabled, and as has already been explained, some of them will conflict with one another.

You now have to work through the list of drivers, resolving the conflicts.

2.3.3 Reviewing the Device Probe Results

The last few hundred lines that have been displayed on screen are stored and can be reviewed.

To review the buffer, press Scroll Lock. This turns on scrolling in the display. You can then use the arrow keys, or PageUp and PageDown to view the results. Press Scroll Lock again to stop scrolling.

Do this now, to review the text that scrolled off the screen when the kernel was carrying out the device probes. You will see text similar to Figure 2-6, although the precise text will differ depending on the devices that you have in your computer.

    avail memory = 253050880 (247120K bytes) 
    Preloaded elf kernel "kernel" at 0xc0817000.
    Preloaded mfs_root "/mfsroot" at 0xc0817084.
    md0: Preloaded image </mfsroot> 4423680 bytes at 0xc03ddcd4
    
    md1: Malloc disk
    Using $PIR table, 4 entries at 0xc00fde60
    npx0: <math processor> on motherboard   
    npx0: INT 16 interface   
    pcib0: <Host to PCI bridge> on motherboard
    pci0: <PCI bus> on pcib0
    pcib1:<VIA 82C598MVP (Apollo MVP3) PCI-PCI (AGP) bridge> at device 1.0 on pci0
    pci1: <PCI bus> on pcib1
    pci1: <Matrox MGA G200 AGP graphics accelerator> at 0.0 irq 11
    isab0: <VIA 82C586 PCI-ISA bridge> at device 7.0 on pci0
    isa0: <iSA bus> on isab0
    atapci0: <VIA 82C586 ATA33 controller> port 0xe000-0xe00f at device 7.1 on pci0
    ata0: at 0x1f0 irq 14 on atapci0
    ata1: at 0x170 irq 15 on atapci0
    uhci0 <VIA 83C572 USB controller> port 0xe400-0xe41f irq 10 at device 7.2 on pci
    0
    usb0: <VIA 83572 USB controller> on uhci0
    usb0: USB revision 1.0
    uhub0: VIA UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr1
    uhub0: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
    pci0: <unknown card> (vendor=0x1106, dev=0x3040) at 7.3
    dc0: <ADMtek AN985 10/100BaseTX> port 0xe800-0xe8ff mem 0xdb000000-0xeb0003ff ir
    q 11 at device 8.0 on pci0
    dc0: Ethernet address: 00:04:5a:74:6b:b5
    miibus0: <MII bus> on dc0
    ukphy0: <Generic IEEE 802.3u media interface> on miibus0
    ukphy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto
    ed0: <NE2000 PCI Ethernet (RealTek 8029)> port 0xec00-0xec1f irq 9 at device 10.
    0 on pci0
    ed0 address 52:54:05:de:73:1b, type NE2000 (16 bit)
    isa0: too many dependant configs (8)
    isa0: unexpected small tag 14
    orm0: <Option ROM> at iomem 0xc0000-0xc7fff on isa0
    fdc0: <NEC 72065B or clone> at port 0x3f0-0x3f5,0x3f7 irq 6 drq2 on isa0
    fdc0: FIFO enabled, 8 bytes threshold
    fd0: <1440-KB 3.5" drive> on fdc0 drive 0
    atkbdc0: <Keyboard controller (i8042)> at port 0x60,0x64 on isa0
    atkbd0: <AT Keyboard> flags 0x1 irq1 on atkbdc0
    kbd0 at atkbd0
    psm0: <PS/2 Mouse> irq 12 on atkbdc0
    psm0: model Generic PS/@ mouse, device ID 0
    vga0: <Generic ISA VGA> at port 0x3c0-0x3df iomem 0xa0000-0xbffff on isa0
    sc0: <System console> at flags 0x100 on isa0
    sc0: VGA <16 virtual consoles, flags=0x300>
    sio0 at port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0x10 on isa0
    sio0: type 16550A
    sio1 at port 0x2f8-0x2ff irq 3 on isa0
    sio1: type 16550A
    ppc0: <Parallel port> at port 0x378-0x37f irq 7 on isa0
    pppc0: SMC-like chipset (ECP/EPP/PS2/NIBBLE) in COMPATIBLE mode
    ppc0: FIFO with 16/16/15 bytes threshold
    plip0: <PLIP network interface> on ppbus0
    ad0: 8063MB <IBM-DHEA-38451> [16383/16/63] at ata0-master UDMA33
    acd0: CD-RW <LITE-ON LTR-1210B> at ata1-slave PIO4
    Mounting root from ufs:/dev/md0c
    /stand/sysinstall running as init on vty0

Check the probe results carefully to make sure that FreeBSD found all the devices you expected. If a device was not found, then it will not be listed. If the device's driver required configuring with the IRQ and port address then you should check that you entered them correctly.

If you need to make changes to the UserConfig device probing, its easy to exit the sysinstall program and start over again. Its also a good way to become more familiar with the process.

Use the arrow keys to select Exit Install from the Main Install Screen menu. The following message will display:

                          User Confirmation Requested 
             Are you sure you wish to exit? The system will reboot 
               (be sure to remove any floppies from the drives).
    
                                [ Yes ]    No

The install program will start again if the CDROM is left in the drive and [Yes] is selected.

If you are booting from floppies it will be necessary to remove the mfsroot.flp floppy and replace it with kern.flp before rebooting.

2.4.1 Selecting The Documentation Menu

From the Main Menu, select Doc with the arrow keys and press Enter.

This will display the Documentation Menu.

It is important to read the documents provided.

To view a document, select it with the arrow keys and press Enter. When finished reading a document, pressing Enter will return to the Documentation Menu.

To return to the Main Installation Menu, select Exit with the arrow keys and press Enter.

2.4.2 Selecting The Keymap Menu

To change the keyboard mapping, use the arrow keys to select Keymap from the menu and press Enter.

A different keyboard mapping may be chosen by selecting the menu item using up/down arrow keys and pressing Space. Pressing Space again will unselect the item. When finished, choose the [ OK ] using the arrow keys and press Enter.

Only a partial list is shown in this screen representation. Selecting [ Cancel ] will use the default keymap and return to the Main Install Menu.

2.4.3 Installation Options Screen

Select Options and press Enter.

The default values are usually fine for most users and do not need to be changed. The release name will vary according to the version being installed.

The description of the selected item will appear at the bottom of the screen highlighted in blue. Notice that one of the options is Use Defaults to reset all values to startup defaults.

Press F1 to read the help screen about the various options.

Pressing Q will return to the Main Install menu.

2.4.4 Begin A Standard Installation

The Standard installation is the option recommended for those new to Unix or FreeBSD. Use the arrow keys to select Standard and then press Enter to start the installation.

2.5.1 BIOS Drive Numbering

Before you install and configure FreeBSD on your system, there is an important subject that you should be aware of, especially if you have multiple hard drives.

In a PC running a BIOS-dependent operating system such as MS-DOS or Microsoft Windows, the BIOS is able to abstract the normal disk drive order, and the operating system goes along with the change. This allows the user to boot from a disk drive other than the so-called ``primary master''. This is especially convenient for some users who have found that the simplest and cheapest way to keep a system backup is to buy an identical second hard drive, and perform routine copies of the first drive to the second drive using Ghost or XCOPY . Then, if the first drive fails, or is attacked by a virus, or is scribbled upon by an operating system defect, he can easily recover by instructing the BIOS to logically swap the drives. It is like switching the cables on the drives, but without having to open the case.

More expensive systems with SCSI controllers often include BIOS extensions which allow the SCSI drives to be re-ordered in a similar fashion for up to seven drives.

A user who is accustomed to taking advantage of these features may become surprised when the results with FreeBSD are not as expected. FreeBSD does not use the BIOS, and does not know the ``logical BIOS drive mapping''. This can lead to very perplexing situations, especially when drives are physically identical in geometry, and have also been made as data clones of one another.

When using FreeBSD, always restore the BIOS to natural drive numbering before installing FreeBSD, and then leave it that way. If you need to switch drives around, then do so, but do it the hard way, and open the case and move the jumpers and cables.

2.5.2 Disk Organization

The smallest unit of organization that FreeBSD uses to find files is the filename. Filenames are case-sensitive, which means that readme.txt and README.TXT are two separate files. FreeBSD does not use the extension (.txt) of a file to determine whether the file is program, or a document, or some other form of data.

Files are stored in directories. A directory may contain no files, or it may contain many hundreds of files. A directory can also contain other directories, allowing you to build up a hierarchy of directories within one another. This makes it much easier to organize your data.

Files and directories are referenced by giving the file or directory name, followed by a forward slash, /, followed by any other directory names that are necessary. If you have directory foo, which contains directory bar, which contains the file readme.txt, then the full name, or path to the file is foo/bar/readme.txt.

Directories and files are stored in a filesystem. Each filesystem contains exactly one directory at the very top level, called the root directory for that filesystem. This root directory can then contain other directories.

So far this is probably similar to any other operating system you may have used. There are a few differences; for example, DOS uses \ to separate file and directory names, while MacOS uses :.

FreeBSD does not use drive letters, or other drive names in the path. You would not write c:/foo/bar/readme.txt on FreeBSD.

Instead, one filesystem is designated the root filesystem. The root filesystem's root directory is referred to as /. Every other filesystem is then mounted under the root filesystem. No matter how many disks you have on your FreeBSD system, every directory appears to be part of the same disk.

Suppose you have three filesystems, called A, B, and C. Each filesystem has one root directory, which contains two other directories, called A1, A2 (and likewise B1, B2 and C1, C2).

Call A the root filesystem. If you used the ls command to view the contents of this directory you would see two subdirectories, A1 and A2. The directory tree looks like this:

A filesystem must be mounted on to a directory in another filesystem. So now suppose that you mount filesystem B on to the directory A1. The root directory of B replaces A1, and the directories in B appear accordingly:

Any files that are in the B1 or B2 directories can be reached with the path /A1/B1 or /A1/B2 as necessary. Any files that were in /A1 have been temporarily hidden. They will reappear if B is unmounted from A.

If B had been mounted on A2 then the diagram would look like this:

and the paths would be /A2/B1 and /A2/B2 respectively.

Filesystems can be mounted on top of one another. Continuing the last example, the C filesystem could be mounted on top of the B1 directory in the B filesystem, leading to this arrangement:

Or C could be mounted directly on to the A filesystem, under the A1 directory:

If you are familiar with DOS, this is similar, although not identical, to the join command.

This is not normally something you need to concern yourself with. Typically you create filesystems when installing FreeBSD and decide where to mount them, and then never change them unless you add a new disk.

It is entirely possible to have one large root filesystem, and not need to create any others. There are some drawbacks to this approach, and one advantage.

Benefits of multiple filesystems

• Different filesystems can have different mount options. For example, with careful planning, the root filesystem can be mounted read-only, making it impossible for you to inadvertently delete or edit a critical file.

• FreeBSD automatically optimizes the layout of files on a filesystem, depending on how the filesystem is being used. So a filesystem that contains many small files that are written frequently will have a different optimization to one that contains fewer, larger files. By having one big filesystem this optimization breaks down.

• FreeBSD's filesystems are very robust should you lose power. However, a power loss at a critical point could still damage the structure of the filesystem. By splitting your data over multiple filesystems it is more likely that the system will still come up, making it easier for you to restore from backup as necessary.

Benefit of a single filesystem

• Filesystems are a fixed size. If you create a filesystem when you install FreeBSD and give it a specific size, you may later discover that you need to make the partition bigger. This is not easily accomplished without backing up, recreating the filesystems with the size, and then restoring.

  Important: FreeBSD 4.4 and up have a featured command, the growfs(8), which will makes it possible to increase the size of a filesystem on the fly, removing this limitation.

Filesystems are contained in partitions. This does not have the same meaning as the earlier usage of the term partition in this chapter, because of FreeBSD's Unix heritage. Each partition is identified by a letter, a through to h. Each partition can only contain one filesystem, which means that filesystems are often described by either their typical mount point on the root filesystem, or the letter of the partition they are contained in.

FreeBSD also uses disk space for swap space. Swap space provides FreeBSD with virtual memory. This allows your computer to behave as though it has much more memory than it actually does. When FreeBSD runs out of memory it moves some of the data that is not currently being used to the swap space, and moves it back in (moving something else out) when it needs it.

Some partitions have certain conventions associated with them.

Each partition-that-contains-a-filesystem is stored in what FreeBSD calls a slice. Slice is FreeBSD's term for what were earlier called partitions, and again, this is because of FreeBSD's Unix background. Slices are numbered, starting at 1, through to 4.

Slice numbers follow the device name, prefixed with an s, starting at 1. So ``da0s1'' is the first slice on the first SCSI drive. There can only be four physical slices on a disk, but you can have logical slices inside physical slices of the appropriate type. These extended slices are numbered starting at 5, so ``ad0s5'' is the first extended slice on the first IDE disk. These devices are used by file systems that expect to occupy a slice.

Slices, ``dangerously dedicated'' physical drives, and other drives contain partitions, which are represented as letters from a to h. This letter is appended to the device name, so ``da0a'' is the a partition on the first da drive, which is ``dangerously dedicated''. ``ad1s3e'' is the fifth partition in the third slice of the second IDE disk drive.

Finally, each disk on the system is identified. A disk name starts with a code that indicates the type of disk, and then a number, indicating which disk it is. Unlike slices, disk numbering starts at 0. Common codes that you will see are listed in Table 2-2.

When referring to a partition FreeBSD requires that you also name the slice and disk that contains the partition, and when referring to a slice you should also refer to the disk name. Do this by listing the disk name, s, the slice number, and then the partition letter. Examples are shown in Example 2-3.

Example 2-4 shows a conceptual model of the disk layout that should help make things clearer.

In order to install FreeBSD you must first configure the disk slices, then create partitions within the slice you will use for FreeBSD, and then create a filesystem (or swap space) in each partition, and decide where that filesystem will be mounted.

2.5.3 Creating Slices using FDisk

After choosing to begin a standard installation in sysinstall you will be shown this message:

                                     Message
     In the next menu, you will need to set up a DOS-style ("fdisk")
     partitioning scheme for your hard disk. If you simply wish to devote
     all disk space to FreeBSD (overwriting anything else that might be on
     the disk(s) selected) then use the (A)ll command to select the default
     partitioning scheme followed by a (Q)uit. If you wish to allocate only
     free space to FreeBSD, move to a partition marked "unused" and use the
     (C)reate command. 
                                    [  OK  ] 
    
                          [ Press enter or space ]

Press Enter as instructed. You will then be shown a list of all the hard drives that the kernel found when it carried out the device probes. Figure 2-16 shows an example from a system with two IDE disks. They have been called ad0 and ad2.

You might be wondering why ad1 is not listed here. Why has it been missed?

Consider what would happen if you had two IDE hard disks, one as the master on the first IDE controller, and one as the master on the second IDE controller. If FreeBSD numbered these as it found them, as ad0 and ad1 then everything would work.

But if you then added a third disk, as the slave device on the first IDE controller, it would now be ad1, and the previous ad1 would become ad2. Because device names (such as ad1s1a) are used to find filesystems, you may suddenly discover that some of your filesystems no longer appear correctly, and you would need to change your FreeBSD configuration.

To work around this, the kernel can be configured to name IDE disks based on where they are, and not the order in which they were found. With this scheme the master disk on the second IDE controller will always be ad2, even if there are no ad0 or ad1 devices.

This configuration is the default for the FreeBSD kernel, which is why this display shows ad0 and ad2. The machine on which this screenshot was taken had IDE disks on both master channels of the IDE controllers, and no disks on the slave channels.

You should select the disk on which you want to install FreeBSD, and then press [ OK ]. FDisk will start, with a display similar to that shown in Figure 2-17.

The FDisk display is broken into three sections.

The first section, covering the first two lines of the display, shows details about the currently selected disk, including its FreeBSD name, the disk geometry, and the total size of the disk.

The second section shows the slices that are currently on the disk, where they start and end, how large they are, the name FreeBSD gives them, and their description and sub-type. This example shows two small unused slices, which are artifacts of disk layout schemes on the PC. It also shows one large FAT slice, which almost certainly appears as C: in DOS / Windows, and an extended slice, which may contain other drive letters for DOS / Windows.

The third section shows the commands that are available in FDisk.

What you do now will depend on how you want to slice up your disk.

If you want to use FreeBSD for the entire disk (which will delete all the other data on this disk when you confirm that you want sysinstall to continue later in the installation process) then you can press A, which corresponds to the Use Entire Disk option. The existing slices will be removed, and replaced with a small area flagged as unused (again, an artifact of PC disk layout), and then one large slice for FreeBSD. If you do this then you should then select the newly created FreeBSD slice using the arrow keys, and press S to mark the slice as being bootable. The screen will then look very similar to Figure 2-18. Note the A in the Flags column, which indicates that this slice is active, and will be booted from.

If you will be deleting an existing slice to make space for FreeBSD then you should select the slice using the arrow keys, and then press D. You can then press C, and be prompted for size of slice you want to create. Enter the appropriate figure and press Enter.

If you have already made space for FreeBSD (perhaps by using a tool such as Partition Magic) then you can press C to create a new slice. Again, you will be prompted for the size of slice you would like to create.

When finished, press Q. Your changes will be saved in sysinstall, but will not yet be written to disk.

2.5.4 Install a Boot Manager

You now have the option to install a boot manager. In general, you should choose to install the FreeBSD boot manager if:

• You have more than one drive, and have installed FreeBSD onto a drive other than the first one.

• You have installed FreeBSD alongside another operating system on the same disk, and you want to choose whether to start FreeBSD or the other operating system when you start the computer.

Make your choice and press Enter.

The help screen, reached by pressing F1, discusses the problems that can be encountered when trying to share the hard disk between operating systems.

2.5.5 Creating Slices on Another Drive

If there is more than one drive, it will return to the Select Drives screen after the boot manager selection. If you wish to install FreeBSD on to more than one disk, then you can select another disk here and repeat the slice process using FDisk.

The Tab key toggles between the last drive selected, [ OK ], and [ Cancel ].

Press the Tab once to toggle to the [ OK ], then press Enter to continue with the installation.

2.5.6 Creating Partitions using Disklabel

You must now create some partitions inside each slice that you have just created. Remember that each partition is lettered, from a through to h, and that partitions b, c, and d have conventional meanings that you should adhere to.

Certain applications can benefit from particular partition schemes, especially if you are laying out partitions across more than one disk. However, for this, your first FreeBSD installation, you do not need to give too much thought to how you partition the disk. It is more important that you install FreeBSD and start learning how to use it. You can always re-install FreeBSD to change your partition scheme when you are more familiar with the operating system.

This scheme features four partitions--one for swap space, and three for filesystems.

If you will be installing FreeBSD on to more than one disk then you must also create partitions in the other slices that you configured. The easiest way to do this is to create two partitions on each disk, one for the swap space, and one for a filesystem.

Having chosen your partition layout you can now create it using sysinstall. You will see this message:

                                     Message
     Now, you need to create BSD partitions inside of the fdisk
     partition(s) just created. If you have a reasonable amount of disk
     space (200MB or more) and don't have any special requirements, simply
     use the (A)uto command to allocate space automatically. If you have
     more specific needs or just don't care for the layout chosen by
     (A)uto, press F1 for more information on manual layout.  
    
                                    [  OK  ]
                              [ Press enter or space ]

Press Enter to start the FreeBSD partition editor, called Disklabel.

Figure 2-21 shows the display when you first start Disklabel. The display is divided in to three sections.

The first few lines show the name of the disk you are currently working on, and the slice that contains the partitions you are creating (at this point Disklabel calls this the Partition name rather than slice name). This display also shows the amount of free space within the slice; that is, space that was set aside in the slice, but that has not yet been assigned to a partition.

The middle of the display shows the partitions that have been created, the name of the filesystem that each partition contains, their size, and some options pertaining to the creation of the filesystem.

The bottom third of the screen shows the keystrokes that are valid in Disklabel.

Disklabel can automatically create partitions for you and assign them default sizes. Try this now, by Pressing A. You will see a display similar to that shown in Figure 2-22. Depending on the size of the disk you are using the defaults may or may not be appropriate. This does not matter, as you do not have to accept the defaults.

To delete the suggested partitions, and replace them with your own, use the arrow keys to select the first partition, and press D to delete it. Repeat this to delete all the suggested partitions.

To create the first partition (a, mounted as /), make sure the disk information at the top of the screen is selected, and press C. A dialog box will appear prompting you for the size of the new partition (as shown in Figure 2-23). You can enter the size as the number of disk blocks you want to use, or, more usefully, as a number followed by either M for megabytes, G for gigabytes, or C for cylinders.

The default size shown will create a partition that takes up the rest of the slice. If you are using the partition sizes described earlier, then delete the existing figure using Backspace, and then type in 64M, as shown in Figure 2-24. Then press [ OK ].

Having chosen the partition's size you will then asked whether this partition will contain a filesystem or swap space. The dialog box is shown in Figure 2-25. This first partition will contain a filesystem, so check that FS is selected and then press Enter.

Finally, because you are creating a filesystem, you must tell Disklabel where the filesystem is to be mounted. The dialog box is shown in Figure 2-26. The root filesystem's mount point is /, so type /, and then press Enter.

The display will then update to show you the newly created partition. You should repeat this procedure for the other partitions. When you create the swap partition you will not be prompted for the filesystem mount point, as swap partitions are never mounted. When you create the final partition, /usr, you can leave the suggested size as is, to use the rest of the slice.

Your final FreeBSD DiskLabel Editor screen will appear similar to Figure 2-27, although your values chosen may be different. Press Q to finish.

2.6.1 Select The Distribution Set

Deciding which distribution set to install will depend largely on the intended use of the system and the amount of disk space available. The predefined options range from installing the smallest possible configuration to everything. Those who are new to Unix and/or FreeBSD should almost certainly select one of these canned options. Customizing a distribution set is typically for the more experienced user.

Press F1 for more information on the distribution set options and what they contain. When finished reviewing the help, pressing Enter will return to the Select Distributions Menu.

If a graphical user interface is desired then a distribution set that is preceded by an X should be chosen. The configuration of XFree86 and selection of a default desktop is part of the post-installation steps.

The default version of XFree86 that is installed depends on the version of the FreeBSD that you are installing. For FreeBSD versions prior to 4.6, XFree86 3.X is installed. For FreeBSD 4.6 and later, XFree86 4.X is the default.

You should check to see whether your video card is supported at the XFree86 web site. If it is not supported under the default version that FreeBSD will install, you should select a distribution without X for installation. After installation, install and configure the appropriate version of XFree86 using the ports collection.

If compiling a custom kernel is anticipated, select an option which includes the source code. For more information on why a custom kernel should be built or how to build a custom kernel see Chapter 9.

Obviously, the most versatile system is one that includes everything. If there is adequate disk space, select All as shown in Figure 2-28 by using the arrow keys and press Enter. If there is a concern about disk space consider using an option that is more suitable for the situation. Other distributions can be added after installation.

2.6.2 Installing The Ports Collection

After selecting the desired distribution, an opportunity to install the FreeBSD Ports Collection is presented. The ports collection is an easy and convenient way to install software. The ports collection does not contain the source code necessary to compile the software. It is a collection of files which automates the downloading, compiling and installation. Chapter 4 discusses how to use the ports collection.

The installation program does not check to see if you have adequate space. Select this option only if you have adequate hard disk space.

                             User Confirmation Requested
     Would you like to install the FreeBSD ports collection? 
    
     This will give you ready access to over 8,200 ported software packages,
     at a cost of around 210 MB of disk space when "clean" and possibly much
     more than that if a lot of the distribution tarballs are loaded
     (unless you have the extra CDs from a FreeBSD CD/DVD distribution
     available and can mount it on /cdrom, in which case this is far less
     of a problem). 
    
     The ports collection is a very valuable resource and well worth having
     on your /usr partition, so it is advisable to say Yes to this option. 
    
     For more information on the ports collection & the latest ports,
     visit: 
         http://www.FreeBSD.org/ports  
    
                                  [ Yes ]     No

Select [ Yes ] with the arrow keys to install the ports collection or [ No ] to skip this option. Press Enter to continue. The Choose Distributions menu will redisplay.

If satisfied with the options, select Exit with the arrow keys, ensure that [ OK ] is highlighted, and press Enter to continue.

2.9.1 Network Device Configuration

If you previously configured PPP for an FTP install, this screen will not display and can be configured later as described above.

For detailed information on Local Area Networks and configuring FreeBSD as a gateway/router refer to the Advanced Networking chapter.

                          User Confirmation Requested 
       Would you like to configure any Ethernet or SLIP/PPP network devices?
    
                                 [ Yes ]   No

To configure a network device, select [ Yes ] and press Enter. Otherwise, select [ No ] to continue.

Select the interface to be configured with the arrow keys and press Enter.

                          User Confirmation Requested 
           Do you want to try IPv6 configuration of the interface?
    
                                  Yes   [ No ]

In this private local area network the current Internet type protocol (IPv4) was sufficient and [ No ] was selected with the arrow keys and Enter pressed.

If you want to try the new Internet protocol (IPv6), choose [ Yes ] and press Enter. It will take several seconds to scan for RA servers.

                                 User Confirmation Requested 
            Do you want to try DHCP configuration of the interface?
    
                                  Yes   [ No ]

If DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is not required select [ No ] with the arrow keys and press Enter.

Selecting [ Yes ] will execute dhclient, and if successful, will fill in the network configuration information automatically. Refer to Section 19.9 for more information.

The following Network Configuration screen shows the configuration of the Ethernet device for a system that will act as the gateway for a Local Area Network.

Use Tab to select the information fields and fill in appropriate information:

Use Tab to select [ OK ] when finished and press Enter.

                          User Confirmation Requested 
            Would you like to Bring Up the ed0 interface right now?
    
                                 [ Yes ]   No

Choosing [ Yes ] and pressing Enter will bring the machine up on the network and be ready for use after leaving the installation.

2.9.2 Configure Gateway

                           User Confirmation Requested 
           Do you want this machine to function as a network gateway?
    
                                  [ Yes ]    No

If the machine will be acting as the gateway for a local area network and forwarding packets between other machines then select [ Yes ] and press Enter. If the machine is a node on a network then select [ No ] and press Enter to continue.

2.9.3 Configure Internet Services

                          User Confirmation Requested
    Do you want to configure inetd and the network services that it provides?
    
                                   Yes   [ No ]

If [ No ] is selected, various services such telnetd will not be enabled. This means that remote users will not be able to telnet into this machine. Local users will be still be able to access remote machines with telnet.

These services can be enabled after installation by editing /etc/inetd.conf with your favorite text editor. See Section 19.13.1 for more information.

Select [ Yes ] if you wish to configure these services during install. An additional confirmation will display:

                          User Confirmation Requested
    The Internet Super Server (inetd) allows a number of simple Internet
    services to be enabled, including finger, ftp and telnetd.  Enabling
    these services may increase risk of security problems by increasing
    the exposure of your system.
    
    With this in mind, do you wish to enable inetd?
    
                                 [ Yes ]   No

Select [ Yes ] to continue.

                          User Confirmation Requested
    inetd(8) relies on its configuration file, /etc/inetd.conf, to determine
    which of its Internet services will be available.  The default FreeBSD
    inetd.conf(5) leaves all services disabled by default, so they must be
    specifically enabled in the configuration file before they will
    function, even once inetd(8) is enabled.  Note that services for
    IPv6 must be separately enabled from IPv4 services.
    
    Select [Yes] now to invoke an editor on /etc/inetd.conf, or [No] to
    use the current settings.
    
                                 [ Yes ]   No

Selecting [ Yes ] will allow adding services by deleting the # at the beginning of a line.

After adding the desired services, pressing Esc will display a menu which will allow exiting and saving the changes.

2.9.4 Anonymous FTP

                          User Confirmation Requested
     Do you want to have anonymous FTP access to this machine? 
    
                                  Yes    [ No ]

    This screen allows you to configure the anonymous FTP user.
    
    The following configuration values are editable:
    
    UID:     The user ID you wish to assign to the anonymous FTP user.
             All files uploaded will be owned by this ID.
    
    Group:   Which group you wish the anonymous FTP user to be in.
    
    Comment: String describing this user in /etc/passwd
    
    
    FTP Root Directory:
    
            Where files available for anonymous FTP will be kept.
    
    Upload subdirectory:
    
            Where files uploaded by anonymous FTP users will go.

                              User Confirmation Requested 
             Create a welcome message file for anonymous FTP users?
    
                                  [ Yes ]    No

2.9.5 Configure Network File Services

Network File Services (NFS) allows sharing of files across a network. A machine can be configured as a server, a client, or both. Refer to Section 19.5 for a more information.

                           User Confirmation Requested
     Do you want to configure this machine as an NFS server? 
    
                                  Yes    [ No ]

                                   Message
    Operating as an NFS server means that you must first configure an
    /etc/exports file to indicate which hosts are allowed certain kinds of
    access to your local filesystems.
    Press [Enter] now to invoke an editor on /etc/exports
                                   [ OK ]

                           User Confirmation Requested
     Do you want to configure this machine as an NFS client? 
    
                                  Yes   [ No ]

2.9.6 Security Profile

A ``security profile'' is a set of configuration options that attempts to achieve the desired ratio of security to convenience by enabling and disabling certain programs and other settings. The more severe the security profile, the fewer programs will be enabled by default. This is one of the basic principles of security: do not run anything except what you must.

Please note that the security profile is just a default setting. All programs can be enabled and disabled after you have installed FreeBSD by editing or adding the appropriate line(s) to /etc/rc.conf. For more information, please see the rc.conf(5) manual page.

The following table describes what each of the security profiles does. The columns are the choices you have for a security profile, and the rows are the program or feature that the profile enables or disables.

                           User Confirmation Requested
     Do you want to select a default security profile for this host (select
     No for "medium" security)? 
    
                                [ Yes ]    No

Selecting [ No ] and pressing Enter will set the security profile to medium.

Selecting [ Yes ] and pressing Enter will allow selecting a different security profile.

Press F1 to display the help. Press Enter to return to selection menu.

Use the arrow keys to choose Medium unless your are sure that another level is required for your needs. With [ OK ] highlighted, press Enter.

An appropriate confirmation message will display depending on which security setting was chosen.

                                     Message
    
    Moderate security settings have been selected.
    
    Sendmail and SSHd have been enabled, securelevels are
    disabled, and NFS server setting have been left intact.
    PLEASE NOTE that this still does not save you from having
    to properly secure your system in other ways or exercise
    due diligence in your administration, this simply picks
    a standard set of out-of-box defaults to start with.
    
    To change any of these settings later, edit /etc/rc.conf
    
                                      [OK]

                                     Message
    
    Extreme security settings have been selected.
    
    Sendmail, SSHd, and NFS services have been disabled, and
    securelevels have been enabled.
    PLEASE NOTE that this still does not save you from having
    to properly secure your system in other ways or exercise
    due diligence in your administration, this simply picks
    a more secure set of out-of-box defaults to start with.
    
    To change any of these settings later, edit /etc/rc.conf
    
                                      [OK]

Press Enter to continue with the post-installation configuration.

2.9.7 System Console Settings

There are several options available to customize the system console.

                          User Confirmation Requested 
           Would you like to customize your system console settings?
    
                                  [ Yes ]  No

To view and configure the options, select [ Yes ] and press Enter.

A commonly used option is the screen saver. Use the arrow keys to select Saver and then press Enter.

Select the desired screen saver using the arrow keys and then press Enter. The System Console Configuration menu will redisplay.

The default time interval is 300 seconds. To change the time interval, select Saver again. At the Screen Saver Options menu, select Timeout using the arrow keys and press Enter. A pop-up menu will appear:

The value can be changed, then select [ OK ] and press Enter to return to the System Console Configuration menu.

Selecting Exit and pressing Enter will continue with the post-installation configurations.

2.9.8 Setting The Time Zone

Setting the time zone for your machine will allow it to automatically correct for any regional time changes and perform other time zone related functions properly.

The example shown is for a machine located in the Eastern time zone of the United States. Your selections will vary according to your geographical location.

                          User Confirmation Requested 
              Would you like to set this machine's time zone now?
    
                                [ Yes ]   No

Select [ Yes ] and press Enter to set the time zone.

                           User Confirmation Requested
     Is this machine's CMOS clock set to UTC? If it is set to local time
     or you don't know, please choose NO here! 
    
                                  Yes   [ No ]

Select [ Yes ] or [ No ] according to how the machine's clock is configured and press Enter.

The appropriate region is selected using the arrow keys and then press Enter.

Select the appropriate country using the arrow keys and press Enter.

The appropriate time zone is selected using the arrow keys and pressing Enter.

                                Confirmation 
                Does the abbreviation 'EDT' look reasonable?
    
                                [ Yes ]   No

Confirm the abbreviation for the time zone is correct. If it looks okay, press Enter to continue with the post-installation configuration.

2.9.9 Linux Compatibility

                          User Confirmation Requested 
              Would you like to enable Linux binary compatibility?
    
                                [ Yes ]   No

Selecting [ Yes ] and pressing Enter will allow running Linux software on FreeBSD. The install will proceed to add the appropriate packages for Linux compatibility.

If installing by FTP, the machine will need to be connected to the Internet. Sometimes a remote ftp site will not have all the distributions like the Linux binary compatibility. This can be installed later if necessary.

2.9.10 Mouse Settings

This option will allow you to cut and paste text in the console and user programs with a 3-button mouse. If using a 2-button mouse, refer to manual page, moused(8), after installation for details on emulating the 3-button style. This example depicts a non-USB mouse configuration:

                          User Confirmation Requested 
             Does this system have a non-USB mouse attached to it?
    
                                [ Yes ]    No

Select [ Yes ] for a non-USB mouse or [ No ] for a USB mouse and press Enter.

Use the arrow keys to select Type and press Enter.

The mouse used in this example is a PS/2 type, so the default Auto was appropriate. To change protocol, use the arrow keys to select another option. Ensure that [ OK ] is highlighted and press Enter to exit this menu.

Use the arrow keys to select Port and press Enter.

This system had a PS/2 mouse, so the default PS/2 was appropriate. To change the port, use the arrow keys and then press Enter.

Last, the mouse daemon is enabled and tested.

The cursor moved around the screen so the mouse daemon is running.

Select [ Yes ] to return to the previous menu then select Exit with the arrow keys and press Enter to return to continue with the post-installation configuration.

2.9.11 Configure X Server

In order to use a graphical user interface such as KDE, GNOME, or others, the X server will need to be configured.

To see whether your video card is supported, check the XFree86 web site.

                          User Confirmation Requested 
            Would you like to configure your X server at this time?
    
                                [ Yes ]   No

If you have graphics card and monitor information, select [ Yes ] and press Enter to proceed with configuring the X server.

There are several ways to configure the X server. Use the arrow keys to select one of the methods and press Enter. Be sure to read all instructions carefully.

The xf86cfg and xf86cfg -textmode may make the screen go dark and take a few seconds to start. Be patient.

The following will illustrate the use of the xf86config configuration tool. The configuration choices you make will depend on the hardware in the system so your choices will probably be different than those shown:

                                    Message
     You have configured and been running the mouse daemon. 
     Choose "/dev/sysmouse" as the mouse port and "SysMouse" or
     "MouseSystems" as the mouse protocol in the X configuration utility. 
    
                                     [ OK ]
    
                          [ Press enter to continue ]

This indicates that the mouse daemon previously configured has been detected. Press Enter to continue.

Starting xf86config will display a brief introduction:

    This program will create a basic XF86Config file, based on menu selections you
    make.
    
    The XF86Config file usually resides in /usr/X11R6/etc/X11 or /etc/X11. A sample
    XF86Config file is supplied with XFree86; it is configured for a standard
    VGA card and monitor with 640x480 resolution. This program will ask for a
    pathname when it is ready to write the file.
    
    You can either take the sample XF86Config as a base and edit it for your
    configuration, or let this program produce a base XF86Config file for your
    configuration and fine-tune it.
    
    Before continuing with this program, make sure you know what video card
    you have, and preferably also the chipset it uses and the amount of video
    memory on your video card. SuperProbe may be able to help with this.
    
    Press enter to continue, or ctrl-c to abort.

Pressing Enter will start the mouse configuration. Be sure to follow the instructions and use ``Mouse Systems'' as the mouse protocol and /dev/sysmouse as the mouse port even if using a PS/2 mouse is shown as an illustration.

    First specify a mouse protocol type. Choose one from the following list:
    
     1.  Microsoft compatible (2-button protocol)
     2.  Mouse Systems (3-button protocol) & FreeBSD moused protocol
     3.  Bus Mouse
     4.  PS/2 Mouse
     5.  Logitech Mouse (serial, old type, Logitech protocol)
     6.  Logitech MouseMan (Microsoft compatible)
     7.  MM Series
     8.  MM HitTablet
     9.  Microsoft IntelliMouse
    
    If you have a two-button mouse, it is most likely of type 1, and if you have
    a three-button mouse, it can probably support both protocol 1 and 2. There are
    two main varieties of the latter type: mice with a switch to select the
    protocol, and mice that default to 1 and require a button to be held at
    boot-time to select protocol 2. Some mice can be convinced to do 2 by sending
    a special sequence to the serial port (see the ClearDTR/ClearRTS options).
    
    Enter a protocol number: 2
    
    You have selected a Mouse Systems protocol mouse. If your mouse is normally
    in Microsoft-compatible mode, enabling the ClearDTR and ClearRTS options
    may cause it to switch to Mouse Systems mode when the server starts.
    
    Please answer the following question with either 'y' or 'n'.
    Do you want to enable ClearDTR and ClearRTS? n
    
    You have selected a three-button mouse protocol. It is recommended that you
    do not enable Emulate3Buttons, unless the third button doesn't work.
    
    Please answer the following question with either 'y' or 'n'.
    Do you want to enable Emulate3Buttons? y
    
    Now give the full device name that the mouse is connected to, for example
    /dev/tty00. Just pressing enter will use the default, /dev/mouse.
    On FreeBSD, the default is /dev/sysmouse.
    
    Mouse device: /dev/sysmouse

The keyboard is the next item to be configured. A generic 101-key model is shown for illustration. Any name may be used for the variant or simply press Enter to accept the default value.

    Please select one of the following keyboard types that is the better
    description of your keyboard. If nothing really matches,
    choose 1 (Generic 101-key PC)
    
      1  Generic 101-key PC                                
      2  Generic 102-key (Intl) PC                         
      3  Generic 104-key PC                                
      4  Generic 105-key (Intl) PC                         
      5  Dell 101-key PC                                   
      6  Everex STEPnote                                   
      7  Keytronic FlexPro                                 
      8  Microsoft Natural                                 
      9  Northgate OmniKey 101                             
     10  Winbook Model XP5                                 
     11  Japanese 106-key                                  
     12  PC-98xx Series                                    
     13  Brazilian ABNT2                                   
     14  HP Internet                                       
     15  Logitech iTouch                                   
     16  Logitech Cordless Desktop Pro                     
     17  Logitech Internet Keyboard                        
     18  Logitech Internet Navigator Keyboard              
     19  Compaq Internet                                   
     20  Microsoft Natural Pro                             
     21  Genius Comfy KB-16M                               
     22  IBM Rapid Access                                  
     23  IBM Rapid Access II                               
     24  Chicony Internet Keyboard                         
     25  Dell Internet Keyboard                            
    
    Enter a number to choose the keyboard.
    
    1
    
    
    Please select the layout corresponding to your keyboard
    
    
      1  U.S. English                                      
      2  U.S. English w/ ISO9995-3                         
      3  U.S. English w/ deadkeys                          
      4  Albanian                                          
      5  Arabic                                            
      6  Armenian                                          
      7  Azerbaidjani                                      
      8  Belarusian                                        
      9  Belgian                                           
     10  Bengali                                           
     11  Brazilian                                         
     12  Bulgarian                                         
     13  Burmese                                           
     14  Canadian                                          
     15  Croatian                                          
     16  Czech                                             
     17  Czech (qwerty)                                    
     18  Danish                                            
    
    Enter a number to choose the country.
    Press enter for the next page
    
    1
    
    
    Please enter a variant name for 'us' layout. Or just press enter
    for default variant
    
    us
    
    
    Please answer the following question with either 'y' or 'n'.
    Do you want to select additional XKB options (group switcher,
    group indicator, etc.)? n

Next, we proceed to the configuration for the monitor. Do not exceed the ratings of your monitor. Damage could occur. If you have any doubts, do the configuration after you have the information.

    Now we want to set the specifications of the monitor. The two critical
    parameters are the vertical refresh rate, which is the rate at which the
    whole screen is refreshed, and most importantly the horizontal sync rate,
    which is the rate at which scanlines are displayed.
    
    The valid range for horizontal sync and vertical sync should be documented
    in the manual of your monitor. If in doubt, check the monitor database
    /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc/Monitors to see if your monitor is there.
    
    Press enter to continue, or ctrl-c to abort.
    
    
    
    You must indicate the horizontal sync range of your monitor. You can either
    select one of the predefined ranges below that correspond to industry-
    standard monitor types, or give a specific range.
    
    It is VERY IMPORTANT that you do not specify a monitor type with a horizontal
    sync range that is beyond the capabilities of your monitor. If in doubt,
    choose a conservative setting.
    
        hsync in kHz; monitor type with characteristic modes
     1  31.5; Standard VGA, 640x480 @ 60 Hz
     2  31.5 - 35.1; Super VGA, 800x600 @ 56 Hz
     3  31.5, 35.5; 8514 Compatible, 1024x768 @ 87 Hz interlaced (no 800x600)
     4  31.5, 35.15, 35.5; Super VGA, 1024x768 @ 87 Hz interlaced, 800x600 @ 56 Hz
     5  31.5 - 37.9; Extended Super VGA, 800x600 @ 60 Hz, 640x480 @ 72 Hz
     6  31.5 - 48.5; Non-Interlaced SVGA, 1024x768 @ 60 Hz, 800x600 @ 72 Hz
     7  31.5 - 57.0; High Frequency SVGA, 1024x768 @ 70 Hz
     8  31.5 - 64.3; Monitor that can do 1280x1024 @ 60 Hz
     9  31.5 - 79.0; Monitor that can do 1280x1024 @ 74 Hz
    10  31.5 - 82.0; Monitor that can do 1280x1024 @ 76 Hz
    11  Enter your own horizontal sync range
    
    Enter your choice (1-11): 6
    
    You must indicate the vertical sync range of your monitor. You can either
    select one of the predefined ranges below that correspond to industry-
    standard monitor types, or give a specific range. For interlaced modes,
    the number that counts is the high one (e.g. 87 Hz rather than 43 Hz).
    
     1  50-70
     2  50-90
     3  50-100
     4  40-150
     5  Enter your own vertical sync range
    
    Enter your choice: 2
    
    You must now enter a few identification/description strings, namely an
    identifier, a vendor name, and a model name. Just pressing enter will fill
    in default names.
    
    The strings are free-form, spaces are allowed.
    Enter an identifier for your monitor definition: Hitachi

The selection of a video card driver from a list is next. If you pass your card on the list, continue to press Enter and the list will repeat. Only an excerpt from the list is shown:

    Now we must configure video card specific settings. At this point you can
    choose to make a selection out of a database of video card definitions.
    Because there can be variation in Ramdacs and clock generators even
    between cards of the same model, it is not sensible to blindly copy
    the settings (e.g. a Device section). For this reason, after you make a
    selection, you will still be asked about the components of the card, with
    the settings from the chosen database entry presented as a strong hint.
    
    The database entries include information about the chipset, what driver to
    run, the Ramdac and ClockChip, and comments that will be included in the
    Device section. However, a lot of definitions only hint about what driver
    to run (based on the chipset the card uses) and are untested.
    
    If you can't find your card in the database, there's nothing to worry about.
    You should only choose a database entry that is exactly the same model as
    your card; choosing one that looks similar is just a bad idea (e.g. a
    GemStone Snail 64 may be as different from a GemStone Snail 64+ in terms of
    hardware as can be).
    
    Do you want to look at the card database? y
    
    
    
    288  Matrox Millennium G200 8MB                        mgag200
    289  Matrox Millennium G200 SD 16MB                    mgag200
    290  Matrox Millennium G200 SD 4MB                     mgag200
    291  Matrox Millennium G200 SD 8MB                     mgag200
    292  Matrox Millennium G400                            mgag400
    293  Matrox Millennium II 16MB                         mga2164w
    294  Matrox Millennium II 4MB                          mga2164w
    295  Matrox Millennium II 8MB                          mga2164w
    296  Matrox Mystique                                   mga1064sg
    297  Matrox Mystique G200 16MB                         mgag200
    298  Matrox Mystique G200 4MB                          mgag200
    299  Matrox Mystique G200 8MB                          mgag200
    300  Matrox Productiva G100 4MB                        mgag100
    301  Matrox Productiva G100 8MB                        mgag100
    302  MediaGX                                           mediagx
    303  MediaVision Proaxcel 128                          ET6000
    304  Mirage Z-128                                      ET6000
    305  Miro CRYSTAL VRX                                  Verite 1000
    
    Enter a number to choose the corresponding card definition.
    Press enter for the next page, q to continue configuration.
    
    288
    
    Your selected card definition:
    
    Identifier: Matrox Millennium G200 8MB
    Chipset:    mgag200
    Driver:     mga
    Do NOT probe clocks or use any Clocks line.
    
    Press enter to continue, or ctrl-c to abort.
    
    
    
    Now you must give information about your video card. This will be used for
    the "Device" section of your video card in XF86Config.
    
    You must indicate how much video memory you have. It is probably a good
    idea to use the same approximate amount as that detected by the server you
    intend to use. If you encounter problems that are due to the used server
    not supporting the amount memory you have (e.g. ATI Mach64 is limited to
    1024K with the SVGA server), specify the maximum amount supported by the
    server.
    
    How much video memory do you have on your video card:
    
     1  256K
     2  512K
     3  1024K
     4  2048K
     5  4096K
     6  Other
    
    Enter your choice: 6
    
    Amount of video memory in Kbytes: 8192
    
    You must now enter a few identification/description strings, namely an
    identifier, a vendor name, and a model name. Just pressing enter will fill
    in default names (possibly from a card definition).
    
    Your card definition is Matrox Millennium G200 8MB.
    
    The strings are free-form, spaces are allowed.
    Enter an identifier for your video card definition:

Next, the video modes are set for the resolutions desired. Typically, useful ranges are 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768 but those are a function of video card capability, monitor size, and eye comfort. When selecting a color depth, select the highest mode that your card will support.

    For each depth, a list of modes (resolutions) is defined. The default
    resolution that the server will start-up with will be the first listed
    mode that can be supported by the monitor and card.
    Currently it is set to:
    
    "640x480" "800x600" "1024x768" "1280x1024" for 8-bit
    "640x480" "800x600" "1024x768" "1280x1024" for 16-bit
    "640x480" "800x600" "1024x768" "1280x1024" for 24-bit
    
    Modes that cannot be supported due to monitor or clock constraints will
    be automatically skipped by the server.
    
     1  Change the modes for 8-bit (256 colors)
     2  Change the modes for 16-bit (32K/64K colors)
     3  Change the modes for 24-bit (24-bit color)
     4  The modes are OK, continue.
    
    Enter your choice: 2
    
    Select modes from the following list:
    
     1  "640x400"
     2  "640x480"
     3  "800x600"
     4  "1024x768"
     5  "1280x1024"
     6  "320x200"
     7  "320x240"
     8  "400x300"
     9  "1152x864"
     a  "1600x1200"
     b  "1800x1400"
     c  "512x384"
    
    Please type the digits corresponding to the modes that you want to select.
    For example, 432 selects "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480", with a
    default mode of 1024x768.
    
    Which modes? 432
    
    You can have a virtual screen (desktop), which is screen area that is larger
    than the physical screen and which is panned by moving the mouse to the edge
    of the screen. If you don't want virtual desktop at a certain resolution,
    you cannot have modes listed that are larger. Each color depth can have a
    differently-sized virtual screen
    
    Please answer the following question with either 'y' or 'n'.
    Do you want a virtual screen that is larger than the physical screen? n
    
    
    
    For each depth, a list of modes (resolutions) is defined. The default
    resolution that the server will start-up with will be the first listed
    mode that can be supported by the monitor and card.
    Currently it is set to:
    
    "640x480" "800x600" "1024x768" "1280x1024" for 8-bit
    "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" for 16-bit
    "640x480" "800x600" "1024x768" "1280x1024" for 24-bit
    
    Modes that cannot be supported due to monitor or clock constraints will
    be automatically skipped by the server.
    
     1  Change the modes for 8-bit (256 colors)
     2  Change the modes for 16-bit (32K/64K colors)
     3  Change the modes for 24-bit (24-bit color)
     4  The modes are OK, continue.
    
    Enter your choice: 4
    
    
    
    Please specify which color depth you want to use by default:
    
      1  1 bit (monochrome)                                
      2  4 bits (16 colors)                                
      3  8 bits (256 colors)                               
      4  16 bits (65536 colors)                            
      5  24 bits (16 million colors)                       
    
    Enter a number to choose the default depth.
    
    4

Finally, the configuration needs to be saved. Be sure to enter /etc/XF86Config as the location for saving the configuration.

    I am going to write the XF86Config file now. Make sure you don't accidently
    overwrite a previously configured one.
    
    Shall I write it to /etc/X11/XF86Config? y

If the configuration fails, you can try the configuration again by selecting [ Yes ] when the following message appears:

              User Confirmation Requested
    The XFree86 configuration process seems to have
    failed.  Would you like to try again?
    
                 [ Yes ]         No

If you have trouble configuring XFree86, select [ No ] and press Enter and continue with the installation process. After installation you can use xf86cfg -textmode or xf86config to access the command line configuration utilities as root. There is an additional method for configuring XFree86 described in Chapter 5. If you choose not to configure XFree86 at this time the next menu will be for package selection.

The default setting which allows the server to be killed is the hotkey sequence Ctrl+Alt+Backspace. This can be executed if something is wrong with the server settings and prevent hardware damage.

The default setting that allows video mode switching will permit changing of the mode while running X with the hotkey sequence Ctrl+Alt++ or Ctrl+Alt+-.

After installation, the display can be adjusted for height, width, or centering by using xvidtune after you have XFree86 running with xvidtune.

There are warnings that improper settings can damage your equipment. Heed them. If in doubt, do not do it. Instead, use the monitor controls to adjust the display for X Window. There may be some display differences when switching back to text mode, but it is better than damaging equipment.

Read the xvidtune(1) manual page before making any adjustments.

Following a successful XFree86 configuration, it will proceed to the selection of a default desktop.

2.9.12 Select Default X Desktop

There are a variety of window managers available. They range from very basic environments to full desktop environments with a large suite of software. Some require only minimal disk space and low memory while others with more features require much more. The best way to determine which is most suitable for you is to try a few different ones. Those are available from the ports collection or as packages and can be added after installation.

You can select one of the popular desktops to be installed and configured as the default desktop. This will allow you to start it right after installation.

Use the arrow keys to select a desktop and press Enter. Installation of the selected desktop will proceed.

2.9.13 Install Packages

The packages are pre-compiled binaries and are a convenient way to install software.

Installation of one package is shown for purposes of illustration. Additional packages can also be added at this time if desired. After installation /stand/sysinstall can be used to add additional packages.

                         User Confirmation Requested
     The FreeBSD package collection is a collection of hundreds of
     ready-to-run applications, from text editors to games to WEB servers
     and more. Would you like to browse the collection now? 
    
                                [ Yes ]   No

Selecting [ Yes ] and pressing Enter will be followed by the Package Selection screens:

All packages available will be displayed if All is selected or you can select a particular category. Highlight your selection with the arrow keys and press Enter.

A menu will display showing all the packages available for the selection made:

The bash shell is shown selected. Select as many as desired by highlighting the package and pressing the Space key. A short description of each package will appear in the lower left corner of the screen.

Pressing the Tab key will toggle between the last selected package, [ OK ], and [ Cancel ].

When you have finished marking the packages for installation, press Tab once to toggle to the [ OK ] and press Enter to return to the Package Selection menu.

The left and right arrow keys will also toggle between [ OK ] and [ Cancel ]. This method can also be used to select [ OK ] and press Enter to return to the Package Selection menu.

Use the arrow keys to select [ Install ] and press Enter. You will then need to confirm that you want to install the packages:

Selecting [ OK ] and pressing Enter will start the package installation. Installing messages will appear until completed. Make note if there are any error messages.

The final configuration continues after packages are installed.

2.9.14 Add Users/Groups

You should add at least one user during the installation so that you can use the system without being logged in as root. The root partition is generally small and running applications as root can quickly fill it. A bigger danger is noted below:

                         User Confirmation Requested
     Would you like to add any initial user accounts to the system? Adding
     at least one account for yourself at this stage is suggested since
     working as the "root" user is dangerous (it is easy to do things which
     adversely affect the entire system). 
    
                                [ Yes ]   No

Select [ Yes ] and press Enter to continue with adding a user.

Select User with the arrow keys and press Enter.

The following descriptions will appear in the lower part of the screen as the items are selected with Tab to assist with entering the required information:

The login shell was changed from /bin/sh to /usr/local/bin/bash to use the bash shell that was previously installed as a package. Do not try to use a shell that does not exist or you will not be able to login.

The user was also added to the wheel group to be able to become a superuser with root privileges.

When you are satisfied, press [ OK ] and the User and Group Management menu will redisplay:

Groups could also be added at this time if specific needs are known. Otherwise, this may be accessed through using /stand/sysinstall after installation is completed.

When you are finished adding users, select Exit with the arrow keys and press Enter to continue the installation.

2.9.15 Set root Password

                            Message
     Now you must set the system manager's password.  
     This is the password you'll use to log in as "root". 
    
                             [ OK ] 
    
                   [ Press enter to continue ]

Press Enter to set the root password.

The password will need to be typed in twice correctly. Needless to say, make sure you have a way of finding the password if you forget.

    Changing local password for root. 
     New password : 
     Retype new password :

The installation will continue after the password is successfully entered.

2.9.16 Exiting Install

If you need to configure additional network devices or to do any other configurations, you can do it at this point or after installation with /stand/sysinstall.

                         User Confirmation Requested
     Visit the general configuration menu for a chance to set any last
     options? 
    
                                  Yes   [ No ]

Select [ No ] with the arrow keys and press Enter to return to the Main Installation Menu.

Select [X Exit Install] with the arrow keys and press Enter. You will be asked to confirm exiting the installation:

                         User Confirmation Requested
     Are you sure you wish to exit? The system will reboot (be sure to  
     remove any floppies from the drives). 
    
                                [ Yes ]   No

Select [ Yes ] and remove the floppy if booting from the floppy. The CDROM drive is locked until the machine starts to reboot. The CDROM drive is then unlocked and the disk can be removed from drive (quickly).

The system will reboot so watch for any error messages that may appear.

2.9.17 FreeBSD Bootup

    Copyright (c) 1992-2002 The FreeBSD Project. 
    Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
            The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 
    
    Timecounter "i8254"  frequency 1193182 Hz
    CPU: AMD-K6(tm) 3D processor (300.68-MHz 586-class CPU)
      Origin = "AuthenticAMD"  Id = 0x580  Stepping = 0
      Features=0x8001bf<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,MCE,CX8,MMX> 
      AMD Features=0x80000800<SYSCALL,3DNow!> 
    real memory  = 268435456 (262144K bytes) 
    config> di sn0 
    config> di lnc0 
    config> di le0 
    config> di ie0 
    config> di fe0 
    config> di cs0 
    config> di bt0  
    config> di aic0 
    config> di aha0 
    config> di adv0 
    config> q 
    avail memory = 256311296 (250304K bytes)
    Preloaded elf kernel "kernel" at 0xc0491000. 
    Preloaded userconfig_script "/boot/kernel.conf" at 0xc049109c. 
    md0: Malloc disk 
    Using $PIR table, 4 entries at 0xc00fde60
    npx0: <math processor> on motherboard 
    npx0: INT 16 interface 
    pcib0: <Host to PCI bridge> on motherboard 
    pci0: <PCI bus> on pcib0 
    pcib1: <VIA 82C598MVP (Apollo MVP3) PCI-PCI (AGP) bridge> at device 1.0 on pci0 
    pci1: <PCI bus> on pcib1 
    pci1: <Matrox MGA G200 AGP graphics accelerator> at 0.0 irq 11 
    isab0: <VIA 82C586 PCI-ISA bridge> at device 7.0 on pci0 
    isa0: <ISA bus> on isab0 
    atapci0: <VIA 82C586 ATA33 controller> port 0xe000-0xe00f at device 7.1 on pci0 
    ata0: at 0x1f0 irq 14 on atapci0 
    ata1: at 0x170 irq 15 on atapci0 
    uhci0: <VIA 83C572 USB controller> port 0xe400-0xe41f irq 10 at device 7.2 on pci0 
    usb0: <VIA 83C572 USB controller> on uhci0 
    usb0: USB revision 1.0 
    uhub0: VIA UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1 
    uhub0: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered 
    chip1: <VIA 82C586B ACPI interface> at device 7.3 on pci0 
    ed0: <NE2000 PCI Ethernet (RealTek 8029)> port 0xe800-0xe81f irq 9 at
    device 10.0 on pci0 
    ed0: address 52:54:05:de:73:1b, type NE2000 (16 bit) 
    isa0: too many dependant configs (8) 
    isa0: unexpected small tag 14 
    fdc0: <NEC 72065B or clone> at port 0x3f0-0x3f5,0x3f7 irq 6 drq 2 on isa0
    fdc0: FIFO enabled, 8 bytes threshold 
    fd0: <1440-KB 3.5" drive> on fdc0 drive 0 
    atkbdc0: <keyboard controller (i8042)> at port 0x60-0x64 on isa0 
    atkbd0: <AT Keyboard> flags 0x1 irq 1 on atkbdc0 
    kbd0 at atkbd0 
    psm0: <PS/2 Mouse> irq 12 on atkbdc0 
    psm0: model Generic PS/2 mouse, device ID 0 
    vga0: <Generic ISA VGA> at port 0x3c0-0x3df iomem 0xa0000-0xbffff on isa0
    sc0: <System console> at flags 0x1 on isa0 
    sc0: VGA <16 virtual consoles, flags=0x300> 
    sio0 at port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0x10 on isa0 
    sio0: type 16550A 
    sio1 at port 0x2f8-0x2ff irq 3 on isa0 
    sio1: type 16550A 
    ppc0: <Parallel port> at port 0x378-0x37f irq 7 on isa0 
    ppc0: SMC-like chipset (ECP/EPP/PS2/NIBBLE) in COMPATIBLE mode 
    ppc0: FIFO with 16/16/15 bytes threshold 
    ppbus0: IEEE1284 device found /NIBBLE
    Probing for PnP devices on ppbus0: 
    plip0: <PLIP network interface> on ppbus0 
    lpt0: <Printer> on ppbus0 
    lpt0: Interrupt-driven port 
    ppi0: <Parallel I/O> on ppbus0
    ad0: 8063MB <IBM-DHEA-38451> [16383/16/63] at ata0-master using UDMA33 
    ad2: 8063MB <IBM-DHEA-38451> [16383/16/63] at ata1-master using UDMA33 
    acd0: CDROM <DELTA OTC-H101/ST3 F/W by OIPD> at ata0-slave using PIO4 
    Mounting root from ufs:/dev/ad0s1a 
    swapon: adding /dev/ad0s1b as swap device 
    Automatic boot in progress... 
    /dev/ad0s1a: FILESYSTEM CLEAN; SKIPPING CHECKS 
    /dev/ad0s1a: clean, 48752 free (552 frags, 6025 blocks, 0.9% fragmentation)
    /dev/ad0s1f: FILESYSTEM CLEAN; SKIPPING CHECKS 
    /dev/ad0s1f: clean, 128997 free (21 frags, 16122 blocks, 0.0% fragmentation)
    /dev/ad0s1g: FILESYSTEM CLEAN; SKIPPING CHECKS
    /dev/ad0s1g: clean, 3036299 free (43175 frags, 374073 blocks, 1.3% fragmentation)
    /dev/ad0s1e: filesystem CLEAN; SKIPPING CHECKS 
    /dev/ad0s1e: clean, 128193 free (17 frags, 16022 blocks, 0.0% fragmentation)
    Doing initial network setup: hostname. 
    ed0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
            inet 192.168.0.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.0.255
            inet6 fe80::5054::5ff::fede:731b%ed0 prefixlen 64 tentative scopeid 0x1
            ether 52:54:05:de:73:1b
    lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384 
            inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x8 
            inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128 
            inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000 
    Additional routing options: IP gateway=YES TCP keepalive=YES
    routing daemons:. 
    additional daemons: syslogd. 
    Doing additional network setup:. 
    Starting final network daemons: creating ssh RSA host key 
    Generating public/private rsa1 key pair.
    Your identification has been saved in /etc/ssh/ssh_host_key. 
    Your public key has been saved in /etc/ssh/ssh_host_key.pub. 
    The key fingerprint is: 
    cd:76:89:16:69:0e:d0:6e:f8:66:d0:07:26:3c:7e:2d root@k6-2.example.com
     creating ssh DSA host key 
    Generating public/private dsa key pair.
    Your identification has been saved in /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key. 
    Your public key has been saved in /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key.pub. 
    The key fingerprint is: 
    f9:a1:a9:47:c4:ad:f9:8d:52:b8:b8:ff:8c:ad:2d:e6 root@k6-2.example.com.
    setting ELF ldconfig path: /usr/lib /usr/lib/compat /usr/X11R6/lib
    /usr/local/lib 
    a.out ldconfig path: /usr/lib/aout /usr/lib/compat/aout /usr/X11R6/lib/aout 
    starting standard daemons: inetd cron sshd usbd sendmail.
    Initial rc.i386 initialization:. 
    rc.i386 configuring syscons: blank_time screensaver moused. 
    Additional ABI support: linux. 
    Local package initilization:. 
    Additional TCP options:. 
    
    FreeBSD/i386 (k6-2.example.com) (ttyv0)
    
    login: rpratt 
    Password:

    >>>BOOT DKC0

    >>> SET BOOT_OSFLAGS A
    >>> SET BOOT_FILE ''
    >>> SET BOOTDEF_DEV DKC0
    >>> SET AUTO_ACTION BOOT

2.9.18 FreeBSD Shutdown

It is important to properly shutdown the operating system. Do not just turn off power. First, become a superuser by typing su at the command line and entering the root password. This will work only if the user is a member of the wheel group. Otherwise, login as root and use shutdown -h now.

    The operating system has halted. 
    Please press any key to reboot.

It is safe to turn off the power after the shutdown command has been issued and the message ``Please press any key to reboot'' appears. If any key is pressed instead of turning off the power switch, the system will reboot.

You could also use the Ctrl+Alt+Del key combination to reboot the system, however this is not recommended during normal operation.

2.11.1 What to Do If Something Goes Wrong

Due to various limitations of the PC architecture, it is impossible for probing to be 100% reliable, however, there are a few things you can do if it fails.

Check the Hardware Notes document for your version of FreeBSD to make sure your hardware is supported.

If your hardware is supported and you still experience lock-ups or other problems, reset your computer, and when the visual kernel configuration option is given, choose it. This will allow you to go through your hardware and supply information to the system about it. The kernel on the boot disks is configured assuming that most hardware devices are in their factory default configuration in terms of IRQs, IO addresses, and DMA channels. If your hardware has been reconfigured, you will most likely need to use the configuration editor to tell FreeBSD where to find things.

It is also possible that a probe for a device not present will cause a later probe for another device that is present to fail. In that case, the probes for the conflicting driver(s) should be disabled.

In configuration mode, you can:

• List the device drivers installed in the kernel.

• Disable device drivers for hardware that is not present in your system.

• Change IRQs, DRQs, and IO port addresses used by a device driver.

After adjusting the kernel to match your hardware configuration, type Q to boot with the new settings. Once the installation has completed, any changes you made in the configuration mode will be permanent so you do not have to reconfigure every time you boot. It is still highly likely that you will eventually want to build a custom kernel.

2.11.2 MS-DOS User's Questions and Answers

Many users wish to install FreeBSD on PCs inhabited by MS-DOS. Here are some commonly asked questions about installing FreeBSD on such systems:

    # mount -t msdos /dev/ad0s5 /dos_d

2.11.3 Alpha User's Questions and Answers

This section answers some commonly asked questions about installing FreeBSD on Alpha systems.

2.12.1 Installing FreeBSD on a System without a Monitor or Keyboard

This type of installation is called a ``headless install'', because the machine that you are trying to install FreeBSD on either does not have a monitor attached to it, or does not even have a VGA output. How is this possible you ask? Using a serial console. A serial console is basically using another machine to act as the main display and keyboard for a system. To do this, just follow these steps:

That's it! You should be able to control the headless machine through your cu session now. It will ask you to put in the mfsroot.flp, and then it will come up with a selection of what kind of terminal to use. Just select the FreeBSD color console and proceed with your install!

2.13.1 Creating an installation CDROM

As part of each release, the FreeBSD project makes available five CDROM images (``ISO images''). These images can be written (``burned'') to CDs if you have a CD writer, and then used to install FreeBSD. If you have a CD writer, and bandwidth is cheap, then this is the easiest way to install FreeBSD.

2.13.2 Creating a Local FTP Site with a FreeBSD Disk

FreeBSD disks are laid out in the same way as the FTP site. This makes it very easy for you to create a local FTP site that can be used by other machines on your network when installing FreeBSD.

Anyone with network connectivity to your machine can now chose a media type of FTP and type in ftp://your machine after picking ``Other'' in the FTP sites menu during the install.

2.13.3 Creating Installation Floppies

If you must install from floppy disk (which we suggest you do not do), either due to unsupported hardware or simply because you insist on doing things the hard way, you must first prepare some floppies for the installation.

At a minimum, you will need as many 1.44 MB or 1.2 MB floppies as it takes to hold all the files in the bin (binary distribution) directory. If you are preparing the floppies from DOS, then they MUST be formatted using the MS-DOS FORMAT command. If you are using Windows, use Explorer to format the disks (right-click on the A: drive, and select ``Format''.

Do not trust factory pre-formatted floppies. Format them again yourself, just to be sure. Many problems reported by our users in the past have resulted from the use of improperly formatted media, which is why we are making a point of it now.

If you are creating the floppies on another FreeBSD machine, a format is still not a bad idea, though you do not need to put a DOS filesystem on each floppy. You can use the disklabel and newfs commands to put a UFS filesystem on them instead, as the following sequence of commands (for a 3.5" 1.44 MB floppy) illustrates:

    # fdformat -f 1440 fd0.1440
    # disklabel -w -r fd0.1440 floppy3
    # newfs -t 2 -u 18 -l 1 -i 65536 /dev/fd0

Then you can mount and write to them like any other filesystem.

After you have formatted the floppies, you will need to copy the files to them. The distribution files are split into chunks conveniently sized so that 5 of them will fit on a conventional 1.44 MB floppy. Go through all your floppies, packing as many files as will fit on each one, until you have all of the distributions you want packed up in this fashion. Each distribution should go into a subdirectory on the floppy, e.g.: a:\bin\bin.aa, a:\bin\bin.ab, and so on.

Once you come to the Media screen during the install process, select ``Floppy'' and you will be prompted for the rest.

2.13.4 Installing from an MS-DOS Partition

To prepare for an installation from an MS-DOS partition, copy the files from the distribution into a directory called freebsd in the root directory of the partition. For example, c:\freebsd. The directory structure of the CDROM or FTP site must be partially reproduced within this directory, so we suggest using the DOS xcopy command if you are copying it from a CD. For example, to prepare for a minimal installation of FreeBSD:

    C:\> md c:\freebsd
    C:\> xcopy e:\bin c:\freebsd\bin\ /s
    C:\> xcopy e:\manpages c:\freebsd\manpages\ /s

Assuming that C: is where you have free space and E: is where your CDROM is mounted.

If you do not have a CDROM drive, you can download the distribution from ftp.FreeBSD.org. Each distribution is in its own directory; for example, the base distribution can be found in the 5.0/base/ directory.

For as many distributions you wish to install from an MS-DOS partition (and you have the free space for), install each one under c:\freebsd -- the BIN distribution is the only one required for a minimum installation.

2.13.5 Creating an Installation Tape

Installing from tape is probably the easiest method, short of an online FTP install or CDROM install. The installation program expects the files to be simply tarred onto the tape. After getting all of the distribution files you are interested in, simply tar them onto the tape:

    # cd /freebsd/distdir
    # tar cvf /dev/rwt0 dist1 ... dist2

When you go to do the installation, you should also make sure that you leave enough room in some temporary directory (which you will be allowed to choose) to accommodate the full contents of the tape you have created. Due to the non-random access nature of tapes, this method of installation requires quite a bit of temporary storage. You should expect to require as much temporary storage as you have stuff written on tape.

2.13.6 Before Installing over a Network

There are three types of network installations you can do. Serial port (SLIP or PPP), Parallel port (PLIP (laplink cable)), or Ethernet (a standard Ethernet controller (includes some PCMCIA)).

The SLIP support is rather primitive, and limited primarily to hard-wired links, such as a serial cable running between a laptop computer and another computer. The link should be hard-wired as the SLIP installation does not currently offer a dialing capability; that facility is provided with the PPP utility, which should be used in preference to SLIP whenever possible.

If you are using a modem, then PPP is almost certainly your only choice. Make sure that you have your service provider's information handy as you will need to know it fairly early in the installation process.

If you use PAP or CHAP to connect your ISP (in other words, if you can connect to the ISP in Windows without using a script), then all you will need to do is type in dial at the ppp prompt. Otherwise, you will need to know how to dial your ISP using the ``AT commands'' specific to your modem, as the PPP dialer provides only a very simple terminal emulator. Please refer to the user-ppp handbook and FAQ entries for further information. If you have problems, logging can be directed to the screen using the command set log local ....

If a hard-wired connection to another FreeBSD (2.0-R or later) machine is available, you might also consider installing over a ``laplink'' parallel port cable. The data rate over the parallel port is much higher than what is typically possible over a serial line (up to 50 kbytes/sec), thus resulting in a quicker installation.

Finally, for the fastest possible network installation, an Ethernet adapter is always a good choice! FreeBSD supports most common PC Ethernet cards; a table of supported cards (and their required settings) is provided in the Hardware Notes for each release of FreeBSD. If you are using one of the supported PCMCIA Ethernet cards, also be sure that it is plugged in before the laptop is powered on! FreeBSD does not, unfortunately, currently support hot insertion of PCMCIA cards during installation.

You will also need to know your IP address on the network, the netmask value for your address class, and the name of your machine. If you are installing over a PPP connection and do not have a static IP, fear not, the IP address can be dynamically assigned by your ISP. Your system administrator can tell you which values to use for your particular network setup. If you will be referring to other hosts by name rather than IP address, you will also need a name server and possibly the address of a gateway (if you are using PPP, it is your provider's IP address) to use in talking to it. If you want to install by FTP via a HTTP proxy (see below), you will also need the proxy's address. If you do not know the answers to all or most of these questions, then you should really probably talk to your system administrator or ISP before trying this type of installation.

3.5.1 The fstab File

During the boot process, file systems listed in /etc/fstab are automatically mounted (unless they are listed with the noauto option).

The /etc/fstab file contains a list of lines of the following format:

    device       /mount-point fstype     options      dumpfreq     passno

3.5.2 The mount Command

The mount(8) command is what is ultimately used to mount file systems.

In its most basic form, you use:

    # mount device mountpoint

There are plenty of options, as mentioned in the mount(8) manual page, but the most common are:

The -o option takes a comma-separated list of the options, including the following:

3.5.3 The umount Command

The umount(8) command takes, as a parameter, one of a mountpoint, a device name, or the -a or -A option.

All forms take -f to force unmounting, and -v for verbosity. Be warned that -f is not generally a good idea. Forcibly unmounting file systems might crash the computer or damage data on the file system.

-a and -A are used to unmount all mounted file systems, possibly modified by the file system types listed after -t. -A, however, does not attempt to unmount the root file system.

3.8.1 Changing Your Shell

The easiest way to change your shell is to use the chsh command. Running chsh will place you into the editor that is in your EDITOR environment variable; if it is not set, you will be placed in vi. Change the ``Shell:'' line accordingly.

You can also give chsh the -s option; this will set your shell for you, without requiring you to enter an editor. For example, if you wanted to change your shell to bash, the following should do the trick:

    % chsh -s /usr/local/bin/bash

Running chsh with no parameters and editing the shell from there would work also.

3.10.1 Creating Device Nodes

When adding a new device to your system, or compiling in support for additional devices, you may need to create one or more device nodes for the new devices.

    # cd /dev
    # sh MAKEDEV ad1
       

3.11.1 The console

If you have not configured FreeBSD to automatically start a graphical environment during startup, the system will present you with a login prompt after it boots, right after the startup scripts finish running. You will see something similar to:

    Additional ABI support:.
    Local package initialization:.
    Additional TCP options:.
    
    Fri Sep 20 13:01:06 EEST 2002
    
    FreeBSD/i386 (pc3.example.org) (ttyv0)
    
    login:

The messages might be a bit different on your system, but you will see something similar. The last two lines are what we are interested in right now. The second last line reads:

    FreeBSD/i386 (pc3.example.org) (ttyv0)

This line contains some bits of information about the system you have just booted. You are looking at a ``FreeBSD'' console, running on an Intel or compatible processor of the x86 architecture[2]. The name of this machine (every UNIX® machine has a name) is pc3.example.org, and you are now looking at its system console--the ttyv0 terminal.

Finally, the last line is always:

    login:

This is the part where you are supposed to type in your ``username'' to log into FreeBSD. The next section describes how you can do this.

3.11.2 Logging into FreeBSD

FreeBSD is a multiuser, multiprocessing system. This is the formal description that is usually given to a system that can be used by many different people, who simultaneously run a lot of programs on a single machine.

Every multiuser system needs some way to distinguish one ``user'' from the rest. In FreeBSD (and all the UNIX®-like operating systems), this is accomplished by requiring that every user must ``log into'' the system before being able to run programs. Every user has a unique name (the ``username'') and a personal, secret key (the ``password''). FreeBSD will ask for these two before allowing a user to run any programs.

Right after FreeBSD boots and finishes running its startup scripts[3], it will present you with a prompt and ask for a valid username:

    login:

For the sake of this example, let us assume that your username is john. Type john at this prompt and press Enter. You should then be presented with a prompt to enter a ``password'':

    login: john
    Password:

Type in john's password now, and press Enter. The password is not echoed! You need not worry about this right now. Suffice it to say that it is done for security reasons.

If you have typed your password correctly, you should by now be logged into FreeBSD and ready to try out all the available commands.

3.11.3 Multiple consoles

Running UNIX® commands in one console is fine, but FreeBSD can run many programs at once. Having one console where commands can be typed would be a bit of a waste when an operating system like FreeBSD can run dozens of programs at the same time. This is where ``virtual consoles'' can be very helpful.

FreeBSD can be configured to present you with many different virtual consoles. You can switch from one of them to any other virtual console by pressing a couple of keys on your keyboard. Each console has its own different output channel, and FreeBSD takes care of properly redirecting keyboard input and monitor output as you switch from one virtual console to the next.

Special key combinations have been reserved by FreeBSD for switching consoles[4]. You can use Alt-F1, Alt-F2, through Alt-F8 to switch to a different virtual console in FreeBSD.

As you are switching from one console to the next, FreeBSD takes care of saving and restoring the screen output. The result is an ``illusion'' of having multiple ``virtual'' screens and keyboards that you can use to type commands for FreeBSD to run. The programs that you launch on one virtual console do not stop running when that console is not visible. They continue running when you have switched to a different virtual console.

3.11.4 The /etc/ttys file

The default configuration of FreeBSD will start up with 8 virtual consoles. This is not a hardwired setting though, and you can easily customize your installation to boot with more or fewer virtual consoles. The number and settings of the virtual consoles are configured in the /etc/ttys file.

You can use the /etc/ttys file to configure the virtual consoles of FreeBSD. Each uncommented line in this file (lines that do not start with a # character) contains settings for a single terminal or virtual console. The default version of this file that ships with FreeBSD configures 9 virtual consoles, and enables 8 of them. They are the lines that start with ttyv:

    # name  getty                           type    status          comments
    #
    ttyv0   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  on  secure
    # Virtual terminals
    ttyv1   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  on  secure
    ttyv2   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  on  secure
    ttyv3   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  on  secure
    ttyv4   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  on  secure
    ttyv5   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  on  secure
    ttyv6   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  on  secure
    ttyv7   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  on  secure
    ttyv8   "/usr/X11R6/bin/xdm -nodaemon"  xterm   off secure

For a detailed description of every column in this file and all the options you can use to set things up for the virtual consoles, consult the ttys(5) manual page.

3.11.5 Single user mode console

A detailed description of what ``single user mode'' is can be found in Section 7.6.2. It is worth noting that there is only one console when you are running FreeBSD in single user mode. There are no virtual consoles available. The settings of the single user mode console can also be found in the /etc/ttys file. Look for the line that starts with console:

    # name  getty                           type    status          comments
    #
    # If console is marked "insecure", then init will ask for the root password
    # when going to single-user mode.
    console none                            unknown off secure

3.12.1 Manual Pages

The most comprehensive documentation on FreeBSD is in the form of manual pages. Nearly every program on the system comes with a short reference manual explaining the basic operation and various arguments. These manuals can be viewed with the man command. Use of the man command is simple:

    % man command

command is the name of the command you wish to learn about. For example, to learn more about ls command type:

    % man ls

The online manual is divided up into numbered sections:

1. User commands.

2. System calls and error numbers.

3. Functions in the C libraries.

4. Device drivers.

5. File formats.

6. Games and other diversions.

7. Miscellaneous information.

8. System maintenance and operation commands.

9. Kernel developers.

In some cases, the same topic may appear in more than one section of the online manual. For example, there is a chmod user command and a chmod() system call. In this case, you can tell the man command which one you want by specifying the section:

    % man 1 chmod

This will display the manual page for the user command chmod. References to a particular section of the online manual are traditionally placed in parenthesis in written documentation, so chmod(1) refers to the chmod user command and chmod(2) refers to the system call.

This is fine if you know the name of the command and simply wish to know how to use it, but what if you cannot recall the command name? You can use man to search for keywords in the command descriptions by using the -k switch:

    % man -k mail

With this command you will be presented with a list of commands that have the keyword ``mail'' in their descriptions. This is actually functionally equivalent to using the apropos command.

So, you are looking at all those fancy commands in /usr/bin but do not have the faintest idea what most of them actually do? Simply do:

    % cd /usr/bin
    % man -f *

or

    % cd /usr/bin
    % whatis *

which does the same thing.

3.12.2 GNU Info Files

FreeBSD includes many applications and utilities produced by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). In addition to manual pages, these programs come with more extensive hypertext documents called info files which can be viewed with the info command or, if you installed emacs, the info mode of emacs.

To use the info(1) command, simply type:

    % info

For a brief introduction, type h. For a quick command reference, type ?.

4.4.1 Installing a Package

You can use the pkg_add(1) utility to install a FreeBSD software package from a local file or from a server on the network.

    # ftp -a ftp2.FreeBSD.org
    Connected to ftp2.FreeBSD.org.
    220 ftp2.FreeBSD.org FTP server (Version 6.00LS) ready.
    331 Guest login ok, send your email address as password.
    230-
    230-     This machine is in Vienna, VA, USA, hosted by Verio.
    230-         Questions? E-mail freebsd@vienna.verio.net.
    230-
    230-
    230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
    Remote system type is UNIX.
    Using binary mode to transfer files.
    ftp> cd /pub/FreeBSD/ports/packages/sysutils/
    250 CWD command successful.
    ftp> get lsof-4.56.4.tgz
    local: lsof-4.56.4.tgz remote: lsof-4.56.4.tgz
    200 PORT command successful.
    150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for 'lsof-4.56.4.tgz' (92375 bytes).
    100% |**************************************************| 92375       00:00 ETA
    226 Transfer complete.
    92375 bytes received in 5.60 seconds (16.11 KB/s)
    ftp> exit
    # pkg_add lsof-4.56.4.tgz

If you do not have a source of local packages (such as a FreeBSD CD-ROM set) then it will probably be easier to use the -r option to pkg_add(1). This will cause the utility to automatically determine the correct object format and release and then fetch and install the package from an FTP site.

    # pkg_add -r lsof

The example above would download the correct package and add it without any further user intervention. pkg_add(1) uses fetch(3) to download the files, which honours various environment variables, including FTP_PASSIVE_MODE, FTP_PROXY, and FTP_PASSWORD. You may need to set one or more of these if you are behind a firewall, or need to use an FTP/HTTP proxy. See fetch(3) for the complete list. You can also note that in the example above lsof is used instead of lsof-4.56.4. When the remote fetching feature is used, the version number of the package must be removed. pkg_add(1) will automatically fetch the latest version of the application.

Package files are distributed in .tgz format. You can find them at ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/packages/, or on the FreeBSD CD-ROM distribution. Every CD on the FreeBSD 4-CD set (and the PowerPak, etc.) contains packages in the /packages directory. The layout of the packages is similar to that of the /usr/ports tree. Each category has its own directory, and every package can be found within the All directory.

The directory structure of the package system matches the ports layout; they work with each other to form the entire package/port system.

4.4.2 Managing Packages

pkg_info(1) is a utility that lists and describes the various packages installed.

    # pkg_info
    cvsup-16.1          A general network file distribution system optimized for CV
    docbook-1.2         Meta-port for the different versions of the DocBook DTD
    ...

pkg_version(1) is a utility that summarizes the versions of all installed packages. It compares the package version to the current version found in the ports tree.

    # pkg_version
    cvsup                       =
    docbook                     =
    ...

The symbols in the second column indicate the relative age of the installed version and the version available in the local ports tree.

4.4.3 Deleting a Package

To remove a previously installed software package, use the pkg_delete(1) utility.

    # pkg_delete xchat-1.7.1

4.4.4 Miscellaneous

All package information is stored within the /var/db/pkg directory. The installed file list and descriptions of each package can be found within files in this directory.

4.5.1 Obtaining the Ports Collection

Before you can install ports, you must first obtain the ports collection--which is essentially a set of Makefiles, patches, and description files placed in /usr/ports.

When installing your FreeBSD system, Sysinstall asked if you would like to install the ports collection. If you chose no, you can follow these instructions to obtain the ports collection:

The alternative method to obtain and keep your ports collection up to date is by using CVSup. Look at the ports CVSup file, /usr/share/examples/cvsup/ports-supfile. See Using CVSup (Section A.5) for more information on using CVSup and this file.

4.5.2 Installing Ports

The first thing that should be explained when it comes to the ports collection is what is actually meant by a ``skeleton''. In a nutshell, a port skeleton is a minimal set of files that tell your FreeBSD system how to cleanly compile and install a program. Each port skeleton includes:

• A Makefile. The Makefile contains various statements that specify how the application should be compiled and where it should be installed on your system.

• A distinfo file. This file contains information about the files that must be downloaded to build the port and their checksums, to verify that files have not been corrupted during the download.

• A files directory. This directory contains patches to make the program compile and install on your FreeBSD system. Patches are basically small files that specify changes to particular files. They are in plain text format, and basically say ``Remove line 10'' or ``Change line 26 to this ...''. Patches are also known as ``diffs'' because they are generated by the diff(1) program.

  This directory may also contain other files used to build the port.

• A pkg-comment file. This is a one-line description of the program.

• A pkg-descr file. This is a more detailed, often multiple-line, description of the program.

• A pkg-plist file. This is a list of all the files that will be installed by the port. It also tells the ports system what files to remove upon deinstallation.

Some ports have other files, such as pkg-message. The ports system uses these files to handle special situations. If you want more details on these files, and on ports in general, check out the FreeBSD Porter's Handbook.

Now that you have enough background information to know what the ports collection is used for, you are ready to install your first port. There are two ways this can be done, and each is explained below.

Before we get into that, however, you will need to choose a port to install. There are a few ways to do this, with the easiest method being the ports listing on the FreeBSD web site. You can browse through the ports listed there or use the search function on the site. Each port also includes a description so you can read a bit about each port before deciding to install it.

Another method is to use the whereis(1) command. Simply type whereis file, where file is the program you want to install. If it is found on your system, you will be told where it is, as follows:

    # whereis lsof
    lsof: /usr/ports/sysutils/lsof

This tells us that lsof (a system utility) can be found in the /usr/ports/sysutils/lsof directory.

Yet another way to find a particular port is by using the ports collection's built-in search mechanism. To use the search feature, you will need to be in the /usr/ports directory. Once in that directory, run make search name=program-name where program-name is the name of the program you want to find. For example, if you were looking for lsof:

    # cd /usr/ports
    # make search name=lsof
    Port:   lsof-4.56.4
    Path:   /usr/ports/sysutils/lsof
    Info:   Lists information about open files (similar to fstat(1))
    Maint:  obrien@FreeBSD.org
    Index:  sysutils
    B-deps: 
    R-deps:

The part of the output you want to pay particular attention to is the ``Path:'' line, since that tells you where to find the port. The other information provided is not needed in order to install the port, so it will not be covered here.

For more in-depth searching you can also use make search key=string where string is some text to search for. This searches port names, comments, descriptions and dependencies and can be used to find ports which relate to a particular subject if you don't know the name of the program you are looking for.

In both of these cases, the search string is case-insensitive. Searching for ``LSOF'' will yield the same results as searching for ``lsof''.

Now that you have found a port you would like to install, you are ready to do the actual installation. The port includes instructions on how to build source code, but not the actual source code. You can get the source code from a CD-ROM or from the Internet. Source code is distributed in whatever manner the software author desires. Frequently this is a tarred and gzipped file, but it might be compressed with some other tool or even uncompressed. The program source code, whatever form it comes in, is called a ``distfile''. You can get the distfile from a CD-ROM or from the Internet.

    # cd /usr/ports/sysutils/lsof

    # make
    >> lsof_4.57D.freebsd.tar.gz doesn't seem to exist in /usr/ports/distfiles/.
    >> Attempting to fetch from file:/cdrom/ports/distfiles/.
    ===>  Extracting for lsof-4.57
    ...
    [extraction output snipped]
    ...
    >> Checksum OK for lsof_4.57D.freebsd.tar.gz.
    ===>  Patching for lsof-4.57
    ===>  Applying FreeBSD patches for lsof-4.57
    ===>  Configuring for lsof-4.57
    ...
    [configure output snipped]
    ...
    ===>  Building for lsof-4.57
    ...
    [compilation output snipped]
    ...
    #

    # make install
    ===>  Installing for lsof-4.57
    ...
    [installation output snipped]
    ...
    ===>   Generating temporary packing list
    ===>   Compressing manual pages for lsof-4.57
    ===>   Registering installation for lsof-4.57
    ===>  SECURITY NOTE: 
          This port has installed the following binaries which execute with
          increased privileges.
    #

    # make install
    >> lsof_4.57D.freebsd.tar.gz doesn't seem to exist in /usr/ports/distfiles/.
    >> Attempting to fetch from ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/distfiles/.
    Receiving lsof_4.57D.freebsd.tar.gz (439860 bytes): 100%
    439860 bytes transferred in 18.0 seconds (23.90 kBps)
    ===>  Extracting for lsof-4.57
    ...
    [extraction output snipped]
    ...
    >> Checksum OK for lsof_4.57D.freebsd.tar.gz.
    ===>  Patching for lsof-4.57
    ===>  Applying FreeBSD patches for lsof-4.57
    ===>  Configuring for lsof-4.57
    ...
    [configure output snipped]
    ...
    ===>  Building for lsof-4.57
    ...
    [compilation output snipped]
    ...
    ===>  Installing for lsof-4.57
    ...
    [installation output snipped]
    ...
    ===>   Generating temporary packing list
    ===>   Compressing manual pages for lsof-4.57
    ===>   Registering installation for lsof-4.57
    ===>  SECURITY NOTE: 
          This port has installed the following binaries which execute with
          increased privileges.
    #

4.5.3 Removing Installed Ports

Now that you know how to install ports, you are probably wondering how to remove them, just in case you install one and later on decide that you installed the wrong port. We will remove our previous example (which was lsof for those of you not paying attention). As with installing ports, the first thing you must do is change to the port directory, /usr/ports/sysutils/lsof. After you change directories, you are ready to uninstall lsof. This is done with the make deinstall command:

    # cd /usr/ports/sysutils/lsof
    # make deinstall
    ===>  Deinstalling for lsof-4.57

That was easy enough. You have removed lsof from your system. If you would like to reinstall it, you can do so by running make reinstall from the /usr/ports/sysutils/lsof directory.

The make deinstall and make reinstall sequence does not work once you have run make clean. If you want to deinstall a port after cleaning, use pkg_delete(1) as discussed in the Packages section of the Handbook.

4.7.1 Some Questions and Answers

    % tar tvzf foobar.tar.gz
    % tar xzvf foobar.tar.gz
    % tar tvf foobar.tar
    % tar xvf foobar.tar

    # make install
    >> cku190.tar.gz doesn't seem to exist on this system.
    >> Attempting to fetch from ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/archives/.

    # make DISTDIR=/local/dir/with/write/permission install

    # make PORTSDIR=/u/people/guests/wurzburger/ports install

    # make PREFIX=/u/people/guests/wurzburger/local install

    # make PORTSDIR=../ports PREFIX=../local install

    # cd /usr/ports
    # make fetch

    # cd /usr/ports/directory
    # make fetch

    # cd /usr/ports/directory
    # make MASTER_SITE_OVERRIDE= \
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/distfiles/ fetch

    # make CFLAGS='-O2 -fno-strength-reduce' install

    % cd /usr/ports
    % make search key=lisp

    # pkg_delete grizzle-6.5

    # cd /usr/ports/somewhere/grizzle
    # make deinstall

    # pkg_info -I 'grizzle*'
    Information for grizzle-6.5:
    grizzle-6.5 - the combined piano tutorial, LOGO interpreter and shoot 'em up
    arcade game.

    # cd /usr/ports
    # make clean

    # cd /usr/ports
    # make install

    # cd /usr/ports
    # make -DBATCH install

    # cd /usr/ports
    # make -DINTERACTIVE install

    # cd /usr/ports/somewhere/frobble
    # make extract
    # cd work/frobble-2.8
    [Apply your patches]
    # cd ../..
    # make package

4.7.2 Help! This Port Is Broken!

If you come across a port that does not work for you, there are a few things you can do, including:

1. Fix it! The Porter's Handbook includes detailed information on the "Ports" infrastructure so that you can fix the occasional broken port or even submit your own!

2. Gripe--by email only! Send email to the maintainer of the port first. Type make maintainer or read the Makefile to find the maintainer's email address. Remember to include the name and version of the port (send the $FreeBSD: line from the Makefile) and the output leading up to the error when you email the maintainer. If you do not get a response from the maintainer, you can use send-pr(1) to submit a bug report.

3. Grab the package from an FTP site near you. The ``master'' package collection is on ftp.FreeBSD.org in the packages directory, but be sure to check your local mirror first! These are more likely to work than trying to compile from source and are a lot faster as well. Use the pkg_add(1) program to install the package on your system.

5.2.1 Why X?

X is not the first window system written for Unix, but it is the most popular. X's original development team had worked on another window system before writing X. That system's name was ``W'' (for ``Window''). X is just the next letter in the Roman alphabet.

X can be called ``X'', ``X Window System'', ``X11'', and other terms. Calling X11 ``X Windows'' can offend some people; see X(1) for a bit more insight on this.

5.2.2 The X Client/Server Model

X was designed from the beginning to be network-centric, and adopts a ``client-server'' model. In the X model, the ``X server'' runs on the computer that has the keyboard, monitor, and mouse attached. The server is responsible for managing the display, handling input from the keyboard and mouse, and so on. Each X application (such as XTerm, or Netscape) is a ``client''. A client sends messages to the server such as ``Please draw a window at these coordinates'', and the server sends back messages such as ``The user just clicked on the OK button''.

If there is only one computer involved, such as in a home or small office environment, the X server and the X clients will be running on the same computer. However, it is perfectly possible to run the X server on a less powerful desktop computer, and run X applications (the clients) on, say, the powerful and expensive machine that serves the office. In this scenario the communication between the X client and server takes place over the network.

This confuses some people, because the X terminology is exactly backward to what they expect. They expect the ``X server'' to be the big powerful machine down the hall, and the ``X client'' to be the machine on their desk.

Remember that the X server is the machine with the monitor and keyboard, and the X clients are the programs that display the windows.

There is nothing in the protocol that forces the client and server machines to be running the same operating system, or even to be running on the same type of computer. It is certainly possible to run an X server on Microsoft Windows or Apple's MacOS, and there are various free and commercial applications available that do exactly that.

The X server that ships with FreeBSD is called XFree86, and is available for free, under a license very similar to the FreeBSD license. Commercial X servers for FreeBSD are also available.

5.2.3 The Window Manager

The X design philosophy is much like the Unix design philosophy, ``tools, not policy''. This means that X does not try to dictate how a task is to be accomplished. Instead, tools are provided to the user, and it is the user's responsibility to decide how to use those tools.

This philosophy extends to X not dictating what windows should look like on screen, how to move them around with the mouse, what keystrokes should be used to move between windows (i.e., Alt+Tab, in the case of Microsoft Windows), what the title bars on each window should look like, whether or not they have close buttons on them, and so on.

Instead, X delegates this responsibility to an application called a ``Window Manager''. There are dozens of window managers available for X: AfterStep, Blackbox, ctwm, Enlightenment, fvwm, Sawfish, twm, Window Maker, and more. Each of these window managers provides a different look and feel; some of them support ``virtual desktops''; some of them allow customized keystrokes to manage the desktop; some have a ``Start'' button or similar device; some are ``themeable'', allowing a complete change of look-and-feel by applying a new theme. These window managers, and many more, are available in the x11-wm category of the Ports Collection.

In addition, the KDE and GNOME desktop environments both have their own window managers which integrate with the desktop.

Each window manager also has a different configuration mechanism; some expect configuration file written by hand, others feature GUI tools for most of the configuration tasks; at least one (sawfish) has a configuration file written in a dialect of the Lisp language.

5.2.4 Widgets

The X approach of providing tools and not policy extends to the widgets that seen on screen in each application.

``Widget'' is a term for all the items in the user interface that can be clicked or manipulated in some way; buttons, check boxes, radio buttons, icons, lists, and so on. Microsoft Windows calls these ``controls''.

Microsoft Windows and Apple's MacOS both have a very rigid widget policy. Application developers are supposed to ensure that their applications share a common look and feel. With X, it was not considered sensible to mandate a particular graphical style, or set of widgets to adhere to.

As a result, do not expect X applications to have a common look and feel. There are several popular widget sets and variations, including the original Athena widget set from MIT, Motif (on which the widget set in Microsoft Windows was modeled, all bevelled edges and three shades of grey), OpenLook, and others.

Most newer X applications today will use a modern-looking widget set, either Qt, used by KDE, or GTK, used by the GNOME project. In this respect, there is some convergence in look-and-feel of the Unix desktop, which certainly makes things easier for the novice user.

5.4.1 Before Starting

Before configuration of XFree86 4.X, the following information about the target system is needed:

• Monitor specifications

• Video Adapter chipset

• Video Adapter memory

The specifications for the monitor are used by XFree86 to determine the resolution and refresh rate to run at. These specifications can usually be obtained from the documentation that came with the monitor or from the manufacturer's website. There are two ranges of numbers that are needed, the horizontal scan rate and the vertical synchronization rate.

The video adapter's chipset defines what driver module XFree86 uses to talk to the graphics hardware. With most chipsets, this can be automatically determined, but it is still useful to know in case the automatic detection does not work correctly.

Video memory on the graphic adapter determines the resolution and color depth which the system can run at. This is important to know so the user knows the limitations of the system.

5.4.2 Configuring XFree86 4.X

Configuration of XFree86 4.X is a multi-step process. The first step is to build an initial configuration file with the -configure option to XFree86. As the super user, simply run:

    # XFree86 -configure

This will generate a skeleton XFree86 configuration file in the /root directory called XF86Config.new (in fact the directory used is the one covered by the environment variable $HOME, and it will depend from the way you got the superuser rights). The XFree86 program will attempt to probe the graphics hardware on the system and will write a configuration file to load the proper drivers for the detected hardware on the target system.

The next step is to test the existing configuration to verify that XFree86 can work with the graphics hardware on the target system. To perform this task, the user needs to run:

    # XFree86 -xf86config XF86Config.new

If a black and grey grid and an X mouse cursor appear, the configuration was successful. To exit the test, just press Ctrl+Alt+Backspace simultaneously.

Next, tune the XF86Config.new configuration file to taste. Open the file in a text editor such as emacs(1) or ee(1). First, add the frequencies for the target system's monitor. These are usually expressed as a horizontal and vertical synchronization rate. These values are added to the XF86Config.new file under the "Monitor" section:

    Section "Monitor"
            Identifier   "Monitor0"
            VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
            ModelName    "Monitor Model"
            HorizSync    30-107
            VertRefresh  48-120
    EndSection

The HorizSync and VertRefresh keywords may not exist in the configuration file. If they do not, they need to be added, with the correct horizontal synchronization rate placed after the Horizsync keyword and the vertical synchronization rate after the VertRefresh keyword. In the example above the target monitor's rates were entered.

X allows DPMS (Energy Star) features to be used with capable monitors. The xset(1) program controls the time-outs and can force standby, suspend, or off modes. If you wish to enable DPMS features for your monitor, you must add the following line to the monitor section:

            Option       "DPMS"

While the XF86Config.new configuration file is still open in an editor, select the default resolution and color depth desired. This is defined in the "Screen" section:

    Section "Screen"
            Identifier "Screen0"
            Device     "Card0"
            Monitor    "Monitor0"
            DefaultDepth 24
            SubSection "Display"
                    Depth     24
                    Modes     "1024x768"
            EndSubSection
    EndSection

The DefaultDepth keyword describes the color depth to run at by default. This can be overridden with the -bpp command line switch to XFree86(1). The Modes keyword describes the resolution to run at for the given color depth. Note that only VESA standard modes are supported as defined by the target system's graphics hardware. In the example above, the default color depth is twenty-four bits per pixel. At this color depth, the accepted resolution is one thousand twenty-four pixels by seven hundred and sixty-eight pixels.

Finally, write the configuration file and test it using the test mode given above. If all is well, the configuration file needs to be installed in a common location where XFree86(1) can find it. This is typically /etc/X11/XF86Config or /usr/X11R6/etc/X11/XF86Config.

    # cp XF86Config.new /etc/X11/XF86Config

Once the configuration file has been placed in a common location, configuration is complete. In order to start XFree86 4.X with startx(1), install the x11/wrapper port. XFree86 4.X can also be started with xdm(1).

5.4.3 Advanced Configuration Topics

    agp_load="YES"

    # cd /dev
    # sh MAKEDEV agpgart

    Option "NoDDC"

5.5.1 Type1 Fonts

The default fonts that ship with XFree86 are less than ideal for typical desktop publishing applications. Large presentation fonts show up jagged and unprofessional looking, and small fonts in Netscape are almost completely unintelligible. However, there are several free, high quality Type1 (PostScript) fonts available which can be readily used with XFree86, either version 3.X or version 4.X. For instance, the URW font collection ( x11-fonts/urwfonts) includes high quality versions of standard type1 fonts (Times Roman, Helvetica, Palatino and others). The Freefont collection ( x11-fonts/freefont) includes many more fonts, but most of them are intended for use in graphics software such as the Gimp, and are not complete enough to serve as screen fonts. In addition, XFree86 can be configured to use TrueType fonts with a minimum of effort: see the section on TrueType fonts later.

To install the above Type1 font collections from the ports collection, run the following commands:

    # cd /usr/ports/x11-fonts/urwfonts
    # make install clean

And likewise with the freefont or other collections. To tell the X server that these fonts exist, add an appropriate line to the XF86Config file (in /etc/ for XFree86 version 3, or in /etc/X11/ for version 4), which reads:

    FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/URW/"

Alternatively, at the command line in the X session run:

    % xset fp+ /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/URW
    % xset fp rehash

This will work but will be lost when the X session is closed, unless it is added to the startup file (~/.xinitrc for a normal startx session, or ~/.xsession when logging in through a graphical login manager like XDM). A third way is to use the new XftConfig file: see the section on anti-aliasing.

5.5.2 TrueType Fonts

XFree86 4.X has built in support for rendering TrueType fonts. There are two different modules that can enable this functionality. The freetype module is used in this example because it is more consistent with the other font rendering back-ends. To enable the freetype module just add the following line to the "Module" section of the /etc/X11/XF86Config file.

    Load  "freetype"

For XFree86 3.3.X, a separate TrueType font server is needed. Xfstt is commonly used for this purpose. To install Xfstt, simply install the port x11-servers/Xfstt.

Now make a directory for the TrueType fonts (for example, /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType) and copy all of the TrueType fonts into this directory. Keep in mind that TrueType fonts cannot be directly taken from a Macintosh; they must be in Unix/DOS/Windows format for use by XFree86. Once the files have been copied into this directory, use ttmkfdir to create a fonts.dir file, so that the X font renderer knows that these new files have been installed. ttmkfdir is available from the FreeBSD Ports Collection as x11-fonts/ttmkfdir.

    # cd /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType
    # ttmkfdir > fonts.dir

Now add the TrueType directory to the font path. This is just the same as described above for Type1 fonts, that is, use

    % xset fp+ /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType
    % xset fp rehash

or add a FontPath line to the XF86Config file.

That's it. Now Netscape, Gimp, StarOffice, and all of the other X applications should now recognize the installed TrueType fonts. Extremely small fonts (as with text in a high resolution display on a web page) and extremely large fonts (within StarOffice) will look much better now.

5.5.3 Anti-Aliased Fonts

Starting with version 4.0.2, XFree86 supports anti-aliased fonts. Currently, most software has not been updated to take advantage of this new functionality. However, Qt (the toolkit for the KDE desktop) does; so if XFree86 4.0.2 is used (or higher), Qt 2.3 (or higher) and KDE, all KDE/Qt applications can be made to use anti-aliased fonts.

To configure anti-aliasing, create (or edit, if it already exists) the file /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XftConfig. Several advanced things can be done with this file; this section describes only the simplest possibilities.

First, tell the X server about the fonts that are to be anti-aliased. For each font directory, add a line similar to this:

    dir "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"

Likewise for the other font directories (URW, TrueType, etc) containing fonts to be anti-aliased. Anti-aliasing makes sense only for scalable fonts (basically, Type1 and TrueType) so do not include bitmap font directories here. The directories included here can now be commented out of the XF86Config file.

Anti-aliasing makes borders slightly fuzzy, which makes very small text more readable and removes ``staircases'' from large text, but can cause eyestrain if applied to normal text. To exclude point sizes between 9 and 13 from anti-aliasing, include these lines:

    match
      any size > 8
      any size < 14
    edit
      antialias = false;

Spacing for some monospaced fonts may also be inappropriate with anti-aliasing. This seems to be an issue with KDE, in particular. One possible fix for this is to force the spacing for such fonts to be 100. Add the following lines:

    match any family == "fixed"      edit family =+ "mono";
    match any family == "console"    edit family =+ "mono";

(this aliases the other common names for fixed fonts as "mono"), and then add:

    match any family == "mono" edit spacing = 100;

Supposing the Lucidux fonts as desired whenever monospaced fonts are required (these look nice, and do not seem to suffer from the spacing problem), replace that last line with these:

    match any family == "mono"       edit family += "LuciduxMono";
    match any family == "Lucidux Mono"      edit family += "LuciduxMono";
    match any family == "LuciduxMono"       edit family =+ "Lucidux Mono";

(the last lines alias different equivalent family names).

Finally, it is nice to allow users to add commands to this file, via their personal .xftconfig files. To do this, add a last line:

    includeif  "~/.xftconfig"

One last point: with an LCD screen, sub-pixel sampling may be desired. This basically treats the (horizontally separated) red, green and blue components separately to improve the horizontal resolution; the results can be dramatic. To enable this, add the line somewhere in the XftConfig file:

    match edit rgba=rgb;

(depending on the sort of display, the last word may need to be changed from ``rgb'' to ``bgr'', ``vrgb'' or ``vbgr'': experiment and see which works best.)

Anti-aliasing should be enabled the next time the X server is started. However, note that programs must know how to take advantage of it. At the present time, the toolkit Qt does, so the entire KDE environment can use anti-aliased fonts (see Section 5.7.3.2 on KDE for details); there are patches for GTK+ to do the same, so if compiled against such a patched GTK+, the GNOME environment and Mozilla can also use anti-aliased fonts. In fact, there is now a port called x11/gdkxft which allows one to use antialiased fonts without recompiling: see Section 5.7.1.3 for details.

Anti-aliasing is still new to FreeBSD and XFree86; configuring it should get easier with time, and it will soon be supported by many more applications.

5.6.1 Overview

The X Display Manager (XDM) is an optional part of the X Window System that is used for login session management. This is useful for several types of situations, including minimal ``X Terminals'', desktops, and large network display servers. Since the X Window System is network and protocol independent, there are a wide variety of possible configurations for running X clients and servers on different machines connected by a network. XDM provides a graphical interface for choosing which display server to connect to, and entering authorization information such as a login and password combination.

Think of XDM as providing the same functionality to the user as the getty(8) utility (see Section 17.3.2 for details). That is, it performs system logins to the display being connected to and then runs a session manager on behalf of the user (usually an X window manager). XDM then waits for this program to exit, signaling that the user is done and should be logged out of the display. At this point, XDM can display the login and display chooser screens for the next user to login.

5.6.2 Using XDM

The XDM daemon program is located in /usr/X11R6/bin/xdm. This program can be run at any time as root and it will start managing the X display on the local machine. If XDM is to be run every time the machine boots up, a convenient way to do this is by adding an entry to /etc/ttys. For more information about the format and usage of this file, see Section 17.3.2.1. There is a line in the default /etc/ttys file for running the XDM daemon on a virtual terminal:

    ttyv8   "/usr/X11R6/bin/xdm -nodaemon"  xterm   off secure

By default this entry is disabled; in order to enable it change field 5 from off to on and restart init(8) using the directions in Section 17.3.2.2. The first field, the name of the terminal this program will manage, is ttyv8. This means that XDM will start running on the 9th virtual terminal.

5.6.3 Configuring XDM

The XDM configuration directory is located in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm. In this directory there are several files used to change the behavior and appearance of XDM. Typically these files will be found:

Also in this directory are a few scripts and programs used to setup the desktop when XDM is running. The purpose of each of these files will be briefly described. The exact syntax and usage of all of these files is described in xdm(1).

The default configuration is a simple rectangular login window with the hostname of the machine displayed at the top in a large font and ``Login:'' and ``Password:'' prompts below. This is a good starting point for changing the look and feel of XDM screens.

5.6.4 Running a Network Display Server

In order for other clients to connect to the display server, edit the access control rules, and enable the connection listener. By default these are set to conservative values. To make XDM listen for connections, first comment out a line in the xdm-config file:

    ! SECURITY: do not listen for XDMCP or Chooser requests
    ! Comment out this line if you want to manage X terminals with xdm
    DisplayManager.requestPort:     0

and then restart XDM. Remember that comments in app-defaults files begin with a ``!'' character, not the usual ``#''. More strict access controls may be desired. Look at the example entries in Xaccess, and refer to the xdm(1) manual page.

5.6.5 Replacements for XDM

Several replacements for the default XDM program exist. One of them, KDM (bundled with KDE) is described later in this chapter. KDM offers many visual improvements and cosmetic frills, as well as the functionality to allow users to choose their window manager of choice at login time.

5.7.1 GNOME

    # pkg_add -r gnome

    # cd /usr/ports/x11/gnome
    # make install clean

    % echo "/usr/X11R6/bin/gnome-session" > ~/.xinitrc

    % echo "#!/bin/sh" > ~/.xsession
    % echo "/usr/X11R6/bin/gnome-session" >> ~/.xsession
    % chmod +x ~/.xsession

    % LD_PRELOAD=/usr/X11R6/lib/libgdkxft.so gimp

    % setenv LD_PRELOAD /usr/X11R6/lib/libgdkxft.so
    % gimp

    LD_PRELOAD=/usr/X11R6/lib/libgdkxft.so
    export LD_PRELOAD

5.7.2 KDE

    # pkg_add -r kde3

    # cd /usr/ports/x11/kde3
    # make install clean

    % echo "exec startkde" > ~/.xinitrc

5.7.3 More Details on KDE

Now that KDE is installed on the system, most things can be discovered through the help pages, or just by pointing and clicking at various menus. Windows or Mac users will feel quite at home.

The best reference for KDE is the on-line documentation. KDE comes with its own web browser, Konqueror, dozens of useful applications, and extensive documentation. The remainder of this section discusses the technical items that are difficult to learn by random exploration.

    case $# in
    1)
            case $1 in
            failsafe)
                    exec xterm -geometry 80x24-0-0
                    ;;
            esac
    esac

    case $# in
    1)
            case $1 in
            kde)
                    exec /usr/local/bin/startkde
                    ;;
            GNOME)
                    exec /usr/X11R6/bin/gnome-session
                    ;;
            failsafe)
                    exec xterm -geometry 80x24-0-0
                    ;;
            esac
    esac

    /usr/local/bin/kdmdesktop

5.7.4 XFce

    # pkg_add -r xfce

    # cd /usr/ports/x11-wm/xfce
    # make install clean

    % echo "/usr/X11R6/bin/startxfce" > ~/.xinitrc

6.2.1 Partition Layout

6.6.1 Locating the Correct Driver

Before you begin, you should know the model of the card you have, the chip it uses, and whether it is a PCI or ISA card. FreeBSD supports a wide variety of both PCI and ISA cards. Check the Hardware Compatibility List for your release to see if your card is supported.

Once you are sure your card is supported, you need to determine the proper driver for the card. The file /usr/src/sys/i386/conf/LINT will give you the list of network interfaces drivers with some information about the supported chipsets/cards. If you have doubts about which driver is the correct one, read the manual page of the driver. The manual page will give you more information about the supported hardware and even the possible problems that could occur.

If you own a common card, most of the time you will not have to look very hard for a driver. Drivers for common network cards are present in the GENERIC kernel, so your card should show up during boot, like so: