diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/book.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/book.sgml index 08a4301e77..587f75df00 100644 --- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/book.sgml +++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/book.sgml @@ -1,12374 +1,12375 @@ %man; %freebsd; %authors; %teams; %bookinfo; %mailing-lists; ]> Frequently Asked Questions for FreeBSD 2.X, 3.X and 4.X The FreeBSD Documentation Project $FreeBSD$ 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 The FreeBSD Documentation Project &bookinfo.legalnotice; This is the FAQ for FreeBSD versions 2.X, 3.X, and 4.X. All entries are assumed to be relevant to FreeBSD 2.0.5 and later, unless otherwise noted. Any entries with a <XXX> are under construction. If you are interested in helping with this project, send email to the &a.doc;. The latest version of this document is always available from the FreeBSD World Wide Web server. It may also be downloaded as one large HTML file with HTTP or as plain text, postscript, PDF, etc. from the FreeBSD FTP server. You may also want to Search the FAQ. Introduction Welcome to the FreeBSD 2.X-4.X FAQ! As is usual with Usenet FAQs, this document aims to cover the most frequently asked questions concerning the FreeBSD operating system (and of course answer them!). Although originally intended to reduce bandwidth and avoid the same old questions being asked over and over again, FAQs have become recognized as valuable information resources. Every effort has been made to make this FAQ as informative as possible; if you have any suggestions as to how it may be improved, please feel free to mail them to the &a.faq;. What is FreeBSD? Briefly, FreeBSD is a UN*X-like operating system for the i386 and Alpha/AXP platforms based on U.C. Berkeley's 4.4BSD-Lite release, with some 4.4BSD-Lite2 enhancements. It is also based indirectly on William Jolitz's port of U.C. Berkeley's Net/2 to the i386, known as 386BSD, though very little of the 386BSD code remains. A fuller description of what FreeBSD is and how it can work for you may be found on the FreeBSD home page. FreeBSD is used by companies, Internet Service Providers, researchers, computer professionals, students and home users all over the world in their work, education and recreation. See some of them in the FreeBSD Gallery. For more detailed information on FreeBSD, please see the FreeBSD Handbook. What is the goal of the FreeBSD Project? The goal of the FreeBSD Project is 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, we 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 GNU 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, endeavor to replace such software with submissions under the more relaxed FreeBSD copyright whenever possible. Does the FreeBSD license have any restrictions? Yes. Those restrictions do not control how you use the code, merely how you treat the FreeBSD Project itself. If you have serious license concerns, read the actual license. For the simply curious, the license can be summarized like this. Do not claim that you wrote this. Do not sue us if it breaks. Can FreeBSD replace my current operating system? For most people, yes. But this question is not quite that cut-and-dried. Most people do not actually use an operating system. They use applications. The applications are what really use the operating system. FreeBSD is designed to provide a robust and full-featured environment for applications. It supports a wide variety of web browsers, office suites, email readers, graphics programs, programming environments, network servers, and just about everything else you might want. Most of these applications can be managed through the Ports Collection. If you need to use an application that is only available on one operating system, you simply cannot replace that operating system. Chances are there is a very similar application on FreeBSD, however. If you want a solid office or Internet server, a reliable workstation, or just the ability to do your job without interruptions, FreeBSD will almost certainly do everything you need. Many computer users across the world, including both novices and experienced UNIX administrators, use FreeBSD as their only desktop operating system. If you are migrating to FreeBSD from some other UNIX environment, you already know most of what you need to. If your background is in graphic-driven operating systems such as Windows and older versions of Mac OS, expect to invest additional time learning the UNIX way of doing things. This FAQ and the FreeBSD Handbook are excellent places to start. Why is it called FreeBSD? It may be used free of charge, even by commercial users. Full source for the operating system is freely available, and the minimum possible restrictions have been placed upon its use, distribution and incorporation into other work (commercial or non-commercial). Anyone who has an improvement or bug fix is free to submit their code and have it added to the source tree (subject to one or two obvious provisions). It is worth pointing out that the word free is being used in two ways here, one meaning at no cost, the other meaning you can do whatever you like. Apart from one or two things you cannot do with the FreeBSD code, for example pretending you wrote it, you really can do whatever you like with it. What is the latest version of FreeBSD? Version &rel.current; is the latest RELEASE version; it was released in &rel.current.date;. This is also the latest STABLE version. Briefly, -STABLE is aimed at the ISP, corporate user, or any user who wants stability and a low change count over the wizzy new features of the latest -CURRENT snapshot. Releases can come from either branch, but -CURRENT should only be used if you are prepared for its increased volatility (relative to -STABLE, that is). Releases are made every few months. While many people stay more up-to-date with the FreeBSD sources (see the questions on FreeBSD-CURRENT and FreeBSD-STABLE) than that, doing so is more of a commitment, as the sources are a moving target. What is FreeBSD-CURRENT? FreeBSD-CURRENT is the development version of the operating system, which will in due course become 5.0-RELEASE. As such, it is really only of interest to developers working on the system and die-hard hobbyists. See the relevant section in the handbook for details on running -CURRENT. If you are not familiar with the operating system or are not capable of identifying the difference between a real problem and a temporary problem, you should not use FreeBSD-CURRENT. This branch sometimes evolves quite quickly and can be un-buildable for a number of days at a time. People that use FreeBSD-CURRENT are expected to be able to analyze any problems and only report them if they are deemed to be mistakes rather than glitches. Questions such as make world produces some error about groups on the -CURRENT mailing list may be treated with contempt. Every day, snapshot releases are made based on the current state of the -CURRENT and -STABLE branches. Nowadays, distributions of the occasional snapshot are now being made available. The goals behind each snapshot release are: To test the latest version of the installation software. To give people who would like to run -CURRENT or -STABLE but who do not have the time or bandwidth to follow it on a day-to-day basis an easy way of bootstrapping it onto their systems. To preserve a fixed reference point for the code in question, just in case we break something really badly later. (Although CVS normally prevents anything horrible like this happening :) To ensure that any new features in need of testing have the greatest possible number of potential testers. No claims are made that any -CURRENT snapshot can be considered production quality for any purpose. If you want to run a stable and fully tested system, you will have to stick to full releases, or use the -STABLE snapshots. Snapshot releases are directly available from ftp://current.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ for 5.0-CURRENT and releng4.FreeBSD.org for 4-STABLE snapshots. 3-STABLE snapshots are not being produced at the time of this writing (May 2000). Snapshots are generated, on the average, once a day for all actively developed branches. What is the FreeBSD-STABLE concept? Back when FreeBSD 2.0.5 was released, we decided to branch FreeBSD development into two parts. One branch was named -STABLE, with the intention that only well-tested bug fixes and small incremental enhancements would be made to it (for Internet Service Providers and other commercial enterprises for whom sudden shifts or experimental features are quite undesirable). The other branch was -CURRENT, which essentially has been one unbroken line leading towards 5.0-RELEASE (and beyond) since 2.0 was released. If a little ASCII art would help, this is how it looks: 2.0 | | | [2.1-STABLE] *BRANCH* 2.0.5 -> 2.1 -> 2.1.5 -> 2.1.6 -> 2.1.7.1 [2.1-STABLE ends] | (Mar 1997) | | | [2.2-STABLE] *BRANCH* 2.2.1 -> 2.2.2-RELEASE -> 2.2.5 -> 2.2.6 -> 2.2.7 -> 2.2.8 [end] | (Mar 1997) (Oct 97) (Apr 98) (Jul 98) (Dec 98) | | 3.0-SNAPs (started Q1 1997) | | 3.0-RELEASE (Oct 1998) | | [3.0-STABLE] *BRANCH* 3.1-RELEASE (Feb 1999) -> 3.2 -> 3.3 -> 3.4 -> 3.5 -> 3.5.1 | (May 1999) (Sep 1999) (Dec 1999) (June 2000) (July 2000) | | [4.0-STABLE] *BRANCH* 4.0 (Mar 2000) -> 4.1 -> 4.1.1 -> 4.2 -> 4.3 -> 4.4 -> ... future 4.x releases ... | | (July 2000) (Sep 2000) (Nov 2000) \|/ + [5.0-CURRENT continues] The 2.2-STABLE branch was retired with the release of 2.2.8. The 3-STABLE branch has ended with the release of 3.5.1, the final 3.X release. The only changes made to either of these branches will be, for the most part, security-related bug fixes. 4-STABLE is the actively developed -STABLE branch. The latest release on the 4-STABLE is &rel.current;-RELEASE, which was released in &rel.current.date;. The 5-CURRENT branch is slowly progressing toward 5.0-RELEASE and beyond. See What is FreeBSD-CURRENT? for more information on this branch. When are FreeBSD releases made? As a general principle, the FreeBSD core team only release a new version of FreeBSD when they believe that there are sufficient new features and/or bug fixes to justify one, and are satisfied that these new developments have been tested sufficiently to avoid compromising the stability of the release. Release dates are generally announced well in advance, so that the people working on the system know when their projects need to be finished and tested. Many users regard this caution as one of the best things about FreeBSD, although waiting for all the latest goodies to reach -STABLE can be a little frustrating. Releases are made about every 4 months on average. For people who need or want a little more excitement, binary snapshots are made every day as discussed above. Who is responsible for FreeBSD? The key decisions concerning the FreeBSD project, such as the overall direction of the project and who is allowed to add code to the source tree, are made by a core team of 9 people. There is a much larger team of more than 200 committers who are authorized to make changes directly to the FreeBSD source tree. However, most non-trivial changes are discussed in advance in the mailing lists, and there are no restrictions on who may take part in the discussion. Where can I get FreeBSD? Every significant release of FreeBSD is available via anonymous FTP from the FreeBSD FTP site: For the current 3.X-STABLE release, 3.5.1-RELEASE, see the 3.5.1-RELEASE directory. The current 4-STABLE release, &rel.current;-RELEASE can be found in the &rel.current;-RELEASE directory. 4.X snapshots are usually made once a day. 5.0 Snapshot releases are made once a day for the -CURRENT branch, these being of service purely to bleeding-edge testers and developers. Information about obtaining FreeBSD on CD, DVD, and other media can be found in the Handbook. How do I access the Problem Report database? The Problem Report database of all user change requests may be queried (or submitted to) by using our web-based PR submission and query interfaces. The &man.send-pr.1; command can also be used to submit problem reports and change requests via electronic mail. Before submitting a problem report, please read Writing FreeBSD Problem Reports, an article on how to write good problem reports. How do I become a FreeBSD Web mirror? There are multiple ways to mirror the Web pages. You can retrieve the formatted files from a FreeBSD CVSup server using the application net/cvsup. The file /usr/share/examples/cvsup/www-supfile contains an example CVSup configuration file for web mirrors. You can download the web site source code from any FreeBSD FTP server using your favorite ftp mirror tool. Keep in mind that you have to build these sources before publishing them. Start mirroring at ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/FreeBSD-current/www. What other sources of information are there? Please check the Documentation list on the main FreeBSD web site. Documentation and Support What good books are there about FreeBSD? The project produces a wide range of documentation, available from this link: http://www.FreeBSD.org/docs.html. In addition, the Bibliography at the end of this FAQ, and the one in the Handbook reference other recommended books. Is the documentation available in other formats, such as plain text (ASCII), or Postscript? Yes. The documentation is available in a number of different formats and compression schemes on the FreeBSD FTP site, in the /pub/FreeBSD/doc/ directory. The documentation is categorized in a number of different ways. These include: The document's name, such as faq, or handbook. The document's language and encoding. These are based on the locale names you will find under /usr/share/locale on your FreeBSD system. The current languages and encodings that we have for documentation are as follows: Name Meaning en_US.ISO8859-1 US English de_DE.ISO8859-1 German es_ES.ISO8859-1 Spanish fr_FR.ISO8859-1 French ja_JP.eucJP Japanese (EUC encoding) ru_RU.KOI8-R Russian (KOI8-R encoding) zh_TW.Big5 Chinese (Big5 encoding) Some documents may not be available in all languages. The document's format. We produce the documentation in a number of different output formats to try and make it as flexible as possible. The current formats are; Format Meaning html-split A collection of small, linked, HTML files. html One large HTML file containing the entire document pdb Palm Pilot database format, for use with the iSilo reader. pdf Adobe's Portable Document Format ps Postscript rtf Microsoft's Rich Text Format Page numbers are not automatically updated when loading this format in to Word. Press CTRLA, CTRLEND, F9 after loading the document, to update the page numbers. txt Plain text The compression and packaging scheme. There are three of these currently in use. Where the format is html-split, the files are bundled up using &man.tar.1;. The resulting .tar file is then compressed using the compression schemes detailed in the next point. All the other formats generate one file, called book.format (i.e., book.pdb, book.html, and so on). These files are then compressed using three compression schemes. Scheme Description zip The Zip format. If you want to uncompress this on FreeBSD you will need to install the archivers/unzip port first. gz The GNU Zip format. Use &man.gunzip.1; to uncompress these files, which is part of FreeBSD. bz2 The BZip2 format. Less widespread than the others, but generally gives smaller files. Install the archivers/bzip2 port to uncompress these files. So the Postscript version of the Handbook, compressed using BZip2 will be stored in a file called book.ps.bz2 in the handbook/ directory. The formatted documentation is also available as a FreeBSD package, of which more later. After choosing the format and compression mechanism that you want to download, you must then decide whether or not you want to download the document as a FreeBSD package. The advantage of downloading and installing the package is that the documentation can then be managed using the normal FreeBSD package management comments, such as &man.pkg.add.1; and &man.pkg.delete.1;. If you decide to download and install the package then you must know the filename to download. The documentation-as-packages files are stored in a directory called packages. Each package file looks like document-name.lang.encoding.format.tgz. For example, the FAQ, in English, formatted as PDF, is in the package called faq.en_US.ISO8859-1.pdf.tgz. Knowing this, you can use the following command to install the English PDF FAQ package. &prompt.root; pkg_add ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/doc/packages/faq.en_US.ISO8859-1.pdf.tgz Having done that, you can use &man.pkg.info.1; to determine where the file has been installed. &prompt.root; pkg_info -f faq.en_US.ISO8859-1.pdf Information for faq.en_US.ISO8859-1.pdf: Packing list: Package name: faq.en_US.ISO8859-1.pdf CWD to /usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq File: book.pdf CWD to . File: +COMMENT (ignored) File: +DESC (ignored) As you can see, book.pdf will have been installed in to /usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq. If you do not want to use the packages then you will have to download the compressed files yourself, uncompress them, and then copy the appropriate documents in to place. For example, the split HTML version of the FAQ, compressed using &man.gzip.1;, can be found in the doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/book.html-split.tar.gz file. To download and uncompress that file you would have to do this. &prompt.root; fetch ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/book.html-split.tar.gz &prompt.root; gzip -d book.html-split.tar.gz &prompt.root; tar xvf book.html-split.tar You will be left with a collection of .html files. The main one is called index.html, which will contain the table of contents, introductory material, and links to the other parts of the document. You can then copy or move these to their final location as necessary. Where do I find info on the FreeBSD mailing lists? You can find full information in the Handbook entry on mailing-lists. Where do I find the FreeBSD Y2K info? You can find full information in the FreeBSD Y2K page. What FreeBSD news groups are available? You can find full information in the Handbook entry on newsgroups. Are there FreeBSD IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channels? Yes, most major IRC networks host a FreeBSD chat channel: Channel #FreeBSD on EFNet is a FreeBSD forum, but do not go there for tech support or to try and get folks there to help you avoid the pain of reading man pages or doing your own research. It is a chat channel, first and foremost, and topics there are just as likely to involve sex, sports or nuclear weapons as they are FreeBSD. You Have Been Warned! Available at server irc.chat.org. Channel #FreeBSDhelp on EFNet is a channel dedicated to helping FreeBSD users. They are much more sympathetic to questions then #FreeBSD is. Channel #FreeBSD on DALNET is available at irc.dal.net in the US and irc.eu.dal.net in Europe. Channel #FreeBSD on UNDERNET is available at us.undernet.org in the US and eu.undernet.org in Europe. Since it is a help channel, be prepared to read the documents you are referred to. Channel #FreeBSD on HybNet. This channel is a help channel. A list of servers can be found on the HybNet web site. Each of these channels are distinct and are not connected to each other. Their chat styles also differ, so you may need to try each to find one suited to your chat style. As with all types of IRC traffic, if you are easily offended or cannot deal with lots of young people (and more than a few older ones) doing the verbal equivalent of jello wrestling, do not even bother with it. Where can I get commercial FreeBSD training and support? DaemonNews provides commercial training and support for FreeBSD. More information can be found at their BSD Mall site. The FreeBSD Mall provides commercial FreeBSD support. You can get more information at their web site. Any other organizations providing training and support should contact the project in order to be listed here. Nik Clayton
nik@FreeBSD.org
 Installation Which file do I download to get FreeBSD? Prior to release 3.1, you only needed one floppy image to install FreeBSD, namely floppies/boot.flp. However, since release 3.1 the Project has added out-of-the-box support for a wide variety of hardware, which takes up more space. For 3.x and later you need two floppy images: floppies/kernel.flp and floppies/mfsroot.flp. These images need to be copied onto floppies by tools like fdimage or &man.dd.1;. If you need to download the distributions yourself (for a DOS filesystem install, for instance), below are some recommendations for distributions to grab: bin/ manpages/ compat*/ doc/ src/ssys.* Full instructions on this procedure and a little bit more about installation issues in general can be found in the Handbook entry on installing FreeBSD. What do I do if the floppy images does not fit on a single floppy? A 3.5 inch (1.44MB) floppy can accommodate 1474560 bytes of data. The boot image is exactly 1474560 bytes in size. Common mistakes when preparing the boot floppy are: Not downloading the floppy image in binary mode when using FTP. Some FTP clients default their transfer mode to ascii and attempt to change any end-of-line characters received to match the conventions used by the client's system. This will almost invariably corrupt the boot image. Check the size of the downloaded boot image: if it is not exactly that on the server, then the download process is suspect. To workaround: type binary at the FTP command prompt after getting connected to the server and before starting the download of the image. Using the DOS copy command (or equivalent GUI tool) to transfer the boot image to floppy. Programs like copy will not work as the boot image has been created to be booted into directly. The image has the complete content of the floppy, track for track, and is not meant to be placed on the floppy as a regular file. You have to transfer it to the floppy raw, using the low-level tools (e.g. fdimage or rawrite) described in the installation guide to FreeBSD. Where are the instructions for installing FreeBSD? Installation instructions can be found in the Handbook entry on installing FreeBSD. What do I need in order to run FreeBSD? You will need a 386 or better PC, with 5 MB or more of RAM and at least 60 MB of hard disk space. It can run with a low end MDA graphics card but to run X11R6, a VGA or better video card is needed. See also I have only 4 MB of RAM. Can I install FreeBSD? FreeBSD 2.1.7 was the last version of FreeBSD that could be installed on a 4MB system. FreeBSD 2.2 and later needs at least 5MB to install on a new system. All versions of FreeBSD will run in 4MB of RAM, they just cannot run the installation program in 4MB. You can add extra memory for the install process, if you like, and then after the system is up and running, go back to 4MB. Or you could swap your disk into a system which has >4MB, install onto the disk and then swap it back. FreeBSD 2.1.7 will not install with 640 kB base + 3 MB extended memory. If your motherboard can remap some of the lost memory out of the 640kB to 1MB region, then you may still be able to get FreeBSD 2.1.7 up. Try to go into your BIOS setup and look for a remap option. Enable it. You may also have to disable ROM shadowing. It may be easier to get 4 more MB just for the install. Build a custom kernel with only the options you need and then remove the 4MB out. You can also install 2.0.5 and then upgrade your system to 2.1.7 with the upgrade option of the 2.1.7 installation program. After the installation, if you build a custom kernel, it will run in 4 MB. Someone has even successfully booted with 2 MB, although the system was almost unusable. How can I make my own custom install floppy? Currently there is no way to just make a custom install floppy. You have to cut a whole new release, which will include your install floppy. To make a custom release, follow the instructions in the Release Engineering article. Can I have more than one operating system on my PC? Have a look at the multi-OS page. Can Windows 95/98 co-exist with FreeBSD? Install Windows 95/98 first, after that FreeBSD. FreeBSD's boot manager will then manage to boot Win95/98 and FreeBSD. If you install Windows 95/98 second, it will boorishly overwrite your boot manager without even asking. If that happens, see the next section. Windows 95/98 killed my boot manager! How do I get it back? You can reinstall the boot manager FreeBSD comes with in one of three ways: Running DOS, go into the tools/ directory of your FreeBSD distribution and look for bootinst.exe. You run it like so: ...\TOOLS> bootinst.exe boot.bin and the boot manager will be reinstalled. Boot the FreeBSD boot floppy again and go to the Custom installation menu item. Choose Partition. Select the drive which used to contain your boot manager (likely the first one) and when you come to the partition editor for it, as the very first thing (e.g. do not make any changes) select (W)rite. This will ask for confirmation, say yes, and when you get the Boot Manager selection prompt, be sure to select Boot Manager. This will re-write the boot manager to disk. Now quit out of the installation menu and reboot off the hard disk as normal. Boot the FreeBSD boot floppy (or CDROM) and choose the Fixit menu item. Select either the Fixit floppy or CDROM #2 (the live file system option) as appropriate and enter the fixit shell. Then execute the following command: Fixit# fdisk -B -b /boot/boot0 bootdevice substituting bootdevice for your real boot device such as ad0 (first IDE disk), ad4 (first IDE disk on auxiliary controller), da0 (first SCSI disk), etc. My A, T, or X series IBM Thinkpad locks up when I first booted up my FreeBSD installation. How can I solve this? A bug in early revisions of IBM's BIOS on these machines mistakenly identifies the FreeBSD partition as a potential FAT suspend-to-disk partition. When the BIOS tries to parse the FreeBSD partition it hangs. According to IBMIn an e-mail from Keith Frechette kfrechet@us.ibm.com., the following model/BIOS release numbers incorporate the fix. Model BIOS revision T20 IYET49WW or later T21 KZET22WW or later A20p IVET62WW or later A20m IWET54WW or later A21p KYET27WW or later A21m KXET24WW or later A21e KUET30WW It has been reported that later IBM BIOS revisions may have reintroduced the bug. This message from Jacques Vidrine to the &a.mobile; describes a procedure which may work if your newer IBM laptop does not boot FreeBSD properly, and you can upgrade or downgrade the BIOS.. If you have an earlier BIOS, and upgrading is not an option a workaround is to install FreeBSD, change the partition ID FreeBSD uses, and install new boot blocks that can handle the different partition ID. First, you will need to restore the machine to a state where it can get through its self-test screen. Doing this requires powering up the machine without letting it find a FreeBSD partition on its primary disk. One way is to remove the hard disk and temporarily move it to an older ThinkPad (such as a ThinkPad 600) or a desktop PC with an appropriate conversion cable. Once it is there, you can delete the FreeBSD partition and move the hard disk back. The ThinkPad should now be in a bootable state again. With the machine functional again, you can use the workaround procedure described here to get a working FreeBSD installation. Download boot1 and boot2 from http://people.FreeBSD.org/~bmah/ThinkPad/. Put these files somewhere you will be able to retrieve them later. Install FreeBSD as normal on to the ThinkPad. Do not use Dangerously Dedicated mode. Do not reboot when the install has finished. Either switch to the Emergency Holographic Shell (ALT F4) or start a fixit shell. Use &man.fdisk.8; to change the FreeBSD partition ID from 165 to 166 (this is the type used by OpenBSD). Bring the boot1 and boot2 files to the local filesystem. Use &man.disklabel.8; to write boot1 and boot2 to your FreeBSD slice. &prompt.root; disklabel -B -b boot1 -s boot2 ad0sn n is the number of the slice where you installed FreeBSD. Reboot. At the boot prompt you will be given the option of booting OpenBSD. This will actually boot FreeBSD. Getting this to work in the case where you want to dual boot OpenBSD and FreeBSD on the same laptop is left as an exercise for the reader. Can I install on a disk with bad blocks? Prior to 3.0, FreeBSD included a utility known as bad144, which automatically remapped bad blocks. Because modern IDE drives perform this function themselves, bad144 has been removed from the FreeBSD source tree. If you wish to install FreeBSD 3.0 or later, we strongly suggest you purchase a newer disk drive. If you do not wish to do this, you must run FreeBSD 2.x. If you are seeing bad block errors with a modern IDE drive, chances are the drive is going to die very soon (the drive's internal remapping functions are no longer sufficient to fix the bad blocks, which means the disk is heavily corrupted); we suggest you buy a new hard drive. If you have a SCSI drive with bad blocks, see this answer. I have just upgraded from 3.X to 4.X, and my first boot failed with bad sector table not supported FreeBSD 3.X and earlier supported bad144, which automatically remapped bad blocks. FreeBSD 4.X and later do not support this, as modern IDE drives include this functionality. See this question for more information. To fix this after an upgrade, you need to physically place the drive in a working system and use &man.disklabel.8; as discussed in the following questions. How do I tell if a drive has bad144 information on it before I try to upgrade to FreeBSD 4.0 and it fails? Use &man.disklabel.8; for this. disklabel -r drive device will give you the contents of your disk label. Look for a flags field. If you see flags: badsect, this drive is using bad144. For example, the following drive has bad144 enabled.: &prompt.root; disklabel -r wd0 # /dev/rwd0c: type: ESDI disk: wd0s1 label: flags: badsect bytes/sector: 512 sectors/track: 63 How do I remove bad144 from my pre-4.X system so I can upgrade safely? Use disklabel -e -rwd0 to edit the disklabel in place. Just remove the word badsect from the flags field, save, and exit. The bad144 file will still take up some space on your drive, but the disk itself will be usable. We still recommend you purchase a new disk if you have a large number of bad blocks. Strange things happen when I boot the install floppy! What is happening? If you are seeing things like the machine grinding to a halt or spontaneously rebooting when you try to boot the install floppy, here are three questions to ask yourself:- Did you use a new, freshly-formatted, error-free floppy (preferably a brand-new one straight out of the box, as opposed to the magazine cover disk that has been lying under the bed for the last three years)? Did you download the floppy image in binary (or image) mode? (do not be embarrassed, even the best of us have accidentally downloaded a binary file in ASCII mode at least once!) If you are using Windows95 or Win98 did you run fdimage or rawrite in pure DOS mode? These operating systems can interfere with programs that write directly to hardware, which the disk creation program does; even running it inside a DOS shell in the GUI can cause this problem. There have also been reports of Netscape causing problems when downloading the boot floppy, so it is probably best to use a different FTP client if you can. I booted from my ATAPI CDROM, but the install program says no CDROM is found. Where did it go? The usual cause of this problem is a mis-configured CDROM drive. Many PCs now ship with the CDROM as the slave device on the secondary IDE controller, with no master device on that controller. This is illegal according to the ATAPI specification, but Windows plays fast and loose with the specification, and the BIOS ignores it when booting. This is why the BIOS was able to see the CDROM to boot from it, but why FreeBSD cannot see it to complete the install. Reconfigure your system so that the CDROM is either the master device on the IDE controller it is attached to, or make sure that it is the slave on an IDE controller that also has a master device. Why can I not install from tape? If you are installing 2.1.7R from tape, you must create the tape using a tar blocksize of 10 (5120 bytes). The default tar blocksize is 20 (10240 bytes), and tapes created using this default size cannot be used to install 2.1.7R; with these tapes, you will get an error that complains about the record size being too big. Can I install on my laptop over PLIP (Parallel Line IP)? Yes. Use a standard Laplink cable. If necessary, you can check out the PLIP section of the Handbook for details on parallel port networking. If you are running FreeBSD 3.X or earlier, also look at the Mobile Computing page. Which geometry should I use for a disk drive? By the geometry of a disk, we mean the number of cylinders, heads and sectors/track on a disk. We will refer to this as C/H/S for convenience. This is how the PC's BIOS works out which area on a disk to read/write from. This causes a lot of confusion among new system administrators. First of all, the physical geometry of a SCSI drive is totally irrelevant, as FreeBSD works in term of disk blocks. In fact, there is no such thing as the physical geometry, as the sector density varies across the disk. What manufacturers claim is the physical geometry is usually the geometry that they have determined wastes the least space. For IDE disks, FreeBSD does work in terms of C/H/S, but all modern drives internally convert this into block references. All that matters is the logical geometry. This is the answer that the BIOS gets when it asks the drive what is your geometry? It then uses this geometry to access the disk. As FreeBSD uses the BIOS when booting, it is very important to get this right. In particular, if you have more than one operating system on a disk, they must all agree on the geometry. Otherwise you will have serious problems booting! For SCSI disks, the geometry to use depends on whether extended translation support is turned on in your controller (this is often referred to as support for DOS disks >1GB or something similar). If it is turned off, then use N cylinders, 64 heads and 32 sectors/track, where N is the capacity of the disk in MB. For example, a 2GB disk should pretend to have 2048 cylinders, 64 heads and 32 sectors/track. If it is turned on (it is often supplied this way to get around certain limitations in MSDOS) and the disk capacity is more than 1GB, use M cylinders, 63 sectors per track (not 64), and 255 heads, where 'M' is the disk capacity in MB divided by 7.844238 (!). So our example 2GB drive would have 261 cylinders, 63 sectors per track and 255 heads. If you are not sure about this, or FreeBSD fails to detect the geometry correctly during installation, the simplest way around this is usually to create a small DOS partition on the disk. The BIOS should then detect the correct geometry, and you can always remove the DOS partition in the partition editor if you do not want to keep it. You might want to leave it around for programming network cards and the like, however. Alternatively, there is a freely available utility distributed with FreeBSD called pfdisk.exe. You can find it in the tools subdirectory on the FreeBSD CDROM or on the various FreeBSD FTP sites. This program can be used to work out what geometry the other operating systems on the disk are using. You can then enter this geometry in the partition editor. Are there any restrictions on how I divide the disk up? Yes. You must make sure that your root partition is below 1024 cylinders so the BIOS can boot the kernel from it. (Note that this is a limitation in the PC's BIOS, not FreeBSD). For a SCSI drive, this will normally imply that the root partition will be in the first 1024MB (or in the first 4096MB if extended translation is turned on - see previous question). For IDE, the corresponding figure is 504MB. Is FreeBSD compatible with any disk managers? FreeBSD recognizes the Ontrack Disk Manager and makes allowances for it. Other disk managers are not supported. If you just want to use the disk with FreeBSD you do not need a disk manager. Just configure the disk for as much space as the BIOS can deal with (usually 504 megabytes), and FreeBSD should figure out how much space you really have. If you are using an old disk with an MFM controller, you may need to explicitly tell FreeBSD how many cylinders to use. If you want to use the disk with FreeBSD and another operating system, you may be able to do without a disk manager: just make sure the FreeBSD boot partition and the slice for the other operating system are in the first 1024 cylinders. If you are reasonably careful, a 20 megabyte boot partition should be plenty. When I boot FreeBSD I get Missing Operating System. What is happening? This is classically a case of FreeBSD and DOS or some other OS conflicting over their ideas of disk geometry. You will have to reinstall FreeBSD, but obeying the instructions given above will almost always get you going. Why can I not get past the boot manager's F? prompt? This is another symptom of the problem described in the preceding question. Your BIOS geometry and FreeBSD geometry settings do not agree! If your controller or BIOS supports cylinder translation (often marked as >1GB drive support), try toggling its setting and reinstalling FreeBSD. Do I need to install the complete sources? In general, no. However, we would strongly recommend that you install, at a minimum, the base source kit, which includes several of the files mentioned here, and the sys (kernel) source kit, which includes sources for the kernel. There is nothing in the system which requires the presence of the sources to operate, however, except for the kernel-configuration program &man.config.8;. With the exception of the kernel sources, our build structure is set up so that you can read-only mount the sources from elsewhere via NFS and still be able to make new binaries. (Because of the kernel-source restriction, we recommend that you not mount this on /usr/src directly, but rather in some other location with appropriate symbolic links to duplicate the top-level structure of the source tree.) Having the sources on-line and knowing how to build a system with them will make it much easier for you to upgrade to future releases of FreeBSD. To actually select a subset of the sources, use the Custom menu item when you are in the Distributions menu of the system installation tool. Do I need to build a kernel? Building a new kernel was originally pretty much a required step in a FreeBSD installation, but more recent releases have benefited from the introduction of a much friendlier kernel configuration tool. When at the FreeBSD boot prompt (boot:), use the flag and you will be dropped into a visual configuration screen which allows you to configure the kernel's settings for most common ISA cards. It is still recommended that you eventually build a new kernel containing just the drivers that you need, just to save a bit of RAM, but it is no longer a strict requirement for most systems. Should I use DES passwords, or MD5, and how do I specify which form my users receive? The default password format on FreeBSD is to use MD5-based passwords. These are believed to be more secure than the traditional Unix password format, which used a scheme based on the DES algorithm. DES passwords are still available if you need to share your password file with legacy operating systems which still use the less secure password format (they are available if you choose to install the crypto distribution in sysinstall, or by installing the crypto sources if building from source). Which password format to use for new passwords is controlled by the passwd_format login capability in /etc/login.conf, which takes values of either des (if available) or md5. See the &man.login.conf.5; manual page for more information about login capabilities. Why does the boot floppy start, but hang at the Probing Devices... screen? If you have a IDE Zip or Jaz drive installed, remove it and try again. The boot floppy can get confused by the drives. After the system is installed you can reconnect the drive. Hopefully this will be fixed in a later release. Why do I get a panic: can't mount root error when rebooting the system after installation? This error comes from confusion between the boot block's and the kernel's understanding of the disk devices. The error usually manifests on two-disk IDE systems, with the hard disks arranged as the master or single device on separate IDE controllers, with FreeBSD installed on the secondary IDE controller. The boot blocks think the system is installed on wd1 (the second BIOS disk) while the kernel assigns the first disk on the secondary controller device wd2. After the device probing, the kernel tries to mount what the boot blocks think is the boot disk, wd1, while it is really wd2, and fails. To fix the problem, do one of the following: For FreeBSD 3.3 and later, reboot the system and hit Enter at the Booting kernel in 10 seconds; hit [Enter] to interrupt prompt. This will drop you into the boot loader. Then type set root_disk_unit="disk_number" . disk_number will be 0 if FreeBSD is installed on the master drive on the first IDE controller, 1 if it is installed on the slave on the first IDE controller, 2 if it is installed on the master of the second IDE controller, and 3 if it is installed on the slave of the second IDE controller. Then type boot, and your system should boot correctly. To make this change permanent (ie so you do not have to do this every time you reboot or turn on your FreeBSD machine), put the line root_disk_unit="disk_number" in /boot/loader.conf.local . If using FreeBSD 3.2 or earlier, at the Boot: prompt, enter 1:wd(2,a)kernel and press Enter. If the system starts, then run the command echo "1:wd(2,a)kernel" > /boot.config to make it the default boot string. Move the FreeBSD disk onto the primary IDE controller, so the hard disks are consecutive. Rebuild your kernel, modify the wd configuration lines to read: controller wdc0 at isa? port "IO_WD1" bio irq 14 vector wdintr disk wd0 at wdc0 drive 0 # disk wd1 at wdc0 drive 1 # comment out this line controller wdc1 at isa? port "IO_WD2" bio irq 15 vector wdintr disk wd1 at wdc1 drive 0 # change from wd2 to wd1 disk wd2 at wdc1 drive 1 # change from wd3 to wd2 Install the new kernel. If you moved your disks and wish to restore the previous configuration, replace the disks in the desired configuration and reboot. Your system should boot successfully. What are the limits for memory? For memory, the limit is 4 gigabytes. This configuration has been tested, see wcarchive's configuration for more details. If you plan to install this much memory into a machine, you need to be careful. You will probably want to use ECC memory and to reduce capacitive loading use 9 chip memory modules versus 18 chip memory modules. What are the limits for ffs filesystems? For ffs filesystems, the maximum theoretical limit is 8 terabytes (2G blocks), or 16TB for the default block size of 8K. In practice, there is a soft limit of 1 terabyte, but with modifications filesystems with 4 terabytes are possible (and exist). The maximum size of a single ffs file is approximately 1G blocks (4TB) if the block size is 4K. Maximum file sizes fs block size 2.2.7-stable 3.0-current works should work 4K 4T-1 4T-1 4T-1 >4T 8K >32G 8T-1 >32G 32T-1 16K >128G 16T-1 >128G 32T-1 32K >512G 32T-1 >512G 64T-1 64K >2048G 64T-1 >2048G 128T-1
When the fs block size is 4K, triple indirect blocks work and everything should be limited by the maximum fs block number that can be represented using triple indirect blocks (approx. 1K^3 + 1K^2 + 1K), but everything is limited by a (wrong) limit of 1G-1 on fs block numbers. The limit on fs block numbers should be 2G-1. There are some bugs for fs block numbers near 2G-1, but such block numbers are unreachable when the fs block size is 4K. For block sizes of 8K and larger, everything should be limited by the 2G-1 limit on fs block numbers, but is actually limited by the 1G-1 limit on fs block numbers, except under -STABLE triple indirect blocks are unreachable, so the limit is the maximum fs block number that can be represented using double indirect blocks (approx. (blocksize/4)^2 + (blocksize/4)), and under -CURRENT exceeding this limit may cause problems. Using the correct limit of 2G-1 blocks does cause problems. Why do I get an error message, archsw.readin.failed after compiling and booting a new kernel? You can boot by specifying the kernel directly at the second stage, pressing any key when the | shows up before loader is started. More specifically, you have upgraded the source for your kernel, and installed a new kernel builtin from them without making world. This is not supported. Make world. How do I upgrade from 3.X -> 4.X? We strongly recommend that you use binary snapshots to do this. 4-STABLE snapshots are available at ftp://releng4.FreeBSD.org/. Because of the many changes between 3.X and 4-STABLE, a direct upgrade from source will probably fail. A source upgrade can be done, but only in stages. First, upgrade to the latest 3-STABLE (RELENG_3). Then upgrade to 4.1.1-RELEASE (RELENG_4_1_1_RELEASE). Finally, upgrade to 4-STABLE (RELENG_4). If you wish to upgrade using source, please see the FreeBSD Handbook for more information. Upgrading via source is never recommended for new users, and upgrading from 3.X to 4.X is even less so; make sure you have read the instructions carefully before attempting to upgrade via source. What are these security profiles? 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. For full details, see the Security Profile section of the Handbook's post-install chapter. Hardware compatibility Does FreeBSD support architectures other than the x86? Yes. FreeBSD currently runs on both Intel x86 and DEC (now Compaq) Alpha architectures. Interest has also been expressed in a port of FreeBSD to the SPARC architecture, join the &a.sparc; if you are interested in joining that project. Most recent additions to the list of upcoming platforms are IA-64 and PowerPC, join the &a.ia64; and/or the &a.ppc; for more information. For general discussion on new architectures, join the &a.platforms;. If your machine has a different architecture and you need something right now, we suggest you look at NetBSD or OpenBSD. I want to get a piece of hardware for my FreeBSD system. Which model/brand/type is best? This is discussed continually on the FreeBSD mailing lists. Since hardware changes so quickly, however, we expect this. We still strongly recommend that you read through the Hardware Notes and search the mailing list archives before asking about the latest and greatest hardware. Chances are a discussion about the type of hardware you are looking for took place just last week. If you are looking for a laptop, check the FreeBSD-mobile mailing list archives. Otherwise, you probably want the archives for FreeBSD-questions, or possibly a specific mailing list for a particular hardware type. What kind of hard drives does FreeBSD support? FreeBSD supports EIDE and SCSI drives (with a compatible controller; see the next section), and all drives using the original Western Digital interface (MFM, RLL, ESDI, and of course IDE). A few ESDI controllers that use proprietary interfaces may not work: stick to WD1002/3/6/7 interfaces and clones. Which SCSI controllers are supported? See the complete list in the current Hardware Notes. Which CDROM drives are supported by FreeBSD? Any SCSI drive connected to a supported controller is supported. The following proprietary CDROM interfaces are also supported: Mitsumi LU002 (8bit), LU005 (16bit) and FX001D (16bit 2x Speed). Sony CDU 31/33A Sound Blaster Non-SCSI CDROM Matsushita/Panasonic CDROM ATAPI compatible IDE CDROMs All non-SCSI cards are known to be extremely slow compared to SCSI drives, and some ATAPI CDROMs may not work. As of 2.2 the FreeBSD CDROM from the FreeBSD Mall supports booting directly from the CD. Which CD-RW drives are supported by FreeBSD? FreeBSD supports any ATAPI-compatible IDE CD-R or CD-RW drive. For FreeBSD versions 4.0 and later, see the man page for &man.burncd.8;. For earlier FreeBSD versions, see the examples in /usr/share/examples/atapi. FreeBSD also supports any SCSI CD-R or CD-RW drives. Install and use the cdrecord command from the ports or packages system, and make sure that you have the pass device compiled in your kernel. Does FreeBSD support ZIP drives? FreeBSD supports the SCSI ZIP drive out of the box, of course. The ZIP drive can only be set to run at SCSI target IDs 5 or 6, but if your SCSI host adapter's BIOS supports it you can even boot from it. It is not clear which host adapters support booting from targets other than 0 or 1, so you will have to consult your adapter's documentation if you would like to use this feature. ATAPI (IDE) Zip drives are supported in FreeBSD 2.2.6 and later releases. FreeBSD has contained support for Parallel Port Zip Drives since version 3.0. If you are using a sufficiently up to date version, then you should check that your kernel contains the scbus0, da0, ppbus0, and vp0 drivers (the GENERIC kernel contains everything except vp0). With all these drivers present, the Parallel Port drive should be available as /dev/da0s4. Disks can be mounted using mount /dev/da0s4 /mnt OR (for dos disks) mount_msdos /dev/da0s4 /mnt as appropriate. Also check out the FAQ on removable drives later in this chapter, and the note on formattingin the Administration chapter. Does FreeBSD support JAZ, EZ and other removable drives? Apart from the IDE version of the EZ drive, these are all SCSI devices, so they should all look like SCSI disks to FreeBSD, and the IDE EZ should look like an IDE drive. I am not sure how well FreeBSD supports changing the media out while running. You will of course need to dismount the drive before swapping media, and make sure that any external units are powered on when you boot the system so FreeBSD can see them. See this note on formatting. Which multi-port serial cards are supported by FreeBSD? There is a list of these in the Miscellaneous devices section of the handbook. Some unnamed clone cards have also been known to work, especially those that claim to be AST compatible. Check the &man.sio.4; man page to get more information on configuring such cards. Does FreeBSD support my USB keyboard? USB device support was added to FreeBSD 3.1. However, it is still in preliminary state and may not always work as of version 3.2. If you want to experiment with the USB keyboard support, follow the procedure described below. Use FreeBSD 3.2 or later. Add the following lines to your kernel configuration file, and rebuild the kernel. device uhci device ohci device usb device ukbd options KBD_INSTALL_CDEV In versions of FreeBSD before 4.0, use this instead: controller uhci0 controller ohci0 controller usb0 controller ukbd0 options KBD_INSTALL_CDEV Go to the /dev directory and create device nodes as follows: &prompt.root; cd /dev &prompt.root; ./MAKEDEV kbd0 kbd1 Edit /etc/rc.conf and add the following lines: usbd_enable="YES" usbd_flags="" After the system is rebooted, the AT keyboard becomes /dev/kbd0 and the USB keyboard becomes /dev/kbd1, if both are connected to the system. If there is the USB keyboard only, it will be /dev/ukbd0. If you want to use the USB keyboard in the console, you have to explicitly tell the console driver to use the existing USB keyboard. This can be done by running the following command as a part of system initialization. &prompt.root; kbdcontrol -k /dev/kbd1 < /dev/ttyv0 > /dev/null Note that if the USB keyboard is the only keyboard, it is accessed as /dev/kbd0, thus, the command should look like: &prompt.root; kbdcontrol -k /dev/kbd0 < /dev/ttyv0 > /dev/null /etc/rc.i386 is a good place to add the above command. Once this is done, the USB keyboard should work in the X environment as well without any special settings. Hot-plugging and unplugging of the USB keyboard may not work quite right yet. It is a good idea to connect the keyboard before you start the system and leave it connected until the system is shutdown to avoid troubles. See the &man.ukbd.4; man page for more information. I have an unusual bus mouse. How do I set it up? FreeBSD supports the bus mouse and the InPort bus mouse from such manufactures as Microsoft, Logitech and ATI. The bus device driver is compiled in the GENERIC kernel by default in FreeBSD versions 2.X, but not included in version 3.0 or later. If you are building a custom kernel with the bus mouse driver, make sure to add the following line to the kernel config file In FreeBSD 3.0 or before, add: device mse0 at isa? port 0x23c tty irq5 vector mseintr In FreeBSD 3.X, the line should be: device mse0 at isa? port 0x23c tty irq5 And in FreeBSD 4.X and later, the line should read: device mse0 at isa? port 0x23c irq5 Bus mice usually comes with dedicated interface cards. These cards may allow you to set the port address and the IRQ number other than shown above. Refer to the manual of your mouse and the &man.mse.4; man page for more information. How do I use my PS/2 (mouse port or keyboard) mouse? If you are running a post-2.2.5 version of FreeBSD, the necessary driver, psm, is included and enabled in the kernel. The kernel should detect your PS/2 mouse at boot time. If you are running a previous but relatively recent version of FreeBSD (2.1.x or better) then you can simply enable it in the kernel configuration menu at installation time, otherwise later with at the boot: prompt. It is disabled by default, so you will need to enable it explicitly. If you are running an older version of FreeBSD then you will have to add the following lines to your kernel configuration file and compile a new kernel. In FreeBSD 3.0 or earlier, the line should be: device psm0 at isa? port "IO_KBD" conflicts tty irq 12 vector psmintr In FreeBSD 3.1 or later, the line should be: device psm0 at isa? tty irq 12 In FreeBSD 4.0 or later, the line should be: device psm0 at atkbdc? irq 12 See the Handbook entry on configuring the kernel if you have no experience with building kernels. Once you have a kernel detecting psm0 correctly at boot time, make sure that an entry for psm0 exists in /dev. You can do this by typing: &prompt.root; cd /dev; sh MAKEDEV psm0 when logged in as root. Is it possible to make use of a mouse in any way outside the X Window system? If you are using the default console driver, syscons, you can use a mouse pointer in text consoles to cut & paste text. Run the mouse daemon, moused, and turn on the mouse pointer in the virtual console: &prompt.root; moused -p /dev/xxxx -t yyyy &prompt.root; vidcontrol -m on Where xxxx is the mouse device name and yyyy is a protocol type for the mouse. See the &man.moused.8; man page for supported protocol types. You may wish to run the mouse daemon automatically when the system starts. In version 2.2.1, set the following variables in /etc/sysconfig. mousedtype="yyyy" mousedport="xxxx" mousedflags="" In versions 2.2.2 to 3.0, set the following variables in /etc/rc.conf. moused_type="yyyy" moused_port="xxxx" moused_flags="" In 3.1 and later, assuming you have a PS/2 mouse, all you need to is add moused_enable="YES" to /etc/rc.conf. In addition, if you would like to be able to use the mouse daemon on all virtual terminals instead of just console at boot-time, add the following to /etc/rc.conf. allscreens_flags="-m on" Staring from FreeBSD 2.2.6, the mouse daemon is capable of determining the correct protocol type automatically unless the mouse is a relatively old serial mouse model. Specify auto the protocol to invoke automatic detection. When the mouse daemon is running, access to the mouse needs to be coordinated between the mouse daemon and other programs such as the X Window. Refer to another section on this issue. How do I cut and paste text with mouse in the text console? Once you get the mouse daemon running (see previous section), hold down the button 1 (left button) and move the mouse to select a region of text. Then, press the button 2 (middle button) or the button 3 (right button) to paste it at the text cursor. In versions 2.2.6 and later, pressing the button 2 will paste the text. Pressing the button 3 will extend the selected region of text. If your mouse does not have the middle button, you may wish to emulate it or remap buttons using moused options. See the &man.moused.8; man page for details. Does FreeBSD support any USB mice? Preliminary USB device support was added to FreeBSD 3.1. It did not always work through early versions of 3.X. As of FreeBSD 4.0, USB devices should work out of the box. If you want to experiment with the USB mouse support under FreeBSD 3.X, follow the procedure described below. Use FreeBSD 3.2 or later. Add the following lines to your kernel configuration file, and rebuild the kernel. device uhci device ohci device usb device ums In versions of FreeBSD before 4.0, use this instead: controller uhci0 controller ohci0 controller usb0 device ums0 Go to the /dev directory and create a device node as follows: &prompt.root; cd /dev &prompt.root; ./MAKEDEV ums0 Edit /etc/rc.conf and add the following lines: moused_enable="YES" moused_type="auto" moused_port="/dev/ums0" moused_flags="" usbd_enable="YES" usbd_flags="" See the previous section for more detailed discussion on moused. In order to use the USB mouse in the X session, edit XF86Config. If you are using XFree86 3.3.2 or later, be sure to have the following lines in the Pointer section: Device "/dev/sysmouse" Protocol "Auto" If you are using earlier versions of XFree86, be sure to have the following lines in the Pointer section: Device "/dev/sysmouse" Protocol "SysMouse" Refer to another section on the mouse support in the X environment. Hot-plugging and unplugging of the USB mouse may not work quite right yet. It is a good idea connect the mouse before you start the system and leave it connected until the system is shutdown to avoid trouble. My mouse has a fancy wheel and buttons. Can I use them in FreeBSD? The answer is, unfortunately, It depends. These mice with additional features require specialized driver in most cases. Unless the mouse device driver or the user program has specific support for the mouse, it will act just like a standard two, or three button mouse. For the possible usage of wheels in the X Window environment, refer to that section. Why does my wheel-equipped PS/2 mouse cause my mouse cursor to jump around the screen? The PS/2 mouse driver psm in FreeBSD versions 3.2 or earlier has difficulty with some wheel mice, including Logitech model M-S48 and its OEM siblings. Apply the following patch to /sys/i386/isa/psm.c and rebuild the kernel. Index: psm.c =================================================================== RCS file: /src/CVS/src/sys/i386/isa/Attic/psm.c,v retrieving revision 1.60.2.1 retrieving revision 1.60.2.2 diff -u -r1.60.2.1 -r1.60.2.2 --- psm.c 1999/06/03 12:41:13 1.60.2.1 +++ psm.c 1999/07/12 13:40:52 1.60.2.2 @@ -959,14 +959,28 @@ sc->mode.packetsize = vendortype[i].packetsize; /* set mouse parameters */ +#if 0 + /* + * A version of Logitech FirstMouse+ won't report wheel movement, + * if SET_DEFAULTS is sent... Don't use this command. + * This fix was found by Takashi Nishida. + */ i = send_aux_command(sc->kbdc, PSMC_SET_DEFAULTS); if (verbose >= 2) printf("psm%d: SET_DEFAULTS return code:%04x\n", unit, i); +#endif if (sc->config & PSM_CONFIG_RESOLUTION) { sc->mode.resolution = set_mouse_resolution(sc->kbdc, - (sc->config & PSM_CONFIG_RESOLUTION) - 1); + (sc->config & PSM_CONFIG_RESOLUTION) - 1); + } else if (sc->mode.resolution >= 0) { + sc->mode.resolution + = set_mouse_resolution(sc->kbdc, sc->dflt_mode.resolution); + } + if (sc->mode.rate > 0) { + sc->mode.rate = set_mouse_sampling_rate(sc->kbdc, sc->dflt_mode.rate); } + set_mouse_scaling(sc->kbdc, 1); /* request a data packet and extract sync. bits */ if (get_mouse_status(sc->kbdc, stat, 1, 3) < 3) { Versions later than 3.2 should be all right. How do I use the mouse/trackball/touchpad on my laptop? Please refer to the answer to the previous question. Also check out the Mobile Computing page. What types of tape drives are supported? FreeBSD supports SCSI and QIC-36 (with a QIC-02 interface). This includes 8-mm (aka Exabyte) and DAT drives. Some of the early 8-mm drives are not quite compatible with SCSI-2, and may not work well with FreeBSD. Does FreeBSD support tape changers? FreeBSD 2.2 supports SCSI changers using the &man.ch.4; device and the &man.chio.1; command. The details of how you actually control the changer can be found in the &man.chio.1; man page. If you are not using AMANDA or some other product that already understands changers, remember that they only know how to move a tape from one point to another, so you need to keep track of which slot a tape is in, and which slot the tape currently in the drive needs to go back to. Which sound cards are supported by FreeBSD? FreeBSD supports the SoundBlaster, SoundBlaster Pro, SoundBlaster 16, Pro Audio Spectrum 16, AdLib and Gravis UltraSound sound cards. There is also limited support for MPU-401 and compatible MIDI cards. Cards conforming to the Microsoft Sound System specification are also supported through the pcm driver. This is only for sound! This driver does not support CDROMs, SCSI or joysticks on these cards, except for the SoundBlaster. The SoundBlaster SCSI interface and some non-SCSI CDROMs are supported, but you cannot boot off this device. Workarounds for no sound from es1370 with pcm driver? You can run the following command every time the machine booted up: &prompt.root; mixer pcm 100 vol 100 cd 100 Which network cards does FreeBSD support? See the Ethernet cards section of the handbook for a more complete list. I do not have a math co-processor - is that bad? This will only affect 386/486SX/486SLC owners - other machines will have one built into the CPU. In general this will not cause any problems, but there are circumstances where you will take a hit, either in performance or accuracy of the math emulation code (see the section on FP emulation). In particular, drawing arcs in X will be VERY slow. It is highly recommended that you buy a math co-processor; it is well worth it. Some math co-processors are better than others. It pains us to say it, but nobody ever got fired for buying Intel. Unless you are sure it works with FreeBSD, beware of clones. What other devices does FreeBSD support? See the Handbook for the list of other devices supported. Does FreeBSD support power management on my laptop? FreeBSD supports APM on certain machines. Please look in the LINT kernel config file, searching for the APM keyword. Further information can be found in &man.apm.4;. Why does my Micron system hang at boot time? Certain Micron motherboards have a non-conforming PCI BIOS implementation that causes grief when FreeBSD boots because PCI devices do not get configured at their reported addresses. Disable the Plug and Play Operating System flag in the BIOS to work around this problem. More information can be found at http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/drivers/vortex.html#micron Why does FreeBSD not recognize my Adaptec SCSI controller card? The newer AIC789x series Adaptec chips are supported under the CAM SCSI framework which made its debut in 3.0. Patches against 2.2-STABLE are in ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/development/cam/. A CAM-enhanced boot floppy is available at http://people.FreeBSD.org/~abial/cam-boot/. In both cases read the README before beginning. Why is FreeBSD not finding my internal Plug & Play modem? You will need to add the modem's PnP ID to the PnP ID list in the serial driver. To enable Plug & Play support, compile a new kernel with controller pnp0 in the configuration file, then reboot the system. The kernel will print the PnP IDs of all the devices it finds. Copy the PnP ID from the modem to the table in /sys/i386/isa/sio.c, at about line 2777. Look for the string SUP1310 in the structure siopnp_ids[] to find the table. Build the kernel again, install, reboot, and your modem should be found. You may have to manually configure the PnP devices using the pnp command in the boot-time configuration with a command like pnp 1 0 enable os irq0 3 drq0 0 port0 0x2f8 to make the modem show. Does FreeBSD support software modems, such as Winmodems? FreeBSD supports many software modems via add-on software. The comms/ltmdm port adds support for modems based on the very popular Lucent LT chipset. The comms/mwavem port supports the modem in IBM Thinkpad 600 and 700 laptops. You cannot install FreeBSD via a software modem; this software must be installed after the OS is installed. How do I get the boot: prompt to show on the serial console? Build a kernel with options COMCONSOLE. Create /boot.config and place as the only text in the file. Unplug the keyboard from the system. See /usr/src/sys/i386/boot/biosboot/README.serial for information. Why does my 3Com PCI network card not work with my Micron computer? Certain Micron motherboards have a non-conforming PCI BIOS implementation that does not configure PCI devices at the addresses reported. This causes grief when FreeBSD boots. To work around this problem, disable the Plug and Play Operating System flag in the BIOS. More information on this problem is available at URL: http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/drivers/vortex.html#micron Does FreeBSD support Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP)? SMP is supported in 3.0-STABLE and later releases only. SMP is not enabled in the GENERIC kernel, so you will have to recompile your kernel to enable SMP. Take a look at /sys/i386/conf/LINT to figure out what options to put in your kernel config file. The boot floppy hangs on a system with an ASUS K7V motherboard. How do I fix this? Go in to the BIOS setup and disable the boot virus protection. Troubleshooting What do I do when I have bad blocks on my hard drive? With SCSI drives, the drive should be capable of re-mapping these automatically. However, many drives are shipped with this feature disabled, for some mysterious reason... To enable this, you will need to edit the first device page mode, which can be done on FreeBSD by giving the command (as root) &prompt.root; scsi -f /dev/rsd0c -m 1 -e -P 3 and changing the values of AWRE and ARRE from 0 to 1:- AWRE (Auto Write Reallocation Enbld): 1 ARRE (Auto Read Reallocation Enbld): 1 The following paragraphs were submitted by Ted Mittelstaedt tedm@toybox.placo.com: For IDE drives, any bad block is usually a sign of potential trouble. All modern IDE drives come with internal bad-block remapping turned on. All IDE hard drive manufacturers today offer extensive warranties and will replace drives with bad blocks on them. If you still want to attempt to rescue an IDE drive with bad blocks, you can attempt to download the IDE drive manufacturer's IDE diagnostic program, and run this against the drive. Sometimes these programs can be set to force the drive electronics to rescan the drive for bad blocks and lock them out. For ESDI, RLL and MFM drives, bad blocks are a normal part of the drive and are no sign of trouble, generally. With a PC, the disk drive controller card and BIOS handle the task of locking out bad sectors. This is fine for operating systems like DOS that use BIOS code to access the disk. However, FreeBSD's disk driver does not go through BIOS, therefore a mechanism, bad144, exists that replaces this functionality. bad144 only works with the wd driver (which means it is not supported in FreeBSD 4.0), it is NOT able to be used with SCSI. bad144 works by entering all bad sectors found into a special file. One caveat with bad144 - the bad block special file is placed on the last track of the disk. As this file may possibly contain a listing for a bad sector that would occur near the beginning of the disk, where the /kernel file might be located, it therefore must be accessible to the bootstrap program that uses BIOS calls to read the kernel file. This means that the disk with bad144 used on it must not exceed 1024 cylinders, 16 heads, and 63 sectors. This places an effective limit of 500MB on a disk that is mapped with bad144. To use bad144, simply set the Bad Block scanning to ON in the FreeBSD fdisk screen during the initial install. This works up through FreeBSD 2.2.7. The disk must have less than 1024 cylinders. It is generally recommended that the disk drive has been in operation for at least 4 hours prior to this to allow for thermal expansion and track wandering. If the disk has more than 1024 cylinders (such as a large ESDI drive) the ESDI controller uses a special translation mode to make it work under DOS. The wd driver understands about these translation modes, IF you enter the translated geometry with the set geometry command in fdisk. You must also NOT use the dangerously dedicated mode of creating the FreeBSD partition, as this ignores the geometry. Also, even though fdisk will use your overridden geometry, it still knows the true size of the disk, and will attempt to create a too large FreeBSD partition. If the disk geometry is changed to the translated geometry, the partition MUST be manually created with the number of blocks. A quick trick to use is to set up the large ESDI disk with the ESDI controller, boot it with a DOS disk and format it with a DOS partition. Then, boot the FreeBSD install and in the fdisk screen, read off and write down the blocksize and block numbers for the DOS partition. Then, reset the geometry to the same that DOS uses, delete the DOS partition, and create a cooperative FreeBSD partition using the blocksize you recorded earlier. Then, set the partition bootable and turn on bad block scanning. During the actual install, bad144 will run first, before any filesystems are created. (you can view this with an Alt-F2) If it has any trouble creating the badsector file, you have set too large a disk geometry - reboot the system and start all over again (including repartitioning and reformatting with DOS). If remapping is enabled and you are seeing bad blocks, consider replacing the drive. The bad blocks will only get worse as time goes on. Why does FreeBSD not recognize my Bustek 742a EISA SCSI controller? This info is specific to the 742a but may also cover other Buslogic cards. (Bustek = Buslogic) There are 2 general versions of the 742a card. They are hardware revisions A-G, and revisions H - onwards. The revision letter is located after the Assembly number on the edge of the card. The 742a has 2 ROM chips on it, one is the BIOS chip and the other is the Firmware chip. FreeBSD does not care what version of BIOS chip you have but it does care about what version of firmware chip. Buslogic will send upgrade ROMs out if you call their tech support dept. The BIOS and Firmware chips are shipped as a matched pair. You must have the most current Firmware ROM in your adapter card for your hardware revision. The REV A-G cards can only accept BIOS/Firmware sets up to 2.41/2.21. The REV H- up cards can accept the most current BIOS/Firmware sets of 4.70/3.37. The difference between the firmware sets is that the 3.37 firmware supports round robin The Buslogic cards also have a serial number on them. If you have a old hardware revision card you can call the Buslogic RMA department and give them the serial number and attempt to exchange the card for a newer hardware revision. If the card is young enough they will do so. FreeBSD 2.1 only supports Firmware revisions 2.21 onward. If you have a Firmware revision older than this your card will not be recognized as a Buslogic card. It may be recognized as an Adaptec 1540, however. The early Buslogic firmware contains an AHA1540 emulation mode. This is not a good thing for an EISA card, however. If you have an old hardware revision card and you obtain the 2.21 firmware for it, you will need to check the position of jumper W1 to B-C, the default is A-B. Why does FreeBSD not detect my HP Netserver's SCSI controller? This is basically a known problem. The EISA on-board SCSI controller in the HP Netserver machines occupies EISA slot number 11, so all the true EISA slots are in front of it. Alas, the address space for EISA slots >= 10 collides with the address space assigned to PCI, and FreeBSD's auto-configuration currently cannot handle this situation very well. So now, the best you can do is to pretend there is no address range clash :), by bumping the kernel option EISA_SLOTS to a value of 12. Configure and compile a kernel, as described in the Handbook entry on configuring the kernel. Of course, this does present you with a chicken-and-egg problem when installing on such a machine. In order to work around this problem, a special hack is available inside UserConfig. Do not use the visual interface, but the plain command-line interface there. Simply type eisa 12 quit at the prompt, and install your system as usual. While it is recommended you compile and install a custom kernel anyway. Hopefully, future versions will have a proper fix for this problem. You cannot use a dangerously dedicated disk with an HP Netserver. See this note for more info. What is going on with my CMD640 IDE controller? It is broken. It cannot handle commands on both channels simultaneously. There is a workaround available now and it is enabled automatically if your system uses this chip. For the details refer to the manual page of the disk driver (man 4 wd). If you are already running FreeBSD 2.2.1 or 2.2.2 with a CMD640 IDE controller and you want to use the second channel, build a new kernel with options "CMD640" enabled. This is the default for 2.2.5 and later. I keep seeing messages like ed1: timeout. What do these messages mean? This is usually caused by an interrupt conflict (e.g., two boards using the same IRQ). FreeBSD prior to 2.0.5R used to be tolerant of this, and the network driver would still function in the presence of IRQ conflicts. However, with 2.0.5R and later, IRQ conflicts are no longer tolerated. Boot with the -c option and change the ed0/de0/... entry to match your board. If you are using the BNC connector on your network card, you may also see device timeouts because of bad termination. To check this, attach a terminator directly to the NIC (with no cable) and see if the error messages go away. Some NE2000 compatible cards will give this error if there is no link on the UTP port or if the cable is disconnected. Why did my 3COM 3C509 card stop working for no apparent reason? This card has a bad habit of losing its configuration information. Refresh your card's settings with the DOS utility 3c5x9.exe. My parallel printer is ridiculously slow. What can I do? If the only problem is that the printer is terribly slow, try changing your printer port mode as discussed in the Printer Setup section of the Handbook. Why do my programs occasionally die with Signal 11 errors? Signal 11 errors are caused when your process has attempted to access memory which the operating system has not granted it access to. If something like this is happening at seemingly random intervals then you need to start investigating things very carefully. These problems can usually be attributed to either: If the problem is occurring only in a specific application that you are developing yourself it is probably a bug in your code. If it is a problem with part of the base FreeBSD system, it may also be buggy code, but more often than not these problems are found and fixed long before us general FAQ readers get to use these bits of code (that is what -current is for). In particular, a dead giveaway that this is not a FreeBSD bug is if you see the problem when you are compiling a program, but the activity that the compiler is carrying out changes each time. For example, suppose you are running make buildworld, and the compile fails while trying to compile ls.c in to ls.o. If you then run make buildworld again, and the compile fails in the same place then this is a broken build -- try updating your sources and try again. If the compile fails elsewhere then this is almost certainly hardware. What you should do: In the first case you can use a debugger e.g. gdb to find the point in the program which is attempting to access a bogus address and then fix it. In the second case you need to verify that it is not your hardware at fault. Common causes of this include: Your hard disks might be overheating: Check the fans in your case are still working, as your disk (and perhaps other hardware might be overheating). The processor running is overheating: This might be because the processor has been overclocked, or the fan on the processor might have died. In either case you need to ensure that you have hardware running at what it is specified to run at, at least while trying to solve this problem. i.e. Clock it back to the default settings. If you are overclocking then note that it is far cheaper to have a slow system than a fried system that needs replacing! Also the wider community is not often sympathetic to problems on overclocked systems, whether you believe it is safe or not. Dodgy memory: If you have multiple memory SIMMS/DIMMS installed then pull them all out and try running the machine with each SIMM or DIMM individually and narrow the problem down to either the problematic DIMM/SIMM or perhaps even a combination. Over-optimistic Motherboard settings: In your BIOS settings, and some motherboard jumpers you have options to set various timings, mostly the defaults will be sufficient, but sometimes, setting the wait states on RAM too low, or setting the RAM Speed: Turbo option, or similar in the BIOS will cause strange behaviour. A possible idea is to set to BIOS defaults, but it might be worth noting down your settings first! Unclean or insufficient power to the motherboard. If you have any unused I/O boards, hard disks, or CDROMs in your system, try temporarily removing them or disconnecting the power cable from them, to see if your power supply can manage a smaller load. Or try another power supply, preferably one with a little more power (for instance, if your current power supply is rated at 250 Watts try one rated at 300 Watts). You should also read the SIG11 FAQ (listed below) which has excellent explanations of all these problems, albeit from a Linux viewpoint. It also discusses how memory testing software or hardware can still pass faulty memory. Finally, if none of this has helped it is possible that you have just found a bug in FreeBSD, and you should follow the instructions to send a problem report. There is an extensive FAQ on this at the SIG11 problem FAQ My system crashes with either Fatal trap 12: page fault in kernel mode, or panic:, and spits out a bunch of information. What should I do? The FreeBSD developers are very interested in these errors, but need some more information than just the error you see. Copy your full crash message. Then consult the FAQ section on kernel panics, build a debugging kernel, and get a backtrace. This might sound difficult, but you do not need any programming skills; you just have to follow the instructions. Why does the screen go black and lose sync when I boot? This is a known problem with the ATI Mach 64 video card. The problem is that this card uses address 2e8, and the fourth serial port does too. Due to a bug (feature?) in the &man.sio.4; driver it will touch this port even if you do not have the fourth serial port, and even if you disable sio3 (the fourth port) which normally uses this address. Until the bug has been fixed, you can use this workaround: Enter at the boot prompt. (This will put the kernel into configuration mode). Disable sio0, sio1, sio2 and sio3 (all of them). This way the sio driver does not get activated -> no problems. Type exit to continue booting. If you want to be able to use your serial ports, you will have to build a new kernel with the following modification: in /usr/src/sys/i386/isa/sio.c find the one occurrence of the string 0x2e8 and remove that string and the preceding comma (keep the trailing comma). Now follow the normal procedure of building a new kernel. Even after applying these workarounds, you may still find that the X Window System does not work properly. If this is the case, make sure that the XFree86 version you are using is at least XFree86 3.3.3 or higher. This version and upwards has built-in support for the Mach64 cards and even a dedicated X server for those cards. Why does FreeBSD only use 64 MB of RAM when my system has 128 MB of RAM installed? Due to the manner in which FreeBSD gets the memory size from the BIOS, it can only detect 16 bits worth of Kbytes in size (65535 Kbytes = 64MB) (or less... some BIOSes peg the memory size to 16M). If you have more than 64MB, FreeBSD will attempt to detect it; however, the attempt may fail. To work around this problem, you need to use the kernel option specified below. There is a way to get complete memory information from the BIOS, but we do not have room in the bootblocks to do it. Someday when lack of room in the bootblocks is fixed, we will use the extended BIOS functions to get the full memory information...but for now we are stuck with the kernel option. options "MAXMEM=n" Where n is your memory in Kilobytes. For a 128 MB machine, you would want to use 131072. Why does FreeBSD 2.0 panic with kmem_map too small!? The message may also be mb_map too small! The panic indicates that the system ran out of virtual memory for network buffers (specifically, mbuf clusters). You can increase the amount of VM available for mbuf clusters by adding: options "NMBCLUSTERS=n" to your kernel config file, where n is a number in the range 512-4096, depending on the number of concurrent TCP connections you need to support. I would recommend trying 2048 - this should get rid of the panic completely. You can monitor the number of mbuf clusters allocated/in use on the system with netstat -m (see &man.netstat.1;). The default value for NMBCLUSTERS is 512 + MAXUSERS * 16. Why do I get the error /kernel: proc: table is full? The FreeBSD kernel will only allow a certain number of processes to exist at one time. The number is based on the MAXUSERS option in the kernel configuration. MAXUSERS also affects various other in-kernel limits, such as network buffers (see this earlier question). If your machine is heavily loaded, you probably want to increase MAXUSERS. This will increase these other system limits in addition to the maximum number of processes. After FreeBSD 4.4, MAXUSERS became a tunable value that could be set with kern.maxusers in /boot/loader.conf. In earlier versions of FreeBSD, you need to adjust MAXUSERS in your kernel configuration. If your machine is lightly loaded, and you are simply running a very large number of processes, you can adjust this with the kern.maxproc sysctl. If these processes are being run by a single user, you will also need to adjust kern.maxprocperuid to be one less than your new kern.maxproc value. (It must be at least one less because one system program, &man.init.8;, must always be running.) To make a sysctl permanent across reboots, set this in /etc/sysctl.conf in recent versions of FreeBSD, or /etc/rc.local in older versions. Why do I get an error reading CMAP busy when rebooting with a new kernel? The logic that attempts to detect an out of date /var/db/kvm_*.db files sometimes fails and using a mismatched file can sometimes lead to panics. If this happens, reboot single-user and do: &prompt.root; rm /var/db/kvm_*.db What does the message ahc0: brkadrint, Illegal Host Access at seqaddr 0x0 mean? This is a conflict with an Ultrastor SCSI Host Adapter. During the boot process enter the kernel configuration menu and disable uha0, which is causing the problem. When I boot my system, I get the error ahc0: illegal cable configuration. My cabling is correct. What is going on? Your motherboard lacks the external logic to support automatic termination. Switch your SCSI BIOS to specify the correct termination for your configuration rather than automatic termination. The AIC7XXX driver cannot determine if the external logic for cable detection (and thus auto-termination) is available. The driver simply assumes that this support must exist if the configuration contained in the serial EEPROM is set to "automatic termination". Without the external cable detection logic the driver will often configure termination incorrectly, which can compromise the reliability of the SCSI bus. Why does Sendmail give me an error reading mail loops back to myself? This is answered in the sendmail FAQ as follows:- * I'm getting "Local configuration error" messages, such as: 553 relay.domain.net config error: mail loops back to myself 554 <user@domain.net>... Local configuration error How can I solve this problem? You have asked mail to the domain (e.g., domain.net) to be forwarded to a specific host (in this case, relay.domain.net) by using an MX record, but the relay machine does not recognize itself as domain.net. Add domain.net to /etc/sendmail.cw (if you are using FEATURE(use_cw_file)) or add "Cw domain.net" to /etc/sendmail.cf. The current version of the sendmail FAQ is no longer maintained with the sendmail release. It is however regularly posted to comp.mail.sendmail, comp.mail.misc, comp.mail.smail, comp.answers, and news.answers. You can also receive a copy via email by sending a message to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the command send usenet/news.answers/mail/sendmail-faq as the body of the message. Why do full screen applications on remote machines misbehave? The remote machine may be setting your terminal type to something other than the cons25 terminal type required by the FreeBSD console. There are a number of possible work-arounds for this problem: After logging on to the remote machine, set your TERM shell variable to ansi or sco if the remote machine knows about these terminal types. Use a VT100 emulator like screen at the FreeBSD console. screen offers you the ability to run multiple concurrent sessions from one terminal, and is a neat program in its own right. Each screen window behaves like a VT100 terminal, so the TERM variable at the remote end should be set to vt100. Install the cons25 terminal database entry on the remote machine. The way to do this depends on the operating system on the remote machine. The system administration manuals for the remote system should be able to help you here. Fire up an X server at the FreeBSD end and login to the remote machine using an X based terminal emulator such as xterm or rxvt. The TERM variable at the remote host should be set to xterm or vt100. Why does my machine print calcru: negative time...? This can be caused by various hardware and/or software ailments relating to interrupts. It may be due to bugs but can also happen by nature of certain devices. Running TCP/IP over the parallel port using a large MTU is one good way to provoke this problem. Graphics accelerators can also get you here, in which case you should check the interrupt setting of the card first. A side effect of this problem are dying processes with the message SIGXCPU exceeded cpu time limit. For FreeBSD 3.0 and later from Nov 29, 1998 forward: If the problem cannot be fixed otherwise the solution is to set this sysctl variable: &prompt.root; sysctl -w kern.timecounter.method=1 This means a performance impact, but considering the cause of this problem, you probably will not notice. If the problem persists, keep the sysctl set to one and set the NTIMECOUNTER option in your kernel to increasingly large values. If by the time you have reached NTIMECOUNTER=20 the problem is not solved, interrupts are too hosed on your machine for reliable time keeping. I see pcm0 not found or my sound card is found as pcm1 but I have device pcm0 in my kernel config file. What is going on? This occurs in FreeBSD 3.x with PCI sound cards. The pcm0 device is reserved exclusively for ISA-based cards so, if you have a PCI card, then you will see this error, and your card will appear as pcm1. You cannot remove the warning by simply changing the line in the kernel config file to device pcm1 as this will result in pcm1 being reserved for ISA cards and your PCI card being found as pcm2 (along with the warning pcm1 not found). If you have a PCI sound card you will also have to make the snd1 device rather than snd0: &prompt.root; cd /dev &prompt.root; ./MAKEDEV snd1 This situation does not arise in FreeBSD 4.x as a lot of work has been done to make it more PnP-centric and the pcm0 device is no longer reserved exclusively for ISA cards Why is my PnP card no longer found (or found as unknown) since upgrading to FreeBSD 4.x? FreeBSD 4.x is now much more PnP-centric and this has had the side effect of some PnP devices (e.g. sound cards and internal modems) not working even though they worked under FreeBSD 3.x. The reasons for this behaviour are explained by the following e-mail, posted to the freebsd-questions mailing list by Peter Wemm, in answer to a question about an internal modem that was no longer found after an upgrade to FreeBSD 4.x (the comments in [] have been added to clarify the context.
The PNP bios preconfigured it [the modem] and left it laying around in port space, so [in 3.x] the old-style ISA probes found it there. Under 4.0, the ISA code is much more PnP-centric. It was possible [in 3.x] for an ISA probe to find a stray device and then for the PNP device id to match and then fail due to resource conflicts. So, it disables the programmable cards first so this double probing cannot happen. It also means that it needs to know the PnP id's for supported PnP hardware. Making this more user tweakable is on the TODO list.
To get the device working again requires finding its PnP id and adding it to the list that the ISA probes use to identify PnP devices. This is obtained using &man.pnpinfo.8; to probe the device, for example this is the output from &man.pnpinfo.8; for an internal modem: &prompt.root; pnpinfo Checking for Plug-n-Play devices... Card assigned CSN #1 Vendor ID PMC2430 (0x3024a341), Serial Number 0xffffffff PnP Version 1.0, Vendor Version 0 Device Description: Pace 56 Voice Internal Plug & Play Modem Logical Device ID: PMC2430 0x3024a341 #0 Device supports I/O Range Check TAG Start DF I/O Range 0x3f8 .. 0x3f8, alignment 0x8, len 0x8 [16-bit addr] IRQ: 4 - only one type (true/edge) [more TAG lines elided] TAG End DF End Tag Successfully got 31 resources, 1 logical fdevs -- card select # 0x0001 CSN PMC2430 (0x3024a341), Serial Number 0xffffffff Logical device #0 IO: 0x03e8 0x03e8 0x03e8 0x03e8 0x03e8 0x03e8 0x03e8 0x03e8 IRQ 5 0 DMA 4 0 IO range check 0x00 activate 0x01 The information you require is in the Vendor ID line at the start of the output. The hexadecimal number in parentheses (0x3024a341 in this example) is the PnP id and the string immediately before this (PMC2430) is a unique ASCII id. This information needs adding to the file /usr/src/sys/isa/sio.c. You should first make a backup of sio.c just in case things go wrong. You will also need it to make the patch to submit with your PR (you are going to submit a PR, are you not?) then edit sio.c and search for the line static struct isa_pnp_id sio_ids[] = { then scroll down to find the correct place to add the entry for your device. The entries look like this, and are sorted on the ASCII Vendor ID string which should be included in the comment to the right of the line of code along with all (if it will fit) or part of the Device Description from the output of &man.pnpinfo.8;: {0x0f804f3f, NULL}, /* OZO800f - Zoom 2812 (56k Modem) */ {0x39804f3f, NULL}, /* OZO8039 - Zoom 56k flex */ {0x3024a341, NULL}, /* PMC2430 - Pace 56 Voice Internal Modem */ {0x1000eb49, NULL}, /* ROK0010 - Rockwell ? */ {0x5002734a, NULL}, /* RSS0250 - 5614Jx3(G) Internal Modem */ Add the hexadecimal Vendor ID for your device in the correct place, save the file, rebuild your kernel, and reboot. Your device should now be found as an sio device as it was under FreeBSD 3.x Why do I get the error nlist failed when running, for example, top or systat? The problem is that the application you are trying to run is looking for a specific kernel symbol, but, for whatever reason, cannot find it; this error stems from one of two problems: Your kernel and userland are not synchronized (i.e., you built a new kernel but did not do an installworld, or vice versa), and thus the symbol table is different from what the user application thinks it is. If this is the case, simply complete the upgrade process (see /usr/src/UPDATING for the correct sequence). You are not using /boot/loader to load your kernel, but doing it directly from boot2 (see &man.boot.8;). While there is nothing wrong with bypassing /boot/loader, it generally does a better job of making the kernel symbols available to user applications. Why does it take so long to connect to my computer via ssh or telnet? The symptom: there is a long delay between the time the TCP connection is established and the time when the client software asks for a password (or, in &man.telnet.1;'s case, when a login prompt appears). The problem: more likely than not, the delay is caused by the server software trying to resolve the client's IP address into a hostname. Many servers, including the Telnet and SSH servers that come with FreeBSD, do this in order to, among other things, store the hostname in a log file for future reference by the administrator. The remedy: if the problem occurs whenever you connect from your computer (the client) to any server, the problem is with the client; likewise, if the problem only occurs when someone connects to your computer (the server) the problem is with the server. If the problem is with the client, the only remedy is to fix the DNS so the server can resolve it. If this is on a local network, consider it a server problem and keep reading; conversely, if this is on the global Internet, you will most likely need to contact your ISP and ask them to fix it for you. If the problem is with the server, and this is on a local network, you need to configure the server to be able to resolve address-to-hostname queries for your local address range. See the &man.hosts.5; and &man.named.8; manual pages for more information. If this is on the global Internet, the problem may be that your server's resolver is not functioning correctly. To check, try to look up another host--say, www.yahoo.com. If it does not work, that is your problem. What does stray IRQ mean? Stray IRQs are indications of hardware IRQ glitches, mostly from hardware that removes its interrupt request in the middle of the interrupt request acknowledge cycle. One has three options for dealing with this: Live with the warnings. All except the first 5 per irq are suppressed anyway. Break the warnings by changing 5 to 0 in isa_strayintr() so that all the warnings are suppressed. Break the warnings by installing parallel port hardware that uses irq 7 and the PPP driver for it (this happens on most systems), and install an ide drive or other hardware that uses irq 15 and a suitable driver for it. Why does file: table is full show up repeatedly in dmesg? This error message indicates you have exhausted the number of available file descriptors on your system. Please see the kern.maxfiles section of the Tuning Kernel Limits section of the Handbook for a discussion and solution. Why does the clock on my laptop keep incorrect time? Your laptop has two or more clocks, and FreeBSD has chosen to use the wrong one. Run &man.dmesg.8;, and check for lines that contain Timecounter. The last line printed is the one that FreeBSD chose, and will almost certainly be TSC. &prompt.root; dmesg | grep Timecounter Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz Timecounter "TSC" frequency 595573479 Hz You can confirm this by checking the kern.timecounter.hardware &man.sysctl.3;. &prompt.root; sysctl kern.timecounter.hardware kern.timecounter.hardware: TSC The BIOS may modify the TSC clock—perhaps to change the speed of the processor when running from batteries, or going in to a power saving mode, but FreeBSD is unaware of these adjustments, and appears to gain or lose time. In this example, the i8254 clock is also available, and can be selected by writing its name to the kern.timecounter.hardware &man.sysctl.3;. &prompt.root; sysctl -w kern.timecounter.hardware=i8254 kern.timecounter.hardware: TSC -> i8254 Your laptop should now start keeping more accurate time. To have this change automatically run at boot time, add the following line to /etc/sysctl.conf. kern.timecounter.hardware=i8254 Why does FreeBSD's boot loader display Read error and stop after the BIOS screen? FreeBSD's boot loader is incorrectly recognizing the hard drive's geometry. This must be manually set within fdisk when creating or modifying FreeBSD's slice. The correct drive geometry values can be found within the machine's BIOS. Look for the number of cylinders, heads and sectors for the particular drive. Within &man.sysinstall.8;'s fdisk, hit G to set the drive geometry. A dialog will pop up requesting the number of cylinders, heads and sectors. Type the numbers found from the BIOS separates by forward slashes. 5000 cylinders, 250 sectors and 60 sectors would be entered as 5000/250/60 Press enter to set the values, and hit W to write the new partition table to the drive. Another operating system destroyed my Boot Manager. How do I get it back? Enter &man.sysinstall.8; and choose Configure, then Fdisk. Select the disk the Boot Manager resided on with the space key. Press W to write changes to the drive. A prompt will appear asking which boot loader to install. Select this, and it will be restored. What does the error swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer: mean? This means that a process is trying to page memory to disk, and the page attempt has hung trying to access the disk for more than 20 seconds. It might be caused by bad blocks on the disk drive, disk wiring, cables, or any other disk I/O-related hardware. If the drive itself is actually bad, you will also see disk errors in /var/log/messages and in the output of dmesg. Otherwise, check your cables and connections. Commercial Applications This section is still very sparse, though we are hoping, of course, that companies will add to it! :) The FreeBSD group has no financial interest in any of the companies listed here but simply lists them as a public service (and feels that commercial interest in FreeBSD can have very positive effects on FreeBSD's long-term viability). We encourage commercial software vendors to send their entries here for inclusion. See the Vendors page for a longer list. Where can I get an Office Suite for FreeBSD? The FreeBSD Mall offers a FreeBSD native version of VistaSource ApplixWare 5. ApplixWare is a rich full-featured, commercial Office Suite for FreeBSD containing a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program, vector drawing package, and other applications. ApplixWare is offered as part of the FreeBSD Mall's BSD Desktop Edition. The Linux version of StarOffice works flawlessly on FreeBSD. The easiest way to install the Linux version of StarOffice is through the FreeBSD Ports collection. Future versions of the open-source OpenOffice suite should work as well. Where can I get Motif for FreeBSD? The Open Group has released the source code to Motif 2.1.30. You can install the open-motif package, or compile it from ports. Refer to the ports section of the Handbook for more information on how to do this. The Open Motif distribution only allows redistribution if it is running on an open source operating system. In addition, there are commercial distributions of the Motif software available. These, however, are not for free, but their license allows them to be used in closed-source software. Contact Apps2go for the least expensive ELF Motif 2.1.20 distribution for FreeBSD (either i386 or Alpha). There are two distributions, the development edition and the runtime edition (for much less). These distributions includes: OSF/Motif manager, xmbind, panner, wsm. Development kit with uil, mrm, xm, xmcxx, include and Imake files. Static and dynamic ELF libraries (for use with FreeBSD 3.0 and above). Demonstration applets. Be sure to specify that you want the FreeBSD version of Motif when ordering (do not forget to mention the architecture you want too)! Versions for NetBSD and OpenBSD are also sold by Apps2go. This is currently a FTP only download. More info Apps2go WWW page or sales@apps2go.com or support@apps2go.com or phone (817) 431 8775 or +1 817 431-8775 Contact Metro Link for an either ELF or a.out Motif 2.1 distribution for FreeBSD. This distribution includes: OSF/Motif manager, xmbind, panner, wsm. Development kit with uil, mrm, xm, xmcxx, include and Imake files. Static and dynamic libraries (specify ELF for use with FreeBSD 3.0 and later; or a.out for use with FreeBSD 2.2.8 and earlier). Demonstration applets. Preformatted man pages. Be sure to specify that you want the FreeBSD version of Motif when ordering! Versions for Linux are also sold by Metro Link. This is available on either a CDROM or for FTP download. Contact Xi Graphics for an a.out Motif 2.0 distribution for FreeBSD. This distribution includes: OSF/Motif manager, xmbind, panner, wsm. Development kit with uil, mrm, xm, xmcxx, include and Imake files. Static and dynamic libraries (for use with FreeBSD 2.2.8 and earlier). Demonstration applets. Preformatted man pages. Be sure to specify that you want the FreeBSD version of Motif when ordering! Versions for BSDI and Linux are also sold by Xi Graphics. This is currently a 4 diskette set... in the future this will change to a unified CD distribution like their CDE. Where can I get CDE for FreeBSD? Xi Graphics used to sell CDE for FreeBSD, but no longer do. KDE is an open source X11 desktop which is similar to CDE in many respects. You might also like the look and feel of xfce. KDE and xfce are both in the ports system. Are there any commercial high-performance X servers? Yes, Xi Graphics and Metro Link sell Accelerated-X product for FreeBSD and other Intel based systems. The Metro Link offering is a high performance X Server that offers easy configuration using the FreeBSD Package suite of tools, support for multiple concurrent video boards and is distributed in binary form only, in a convenient FTP download. Not to mention the Metro Link offering is available at the very reasonable price of $39. Metro Link also sells both ELF and a.out Motif for FreeBSD (see above). More info Metro Link WWW page or sales@metrolink.com or tech@metrolink.com or phone (954) 938-0283 or +1 954 938-0283 The Xi Graphics offering is a high performance X Server that offers easy configuration, support for multiple concurrent video boards and is distributed in binary form only, in a unified diskette distribution for FreeBSD and Linux. Xi Graphics also offers a high performance X Server tailored for laptop support. There is a free compatibility demo of version 5.0 available. Xi Graphics also sells Motif and CDE for FreeBSD (see above). More info Xi Graphics WWW page or sales@xig.com or support@xig.com or phone (800) 946 7433 or +1 303 298-7478. Are there any Database systems for FreeBSD? Yes! See the Commercial Vendors section of FreeBSD's Web site. Also see the Databases section of the Ports collection. Can I run Oracle on FreeBSD? Yes. The following pages tell you exactly how to setup Linux-Oracle on FreeBSD: http://www.scc.nl/~marcel/howto-oracle.html http://www.lf.net/lf/pi/oracle/install-linux-oracle-on-freebsd User Applications So, where are all the user applications? Please take a look at the ports page for info on software packages ported to FreeBSD. The list currently tops &os.numports; and is growing daily, so come back to check often or subscribe to the freebsd-announce mailing list for periodic updates on new entries. Most ports should be available for the 2.2, 3.x and 4.x branches, and many of them should work on 2.1.x systems as well. Each time a FreeBSD release is made, a snapshot of the ports tree at the time of release in also included in the ports/ directory. We also support the concept of a package, essentially no more than a gzipped binary distribution with a little extra intelligence embedded in it for doing whatever custom installation work is required. A package can be installed and uninstalled again easily without having to know the gory details of which files it includes. Use the package installation menu in /stand/sysinstall (under the post-configuration menu item) or invoke the &man.pkg.add.1; command on the specific package files you are interested in installing. Package files can usually be identified by their .tgz suffix and CDROM distribution people will have a packages/All directory on their CD which contains such files. They can also be downloaded over the net for various versions of FreeBSD at the following locations: for 2.2.8-RELEASE/2.2.8-STABLE ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-2.2.8/ for 3.X-RELEASE/3.X-STABLE ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-3-stable/ for 4.X-RELEASE/4-STABLE ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-4-stable/ for 5.X-CURRENT ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-5-current or your nearest local mirror site. Note that all ports may not be available as packages since new ones are constantly being added. It is always a good idea to check back periodically to see which packages are available at the ftp.FreeBSD.org master site. Where do I find libc.so.3.0? You are trying to run a package built on 2.2 and later on a 2.1.x system. Please take a look at the previous section and get the correct port/package for your system. Why do I get a message reading Error: can't find libc.so.4.0? You accidently downloaded packages meant for 4.X and 5.X systems and attempted to install them on your 2.X or 3.X FreeBSD system. Please download the correct version of the packages. Why does ghostscript give lots of errors with my 386/486SX? You do not have a math co-processor, right? You will need to add the alternative math emulator to your kernel; you do this by adding the following to your kernel config file and it will be compiled in. options GPL_MATH_EMULATE You will need to remove the MATH_EMULATE option when you do this. Why do SCO/iBCS2 applications bomb on socksys? (FreeBSD 3.0 and older only). You first need to edit the /etc/sysconfig (or /etc/rc.conf, see &man.rc.conf.5;) file in the last section to change the following variable to YES: # Set to YES if you want ibcs2 (SCO) emulation loaded at startup ibcs2=NO It will load the ibcs2 kernel module at startup. You will then need to set up /compat/ibcs2/dev to look like: lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 9 Oct 15 22:20 X0R@ -> /dev/null lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 7 Oct 15 22:20 nfsd@ -> socksys -rw-rw-r-- 1 root wheel 0 Oct 28 12:02 null lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 9 Oct 15 22:20 socksys@ -> /dev/null crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 41, 1 Oct 15 22:14 spx You just need socksys to go to /dev/null (see &man.null.4;) to fake the open & close. The code in -CURRENT will handle the rest. This is much cleaner than the way it was done before. If you want the spx driver for a local socket X connection, define SPX_HACK when you compile the system. How do I configure INN (Internet News) for my machine? After installing the news/inn package or port, an excellent place to start is Dave Barr's INN Page where you will find the INN FAQ. What version of Microsoft FrontPage should I get? Use the Port, Luke! A pre-patched version of Apache, apache13-fp, is available in the ports tree. Does FreeBSD support Java? Yes. Please see http://www.FreeBSD.org/java/. Why can I not build this port on my 3.X-STABLE machine? If you are running a FreeBSD version that lags significantly behind -CURRENT or -STABLE, you may need a ports upgrade kit from http://www.FreeBSD.org/ports/. If you are up to date, then someone might have committed a change to the port which works for -CURRENT but which broke the port for -STABLE. Please submit a bug report on this with the &man.send-pr.1; command, since the ports collection is supposed to work for both the -CURRENT and -STABLE branches. Where do I find ld.so? a.out applications like Netscape Navigator require a.out libraries. A version of FreeBSD built with ELF libraries does not install them by default. You will get complaints about not having /usr/libexec/ld.so if this is the case on your system. These libraries are available as an add-on in the compat22 distribution. Use &man.sysinstall.8; to install them. You can also install them from the FreeBSD source code: &prompt.root; cd /usr/src/lib/compat/compat22 &prompt.root; make install clean If you want to install the latest compat22 libraries whenever you run make world, edit /etc/make.conf to include COMPAT22=YES. Old compatibility libraries change rarely, if ever, so this is not generally needed. Also see the ERRATAs for 3.1-RELEASE and 3.2-RELEASE. I updated the sources, now how do I update my installed ports? FreeBSD does not include a port upgrading tool, but it does have some tools to make the upgrade process somewhat easier. You can also install additional tools to simplify port handling. The &man.pkg.version.1; command can generate a script that will update installed ports to the latest version in the ports tree. &prompt.root; pkg_version > /tmp/myscript The output script must be edited by hand before you use it. Current versions of &man.pkg.version.1; force this by inserting an &man.exit.1; at the beginning of the script. You should save the output of the script, as it will note packages that depend on the one that has been updated. These may or may not need to be updated as well. The usual case where they need to be updated is that a shared library has changed version numbers, so the ports that used that library need to be rebuilt to use the new version. If you have the disk space, you can use the portupgrade tool to automate all of this. portupgrade includes various tools to simplify package handling. It is available under sysutils/portupgrade. Since it is written in Ruby, portupgrade is an unlikely candidate for integration with the main FreeBSD tree. That should not stop anyone from using it, however. If your system is up full time, the &man.periodic.8 system can be used to generate a weekly list of ports that might need updating by setting weekly_status_pkg_enable="YES" in /etc/periodic.conf. Why is /bin/sh so minimal? Why does FreeBSD not use bash or another shell? Because POSIX says that there shall be such a shell. The more complicated answer: many people need to write shell scripts which will be portable across many systems. That is why POSIX specifies the shell and utility commands in great detail. Most scripts are written in Bourne shell, and because several important programming interfaces (&man.make.1;, &man.system.3;, &man.popen.3;, and analogues in higher-level scripting languages like Perl and Tcl) are specified to use the Bourne shell to interpret commands. Because the Bourne shell is so often and widely used, it is important for it to be quick to start, be deterministic in its behavior, and have a small memory footprint. The existing implementation is our best effort at meeting as many of these requirements simultaneously as we can. In order to keep /bin/sh small, we have not provided many of the convenience features that other shells have. That is why the Ports Collection includes more featureful shells like bash, scsh, tcsh, and zsh. (You can compare for yourself the memory utilization of all these shells by looking at the VSZ and RSS columns in a ps -u listing.) Why do Netscape and Opera take so long to start? The usual answer is that DNS on your system is misconfigured. Both Netscape and Opera perform DNS checks when starting up. The browser will not appear on your desktop until the program either gets a response or determines that the system has no network connection. Kernel Configuration I would like to customize my kernel. Is it difficult? Not at all! Check out the kernel config section of the Handbook. We recommend that you make a dated snapshot of your new /kernel called /kernel.YYMMDD after you get it working properly. Also back up your new /modules directory to /modules.YYMMDD. That way, if you make a mistake the next time you play with your configuration you can boot the backup kernel instead of having to fall back to kernel.GENERIC. This is particularly important if you are now booting from a controller that GENERIC does not support. My kernel compiles fail because _hw_float is missing. How do I solve this problem? Let me guess. You removed npx0 (see &man.npx.4;) from your kernel configuration file because you do not have a math co-processor, right? Wrong! :-) The npx0 is MANDATORY. Even if you do not have a mathematic co-processor, you must include the npx0 device. Why is my kernel so big (over 10MB)? Chances are, you compiled your kernel in debug mode. Kernels built in debug mode contain many symbols that are used for debugging, thus greatly increasing the size of the kernel. Note that if you running a FreeBSD 3.0 or later system, there will be little or no performance decrease from running a debug kernel, and it is useful to keep one around in case of a system panic. However, if you are running low on disk space, or you simply do not want to run a debug kernel, make sure that both of the following are true: You do not have a line in your kernel configuration file that reads: makeoptions DEBUG=-g You are not running &man.config.8; with the option. Both of the above situations will cause your kernel to be built in debug mode. As long as you make sure you follow the steps above, you can build your kernel normally, and you should notice a fairly large size decrease; most kernels tend to be around 1.5MB to 2MB. Why do I get interrupt conflicts with multi-port serial code? When I compile a kernel with multi-port serial code, it tells me that only the first port is probed and the rest skipped due to interrupt conflicts. How do I fix this? The problem here is that FreeBSD has code built-in to keep the kernel from getting trashed due to hardware or software conflicts. The way to fix this is to leave out the IRQ settings on all but one port. Here is a example: # # Multiport high-speed serial line - 16550 UARTS # device sio2 at isa? port 0x2a0 tty irq 5 flags 0x501 vector siointr device sio3 at isa? port 0x2a8 tty flags 0x501 vector siointr device sio4 at isa? port 0x2b0 tty flags 0x501 vector siointr device sio5 at isa? port 0x2b8 tty flags 0x501 vector siointr Why does every kernel I try to build fail to compile, even GENERIC? There are a number of possible causes for this problem. They are, in no particular order: You are not using the new make buildkernel and make installkernel targets, and your source tree is different from the one used to build the currently running system (e.g., you are compiling 4.3-RELEASE on a 4.0-RELEASE system). If you are attempting an upgrade, please read the /usr/src/UPDATING file, paying particular attention to the COMMON ITEMS section at the end. You are using the new make buildkernel and make installkernel targets, but you failed to assert the completion of the make buildworld target. The make buildkernel target relies on files generated by the make buildworld target to complete its job correctly. Even if you are trying to build FreeBSD-STABLE, it is possible that you fetched the source tree at a time when it was either being modified, or broken for other reasons; only releases are absolutely guaranteed to be buildable, although FreeBSD-STABLE builds fine the majority of the time. If you have not already done so, try re-fetching the source tree and see if the problem goes away. Try using a different server in case the one you are using is having problems. Disks, Filesystems, and Boot Loaders How can I add my new hard disk to my FreeBSD system? See the Disk Formatting Tutorial at www.FreeBSD.org. How do I move my system over to my huge new disk? The best way is to reinstall the OS on the new disk, then move the user data over. This is highly recommended if you have been tracking -stable for more than one release, or have updated a release instead of installing a new one. You can install booteasy on both disks with &man.boot0cfg.8;, and dual boot them until you are happy with the new configuration. Skip the next paragraph to find out how to move the data after doing this. Should you decide not to do a fresh install, you need to partition and label the new disk with either /stand/sysinstall, or &man.fdisk.8; and &man.disklabel.8;. You should also install booteasy on both disks with &man.boot0cfg.8;, so that you can dual boot to the old or new system after the copying is done. See the formatting-media article for details on this process. Now you have the new disk set up, and are ready to move the data. Unfortunately, you cannot just blindly copy the data. Things like device files (in /dev), flags, and links tend to screw that up. You need to use tools that understand these things, which means &man.dump.8;. Although it is suggested that you move the data in single user mode, it is not required. You should never use anything but &man.dump.8; and &man.restore.8; to move the root file system. The &man.tar.1; command may work - then again, it may not. You should also use &man.dump.8; and &man.restore.8; if you are moving a single partition to another empty partition. The sequence of steps to use dump to move a partitions data to a new partition is: newfs the new partition. mount it on a temporary mount point. cd to that directory. dump the old partition, piping output to the new one. For example, if you are going to move root to /dev/ad1s1a, with /mnt as the temporary mount point, it is: &prompt.root; newfs /dev/ad1s1a &prompt.root; mount /dev/ad1s1a /mnt &prompt.root; cd /mnt &prompt.root; dump 0af - / | restore xf - Rearranging your partitions with dump takes a bit more work. To merge a partition like /var into its parent, create the new partition large enough for both, move the parent partition as described above, then move the child partition into the empty directory that the first move created: &prompt.root; newfs /dev/ad1s1a &prompt.root; mount /dev/ad1s1a /mnt &prompt.root; cd /mnt &prompt.root; dump 0af - / | restore xf - &prompt.root; cd var &prompt.root; dump 0af - /var | restore xf - To split a directory from its parent, say putting /var on its own partition when it was not before, create both partitions, then mount the child partition on the appropriate directory in the temporary mount point, then move the old single partition: &prompt.root; newfs /dev/ad1s1a &prompt.root; newfs /dev/ad1s1d &prompt.root; mount /dev/ad1s1a /mnt &prompt.root; mkdir /mnt/var &prompt.root; mount /dev/ad1s1d /mnt/var &prompt.root; cd /mnt &prompt.root; dump 0af - / | restore xf - You might prefer &man.cpio.1;, &man.pax.1;, &man.tar.1; to &man.dump.8; for user data. At the time of this writing, these are known to lose file flag information, so use them with caution. Will a dangerously dedicated disk endanger my health? The installation procedure allows you to chose two different methods in partitioning your hard disk(s). The default way makes it compatible with other operating systems on the same machine, by using fdisk table entries (called slices in FreeBSD), with a FreeBSD slice that employs partitions of its own. Optionally, one can chose to install a boot-selector to switch between the possible operating systems on the disk(s). The alternative uses the entire disk for FreeBSD, and makes no attempt to be compatible with other operating systems. So why it is called dangerous? A disk in this mode does not contain what normal PC utilities would consider a valid fdisk table. Depending on how well they have been designed, they might complain at you once they are getting in contact with such a disk, or even worse, they might damage the BSD bootstrap without even asking or notifying you. In addition, the dangerously dedicated disk's layout is known to confuse many BIOSes, including those from AWARD (e.g. as found in HP Netserver and Micronics systems as well as many others) and Symbios/NCR (for the popular 53C8xx range of SCSI controllers). This is not a complete list, there are more. Symptoms of this confusion include the read error message printed by the FreeBSD bootstrap when it cannot find itself, as well as system lockups when booting. Why have this mode at all then? It only saves a few kbytes of disk space, and it can cause real problems for a new installation. Dangerously dedicated mode's origins lie in a desire to avoid one of the most common problems plaguing new FreeBSD installers - matching the BIOS geometry numbers for a disk to the disk itself. Geometry is an outdated concept, but one still at the heart of the PC's BIOS and its interaction with disks. When the FreeBSD installer creates slices, it has to record the location of these slices on the disk in a fashion that corresponds with the way the BIOS expects to find them. If it gets it wrong, you will not be able to boot. Dangerously dedicated mode tries to work around this by making the problem simpler. In some cases, it gets it right. But it is meant to be used as a last-ditch alternative - there are better ways to solve the problem 99 times out of 100. So, how do you avoid the need for DD mode when you are installing? Start by making a note of the geometry that your BIOS claims to be using for your disks. You can arrange to have the kernel print this as it boots by specifying at the boot: prompt, or using boot -v in the loader. Just before the installer starts, the kernel will print a list of BIOS geometries. Do not panic - wait for the installer to start and then use scrollback to read the numbers. Typically the BIOS disk units will be in the same order that FreeBSD lists your disks, first IDE, then SCSI. When you are slicing up your disk, check that the disk geometry displayed in the FDISK screen is correct (ie. it matches the BIOS numbers); if it is wrong, use the g key to fix it. You may have to do this if there is absolutely nothing on the disk, or if the disk has been moved from another system. Note that this is only an issue with the disk that you are going to boot from; FreeBSD will sort itself out just fine with any other disks you may have. Once you have got the BIOS and FreeBSD agreeing about the geometry of the disk, your problems are almost guaranteed to be over, and with no need for DD mode at all. If, however, you are still greeted with the dreaded read error message when you try to boot, it is time to cross your fingers and go for it - there is nothing left to lose. To return a dangerously dedicated disk for normal PC use, there are basically two options. The first is, you write enough NULL bytes over the MBR to make any subsequent installation believe this to be a blank disk. You can do this for example with &prompt.root; dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/rda0 count=15 Alternatively, the undocumented DOS feature C:\> fdisk /mbr will to install a new master boot record as well, thus clobbering the BSD bootstrap. Which partitions can safely use softupdates? I have heard that softupdates on / can cause problems. Short answer: you can usually use softupdates safely on all partitions. Long answer: There used to be some concern over using softupdates on the root partition. Softupdates has two characteristics that caused this. First, a softupdates partition has a small chance of losing data during a system crash. (The partition will not be corrupted; the data will simply be lost.) Also, softupdates can cause temporary space shortages. When using softupdates, the kernel can take up to thirty seconds to actually write changes to the physical disk. If you delete a large file, the file still resides on disk until the kernel actually performs the deletion. This can cause a very simple race condition. Suppose you delete one large file and immediately create another large file. The first large file is not yet actually removed from the physical disk, so the disk might not have enough room for the second large file. You get an error that the partition does not have enough space, although you know perfectly well that you just released a large chunk of space! When you try again mere seconds later, the file creation works as you expect. This has left more than one user scratching his head and doubting his sanity, the FreeBSD filesystem, or both. If a system should crash after the kernel accepts a chunk of data for writing to disk, but before that data is actually written out, data could be lost or corrupted. This risk is extremely small, but generally manageable. Use of IDE write caching greatly increases this risk; it is strongly recommended that you disable IDE write caching when using softupdates. These issues affect all partitions using softupdates. So, what does this mean for the root partition? Vital information on the root partition changes very rarely. Files such as /kernel and the contents of /etc only change during system maintenance, or when users change their passwords. If the system crashed during the thirty-second window after such a change is made, it is possible that data could be lost. This risk is negligible for most applications, but you should be aware that it exists. If your system cannot tolerate this much risk, do not use softupdates on the root filesystem! / is traditionally one of the smallest partitions. By default, FreeBSD puts the /tmp directory on /. If you have a busy /tmp, you might see intermittent space problems. Symlinking /tmp to /var/tmp will solve this problem. What is inappropriate about my ccd? The symptom of this is: &prompt.root; ccdconfig -C ccdconfig: ioctl (CCDIOCSET): /dev/ccd0c: Inappropriate file type or format This usually happens when you are trying to concatenate the c partitions, which default to type unused. The ccd driver requires the underlying partition type to be FS_BSDFFS. Edit the disklabel of the disks you are trying to concatenate and change the types of partitions to 4.2BSD. Why can I not edit the disklabel on my ccd? The symptom of this is: &prompt.root; disklabel ccd0 (it prints something sensible here, so let us try to edit it) &prompt.root; disklabel -e ccd0 (edit, save, quit) disklabel: ioctl DIOCWDINFO: No disk label on disk; use "disklabel -r" to install initial label This is because the disklabel returned by ccd is actually a fake one that is not really on the disk. You can solve this problem by writing it back explicitly, as in: &prompt.root; disklabel ccd0 > /tmp/disklabel.tmp &prompt.root; disklabel -Rr ccd0 /tmp/disklabel.tmp &prompt.root; disklabel -e ccd0 (this will work now) Can I mount other foreign filesystems under FreeBSD? Digital UNIX UFS CDROMs can be mounted directly on FreeBSD. Mounting disk partitions from Digital UNIX and other systems that support UFS may be more complex, depending on the details of the disk partitioning for the operating system in question. Linux As of 2.2, FreeBSD supports ext2fs partitions. See &man.mount.ext2fs.8; for more information. NT A read-only NTFS driver exists for FreeBSD. For more information, see this tutorial by Mark Ovens at http://ukug.uk.FreeBSD.org/~mark/ntfs_install.html. Any other information on this subject would be appreciated. How do I mount a secondary DOS partition? The secondary DOS partitions are found after ALL the primary partitions. For example, if you have an E partition as the second DOS partition on the second SCSI drive, you need to create the special files for slice 5 in /dev, then mount /dev/da1s5: &prompt.root; cd /dev &prompt.root; sh MAKEDEV da1s5 &prompt.root; mount -t msdos /dev/da1s5 /dos/e Is there a cryptographic filesystem for &os;? Yes; see the security/cfs port. How can I use the NT loader to boot FreeBSD? This procedure is slightly different for 2.2.x and 3.x (with the 3-stage boot) systems. The general idea is that you copy the first sector of your native root FreeBSD partition into a file in the DOS/NT partition. Assuming you name that file something like c:\bootsect.bsd (inspired by c:\bootsect.dos), you can then edit the c:\boot.ini file to come up with something like this: [boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows NT" C:\BOOTSECT.BSD="FreeBSD" C:\="DOS" For 2.2.x systems this procedure assumes that DOS, NT, FreeBSD, or whatever have been installed into their respective fdisk partitions on the same disk. This example was tested on a system where DOS & NT were on the first fdisk partition, and FreeBSD on the second. FreeBSD was also set up to boot from its native partition, not the disk's MBR. Mount a DOS-formatted floppy (if you have converted to NTFS) or the FAT partition, under, say, /mnt. &prompt.root; dd if=/dev/rda0a of=/mnt/bootsect.bsd bs=512 count=1 Reboot into DOS or NT. NTFS users copy the bootsect.bsd and/or the bootsect.lnx file from the floppy to C:\. Modify the attributes (permissions) on boot.ini with: C:\> attrib -s -r c:\boot.ini Edit to add the appropriate entries from the example boot.ini above, and restore the attributes: C:\> attrib +s +r c:\boot.ini If FreeBSD is booting from the MBR, restore it with the DOS fdisk command after you reconfigure them to boot from their native partitions. For FreeBSD 3.x systems the procedure is somewhat simpler. If FreeBSD is installed on the same disk as the NT boot partition simply copy /boot/boot1 to C:\BOOTSECT.BSD However, if FreeBSD is installed on a different disk /boot/boot1 will not work, /boot/boot0 is needed. DO NOT SIMPLY COPY /boot/boot0 INSTEAD OF /boot/boot1, YOU WILL OVERWRITE YOUR PARTITION TABLE AND RENDER YOUR COMPUTER UN-BOOTABLE! /boot/boot0 needs to be installed using sysinstall by selecting the FreeBSD boot manager on the screen which asks if you wish to use a boot manager. This is because /boot/boot0 has the partition table area filled with NULL characters but sysinstall copies the partition table before copying /boot/boot0 to the MBR. When the FreeBSD boot manager runs it records the last OS booted by setting the active flag on the partition table entry for that OS and then writes the whole 512-bytes of itself back to the MBR so if you just copy /boot/boot0 to C:\BOOTSECT.BSD then it writes an empty partition table, with the active flag set on one entry, to the MBR. How do I boot FreeBSD and Linux from LILO? If you have FreeBSD and Linux on the same disk, just follow LILO's installation instructions for booting a non-Linux operating system. Very briefly, these are: Boot Linux, and add the following lines to /etc/lilo.conf: other=/dev/hda2 table=/dev/hda label=FreeBSD (the above assumes that your FreeBSD slice is known to Linux as /dev/hda2; tailor to suit your setup). Then, run lilo as root and you should be done. If FreeBSD resides on another disk, you need to add loader=/boot/chain.b to the LILO entry. For example: other=/dev/dab4 table=/dev/dab loader=/boot/chain.b label=FreeBSD In some cases you may need to specify the BIOS drive number to the FreeBSD boot loader to successfully boot off the second disk. For example, if your FreeBSD SCSI disk is probed by BIOS as BIOS disk 1, at the FreeBSD boot loader prompt you need to specify: Boot: 1:da(0,a)/kernel On FreeBSD 2.2.5 and later, you can configure &man.boot.8; to automatically do this for you at boot time. The Linux+FreeBSD mini-HOWTO is a good reference for FreeBSD and Linux interoperability issues. How do I boot FreeBSD and Linux using BootEasy? Install LILO at the start of your Linux boot partition instead of in the Master Boot Record. You can then boot LILO from BootEasy. If you are running Windows-95 and Linux this is recommended anyway, to make it simpler to get Linux booting again if you should need to reinstall Windows95 (which is a Jealous Operating System, and will bear no other Operating Systems in the Master Boot Record). How do I change the boot prompt from ??? to something more meaningful? You can not do that with the standard boot manager without rewriting it. There are a number of other boot managers in the sysutils ports category that provide this functionality. I have a new removable drive, how do I use it? Whether it is a removable drive like a ZIP or an EZ drive (or even a floppy, if you want to use it that way), or a new hard disk, once it is installed and recognized by the system, and you have your cartridge/floppy/whatever slotted in, things are pretty much the same for all devices. (this section is based on Mark Mayo's ZIP FAQ) If it is a ZIP drive or a floppy, you have already got a DOS filesystem on it, you can use a command like this: &prompt.root; mount -t msdos /dev/fd0c /floppy if it is a floppy, or this: &prompt.root; mount -t msdos /dev/da2s4 /zip for a ZIP disk with the factory configuration. For other disks, see how they are laid out using &man.fdisk.8; or &man.sysinstall.8;. The rest of the examples will be for a ZIP drive on da2, the third SCSI disk. Unless it is a floppy, or a removable you plan on sharing with other people, it is probably a better idea to stick a BSD file system on it. You will get long filename support, at least a 2X improvement in performance, and a lot more stability. First, you need to redo the DOS-level partitions/filesystems. You can either use &man.fdisk.8; or /stand/sysinstall, or for a small drive that you do not want to bother with multiple operating system support on, just blow away the whole FAT partition table (slices) and just use the BSD partitioning: &prompt.root; dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/rda2 count=2 &prompt.root; disklabel -Brw da2 auto You can use disklabel or /stand/sysinstall to create multiple BSD partitions. You will certainly want to do this if you are adding swap space on a fixed disk, but it is probably irrelevant on a removable drive like a ZIP. Finally, create a new file system, this one is on our ZIP drive using the whole disk: &prompt.root; newfs /dev/rda2c and mount it: &prompt.root; mount /dev/da2c /zip and it is probably a good idea to add a line like this to /etc/fstab (see &man.fstab.5;) so you can just type mount /zip in the future: /dev/da2c /zip ffs rw,noauto 0 0 Why do I get Incorrect super block when mounting a CDROM? You have to tell &man.mount.8; the type of the device that you want to mount. This is described in the Handbook section on optical media, specifically the section Using Data CDs. Why do I get Device not configured when mounting a CDROM? This generally means that there is no CDROM in the CDROM drive, or the drive is not visible on the bus. Please see the Using Data CDs section of the Handbook for a detailed discussion of this issue. Why do all non-English characters in filenames show up as ? on my CDs when mounted in FreeBSD? Your CDROM probably uses the Joliet extension for storing information about files and directories. This is discussed in the Handbook chapter on creating and using CDROMs, specifically the section on Using Data CDROMs. I burned a CD under FreeBSD and now I can not read it under any other operating system. Why? You most likely burned a raw file to your CD, rather than creating an ISO 9660 filesystem. Take a look at the Handbook chapter on creating CDROMs, particularly the section on burning raw data CDs. How can I create an image of a data CD? This is discussed in the Handbook section on duplicating data CDs. For more on working with CDROMs, see the Creating CDs Section in the Storage chapter in the Handbook. Why can I not mount an audio CD? If you try to mount an audio CD, you will get an error like cd9660: /dev/acd0c: Invalid argument. This is because mount only works on filesystems. Audio CDs do not have filesystems; they just have data. You need a program that reads audio CDs, such as the audio/xmcd port. How do I mount a multi-session CD? By default, &man.mount.8; will attempt to mount the last data track (session) of a CD. If you would like to load an earlier session, you must use the command line argument. Please see &man.mount.cd9660.8; for specific examples. How do I let ordinary users mount floppies, CDROMs and other removable media? Ordinary users can be permitted to mount devices. Here is how: As root set the sysctl variable vfs.usermount to 1. &prompt.root; sysctl -w vfs.usermount=1 As root assign the appropriate permissions to the block device associated with the removable media. For example, to allow users to mount the first floppy drive, use: &prompt.root; chmod 666 /dev/fd0 To allow users in the group operator to mount the CDROM drive, use: &prompt.root; chgrp operator /dev/cd0c &prompt.root; chmod 640 /dev/cd0c Finally, add the line vfs.usermount=1 to the file /etc/sysctl.conf so that it is reset at system boot time. All users can now mount the floppy /dev/fd0 onto a directory that they own: &prompt.user; mkdir ~/my-mount-point &prompt.user; mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 ~/my-mount-point Users in group operator can now mount the CDROM /dev/cd0c onto a directory that they own: &prompt.user; mkdir ~/my-mount-point &prompt.user; mount -t msdos /dev/cd0c ~/my-mount-point Unmounting the device is simple: &prompt.user; umount ~/my-mount-point Enabling vfs.usermount, however, has negative security implications. A better way to access MSDOS formatted media is to use the mtools package in the ports collection. The du and df commands show different amounts of disk space available. What is going on? You need to understand what du and df really do. du goes through the directory tree, measures how large each file is, and presents the totals. df just asks the filesystem how much space it has left. They seem to be the same thing, but a file without a directory entry will affect df but not du. When a program is using a file, and you delete the file, the file is not really removed from the filesystem until the program stops using it. The file is immediately deleted from the directory listing, however. You can see this easily enough with a program such as more. Assume you have a file large enough that its presence affects the output of du and df. (Since disks can be so large today, this might be a very large file!) If you delete this file while using more on it, more does not immediately choke and complain that it cannot view the file. The entry is simply removed from the directory so no other program or user can access it. du shows that it is gone — it has walked the directory tree and the file is not listed. df shows that it is still there, as the filesystem knows that more is still using that space. Once you end the more session, du and df will agree. Note that softupdates can delay the freeing of disk space; you might need to wait up to 30 seconds for the change to be visible! This situation is common on web servers. Many people set up a FreeBSD web server and forget to rotate the log files. The access log fills up /var. The new administrator deletes the file, but the system still complains that the partition is full. Stopping and restarting the web server program would free the file, allowing the system to release the disk space. To prevent this from happening, set up &man.newsyslog.8;. How can I add more swap space? In the Configuration and Tuning section of the Handbook, you will find a section describing how to do this. System Administration Where are the system start-up configuration files? From 2.0.5R to 2.2.1R, the primary configuration file is /etc/sysconfig. All the options are to be specified in this file and other files such as /etc/rc (see &man.rc.8;) and /etc/netstart just include it. Look in the /etc/sysconfig file and change the value to match your system. This file is filled with comments to show what to put in there. In post-2.2.1 and 3.0, /etc/sysconfig was renamed to a more self-describing &man.rc.conf.5; file and the syntax cleaned up a bit in the process. /etc/netstart was also renamed to /etc/rc.network so that all files could be copied with a cp /usr/src/etc/rc* /etc command. And, in 3.1 and later, /etc/rc.conf has been moved to /etc/defaults/rc.conf. Do not edit this file! Instead, if there is any entry in /etc/defaults/rc.conf that you want to change, you should copy the line into /etc/rc.conf and change it there. For example, if you wish to start named, the DNS server included with FreeBSD in FreeBSD 3.1 or later, all you need to do is: &prompt.root; echo named_enable="YES" >> /etc/rc.conf To start up local services in FreeBSD 3.1 or later, place shell scripts in the /usr/local/etc/rc.d directory. These shell scripts should be set executable, and end with a .sh. In FreeBSD 3.0 and earlier releases, you should edit the /etc/rc.local file. The /etc/rc.serial is for serial port initialization (e.g. locking the port characteristics, and so on.). The /etc/rc.i386 is for Intel-specifics settings, such as iBCS2 emulation or the PC system console configuration. How do I add a user easily? Use the &man.adduser.8; command. For more complicated usage, the &man.pw.8; command. To remove the user again, use the &man.rmuser.8; command. Once again, &man.pw.8; will work as well. Why do I keep getting messages like root: not found after editing my crontab file? This is normally caused by editing the system crontab (/etc/crontab) and then using &man.crontab.1; to install it: &prompt.root; crontab /etc/crontab This is not the correct way to do things. The system crontab has a different format to the per-user crontabs which &man.crontab.1; updates (the &man.crontab.5; manual page explains the differences in more detail). If this is what you did, the extra crontab is simply a copy of /etc/crontab in the wrong format it. Delete it with the command: &prompt.root; crontab -r Next time, when you edit /etc/crontab, you should not do anything to inform &man.cron.8; of the changes, since it will notice them automatically. If you want something to be run once per day, week, or month, it is probably better to add shell scripts /usr/local/etc/periodic, and let the &man.periodic.8; command run from the system cron schedule it with the other periodic system tasks. The actual reason for the error is that the system crontab has an extra field, specifying which user to run the command as. In the default system crontab provided with FreeBSD, this is root for all entries. When this crontab is used as the root user's crontab (which is not the same as the system crontab), &man.cron.8; assumes the string root is the first word of the command to execute, but no such command exists. Why do I get the error, you are not in the correct group to su root when I try to su to root? This is a security feature. In order to su to root (or any other account with superuser privileges), you must be in the wheel group. If this feature were not there, anybody with an account on a system who also found out root's password would be able to gain superuser level access to the system. With this feature, this is not strictly true; &man.su.1; will prevent them from even trying to enter the password if they are not in wheel. To allow someone to su to root, simply put them in the wheel group. I made a mistake in rc.conf, or another startup file, and now I cannot edit it because the filesystem is read-only. What should I do? When you get the prompt to enter the shell pathname, simply press ENTER, and run mount / to re-mount the root filesystem in read/write mode. You may also need to run mount -a -t ufs to mount the filesystem where your favourite editor is defined. If your favourite editor is on a network filesystem, you will need to either configure the network manually before you can mount network filesystems, or use an editor which resides on a local filesystem, such as &man.ed.1;. If you intend to use a full screen editor such as &man.vi.1; or &man.emacs.1;, you may also need to run export TERM=cons25 so that these editors can load the correct data from the &man.termcap.5; database. Once you have performed these steps, you can edit /etc/rc.conf as you usually would to fix the syntax error. The error message displayed immediately after the kernel boot messages should tell you the number of the line in the file which is at fault. Why am I having trouble setting up my printer? Please have a look at the Handbook entry on printing. It should cover most of your problem. See the Handbook entry on printing. Some printers require a host-based driver to do any kind of printing. These so-called WinPrinters are not natively supported by FreeBSD. If your printer does not work in DOS or Windows NT 4.0, it is probably a WinPrinter. Your only hope of getting one of these to work is to check if the print/pnm2ppa port supports it. How can I correct the keyboard mappings for my system? Please see the Handbook section on using localization, specifically the section on console setup. Why do I get messages like: unknown: <PNP0303> can't assign resources on boot? The following is an excerpt from a post to the freebsd-current mailing list.
&a.wollman;, 24 April 2001 The can't assign resources messages indicate that the devices are legacy ISA devices for which a non-PnP-aware driver is compiled into the kernel. These include devices such as keyboard controllers, the programmable interrupt controller chip, and several other bits of standard infrastructure. The resources cannot be assigned because there is already a driver using those addresses.
Why can I not get user quotas to work properly? Do not turn on quotas on /, Put the quota file on the file system that the quotas are to be enforced on. ie: Filesystem Quota file /usr /usr/admin/quotas /home /home/admin/quotas … … Does FreeBSD support System V IPC primitives? Yes, FreeBSD supports System V-style IPC. This includes shared memory, messages and semaphores. You need to add the following lines to your kernel config to enable them. options SYSVSHM # enable shared memory options SYSVSEM # enable for semaphores options SYSVMSG # enable for messaging In FreeBSD 3.2 and later, these options are already part of the GENERIC kernel, which means they should already be compiled into your system. Recompile and install your kernel. How do I use sendmail for mail delivery with UUCP? The sendmail configuration that ships with FreeBSD is suited for sites that connect directly to the Internet. Sites that wish to exchange their mail via UUCP must install another sendmail configuration file. Tweaking /etc/sendmail.cf manually is considered something for purists. Sendmail version 8 comes with a new approach of generating config files via some &man.m4.1; preprocessing, where the actual hand-crafted configuration is on a higher abstraction level. You should use the configuration files under /usr/src/usr.sbin/sendmail/cf. If you did not install your system with full sources, the sendmail config stuff has been broken out into a separate source distribution tarball just for you. Assuming you have got your CDROM mounted, do: &prompt.root; cd /cdrom/src &prompt.root; cat scontrib.?? | tar xzf - -C /usr/src contrib/sendmail Do not panic, this is only a few hundred kilobytes in size. The file README in the cf directory can serve as a basic introduction to m4 configuration. For UUCP delivery, you are best advised to use the mailertable feature. This constitutes a database that sendmail can use to base its routing decision upon. First, you have to create your .mc file. The directory /usr/src/usr.sbin/sendmail/cf/cf is the home of these files. Look around, there are already a few examples. Assuming you have named your file foo.mc, all you need to do in order to convert it into a valid sendmail.cf is: &prompt.root; cd /usr/src/usr.sbin/sendmail/cf/cf &prompt.root; make foo.cf &prompt.root; cp foo.cf /etc/mail/sendmail.cf A typical .mc file might look like: VERSIONID(`Your version number') OSTYPE(bsd4.4) FEATURE(accept_unresolvable_domains) FEATURE(nocanonify) FEATURE(mailertable, `hash -o /etc/mail/mailertable') define(`UUCP_RELAY', your.uucp.relay) define(`UUCP_MAX_SIZE', 200000) define(`confDONT_PROBE_INTERFACES') MAILER(local) MAILER(smtp) MAILER(uucp) Cw your.alias.host.name Cw youruucpnodename.UUCP The lines containing accept_unresolvable_domains, nocanonify, and confDONT_PROBE_INTERFACES features will prevent any usage of the DNS during mail delivery. The UUCP_RELAY clause is needed for bizarre reasons, do not ask. Simply put an Internet hostname there that is able to handle .UUCP pseudo-domain addresses; most likely, you will enter the mail relay of your ISP there. Once you have got this, you need this file called /etc/mail/mailertable. If have only one link to the outside that is used for all your mails, the following file will be enough: # # makemap hash /etc/mail/mailertable.db < /etc/mail/mailertable . uucp-dom:your.uucp.relay A more complex example might look like this: # # makemap hash /etc/mail/mailertable.db < /etc/mail/mailertable # horus.interface-business.de uucp-dom:horus .interface-business.de uucp-dom:if-bus interface-business.de uucp-dom:if-bus .heep.sax.de smtp8:%1 horus.UUCP uucp-dom:horus if-bus.UUCP uucp-dom:if-bus . uucp-dom: As you can see, this is part of a real-life file. The first three lines handle special cases where domain-addressed mail should not be sent out to the default route, but instead to some UUCP neighbor in order to shortcut the delivery path. The next line handles mail to the local Ethernet domain that can be delivered using SMTP. Finally, the UUCP neighbors are mentioned in the .UUCP pseudo-domain notation, to allow for a uucp-neighbor !recipient override of the default rules. The last line is always a single dot, matching everything else, with UUCP delivery to a UUCP neighbor that serves as your universal mail gateway to the world. All of the node names behind the uucp-dom: keyword must be valid UUCP neighbors, as you can verify using the command uuname. As a reminder that this file needs to be converted into a DBM database file before being usable, the command line to accomplish this is best placed as a comment at the top of the mailertable. You always have to execute this command each time you change your mailertable. Final hint: if you are uncertain whether some particular mail routing would work, remember the option to sendmail. It starts sendmail in address test mode; simply enter 3,0, followed by the address you wish to test for the mail routing. The last line tells you the used internal mail agent, the destination host this agent will be called with, and the (possibly translated) address. Leave this mode by typing Control-D. &prompt.user; sendmail -bt ADDRESS TEST MODE (ruleset 3 NOT automatically invoked) Enter <ruleset> <address> > 3,0 foo@example.com canonify input: foo @ example . com ... parse returns: $# uucp-dom $@ your.uucp.relay $: foo < @ example . com . > > ^D How do I set up mail with a dialup connection to the 'net? If you have got a statically assigned IP number, you should not need to adjust anything from the default. Set your host name up as your assigned Internet name and sendmail will do the rest. If you have got a dynamically assigned IP number and use a dialup PPP connection to the Internet, you will probably be given a mailbox on your ISPs mail server. Lets assume your ISPs domain is myISP.com, and that your user name is user. Lets also assume you have called your machine bsd.home and that your ISP has told you that you may use relay.myISP.com as a mail relay. In order to retrieve mail from your mailbox, you will need to install a retrieval agent. Fetchmail is a good choice as it supports many different protocols. Usually, POP3 will be provided by your ISP. If you have chosen to use user-PPP, you can automatically fetch your mail when a connection to the 'net is established with the following entry in /etc/ppp/ppp.linkup: MYADDR: !bg su user -c fetchmail If you are using sendmail (as shown below) to deliver mail to non-local accounts, put the command !bg su user -c "sendmail -q" after the above shown entry. This forces sendmail to process your mailqueue as soon as the connection to the 'net is established. I am assuming that you have an account for user on bsd.home. In the home directory of user on bsd.home, create a .fetchmailrc file: poll myISP.com protocol pop3 fetchall pass MySecret This file should not be readable by anyone except user as it contains the password MySecret. In order to send mail with the correct from: header, you must tell sendmail to use user@myISP.com rather than user@bsd.home. You may also wish to tell sendmail to send all mail via relay.myISP.com, allowing quicker mail transmission. The following .mc file should suffice: VERSIONID(`bsd.home.mc version 1.0') OSTYPE(bsd4.4)dnl FEATURE(nouucp)dnl MAILER(local)dnl MAILER(smtp)dnl Cwlocalhost Cwbsd.home MASQUERADE_AS(`myISP.com')dnl FEATURE(allmasquerade)dnl FEATURE(masquerade_envelope)dnl FEATURE(nocanonify)dnl FEATURE(nodns)dnl define(`SMART_HOST', `relay.myISP.com') Dmbsd.home define(`confDOMAIN_NAME',`bsd.home')dnl define(`confDELIVERY_MODE',`deferred')dnl Refer to the previous section for details of how to turn this .mc file into a sendmail.cf file. Also, do not forget to restart sendmail after updating sendmail.cf. What other mail-server software can I use, instead of Sendmail? Sendmail is the default mail-server software for FreeBSD, but you can easily replace it with one of the other MTA (for instance, an MTA installed from the ports). There are various alternative MTA's in the ports tree already, with mail/exim, mail/postfix, mail/qmail, mail/zmailer, being some of the most popular choices. Diversity is nice, and the fact that you have many different mail-servers to chose from is considered a good thing; therefore try to avoid asking questions like Is Sendmail better than Qmail? in the mailing lists. If you do feel like asking, first check the mailing list archives. The advantages and disadvantages of each and every one of the available MTA's have already been discussed a few times. I have forgotten the root password! What do I do? Do not Panic! Simply restart the system, type boot -s at the Boot: prompt (just -s for FreeBSD releases before 3.2) to enter Single User mode. At the question about the shell to use, hit ENTER. You will be dropped to a &prompt.root; prompt. Enter mount -u / to remount your root filesystem read/write, then run mount -a to remount all the filesystems. Run passwd root to change the root password then run &man.exit.1; to continue booting. How do I keep Control-Alt-Delete from rebooting the system? If you are using syscons (the default console driver) in FreeBSD 2.2.7-RELEASE or later, build and install a new kernel with the line options SC_DISABLE_REBOOT in the configuration file. If you use the PCVT console driver in FreeBSD 2.2.5-RELEASE or later, use the following kernel configuration line instead: options PCVT_CTRL_ALT_DEL For older versions of FreeBSD, edit the keymap you are using for the console and replace the boot keywords with nop. The default keymap is /usr/share/syscons/keymaps/us.iso.kbd. You may have to instruct /etc/rc.conf to load this keymap explicitly for the change to take effect. Of course if you are using an alternate keymap for your country, you should edit that one instead. How do I reformat DOS text files to Unix ones? Simply use this perl command: &prompt.user; perl -i.bak -npe 's/\r\n/\n/g' file ... file is the file(s) to process. The modification is done in-place, with the original file stored with a .bak extension. Alternatively you can use the &man.tr.1; command: &prompt.user; tr -d '\r' < dos-text-file > unix-file dos-text-file is the file containing DOS text while unix-file will contain the converted output. This can be quite a bit faster than using perl. How do I kill processes by name? Use &man.killall.1;. Why is su bugging me about not being in root's ACL? The error comes from the Kerberos distributed authentication system. The problem is not fatal but annoying. You can either run su with the -K option, or uninstall Kerberos as described in the next question. How do I uninstall Kerberos? To remove Kerberos from the system, reinstall the bin distribution for the release you are running. If you have the CDROM, you can mount the cd (we will assume on /cdrom) and run &prompt.root; cd /cdrom/bin &prompt.root; ./install.sh Alternately, you can remove all "MAKE_KERBEROS" options from /etc/make.conf and rebuild world. How do I add pseudoterminals to the system? If you have lots of telnet, ssh, X, or screen users, you will probably run out of pseudoterminals. Here is how to add more: Build and install a new kernel with the line pseudo-device pty 256 in the configuration file. Run the commands &prompt.root; cd /dev &prompt.root; sh MAKEDEV pty{1,2,3,4,5,6,7} to make 256 device nodes for the new terminals. Edit /etc/ttys and add lines for each of the 256 terminals. They should match the form of the existing entries, i.e. they look like ttyqc none network The order of the letter designations is tty[pqrsPQRS][0-9a-v], using a regular expression. Reboot the system with the new kernel and you are ready to go. Why can I not create the snd0 device? There is no snd device. The name is used as a shorthand for the various devices that make up the FreeBSD sound driver, such as mixer, sequencer, and dsp. To create these devices you should &prompt.root; cd /dev &prompt.root; sh MAKEDEV snd0 How do I re-read /etc/rc.conf and re-start /etc/rc without a reboot? Go into single user mode and then back to multi user mode. On the console do: &prompt.root; shutdown now (Note: without -r or -h) &prompt.root; return &prompt.root; exit What is a sandbox? Sandbox is a security term. It can mean two things: A process which is placed inside a set of virtual walls that are designed to prevent someone who breaks into the process from being able to break into the wider system. The process is said to be able to play inside the walls. That is, nothing the process does in regards to executing code is supposed to be able to breech the walls so you do not have to do a detailed audit of its code to be able to say certain things about its security. The walls might be a userid, for example. This is the definition used in the security and named man pages. Take the ntalk service, for example (see /etc/inetd.conf). This service used to run as userid root. Now it runs as userid tty. The tty user is a sandbox designed to make it more difficult for someone who has successfully hacked into the system via ntalk from being able to hack beyond that user id. A process which is placed inside a simulation of the machine. This is more hard-core. Basically it means that someone who is able to break into the process may believe that he can break into the wider machine but is, in fact, only breaking into a simulation of that machine and not modifying any real data. The most common way to accomplish this is to build a simulated environment in a subdirectory and then run the processes in that directory chroot'd (i.e. / for that process is this directory, not the real / of the system). Another common use is to mount an underlying filesystem read-only and then create a filesystem layer on top of it that gives a process a seemingly writeable view into that filesystem. The process may believe it is able to write to those files, but only the process sees the effects - other processes in the system do not, necessarily. An attempt is made to make this sort of sandbox so transparent that the user (or hacker) does not realize that he is sitting in it. Unix implements two core sandboxes. One is at the process level, and one is at the userid level. Every Unix process is completely firewalled off from every other Unix process. One process cannot modify the address space of another. This is unlike Windows where a process can easily overwrite the address space of any other, leading to a crash. A Unix process is owned by a particular userid. If the userid is not the root user, it serves to firewall the process off from processes owned by other users. The userid is also used to firewall off on-disk data. What is securelevel? The securelevel is a security mechanism implemented in the kernel. Basically, when the securelevel is positive, the kernel restricts certain tasks; not even the superuser (i.e., root) is allowed to do them. At the time of this writing, the securelevel mechanism is capable of, among other things, limiting the ability to, unset certain file flags, such as schg (the system immutable flag), write to kernel memory via /dev/mem and /dev/kmem, load kernel modules, and alter &man.ipfirewall.4; rules. To check the status of the securelevel on a running system, simply execute the following command: &prompt.root; sysctl kern.securelevel The output will contain the name of the &man.sysctl.8; variable (in this case, kern.securelevel) and a number. The latter is the current value of the securelevel. If it is positive (i.e., greater than 0), at least some of the securelevel's protections are enabled. You cannot lower the securelevel of a running system; being able to do that would defeat its purpose. If you need to do a task that requires that the securelevel be non-positive (e.g., an installworld or changing the date), you will have to change the securelevel setting in /etc/rc.conf (you want to look for the kern_securelevel and kern_securelevel_enable variables) and reboot. For more information on securelevel and the specific things all the levels do, please consult the &man.init.8; manual page. Securelevel is not a silver bullet; it has many known deficiencies. More often than not, it provides a false sense of security. One of its biggest problems is that in order for it to be at all effective, all files used in the boot process up until the securelevel is set must be protected. If an attacker can get the system to execute their code prior to the securelevel being set (which happens quite late in the boot process since some things the system must do at start-up cannot be done at an elevated securelevel), its protections are invalidated. While this task of protecting all files used in the boot process is not technically impossible, if it is achieved, system maintenance will become a nightmare since one would have to take the system down, at least to single-user mode, to modify a configuration file. This point and others are often discussed on the mailing lists, particularly freebsd-security. Please search the archives here for an extensive discussion. Some people are hopeful that securelevel will soon go away in favor of a more fine-grained mechanism, but things are still hazy in this respect. Consider yourself warned. I tried to update my system to the latest -STABLE, but got -RC or -BETA! What is going on? Short answer: it is just a name. RC stands for Release Candidate. It signifies that a release is imminent. In FreeBSD, -BETA is typically synonymous with the code freeze before a release. Long answer: FreeBSD derives its releases from one of two places. Major, dot-zero, releases, such as 3.0-RELEASE and 4.0-RELEASE, are branched from the head of the development stream, commonly referred to as -CURRENT. Minor releases, such as 3.1-RELEASE or 4.2-RELEASE, have been snapshots of the active -STABLE branch. Starting with 4.3-RELEASE, each release also now has its own branch which can be tracked by people requiring an extremely conservative rate of development (typically only security advisories). When a release is about to be made, the branch from which it will be derived from has to undergo a certain process. Part of this process is a code freeze. When a code freeze is initiated, the name of the branch is changed to reflect that it is about to become a release. For example, if the branch used to be called 4.0-STABLE, its name will be changed to 4.1-BETA to signify the code freeze and signify that extra pre-release testing should be happening. Bug fixes can still be committed to be part of the release. When the source code is in shape for the release the name will be changed to 4.1-RC to signify that a release is about to be made from it. Once in the RC stage, only the most critical bugs found can be fixed. Once the release, 4.1-RELEASE in this example, has been made, the branch will be renamed to 4.1-STABLE. I tried to install a new kernel, and the chflags failed. How do I get around this? Short answer: You are probably at security level greater than 0. Reboot directly to single user mode to install the kernel. Long answer: FreeBSD disallows changing system flags at security levels greater than 0. You can check your security level with the command: &prompt.root; sysctl kern.securelevel You cannot lower the security level; you have to boot to single mode to install the kernel, or change the security level in /etc/rc.conf then reboot. See the &man.init.8; man page for details on securelevel, and see /etc/defaults/rc.conf and the &man.rc.conf.5; man page for more information on rc.conf. I cannot change the time on my system by more than one second! How do I get around this? Short answer: You are probably at security level greater than 1. Reboot directly to single user mode to change the date. Long answer: FreeBSD disallows changing the time by more that one second at security levels greater than 1. You can check your security level with the command: &prompt.root; sysctl kern.securelevel You cannot lower the security level; you have to boot to single mode to change the date, or change the security level in /etc/rc.conf then reboot. See the &man.init.8; man page for details on securelevel, and see /etc/defaults/rc.conf and the &man.rc.conf.5; man page for more information on rc.conf. Why is rpc.statd using 256 megabytes of memory? No, there is no memory leak, and it is not using 256 Mbytes of memory. It simply likes to (i.e., always does) map an obscene amount of memory into its address space for convenience. There is nothing terribly wrong with this from a technical standpoint; it just throws off things like &man.top.1; and &man.ps.1;. &man.rpc.statd.8; maps its status file (resident on /var) into its address space; to save worrying about remapping it later when it needs to grow, it maps it with a generous size. This is very evident from the source code, where one can see that the length argument to &man.mmap.2; is 0x10000000, or one sixteenth of the address space on an IA32, or exactly 256MB. Why can I not unset the schg file flag? You are running at an elevated (i.e., greater than 0) securelevel. Lower the securelevel and try again. For more information, see the FAQ entry on securelevel and the &man.init.8; manual page. Why does SSH authentication through .shosts not work by default in recent versions of FreeBSD? The reason why .shosts authentication does not work by default in more recent versions of FreeBSD is because &man.ssh.1; is not installed suid root by default. To fix this, you can do one of the following: As a permanent fix, set ENABLE_SUID_SSH to true in /etc/make.conf and rebuild ssh (or run make world). As a temporary fix, change the mode on /usr/bin/ssh to 4555 by running chmod 4755 /usr/bin/ssh as root. Then add ENABLE_SUID_SSH= true to /etc/make.conf so the change takes effect the next time make world is run. What is vnlru? vnlru flushes and frees vnodes when the system hits the kern.maxvnodes limit. This kernel thread sits mostly idle, and only activates if you have a huge amount of RAM and are accessing tens of thousands of tiny files. The X Window System and Virtual Consoles I want to run X, how do I go about it? The easiest way is to simply specify that you want to run X during the installation process. Then read and follow the documentation on the xf86config tool, which assists you in configuring XFree86 for your particular graphics card/mouse/etc. You may also wish to investigate the Xaccel server. See the section on Xi Graphics or Metro Link for more details. I tried to run X, but I get an KDENABIO failed (Operation not permitted) error when I type startx. What do I do now? Your system is running at a raised securelevel, is not it? It is, indeed, impossible to start X at a raised securelevel. To see why, look at the &man.init.8; man page. So the question is what else you should do instead, and you basically have two choices: set your securelevel back down to zero (usually from /etc/rc.conf), or run &man.xdm.1; at boot time (before the securelevel is raised). See for more information about running &man.xdm.1; at boot time. Why does my mouse not work with X? If you are using syscons (the default console driver), you can configure FreeBSD to support a mouse pointer on each virtual screen. In order to avoid conflicting with X, syscons supports a virtual device called /dev/sysmouse. All mouse events received from the real mouse device are written to the sysmouse device via moused. If you wish to use your mouse on one or more virtual consoles, and use X, see and set up moused. Then edit /etc/XF86Config and make sure you have the following lines. Section Pointer Protocol "SysMouse" Device "/dev/sysmouse" ..... The above example is for XFree86 3.3.2 or later. For earlier versions, the Protocol should be MouseSystems. Some people prefer to use /dev/mouse under X. To make this work, /dev/mouse should be linked to /dev/sysmouse (see &man.sysmouse.4;): &prompt.root; cd /dev &prompt.root; rm -f mouse &prompt.root; ln -s sysmouse mouse My mouse has a fancy wheel. Can I use it in X? Yes. But you need to customize X client programs. See Colas Nahaboo's web page (http://www.inria.fr/koala/colas/mouse-wheel-scroll/) . If you want to use the imwheel program, just follow these simple steps. Translate the Wheel Events The imwheel program works by translating mouse button 4 and mouse button 5 events into key events. Thus, you have to get the mouse driver to translate mouse wheel events to button 4 and 5 events. There are two ways of doing this, the first way is to have &man.moused.8; do the translation. The second way is for the X server itself to do the event translation. Using &man.moused.8; to Translate Wheel Events To have &man.moused.8; perform the event translations, simply add to the command line used to start &man.moused.8;. For example, if you normally start &man.moused.8; via moused -p /dev/psm0 you would start it by entering moused -p /dev/psm0 -z 4 instead. If you start &man.moused.8; automatically during bootup via /etc/rc.conf, you can simply add to the moused_flags variable in /etc/rc.conf. You now need to tell X that you have a 5 button mouse. To do this, simply add the line Buttons 5 to the Pointer section of /etc/XF86Config. For example, you might have the following Pointer section in /etc/XF86Config. <quote>Pointer</quote> Section for Wheeled Mouse in XFree86 3.3.x series XF86Config with moused Translation Section "Pointer" Protocol "SysMouse" Device "/dev/sysmouse" Buttons 5 EndSection <quote>InputDevice</quote> Section for Wheeled Mouse in XFree86 4.x series XF86Config with X Server Translation Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Mouse1" Driver "mouse" Option "Protocol" "auto" Option "Device" "/dev/sysmouse" Option "Buttons" "5" EndSection <quote>.emacs</quote> example for naive page scrolling with Wheeled Mouse ;; wheel mouse (global-set-key [mouse-4] 'scroll-down) (global-set-key [mouse-5] 'scroll-up) Using Your X Server to Translate the Wheel Events If you are not running &man.moused.8;, or if you do not want &man.moused.8; to translate your wheel events, you can have the X server do the event translation instead. This requires a couple of modifications to your /etc/XF86Config file. First, you need to choose the proper protocol for your mouse. Most wheeled mice use the IntelliMouse protocol. However, XFree86 does support other protocols, such as MouseManPlusPS/2 for the Logitech MouseMan+ mice. Once you have chosen the protocol you will use, you need to add a Protocol line to the Pointer section. Secondly, you need to tell the X server to remap wheel scroll events to mouse buttons 4 and 5. This is done with the ZAxisMapping option. For example, if you are not using &man.moused.8;, and you have an IntelliMouse attached to the PS/2 mouse port you would use the following in /etc/XF86Config. <quote>Pointer</quote> Section for Wheeled Mouse in <filename>XF86Config</filename> with X Server Translation Section "Pointer" Protocol "IntelliMouse" Device "/dev/psm0" ZAxisMapping 4 5 EndSection <quote>InputDevice</quote> Section for Wheeled Mouse in XFree86 4.x series XF86Config with X Server Translation Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Mouse1" Driver "mouse" Option "Protocol" "auto" Option "Device" "/dev/psm0" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" EndSection <quote>.emacs</quote> example for naive page scrolling with Wheeled Mouse ;; wheel mouse (global-set-key [mouse-4] 'scroll-down) (global-set-key [mouse-5] 'scroll-up) Install imwheel Next, install imwheel from the Ports collection. It can be found in the x11 category. This program will map the wheel events from your mouse into keyboard events. For example, it might send Page Up to a program when you scroll the wheel forwards. Imwheel uses a configuration file to map the wheel events to key presses so that it can send different keys to different applications. The default imwheel configuration file is installed in /usr/X11R6/etc/imwheelrc. You can copy it to ~/.imwheelrc and then edit it if you wish to customize imwheel's configuration. The format of the configuration file is documented in &man.imwheel.1;. Configure Emacs to Work with Imwheel (optional) If you use emacs or Xemacs, then you need to add a small section to your ~/.emacs file. For emacs, add the following: <application>Emacs</application> Configuration for <application>Imwheel</application> ;;; For imwheel (setq imwheel-scroll-interval 3) (defun imwheel-scroll-down-some-lines () (interactive) (scroll-down imwheel-scroll-interval)) (defun imwheel-scroll-up-some-lines () (interactive) (scroll-up imwheel-scroll-interval)) (global-set-key [?\M-\C-\)] 'imwheel-scroll-up-some-lines) (global-set-key [?\M-\C-\(] 'imwheel-scroll-down-some-lines) ;;; end imwheel section For Xemacs, add the following to your ~/.emacs file instead: <application>Xemacs</application> Configuration for <application>Imwheel</application> ;;; For imwheel (setq imwheel-scroll-interval 3) (defun imwheel-scroll-down-some-lines () (interactive) (scroll-down imwheel-scroll-interval)) (defun imwheel-scroll-up-some-lines () (interactive) (scroll-up imwheel-scroll-interval)) (define-key global-map [(control meta \))] 'imwheel-scroll-up-some-lines) (define-key global-map [(control meta \()] 'imwheel-scroll-down-some-lines) ;;; end imwheel section Run Imwheel You can just type imwheel in an xterm to start it up once it is installed. It will background itself and take effect immediately. If you want to always use imwheel, simply add it to your .xinitrc or .xsession file. You can safely ignore any warnings imwheel displays about PID files. Those warnings only apply to the Linux version of imwheel. Why do X Window menus and dialog boxes not work right? Try turning off the Num Lock key. If your Num Lock key is on by default at boot-time, you may add the following line in the Keyboard section of the XF86Config file. # Let the server do the NumLock processing. This should only be # required when using pre-R6 clients ServerNumLock What is a virtual console and how do I make more? Virtual consoles, put simply, enable you to have several simultaneous sessions on the same machine without doing anything complicated like setting up a network or running X. When the system starts, it will display a login prompt on the monitor after displaying all the boot messages. You can then type in your login name and password and start working (or playing!) on the first virtual console. At some point, you will probably wish to start another session, perhaps to look at documentation for a program you are running or to read your mail while waiting for an FTP transfer to finish. Just do Alt-F2 (hold down the Alt key and press the F2 key), and you will find a login prompt waiting for you on the second virtual console! When you want to go back to the original session, do Alt-F1. The default FreeBSD installation has three virtual consoles enabled (8 starting with 3.3-RELEASE), and Alt-F1, Alt-F2, and Alt-F3 will switch between these virtual consoles. To enable more of them, edit /etc/ttys (see &man.ttys.5;) and add entries for ttyv4 to ttyvc after the comment on Virtual terminals: # Edit the existing entry for ttyv3 in /etc/ttys and change # "off" to "on". 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/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure ttyv9 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure ttyva "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure ttyvb "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure Use as many or as few as you want. The more virtual terminals you have, the more resources that are used; this can be important if you have 8MB RAM or less. You may also want to change the secure to insecure. If you want to run an X server you must leave at least one virtual terminal unused (or turned off) for it to use. That is to say that if you want to have a login prompt pop up for all twelve of your Alt-function keys, you are out of luck - you can only do this for eleven of them if you also want to run an X server on the same machine. The easiest way to disable a console is by turning it off. For example, if you had the full 12 terminal allocation mentioned above and you wanted to run X, you would change settings for virtual terminal 12 from: ttyvb "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure to: ttyvb "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 off secure If your keyboard has only ten function keys, you would end up with: ttyv9 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 off secure ttyva "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 off secure ttyvb "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 off secure (You could also just delete these lines.) Once you have edited /etc/ttys, the next step is to make sure that you have enough virtual terminal devices. The easiest way to do this is: &prompt.root; cd /dev &prompt.root; sh MAKEDEV vty12 Next, the easiest (and cleanest) way to activate the virtual consoles is to reboot. However, if you really do not want to reboot, you can just shut down the X Window system and execute (as root): &prompt.root; kill -HUP 1 It is imperative that you completely shut down X Window if it is running, before running this command. If you do not, your system will probably appear to hang/lock up after executing the kill command. How do I access the virtual consoles from X? Use Ctrl Alt Fn to switch back to a virtual console. Ctrl Alt F1 would return you to the first virtual console. Once you are back to a text console, you can then use Alt Fn as normal to move between them. To return to the X session, you must switch to the virtual console running X. If you invoked X from the command line, (e.g., using startx) then the X session will attach to the next unused virtual console, not the text console from which it was invoked. If you have eight active virtual terminals then X will be running on the ninth, and you would use Alt F9 to return. How do I start XDM on boot? There are two schools of thought on how to start xdm. One school starts xdm from /etc/ttys (see &man.ttys.5;) using the supplied example, while the other simply runs xdm from rc.local (see &man.rc.8;) or from a X.sh script in /usr/local/etc/rc.d. Both are equally valid, and one may work in situations where the other does not. In both cases the result is the same: X will pop up a graphical login: prompt. The ttys method has the advantage of documenting which vty X will start on and passing the responsibility of restarting the X server on logout to init. The rc.local method makes it easy to kill xdm if there is a problem starting the X server. If loaded from rc.local, xdm should be started without any arguments (i.e., as a daemon). xdm must start AFTER getty runs, or else getty and xdm will conflict, locking out the console. The best way around this is to have the script sleep 10 seconds or so then launch xdm. If you are to start xdm from /etc/ttys, there still is a chance of conflict between xdm and &man.getty.8;. One way to avoid this is to add the vt number in the /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xservers file. :0 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X vt4 The above example will direct the X server to run in /dev/ttyv3. Note the number is offset by one. The X server counts the vty from one, whereas the FreeBSD kernel numbers the vty from zero. Why do I get Couldn't open console when I run xconsole? If you start X with startx, the permissions on /dev/console will not get changed, resulting in things like xterm -C and xconsole not working. This is because of the way console permissions are set by default. On a multi-user system, one does not necessarily want just any user to be able to write on the system console. For users who are logging directly onto a machine with a VTY, the &man.fbtab.5; file exists to solve such problems. In a nutshell, make sure an uncommented line of the form /dev/ttyv0 0600 /dev/console is in /etc/fbtab (see &man.fbtab.5;) and it will ensure that whomever logs in on /dev/ttyv0 will own the console. Before, I was able to run XFree86 as a regular user. Why does it now say that I must be root? All X servers need to be run as root in order to get direct access to your video hardware. Older versions of XFree86 (<= 3.3.6) installed all bundled servers to be automatically run as root (setuid to root). This is obviously a security hazard because X servers are large, complicated programs. Newer versions of XFree86 do not install the servers setuid to root for just this reason. Obviously, running an X server as the root user is not acceptable, nor a good idea security-wise. There are two ways to be able to use X as a regular user. The first is to use xdm or another display manager (e.g., kdm); the second is to use the Xwrapper. xdm is a daemon that handles graphical logins. It is usually started at boot time, and is responsible for authenticating users and starting their sessions; it is essentially the graphical counterpart of &man.getty.8; and &man.login.1;. For more information on xdm see the XFree86 documentation, and the the FAQ entry on it. Xwrapper is the X server wrapper; it is a small utility to enable one to manually run an X server while maintaining reasonable safety. It performs some sanity checks on the command line arguments given, and if they pass, runs the appropriate X server. If you do not want to run a display manger for whatever reason, this is for you. If you have installed the complete ports collection, you can find the port in /usr/ports/x11/wrapper. Why does my PS/2 mouse misbehave under X? Your mouse and the mouse driver may have somewhat become out of synchronization. In versions 2.2.5 and earlier, switching away from X to a virtual terminal and getting back to X again may make them re-synchronized. If the problem occurs often, you may add the following option in your kernel configuration file and recompile it. options PSM_CHECKSYNC See the section on building a kernel if you have no experience with building kernels. With this option, there should be less chance of synchronization problem between the mouse and the driver. If, however, you still see the problem, click any mouse button while holding the mouse still to re-synchronize the mouse and the driver. Note that unfortunately this option may not work with all the systems and voids the tap feature of the ALPS GlidePoint device attached to the PS/2 mouse port. In versions 2.2.6 and later, synchronization check is done in a slightly better way and is standard in the PS/2 mouse driver. It should even work with GlidePoint. (As the check code has become a standard feature, PSM_CHECKSYNC option is not available in these versions.) However, in rare case the driver may erroneously report synchronization problem and you may see the kernel message: psmintr: out of sync (xxxx != yyyy) and find your mouse does not seem to work properly. If this happens, disable the synchronization check code by setting the driver flags for the PS/2 mouse driver to 0x100. Enter UserConfig by giving the option at the boot prompt: boot: -c Then, in the UserConfig command line, type: UserConfig> flags psm0 0x100 UserConfig> quit Why does my PS/2 mouse from MouseSystems not work? There have been some reports that certain model of PS/2 mouse from MouseSystems works only if it is put into the high resolution mode. Otherwise, the mouse cursor may jump to the upper-left corner of the screen every so often. Unfortunately there is no workaround for versions 2.0.X and 2.1.X. In versions 2.2 through 2.2.5, apply the following patch to /sys/i386/isa/psm.c and rebuild the kernel. See the section on building a kernel if you have no experience with building kernels. @@ -766,6 +766,8 @@ if (verbose >= 2) log(LOG_DEBUG, "psm%d: SET_DEFAULTS return code:%04x\n", unit, i); + set_mouse_resolution(sc->kbdc, PSMD_RES_HIGH); + #if 0 set_mouse_scaling(sc->kbdc); /* 1:1 scaling */ set_mouse_mode(sc->kbdc); /* stream mode */ In versions 2.2.6 or later, specify the flags 0x04 to the PS/2 mouse driver to put the mouse into the high resolution mode. Enter UserConfig by giving the option at the boot prompt: boot: -c Then, in the UserConfig command line, type: UserConfig> flags psm0 0x04 UserConfig> quit See the previous section for another possible cause of mouse problems. When building an X app, imake cannot find Imake.tmpl. Where is it? Imake.tmpl is part of the Imake package, a standard X application building tool. Imake.tmpl, as well as several header files that are required to build X apps, is contained in the X prog distribution. You can install this from sysinstall or manually from the X distribution files. An X app I am building depends on XFree86 3.3.x, but I have XFree86 4.x installed. What should I do? To tell the port build to link to the XFree86 4.x libraries, add the following to /etc/make.conf, (if you do not have this file, create it): XFREE86_VERSION= 4 How do I reverse the mouse buttons? Run the command xmodmap -e "pointer = 3 2 1" from your .xinitrc or .xsession. How do I install a splash screen and where do I find them? Just prior to the release of FreeBSD 3.1, a new feature was added to allow the display of splash screens during the boot messages. The splash screens currently must be a 256 color bitmap (*.BMP) or ZSoft PCX (*.PCX) file. In addition, they must have a resolution of 320x200 or less to work on standard VGA adapters. If you compile VESA support into your kernel, then you can use larger bitmaps up to 1024x768. Note that VESA support requires the VM86 kernel option to be compiled into the kernel. The actual VESA support can either be compiled directly into the kernel with the VESA kernel config option or by loading the VESA kld module during bootup. To use a splash screen, you need to modify the startup files that control the boot process for FreeBSD. The files for this changed prior to the release of FreeBSD 3.2, so there are now two ways of loading a splash screen: FreeBSD 3.1 The first step is to find a bitmap version of your splash screen. Release 3.1 only supports Windows bitmap splash screens. Once you have found your splash screen of choice copy it to /boot/splash.bmp. Next, you need to have a /boot/loader.rc file that contains the following lines: load kernel load -t splash_image_data /boot/splash.bmp load splash_bmp autoboot FreeBSD 3.2+ In addition to adding support for PCX splash screens, FreeBSD 3.2 includes a nicer way of configuring the boot process. If you wish, you can use the method listed above for FreeBSD 3.1. If you do and you want to use PCX, replace splash_bmp with splash_pcx. If, on the other hand, you want to use the newer boot configuration, you need to create a /boot/loader.rc file that contains the following lines: include /boot/loader.4th start and a /boot/loader.conf that contains the following: splash_bmp_load="YES" bitmap_load="YES" This assumes you are using /boot/splash.bmp for your splash screen. If you would rather use a PCX file, copy it to /boot/splash.pcx, create a /boot/loader.rc as instructed above, and create a /boot/loader.conf that contains: splash_pcx_load="YES" bitmap_load="YES" bitmap_name="/boot/splash.pcx" Now all you need is a splash screen. For that you can surf on over to the gallery at http://www.baldwin.cx/splash/. - Can I use the Windows keys on my keyboard in X? + Can I use the Windows + keys on my keyboard in X? Yes. All you need to do is use &man.xmodmap.1; to define what function you wish them to perform. Assuming all Windows keyboards are standard then the keycodes for the 3 keys are - 115 - Windows key, between the left-hand Ctrl and - Alt keys + 115 - Windows key, + between the left-hand Ctrl and Alt keys - 116 - Windows key, to the right of the Alt-Gr - key + 116 - Windows key, + to the right of the Alt-Gr key - 117 - Menu key, to the left of the right-hand Ctrl - key + 117 - Menu key, to the left of the right-hand Ctrl key - To have the left Windows key print a comma, try - this. + To have the left Windows + key print a comma, try this. &prompt.root; xmodmap -e "keycode 115 = comma" You will probably have to re-start your window manager to see the result. - To have the Windows key-mappings enabled automatically - every time you start X either put the xmodmap - commands in your ~/.xinitrc file or, - preferably, create a file ~/.xmodmaprc and - include the xmodmap options, one per line, - then add the line + To have the Windows + key-mappings enabled automatically every time you start X either + put the xmodmap commands in your + ~/.xinitrc file or, preferably, create a file + ~/.xmodmaprc and include the + xmodmap options, one per line, then add the + line xmodmap $HOME/.xmodmaprc to your ~/.xinitrc. For example, you could map the 3 keys top be F13, F14, and F15, respectively. This would make it easy to map them to useful functions within applications or your window manager, as demonstrated further down. To do this put the following in ~/.xmodmaprc. keycode 115 = F13 keycode 116 = F14 keycode 117 = F15 If you use fvwm2, for example, you could map the keys so that F13 iconifies (or de-iconifies) the window the cursor is in, F14 brings the window the cursor is in to the front or, if it is already at the front, pushes it to the back, and F15 pops up the main Workplace (application) menu even if the cursor is not on the desktop, which is useful if you do not have any part of the desktop visible (and the logo on the key matches its functionality). The following entries in ~/.fvwmrc implement the aforementioned setup: Key F13 FTIWS A Iconify Key F14 FTIWS A RaiseLower Key F15 A A Menu Workplace Nop How can I get 3D hardware acceleration for OpenGL? The availability of 3D acceleration depends on the version of XFree86 you are using and the type of video chip you have. If you have an NVIDIA chip, check out the FreeBSD NVIDIA Driver Initiative page, which discusses 3D acceleration for NVIDIA chips using XFree86-4. For other cards with XFree86-4, including the Matrox G200/G400, ATI Rage 128/Radeon, and 3dfx Voodoo 3, 4, 5, and Banshee, information on hardware acceleration is available on the XFree86-4 Direct Rendering on FreeBSD page. Users of XFree86 version 3.3 can use the Utah-GLX port found in graphics/utah-glx to get limited accelerated OpenGL on the Matrox Gx00, ATI Rage Pro, SiS 6326, i810, Savage, and older NVIDIA chips. Networking Where can I get information on diskless booting? Diskless booting means that the FreeBSD box is booted over a network, and reads the necessary files from a server instead of its hard disk. For full details, please read the Handbook entry on diskless booting Can a FreeBSD box be used as a dedicated network router? Yes. Please see the Handbook entry on advanced networking, specifically the section on routing and gateways. Can I connect my Win95 box to the Internet via FreeBSD? Typically, people who ask this question have two PC's at home, one with FreeBSD and one with Win95; the idea is to use the FreeBSD box to connect to the Internet and then be able to access the Internet from the Windows95 box through the FreeBSD box. This is really just a special case of the previous question. ... and the answer is yes! In FreeBSD 3.x, user-mode &man.ppp.8; contains a option. If you run &man.ppp.8; with the , set gateway_enable to YES in /etc/rc.conf, and configure your Windows machine correctly, this should work fine. More detailed information about setting this up can be found in the Pedantic PPP Primer by Steve Sims. If you are using kernel-mode PPP, or have an Ethernet connection to the Internet, you will have to use &man.natd.8;. Please look at the natd section of this FAQ. Does FreeBSD support SLIP and PPP? Yes. See the manual pages for &man.slattach.8;, &man.sliplogin.8;, &man.ppp.8;, and &man.pppd.8;. &man.ppp.8; and &man.pppd.8; provide support for both incoming and outgoing connections, while &man.sliplogin.8; deals exclusively with incoming connections, and &man.slattach.8; deals exclusively with outgoing connections. For more information on how to use these, please see the Handbook chapter on PPP and SLIP. If you only have access to the Internet through a shell account, you may want to have a look at the net/slirp package. It can provide you with (limited) access to services such as ftp and http direct from your local machine. Does FreeBSD support NAT or Masquerading? If you have a local subnet (one or more local machines), but have been allocated only a single IP number from your Internet provider (or even if you receive a dynamic IP number), you may want to look at the &man.natd.8; program. &man.natd.8; allows you to connect an entire subnet to the Internet using only a single IP number. The &man.ppp.8; program has similar functionality built in via the switch. The alias library (&man.libalias.3;) is used in both cases. How do I connect two FreeBSD systems over a parallel line using PLIP? Please see the PLIP section of the Handbook. Why can I not create a /dev/ed0 device? Because they aren't necessary. In the Berkeley networking framework, network interfaces are only directly accessible by kernel code. Please see the /etc/rc.network file and the manual pages for the various network programs mentioned there for more information. If this leaves you totally confused, then you should pick up a book describing network administration on another BSD-related operating system; with few significant exceptions, administering networking on FreeBSD is basically the same as on SunOS 4.0 or Ultrix. How can I set up Ethernet aliases? If the alias is on the same subnet as an address already configured on the interface, then add netmask 0xffffffff to your &man.ifconfig.8; command-line, as in the following: &prompt.root; ifconfig ed0 alias 192.0.2.2 netmask 0xffffffff Otherwise, just specify the network address and netmask as usual: &prompt.root; ifconfig ed0 alias 172.16.141.5 netmask 0xffffff00 How do I get my 3C503 to use the other network port? If you want to use the other ports, you will have to specify an additional parameter on the &man.ifconfig.8; command line. The default port is link0. To use the AUI port instead of the BNC one, use link2. These flags should be specified using the ifconfig_* variables in /etc/rc.conf (see &man.rc.conf.5;). Why am I having trouble with NFS and FreeBSD? Certain PC network cards are better than others (to put it mildly) and can sometimes cause problems with network intensive applications like NFS. See the Handbook entry on NFS for more information on this topic. Why can I not NFS-mount from a Linux box? Some versions of the Linux NFS code only accept mount requests from a privileged port; try &prompt.root; mount -o -P linuxbox:/blah /mnt Why can I not NFS-mount from a Sun box? Sun workstations running SunOS 4.X only accept mount requests from a privileged port; try &prompt.root; mount -o -P sunbox:/blah /mnt Why does mountd keep telling me it can't change attributes and that I have a bad exports list on my FreeBSD NFS server? The most frequent problem is not understanding the correct format of /etc/exports. Please review &man.exports.5; and the NFS entry in the Handbook, especially the section on configuring NFS. Why am I having problems talking PPP to NeXTStep machines? Try disabling the TCP extensions in /etc/rc.conf (see &man.rc.conf.5;) by changing the following variable to NO: tcp_extensions=NO Xylogic's Annex boxes are also broken in this regard and you must use the above change to connect thru them. How do I enable IP multicast support? Multicast host operations are fully supported in FreeBSD 2.0 and later by default. If you want your box to run as a multicast router, you will need to recompile your kernel with the MROUTING option and run &man.mrouted.8;. FreeBSD 2.2 and later will start &man.mrouted.8; at boot time if the flag mrouted_enable is set to "YES" in /etc/rc.conf. MBONE tools are available in their own ports category, mbone. If you are looking for the conference tools vic and vat, look there! Which network cards are based on the DEC PCI chipset? Here is a list compiled by Glen Foster gfoster@driver.nsta.org, with some more modern additions: Network cards based on the DEC PCI chipset Vendor Model ASUS PCI-L101-TB Accton ENI1203 Cogent EM960PCI Compex ENET32-PCI D-Link DE-530 Dayna DP1203, DP2100 DEC DE435, DE450 Danpex EN-9400P3 JCIS Condor JC1260 Linksys EtherPCI Mylex LNP101 SMC EtherPower 10/100 (Model 9332) SMC EtherPower (Model 8432) TopWare TE-3500P Znyx (2.2.x) ZX312, ZX314, ZX342, ZX345, ZX346, ZX348 Znyx (3.x) ZX345Q, ZX346Q, ZX348Q, ZX412Q, ZX414, ZX442, ZX444, ZX474, ZX478, ZX212, ZX214 (10mbps/hd)
Why do I have to use the FQDN for hosts on my site? You will probably find that the host is actually in a different domain; for example, if you are in foo.example.org and you wish to reach a host called mumble in the example.org domain, you will have to refer to it by the fully-qualified domain name, mumble.example.org, instead of just mumble. Traditionally, this was allowed by BSD BIND resolvers. However the current version of bind (see &man.named.8;) that ships with FreeBSD no longer provides default abbreviations for non-fully qualified domain names other than the domain you are in. So an unqualified host mumble must either be found as mumble.foo.example.org, or it will be searched for in the root domain. This is different from the previous behavior, where the search continued across mumble.example.org, and mumble.edu. Have a look at RFC 1535 for why this was considered bad practice, or even a security hole. As a good workaround, you can place the line search foo.example.org example.org instead of the previous domain foo.example.org into your /etc/resolv.conf file (see &man.resolv.conf.5;). However, make sure that the search order does not go beyond the boundary between local and public administration, as RFC 1535 calls it. Why do I get an error, Permission denied, for all networking operations? If you have compiled your kernel with the IPFIREWALL option, you need to be aware that the default policy as of 2.1.7R (this actually changed during 2.1-STABLE development) is to deny all packets that are not explicitly allowed. If you had unintentionally misconfigured your system for firewalling, you can restore network operability by typing the following while logged in as root: &prompt.root; ipfw add 65534 allow all from any to any You can also set firewall_type="open" in /etc/rc.conf. For further information on configuring a FreeBSD firewall, see the Handbook section. How much overhead does IPFW incur? Please see the Handbook's Firewalls section, specifically the section on IPFW Overhead & Optimization. Why is my ipfw fwd rule to redirect a service to another machine not working? Possibly because you want to do network address translation (NAT) and not just forward packets. A fwd rule does exactly what it says; it forwards packets. It does not actually change the data inside the packet. Say we have a rule like: 01000 fwd 10.0.0.1 from any to foo 21 When a packet with a destination address of foo arrives at the machine with this rule, the packet is forwarded to 10.0.0.1, but it still has the destination address of foo! The destination address of the packet is not changed to 10.0.0.1. Most machines would probably drop a packet that they receive with a destination address that is not their own. Therefore, using a fwd rule does not often work the way the user expects. This behavior is a feature and not a bug. See the FAQ about redirecting services, the &man.natd.8; manual, or one of the several port redirecting utilities in the ports collection for a correct way to do this. How can I redirect service requests from one machine to another? You can redirect FTP (and other service) request with the socket package, available in the ports tree in category sysutils. Simply replace the service's command line to call socket instead, like so: ftp stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/local/bin/socket socket ftp.example.com ftp where ftp.example.com and ftp are the host and port to redirect to, respectively. Where can I get a bandwidth management tool? There are three bandwidth management tools available for FreeBSD. &man.dummynet.4; is integrated into FreeBSD (or more specifically, &man.ipfw.4;); ALTQ is available for free; Bandwidth Manager from Emerging Technologies is a commercial product. Why do I get /dev/bpf0: device not configured? You are running a program that requires the Berkeley Packet Filter (&man.bpf.4;), but it's not in your kernel. Add this to your kernel config file and build a new kernel: pseudo-device bpf # Berkeley Packet Filter After rebooting, create the device node. This can be accomplished by going to the /dev directory and running: &prompt.root; sh MAKEDEV bpf0 Please see the Handbook entry on device nodes for more information on creating devices. How do I mount a disk from a Windows machine that is on my network, like smbmount in Linux? Use the SMBFS toolset. It includes a set of kernel modifications and a set of userland programs. The programs and information are available as net/smbfs in the ports collection, or in the base system as of 4.5-RELEASE and later. What are these messages about icmp-response bandwidth limit 300/200 pps in my log files? This is the kernel telling you that some activity is provoking it to send more ICMP or TCP reset (RST) responses than it thinks it should. ICMP responses are often generated as a result of attempted connections to unused UDP ports. TCP resets are generated as a result of attempted connections to unopened TCP ports. Among others, these are the kinds of activities which may cause these messages: Brute-force denial of service (DoS) attacks (as opposed to single-packet attacks which exploit a specific vulnerability). Port scans which attempt to connect to a large number of ports (as opposed to only trying a few well-known ports). The first number in the message tells you how many packets the kernel would have sent if the limit was not in place, and the second number tells you the limit. You can control the limit using the net.inet.icmp.icmplim sysctl variable like this, where 300 is the limit in packets per second: &prompt.root; sysctl -w net.inet.icmp.icmplim=300 If you do not want to see messages about this in your log files, but you still want the kernel to do response limiting, you can use the net.inet.icmp.icmplim_output sysctl variable to disable the output like this: &prompt.root; sysctl -w net.inet.icmp.icmplim_output=0 Finally, if you want to disable response limiting, you can set the net.inet.icmp.icmplim sysctl variable (see above for an example) to 0. Disabling response limiting is discouraged for the reasons listed above. What are these arp: unknown hardware address format error messages? This means that some device on your local Ethernet is using a MAC address in a format that FreeBSD does not recognize. This is probably caused by someone experimenting with an Ethernet card somewhere else on the network. You will see this most commonly on cable modem networks. It is harmless, and should not affect the performance of your FreeBSD machine. Security BIND (named) is listening on port 53 and some other high-numbered port. What is going on? FreeBSD 3.0 and later use a version of BIND that uses a random high-numbered port for outgoing queries. If you want to use port 53 for outgoing queries, either to get past a firewall or to make yourself feel better, you can try the following in /etc/namedb/named.conf: options { query-source address * port 53; }; You can replace the * with a single IP address if you want to tighten things further. Congratulations, by the way. It is good practice to read your &man.sockstat.1; output and notice odd things! Sendmail is listening on port 587 as well as the standard port 25! What is going on? Recent versions of Sendmail support a mail submission feature that runs over port 587. This is not yet widely supported, but is growing in popularity. What is this UID 0 toor account? Have I been compromised? Do not worry. toor is an alternative superuser account (toor is root spelt backwards). Previously it was created when the &man.bash.1; shell was installed but now it is created by default. It is intended to be used with a non-standard shell so you do not have to change root's default shell. This is important as shells which are not part of the base distribution (for example a shell installed from ports or packages) are likely be to be installed in /usr/local/bin which, by default, resides on a different filesystem. If root's shell is located in /usr/local/bin and /usr (or whatever filesystem contains /usr/local/bin) is not mounted for some reason, root will not be able to log in to fix a problem (although if you reboot into single user mode you will be prompted for the path to a shell). Some people use toor for day-to-day root tasks with a non-standard shell, leaving root, with a standard shell, for single user mode or emergencies. By default you cannot log in using toor as it does not have a password, so log in as root and set a password for toor if you want to use it. Why is suidperl not working properly? For security reasons, suidperl is installed without the suid bit by default. The system administrator can enable suid behavior with the following command. &prompt.root; chmod u+s /usr/bin/suidperl If you want suidperl to be built suid during upgrades from source, edit /etc/make.conf and add ENABLE_SUIDPERL=true before you run make buildworld. PPP I cannot make &man.ppp.8; work. What am I doing wrong? You should first read the &man.ppp.8; man page and the PPP section of the handbook. Enable logging with the command set log Phase Chat Connect Carrier lcp ipcp ccp command This command may be typed at the &man.ppp.8; command prompt or it may be entered in the /etc/ppp/ppp.conf configuration file (the start of the default section is the best place to put it). Make sure that /etc/syslog.conf (see &man.syslog.conf.5;) contains the lines !ppp *.* /var/log/ppp.log and that the file /var/log/ppp.log exists. You can now find out a lot about what is going on from the log file. Do not worry if it does not all make sense. If you need to get help from someone, it may make sense to them. If your version of &man.ppp.8; does not understand the set log command, you should download the latest version. It will build on FreeBSD version 2.1.5 and higher. Why does &man.ppp.8; hang when I run it? This is usually because your hostname will not resolve. The best way to fix this is to make sure that /etc/hosts is consulted by your resolver first by editing /etc/host.conf and putting the hosts line first. Then, simply put an entry in /etc/hosts for your local machine. If you have no local network, change your localhost line: 127.0.0.1 foo.bar.com foo localhost Otherwise, simply add another entry for your host. Consult the relevant man pages for more details. You should be able to successfully ping -c1 `hostname` when you are done. Why will &man.ppp.8; not dial in -auto mode? First, check that you have got a default route. By running netstat -rn (see &man.netstat.1;), you should see two entries like this: Destination Gateway Flags Refs Use Netif Expire default 10.0.0.2 UGSc 0 0 tun0 10.0.0.2 10.0.0.1 UH 0 0 tun0 This is assuming that you have used the addresses from the handbook, the man page or from the ppp.conf.sample file. If you do not have a default route, it may be because you are running an old version of &man.ppp.8; that does not understand the word HISADDR in the ppp.conf file. If your version of &man.ppp.8; is from before FreeBSD 2.2.5, change the add 0 0 HISADDR line to one saying add 0 0 10.0.0.2 Another reason for the default route line being missing is that you have mistakenly set up a default router in your /etc/rc.conf (see &man.rc.conf.5;) file (this file was called /etc/sysconfig prior to release 2.2.2), and you have omitted the line saying delete ALL from ppp.conf. If this is the case, go back to the Final system configuration section of the handbook. What does No route to host mean? This error is usually due to a missing MYADDR: delete ALL add 0 0 HISADDR section in your /etc/ppp/ppp.linkup file. This is only necessary if you have a dynamic IP address or do not know the address of your gateway. If you are using interactive mode, you can type the following after entering packet mode (packet mode is indicated by the capitalized PPP in the prompt): delete ALL add 0 0 HISADDR Refer to the PPP and Dynamic IP addresses section of the handbook for further details. Why does my connection drop after about 3 minutes? The default PPP timeout is 3 minutes. This can be adjusted with the line set timeout NNN where NNN is the number of seconds of inactivity before the connection is closed. If NNN is zero, the connection is never closed due to a timeout. It is possible to put this command in the ppp.conf file, or to type it at the prompt in interactive mode. It is also possible to adjust it on the fly while the line is active by connecting to ppps server socket using &man.telnet.1; or &man.pppctl.8;. Refer to the &man.ppp.8; man page for further details. Why does my connection drop under heavy load? If you have Link Quality Reporting (LQR) configured, it is possible that too many LQR packets are lost between your machine and the peer. Ppp deduces that the line must therefore be bad, and disconnects. Prior to FreeBSD version 2.2.5, LQR was enabled by default. It is now disabled by default. LQR can be disabled with the line disable lqr Why does my connection drop after a random amount of time? Sometimes, on a noisy phone line or even on a line with call waiting enabled, your modem may hang up because it thinks (incorrectly) that it lost carrier. There is a setting on most modems for determining how tolerant it should be to temporary losses of carrier. On a USR Sportster for example, this is measured by the S10 register in tenths of a second. To make your modem more forgiving, you could add the following send-expect sequence to your dial string: set dial "...... ATS10=10 OK ......" Refer to your modem manual for details. Why does my connection hang after a random amount of time? Many people experience hung connections with no apparent explanation. The first thing to establish is which side of the link is hung. If you are using an external modem, you can simply try using &man.ping.8; to see if the TD light is flashing when you transmit data. If it flashes (and the RD light does not), the problem is with the remote end. If TD does not flash, the problem is local. With an internal modem, you will need to use the set server command in your ppp.conf file. When the hang occurs, connect to &man.ppp.8; using &man.pppctl.8;. If your network connection suddenly revives (PPP was revived due to the activity on the diagnostic socket) or if you cannot connect (assuming the set socket command succeeded at startup time), the problem is local. If you can connect and things are still hung, enable local async logging with set log local async and use &man.ping.8; from another window or terminal to make use of the link. The async logging will show you the data being transmitted and received on the link. If data is going out and not coming back, the problem is remote. Having established whether the problem is local or remote, you now have two possibilities: The remote end is not responding. What can I do? There is very little you can do about this. Most ISPs will refuse to help if you are not running a Microsoft OS. You can enable lqr in your ppp.conf file, allowing &man.ppp.8; to detect the remote failure and hang up, but this detection is relatively slow and therefore not that useful. You may want to avoid telling your ISP that you are running user-PPP... First, try disabling all local compression by adding the following to your configuration: disable pred1 deflate deflate24 protocomp acfcomp shortseq vj deny pred1 deflate deflate24 protocomp acfcomp shortseq vj Then reconnect to ensure that this makes no difference. If things improve or if the problem is solved completely, determine which setting makes the difference through trial and error. This will provide good ammunition when you contact your ISP (although it may make it apparent that you are not running a Microsoft product). Before contacting your ISP, enable async logging locally and wait until the connection hangs again. This may use up quite a bit of disk space. The last data read from the port may be of interest. It is usually ascii data, and may even describe the problem (Memory fault, core dumped?). If your ISP is helpful, they should be able to enable logging on their end, then when the next link drop occurs, they may be able to tell you why their side is having a problem. Feel free to send the details to &a.brian;, or even to ask your ISP to contact me directly. &man.ppp.8; has hung. What can I do? Your best bet here is to rebuild &man.ppp.8; by adding CFLAGS+=-g and STRIP= to the end of the Makefile, then doing a make clean && make && make install. When &man.ppp.8; hangs, find the &man.ppp.8; process id with ps ajxww | fgrep ppp and run gdb ppp PID. From the gdb prompt, you can then use bt to get a stack trace. Send the results to brian@Awfulhak.org. Why does nothing happen after the Login OK! message? Prior to FreeBSD version 2.2.5, once the link was established, &man.ppp.8; would wait for the peer to initiate the Line Control Protocol (LCP). Many ISPs will not initiate negotiations and expect the client to do so. To force &man.ppp.8; to initiate the LCP, use the following line: set openmode active It usually does no harm if both sides initiate negotiation, so openmode is now active by default. However, the next section explains when it does do some harm. I keep seeing errors about magic being the same. What does it mean? Occasionally, just after connecting, you may see messages in the log that say magic is the same. Sometimes, these messages are harmless, and sometimes one side or the other exits. Most PPP implementations cannot survive this problem, and even if the link seems to come up, you will see repeated configure requests and configure acknowledgments in the log file until &man.ppp.8; eventually gives up and closes the connection. This normally happens on server machines with slow disks that are spawning a getty on the port, and executing &man.ppp.8; from a login script or program after login. I have also heard reports of it happening consistently when using slirp. The reason is that in the time taken between &man.getty.8; exiting and &man.ppp.8; starting, the client-side &man.ppp.8; starts sending Line Control Protocol (LCP) packets. Because ECHO is still switched on for the port on the server, the client &man.ppp.8; sees these packets reflect back. One part of the LCP negotiation is to establish a magic number for each side of the link so that reflections can be detected. The protocol says that when the peer tries to negotiate the same magic number, a NAK should be sent and a new magic number should be chosen. During the period that the server port has ECHO turned on, the client &man.ppp.8; sends LCP packets, sees the same magic in the reflected packet and NAKs it. It also sees the NAK reflect (which also means &man.ppp.8; must change its magic). This produces a potentially enormous number of magic number changes, all of which are happily piling into the server's tty buffer. As soon as &man.ppp.8; starts on the server, it is flooded with magic number changes and almost immediately decides it has tried enough to negotiate LCP and gives up. Meanwhile, the client, who no longer sees the reflections, becomes happy just in time to see a hangup from the server. This can be avoided by allowing the peer to start negotiating with the following line in your ppp.conf file: set openmode passive This tells &man.ppp.8; to wait for the server to initiate LCP negotiations. Some servers however may never initiate negotiations. If this is the case, you can do something like: set openmode active 3 This tells &man.ppp.8; to be passive for 3 seconds, and then to start sending LCP requests. If the peer starts sending requests during this period, &man.ppp.8; will immediately respond rather than waiting for the full 3 second period. LCP negotiations continue until the connection is closed. What is wrong? There is currently an implementation mis-feature in &man.ppp.8; where it does not associate LCP, CCP & IPCP responses with their original requests. As a result, if one PPP implementation is more than 6 seconds slower than the other side, the other side will send two additional LCP configuration requests. This is fatal. Consider two implementations, A and B. A starts sending LCP requests immediately after connecting and B takes 7 seconds to start. When B starts, A has sent 3 LCP REQs. We are assuming the line has ECHO switched off, otherwise we would see magic number problems as described in the previous section. B sends a REQ, then an ACK to the first of A's REQs. This results in A entering the OPENED state and sending and ACK (the first) back to B. In the meantime, B sends back two more ACKs in response to the two additional REQs sent by A before B started up. B then receives the first ACK from A and enters the OPENED state. A receives the second ACK from B and goes back to the REQ-SENT state, sending another (forth) REQ as per the RFC. It then receives the third ACK and enters the OPENED state. In the meantime, B receives the forth REQ from A, resulting in it reverting to the ACK-SENT state and sending another (second) REQ and (forth) ACK as per the RFC. A gets the REQ, goes into REQ-SENT and sends another REQ. It immediately receives the following ACK and enters OPENED. This goes on until one side figures out that they are getting nowhere and gives up. The best way to avoid this is to configure one side to be passive - that is, make one side wait for the other to start negotiating. This can be done with the set openmode passive command. Care should be taken with this option. You should also use the set stopped N command to limit the amount of time that &man.ppp.8; waits for the peer to begin negotiations. Alternatively, the set openmode active N command (where N is the number of seconds to wait before starting negotiations) can be used. Check the manual page for details. Why does &man.ppp.8; lock up shortly after connection? Prior to version 2.2.5 of FreeBSD, it was possible that your link was disabled shortly after connection due to &man.ppp.8; mis-handling Predictor1 compression negotiation. This would only happen if both sides tried to negotiate different Compression Control Protocols (CCP). This problem is now corrected, but if you are still running an old version of &man.ppp.8; the problem can be circumvented with the line disable pred1 Why does &man.ppp.8; lock up when I shell out to test it? When you execute the shell or ! command, &man.ppp.8; executes a shell (or if you have passed any arguments, &man.ppp.8; will execute those arguments). Ppp will wait for the command to complete before continuing. If you attempt to use the PPP link while running the command, the link will appear to have frozen. This is because &man.ppp.8; is waiting for the command to complete. If you wish to execute commands like this, use the !bg command instead. This will execute the given command in the background, and &man.ppp.8; can continue to service the link. Why does &man.ppp.8; over a null-modem cable never exit? There is no way for &man.ppp.8; to automatically determine that a direct connection has been dropped. This is due to the lines that are used in a null-modem serial cable. When using this sort of connection, LQR should always be enabled with the line enable lqr LQR is accepted by default if negotiated by the peer. Why does &man.ppp.8; dial for no reason in -auto mode? If &man.ppp.8; is dialing unexpectedly, you must determine the cause, and set up Dial filters (dfilters) to prevent such dialing. To determine the cause, use the following line: set log +tcp/ip This will log all traffic through the connection. The next time the line comes up unexpectedly, you will see the reason logged with a convenient timestamp next to it. You can now disable dialing under these circumstances. Usually, this sort of problem arises due to DNS lookups. To prevent DNS lookups from establishing a connection (this will not prevent &man.ppp.8; from passing the packets through an established connection), use the following: set dfilter 1 deny udp src eq 53 set dfilter 2 deny udp dst eq 53 set dfilter 3 permit 0/0 0/0 This is not always suitable, as it will effectively break your demand-dial capabilities - most programs will need a DNS lookup before doing any other network related things. In the DNS case, you should try to determine what is actually trying to resolve a host name. A lot of the time, &man.sendmail.8; is the culprit. You should make sure that you tell sendmail not to do any DNS lookups in its configuration file. See the section on Mail Configuration for details on how to create your own configuration file and what should go into it. You may also want to add the following line to your .mc file: define(`confDELIVERY_MODE', `d')dnl This will make sendmail queue everything until the queue is run (usually, sendmail is invoked with , telling it to run the queue every 30 minutes) or until a sendmail -q is done (perhaps from your ppp.linkup file). What do these CCP errors mean? I keep seeing the following errors in my log file: CCP: CcpSendConfigReq CCP: Received Terminate Ack (1) state = Req-Sent (6) This is because &man.ppp.8; is trying to negotiate Predictor1 compression, and the peer does not want to negotiate any compression at all. The messages are harmless, but if you wish to remove them, you can disable Predictor1 compression locally too: disable pred1 Why does &man.ppp.8; lock up during file transfers with IO errors? Under FreeBSD 2.2.2 and before, there was a bug in the tun driver that prevents incoming packets of a size larger than the tun interface's MTU size. Receipt of a packet greater than the MTU size results in an IO error being logged via syslogd. The PPP specification says that an MRU of 1500 should always be accepted as a minimum, despite any LCP negotiations, therefore it is possible that should you decrease the MTU to less than 1500, your ISP will transmit packets of 1500 regardless, and you will tickle this non-feature - locking up your link. The problem can be circumvented by never setting an MTU of less than 1500 under FreeBSD 2.2.2 or before. Why does &man.ppp.8; not log my connection speed? In order to log all lines of your modem conversation, you must enable the following: set log +connect This will make &man.ppp.8; log everything up until the last requested expect string. If you wish to see your connect speed and are using PAP or CHAP (and therefore do not have anything to chat after the CONNECT in the dial script - no set login script), you must make sure that you instruct &man.ppp.8; to expect the whole CONNECT line, something like this: set dial "ABORT BUSY ABORT NO\\sCARRIER TIMEOUT 4 \ \"\" ATZ OK-ATZ-OK ATDT\\T TIMEOUT 60 CONNECT \\c \\n" Here, we get our CONNECT, send nothing, then expect a line-feed, forcing &man.ppp.8; to read the whole CONNECT response. Why does &man.ppp.8; ignore the \ character in my chat script? Ppp parses each line in your config files so that it can interpret strings such as set phone "123 456 789" correctly (and realize that the number is actually only one argument. In order to specify a " character, you must escape it using a backslash (\). When the chat interpreter parses each argument, it re-interprets the argument in order to find any special escape sequences such as \P or \T (see the man page). As a result of this double-parsing, you must remember to use the correct number of escapes. If you wish to actually send a \ character to (say) your modem, you would need something like: set dial "\"\" ATZ OK-ATZ-OK AT\\\\X OK" resulting in the following sequence: ATZ OK AT\X OK or set phone 1234567 set dial "\"\" ATZ OK ATDT\\T" resulting in the following sequence: ATZ OK ATDT1234567 Why does &man.ppp.8; get a seg-fault, but I see no ppp.core file? Ppp (or any other program for that matter) should never dump core. Because &man.ppp.8; runs with an effective user id of 0, the operating system will not write &man.ppp.8;'s core image to disk before terminating it. If, however &man.ppp.8; is actually terminating due to a segmentation violation or some other signal that normally causes core to be dumped, and you are sure you are using the latest version (see the start of this section), then you should do the following: &prompt.user; tar xfz ppp-*.src.tar.gz &prompt.user; cd ppp*/ppp &prompt.user; echo STRIP= >>Makefile &prompt.user; echo CFLAGS+=-g >>Makefile &prompt.user; make clean all &prompt.user; su &prompt.root; make install &prompt.root; chmod 555 /usr/sbin/ppp You will now have a debuggable version of &man.ppp.8; installed. You will have to be root to run &man.ppp.8; as all of its privileges have been revoked. When you start &man.ppp.8;, take a careful note of what your current directory was at the time. Now, if and when &man.ppp.8; receives the segmentation violation, it will dump a core file called ppp.core. You should then do the following: &prompt.user; su &prompt.root; gdb /usr/sbin/ppp ppp.core (gdb) bt ..... (gdb) f 0 .... (gdb) i args .... (gdb) l ..... All of this information should be given alongside your question, making it possible to diagnose the problem. If you are familiar with gdb, you may wish to find out some other bits and pieces such as what actually caused the dump and the addresses & values of the relevant variables. Why does the process that forces a dial in auto mode never connect? This was a known problem with &man.ppp.8; set up to negotiate a dynamic local IP number with the peer in auto mode. It is fixed in the latest version - search the man page for iface. The problem was that when that initial program calls &man.connect.2;, the IP number of the tun interface is assigned to the socket endpoint. The kernel creates the first outgoing packet and writes it to the tun device. &man.ppp.8; then reads the packet and establishes a connection. If, as a result of &man.ppp.8;'s dynamic IP assignment, the interface address is changed, the original socket endpoint will be invalid. Any subsequent packets sent to the peer will usually be dropped. Even if they are not, any responses will not route back to the originating machine as the IP number is no longer owned by that machine. There are several theoretical ways to approach this problem. It would be nicest if the peer would re-assign the same IP number if possible :-) The current version of &man.ppp.8; does this, but most other implementations do not. The easiest method from our side would be to never change the tun interface IP number, but instead to change all outgoing packets so that the source IP number is changed from the interface IP to the negotiated IP on the fly. This is essentially what the iface-alias option in the latest version of &man.ppp.8; is doing (with the help of &man.libalias.3; and &man.ppp.8;'s switch) - it is maintaining all previous interface addresses and NATing them to the last negotiated address. Another alternative (and probably the most reliable) would be to implement a system call that changes all bound sockets from one IP to another. &man.ppp.8; would use this call to modify the sockets of all existing programs when a new IP number is negotiated. The same system call could be used by dhcp clients when they are forced to re-bind() their sockets. Yet another possibility is to allow an interface to be brought up without an IP number. Outgoing packets would be given an IP number of 255.255.255.255 up until the first SIOCAIFADDR ioctl is done. This would result in fully binding the socket. It would be up to &man.ppp.8; to change the source IP number, but only if it is set to 255.255.255.255, and only the IP number and IP checksum would need to change. This, however is a bit of a hack as the kernel would be sending bad packets to an improperly configured interface, on the assumption that some other mechanism is capable of fixing things retrospectively. Why do most games not work with the -nat switch? The reason games and the like do not work when libalias is in use is that the machine on the outside will try to open a connection or send (unsolicited) UDP packets to the machine on the inside. The NAT software does not know that it should send these packets to the interior machine. To make things work, make sure that the only thing running is the software that you are having problems with, then either run tcpdump on the tun interface of the gateway or enable &man.ppp.8; tcp/ip logging (set log +tcp/ip) on the gateway. When you start the offending software, you should see packets passing through the gateway machine. When something comes back from the outside, it will be dropped (that is the problem). Note the port number of these packets then shut down the offending software. Do this a few times to see if the port numbers are consistent. If they are, then the following line in the relevant section of /etc/ppp/ppp.conf will make the software functional: nat port proto internalmachine:port port where proto is either tcp or udp, internalmachine is the machine that you want the packets to be sent to and port is the destination port number of the packets. You will not be able to use the software on other machines without changing the above command, and running the software on two internal machines at the same time is out of the question - after all, the outside world is seeing your entire internal network as being just a single machine. If the port numbers are not consistent, there are three more options: Submit support in libalias. Examples of special cases can be found in /usr/src/lib/libalias/alias_*.c (alias_ftp.c is a good prototype). This usually involves reading certain recognised outgoing packets, identifying the instruction that tells the outside machine to initiate a connection back to the internal machine on a specific (random) port and setting up a route in the alias table so that the subsequent packets know where to go. This is the most difficult solution, but it is the best and will make the software work with multiple machines. Use a proxy. The application may support socks5 for example, or (as in the cvsup case) may have a passive option that avoids ever requesting that the peer open connections back to the local machine. Redirect everything to the internal machine using nat addr. This is the sledge-hammer approach. Has anybody made a list of useful port numbers? Not yet, but this is intended to grow into such a list (if any interest is shown). In each example, internal should be replaced with the IP number of the machine playing the game. Asheron's Call nat port udp internal :65000 65000 Manually change the port number within the game to 65000. If you have got a number of machines that you wish to play on assign a unique port number for each (i.e. 65001, 65002, etc) and add a nat port line for each one. Half Life nat port udp internal:27005 27015 PCAnywhere 8.0 nat port udp internal:5632 5632 nat port tcp internal:5631 5631 Quake nat port udp internal:6112 6112 Alternatively, you may want to take a look at www.battle.net for Quake proxy support. Quake 2 nat port udp internal:27901 27910 nat port udp internal:60021 60021 nat port udp internal:60040 60040 Red Alert nat port udp internal:8675 8675 nat port udp internal:5009 5009 What are FCS errors? FCS stands for Frame Check Sequence. Each PPP packet has a checksum attached to ensure that the data being received is the data being sent. If the FCS of an incoming packet is incorrect, the packet is dropped and the HDLC FCS count is increased. The HDLC error values can be displayed using the show hdlc command. If your link is bad (or if your serial driver is dropping packets), you will see the occasional FCS error. This is not usually worth worrying about although it does slow down the compression protocols substantially. If you have an external modem, make sure your cable is properly shielded from interference - this may eradicate the problem. If your link freezes as soon as you have connected and you see a large number of FCS errors, this may be because your link is not 8 bit clean. Make sure your modem is not using software flow control (XON/XOFF). If your datalink must use software flow control, use the command set accmap 0x000a0000 to tell &man.ppp.8; to escape the ^Q and ^S characters. Another reason for seeing too many FCS errors may be that the remote end has stopped talking PPP. You may want to enable async logging at this point to determine if the incoming data is actually a login or shell prompt. If you have a shell prompt at the remote end, it is possible to terminate &man.ppp.8; without dropping the line by using the close lcp command (a following term command will reconnect you to the shell on the remote machine. If nothing in your log file indicates why the link might have been terminated, you should ask the remote administrator (your ISP?) why the session was terminated. Why do MacOS and Windows 98 connections freeze when running PPPoE on the gateway? Thanks to Michael Wozniak mwozniak@netcom.ca for figuring this out and Dan Flemming danflemming@mac.com for the Mac solution: This is due to what is called a Black Hole router. MacOS and Windows 98 (and maybe other Microsoft OSs) send TCP packets with a requested segment size too big to fit into a PPPoE frame (MTU is 1500 by default for Ethernet) and have the do not fragment bit set (default of TCP) and the Telco router is not sending ICMP must fragment back to the www site you are trying to load. (Alternatively, the router is sending the ICMP packet correctly, but the firewall at the www site is dropping it.) When the www server is sending you frames that do not fit into the PPPoE pipe the Telco router drops them on the floor and your page does not load (some pages/graphics do as they are smaller than a MSS.) This seems to be the default of most Telco PPPoE configurations (if only they knew how to program a router... sigh...) One fix is to use regedit on your 95/98 boxes to add the following registry entry... HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\NetTrans\0000\MaxMTU It should be a string with a value 1436, as some ADSL routers are reported to be unable to deal with packets larger than this. This registry key has been changed to Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\ID for adapter\MTU in Windows 2000 and becomes a DWORD. Refer to the Microsoft Knowledge Base documents Q158474 - Windows TCPIP Registry Entries and Q120642 - TCPIP & NBT Configuration Parameters for Windows NT for more information on changing Windows MTU to work with a NAT router. Another regedit possibility under Windows 2000 is to set the Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\ID for adapter\EnablePMTUBHDetect DWORD to 1 as mentioned in the Microsoft document 120642 mentioned above. Unfortunately, MacOS does not provide an interface for changing TCP/IP settings. However, there is commercial software available, such as OTAdvancedTuner (OT for OpenTransport, the MacOS TCP/IP stack) by Sustainable Softworks, that will allow users to customize TCP/IP settings. MacOS NAT users should select ip_interface_MTU from the drop-down menu, enter 1450 instead of 1500 in the box, click the box next to Save as Auto Configure, and click Make Active. The latest version of &man.ppp.8; (2.3 or greater) has an enable tcpmssfixup command that will automatically adjust the MSS to an appropriate value. This facility is enabled by default. If you are stuck with an older version of &man.ppp.8;, you may want to look at the tcpmssd port. None of this helps - I am desperate! What can I do? If all else fails, send as much information as you can, including your config files, how you are starting &man.ppp.8;, the relevant parts of your log file and the output of the netstat -rn command (before and after connecting) to the &a.questions; or the comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc news group, and someone should point you in the right direction. Serial Communications This section answers common questions about serial communications with FreeBSD. PPP and SLIP are covered in the section. How do I tell if FreeBSD found my serial ports? As the FreeBSD kernel boots, it will probe for the serial ports in your system for which the kernel was configured. You can either watch your system closely for the messages it prints or run the command &prompt.user; dmesg | grep sio after your system is up and running. Here is some example output from the above command: sio0 at 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 on isa sio0: type 16550A sio1 at 0x2f8-0x2ff irq 3 on isa sio1: type 16550A This shows two serial ports. The first is on irq 4, is using port address 0x3f8, and has a 16550A-type UART chip. The second uses the same kind of chip but is on irq 3 and is at port address 0x2f8. Internal modem cards are treated just like serial ports---except that they always have a modem attached to the port. The GENERIC kernel includes support for two serial ports using the same irq and port address settings in the above example. If these settings are not right for your system, or if you have added modem cards or have more serial ports than your kernel is configured for, just reconfigure your kernel. See section about building a kernel for more details. How do I tell if FreeBSD found my modem cards? Refer to the answer to the previous question. I just upgraded to 2.0.5 and my tty0X are missing! How do I solve this problem? Do not worry, they have been merged with the ttydX devices. You will have to change any old configuration files you have, though. How do I access the serial ports on FreeBSD? The third serial port, sio2 (see &man.sio.4;, known as COM3 in DOS), is on /dev/cuaa2 for dial-out devices, and on /dev/ttyd2 for dial-in devices. What is the difference between these two classes of devices? You use ttydX for dial-ins. When opening /dev/ttydX in blocking mode, a process will wait for the corresponding cuaaX device to become inactive, and then wait for the carrier detect line to go active. When you open the cuaaX device, it makes sure the serial port is not already in use by the ttydX device. If the port is available, it steals it from the ttydX device. Also, the cuaaX device does not care about carrier detect. With this scheme and an auto-answer modem, you can have remote users log in and you can still dial out with the same modem and the system will take care of all the conflicts. How do I enable support for a multiport serial card? Again, the section on kernel configuration provides information about configuring your kernel. For a multiport serial card, place an &man.sio.4; line for each serial port on the card in the kernel configuration file. But place the irq and vector specifiers on only one of the entries. All of the ports on the card should share one irq. For consistency, use the last serial port to specify the irq. Also, specify the COM_MULTIPORT option. The following example is for an AST 4-port serial card on irq 7: options "COM_MULTIPORT" device sio4 at isa? port 0x2a0 tty flags 0x781 device sio5 at isa? port 0x2a8 tty flags 0x781 device sio6 at isa? port 0x2b0 tty flags 0x781 device sio7 at isa? port 0x2b8 tty flags 0x781 irq 7 vector siointr The flags indicate that the master port has minor number 7 (0x700), diagnostics enabled during probe (0x080), and all the ports share an irq (0x001). Can FreeBSD handle multiport serial cards sharing irqs? Not yet. You will have to use a different irq for each card. Can I set the default serial parameters for a port? The ttydX (or cuaaX) device is the regular device you will want to open for your applications. When a process opens the device, it will have a default set of terminal I/O settings. You can see these settings with the command &prompt.root; stty -a -f /dev/ttyd1 When you change the settings to this device, the settings are in effect until the device is closed. When it is reopened, it goes back to the default set. To make changes to the default set, you can open and adjust the settings of the initial state device. For example, to turn on CLOCAL mode, 8 bits, and XON/XOFF flow control by default for ttyd5, do: &prompt.root; stty -f /dev/ttyid5 clocal cs8 ixon ixoff A good place to do this is in /etc/rc.serial. Now, an application will have these settings by default when it opens ttyd5. It can still change these settings to its liking, though. You can also prevent certain settings from being changed by an application by making adjustments to the lock state device. For example, to lock the speed of ttyd5 to 57600 bps, do &prompt.root; stty -f /dev/ttyld5 57600 Now, an application that opens ttyd5 and tries to change the speed of the port will be stuck with 57600 bps. Naturally, you should make the initial state and lock state devices writable only by root. The &man.MAKEDEV.8; script does NOT do this when it creates the device entries. How can I enable dialup logins on my modem? So you want to become an Internet service provider, eh? First, you will need one or more modems that can auto-answer. Your modem will need to assert carrier-detect when it detects a carrier and not assert it all the time. It will need to hang up the phone and reset itself when the data terminal ready (DTR) line goes from on to off. It should probably use RTS/CTS flow control or no local flow control at all. Finally, it must use a constant speed between the computer and itself, but (to be nice to your callers) it should negotiate a speed between itself and the remote modem. For many Hayes command-set--compatible modems, this command will make these settings and store them in nonvolatile memory: AT &C1 &D3 &K3 &Q6 S0=1 &W See the section on sending AT commands below for information on how to make these settings without resorting to an MS-DOS terminal program. Next, make an entry in /etc/ttys (see &man.ttys.5;) for the modem. This file lists all the ports on which the operating system will await logins. Add a line that looks something like this: ttyd1 "/usr/libexec/getty std.57600" dialup on insecure This line indicates that the second serial port (/dev/ttyd1) has a modem connected running at 57600 bps and no parity (std.57600, which comes from the file /etc/gettytab, see &man.gettytab.5;). The terminal type for this port is dialup. The port is on and is insecure---meaning root logins on the port are not allowed. For dialin ports like this one, use the ttydX entry. It is common practice to use dialup as the terminal type. Many users set up in their .profile or .login files a prompt for the actual terminal type if the starting type is dialup. The example shows the port as insecure. To become root on this port, you have to login as a regular user, then &man.su.1; to become root. If you use secure then root can login in directly. After making modifications to /etc/ttys, you need to send a hangup or HUP signal to the &man.init.8; process: &prompt.root; kill -HUP 1 This forces the &man.init.8; process to reread /etc/ttys. The init process will then start getty processes on all on ports. You can find out if logins are available for your port by typing &prompt.user; ps -ax | grep '[t]tyd1' You should see something like: 747 ?? I 0:00.04 /usr/libexec/getty std.57600 ttyd1 How can I connect a dumb terminal to my FreeBSD box? If you are using another computer as a terminal into your FreeBSD system, get a null modem cable to go between the two serial ports. If you are using an actual terminal, see its accompanying instructions. Then, modify /etc/ttys (see &man.ttys.5;), like above. For example, if you are hooking up a WYSE-50 terminal to the fifth serial port, use an entry like this: ttyd4 "/usr/libexec/getty std.38400" wyse50 on secure This example shows that the port on /dev/ttyd4 has a wyse50 terminal connected at 38400 bps with no parity (std.38400 from /etc/gettytab, see &man.gettytab.5;) and root logins are allowed (secure). Why can I not run tip or cu? On your system, the programs &man.tip.1; and &man.cu.1; are probably executable only by uucp and group dialer. You can use the group dialer to control who has access to your modem or remote systems. Just add yourself to group dialer. Alternatively, you can let everyone on your system run &man.tip.1; and &man.cu.1; by typing: &prompt.root; chmod 4511 /usr/bin/cu &prompt.root; chmod 4511 /usr/bin/tip My stock Hayes modem is not supported---what can I do? Actually, the man page for &man.tip.1; is out of date. There is a generic Hayes dialer already built in. Just use at=hayes in your /etc/remote (see &man.remote.5;) file. The Hayes driver is not smart enough to recognize some of the advanced features of newer modems---messages like BUSY, NO DIALTONE, or CONNECT 115200 will just confuse it. You should turn those messages off when you use &man.tip.1; (using ATX0&W). Also, the dial timeout for &man.tip.1; is 60 seconds. Your modem should use something less, or else tip will think there is a communication problem. Try ATS7=45&W. Actually, as shipped &man.tip.1; does not yet support it fully. The solution is to edit the file tipconf.h in the directory /usr/src/usr.bin/tip/tip. Obviously you need the source distribution to do this. Edit the line #define HAYES 0 to #define HAYES 1. Then make and make install. Everything works nicely after that. How am I expected to enter these AT commands? Make what is called a direct entry in your /etc/remote file (see &man.remote.5;). For example, if your modem is hooked up to the first serial port, /dev/cuaa0, then put in the following line: cuaa0:dv=/dev/cuaa0:br#19200:pa=none Use the highest bps rate your modem supports in the br capability. Then, type tip cuaa0 (see &man.tip.1;) and you will be connected to your modem. If there is no /dev/cuaa0 on your system, do this: &prompt.root; cd /dev &prompt.root; sh MAKEDEV cuaa0 Or use cu as root with the following command: &prompt.root; cu -lline -sspeed with line being the serial port (e.g. /dev/cuaa0) and speed being the speed (e.g.57600). When you are done entering the AT commands hit ~. to exit. Why does the <@> sign for the pn capability not work? The <@> sign in the phone number capability tells tip to look in /etc/phones for a phone number. But the <@> sign is also a special character in capability files like /etc/remote. Escape it with a backslash: pn=\@ How can I dial a phone number on the command line? Put what is called a generic entry in your /etc/remote file (see &man.remote.5;). For example: tip115200|Dial any phone number at 115200 bps:\ :dv=/dev/cuaa0:br#115200:at=hayes:pa=none:du: tip57600|Dial any phone number at 57600 bps:\ :dv=/dev/cuaa0:br#57600:at=hayes:pa=none:du: Then you can do something like tip -115200 5551234. If you prefer &man.cu.1; over &man.tip.1;, use a generic cu entry: cu115200|Use cu to dial any number at 115200bps:\ :dv=/dev/cuaa1:br#57600:at=hayes:pa=none:du: and type cu 5551234 -s 115200. Do I have to type in the bps rate every time I do that? Put in an entry for tip1200 or cu1200, but go ahead and use whatever bps rate is appropriate with the br capability. &man.tip.1; thinks a good default is 1200 bps which is why it looks for a tip1200 entry. You do not have to use 1200 bps, though. How can I more easily access a number of hosts through a terminal server? Rather than waiting until you are connected and typing CONNECT host each time, use tip's cm capability. For example, these entries in /etc/remote (see &man.remote.5;): pain|pain.deep13.com|Forrester's machine:\ :cm=CONNECT pain\n:tc=deep13: muffin|muffin.deep13.com|Frank's machine:\ :cm=CONNECT muffin\n:tc=deep13: deep13:Gizmonics Institute terminal server:\ :dv=/dev/cuaa2:br#38400:at=hayes:du:pa=none:pn=5551234: will let you type tip pain or tip muffin to connect to the hosts pain or muffin; and tip deep13 to get to the terminal server. Can tip try more than one line for each site? This is often a problem where a university has several modem lines and several thousand students trying to use them... Make an entry for your university in /etc/remote (see &man.remote.5;) and use <\@> for the pn capability: big-university:\ :pn=\@:tc=dialout dialout:\ :dv=/dev/cuaa3:br#9600:at=courier:du:pa=none: Then, list the phone numbers for the university in /etc/phones (see &man.phones.5;): big-university 5551111 big-university 5551112 big-university 5551113 big-university 5551114 &man.tip.1; will try each one in the listed order, then give up. If you want to keep retrying, run &man.tip.1; in a while loop. Why do I have to hit CTRL+P twice to send CTRL+P once? CTRL+P is the default force character, used to tell &man.tip.1; that the next character is literal data. You can set the force character to any other character with the ~s escape, which means set a variable. Type ~sforce=single-char followed by a newline. single-char is any single character. If you leave out single-char, then the force character is the nul character, which you can get by typing CTRL+2 or CTRL+SPACE. A pretty good value for single-char is SHIFT+CTRL+6, which I have seen only used on some terminal servers. You can have the force character be whatever you want by specifying the following in your $HOME/.tiprc file: force=single-char Why is everything I type suddenly in UPPER CASE? You must have pressed CTRL+A, &man.tip.1; raise character, specially designed for people with broken caps-lock keys. Use ~s as above and set the variable raisechar to something reasonable. In fact, you can set it to the same as the force character, if you never expect to use either of these features. Here is a sample .tiprc file perfect for Emacs users who need to type CTRL+2 and CTRL+A a lot: force=^^ raisechar=^^ The ^^ is SHIFT+CTRL+6. How can I do file transfers with tip? If you are talking to another Unix system, you can send and receive files with ~p (put) and ~t (take). These commands run &man.cat.1; and &man.echo.1; on the remote system to accept and send files. The syntax is: ~p <local-file> [<remote-file>] ~t <remote-file> [<local-file>] There is no error checking, so you probably should use another protocol, like zmodem. How can I run zmodem with tip? First, install one of the zmodem programs from the ports collection (such as one of the two from the comms category, lrzsz or rzsz. To receive files, start the sending program on the remote end. Then, press enter and type ~C rz (or ~C lrz if you installed lrzsz) to begin receiving them locally. To send files, start the receiving program on the remote end. Then, press enter and type ~C sz files (or ~C lsz files) to send them to the remote system. Why does FreeBSD not find my serial ports, even when the settings are correct? Motherboards and cards with Acer UARTs do not probe properly under the FreeBSD sio probe. Obtain a patch from www.lemis.com to fix your problem. Miscellaneous Questions FreeBSD uses far more swap space than Linux. Why? FreeBSD only appears to use more swap than Linux. In actual fact, it does not. The main difference between FreeBSD and Linux in this regard is that FreeBSD will proactively move entirely idle, unused pages of main memory into swap in order to make more main memory available for active use. Linux tends to only move pages to swap as a last resort. The perceived heavier use of swap is balanced by the more efficient use of main memory. Note that while FreeBSD is proactive in this regard, it does not arbitrarily decide to swap pages when the system is truly idle. Thus you will not find your system all paged out when you get up in the morning after leaving it idle overnight. Why does top show very little free memory even when I have very few programs running? The simple answer is that free memory is wasted memory. Any memory that your programs do not actively allocate is used within the FreeBSD kernel as disk cache. The values shown by &man.top.1; labeled as Inact, Cache, and Buf are all cached data at different aging levels. This cached data means the system does not have to access a slow disk again for data it has accessed recently, thus increasing overall performance. In general, a low value shown for Free memory in &man.top.1; is good, provided it is not very low. Why use (what are) a.out and ELF executable formats? To understand why FreeBSD uses the ELF format, you must first know a little about the 3 currently dominant executable formats for Unix: Prior to FreeBSD 3.x, FreeBSD used the a.out format. &man.a.out.5; The oldest and classic Unix object format. It uses a short and compact header with a magic number at the beginning that is often used to characterize the format (see &man.a.out.5; for more details). It contains three loaded segments: .text, .data, and .bss plus a symbol table and a string table. COFF The SVR3 object format. The header now comprises a section table, so you can have more than just .text, .data, and .bss sections. ELF The successor to COFF, featuring Multiple sections and 32-bit or 64-bit possible values. One major drawback: ELF was also designed with the assumption that there would be only one ABI per system architecture. That assumption is actually quite incorrect, and not even in the commercial SYSV world (which has at least three ABIs: SVR4, Solaris, SCO) does it hold true. FreeBSD tries to work around this problem somewhat by providing a utility for branding a known ELF executable with information about the ABI it is compliant with. See the man page for &man.brandelf.1; for more information. FreeBSD comes from the classic camp and has traditionally used the &man.a.out.5; format, a technology tried and proven through many generations of BSD releases. Though it has also been possible for some time to build and run native ELF binaries (and kernels) on a FreeBSD system, FreeBSD initially resisted the push to switch to ELF as the default format. Why? Well, when the Linux camp made their painful transition to ELF, it was not so much to flee the a.out executable format as it was their inflexible jump-table based shared library mechanism, which made the construction of shared libraries very difficult for vendors and developers alike. Since the ELF tools available offered a solution to the shared library problem and were generally seen as the way forward anyway, the migration cost was accepted as necessary and the transition made. In FreeBSD's case, our shared library mechanism is based more closely on Sun's SunOS-style shared library mechanism and, as such, is very easy to use. However, starting with 3.0, FreeBSD officially supports ELF binaries as the default format. Even though the a.out executable format has served us well, the GNU people, who author the compiler tools we use, have dropped support for the a.out format. This has forced us to maintain a divergent version of the compiler and linker, and has kept us from reaping the benefits of the latest GNU development efforts. Also the demands of ISO-C++, notably constructors and destructors, has also led to native ELF support in future FreeBSD releases. Yes, but why are there so many different formats? Back in the dim, dark past, there was simple hardware. This simple hardware supported a simple, small system. a.out was completely adequate for the job of representing binaries on this simple system (a PDP-11). As people ported Unix from this simple system, they retained the a.out format because it was sufficient for the early ports of Unix to architectures like the Motorola 68k, VAXen, etc. Then some bright hardware engineer decided that if he could force software to do some sleazy tricks, then he would be able to shave a few gates off the design and allow his CPU core to run faster. While it was made to work with this new kind of hardware (known these days as RISC), a.out was ill-suited for this hardware, so many formats were developed to get to a better performance from this hardware than the limited, simple a.out format could offer. Things like COFF, ECOFF, and a few obscure others were invented and their limitations explored before things seemed to settle on ELF. In addition, program sizes were getting huge and disks (and physical memory) were still relatively small so the concept of a shared library was born. The VM system also became more sophisticated. While each one of these advancements was done using the a.out format, its usefulness was stretched more and more with each new feature. In addition, people wanted to dynamically load things at run time, or to junk parts of their program after the init code had run to save in core memory and/or swap space. Languages became more sophisticated and people wanted code called before main automatically. Lots of hacks were done to the a.out format to allow all of these things to happen, and they basically worked for a time. In time, a.out was not up to handling all these problems without an ever increasing overhead in code and complexity. While ELF solved many of these problems, it would be painful to switch from the system that basically worked. So ELF had to wait until it was more painful to remain with a.out than it was to migrate to ELF. However, as time passed, the build tools that FreeBSD derived their build tools from (the assembler and loader especially) evolved in two parallel trees. The FreeBSD tree added shared libraries and fixed some bugs. The GNU folks that originally write these programs rewrote them and added simpler support for building cross compilers, plugging in different formats at will, etc. Since many people wanted to build cross compilers targeting FreeBSD, they were out of luck since the older sources that FreeBSD had for as and ld were not up to the task. The new gnu tools chain (binutils) does support cross compiling, ELF, shared libraries, C++ extensions, etc. In addition, many vendors are releasing ELF binaries, and it is a good thing for FreeBSD to run them. And if it is running ELF binaries, why bother having a.out any more? It is a tired old horse that has proven useful for a long time, but it is time to turn him out to pasture for his long, faithful years of service. ELF is more expressive than a.out and will allow more extensibility in the base system. The ELF tools are better maintained, and offer cross compilation support, which is important to many people. ELF may be a little slower than a.out, but trying to measure it can be difficult. There are also numerous details that are different between the two in how they map pages, handle init code, etc. None of these are very important, but they are differences. In time support for a.out will be moved out of the GENERIC kernel, and eventually removed from the kernel once the need to run legacy a.out programs is past. Why will chmod not change the permissions on symlinks? Symlinks do not have permissions, and by default, &man.chmod.1; will not follow symlinks to change the permissions on the target file. So if you have a file, foo, and a symlink to that file, bar, then this command will always succeed. &prompt.user; chmod g-w bar However, the permissions on foo will not have changed. You have to use either or together with the option to make this work. See the &man.chmod.1; and &man.symlink.7; man pages for more info. The option does a RECURSIVE &man.chmod.1;. Be careful about specifying directories or symlinks to directories to &man.chmod.1;. If you want to change the permissions of a directory referenced by a symlink, use &man.chmod.1; without any options and follow the symlink with a trailing slash (/). For example, if foo is a symlink to directory bar, and you want to change the permissions of foo (actually bar), you would do something like: &prompt.user; chmod 555 foo/ With the trailing slash, &man.chmod.1; will follow the symlink, foo, to change the permissions of the directory, bar. Why are login names restricted to 8 characters or less in FreeBSD 2.2.X and earlier? You would think it would be easy enough to change UT_NAMESIZE and rebuild the whole world, and everything would just work. Unfortunately there are often scads of applications and utilities (including system tools) that have hard-coded small numbers (not always 8 or 9, but oddball ones like 15 and 20) in structures and buffers. Not only will this get you log files which are trashed (due to variable-length records getting written when fixed records were expected), but it can break Suns NIS clients and potentially cause other problems in interacting with other Unix systems. In FreeBSD 3.0 and later, the maximum name length has been increased to 16 characters and those various utilities with hard-coded name sizes have been found and fixed. The fact that this touched so many areas of the system is why, in fact, the change was not made until 3.0. If you are absolutely confident in your ability to find and fix these sorts of problems for yourself when and if they pop up, you can increase the login name length in earlier releases by editing /usr/include/utmp.h and changing UT_NAMESIZE accordingly. You must also update MAXLOGNAME in /usr/include/sys/param.h to match the UT_NAMESIZE change. Finally, if you build from sources, do not forget that /usr/include is updated each time! Change the appropriate files in /usr/src/.. instead. Can I run DOS binaries under FreeBSD? Yes, starting with version 3.0 you can using BSDI's doscmd DOS emulation which has been integrated and enhanced. Send mail to the &a.emulation; if you are interested in joining this ongoing effort! For pre-3.0 systems, there is a neat utility called pcemu in the ports collection which emulates an 8088 and enough BIOS services to run DOS text mode applications. It requires the X Window System (provided as XFree86). What do I need to do to translate a FreeBSD document into my native language? See the Translation FAQ in the FreeBSD Documentation Project Primer. Why does my email to any address at FreeBSD.org bounce? The FreeBSD.org mail system rejects mail that is either misconfigured or is potential spam. Your mail might bounce for one of the following reasons: The email is being sent from a known spam domain or IP block. The FreeBSD mail servers reject email from known spam sources. If you have service through a company or domain who generates or relays spam, please switch to a service provider who does not. The body of the email only contains HTML. Mail should be sent in plain text only. Please configure your mail user agent to send plain text. The mailer at FreeBSD.org cannot resolve the IP address of the connecting host back to a symbolic name. Working reverse DNS is a standard requirement for accepting mail from a host. Set up reverse DNS for your mail server's IP address. Many home services (DSL, cable, dialup, etc.) will not give you this option. In this case, relay your email through your service provider's mail server. Where can I find a free FreeBSD account? While FreeBSD does not provide open access to any of their servers, others do provide open access Unix systems. The charge varies and limited services may be available. Arbornet, Inc, also known as M-Net, has been providing open access to Unix systems since 1983. Starting on an Altos running System III, the site switched to BSD/OS in 1991. In June of 2000, the site switched again to FreeBSD. M-Net can be accessed via telnet and SSH and provides basic access to the entire FreeBSD software suite. However, network access is limited to members and patrons who donate to the system, which is run as a non-profit organization. M-Net also provides an bulletin board system and interactive chat. Grex provides a site very similar to M-Net including the same bulletin board and interactive chat software. However, the machine is a Sun 4M and is running SunOS What is sup, and how do I use it? SUP stands for Software Update Protocol, and was developed by CMU for keeping their development trees in sync. We used it to keep remote sites in sync with our central development sources. SUP is not bandwidth friendly, and has been retired. The current recommended method to keep your sources up to date is CVSup What is the cute little red guy's name? He does not have one, and is just called the BSD daemon. If you insist upon using a name, call him beastie. Note that beastie is pronounced BSD. You can learn more about the BSD daemon on his home page. Can I use the BSD daemon image? Perhaps. The BSD daemon is copyrighted by Marshall Kirk McKusick. You will want to check his Statement on the Use of the BSD Daemon Figure for detailed usage terms. In summary, you are free to use the image in a tasteful manner, for personal use, so long as appropriate credit is given. If you want to use him commercially, you must contact Kirk McKusick. More details are available on the BSD Daemon's home page. Do you have any BSD daemon images I could use? You will find eps and Xfig drawings under /usr/share/examples/BSD_daemon/. What does MFC mean? MFC is an acronym for Merged From -CURRENT. It is used in the CVS logs to denote when a change was migrated from the CURRENT to the STABLE branches. What does BSD mean? It stands for something in a secret language that only members can know. It does not translate literally but its ok to tell you that BSD's translation is something between, Formula-1 Racing Team, Penguins are tasty snacks, and We have a better sense of humor than Linux. :-) Seriously, BSD is an acronym for Berkeley Software Distribution, which is the name the Berkeley CSRG (Computer Systems Research Group) chose for their Unix distribution way back when. What is a repo-copy? A repo-copy (which is a short form of repository copy) refers to the direct copying of files within the CVS repository. Without a repo-copy, if a file needed to be copied or moved to another place in the repository, the committer would run cvs add to put the file in its new location, and then cvs rm on the old file if the old copy was being removed. The disadvantage of this method is that the history (i.e. the entries in the CVS logs) of the file would not be copied to the new location. As the FreeBSD Project considers this history very useful, a repository copy is often used instead. This is a process where one of the repository meisters will copy the files directly within the repository, rather than using the &man.cvs.1; program. Why should I care what color the bikeshed is? The really, really short answer is that you should not. The somewhat longer answer is that just because you are capable of building a bikeshed does not mean you should stop others from building one just because you do not like the color they plan to paint it. This is a metaphor indicating that you need not argue about every little feature just because you know enough to do so. Some people have commented that the amount of noise generated by a change is inversely proportional to the complexity of the change. The longer and more complete answer is that after a very long argument about whether &man.sleep.1; should take fractional second arguments, &a.phk; posted a long message entitled A bike shed (any colour will do) on greener grass.... The appropriate portions of that message are quoted below.
&a.phk; on freebsd-hackers, October 2, 1999 What is it about this bike shed? Some of you have asked me. It is a long story, or rather it is an old story, but it is quite short actually. C. Northcote Parkinson wrote a book in the early 1960s, called Parkinson's Law, which contains a lot of insight into the dynamics of management. [snip a bit of commentary on the book] In the specific example involving the bike shed, the other vital component is an atomic power-plant, I guess that illustrates the age of the book. Parkinson shows how you can go in to the board of directors and get approval for building a multi-million or even billion dollar atomic power plant, but if you want to build a bike shed you will be tangled up in endless discussions. Parkinson explains that this is because an atomic plant is so vast, so expensive and so complicated that people cannot grasp it, and rather than try, they fall back on the assumption that somebody else checked all the details before it got this far. Richard P. Feynmann gives a couple of interesting, and very much to the point, examples relating to Los Alamos in his books. A bike shed on the other hand. Anyone can build one of those over a weekend, and still have time to watch the game on TV. So no matter how well prepared, no matter how reasonable you are with your proposal, somebody will seize the chance to show that he is doing his job, that he is paying attention, that he is here. In Denmark we call it setting your fingerprint. It is about personal pride and prestige, it is about being able to point somewhere and say There! I did that. It is a strong trait in politicians, but present in most people given the chance. Just think about footsteps in wet cement.
The FreeBSD Funnies How cool is FreeBSD? Q. Has anyone done any temperature testing while running FreeBSD? I know Linux runs cooler than DOS, but have never seen a mention of FreeBSD. It seems to run really hot. A. No, but we have done numerous taste tests on blindfolded volunteers who have also had 250 micrograms of LSD-25 administered beforehand. 35% of the volunteers said that FreeBSD tasted sort of orange, whereas Linux tasted like purple haze. Neither group mentioned any significant variances in temperature. We eventually had to throw the results of this survey out entirely anyway when we found that too many volunteers were wandering out of the room during the tests, thus skewing the results. We think most of the volunteers are at Apple now, working on their new scratch and sniff GUI. It is a funny old business we are in! Seriously, both FreeBSD and Linux use the HLT (halt) instruction when the system is idle thus lowering its energy consumption and therefore the heat it generates. Also if you have APM (advanced power management) configured, then FreeBSD can also put the CPU into a low power mode. Who is scratching in my memory banks?? Q. Is there anything odd that FreeBSD does when compiling the kernel which would cause the memory to make a scratchy sound? When compiling (and for a brief moment after recognizing the floppy drive upon startup, as well), a strange scratchy sound emanates from what appears to be the memory banks. A. Yes! You will see frequent references to daemons in the BSD documentation, and what most people do not know is that this refers to genuine, non-corporeal entities that now possess your computer. The scratchy sound coming from your memory is actually high-pitched whispering exchanged among the daemons as they best decide how to deal with various system administration tasks. If the noise gets to you, a good fdisk /mbr from DOS will get rid of them, but do not be surprised if they react adversely and try to stop you. In fact, if at any point during the exercise you hear the satanic voice of Bill Gates coming from the built-in speaker, take off running and do not ever look back! Freed from the counterbalancing influence of the BSD daemons, the twin demons of DOS and Windows are often able to re-assert total control over your machine to the eternal damnation of your soul. Now that you know, given a choice you would probably prefer to get used to the scratchy noises, no? How many FreeBSD hackers does it take to change a lightbulb? One thousand, one hundred and seventy-two: Twenty-three to complain to -CURRENT about the lights being out; Four to claim that it is a configuration problem, and that such matters really belong on -questions; Three to submit PRs about it, one of which is misfiled under doc and consists only of "it's dark"; One to commit an untested lightbulb which breaks buildworld, then back it out five minutes later; Eight to flame the PR originators for not including patches in their PRs; Five to complain about buildworld being broken; Thirty-one to answer that it works for them, and they must have cvsupped at a bad time; One to post a patch for a new lightbulb to -hackers; One to complain that he had patches for this three years ago, but when he sent them to -CURRENT they were just ignored, and he has had bad experiences with the PR system; besides, the proposed new lightbulb is non-reflexive; Thirty-seven to scream that lightbulbs do not belong in the base system, that committers have no right to do things like this without consulting the Community, and WHAT IS -CORE DOING ABOUT IT!? Two hundred to complain about the color of the bicycle shed; Three to point out that the patch breaks &man.style.9;; Seventeen to complain that the proposed new lightbulb is under GPL; Five hundred and eighty-six to engage in a flame war about the comparative advantages of the GPL, the BSD license, the MIT license, the NPL, and the personal hygiene of unnamed FSF founders; Seven to move various portions of the thread to -chat and -advocacy; One to commit the suggested lightbulb, even though it shines dimmer than the old one; Two to back it out with a furious flame of a commit message, arguing that FreeBSD is better off in the dark than with a dim lightbulb; Forty-six to argue vociferously about the backing out of the dim lightbulb and demanding a statement from -core; Eleven to request a smaller lightbulb so it will fit their Tamagotchi if we ever decide to port FreeBSD to that platform; Seventy-three to complain about the SNR on -hackers and -chat and unsubscribe in protest; Thirteen to post "unsubscribe", "How do I unsubscribe?", or "Please remove me from the list", followed by the usual footer; One to commit a working lightbulb while everybody is too busy flaming everybody else to notice; Thirty-one to point out that the new lightbulb would shine 0.364% brighter if compiled with TenDRA (although it will have to be reshaped into a cube), and that FreeBSD should therefore switch to TenDRA instead of EGCS; One to complain that the new lightbulb lacks fairings; Nine (including the PR originators) to ask "what is MFC?"; Fifty-seven to complain about the lights being out two weeks after the bulb has been changed. &a.nik; adds: I was laughing quite hard at this. And then I thought, "Hang on, shouldn't there be '1 to document it.' in that list somewhere?" And then I was enlightened :-) Where does data written to /dev/null go? It goes into a special data sink in the CPU where it is converted to heat which is vented through the heatsink / fan assembly. This is why CPU cooling is increasingly important; as people get used to faster processors, they become careless with their data and more and more of it ends up in /dev/null, overheating their CPUs. If you delete /dev/null (which effectively disables the CPU data sink) your CPU may run cooler but your system will quickly become constipated with all that excess data and start to behave erratically. If you have a fast network connection you can cool down your CPU by reading data out of /dev/random and sending it off somewhere; however you run the risk of overheating your network connection and / or angering your ISP, as most of the data will end up getting converted to heat by their equipment, but they generally have good cooling, so if you do not overdo it you should be OK. Paul Robinson adds: There are other methods. As every good sysadmin knows, it is part of standard practise to send data to the screen of interesting variety to keep all the pixies that make up your picture happy. Screen pixies (commonly mis-typed or re-named as 'pixels') are categorised by the type of hat they wear (red, green or blue) and will hide or appear (thereby showing the colour of their hat) whenever they receive a little piece of food. Video cards turn data into pixie-food, and then send them to the pixies - the more expensive the card, the better the food, so the better behaved the pixies are. They also need constant simulation - this is why screen savers exist. To take your suggestions further, you could just throw the random data to console, thereby letting the pixies consume it. This causes no heat to be produced at all, keeps the pixies happy and gets rid of your data quite quickly, even if it does make things look a bit messy on your screen. Incidentally, as an ex-admin of a large ISP who experienced many problems attempting to maintain a stable temperature in a server room, I would strongly discourage people sending the data they do not want out to the network. The fairies who do the packet switching and routing get annoyed by it as well. Advanced Topics How can I learn more about FreeBSD's internals? At this time, there is no book on FreeBSD-specific OS internals. Much general UNIX knowledge is directly applicable to FreeBSD, however. Additionally, there are BSD-specific books that are still relevant. For a list, please check the Handbook's Operating System Internals Bibliography. How can I contribute to FreeBSD? Please see the article on Contributing to FreeBSD for specific advice on how to do this. Assistance is more than welcome! What are SNAPs and RELEASEs? There are currently three active/semi-active branches in the FreeBSD CVS Repository (the RELENG_2 branch is probably only changed twice a year, which is why there are only three active branches of development): RELENG_2_2 AKA 2.2-STABLE RELENG_3 AKA 3.X-STABLE RELENG_4 AKA 4-STABLE HEAD AKA -CURRENT AKA 5.0-CURRENT HEAD is not an actual branch tag, like the other two; it is simply a symbolic constant for the current, non-branched development stream which we simply refer to as -CURRENT. Right now, -CURRENT is the 5.0 development stream and the 4-STABLE branch, RELENG_4, forked off from -CURRENT in Mar 2000. The 2.2-STABLE branch, RELENG_2_2, departed -CURRENT in November 1996, and has pretty much been retired. How do I make my own custom release? Please see the Release Engineering article. Why does make world clobber my existing installed binaries? Yes, this is the general idea; as its name might suggest, make world rebuilds every system binary from scratch, so you can be certain of having a clean and consistent environment at the end (which is why it takes so long). If the environment variable DESTDIR is defined while running make world or make install, the newly-created binaries will be deposited in a directory tree identical to the installed one, rooted at ${DESTDIR}. Some random combination of shared libraries modifications and program rebuilds can cause this to fail in make world however. Why does my system say (bus speed defaulted) when it boots? The Adaptec 1542 SCSI host adapters allow the user to configure their bus access speed in software. Previous versions of the 1542 driver tried to determine the fastest usable speed and set the adapter to that. We found that this breaks some users' systems, so you now have to define the TUNE_1542 kernel configuration option in order to have this take place. Using it on those systems where it works may make your disks run faster, but on those systems where it does not, your data could be corrupted. Can I follow current with limited Internet access? Yes, you can do this without downloading the whole source tree by using the CTM facility. How did you split the distribution into 240k files? Newer BSD based systems have a option to split that allows them to split files on arbitrary byte boundaries. Here is an example from /usr/src/Makefile. bin-tarball: (cd ${DISTDIR}; \ tar cf - . \ gzip --no-name -9 -c | \ split -b 240640 - \ ${RELEASEDIR}/tarballs/bindist/bin_tgz.) I have written a kernel extension, who do I send it to? Please take a look at the article on Contributing to FreeBSD to learn how to submit code. And thanks for the thought! How are Plug N Play ISA cards detected and initialized? By: Frank Durda IV uhclem@nemesis.lonestar.org In a nutshell, there a few I/O ports that all of the PnP boards respond to when the host asks if anyone is out there. So when the PnP probe routine starts, he asks if there are any PnP boards present, and all the PnP boards respond with their model # to a I/O read of the same port, so the probe routine gets a wired-OR yes to that question. At least one bit will be on in that reply. Then the probe code is able to cause boards with board model IDs (assigned by Microsoft/Intel) lower than X to go off-line. It then looks to see if any boards are still responding to the query. If the answer was 0, then there are no boards with IDs above X. Now probe asks if there are any boards below X. If so, probe knows there are boards with a model numbers below X. Probe then asks for boards greater than X-(limit/4) to go off-line. If repeats the query. By repeating this semi-binary search of IDs-in-range enough times, the probing code will eventually identify all PnP boards present in a given machine with a number of iterations that is much lower than what 2^64 would take. The IDs are two 32-bit fields (hence 2ˆ64) + 8 bit checksum. The first 32 bits are a vendor identifier. They never come out and say it, but it appears to be assumed that different types of boards from the same vendor could have different 32-bit vendor ids. The idea of needing 32 bits just for unique manufacturers is a bit excessive. The lower 32 bits are a serial #, Ethernet address, something that makes this one board unique. The vendor must never produce a second board that has the same lower 32 bits unless the upper 32 bits are also different. So you can have multiple boards of the same type in the machine and the full 64 bits will still be unique. The 32 bit groups can never be all zero. This allows the wired-OR to show non-zero bits during the initial binary search. Once the system has identified all the board IDs present, it will reactivate each board, one at a time (via the same I/O ports), and find out what resources the given board needs, what interrupt choices are available, etc. A scan is made over all the boards to collect this information. This info is then combined with info from any ECU files on the hard disk or wired into the MLB BIOS. The ECU and BIOS PnP support for hardware on the MLB is usually synthetic, and the peripherals do not really do genuine PnP. However by examining the BIOS info plus the ECU info, the probe routines can cause the devices that are PnP to avoid those devices the probe code cannot relocate. Then the PnP devices are visited once more and given their I/O, DMA, IRQ and Memory-map address assignments. The devices will then appear at those locations and remain there until the next reboot, although there is nothing that says you cannot move them around whenever you want. There is a lot of oversimplification above, but you should get the general idea. Microsoft took over some of the primary printer status ports to do PnP, on the logic that no boards decoded those addresses for the opposing I/O cycles. I found a genuine IBM printer board that did decode writes of the status port during the early PnP proposal review period, but MS said tough. So they do a write to the printer status port for setting addresses, plus that use that address + 0x800, and a third I/O port for reading that can be located anywhere between 0x200 and 0x3ff. Can you assign a major number for a device driver I have written? This depends on whether or not you plan on making the driver publicly available. If you do, then please send us a copy of the driver source code, plus the appropriate modifications to files.i386, a sample configuration file entry, and the appropriate &man.MAKEDEV.8; code to create any special files your device uses. If you do not, or are unable to because of licensing restrictions, then character major number 32 and block major number 8 have been reserved specifically for this purpose; please use them. In any case, we would appreciate hearing about your driver on &a.hackers;. What about alternative layout policies for directories? In answer to the question of alternative layout policies for directories, the scheme that is currently in use is unchanged from what I wrote in 1983. I wrote that policy for the original fast filesystem, and never revisited it. It works well at keeping cylinder groups from filling up. As several of you have noted, it works poorly for find. Most filesystems are created from archives that were created by a depth first search (aka ftw). These directories end up being striped across the cylinder groups thus creating a worst possible scenario for future depth first searches. If one knew the total number of directories to be created, the solution would be to create (total / fs_ncg) per cylinder group before moving on. Obviously, one would have to create some heuristic to guess at this number. Even using a small fixed number like say 10 would make an order of magnitude improvement. To differentiate restores from normal operation (when the current algorithm is probably more sensible), you could use the clustering of up to 10 if they were all done within a ten second window. Anyway, my conclusion is that this is an area ripe for experimentation. Kirk McKusick, September 1998 How can I make the most of the data I see when my kernel panics? [This section was extracted from a mail written by &a.wpaul; on the freebsd-current mailing list by &a.des;, who fixed a few typos and added the bracketed comments] From: Bill Paul <wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu> Subject: Re: the fs fun never stops To: Ben Rosengart Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1998 15:22:50 -0400 (EDT) Cc: current@FreeBSD.org Ben Rosengart posted the following panic message] > Fatal trap 12: page fault while in kernel mode > fault virtual address = 0x40 > fault code = supervisor read, page not present > instruction pointer = 0x8:0xf014a7e5 ^^^^^^^^^^ > stack pointer = 0x10:0xf4ed6f24 > frame pointer = 0x10:0xf4ed6f28 > code segment = base 0x0, limit 0xfffff, type 0x1b > = DPL 0, pres 1, def32 1, gran 1 > processor eflags = interrupt enabled, resume, IOPL = 0 > current process = 80 (mount) > interrupt mask = > trap number = 12 > panic: page fault [When] you see a message like this, it is not enough to just reproduce it and send it in. The instruction pointer value that I highlighted up there is important; unfortunately, it is also configuration dependent. In other words, the value varies depending on the exact kernel image that you are using. If you are using a GENERIC kernel image from one of the snapshots, then it is possible for somebody else to track down the offending function, but if you are running a custom kernel then only you can tell us where the fault occurred. What you should do is this: Write down the instruction pointer value. Note that the 0x8: part at the beginning is not significant in this case: it is the 0xf0xxxxxx part that we want. When the system reboots, do the following: &prompt.user; nm -n /kernel.that.caused.the.panic | grep f0xxxxxx where f0xxxxxx is the instruction pointer value. The odds are you will not get an exact match since the symbols in the kernel symbol table are for the entry points of functions and the instruction pointer address will be somewhere inside a function, not at the start. If you do not get an exact match, omit the last digit from the instruction pointer value and try again, i.e.: &prompt.user; nm -n /kernel.that.caused.the.panic | grep f0xxxxx If that does not yield any results, chop off another digit. Repeat until you get some sort of output. The result will be a possible list of functions which caused the panic. This is a less than exact mechanism for tracking down the point of failure, but it is better than nothing. I see people constantly show panic messages like this but rarely do I see someone take the time to match up the instruction pointer with a function in the kernel symbol table. The best way to track down the cause of a panic is by capturing a crash dump, then using &man.gdb.1; to generate a stack trace on the crash dump. In any case, the method I normally use is this: Set up a kernel config file, optionally adding options DDB if you think you need the kernel debugger for something. (I use this mainly for setting breakpoints if I suspect an infinite loop condition of some kind.) Use config -g KERNELCONFIG to set up the build directory. cd /sys/compile/ KERNELCONFIG; make Wait for kernel to finish compiling. make install reboot The &man.make.1; process will have built two kernels. kernel and kernel.debug. kernel was installed as /kernel, while kernel.debug can be used as the source of debugging symbols for &man.gdb.1;. To make sure you capture a crash dump, you need edit /etc/rc.conf and set dumpdev to point to your swap partition. This will cause the &man.rc.8; scripts to use the &man.dumpon.8; command to enable crash dumps. You can also run &man.dumpon.8; manually. After a panic, the crash dump can be recovered using &man.savecore.8;; if dumpdev is set in /etc/rc.conf, the &man.rc.8; scripts will run &man.savecore.8; automatically and put the crash dump in /var/crash. FreeBSD crash dumps are usually the same size as the physical RAM size of your machine. That is, if you have 64MB of RAM, you will get a 64MB crash dump. Therefore you must make sure there is enough space in /var/crash to hold the dump. Alternatively, you run &man.savecore.8; manually and have it recover the crash dump to another directory where you have more room. It is possible to limit the size of the crash dump by using options MAXMEM=(foo) to set the amount of memory the kernel will use to something a little more sensible. For example, if you have 128MB of RAM, you can limit the kernel's memory usage to 16MB so that your crash dump size will be 16MB instead of 128MB. Once you have recovered the crash dump, you can get a stack trace with &man.gdb.1; as follows: &prompt.user; gdb -k /sys/compile/KERNELCONFIG/kernel.debug /var/crash/vmcore.0 (gdb) where Note that there may be several screens worth of information; ideally you should use &man.script.1; to capture all of them. Using the unstripped kernel image with all the debug symbols should show the exact line of kernel source code where the panic occurred. Usually you have to read the stack trace from the bottom up in order to trace the exact sequence of events that lead to the crash. You can also use &man.gdb.1; to print out the contents of various variables or structures in order to examine the system state at the time of the crash. Now, if you are really insane and have a second computer, you can also configure &man.gdb.1; to do remote debugging such that you can use &man.gdb.1; on one system to debug the kernel on another system, including setting breakpoints, single-stepping through the kernel code, just like you can do with a normal user-mode program. I have not played with this yet as I do not often have the chance to set up two machines side by side for debugging purposes. [Bill adds: "I forgot to mention one thing: if you have DDB enabled and the kernel drops into the debugger, you can force a panic (and a crash dump) just by typing 'panic' at the ddb prompt. It may stop in the debugger again during the panic phase. If it does, type 'continue' and it will finish the crash dump." -ed] Why has dlsym() stopped working for ELF executables? The ELF toolchain does not, by default, make the symbols defined in an executable visible to the dynamic linker. Consequently dlsym() searches on handles obtained from calls to dlopen(NULL, flags) will fail to find such symbols. If you want to search, using dlsym(), for symbols present in the main executable of a process, you need to link the executable using the option to the ELF linker (&man.ld.1;). How can I increase or reduce the kernel address space? By default, the kernel address space is 256 MB on FreeBSD 3.x and 1 GB on FreeBSD 4.x. If you run a network-intensive server (e.g. a large FTP or HTTP server), you might find that 256 MB is not enough. So how do you increase the address space? There are two aspects to this. First, you need to tell the kernel to reserve a larger portion of the address space for itself. Second, since the kernel is loaded at the top of the address space, you need to lower the load address so it does not bump its head against the ceiling. The first goal is achieved by increasing the value of NKPDE in src/sys/i386/include/pmap.h. Here is what it looks like for a 1 GB address space: #ifndef NKPDE #ifdef SMP #define NKPDE 254 /* addressable number of page tables/pde's */ #else #define NKPDE 255 /* addressable number of page tables/pde's */ #endif /* SMP */ #endif To find the correct value of NKPDE, divide the desired address space size (in megabytes) by four, then subtract one for UP and two for SMP. To achieve the second goal, you need to compute the correct load address: simply subtract the address space size (in bytes) from 0x100100000; the result is 0xc0100000 for a 1 GB address space. Set LOAD_ADDRESS in src/sys/i386/conf/Makefile.i386 to that value; then set the location counter in the beginning of the section listing in src/sys/i386/conf/kernel.script to the same value, as follows: OUTPUT_FORMAT("elf32-i386", "elf32-i386", "elf32-i386") OUTPUT_ARCH(i386) ENTRY(btext) SEARCH_DIR(/usr/lib); SEARCH_DIR(/usr/obj/elf/home/src/tmp/usr/i386-unknown-freebsdelf/lib); SECTIONS { /* Read-only sections, merged into text segment: */ . = 0xc0100000 + SIZEOF_HEADERS; .interp : { *(.interp) } Then reconfig and rebuild your kernel. You will probably have problems with &man.ps.1; &man.top.1; and the like; make world should take care of it (or a manual rebuild of libkvm, &man.ps.1; and &man.top.1; after copying the patched pmap.h to /usr/include/vm/. NOTE: the size of the kernel address space must be a multiple of four megabytes. [&a.dg; adds: I think the kernel address space needs to be a power of two, but I am not certain about that. The old(er) boot code used to monkey with the high order address bits and I think expected at least 256MB granularity.] Acknowledgments
FreeBSD Core Team If you see a problem with this FAQ, or wish to submit an entry, please mail the &a.faq;. We appreciate your feedback, and cannot make this a better FAQ without your help!
&a.jkh; Occasional fits of FAQ-reshuffling and updating. &a.dwhite; Services above and beyond the call of duty on freebsd-questions &a.joerg; Services above and beyond the call of duty on Usenet &a.wollman; Networking and formatting Jim Lowe Multicast information &a.pds; FreeBSD FAQ typing machine slavey The FreeBSD Team Kvetching, moaning, submitting data And to any others we have forgotten, apologies and heartfelt thanks! &bibliography; diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/advanced-networking/chapter.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/advanced-networking/chapter.sgml index dbddd58f41..e982cd61f7 100644 --- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/advanced-networking/chapter.sgml +++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/advanced-networking/chapter.sgml @@ -1,5899 +1,5897 @@ Advanced Networking Synopsis This chapter will cover some of the more frequently used network services on Unix systems. We will cover how to define, setup, test and maintain all of the network services that FreeBSD utilizes. In addition, there have been example configuration files included throughout this chapter for you to benefit from. After reading this chapter, you will know: The basics of gateways and routes. How to make FreeBSD act as a bridge. How to setup a network file system. How to setup network booting on a diskless machine. How to setup a network information server for sharing user accounts. How to setup automatic network settings using DHCP. How to setup a domain name server. How to synchronize the time and date, and setup a time server, with the NTP protocol. How to setup network address translation. How to manage the inetd daemon. How to connect two computers via PLIP Before reading this chapter, you should: Understand the basics of the /etc/rc scripts. Be familiar with basic network terminology. Coranth Gryphon Contributed by Gateways and Routes routing gateway subnet For one machine to be able to find another over a network, there must be a mechanism in place to describe how to get from one to the other. This is called routing. A route is a defined pair of addresses: a destination and a gateway. The pair indicates that if you are trying to get to this destination, communicate through this gateway. There are three types of destinations: individual hosts, subnets, and default. The default route is used if none of the other routes apply. We will talk a little bit more about default routes later on. There are also three types of gateways: individual hosts, interfaces (also called links), and Ethernet hardware addresses (MAC addresses). An Example To illustrate different aspects of routing, we will use the following example from netstat: &prompt.user; netstat -r Routing tables Destination Gateway Flags Refs Use Netif Expire default outside-gw UGSc 37 418 ppp0 localhost localhost UH 0 181 lo0 test0 0:e0:b5:36:cf:4f UHLW 5 63288 ed0 77 10.20.30.255 link#1 UHLW 1 2421 example.com link#1 UC 0 0 host1 0:e0:a8:37:8:1e UHLW 3 4601 lo0 host2 0:e0:a8:37:8:1e UHLW 0 5 lo0 => host2.example.com link#1 UC 0 0 224 link#1 UC 0 0 default route The first two lines specify the default route (which we will cover in the next section) and the localhost route. loopback device The interface (Netif column) that it specifies to use for localhost is lo0, also known as the loopback device. This says to keep all traffic for this destination internal, rather than sending it out over the LAN, since it will only end up back where it started. Ethernet MAC address The next thing that stands out are the addresses beginning with 0:e0:. These are Ethernet hardware addresses, which are also known as MAC addresses. FreeBSD will automatically identify any hosts (test0 in the example) on the local Ethernet and add a route for that host, directly to it over the Ethernet interface, ed0. There is also a timeout (Expire column) associated with this type of route, which is used if we fail to hear from the host in a specific amount of time. In this case the route will be automatically deleted. These hosts are identified using a mechanism known as RIP (Routing Information Protocol), which figures out routes to local hosts based upon a shortest path determination. subnet FreeBSD will also add subnet routes for the local subnet (10.20.30.255 is the broadcast address for the subnet 10.20.30, and example.com is the domain name associated with that subnet). The designation link#1 refers to the first Ethernet card in the machine. You will notice no additional interface is specified for those. Both of these groups (local network hosts and local subnets) have their routes automatically configured by a daemon called routed. If this is not run, then only routes which are statically defined (ie. entered explicitly) will exist. The host1 line refers to our host, which it knows by Ethernet address. Since we are the sending host, FreeBSD knows to use the loopback interface (lo0) rather than sending it out over the Ethernet interface. The two host2 lines are an example of what happens when we use an &man.ifconfig.8; alias (see the section of Ethernet for reasons why we would do this). The => symbol after the lo0 interface says that not only are we using the loopback (since this is address also refers to the local host), but specifically it is an alias. Such routes only show up on the host that supports the alias; all other hosts on the local network will simply have a link#1 line for such. The final line (destination subnet 224) deals with MultiCasting, which will be covered in a another section. The other column that we should talk about are the Flags. Each route has different attributes that are described in the column. Below is a short table of some of these flags and their meanings: U Up: The route is active. H Host: The route destination is a single host. G Gateway: Send anything for this destination on to this remote system, which will figure out from there where to send it. S Static: This route was configured manually, not automatically generated by the system. C Clone: Generates a new route based upon this route for machines we connect to. This type of route is normally used for local networks. W WasCloned: Indicated a route that was auto-configured based upon a local area network (Clone) route. L Link: Route involves references to Ethernet hardware. Default Routes default route When the local system needs to make a connection to remote host, it checks the routing table to determine if a known path exists. If the remote host falls into a subnet that we know how to reach (Cloned routes), then the system checks to see if it can connect along that interface. If all known paths fail, the system has one last option: the default route. This route is a special type of gateway route (usually the only one present in the system), and is always marked with a c in the flags field. For hosts on a local area network, this gateway is set to whatever machine has a direct connection to the outside world (whether via PPP link, DSL, cable modem, T1, or another network interface). If you are configuring the default route for a machine which itself is functioning as the gateway to the outside world, then the default route will be the gateway machine at your Internet Service Provider's (ISP) site. Let us look at an example of default routes. This is a common configuration: [Local2] <--ether--> [Local1] <--PPP--> [ISP-Serv] <--ether--> [T1-GW] The hosts Local1 and Local2 are at your site. Local1 is connected to an ISP via a dial up PPP connection. This PPP server computer is connected through a local area network to another gateway computer with an external interface to the ISPs Internet feed. The default routes for each of your machines will be: Host Default Gateway Interface Local2 Local1 Ethernet Local1 T1-GW PPP A common question is Why (or how) would we set the T1-GW to be the default gateway for Local1, rather than the ISP server it is connected to?. Remember, since the PPP interface is using an address on the ISP's local network for your side of the connection, routes for any other machines on the ISP's local network will be automatically generated. Hence, you will already know how to reach the T1-GW machine, so there is no need for the intermediate step of sending traffic to the ISP server. As a final note, it is common to use the address X.X.X.1 as the gateway address for your local network. So (using the same example), if your local class-C address space was 10.20.30 and your ISP was using 10.9.9 then the default routes would be: Host Default Route Local2 (10.20.3.2) Local1 (10.20.30.1) Local1 (10.20.30.1, 10.9.9.30) T1-GW (10.9.9.1) Dual Homed Hosts dual homed hosts There is one other type of configuration that we should cover, and that is a host that sits on two different networks. Technically, any machine functioning as a gateway (in the example above, using a PPP connection) counts as a dual-homed host. But the term is really only used to refer to a machine that sits on two local-area networks. In one case, the machine has two Ethernet cards, each having an address on the separate subnets. Alternately, the machine may only have one Ethernet card, and be using &man.ifconfig.8; aliasing. The former is used if two physically separate Ethernet networks are in use, the latter if there is one physical network segment, but two logically separate subnets. Either way, routing tables are set up so that each subnet knows that this machine is the defined gateway (inbound route) to the other subnet. This configuration, with the machine acting as a Bridge between the two subnets, is often used when we need to implement packet filtering or firewall security in either or both directions. If you want this machine to actually forward packets between the two interfaces, you need to tell FreeBSD to enable this ability. Building a Router router A network router is simply a system that forwards packets from one interface to another. Internet standards and good engineering practice prevent the FreeBSD Project from enabling this by default in FreeBSD. You can enable this feature by changing the following variable to YES in &man.rc.conf.5;: gateway_enable=YES # Set to YES if this host will be a gateway This option will put the &man.sysctl.8; variable net.inet.ip.forwarding to 1. If you should need to stop routing temporarily, you can reset this to 0 temporarily. Your new router will need routes to know where to send the traffic. If your network is simple enough you can use static routes. FreeBSD also comes with the standard BSD routing daemon &man.routed.8;, which speaks RIP (both version 1 and version 2) and IRDP. For more complex situations you may want to try net/gated. Even when FreeBSD is configured in this way, it does not completely comply with the Internet standard requirements for routers. It comes close enough for ordinary use, however. Routing Propagation routing propagation We have already talked about how we define our routes to the outside world, but not about how the outside world finds us. We already know that routing tables can be set up so that all traffic for a particular address space (in our examples, a class-C subnet) can be sent to a particular host on that network, which will forward the packets inbound. When you get an address space assigned to your site, your service provider will set up their routing tables so that all traffic for your subnet will be sent down your PPP link to your site. But how do sites across the country know to send to your ISP? There is a system (much like the distributed DNS information) that keeps track of all assigned address-spaces, and defines their point of connection to the Internet Backbone. The Backbone are the main trunk lines that carry Internet traffic across the country, and around the world. Each backbone machine has a copy of a master set of tables, which direct traffic for a particular network to a specific backbone carrier, and from there down the chain of service providers until it reaches your network. It is the task of your service provider to advertise to the backbone sites that they are the point of connection (and thus the path inward) for your site. This is known as route propagation. Troubleshooting traceroute Sometimes, there is a problem with routing propagation, and some sites are unable to connect to you. Perhaps the most useful command for trying to figure out where a routing is breaking down is the &man.traceroute.8; command. It is equally useful if you cannot seem to make a connection to a remote machine (i.e. &man.ping.8; fails). The &man.traceroute.8; command is run with the name of the remote host you are trying to connect to. It will show the gateway hosts along the path of the attempt, eventually either reaching the target host, or terminating because of a lack of connection. For more information, see the manual page for &man.traceroute.8;. Steve Peterson Written by Bridging Introduction IP subnet bridge It is sometimes useful to divide one physical network (such as an Ethernet segment) into two separate network segments without having to create IP subnets and use a router to connect the segments together. A device that connects two networks together in this fashion is called a bridge. A FreeBSD system with two network interface cards can act as a bridge. The bridge works by learning the MAC layer addresses (Ethernet addresses) of the devices on each of its network interfaces. It forwards traffic between two networks only when its source and destination are on different networks. In many respects, a bridge is like an Ethernet switch with very few ports. Situations Where Bridging Is Appropriate There are two common situations in which a bridge is used today. High Traffic on a Segment Situation one is where your physical network segment is overloaded with traffic, but you do not want for whatever reason to subnet the network and interconnect the subnets with a router. Let us consider an example of a newspaper where the Editorial and Production departments are on the same subnetwork. The Editorial users all use server A for file service, and the Production users are on server B. An Ethernet is used to connect all users together, and high loads on the network are slowing things down. If the Editorial users could be segregated on one network segment and the Production users on another, the two network segments could be connected with a bridge. Only the network traffic destined for interfaces on the "other" side of the bridge would be sent to the other network, reducing congestion on each network segment. Filtering/Traffic Shaping Firewall firewall IP Masquerading The second common situation is where firewall functionality is needed without IP Masquerading (NAT). An example is a small company that is connected via DSL or ISDN to their ISP. They have a 13 globally-accessible IP addresses from their ISP and have 10 PCs on their network. In this situation, using a router-based firewall is difficult because of subnetting issues. router DSL ISDN A bridge-based firewall can be configured and dropped into the path just downstream of their DSL/ISDN router without any IP numbering issues. Configuring a Bridge Network Interface Card Selection A bridge requires at least two network cards to function. Unfortunately, not all network interface cards as of FreeBSD 4.0 support bridging. Read &man.bridge.4; for details on the cards that are supported. Install and test the two network cards before continuing. Kernel Configuration Changes kernel configuration kernel configuration options BRIDGE To enable kernel support for bridging, add the: options BRIDGE statement to your kernel configuration file, and rebuild your kernel. Firewall Support firewall If you are planning to use the bridge as a firewall, you will need to add the IPFIREWALL option as well. Read for general information on configuring the bridge as a firewall. If you need to allow non-IP packets (such as ARP) to flow through the bridge, there is an undocumented firewall option that must be set. This option is IPFIREWALL_DEFAULT_TO_ACCEPT. Note that this changes the default rule for the firewall to accept any packet. Make sure you know how this changes the meaning of your ruleset before you set it. Traffic Shaping Support If you want to use the bridge as a traffic shaper, you will need to add the DUMMYNET option to your kernel configuration. Read &man.dummynet.4; for further information. Enabling the Bridge Add the line: net.link.ether.bridge=1 to /etc/sysctl.conf to enable the bridge at runtime. If you want the bridged packets to be filtered by &man.ipfw.8;, you should also add: net.link.ether.bridge_ipfw=1 as well. Performance My bridge/firewall is a Pentium 90 with one 3Com 3C900B and one 3C905B. The protected side of the network runs at 10mbps half duplex and the connection between the bridge and my router (a Cisco 675) runs at 100mbps full duplex. With no filtering enabled, I have found that the bridge adds about 0.4 milliseconds of latency to pings from the protected 10mbps network to the Cisco 675. Other Information If you want to be able to telnet into the bridge from the network, it is OK to assign one of the network cards an IP address. The consensus is that assigning both cards an address is a bad idea. If you have multiple bridges on your network, there cannot be more than one path between any two workstations. Technically, this means that there is no support for spanning tree link management. Tom Rhodes Reorganized and enhanced by Bill Swingle Written by NFS NFS Among the many different file systems that FreeBSD supports is the Network File System, also known as NFS. NFS allows a system to share directories and files with others over a network. By using NFS, users and programs can access files on remote systems almost as if they were local files. Some of the most notable benefits that NFS can provide are: Local workstations use less disk space because commonly used data can be stored on a single machine and still remain accessible to others over the network. There is no need for users to have separate home directories on every network machine. Home directories could be setup on the NFS server and made available throughout the network. Storage devices such as floppy disks, CDROM drives, and ZIP drives can be used by other machines on the network. This may reduce the number of removable media drives throughout the network. How <acronym>NFS</acronym> Works NFS consists of at least two main parts: a server and one or more clients. The client remotely accesses the data that is stored on the server machine. In order for this to function properly a few processes have to be configured and running: The server has to be running the following daemons: NFS server portmap mountd nfsd Daemon Description nfsd The NFS daemon which services requests from the NFS clients. mountd The NFS mount daemon which carries out the requests that &man.nfsd.8; passes on to it. portmap The portmapper daemon allows NFS clients to discover which port the NFS server is using. The client can also run a daemon, known as nfsiod. The nfsiod daemon services the requests from the NFS server. This is optional, and improves performance, but is not required for normal and correct operation. See the &man.nfsiod.8; manual page for more information. Configuring <acronym>NFS</acronym> NFS configuration NFS configuration is a relatively straightforward process. The processes that need to be running can all start at boot time with a few modifications to your /etc/rc.conf file. On the NFS server, make sure that the following options are configured in the /etc/rc.conf file: portmap_enable="YES" nfs_server_enable="YES" mountd_flags="-r" mountd runs automatically whenever the NFS server is enabled. On the client, make sure this option is present in /etc/rc.conf: nfs_client_enable="YES" The /etc/exports file specifies which filesystems NFS should export (sometimes referred to as share). Each line in /etc/exports specifies a filesystem to be exported and which machines have access to that filesystem. Along with what machines have access to that filesystem, access options may also be specified. There are many such options that can be used in this file but only a few will be mentioned here. You can easily discover other options by reading over the &man.exports.5; manual page. Here are a few example /etc/exports entries: NFS Examples of exporting filesystems The following examples give an idea of how to export filesystems, although the settings may be different depending on your environment and network configuration. For instance, to export the /cdrom directory to three example machines that have the same domain name as the server (hence the lack of a domain name for each) or have entries in your /etc/hosts file. The flag makes the exported file system read-only. With this flag, the remote system will not be able to write any changes to the exported file system. /cdrom -ro host1 host2 host3 The following line exports /home to three hosts by IP address. This is a useful setup if you have a private network without a DNS server configured. Optionally the /etc/hosts file could be configured for internal hostnames; please review &man.hosts.5; for more information. The flag allows the subdirectories to be mount points. In other words, it will not mount the subdirectories but permit the client to mount only the directories that are required or needed. /home -alldirs 10.0.0.2 10.0.0.3 10.0.0.4 The following line exports /a so that two clients from different domains may access the filesystem. The flag allows the root user on the remote system to write data on the exported filesystem as root. If the -maproot=root flag is not specified, then even if a user has root access on the remote system, they will not be able to modify files on the exported filesystem. /a -maproot=root host.example.com box.example.org In order for a client to access an exported filesystem, the client must have permission to do so. Make sure the client is listed in your /etc/exports file. In /etc/exports, each line represents the export information for one filesystem to one host. A remote host can only be specified once per filesystem, and may only have one default entry. For example, assume that /usr is a single filesystem. The following /etc/exports would be valid: /usr/src client /usr/ports client One filesystem, /usr, has two lines specifying exports to the same host, client. The correct format for this situation is: /usr/src /usr/ports client The properties of one filesystem exported to a given host must all occur on one line. Lines without a client specified are treated as a single host. This limits how you can export filesystems, but for most people this is not an issue. The following is an example of a valid export list, where /usr and /exports are local filesystems: # Export src and ports to client01 and client02, but only # client01 has root privileges on it /usr/src /usr/ports -maproot=root client01 /usr/src /usr/ports client02 # The client machines have root and can mount anywhere # on /exports. Anyone in the world can mount /exports/obj read-only /exports -alldirs -maproot=root client01 client02 /exports/obj -ro You must restart mountd whenever you modify /etc/exports so the changes can take effect. This can be accomplished by sending the hangup signal to the mountd process: &prompt.root; kill -HUP `cat /var/run/mountd.pid` Alternatively, a reboot will make FreeBSD set everything up properly. A reboot is not necessary though. Executing the following commands as root should start everything up. On the NFS server: &prompt.root; portmap &prompt.root; nfsd -u -t -n 4 &prompt.root; mountd -r On the NFS client: &prompt.root; nfsiod -n 4 Now everything should be ready to actually mount a remote file system. In these examples the server's name will be server and the client's name will be client. If you only want to temporarily mount a remote file system or would rather test the configuration, just execute a command like this as root on the client: NFS mounting filesystems &prompt.root; mount server:/home /mnt This will mount the /home directory on the server at /mnt on the client. If everything is set up correctly you should be able to enter /mnt on the client and see all the files that are on the server. If you want to automatically mount a remote filesystem each time the computer boots, add the filesystem to the /etc/fstab file. Here is an example: server:/home /mnt nfs rw 0 0 The &man.fstab.5; manual page lists all the available options. Practical Uses NFS has many practical uses. Some of the more common ones are listed below: NFS uses Set several machines to share a CDROM or other media among them. This is cheaper and often a more convenient method to install software on multiple machines. On large networks, it might be more convenient to configure a central NFS server in which to store all the user home directories. These home directories can then be exported to the network so that users would always have the same home directory, regardless of which workstation they log in to. You can use an exported CDROM to install software on multiple machines. Several machines could have a common /usr/ports/distfiles directory. That way, when you need to install a port on several machines, you can quickly access the source without downloading it on each machine. Wylie Stilwell Contributed by Chern Lee Rewritten by amd amd automatic mounter daemon &man.amd.8; (the automatic mounter daemon) automatically mounts a remote filesystem whenever a file or directory within that filesystem is accessed. Filesystems that are inactive for a period of time will also be automatically unmounted by amd. Using amd provides a simple alternative to permanent mounts, as permanent mounts are usually listed in /etc/fstab. amd operates by attaching itself as an NFS server to the /host and /net directories. When a file is accessed within one of these directories, amd looks up the corresponding remote mount and automatically mounts it. /net is used to mount an exported filesystem from an IP address, while /host is used to mount an export from a remote hostname. An access to a file within /host/foobar/usr would tell amd to attempt to mount the /usr export on the host foobar. Mounting an Export with <application>amd</application> &prompt.user; showmount -e foobar Exports list on foobar: /usr 10.10.10.0 /a 10.10.10.0 &prompt.user; cd /host/foobar/usr As seen in the example, the showmount shows /usr as an export. When changing directories to /host/foobar/usr, amd attempts to resolve the hostname foobar and automatically mount the desired export. amd can be started through the rc.conf system by placing the following lines in /etc/rc.conf: amd_enable="YES" Additionally, custom flags can be passed to amd from the amd_flags option. By default, amd_flags is set to: amd_flags="-a /.amd_mnt -l syslog /host /etc/amd.map /net /etc/amd.map" The /etc/amd.map file defines the default options that exports are mounted with. The /etc/amd.conf file defines some of the more advanced features of amd. Consult the &man.amd.8; and &man.amd.conf.5; man pages for more information. John Lind Contributed by Problems Integrating with Other Systems Certain Ethernet adapters for ISA PC systems have limitations which can lead to serious network problems, particularly with NFS. This difficulty is not specific to FreeBSD, but FreeBSD systems are affected by it. The problem nearly always occurs when (FreeBSD) PC systems are networked with high-performance workstations, such as those made by Silicon Graphics, Inc., and Sun Microsystems, Inc. The NFS mount will work fine, and some operations may succeed, but suddenly the server will seem to become unresponsive to the client, even though requests to and from other systems continue to be processed. This happens to the client system, whether the client is the FreeBSD system or the workstation. On many systems, there is no way to shut down the client gracefully once this problem has manifested itself. The only solution is often to reset the client, because the NFS situation cannot be resolved. Though the correct solution is to get a higher performance and capacity Ethernet adapter for the FreeBSD system, there is a simple workaround that will allow satisfactory operation. If the FreeBSD system is the server, include the option on the mount from the client. If the FreeBSD system is the client, then mount the NFS file system with the option . These options may be specified using the fourth field of the fstab entry on the client for automatic mounts, or by using the parameter of the mount command for manual mounts. It should be noted that there is a different problem, sometimes mistaken for this one, when the NFS servers and clients are on different networks. If that is the case, make certain that your routers are routing the necessary UDP information, or you will not get anywhere, no matter what else you are doing. In the following examples, fastws is the host (interface) name of a high-performance workstation, and freebox is the host (interface) name of a FreeBSD system with a lower-performance Ethernet adapter. Also, /sharedfs will be the exported NFS filesystem (see &man.exports.5;), and /project will be the mount point on the client for the exported file system. In all cases, note that additional options, such as or and may be desirable in your application. Examples for the FreeBSD system (freebox) as the client: in /etc/fstab on freebox: fastws:/sharedfs /project nfs rw,-r=1024 0 0 As a manual mount command on freebox: &prompt.root; mount -t nfs -o -r=1024 fastws:/sharedfs /project Examples for the FreeBSD system as the server: in /etc/fstab on fastws: freebox:/sharedfs /project nfs rw,-w=1024 0 0 As a manual mount command on fastws: &prompt.root; mount -t nfs -o -w=1024 freebox:/sharedfs /project Nearly any 16-bit Ethernet adapter will allow operation without the above restrictions on the read or write size. For anyone who cares, here is what happens when the failure occurs, which also explains why it is unrecoverable. NFS typically works with a block size of 8k (though it may do fragments of smaller sizes). Since the maximum Ethernet packet is around 1500 bytes, the NFS block gets split into multiple Ethernet packets, even though it is still a single unit to the upper-level code, and must be received, assembled, and acknowledged as a unit. The high-performance workstations can pump out the packets which comprise the NFS unit one right after the other, just as close together as the standard allows. On the smaller, lower capacity cards, the later packets overrun the earlier packets of the same unit before they can be transferred to the host and the unit as a whole cannot be reconstructed or acknowledged. As a result, the workstation will time out and try again, but it will try again with the entire 8K unit, and the process will be repeated, ad infinitum. By keeping the unit size below the Ethernet packet size limitation, we ensure that any complete Ethernet packet received can be acknowledged individually, avoiding the deadlock situation. Overruns may still occur when a high-performance workstations is slamming data out to a PC system, but with the better cards, such overruns are not guaranteed on NFS units. When an overrun occurs, the units affected will be retransmitted, and there will be a fair chance that they will be received, assembled, and acknowledged. Jean-François Dockès Updated by Diskless Operation diskless workstation diskless operation A FreeBSD machine can boot over the network and operate without a local disk, using file systems mounted from an NFS server. No system modification is necessary, beyond standard configuration files. Such a system is easy to set up because all the necessary elements are readily available: There are at least two possible methods to load the kernel over the network: PXE: Intel's Preboot Execution Environment system is a form of smart boot ROM built into some networking cards or motherboards. See &man.pxeboot.8; for more details. The etherboot port (/usr/ports/net/etherboot) produces ROM-able code to boot kernels over the network. The code can be either burnt into a boot PROM on a network card, or loaded from a local floppy (or hard) disk drive, or from a running MS-DOS system. Many network cards are supported. A sample script (/usr/share/examples/diskless/clone_root) eases the creation and maintenance of the workstation's root filesystem on the server. The script will probably require a little customization but it will get you started very quickly Standard system startup files exist in /etc to detect and support a diskless system startup. Swapping, if needed, can be done either to an NFS file or to a local disk There are many ways to set up diskless workstations. Many elements are involved, and most can be customized to suit local taste. The following will describe the setup of a complete system, emphasizing simplicity and compatibility with the standard FreeBSD startup scripts. The system described has the following characteristics: The diskless workstations use a shared read-only root filesystem, and a shared read-only /usr. The root file system is a copy of a standard FreeBSD root (typically the server's), with some configuration files overridden by ones specific to diskless operation or, possibly, to the workstation they belong to. The parts of the root which have to be writable are overlaid with &man.mfs.8; filesystems. Any changes will be lost when the system reboots. The kernel is loaded by etherboot , using DHCP (or BOOTP) and TFTP. As described, this system is insecure. It should live in a protected area of a network, and be untrusted by other hosts. Setup Instructions Configuring DHCP/BOOTP There are two protocols that are commonly used to boot a workstation that retrieves its configuration over the network: BOOTP and DHCP. They are used at several points in the workstation bootstrap: etherboot uses DHCP (by default) or BOOTP (needs a configuration option) to find the kernel. (PXE uses DHCP). The kernel uses BOOTP to locate the NFS root. It is possible to configure a system to use only BOOTP. The &man.bootpd.8; server program is included in the base FreeBSD system. However, DHCP has a number of advantages over BOOTP (nicer configuration files, possibility of using PXE, plus many others not directly related to diskless operation), and we shall describe both a pure BOOTP, and a BOOTP+DHCP configuration, with an emphasis on the latter, which will use the ISC DHCP software package. Configuration Using ISC DHCP The isc-dhcp server can answer both BOOTP and DHCP requests. As of release 4.4, isc-dhcp 3.0 is not part of the base system. You will first need to install the /usr/ports/net/isc-dhcp3 port or the corresponding package. Please refer to for general information about ports and packages. Once isc-dhcp is installed, it needs a configuration file to run, (normally named /usr/local/etc/dhcpd.conf). Here follows a commented example: default-lease-time 600; max-lease-time 7200; authoritative; option domain-name "example.com"; option domain-name-servers 192.168.4.1; option routers 192.168.4.1; subnet 192.168.4.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 { use-host-decl-names on; option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0; option broadcast-address 192.168.4.255; host margaux { hardware ethernet 01:23:45:67:89:ab; fixed-address margaux.example.com; next-server 192.168.4.4; filename "/tftpboot/kernel.diskless"; option root-path "192.168.4.4:/data/misc/diskless"; } } This option tells dhcpd to send the value in the host declarations as the hostname for the diskless host. An alternate way would be to add an option host-name margaux inside the host declarations. The next-server directive designates the TFTP server (the default is to use the same host as the DHCP server). The filename directive defines the file that etherboot will load as a kernel. PXE appears to prefer a relative file name, and it loads pxeboot, not the kernel (option filename "pxeboot"). The root-path option defines the path to the root filesystem, in usual NFS notation Configuration Using BOOTP Here follows an equivalent bootpd configuration. This would be found in /etc/bootptab. Please note that etherboot must be compiled with the non-default option NO_DHCP_SUPPORT in order to use BOOTP, and that PXE needs DHCP. The only obvious advantage of bootpd is that it exists in the base system. .def100:\ :hn:ht=1:sa=192.168.4.4:vm=rfc1048:\ :sm=255.255.255.0:\ :ds=192.168.4.1:\ :gw=192.168.4.1:\ :hd="/tftpboot":\ :bf="/kernel.diskless":\ :rp="192.168.4.4:/data/misc/diskless": margaux:ha=0123456789ab:tc=.def100 Preparing a Boot Program with <application>Etherboot</application> Etherboot's Web site contains extensive documentation mainly intended for Linux systems, but nonetheless containing useful information. The following will just outline how you would use etherboot on a FreeBSD system. You must first install - and possibly compile - the etherboot package. The etherboot port can normally be found in /usr/ports/net/etherboot. If the ports tree is installed on your system, just typing make in this directory should take care of everything. Else refer to for information about ports and packages. For our setup, we shall use a boot floppy. For other methods (PROM, or dos program), please refer to the etherboot documentation. To make a boot floppy, insert a floppy in the drive on the machine where you installed etherboot, then change your current directory to the src directory in the etherboot tree and type: &prompt.root; gmake bin32/devicetype.fd0 devicetype depends on the type of the Ethernet card in the diskless workstation. Refer to the NIC file in the same directory to determine the right devicetype. Configuring the TFTP and NFS Servers You need to enable tftpd on the TFTP server: Create a directory from which tftpd will serve the files, ie: /tftpboot Add this line to your /etc/inetd.conf: tftp dgram udp wait nobody /usr/libexec/tftpd tftpd /tftpboot It appears that at least some PXE versions want the TCP version of TFTP. In this case, add a second line, replacing dgram udp with stream tcp Tell inetd to reread its configuration file: &prompt.root; kill -HUP `cat /var/run/inetd.pid` You can place the tftpboot directory anywhere on the server. Make sure that the location is set in both inetd.conf and dhcpd.conf. You also need to enable NFS service and export the appropriate filesystem on the NFS server Add this to /etc/rc.conf: nfs_server_enable="YES" Export the filesystem where the diskless root directory is located by adding the following to /etc/exports (adjust the volume mount point and workstation name!): /data/misc -alldirs -ro margaux Tell mountd to reread its configuration file. If you actually needed to configure NFS service at step 1, you probably want to reboot instead. &prompt.root; kill -HUP `cat /var/run/mountd.pid` Building a Diskless Kernel Create a kernel configuration file for the diskless client with the following options (in addition to the usual ones): options BOOTP # Use BOOTP to obtain IP address/hostname options BOOTP_NFSROOT # NFS mount root filesystem using BOOTP info options BOOTP_COMPAT # Workaround for broken bootp daemons. You may also want to use BOOTP_NFSV3 and BOOTP_WIRED_TO (refer to LINT). Build the kernel (See ), and copy it to the tftp directory, under the name listed in dhcpd.conf Preparing the root Filesystem You need to create a root filesystem for the diskless workstations, in the location listed as root-path in dhcpd.conf. The easiest way to do this is to use the /usr/share/examples/diskless/clone_root shell script. This script needs customization, at least to adjust the place where the filesystem will be created (the DEST variable). Refer to the comments at the top of the script for instructions. They explain how the base filesystem is built, and how files may be selectively overridden by versions specific to diskless operation, to a subnetwork, or to an individual workstation. They also give examples for the diskless /etc/fstab and /etc/rc.conf The README files in /usr/share/examples/diskless contain a lot of interesting background information, but, together with the other examples in the diskless directory, they actually document a configuration method which is distinct from the one used by clone_root and /etc/rc.diskless[12], which is a little confusing. Use them for reference only, except if you prefer the method that they describe, in which case you will need customized rc scripts As of FreeBSD version 4.4-RELEASE, there is a small incompatibility between the clone_root script and the /etc/rc.diskless1 script. Please refer to PR conf/31200 for the small adjustment needed in clone_root. Also see PR conf/29870 about a small adjustment needed in /etc/rc.diskless2. Configuring Swap If needed, a swap file located on the server can be accessed via NFS. The exact bootptab or dhcpd.conf options are not clearly documented at this time. The following configuration suggestions have been reported to work in some installations using isc-dhcp 3.0rc11. Add the following lines to dhcpd.conf: # Global section option swap-path code 128 = string; option swap-size code 129 = integer 32; host margaux { ... # Standard lines, see above option swap-path "192.168.4.4:/netswapvolume/netswap"; option swap-size 64000; } The idea is that, at least for a FreeBSD client, DHCP/BOOTP option code 128 is the path to the NFS swap file, and option code 129 is the swap size in kilobytes. Older versions of dhcpd allowed a syntax of option option-128 "..., which does not seem to work any more. /etc/bootptab would use the following syntax instead: T128="192.168.4.4:/netswapvolume/netswap":T129=64000 On the NFS swap file server, create the swap file(s) &prompt.root; mkdir /netswapvolume/netswap &prompt.root; cd /netswapvolume/netswap &prompt.root; dd if=/dev/zero bs=1024 count=64000 of=swap.192.168.4.6 &prompt.root; chmod 0600 swap.192.168.4.6 192.168.4.6 is the IP address for the diskless client On the NFS swap file server, add the following line to /etc/exports /netswapvolume -maproot=0:10 -alldirs margaux Then tell mountd to reread the exports file, as above. Miscellaneous Issues Running with a read-only <filename>/usr</filename>If the diskless workstation is configured to run X, you will have to adjust the xdm configuration file, which puts the error log on /usr by default. Using a non-FreeBSD Server When the server for the root filesystem is not running FreeBSD, you will have to create the root file system on a FreeBSD machine, then copy it to its destination, using tar or cpio. In this situation, there are sometimes problems with the special files in /dev, due to differing major/minor integer sizes. A solution to this problem is to export a directory from the non-FreeBSD server, mount this directory onto a FreeBSD machine, and run MAKEDEV on the FreeBSD machine to create the correct device entries. ISDN A good resource for information on ISDN technology and hardware is Dan Kegel's ISDN Page. A quick simple road map to ISDN follows: If you live in Europe you might want to investigate the ISDN card section. If you are planning to use ISDN primarily to connect to the Internet with an Internet Provider on a dial-up non-dedicated basis, you might look into Terminal Adapters. This will give you the most flexibility, with the fewest problems, if you change providers. If you are connecting two LANs together, or connecting to the Internet with a dedicated ISDN connection, you might consider the stand alone router/bridge option. Cost is a significant factor in determining what solution you will choose. The following options are listed from least expensive to most expensive. Hellmuth Michaelis Contributed by ISDN Cards ISDN cards FreeBSD's ISDN implementation supports only the DSS1/Q.931 (or Euro-ISDN) standard using passive cards. Starting with FreeBSD 4.4, some active cards are supported where the firmware also supports other signaling protocols; this also includes the first supported Primary Rate (PRI) ISDN card. Isdn4bsd allows you to connect to other ISDN routers using either IP over raw HDLC or by using synchronous PPP: either by using kernel PPP with isppp, a modified sppp driver, or by using userland &man.ppp.8;. By using userland &man.ppp.8;, channel bonding of two or more ISDN B-channels is possible. A telephone answering machine application is also available as well as many utilities such as a software 300 Baud modem. Some growing number of PC ISDN cards are supported under FreeBSD and the reports show that it is successfully used all over Europe and in many other parts of the world. The passive ISDN cards supported are mostly the ones with the Infineon (formerly Siemens) ISAC/HSCX/IPAC ISDN chipsets, but also ISDN cards with chips from Cologne Chip (ISA bus only), PCI cards with Winbond W6692 chips, some cards with the Tiger300/320/ISAC chipset combinations and some vendor specific chipset based cards such as the AVM Fritz!Card PCI V.1.0 and the AVM Fritz!Card PnP. Currently the active supported ISDN cards are the AVM B1 (ISA and PCI) BRI cards and the AVM T1 PCI PRI cards. For documentation on isdn4bsd, have a look at /usr/share/examples/isdn/ directory on your FreeBSD system or at the homepage of isdn4bsd which also has pointers to hints, erratas and much more documentation such as the isdn4bsd handbook. In case you are interested in adding support for a different ISDN protocol, a currently unsupported ISDN PC card or otherwise enhancing isdn4bsd, please get in touch with &a.hm;. For questions regarding the installation, configuration and troubleshooting isdn4bsd, a majordomo maintained mailing list is available. To join, send mail to &a.majordomo; and specify: subscribe freebsd-isdn in the body of your message. ISDN Terminal Adapters Terminal adapters(TA), are to ISDN what modems are to regular phone lines. modem Most TA's use the standard hayes modem AT command set, and can be used as a drop in replacement for a modem. A TA will operate basically the same as a modem except connection and throughput speeds will be much faster than your old modem. You will need to configure PPP exactly the same as for a modem setup. Make sure you set your serial speed as high as possible. PPP The main advantage of using a TA to connect to an Internet Provider is that you can do Dynamic PPP. As IP address space becomes more and more scarce, most providers are not willing to provide you with a static IP anymore. Most stand-alone routers are not able to accommodate dynamic IP allocation. TA's completely rely on the PPP daemon that you are running for their features and stability of connection. This allows you to upgrade easily from using a modem to ISDN on a FreeBSD machine, if you already have PPP setup. However, at the same time any problems you experienced with the PPP program and are going to persist. If you want maximum stability, use the kernel PPP option, not the user-land iijPPP. The following TA's are know to work with FreeBSD. Motorola BitSurfer and Bitsurfer Pro Adtran Most other TA's will probably work as well, TA vendors try to make sure their product can accept most of the standard modem AT command set. The real problem with external TA's is like modems you need a good serial card in your computer. You should read the FreeBSD Serial Hardware tutorial for a detailed understanding of serial devices, and the differences between asynchronous and synchronous serial ports. A TA running off a standard PC serial port (asynchronous) limits you to 115.2Kbs, even though you have a 128Kbs connection. To fully utilize the 128Kbs that ISDN is capable of, you must move the TA to a synchronous serial card. Do not be fooled into buying an internal TA and thinking you have avoided the synchronous/asynchronous issue. Internal TA's simply have a standard PC serial port chip built into them. All this will do, is save you having to buy another serial cable, and find another empty electrical socket. A synchronous card with a TA is at least as fast as a stand-alone router, and with a simple 386 FreeBSD box driving it, probably more flexible. The choice of sync/TA v.s. stand-alone router is largely a religious issue. There has been some discussion of this in the mailing lists. I suggest you search the archives for the complete discussion. Stand-alone ISDN Bridges/Routers ISDN stand-alone bridges/routers ISDN bridges or routers are not at all specific to FreeBSD or any other operating system. For a more complete description of routing and bridging technology, please refer to a Networking reference book. In the context of this page, the terms router and bridge will be used interchangeably. As the cost of low end ISDN routers/bridges comes down, it will likely become a more and more popular choice. An ISDN router is a small box that plugs directly into your local Ethernet network, and manages its own connection to the other bridge/router. It has built in software to communicate via PPP and other popular protocols. A router will allow you much faster throughput that a standard TA, since it will be using a full synchronous ISDN connection. The main problem with ISDN routers and bridges is that interoperability between manufacturers can still be a problem. If you are planning to connect to an Internet provider, you should discuss your needs with them. If you are planning to connect two LAN segments together, such as your home LAN to the office LAN, this is the simplest lowest maintenance solution. Since you are buying the equipment for both sides of the connection you can be assured that the link will work. For example to connect a home computer or branch office network to a head office network the following setup could be used. Branch Office or Home Network 10 base 2 Network uses a bus based topology with 10 base 2 Ethernet ("thinnet"). Connect router to network cable with AUI/10BT transceiver, if necessary. ---Sun workstation | ---FreeBSD box | ---Windows 95 (Do not admit to owning it) | Stand-alone router | ISDN BRI line 10 Base 2 Ethernet If your home/branch office is only one computer you can use a twisted pair crossover cable to connect to the stand-alone router directly. Head Office or Other LAN 10 base T Network uses a star topology with 10 base T Ethernet ("Twisted Pair"). -------Novell Server | H | | ---Sun | | | U ---FreeBSD | | | ---Windows 95 | B | |___---Stand-alone router | ISDN BRI line ISDN Network Diagram One large advantage of most routers/bridges is that they allow you to have 2 separate independent PPP connections to 2 separate sites at the same time. This is not supported on most TA's, except for specific (usually expensive) models that have two serial ports. Do not confuse this with channel bonding, MPP, etc. This can be very useful feature if, for example, you have an dedicated ISDN connection at your office and would like to tap into it, but do not want to get another ISDN line at work. A router at the office location can manage a dedicated B channel connection (64Kbps) to the Internet and use the other B channel for a separate data connection. The second B channel can be used for dial-in, dial-out or dynamically bonding (MPP, etc.) with the first B channel for more bandwidth. IPX/SPX An Ethernet bridge will also allow you to transmit more than just IP traffic. You can also send IPX/SPX or whatever other protocols you use. Bill Swingle Written by Eric Ogren Enhanced by Udo Erdelhoff NIS/YP What Is It? NIS Solaris HP-UX AIX Linux NetBSD OpenBSD NIS, which stands for Network Information Services, was developed by Sun Microsystems to centralize administration of Unix (originally SunOS) systems. It has now essentially become an industry standard; all major Unix systems (Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, Linux, NetBSD, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, etc) support NIS. yellow pagesNIS NIS was formerly known as Yellow Pages, but because of trademark issues, Sun changed the name. The old term (and yp) is still often seen and used. NIS domains It is a RPC-based client/server system that allows a group of machines within an NIS domain to share a common set of configuration files. This permits a system administrator to set up NIS client systems with only minimal configuration data and add, remove or modify configuration data from a single location. Windows NT It is similar to Windows NT's domain system; although the internal implementation of the two are not at all similar, the basic functionality can be compared. Terms/Processes You Should Know There are several terms and several important user processes that you will come across when attempting to implement NIS on FreeBSD, whether you are trying to create an NIS server or act an NIS client: portmap Term Description NIS domainname An NIS master server and all of its clients (including its slave servers) have a NIS domainname. Similar to an NT domain name, the NIS domainname does not have anything to do with DNS. portmap Must be running in order to enable RPC (Remote Procedure Call, a network protocol used by NIS). If portmap is not running, it will be impossible to run an NIS server, or to act as an NIS client. ypbind binds an NIS client to its NIS server. It will take the NIS domainname from the system, and using RPC, connect to the server. ypbind is the core of client-server communication in an NIS environment; if ypbind dies on a client machine, it will not be able to access the NIS server. ypserv Should only be running on NIS servers, is the NIS server process itself. If &man.ypserv.8; dies, then the server will no longer be able to respond to NIS requests (hopefully, there is a slave server to take over for it). There are some implementations of NIS (but not the FreeBSD one), that do not try to reconnect to another server if the server it used before dies. Often, the only thing that helps in this case is to restart the server process (or even the whole server) or the ypbind process on the client. rpc.yppasswdd Another process that should only be running on NIS master servers, is a daemon that will allow NIS clients to change their NIS passwords. If this daemon is not running, users will have to login to the NIS master server and change their passwords there. How Does It Work? There are three types of hosts in an NIS environment: master servers, slave servers, and clients. Servers act as a central repository for host configuration information. Master servers hold the authoritative copy of this information, while slave servers mirror this information for redundancy. Clients rely on the servers to provide this information to them. Information in many files can be shared in this manner. The master.passwd, group, and hosts files are commonly shared via NIS. Whenever a process on a client needs information that would normally be found in these files locally, it makes a query to the NIS server that it is bound to instead. Machine Types NIS master server A NIS master server. This server, analogous to a Windows NT primary domain controller, maintains the files used by all of the NIS clients. The passwd, group, and other various files used by the NIS clients live on the master server. It is possible for one machine to be an NIS master server for more than one NIS domain. However, this will not be covered in this introduction, which assumes a relatively small-scale NIS environment. NIS slave server NIS slave servers. Similar to NT's backup domain controllers, NIS slave servers maintain copies of the NIS master's data files. NIS slave servers provide the redundancy, which is needed in important environments. They also help to balance the load of the master server: NIS Clients always attach to the NIS server whose response they get first, and this includes slave-server-replies. NIS client NIS clients. NIS clients, like most NT workstations, authenticate against the NIS server (or the NT domain controller in the NT Workstation case) to log on. Using NIS/YP This section will deal with setting up a sample NIS environment. This section assumes that you are running FreeBSD 3.3 or later. The instructions given here will probably work for any version of FreeBSD greater than 3.0, but there are no guarantees that this is true. Planning Let us assume that you are the administrator of a small university lab. This lab, which consists of 15 FreeBSD machines, currently has no centralized point of administration; each machine has its own /etc/passwd and /etc/master.passwd. These files are kept in sync with each other only through manual intervention; currently, when you add a user to the lab, you must run adduser on all 15 machines. Clearly, this has to change, so you have decided to convert the lab to use NIS, using two of the machines as servers. Therefore, the configuration of the lab now looks something like: Machine name IP address Machine role ellington 10.0.0.2 NIS master coltrane 10.0.0.3 NIS slave basie 10.0.0.4 Faculty workstation bird 10.0.0.5 Client machine cli[1-11] 10.0.0.[6-17] Other client machines If you are setting up a NIS scheme for the first time, it is a good idea to think through how you want to go about it. No matter what the size of your network, there are a few decisions that need to be made. Choosing a NIS Domain Name NIS domainname This might not be the domainname that you are used to. It is more accurately called the NIS domainname. When a client broadcasts its requests for info, it includes the name of the NIS domain that it is part of. This is how multiple servers on one network can tell which server should answer which request. Think of the NIS domainname as the name for a group of hosts that are related in some way. Some organizations choose to use their Internet domainname for their NIS domainname. This is not recommended as it can cause confusion when trying to debug network problems. The NIS domainname should be unique within your network and it is helpful if it describes the group of machines it represents. For example, the Art department at Acme Inc. might be in the "acme-art" NIS domain. For this example, assume you have chosen the name test-domain. SunOS However, some operating systems (notably SunOS) use their NIS domain name as their Internet domain name. If one or more machines on your network have this restriction, you must use the Internet domain name as your NIS domain name. Physical Server Requirements There are several things to keep in mind when choosing a machine to use as a NIS server. One of the unfortunate things about NIS is the level of dependency the clients have on the server. If a client cannot contact the server for its NIS domain, very often the machine becomes unusable. The lack of user and group information causes most systems to temporarily freeze up. With this in mind you should make sure to choose a machine that will not be prone to being rebooted regularly, or one that might be used for development. The NIS server should ideally be a stand alone machine whose sole purpose in life is to be an NIS server. If you have a network that is not very heavily used, it is acceptable to put the NIS server on a machine running other services, just keep in mind that if the NIS server becomes unavailable, it will affect all of your NIS clients adversely. NIS Servers The canonical copies of all NIS information are stored on a single machine called the NIS master server. The databases used to store the information are called NIS maps. In FreeBSD, these maps are stored in /var/yp/[domainname] where [domainname] is the name of the NIS domain being served. A single NIS server can support several domains at once, therefore it is possible to have several such directories, one for each supported domain. Each domain will have its own independent set of maps. NIS master and slave servers handle all NIS requests with the ypserv daemon. ypserv is responsible for receiving incoming requests from NIS clients, translating the requested domain and map name to a path to the corresponding database file and transmitting data from the database back to the client. Setting Up a NIS Master Server NIS server configuration Setting up a master NIS server can be relatively straight forward, depending on your needs. FreeBSD comes with support for NIS out-of-the-box. All you need is to add the following lines to /etc/rc.conf, and FreeBSD will do the rest for you. nisdomainname="test-domain" This line will set the NIS domainname to test-domain upon network setup (e.g. after reboot). nis_server_enable="YES" This will tell FreeBSD to start up the NIS server processes when the networking is next brought up. nis_yppasswdd_enable="YES" This will enable the rpc.yppasswdd daemon, which, as mentioned above, will allow users to change their NIS password from a client machine. Depending on your NIS setup, you may need to add further entries. See the section about NIS servers that are also NIS clients, below, for details. Now, all you have to do is to run the command /etc/netstart as superuser. It will setup everything for you, using the values you defined in /etc/rc.conf. Initializing the NIS Maps NIS maps The NIS maps are database files, that are kept in the /var/yp directory. They are generated from configuration files in the /etc directory of the NIS master, with one exception: the /etc/master.passwd file. This is for a good reason; you do not want to propagate passwords to your root and other administrative accounts to all the servers in the NIS domain. Therefore, before we initialize the NIS maps, you should: &prompt.root; cp /etc/master.passwd /var/yp/master.passwd &prompt.root; cd /var/yp &prompt.root; vi master.passwd You should remove all entries regarding system accounts (bin, tty, kmem, games, etc), as well as any accounts that you do not want to be propagated to the NIS clients (for example root and any other UID 0 (superuser) accounts). Make sure the /var/yp/master.passwd is neither group nor world readable (mode 600)! Use the chmod command, if appropriate. Tru64 Unix When you have finished, it is time to initialize the NIS maps! FreeBSD includes a script named ypinit to do this for you (see its manual page for more information). Note that this script is available on most Unix Operating Systems, but not on all. On Digital Unix/Compaq Tru64 Unix it is called ypsetup. Because we are generating maps for an NIS master, we are going to pass the option to ypinit. To generate the NIS maps, assuming you already performed the steps above, run: ellington&prompt.root; ypinit -m test-domain Server Type: MASTER Domain: test-domain Creating an YP server will require that you answer a few questions. Questions will all be asked at the beginning of the procedure. Do you want this procedure to quit on non-fatal errors? [y/n: n] n Ok, please remember to go back and redo manually whatever fails. If you don't, something might not work. At this point, we have to construct a list of this domains YP servers. rod.darktech.org is already known as master server. Please continue to add any slave servers, one per line. When you are done with the list, type a <control D>. master server : ellington next host to add: coltrane next host to add: ^D The current list of NIS servers looks like this: ellington coltrane Is this correct? [y/n: y] y [..output from map generation..] NIS Map update completed. ellington has been setup as an YP master server without any errors. ypinit should have created /var/yp/Makefile from /var/yp/Makefile.dist. When created, this file assumes that you are operating in a single server NIS environment with only FreeBSD machines. Since test-domain has a slave server as well, you must edit /var/yp/Makefile: ellington&prompt.root; vi /var/yp/Makefile You should comment out the line that says `NOPUSH = "True"' (if it is not commented out already). Setting up a NIS Slave Server NIS configuring a slave server Setting up an NIS slave server is even more simple than setting up the master. Log on to the slave server and edit the file /etc/rc.conf as you did before. The only difference is that we now must use the option when running ypinit. The option requires the name of the NIS master be passed to it as well, so our command line looks like: coltrane&prompt.root; ypinit -s ellington test-domain Server Type: SLAVE Domain: test-domain Master: ellington Creating an YP server will require that you answer a few questions. Questions will all be asked at the beginning of the procedure. Do you want this procedure to quit on non-fatal errors? [y/n: n] n Ok, please remember to go back and redo manually whatever fails. If you don't, something might not work. There will be no further questions. The remainder of the procedure should take a few minutes, to copy the databases from ellington. Transferring netgroup... ypxfr: Exiting: Map successfully transferred Transferring netgroup.byuser... ypxfr: Exiting: Map successfully transferred Transferring netgroup.byhost... ypxfr: Exiting: Map successfully transferred Transferring master.passwd.byuid... ypxfr: Exiting: Map successfully transferred Transferring passwd.byuid... ypxfr: Exiting: Map successfully transferred Transferring passwd.byname... ypxfr: Exiting: Map successfully transferred Transferring group.bygid... ypxfr: Exiting: Map successfully transferred Transferring group.byname... ypxfr: Exiting: Map successfully transferred Transferring services.byname... ypxfr: Exiting: Map successfully transferred Transferring rpc.bynumber... ypxfr: Exiting: Map successfully transferred Transferring rpc.byname... ypxfr: Exiting: Map successfully transferred Transferring protocols.byname... ypxfr: Exiting: Map successfully transferred Transferring master.passwd.byname... ypxfr: Exiting: Map successfully transferred Transferring networks.byname... ypxfr: Exiting: Map successfully transferred Transferring networks.byaddr... ypxfr: Exiting: Map successfully transferred Transferring netid.byname... ypxfr: Exiting: Map successfully transferred Transferring hosts.byaddr... ypxfr: Exiting: Map successfully transferred Transferring protocols.bynumber... ypxfr: Exiting: Map successfully transferred Transferring ypservers... ypxfr: Exiting: Map successfully transferred Transferring hosts.byname... ypxfr: Exiting: Map successfully transferred coltrane has been setup as an YP slave server without any errors. Don't forget to update map ypservers on ellington. You should now have a directory called /var/yp/test-domain. Copies of the NIS master server's maps should be in this directory. You will need to make sure that these stay updated. The following /etc/crontab entries on your slave servers should do the job: 20 * * * * root /usr/libexec/ypxfr passwd.byname 21 * * * * root /usr/libexec/ypxfr passwd.byuid These two lines force the slave to sync its maps with the maps on the master server. Although these entries are not mandatory, since the master server attempts to ensure any changes to its NIS maps are communicated to its slaves and because password information is vital to systems depending on the server, it is a good idea to force the updates. This is more important on busy networks where map updates might not always complete. Now, run the command /etc/netstart on the slave server as well, which again starts the NIS server. NIS Clients An NIS client establishes what is called a binding to a particular NIS server using the ypbind daemon. ypbind checks the system's default domain (as set by the domainname command), and begins broadcasting RPC requests on the local network. These requests specify the name of the domain for which ypbind is attempting to establish a binding. If a server that has been configured to serve the requested domain receives one of the broadcasts, it will respond to ypbind, which will record the server's address. If there are several servers available (a master and several slaves, for example), ypbind will use the address of the first one to respond. From that point on, the client system will direct all of its NIS requests to that server. ypbind will occasionally ping the server to make sure it is still up and running. If it fails to receive a reply to one of its pings within a reasonable amount of time, ypbind will mark the domain as unbound and begin broadcasting again in the hopes of locating another server. Setting Up an NIS Client NIS client configuration Setting up a FreeBSD machine to be a NIS client is fairly straightforward. Edit the file /etc/rc.conf and add the following lines in order to set the NIS domainname and start ypbind upon network startup: nisdomainname="test-domain" nis_client_enable="YES" To import all possible password entries from the NIS server, remove all user accounts from your /etc/master.passwd file and use vipw to add the following line to the end of the file: +::::::::: This line will afford anyone with a valid account in the NIS server's password maps an account. There are many ways to configure your NIS client by changing this line. See the netgroups section below for more information. For more detailed reading see O'Reilly's book on Managing NFS and NIS. You should keep at least one local account (i.e. not imported via NIS) in your /etc/master.passwd and this account should also be a member of the group wheel. If there is something wrong with NIS, this account can be used to log in remotely, become root, and fix things. To import all possible group entries from the NIS server, add this line to your /etc/group file: +:*:: After completing these steps, you should be able to run ypcat passwd and see the NIS server's passwd map. NIS Security In general, any remote user can issue an RPC to &man.ypserv.8; and retrieve the contents of your NIS maps, provided the remote user knows your domainname. To prevent such unauthorized transactions, &man.ypserv.8; supports a feature called securenets which can be used to restrict access to a given set of hosts. At startup, &man.ypserv.8; will attempt to load the securenets information from a file called /var/yp/securenets. This path varies depending on the path specified with the option. This file contains entries that consist of a network specification and a network mask separated by white space. Lines starting with # are considered to be comments. A sample securenets file might look like this: # allow connections from local host -- mandatory 127.0.0.1 255.255.255.255 # allow connections from any host # on the 192.168.128.0 network 192.168.128.0 255.255.255.0 # allow connections from any host # between 10.0.0.0 to 10.0.15.255 # this includes the machines in the testlab 10.0.0.0 255.255.240.0 If &man.ypserv.8; receives a request from an address that matches one of these rules, it will process the request normally. If the address fails to match a rule, the request will be ignored and a warning message will be logged. If the /var/yp/securenets file does not exist, ypserv will allow connections from any host. The ypserv program also has support for Wietse Venema's tcpwrapper package. This allows the administrator to use the tcpwrapper configuration files for access control instead of /var/yp/securenets. While both of these access control mechanisms provide some security, they, like the privileged port test, are vulnerable to IP spoofing attacks. All NIS-related traffic should be blocked at your firewall. Servers using /var/yp/securenets may fail to serve legitimate NIS clients with archaic TCP/IP implementations. Some of these implementations set all host bits to zero when doing broadcasts and/or fail to observe the subnet mask when calculating the broadcast address. While some of these problems can be fixed by changing the client configuration, other problems may force the retirement of the client systems in question or the abandonment of /var/yp/securenets. Using /var/yp/securenets on a server with such an archaic implementation of TCP/IP is a really bad idea and will lead to loss of NIS functionality for large parts of your network. tcpwrapper The use of the tcpwrapper package increases the latency of your NIS server. The additional delay may be long enough to cause timeouts in client programs, especially in busy networks or with slow NIS servers. If one or more of your client systems suffers from these symptoms, you should convert the client systems in question into NIS slave servers and force them to bind to themselves. Barring Some Users from Logging On In our lab, there is a machine basie that is supposed to be a faculty only workstation. We do not want to take this machine out of the NIS domain, yet the passwd file on the master NIS server contains accounts for both faculty and students. What can we do? There is a way to bar specific users from logging on to a machine, even if they are present in the NIS database. To do this, all you must do is add -username to the end of the /etc/master.passwd file on the client machine, where username is the username of the user you wish to bar from logging in. This should preferably be done using vipw, since vipw will sanity check your changes to /etc/master.passwd, as well as automatically rebuild the password database when you finish editing. For example, if we wanted to bar user bill from logging on to basie we would: basie&prompt.root; vipw [add -bill to the end, exit] vipw: rebuilding the database... vipw: done basie&prompt.root; cat /etc/master.passwd root:[password]:0:0::0:0:The super-user:/root:/bin/csh toor:[password]:0:0::0:0:The other super-user:/root:/bin/sh daemon:*:1:1::0:0:Owner of many system processes:/root:/sbin/nologin operator:*:2:5::0:0:System &:/:/sbin/nologin bin:*:3:7::0:0:Binaries Commands and Source,,,:/:/sbin/nologin tty:*:4:65533::0:0:Tty Sandbox:/:/sbin/nologin kmem:*:5:65533::0:0:KMem Sandbox:/:/sbin/nologin games:*:7:13::0:0:Games pseudo-user:/usr/games:/sbin/nologin news:*:8:8::0:0:News Subsystem:/:/sbin/nologin man:*:9:9::0:0:Mister Man Pages:/usr/share/man:/sbin/nologin bind:*:53:53::0:0:Bind Sandbox:/:/sbin/nologin uucp:*:66:66::0:0:UUCP pseudo-user:/var/spool/uucppublic:/usr/libexec/uucp/uucico xten:*:67:67::0:0:X-10 daemon:/usr/local/xten:/sbin/nologin pop:*:68:6::0:0:Post Office Owner:/nonexistent:/sbin/nologin nobody:*:65534:65534::0:0:Unprivileged user:/nonexistent:/sbin/nologin +::::::::: -bill basie&prompt.root; Udo Erdelhoff Contributed by Using Netgroups netgroups The method shown in the previous section works reasonably well if you need special rules for a very small number of users and/or machines. On larger networks, you will forget to bar some users from logging onto sensitive machines, or you may even have to modify each machine separately, thus losing the main benefit of NIS, centralized administration. The NIS developers' solution for this problem is called netgroups. Their purpose and semantics can be compared to the normal groups used by Unix file systems. The main differences are the lack of a numeric id and the ability to define a netgroup by including both user accounts and other netgroups. Netgroups were developed to handle large, complex networks with hundreds of users and machines. On one hand, this is a Good Thing if you are forced to deal with such a situation. On the other hand, this complexity makes it almost impossible to explain netgroups with really simple examples. The example used in the remainder of this section demonstrates this problem. Let us assume that your successful introduction of NIS in your laboratory caught your superiors' interest. Your next job is to extend your NIS domain to cover some of the other machines on campus. The two tables contain the names of the new users and new machines as well as brief descriptions of them. User Name(s) Description alpha, beta Normal employees of the IT department charlie, delta The new apprentices of the IT department echo, foxtrott, golf, ... Ordinary employees able, baker, ... The current interns Machine Name(s) Description war, death, famine, pollution Your most important servers. Only the IT employees are allowed to log onto these machines. pride, greed, envy, wrath, lust, sloth Less important servers. All members of the IT department are allowed to login onto these machines. one, two, three, four, ... Ordinary workstations. Only the real employees are allowed to use these machines. trashcan A very old machine without any critical data. Even the intern is allowed to use this box. If you tried to implement these restrictions by separately blocking each user, you would have to add one -user line to each system's passwd for each user who is not allowed to login onto that system. If you forget just one entry, you could be in trouble. It may be feasible to do this correctly during the initial setup, however you will eventually forget to add the lines for new users during day-to-day operations. After all, Murphy was an optimist. Handling this situation with netgroups offers several advantages. Each user need not be handled separately; you assign a user to one or more netgroups and allow or forbid logins for all members of the netgroup. If you add a new machine, you will only have to define login restrictions for netgroups. If a new user is added, you will only have to add the user to one or more netgroups. Those changes are independent of each other; no more for each combination of user and machine do... If your NIS setup is planned carefully, you will only have to modify exactly one central configuration file to grant or deny access to machines. The first step is the initialization of the NIS map netgroup. FreeBSD's &man.ypinit.8; does not create this map by default, but its NIS implementation will support it once it has been created. To create an empty map, simply type ellington&prompt.root; vi /var/yp/netgroup and start adding content. For our example, we need at least four netgroups: IT employees, IT apprentices, normal employees and interns. IT_EMP (,alpha,test-domain) (,beta,test-domain) IT_APP (,charlie,test-domain) (,delta,test-domain) USERS (,echo,test-domain) (,foxtrott,test-domain) \ (,golf,test-domain) INTERNS (,able,test-domain) (,baker,test-domain) IT_EMP, IT_APP etc. are the names of the netgroups. Each bracketed group adds one or more user accounts to it. The three fields inside a group are: The name of the host(s) where the following items are valid. If you do not specify a hostname, the entry is valid on all hosts. If you do specify a hostname, you will enter a realm of darkness, horror and utter confusion. The name of the account that belongs to this netgroup. The NIS domain for the account. You can import accounts from other NIS domains into your netgroup if you are one of unlucky fellows with more than one NIS domain. Each of these fields can contain wildcards. See &man.netgroup.5; for details. netgroups Netgroup names longer than 8 characters should not be used, especially if you have machines running other operating systems within your NIS domain. The names are case sensitive; using capital letters for your netgroup names is an easy way to distinguish between user, machine and netgroup names. Some NIS clients (other than FreeBSD) cannot handle netgroups with a large number of entries. For example, some older versions of SunOS start to cause trouble if a netgroup contains more than 15 entries. You can circumvent this limit by creating several sub-netgroups with 15 users or less and a real netgroup that consists of the sub-netgroups: BIGGRP1 (,joe1,domain) (,joe2,domain) (,joe3,domain) [...] BIGGRP2 (,joe16,domain) (,joe17,domain) [...] BIGGRP3 (,joe31,domain) (,joe32,domain) BIGGROUP BIGGRP1 BIGGRP2 BIGGRP3 You can repeat this process if you need more than 225 users within a single netgroup. Activating and distributing your new NIS map is easy: ellington&prompt.root; cd /var/yp ellington&prompt.root; make This will generate the three NIS maps netgroup, netgroup.byhost and netgroup.byuser. Use &man.ypcat.1; to check if your new NIS maps are available: ellington&prompt.user; ypcat -k netgroup ellington&prompt.user; ypcat -k netgroup.byhost ellington&prompt.user; ypcat -k netgroup.byuser The output of the first command should resemble the contents of /var/yp/netgroup. The second command will not produce output if you have not specified host-specific netgroups. The third command can be used to get the list of netgroups for a user. The client setup is quite simple. To configure the server war, you only have to start &man.vipw.8; and replace the line +::::::::: with +@IT_EMP::::::::: Now, only the data for the users defined in the netgroup IT_EMP is imported into war's password database and only these users are allowed to login. Unfortunately, this limitation also applies to the ~ function of the shell and all routines converting between user names and numerical user ids. In other words, cd ~user will not work, ls -l will show the numerical id instead of the username and find . -user joe -print will fail with No such user. To fix this, you will have to import all user entries without allowing them to login onto your servers. This can be achieved by adding another line to /etc/master.passwd. This line should contain: +:::::::::/sbin/nologin, meaning Import all entries but replace the shell with /sbin/nologin in the imported entries. You can replace any field in the passwd entry by placing a default value in your /etc/master.passwd. Make sure that the line +:::::::::/sbin/nologin is placed after +@IT_EMP:::::::::. Otherwise, all user accounts imported from NIS will have /sbin/nologin as their login shell. After this change, you will only have to change one NIS map if a new employee joins the IT department. You could use a similar approach for the less important servers by replacing the old +::::::::: in their local version of /etc/master.passwd with something like this: +@IT_EMP::::::::: +@IT_APP::::::::: +:::::::::/sbin/nologin The corresponding lines for the normal workstations could be: +@IT_EMP::::::::: +@USERS::::::::: +:::::::::/sbin/nologin And everything would be fine until there is a policy change a few weeks later: The IT department starts hiring interns. The IT interns are allowed to use the normal workstations and the less important servers; and the IT apprentices are allowed to login onto the main servers. You add a new netgroup IT_INTERN, add the new IT interns to this netgroup and start to change the config on each and every machine... As the old saying goes: Errors in centralized planning lead to global mess. NIS' ability to create netgroups from other netgroups can be used to prevent situations like these. One possibility is the creation of role-based netgroups. For example, you could create a netgroup called BIGSRV to define the login restrictions for the important servers, another netgroup called SMALLSRV for the less important servers and a third netgroup called USERBOX for the normal workstations. Each of these netgroups contains the netgroups that are allowed to login onto these machines. The new entries for your NIS map netgroup should look like this: BIGSRV IT_EMP IT_APP SMALLSRV IT_EMP IT_APP ITINTERN USERBOX IT_EMP ITINTERN USERS This method of defining login restrictions works reasonably well if you can define groups of machines with identical restrictions. Unfortunately, this is the exception and not the rule. Most of the time, you will need the ability to define login restrictions on a per-machine basis. Machine-specific netgroup definitions are the other possibility to deal with the policy change outlined above. In this scenario, the /etc/master.passwd of each box contains two lines starting with ``+''. The first of them adds a netgroup with the accounts allowed to login onto this machine, the second one adds all other accounts with /sbin/nologin as shell. It is a good idea to use the ALL-CAPS version of the machine name as the name of the netgroup. In other words, the lines should look like this: +@BOXNAME::::::::: +:::::::::/sbin/nologin Once you have completed this task for all your machines, you will not have to modify the local versions of /etc/master.passwd ever again. All further changes can be handled by modifying the NIS map. Here is an example of a possible netgroup map for this scenario with some additional goodies. # Define groups of users first IT_EMP (,alpha,test-domain) (,beta,test-domain) IT_APP (,charlie,test-domain) (,delta,test-domain) DEPT1 (,echo,test-domain) (,foxtrott,test-domain) DEPT2 (,golf,test-domain) (,hotel,test-domain) DEPT3 (,india,test-domain) (,juliet,test-domain) ITINTERN (,kilo,test-domain) (,lima,test-domain) D_INTERNS (,able,test-domain) (,baker,test-domain) # # Now, define some groups based on roles USERS DEPT1 DEPT2 DEPT3 BIGSRV IT_EMP IT_APP SMALLSRV IT_EMP IT_APP ITINTERN USERBOX IT_EMP ITINTERN USERS # # And a groups for a special tasks # Allow echo and golf to access our anti-virus-machine SECURITY IT_EMP (,echo,test-domain) (,golf,test-domain) # # machine-based netgroups # Our main servers WAR BIGSRV FAMINE BIGSRV # User india needs access to this server POLLUTION BIGSRV (,india,test-domain) # # This one is really important and needs more access restrictions DEATH IT_EMP # # The anti-virus-machine mentioned above ONE SECURITY # # Restrict a machine to a single user TWO (,hotel,test-domain) # [...more groups to follow] If you are using some kind of database to manage your user accounts, you should be able to create the first part of the map with your database's report tools. This way, new users will automatically have access to the boxes. One last word of caution: It may not always be advisable to use machine-based netgroups. If you are deploying a couple dozen or even hundreds of identical machines for student labs, you should use role-based netgroups instead of machine-based netgroups to keep the size of the NIS map within reasonable limits. Important Things to Remember There are still a couple of things that you will need to do differently now that you are in an NIS environment. Every time you wish to add a user to the lab, you must add it to the master NIS server only, and you must remember to rebuild the NIS maps. If you forget to do this, the new user will not be able to login anywhere except on the NIS master. For example, if we needed to add a new user jsmith to the lab, we would: &prompt.root; pw useradd jsmith &prompt.root; cd /var/yp &prompt.root; make test-domain You could also run adduser jsmith instead of pw useradd jsmith. Keep the administration accounts out of the NIS maps. You do not want to be propagating administrative accounts and passwords to machines that will have users that should not have access to those accounts. Keep the NIS master and slave secure, and minimize their downtime. If somebody either hacks or simply turns off these machines, they have effectively rendered many people without the ability to login to the lab. This is the chief weakness of any centralized administration system, and it is probably the most important weakness. If you do not protect your NIS servers, you will have a lot of angry users! NIS v1 Compatibility FreeBSD's ypserv has some support for serving NIS v1 clients. FreeBSD's NIS implementation only uses the NIS v2 protocol, however other implementations include support for the v1 protocol for backwards compatibility with older systems. The ypbind daemons supplied with these systems will try to establish a binding to an NIS v1 server even though they may never actually need it (and they may persist in broadcasting in search of one even after they receive a response from a v2 server). Note that while support for normal client calls is provided, this version of ypserv does not handle v1 map transfer requests; consequently, it cannot be used as a master or slave in conjunction with older NIS servers that only support the v1 protocol. Fortunately, there probably are not any such servers still in use today. NIS Servers that are also NIS Clients Care must be taken when running ypserv in a multi-server domain where the server machines are also NIS clients. It is generally a good idea to force the servers to bind to themselves rather than allowing them to broadcast bind requests and possibly become bound to each other. Strange failure modes can result if one server goes down and others are dependent upon on it. Eventually all the clients will time out and attempt to bind to other servers, but the delay involved can be considerable and the failure mode is still present since the servers might bind to each other all over again. You can force a host to bind to a particular server by running ypbind with the flag. If you do not want to do this manually each time you reboot your NIS server, you can add the following lines to your /etc/rc.conf: nis_client_enable="YES" # run client stuff as well nis_client_flags="-S NIS domain,server" See &man.ypbind.8; for further information. libscrypt v.s. libdescrypt NIS crypto library One of the most common issues that people run into when trying to implement NIS is crypt library compatibility. If your NIS server is using the DES crypt libraries, it will only support clients that are using DES as well. To check which one your server and clients are using look at the symlinks in /usr/lib. If the machine is configured to use the DES libraries, it will look something like this: &prompt.user; ls -l /usr/lib/*crypt* lrwxrwxrwx 1 root wheel 13 Jul 15 08:55 libcrypt.a@ -> libdescrypt.a lrwxrwxrwx 1 root wheel 14 Jul 15 08:55 libcrypt.so@ -> libdescrypt.so lrwxrwxrwx 1 root wheel 16 Jul 15 08:55 libcrypt.so.2@ -> libdescrypt.so.2 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root wheel 15 Jul 15 08:55 libcrypt_p.a@ -> libdescrypt_p.a -r--r--r-- 1 root wheel 13018 Nov 8 14:27 libdescrypt.a lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 16 Nov 8 14:27 libdescrypt.so@ -> libdescrypt.so.2 -r--r--r-- 1 root wheel 12965 Nov 8 14:27 libdescrypt.so.2 -r--r--r-- 1 root wheel 14750 Nov 8 14:27 libdescrypt_p.a If the machine is configured to use the standard FreeBSD MD5 crypt libraries they will look something like this: &prompt.user; ls -l /usr/lib/*crypt* lrwxrwxrwx 1 root wheel 13 Jul 15 08:55 libcrypt.a@ -> libscrypt.a lrwxrwxrwx 1 root wheel 14 Jul 15 08:55 libcrypt.so@ -> libscrypt.so lrwxrwxrwx 1 root wheel 16 Jul 15 08:55 libcrypt.so.2@ -> libscrypt.so.2 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root wheel 15 Jul 15 08:55 libcrypt_p.a@ -> libscrypt_p.a -r--r--r-- 1 root wheel 6194 Nov 8 14:27 libscrypt.a lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 14 Nov 8 14:27 libscrypt.so@ -> libscrypt.so.2 -r--r--r-- 1 root wheel 7579 Nov 8 14:27 libscrypt.so.2 -r--r--r-- 1 root wheel 6684 Nov 8 14:27 libscrypt_p.a If you have trouble authenticating on an NIS client, this is a pretty good place to start looking for possible problems. If you want to deploy an NIS server for a heterogenous network, you will probably have to use DES on all systems because it is the lowest common standard. Greg Sutter Written by DHCP What Is DHCP? Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol DHCP Internet Software Consortium (ISC) DHCP, the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, describes the means by which a system can connect to a network and obtain the necessary information for communication upon that network. FreeBSD uses the ISC (Internet Software Consortium) DHCP implementation, so all implementation-specific information here is for use with the ISC distribution. What this Section Covers This section attempts to describe only the parts of the DHCP system that are integrated with FreeBSD; consequently, the server portions are not described. The DHCP manual pages, in addition to the references below, are useful resources. How It Works UDP When dhclient, the DHCP client, is executed on the client machine, it begins broadcasting requests for configuration information. By default, these requests are on UDP port 68. The server replies on UDP 67, giving the client an IP address and other relevant network information such as netmask, router, and DNS servers. All of this information comes in the form of a DHCP "lease" and is only valid for a certain time (configured by the DHCP server maintainer). In this manner, stale IP addresses for clients no longer connected to the network can be automatically reclaimed. DHCP clients can obtain a great deal of information from the server. An exhaustive list may be found in &man.dhcp-options.5;. FreeBSD Integration FreeBSD fully integrates the ISC DHCP client, dhclient. DHCP client support is provided within both the installer and the base system, obviating the need for detailed knowledge of network configurations on any network that runs a DHCP server. dhclient has been included in all FreeBSD distributions since 3.2. sysinstall DHCP is supported by sysinstall. When configuring a network interface within sysinstall, the first question asked is, "Do you want to try DHCP configuration of this interface?" Answering affirmatively will execute dhclient, and if successful, will fill in the network configuration information automatically. There are two things you must do to have your system use DHCP upon startup: DHCP requirements Make sure that the bpf device is compiled into your kernel. To do this, add pseudo-device bpf to your kernel configuration file, and rebuild the kernel. For more information about building kernels, see . The bpf device is already part of the GENERIC kernel that is supplied with FreeBSD, so if you do not have a custom kernel, you should not need to create one in order to get DHCP working. For those who are particularly security conscious, you should be warned that bpf is also the device that allows packet sniffers to work correctly (although they still have to be run as root). bpf is required to use DHCP, but if you are very sensitive about security, you probably should not add bpf to your kernel in the expectation that at some point in the future you will be using DHCP. Edit your /etc/rc.conf to include the following: ifconfig_fxp0="DHCP" Be sure to replace fxp0 with the designation for the interface that you wish to dynamically configure. If you are using a different location for dhclient, or if you wish to pass additional flags to dhclient, also include the following (editing as necessary): dhcp_program="/sbin/dhclient" dhcp_flags="" DHCP server The DHCP server, dhcpd, is included as part of the isc-dhcp3 port in the ports collection. This port contains the full ISC DHCP distribution, consisting of client, server, relay agent and documentation. Files DHCP configuration files /etc/dhclient.conf dhclient requires a configuration file, /etc/dhclient.conf. Typically the file contains only comments, the defaults being reasonably sane. This configuration file is described by the &man.dhclient.conf.5; manual page. /sbin/dhclient dhclient is statically linked and resides in /sbin. The &man.dhclient.8; manual page gives more information about dhclient. /sbin/dhclient-script dhclient-script is the FreeBSD-specific DHCP client configuration script. It is described in &man.dhclient-script.8;, but should not need any user modification to function properly. /var/db/dhclient.leases The DHCP client keeps a database of valid leases in this file, which is written as a log. &man.dhclient.leases.5; gives a slightly longer description. Further Reading The DHCP protocol is fully described in RFC 2131. An informational resource has also been set up at dhcp.org. Ceri Davies Written by
ceri@FreeBSD.org
 Installing And Configuring A DHCP Server What this Section Covers This section provides information on how to configure a FreeBSD system to act as a DHCP server using the ISC (Internet Software Consortium) implementation of the DHCP suite. The server portion of the suite is not provided as part of FreeBSD, and so you will need to install the net/isc-dhcp3 port to provide this service. See for more information on using the ports collection. DHCP Server Installation DHCP installation In order to configure your FreeBSD system as a DHCP server, you will need to ensure that the &man.bpf.4; device is compiled into your kernel. To do this, add pseudo-device bpf to your kernel configuration file, and rebuild the kernel. For more information about building kernels, see . The bpf device is already part of the GENERIC kernel that is supplied with FreeBSD, so you do not need to create a custom kernel in order to get DHCP working. Those who are particularly security conscious should note that bpf is also the device that allows packet sniffers to work correctly (although such programs still need privileged access). bpf is required to use DHCP, but if you are very sensitive about security, you probably should not include bpf in your kernel purely because you expect to use DHCP at some point in the future. The next thing that you will need to do is edit the sample dhcpd.conf which was installed by the net/isc-dhcp3 port. By default, this will be /usr/local/etc/dhcpd.conf.sample, and you should copy this to /usr/local/etc/dhcpd.conf before proceeding to make changes. Configuring the DHCP Server DHCP configuration dhcpd.conf dhcpd.conf is comprised of declarations regarding subnets and hosts, and is perhaps most easily explained using an example : option domain-name "example.com"; option domain-name-servers 192.168.4.100; option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0; default-lease-time 3600; max-lease-time 86400; ddns-update-style none; subnet 192.168.4.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 { range 192.168.4.129 192.168.4.254; option routers 192.168.4.1; } host mailhost { hardware ethernet 02:03:04:05:06:07; fixed-address mailhost.example.com; } This option specifies the domain that will be provided to clients as the default search domain. See &man.resolv.conf.5; for more information on what this means. This option specifies a comma separated list of DNS servers that the client should use. The netmask that will be provided to clients. A client may request a specific length of time that a lease will be valid. Otherwise the server will assign a lease with this expiry value (in seconds). This is the maximum length of time that the server will lease for. Should a client request a longer lease, a lease will be issued, although it will only be valid for max-lease-time seconds. This option specifies whether the DHCP server should attempt to update DNS when a lease is accepted or released. In the ISC implementation, this option is required. This denotes which IP addresses should be used in the pool reserved for allocating to clients. IP addresses between, and including, the ones stated are handed out to clients. Declares the default gateway that will be provided to clients. The hardware MAC address of a host (so that the DHCP server can recognise a host when it makes a request). Specifies that the host should always be given the same IP address. Note that a hostname is OK here, since the DHCP server will resolve the hostname itself before returning the lease information. Once you have finished writing your dhcpd.conf, you can proceed to start the server by issuing the following command: - - &prompt.root; /usr/local/etc/rc.d/isc-dhcpd.sh start - + &prompt.root; /usr/local/etc/rc.d/isc-dhcpd.sh start Should you need to make changes to the configuration of your server in the future, it is important to note that sending a SIGHUP signal to dhcpd does not result in the configuration being reloaded, as it does with most daemons. You will need to send a SIGTERM signal to stop the process, and then restart it using the command above. Files DHCP configuration files /usr/local/sbin/dhcpd dhcpd is statically linked and resides in /usr/local/sbin. The dhcpd(8) manual page installed with the port gives more information about dhcpd. /usr/local/etc/dhcpd.conf dhcpd requires a configuration file, /usr/local/etc/dhcpd.conf before it will start providing service to clients. This file needs to contain all the information that should be provided to clients that are being serviced, along with information regarding the operation of the server. This configuration file is described by the dhcpd.conf(5) manual page installed by the port. /var/db/dhcpd.leases The DHCP server keeps a database of leases it has issued in this file, which is written as a log. The manual page dhcpd.leases(5), installed by the port gives a slightly longer description. /usr/local/sbin/dhcrelay dhcrelay is used in advanced environments where one DHCP server forwards a request from a client to another DHCP server on a separate network. The dhcrelay(8) manual page provided with the port contains more detail. Chern Lee Contributed by DNS Overview BIND FreeBSD utilizes, by default, a version of BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain), which is the most common implementation of the DNS protocol. DNS is the protocol through which names are mapped to IP addresses, and vice versa. For example, a query for www.FreeBSD.org will receive a reply with the IP address of The FreeBSD Project's web server, whereas, a query for ftp.FreeBSD.org will return the IP address of the corresponding FTP machine. Likewise, the opposite can happen. A query for an IP address can resolve its hostname. It is not necessary to run a name server to perform DNS lookups on a system. DNS DNS is coordinated across the Internet through a somewhat complex system of authoritative root name servers, and other smaller-scale name servers who host and cache individual domain information. This document refers to BIND 8.x, as it is the stable version used in FreeBSD. BIND 9.x in FreeBSD can be installed through the net/bind9 port. RFC1034 and RFC1035 dictates the DNS protocol. Currently, BIND is maintained by the Internet Software Consortium (www.isc.org) Terminology To understand this document, some terms related to DNS must be understood. Term Definition forward DNS mapping of hostnames to IP addresses origin refers to the domain covered for the particular zone file named, bind, name server common names for the BIND name server package within FreeBSD resolver resolver a system process through which a machine queries a name server for zone information reverse DNS reverse DNS the opposite of forward DNS, mapping of IP addresses to hostnames root zone root zone literally, a ., refers to the root, or beginning zone. All zones fall under this, as do all files in fall under the root directory. It is the beginning of the Internet zone hierarchy. zone Each individual domain, subdomain, or area dictated by DNS zones examples Examples of zones: . is the root zone org. is a zone under the root zone example.org is a zone under the org. zone foo.example.org. is a subdomain, a zone under the example.org. zone 1.2.3.in-addr.arpa is a zone referencing all IP addresses which fall under the 3.2.1.* IP space. As one can see, the more specific part of a hostname appears to its left. For example, example.org. is more specific than org., as org. is more specific than the root zone. The layout of each part of a hostname is much like a filesystem: the /dev directory falls within the root, and so on. Reasons to Run a Name Server Name servers usually come in two forms: an authoritative name server, and a caching name server. An authoritative name server is needed when: one wants to serve DNS information to the world, replying authoritatively to queries. a domain, such as example.org, is registered and IP addresses need to be assigned to hostnames under it. an IP address block requires reverse DNS entries (IP to hostname). a backup name server, called a slave, must reply to queries when the primary is down or inaccessible. A caching name server is needed when: a local DNS server may cache and respond more quickly then querying an outside name server. a reduction in overall network traffic is desired. (DNS traffic has been measured to account for 5% or more of total Internet traffic) When one queries for www.FreeBSD.org, the resolver usually queries the uplink ISP's name server, and retrieves the reply. With a local, caching DNS server, the query only has to be made once to the outside world by the caching DNS server. Every additional query will not have to look to the outside of the local network, since the information is cached locally. How It Works In FreeBSD, the BIND daemon is called named for obvious reasons. File Description named the BIND daemon ndc name daemon control program /etc/namedb directory where BIND zone information resides /etc/namedb/named.conf daemon configuration file Zone files are usually contained within the /etc/namedb directory, and contain the DNS zone information served by the name server. Starting BIND BIND starting Since BIND is installed by default, configuring it all is relatively simple. To ensure the named daemon is started at boot, put the following modifications in /etc/rc.conf: named_enable="YES" To start the daemon manually (after configuring it) &prompt.root; ndc start Configuration Files BIND configuration files make-localhost Be sure to: &prompt.root; cd /etc/namedb &prompt.root; sh make-localhost to properly create the local reverse DNS zone file in /etc/namedb/localhost.rev. <filename>/etc/namedb/named.conf</filename> // $FreeBSD$ // // Refer to the named(8) manual page for details. If you are ever going // to setup a primary server, make sure you've understood the hairy // details of how DNS is working. Even with simple mistakes, you can // break connectivity for affected parties, or cause huge amount of // useless Internet traffic. options { directory "/etc/namedb"; // In addition to the "forwarders" clause, you can force your name // server to never initiate queries of its own, but always ask its // forwarders only, by enabling the following line: // // forward only; // If you've got a DNS server around at your upstream provider, enter // its IP address here, and enable the line below. This will make you // benefit from its cache, thus reduce overall DNS traffic in the Internet. /* forwarders { 127.0.0.1; }; */ Just as the comment says, to benefit from an uplink's cache, forwarders can be enabled here. Under normal circumstances, a name server will recursively query the Internet looking at certain name servers until it finds the answer it is looking for. Having this enabled will have it query the uplink's name server (or name server provided) first, taking advantage of its cache. If the uplink name server in question is a heavily trafficked, fast name server, enabling this may be worthwhile. 127.0.0.1 will not work here. Change this IP address to a name server at your uplink. /* * If there is a firewall between you and name servers you want * to talk to, you might need to uncomment the query-source * directive below. Previous versions of BIND always asked * questions using port 53, but BIND 8.1 uses an unprivileged * port by default. */ // query-source address * port 53; /* * If running in a sandbox, you may have to specify a different * location for the dumpfile. */ // dump-file "s/named_dump.db"; }; // Note: the following will be supported in a future release. /* host { any; } { topology { 127.0.0.0/8; }; }; */ // Setting up secondaries is way easier and the rough picture for this // is explained below. // // If you enable a local name server, don't forget to enter 127.0.0.1 // into your /etc/resolv.conf so this server will be queried first. // Also, make sure to enable it in /etc/rc.conf. zone "." { type hint; file "named.root"; }; zone "0.0.127.IN-ADDR.ARPA" { type master; file "localhost.rev"; }; zone "0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.IP6.INT" { type master; file "localhost.rev"; }; // NB: Do not use the IP addresses below, they are faked, and only // serve demonstration/documentation purposes! // // Example secondary config entries. It can be convenient to become // a secondary at least for the zone where your own domain is in. Ask // your network administrator for the IP address of the responsible // primary. // // Never forget to include the reverse lookup (IN-ADDR.ARPA) zone! // (This is the first bytes of the respective IP address, in reverse // order, with ".IN-ADDR.ARPA" appended.) // // Before starting to setup a primary zone, better make sure you fully // understand how DNS and BIND works, however. There are sometimes // unobvious pitfalls. Setting up a secondary is comparably simpler. // // NB: Don't blindly enable the examples below. :-) Use actual names // and addresses instead. // // NOTE!!! FreeBSD runs bind in a sandbox (see named_flags in rc.conf). // The directory containing the secondary zones must be write accessible // to bind. The following sequence is suggested: // // mkdir /etc/namedb/s // chown bind:bind /etc/namedb/s // chmod 750 /etc/namedb/s For more information on running BIND in a sandbox, see Running named in a sandbox. /* zone "domain.com" { type slave; file "s/domain.com.bak"; masters { 192.168.1.1; }; }; zone "0.168.192.in-addr.arpa" { type slave; file "s/0.168.192.in-addr.arpa.bak"; masters { 192.168.1.1; }; }; */ In named.conf, these are examples of slave entries for a forward and reverse zone. For each new zone served, a new zone entry must be added to named.conf For example, the simplest zone entry for example.org can look like: zone "example.org" { type master; file "example.org"; }; The zone is a master, as indicated by the statement, holding its zone information in /etc/namedb/example.org indicated by the statement. zone "example.org" { type slave; file "example.org"; }; In the slave case, the zone information is transferred from the master name server for the particular zone, and saved in the file specified. If and when the master server dies or is unreachable, the slave name server will have the transferred zone information and will be able to serve it. Zone Files An example master zone file for example.org (existing within /etc/namedb/example.org) is as follows: $TTL 3600 example.org. IN SOA ns1.example.org. admin.example.org. ( 5 ; Serial 10800 ; Refresh 3600 ; Retry 604800 ; Expire 86400 ) ; Minimum TTL ; DNS Servers @ IN NS ns1.example.org. @ IN NS ns2.example.org. ; Machine Names localhost IN A 127.0.0.1 ns1 IN A 3.2.1.2 ns2 IN A 3.2.1.3 mail IN A 3.2.1.10 @ IN A 3.2.1.30 ; Aliases www IN CNAME @ ; MX Record @ IN MX 10 mail.example.org. Note that every hostname ending in a . is an exact hostname, whereas everything without a trailing . is referenced to the origin. For example, www is translated into www + origin. In our fictitious zone file, our origin is example.org., so www would translate to www.example.org. The format of a zone file follows: recordname IN recordtype value DNS records The most commonly used DNS records: SOA start of zone authority NS an authoritative name server A A host address CNAME the canonical name for an alias MX mail exchange PTR a domain name pointer (used in reverse DNS) example.org. IN SOA ns1.example.org. admin.example.org. ( 5 ; Serial 10800 ; Refresh after 3 hours 3600 ; Retry after 1 hour 604800 ; Expire after 1 week 86400 ) ; Minimum TTL of 1 day example.org. the domain name, also the origin for this zone file. ns1.example.org. the primary/authoritative name server for this zone admin.example.org. the responsible person for this zone, email address with @ replaced. (admin@example.org becomes admin.example.org) 5 the serial number of the file. this must be incremented each time the zone file is modified. Nowadays, many admins prefer a yyyymmddrr format for the serial number. 2001041002 would mean last modified 04/10/2001, the latter 02 being the second time the zone file has been modified this day. The serial number is important as it alerts slave name servers for a zone when it is updated. @ IN NS ns1.example.org. This is an NS entry. Every name server that is going to reply authoritatively for the zone must have one of these entries. The @ as seen here could have been example.org. The @ translates to the origin. localhost IN A 127.0.0.1 ns1 IN A 3.2.1.2 ns2 IN A 3.2.1.3 mail IN A 3.2.1.10 @ IN A 3.2.1.30 The A record indicates machine names. As seen above, ns1.example.org would resolve to 3.2.1.2. Again, the origin symbol, @, is used here, thus meaning example.org would resolve to 3.2.1.30. www IN CNAME @ The canonical name record is usually used for giving aliases to a machine. In the example, www is aliased to the machine addressed to the origin, or example.org (3.2.1.30). CNAMEs can be used to provide alias hostnames, or round robin one hostname among multiple machines. @ IN MX 10 mail.example.org. The MX record indicates which mail servers are responsible for handling incoming mail for the zone. mail.example.org is the hostname of the mail server, and 10 being the priority of that mail server. One can have several mail servers, with priorities of 3, 2, 1. A mail server attempting to deliver to example.org would first try the highest priority MX, then the second highest, etc, until the mail can be properly delivered. For in-addr.arpa zone files (reverse DNS), the same format is used, except with PTR entries instead of A or CNAME. $TTL 3600 1.2.3.in-addr.arpa. IN SOA ns1.example.org. admin.example.org. ( 5 ; Serial 10800 ; Refresh 3600 ; Retry 604800 ; Expire 3600 ) ; Minimum @ IN NS ns1.example.org. @ IN NS ns2.example.org. 2 IN PTR ns1.example.org. 3 IN PTR ns2.example.org. 10 IN PTR mail.example.org. 30 IN PTR example.org. This file gives the proper IP address to hostname mappings of our above fictitious domain. Caching Name Server BIND caching name server A caching name server is a name server that is not authoritative for any zones. It simply asks queries of its own, and remembers them for later use. To set one up, just configure the name server as usual, omitting any inclusions of zones. Ceri Davies Contributed by Running named in a Sandbox BIND running in a sandbox chroot For added security you may want to run &man.named.8; as an unprivileged user, and configure it to &man.chroot.8; into a sandbox directory. This makes everything outside of the sandbox inaccessible to the named daemon. Should named be compromised, this will help to reduce the damage that can be caused. By default, FreeBSD has a user and a group called bind, intended for this use. Various people would recommend that instead of configuring named to chroot, you should run named inside a &man.jail.8;. This section does not attempt to cover this situation. Since named will not be able to access anything outside of the sandbox (such as shared libraries, log sockets, and so on), there are a number of steps that need to be followed in order to allow named to function correctly. In the following checklist, it is assumed that the path to the sandbox is /etc/namedb and that you have made no prior modifications to the contents of this directory. Perform the following steps as root. Create all directories that named expects to see: &prompt.root; cd /etc/namedb &prompt.root; mkdir -p bin dev etc var/tmp var/run master slave &prompt.root; chown bind:bind slave var/* named only needs write access to these directories, so that is all we give it. Rearrange and create basic zone and configuration files: &prompt.root; cp /etc/localtime etc &prompt.root; mv named.conf etc && ln -sf etc/named.conf &prompt.root; mv named.root master &prompt.root; sh make-localhost && mv localhost.rev localhost-v6.rev master &prompt.root; cat > master/named.localhost $ORIGIN localhost. $TTL 6h @ IN SOA localhost. postmaster.localhost. ( 1 ; serial 3600 ; refresh 1800 ; retry 604800 ; expiration 3600 ) ; minimum IN NS localhost. IN A 127.0.0.1 ^D This allows named to log the correct time to &man.syslogd.8; Build a statically linked copy of named-xfer, and copy it into the sandbox: &prompt.root; cd /usr/src/lib/libisc && make clean all &prompt.root; cd /usr/src/lib/libbind && make clean all &prompt.root; cd /usr/src/libexec/named-xfer && make NOSHARED=yes all &prompt.root; cp named-xfer /etc/namedb/bin && chmod 555 /etc/namedb/bin/named-xfer This step has been reported to fail occasionally. If this happens to you, then issue the command: &prompt.root; cd /usr/src && make cleandir && make cleandir This will clean out any cruft from your source tree, and retrying the steps above should then work. Make a dev/null that named can see and write to: &prompt.root; cd /etc/namedb/dev && mknod null c 2 2 &prompt.root; chmod 666 null Symlink /var/run/ndc to /etc/namedb/var/run/ndc: &prompt.root; ln -sf /etc/namedb/var/run/ndc /var/run/ndc This simply avoids having to specify the option to &man.ndc.8; every time you run it. If this is something that you find useful, you may wish to add this entry to root's crontab, making use of the option. See &man.crontab.5; for more information regarding this. Configure &man.syslogd.8; to create an extra log socket that named can write to. To do this, add -l /etc/namedb/dev/log to the syslogd_flags variable in /etc/rc.conf. Arrange to have named start and chroot itself to the sandbox by adding the following to /etc/rc.conf: named_enable="YES" named_flags="-u bind -g bind -t /etc/namedb /etc/named.conf" Note that the configuration file /etc/named.conf is denoted by a full pathname relative to the sandbox, i.e. in the line above, the file referred to is actually /etc/namedb/etc/named.conf. The next step is to edit /etc/namedb/etc/named.conf so that named knows which zones to load and where to find them on the disk. There follows a commented example (anything not specifically commented here is no different from the setup for a DNS server not running in a sandbox): options { directory "/"; named-xfer "/bin/named-xfer"; version ""; // Don't reveal BIND version query-source address * port 53; }; // ndc control socket controls { unix "/var/run/ndc" perm 0600 owner 0 group 0; }; // Zones follow: zone "localhost" IN { type master; file "master/named.localhost"; allow-transfer { localhost; }; notify no; }; zone "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" IN { type master; file "master/localhost.rev"; allow-transfer { localhost; }; notify no; }; zone "0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.ip6.int" { type master; file "master/localhost-v6.rev"; allow-transfer { localhost; }; notify no; }; zone "." IN { type hint; file "master/named.root"; }; zone "private.example.net" in { type master; file "master/private.example.net.db"; allow-transfer { 192.168.10.0/24; }; }; zone "10.168.192.in-addr.arpa" in { type slave; masters { 192.168.10.2; }; file "slave/192.168.10.db"; }; The directory statement is specified as /, since all files that named needs are within this directory (recall that this is equivalent to a normal user's /etc/namedb. Specifies the full path to the named-xfer binary (from named's frame of reference). This is necessary since named is compiled to look for named-xfer in /usr/libexec by default. Specifies the filename (relative to the directory statement above) where named can find the zonefile for this zone. Specifies the filename (relative to the directory statement above) where named should write a copy of the zonefile for this zone after successfully transferring it from the master server. This is why we needed to change the ownership of the directory slave to bind in the setup stages above. After completing the steps above, either reboot your server or restart &man.syslogd.8 and start &man.named.8, making sure to use the new options specified in syslogd_flags and named_flags. You should now be running a sandboxed copy of named! Security Although BIND is the most common implementation of DNS, there is always the issue of security. Possible and exploitable security holes are sometimes found. It is a good idea to subscribe to CERT and freebsd-security-notifications to stay up to date with the current Internet and FreeBSD security issues. If a problem arises, keeping sources up to date and having a fresh build of named would not hurt. Further Reading BIND/named manual pages: &man.ndc.8; &man.named.8; &man.named.conf.5; Official ISC Bind Page BIND FAQ O'Reilly DNS and BIND 4th Edition RFC1034 - Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities RFC1035 - Domain Names - Implementation and Specification Tom Hukins Contributed by NTP NTP Overview Over time, a computer's clock is prone to drift. As time passes, the computer's clock becomes less accurate. NTP (Network Time Protocol) is one way to ensure your clock is right. Many Internet services rely on, or greatly benefit from, computers' clocks being accurate. For example, a Web server may receive requests to send a file if it has modified since a certain time. Services such as &man.cron.8; run commands at a given time. If the clock is inaccurate, these commands may not run when expected. NTP ntpd FreeBSD ships with the &man.ntpd.8; NTP server which can be used to query other NTP servers to set the clock on your machine or provide time services to others. Choosing Appropriate NTP Servers NTP choosing servers In order to synchronize your clock, you will need to find one or more NTP servers to use. Your network administrator or ISP may have setup an NTP server for this purpose—check their documentation to see if this is the case. There is a list of publicly accessible NTP servers which you can use to find an NTP server near to you. Make sure you are aware of the policy for any servers you choose, and ask for permission if required. Choosing several unconnected NTP servers is a good idea in case one of the servers you are using becomes unreachable or its clock is unreliable. &man.ntpd.8; uses the responses it receives from other servers intelligently—it will favor unreliable servers less than reliable ones. Configuring Your Machine NTP configuration Basic Configuration ntpdate If you only wish to synchronize your clock when the machine boots up, you can use &man.ntpdate.8;. This may be appropriate for some desktop machines which are frequently rebooted and only require infrequent synchronization, but most machines should run &man.ntpd.8;. Using &man.ntpdate.8; at boot time is also a good idea for machines that run &man.ntpd.8;. &man.ntpd.8; changes the clock gradually, whereas &man.ntpdate.8; sets the clock, no matter how great the difference between a machine's current clock setting and the correct time. To enable &man.ntpdate.8; at boot time, add ntpdate_enable="YES" to /etc/rc.conf. You will also need to specify all servers you wish to synchronize with and any flags to be passed to &man.ntpdate.8; in ntpdate_flags. NTP ntp.conf General Configuration NTP is configured by the /etc/ntp.conf file in the format described in &man.ntp.conf.5;. Here is a simple example: server ntplocal.example.com prefer server timeserver.example.org server ntp2a.example.net driftfile /var/db/ntp.drift The server option specifies which servers are to be used, with one server listed on each line. If a server is specified with the prefer argument, as with ntplocal.example.com, that server is preferred over other servers. A response from a preferred server will be discarded if it differs significantly from other servers' responses, otherwise it will be used without any consideration to other responses. The prefer argument is normally used for NTP servers that are known to be highly accurate, such as those with special time monitoring hardware. The driftfile option specifies which file is used to store the system clock's frequency offset. &man.ntpd.8; uses this to automatically compensate for the clock's natural drift, allowing it to maintain a reasonably correct setting even if it is cut off from all external time sources for a period of time. The driftfile option specifies which file is used to store information about previous responses from the NTP servers you are using. This file contains internal information for NTP. It should not be modified by any other process. Controlling Access to Your Server By default, your NTP server will be accessible to all hosts on the Internet. The restrict option in &man.ntp.conf.5; allows you to control which machines can access your server. If you want to deny all machines from accessing your NTP server, add the line restrict default ignore to /etc/ntp.conf. If you only want to allow machines within your own network to synchronize their clocks with your server, but ensure they are not allowed to configure the server or used as peers to synchronize against, add restrict 192.168.1.0 mask 255.255.255.0 notrust nomodify notrap instead, where 192.168.1.0 is an IP address on your network and 255.255.255.0 is your network's netmask. /etc/ntp.conf can contain multiple restrict options. For more details, see the Access Control Support subsection of &man.ntp.conf.5;. Running the NTP Server To ensure the NTP server is started at boot time, add the line xntpd_enable="YES" to /etc/rc.conf. If you wish to pass additional flags to &man.ntpd.8; edit the xntpd_flags parameter in /etc/rc.conf. To start the server without rebooting your machine, run ntpd being sure to specify any additional parameters from xntpd_flags in /etc/rc.conf. For example: &prompt.root; ntpd -p /var/run/ntpd.pid Using &man.ntpd.8; with a temporary Internet connection ntpd does not need a permanent connection to the Internet to function properly. However, if you have a temporary connection that is configured to dial out on demand, it is a good idea to prevent NTP traffic from triggering a dial out or keeping the connection alive. If you are using user PPP, you can use filter directives in /etc/ppp/ppp.conf. For example: set filter dial 0 deny udp src eq 123 # Prevent NTP traffic from initiating dial out set filter dial 1 permit 0 0 set filter alive 0 deny udp src eq 123 # Prevent incoming NTP traffic from keeping the connection open set filter alive 1 deny udp dst eq 123 # Prevent outgoing NTP traffic from keeping the connection open set filter alive 2 permit 0/0 0/0 For more details see the PACKET FILTERING section in &man.ppp.8; and the examples in /usr/share/examples/ppp/. Some Internet access providers block low-numbered ports, preventing NTP from from functioning since replies never reach your machine. Further Information Documentation for the NTP server can be found in /usr/share/doc/ntp/ in HTML format. Chern Lee Contributed by Network Address Translation Overview natd FreeBSD's Network Address Translation daemon, commonly known as &man.natd.8; is a daemon that accepts incoming raw IP packets, changes the source to the local machine and re-injects these packets back into the outgoing IP packet stream. natd does this by changing the source IP address and port such that when data is received back, it is able to determine the original location of the data and forward it back to its original requester. Internet connection sharing IP masquerading The most common use of NAT is to perform what is commonly known as Internet Connection Sharing. Setup Due to the diminishing IP space in IPv4, and the increased number of users on high-speed consumer lines such as cable or DSL, people are increasingly in need of an Internet Connection Sharing solution. The ability to connect several computers online through one connection and IP address makes &man.natd.8; a reasonable choice. Most commonly, a user has a machine connected to a cable or DSL line with one IP address and wishes to use this one connected computer to provide Internet access to several more over a LAN. To do this, the FreeBSD machine on the Internet must act as a gateway. This gateway machine must have two NICs--one for connecting to the Internet router, the other connecting to a LAN. All the machines on the LAN are connected through a hub or switch. _______ __________ ________ | | | | | | | Hub |-----| Client B |-----| Router |----- Internet |_______| |__________| |________| | ____|_____ | | | Client A | |__________| Network Layout A setup like this is commonly used to share an Internet connection. One of the LAN machines is connected to the Internet. The rest of the machines access the Internet through that gateway machine. kernel configuration Configuration The following options must be in the kernel configuration file: options IPFIREWALL options IPDIVERT Additionally, at choice, the following may also be suitable: options IPFIREWALL_DEFAULT_TO_ACCEPT options IPFIREWALL_VERBOSE The following must be in /etc/rc.conf: gateway_enable="YES" firewall_enable="YES" firewall_type="OPEN" natd_enable="YES" natd_interface="fxp0" natd_flags="" gateway_enable="YES" Sets up the machine to act as a gateway. Running sysctl -w net.inet.ip.forwarding=1 would have the same effect. firewall_enable="YES" Enables the firewall rules in /etc/rc.firewall at boot. firewall_type="OPEN" This specifies a predefined firewall ruleset that allows anything in. See /etc/rc.firewall for additional types. natd_interface="fxp0" Indicates which interface to forward packets through. (the interface connected to the Internet) natd_flags="" Any additional configuration options passed to &man.natd.8; on boot. Having the previous options defined in /etc/rc.conf would run natd -interface fxp0 at boot. This can also be run manually. Each machine and interface behind the LAN should be assigned IP address numbers in the private network space as defined by RFC 1918 and have a default gateway of the natd machine's internal IP address. For example, client a and b behind the LAN have IP addresses of 192.168.0.2 and 192.168.0.3, while the natd machine's LAN interface has an IP address of 192.168.0.1. Client a and b's default gateway must be set to that of the natd machine, 192.168.0.1. The natd machine's external, or Internet interface does not require any special modification for natd to work. Port Redirection The drawback with natd is that the LAN clients are not accessible from the Internet. Clients on the LAN can make outgoing connections to the world but cannot receive incoming ones. This presents a problem if trying to run Internet services on one of the LAN client machines. A simple way around this is to redirect selected Internet ports on the natd machine to a LAN client. For example, an IRC server runs on Client A, and a web server runs on Client B. For this to work properly, connections received on ports 6667 (irc) and 80 (web) must be redirected to the respective machines. The -redirect_port must be passed to &man.natd.8; with the proper options. The syntax is as follows: -redirect_port proto targetIP:targetPORT[-targetPORT] [aliasIP:]aliasPORT[-aliasPORT] [remoteIP[:remotePORT[-remotePORT]]] In the above example, the argument should be: -redirect_port tcp 192.168.0.2:6667 6667 -redirect_port tcp 192.168.0.3:80 80 This will redirect the proper tcp ports to the LAN client machines. The -redirect_port argument can be used to indicate port ranges over individual ports. For example, tcp 192.168.0.2:2000-3000 2000-3000 would redirect all connections received on ports 2000 to 3000 to ports 2000 to 3000 on Client A. These options can be used when directly running &man.natd.8; or placed within the natd_flags="" option in /etc/rc.conf. For further configuration options, consult &man.natd.8; Address Redirection address redirection Address redirection is useful if several IP addresses are available, yet they must be on one machine. With this, &man.natd.8; can assign each LAN client its own external IP address. &man.natd.8; then rewrites outgoing packets from the LAN clients with the proper external IP address and redirects all traffic incoming on that particular IP address back to the specific LAN client. This is also known as static NAT. For example, the IP addresses 128.1.1.1, 128.1.1.2, and 128.1.1.3 belong to the natd gateway machine. 128.1.1.1 can be used as the natd gateway machine's external IP address, while 128.1.1.2 and 128.1.1.3 are forwarded back to LAN clients A and B. The -redirect_address syntax is as follows: localIP The internal IP address of the LAN client. publicIP The external IP address corresponding to the LAN client. In the example, this argument would read: Like -redirect_port, these arguments are also placed within natd_flags of /etc/rc.conf. With address redirection, there is no need for port redirection since all data received on a particular IP address is redirected. The external IP addresses on the natd machine must be active and aliased to the external interface. Look at &man.rc.conf.5; to do so. Chern Lee Contributed by inetd <quote>Super-Server</quote> Overview &man.inetd.8; is referred to as the Internet Super-Server because it manages connections for several daemons. Programs that provide network service are commonly known as daemons. inetd serves as a managing server for other daemons. When a connection is received by inetd, it determines which daemon the connection is destined for, spawns the particular daemon and delegates the socket to it. Running one instance of inetd reduces the overall system load as compared to running each daemon individually in stand-alone mode. Primarily, inetd is used to spawn other daemons, but several trivial protocols are handled directly, such as chargen, auth, and daytime. This section will cover the basics in configuring inetd through its command-line options and its configuration file, /etc/inetd.conf. Settings inetd is initialized through the /etc/rc.conf system. The inetd_enable option is set to NO by default, but is often times turned on by sysinstall with the medium security profile. Placing: inetd_enable="YES" or inetd_enable="NO" into /etc/rc.conf can enable or disable inetd starting at boot time. Additionally, different command-line options can be passed to inetd via the inetd_flags option. Command-Line Options inetd sypnosis: -d Turn on debugging. -l Turn on logging of successful connections. -w Turn on TCP Wrapping for external services. (on by default) -W Turn on TCP Wrapping for internal services which are built in to inetd. (on by default) -c maximum Specify the default maximum number of simultaneous invocations of each service; the default is unlimited. May be overridden on a per-service basis with the parameter. -C rate Specify the default maximum number of times a service can be invoked from a single IP address in one minute; the default is unlimited. May be overridden on a per-service basis with the parameter. -R rate Specify the maximum number of times a service can be invoked in one minute; the default is 256. A rate of 0 allows an unlimited number of invocations. -a Specify one specific IP address to bind to. Alternatively, a hostname can be specified, in which case the IPv4 or IPv6 address which corresponds to that hostname is used. Usually a hostname is specified when inetd is run inside a &man.jail.8;, in which case the hostname corresponds to the &man.jail.8; environment. When hostname specification is used and both IPv4 and IPv6 bindings are desired, one entry with the appropriate protocol type for each binding is required for each service in /etc/inetd.conf. For example, a TCP-based service would need two entries, one using ``tcp4'' for the protocol and the other using ``tcp6''. -p Specify an alternate file in which to store the process ID. These options can be passed to inetd using the inetd_flags option in /etc/rc.conf. By default, inetd_flags is set to -wW, which turns on TCP wrapping for inetd's internal and external services. For novice users, these parameters usually do not need to be modified or even entered in /etc/rc.conf An external service is a daemon outside of inetd, which is invoked when a connection is received for it. On the other hand, an internal service is one that inetd has the facility of offering within itself. <filename>inetd.conf</filename> Configuration of inetd is controlled through the /etc/inetd.conf file. When a modification is made to /etc/inetd.conf, inetd can be forced to re-read its configuration file by sending a HangUP signal to the inetd process as shown: Sending <application>inetd</application> a HangUP Signal &prompt.root kill -HUP `cat /var/run/inetd.pid` Each line of the configuration file specifies an individual daemon. Comments in the file are preceded by a #. The format of /etc/inetd.conf is as follows: service-name socket-type protocol {wait|nowait}[/max-child[/max-connections-per-ip-per-minute]] user[:group][/login-class] server-program server-program-arguments An example entry for the ftpd daemon using IPv4: ftp stream tcp nowait root /usr/libexec/ftpd ftpd -l service-name This is the service name of the particular daemon. It must correspond to a service listed in /etc/services. This determines which port inetd must listen to. If a new service is being created, it must be placed in /etc/services first. socket-type Either stream, dgram, raw, or seqpacket. stream must be used for connection-based, TCP daemons, while dgram is used for daemons utilizing the UDP transport protocol. protocol One of the following: Protocol Explanation tcp, tcp4 TCP IPv4 udp, udp4 UDP IPv4 tcp6 TCP IPv6 udp6 UDP IPv6 tcp46 Both TCP IPv4 and v6 udp46 Both UDP IPv4 and v6 {wait|nowait}[/max-child[/max-connections-per-ip-per-minute]] indicates whether the daemon invoked from inetd is able to handle its own socket or not. socket types must use the wait option, while stream socket daemons, which are usually multi-threaded, should use . usually hands off multiple sockets to a single daemon, while spawns a child daemon for each new socket. The maximum number of child daemons inetd may spawn can be set using the option. If a limit of ten instances of a particular daemon is needed, a /10 would be placed after . In addition to another option limiting the maximum connections from a single place to a particular daemon can be enabled. does just this. A value of ten here would limit any particular IP address connecting to a particular service to ten attempts per minute. This is useful to prevent intentional or unintentional resource consumption and Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to a machine. In this field, or is mandatory. and are optional. A stream-type multi-threaded daemon without any or limits would simply be: nowait The same daemon with a maximum limit of ten daemons would read: nowait/10 Additionally, the same setup with a limit of twenty connections per IP address per minute and a maximum total limit of ten child daemons would read: nowait/10/20 These options are all utilized by the default settings of the fingerd daemon, as seen here: finger stream tcp nowait/3/10 nobody /usr/libexec/fingerd fingerd -s user The user is the username that the particular daemon should run as. Most commonly, daemons run as the root user. For security purposes, it is common to find some servers running as the daemon user, or the least privileged nobody user. server-program The full path of the daemon to be executed when a connection is received. If the daemon is a service provided by inetd internally, then should be used. server-program-arguments This works in conjunction with by specifying the arguments, starting with argv[0], passed to the daemon on invocation. If mydaemon -d is the command line, mydaemon -d would be the value of . Again, if the daemon is an internal service, use here. Security Depending on the security profile chosen at install, many of inetd's daemons may be enabled by default. If there is no apparent need for a particular daemon, disable it! Place a # in front of the daemon in question, and send a hangup signal to inetd. Some daemons, such as fingerd, may not be desired at all because they provide an attacker with too much information. Some daemons are not security-conscious and have long, or non-existent timeouts for connection attempts. This allows an attacker to slowly send connections to a particular daemon, thus saturating available resources. It may be a good idea to place and limitations on certain daemons. By default, TCP wrapping is turned on. Consult the &man.hosts.access.5; manual page for more information on placing TCP restrictions on various inetd invoked daemons. Miscellaneous daytime, time, echo, discard, chargen, and auth are all internally provided services of inetd. The auth service provides identity (ident, identd) network services, and is configurable to a certain degree. Consult the &man.inetd.8; manual page for more in-depth information. Parallel Line IP (PLIP) PLIP Parallel Line IP PLIP lets us run TCP/IP between parallel ports. It is useful on machines without network cards, or to install on laptops. In this section, we will discuss: Creating a parallel (laplink) cable. connecting two computers with PLIP. Creating a Parallel Cable You can purchase a parallel cable at most computer supply stores. If you can't do that, or you just want to know how it's done, here's how you make one out of a normal parallel printer cable. Wiring a parallel cable for networking A-name A-End B-End Descr. Post/Bit DATA0 -ERROR 2 15 15 2 Data 0/0x01 1/0x08 DATA1 +SLCT 3 13 13 3 Data 0/0x02 1/0x10 DATA2 +PE 4 12 12 4 Data 0/0x04 1/0x20 DATA3 -ACK 5 10 10 5 Strobe 0/0x08 1/0x40 DATA4 BUSY 6 11 11 6 Data 0/0x10 1/0x80 GND 18-25 18-25 GND -
Setting up PLIP Get a laplink cable. Confirm that both computers have a kernel with lpt driver support. &prompt.root; dmesg | grep lp lpt0 at 0x378-0x37f irq 7 on isa lpt0: Interrupt-driven lp0: TCP/IP capable interface Plug in the laplink cable into the parallel interface on both computers. Configure the network interface parameters for lp0 on both sites as root. For example, if you want connect the host host1 with host2 host1 <-----> host2 IP Address 10.0.0.1 10.0.0.2 Configure the interface on host1 by doing: &prompt.root; ifconfig lp0 10.0.0.1 10.0.0.2 Configure the interface on host2 by doing: &prompt.root; ifconfig lp0 10.0.0.2 10.0.0.1 You now should have a working connection. Please read the man pages &man.lp.4; and &man.lpt.4; for more details. You should also add both hosts to /etc/hosts. 127.0.0.1 localhost.my.domain localhost 10.0.0.1 host1.my.domain host1 10.0.0.2 host2.my.domain To confirm the connection works, go to each host and ping the other. For example, on host1: &prompt.root; ifconfig lp0 lp0: flags=8851<UP,POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 inet 10.0.0.1 --> 10.0.0.2 netmask 0xff000000 &prompt.root; netstat -r Routing tables Internet: Destination Gateway Flags Refs Use Netif Expire host2 host1 UH 4 127592 lp0 &prompt.root; ping -c 4 host2 PING host2 (10.0.0.2): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=2.774 ms 64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=2.530 ms 64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=2.556 ms 64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=3 ttl=255 time=2.714 ms --- host2 ping statistics --- 4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 2.530/2.643/2.774/0.103 ms diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install/chapter.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install/chapter.sgml index fae20d5676..c242176c57 100644 --- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install/chapter.sgml +++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install/chapter.sgml @@ -1,5357 +1,5358 @@ Jim Mock Restructured, reorganized, and parts rewritten by Randy Pratt The sysinstall walkthrough, screenshots, and general copy by Installing FreeBSD Synopsis installation FreeBSD is provided with a text-based, easy to use installation program called Sysinstall. This is the default installation program for FreeBSD, although vendors are free to provide their own installation suite if they wish. This chapter describes how to use Sysinstall to install FreeBSD. After reading this chapter, you will know: How to create the FreeBSD installation disks. How FreeBSD refers to, and subdivides, your hard disks. How to start Sysinstall. The questions Sysinstall will ask you, what they mean, and how to answer them. Before reading this chapter, you should: Read the supported hardware list that shipped with the version of FreeBSD you are installing, and verify that your hardware is supported. In general, these installation instructions are written for i386 (PC compatible) architecture computers. Where applicable, instructions specific to other platforms (for example, Alpha) will be listed. Pre-installation Tasks 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: Sample Device Inventory Device Name IRQ IO port(s) Notes First hard disk N/A N/A 4GB, made by Seagate, first IDE master CDROM N/A N/A First IDE slave Second hard disk N/A N/A 2GB, made by IBM, second IDE master First IDE controller 14 0x1f0 Network card N/A N/A Intel 10/100 Modem N/A N/A 3Com 56K faxmodem, on COM1 …
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. 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. Disk Layouts for the i386 A PC disk can be divided in to discrete chunks. These chunks are called partitions. By design, the PC only supports four partitions per disk. These partitions are called primary partitions. To work around this limitation and allow more than four partitions, a new partition type was created, the extended partition. A disk may contain only one extended partition. Special partitions, called logical partitions, can be created inside this extended partition. Each partition has a partition ID, which is a number used to identify the type of data on the partition. FreeBSD partitions have the partition ID 165. In general, each operating system that you use will identify partitions in a particular way. For example, DOS, and its descendants, like Windows, assign each primary and logical partition a drive letter, starting with C:. FreeBSD must be installed into a primary partition. FreeBSD can keep all its data, including any files that you create, on this one partition. However, if you have multiple disks, then you can create a FreeBSD partition on all, or some, of them. When you install FreeBSD, you must have one partition available. This might be a blank partition that you have prepared, or it might be an existing partition that contains data that you no longer care about. If you are already using all the partitions on all your disks, then you will have to free one of them for FreeBSD using the tools provided by the other operating systems you use (e.g., fdisk on DOS or Windows). If you have a spare partition then you can use that. However, you may need to shrink one or more of your existing partitions first. A minimal installation of FreeBSD takes as little as 100MB of disk space. However, that is a very minimal install, leaving almost no space for your own files. A more realistic minimum is 250MB without a graphical environment, and 350MB or more if you want a graphical user interface. If you intend to install a lot of third party software as well, then you will need more space. You can use a commercial tool such as Partition Magic to resize your partitions to make space for FreeBSD. The tools directory on the CDROM contains two free software tools which can carry out this task, FIPS and PResizer. Documentation for both of these is in the same directory. Incorrect use of these tools can delete the data on your disk. Be sure that you have recent, working backups before using them. Using an existing partition unchanged Suppose that you have a computer with a single 4GB disk that already has a version of Windows installed, and you have split the disk in to two drive letters, C: and D:, each of which is 2GB in size. You have 1GB of data on C:, and 0.5GB of data on D:. This means that your disk has two partitions on it, one per drive letter. You can copy all your existing data from D: to C:, which will free up the second partition, ready for FreeBSD. Shrinking an existing partition Suppose that you have a computer with a single 4GB disk, that already has a version of Windows installed. When you installed Windows you created one large partition, giving you a C: drive that is 4GB in size. You are currently using 1.5GB of space, and want FreeBSD to have 2GB of space. In order to install FreeBSD you will need to either: Backup your Windows data, and then reinstall Windows, asking for a 2GB partition at install time. Use one of the tools such as Partition Magic, described above, to shrink your Windows partition. Disk Layouts for the Alpha Alpha You will need a dedicated disk for FreeBSD on the Alpha. It is not possible to share a disk with another operating system at this time. Depending on the specific Alpha machine you have, this disk can either be a SCSI disk or an IDE disk, as long as your machine is capable of booting from it. Following the conventions of the Digital / Compaq manuals all SRM input is shown in uppercase. SRM is case insensitive. To find the names and types of disks in your machine, use the SHOW DEVICE command from the SRM console prompt: >>>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 This example is from a Digital Personal Workstation 433au and shows three disks attached to the machine. The first is a CDROM drive called DKA0 and the other two are disks and are called DKC0 and DKC100 respectively. Disks with names of the form DKx are SCSI disks. For example DKA100 refers to a SCSI with SCSI target ID 1 on the first SCSI bus (A), whereas DKC300 refers to a SCSI disk with SCSI ID 3 on the third SCSI bus (C). Devicename PKx refers to the SCSI host bus adapter. As seen in the SHOW DEVICE output SCSI CDROM drives are treated as any other SCSI hard disk drive. IDE disks have names similar to DQx, while PQx is the associated IDE controller. 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. Connecting to an Ethernet Network, or Cable/DSL Modem If you connect to an Ethernet network, or you have an Internet connection via cable or DSL, then you will need the following information: IP address. IP address of the default gateway. Hostname. DNS server IP addresses. If you do not know this information, then ask your system administrator or service provider. They may say that this information is assigned automatically, using DHCP. If so, make a note of this. Connecting Using a Modem If you dial up to an ISP using a regular modem then you can still install FreeBSD over the Internet, it will just take a very long time. You will need to know: The phone number to dial for your ISP. The COM: port your modem is connected to. The username and password for your ISP account. 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 in to 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. Prepare the Boot Discs FreeBSD can be installed from a number of different media; CDROM, DVD, FTP (both anonymous and non-anonymous), NFS, tape, or an existing MS-DOS partition. If you have FreeBSD on CDROM or DVD, and your computer allows you to boot from the CDROM or DVD (typically a BIOS option called Boot Order or similar) then you can skip this section. The FreeBSD CDROM and DVD images are bootable and can be used to install FreeBSD without any other special preparation. 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. To do this, you must create some floppy disks that can be booted from, and then boot from them. If you are not installing directly from CDROM, DVD, or FTP then you are probably preparing your own installation media (e.g., an MS-DOS partition), which must be prepared before you install FreeBSD. This is a slightly more advanced, infrequent activity, and is documented in . This includes the scenario where you want to create your own FTP site on your own network so that other computers can use your site as a FreeBSD FTP installation site. In general, to create boot floppy images, follow these steps: Acquire the Boot Floppy Images The boot discs are available on your installation media in the floppies directory, and can also be downloaded from the floppies directory. The floppy images have a .flp extension. The floppies/ directory contains a number of different images, and the ones you will need to use depends on the version of FreeBSD you are installing, and in some cases, the hardware you are installing to. In most cases you will need two files, kern.flp and mfsroot.flp, but check README.TXT in the same directory to be sure. Your FTP program must use binary mode to download these disk images. Some web browsers have been known to use text (or ASCII) mode, which will be apparent if you cannot boot from the disks. Prepare the Floppy Disks You must prepare one floppy disk per image file you had to download. It is imperative that these disks are free from defects. The easiest way to test this is to format the disks for yourself. Do not trust pre-formatted floppies. If you try to install FreeBSD and the installation program crashes, freezes, or otherwise misbehaves, one of the first things to suspect is the floppies. Try writing the floppy image files to some other disks and try again. Write the Image Files to the Floppy Disks. The .flp files are not regular files you copy to the disk. Instead, they are images of the complete contents of the disk. This means that you cannot use commands like DOS' copy to write the files. Instead, you must use specific tools to write the images directly to the disk. DOS If you are creating the floppies on a computer running DOS/Windows, then we provide a tool to do this called fdimage. If you are using the floppies from the CDROM, and your CDROM is the E: drive, then you would run this: E:\> tools\fdimage floppies\kern.flp A: Repeat this command for each .flp file, replacing the floppy disk each time, being sure to label the disks with the name of the file that you copied to them. Adjust the command line as necessary, depending on where you have placed the .flp files. If you do not have the CDROM, then fdimage can be downloaded from the tools directory on the FreeBSD FTP site. If you are writing the floppies on a Unix system (such as another FreeBSD system) you can use the &man.dd.1; command to write the image files directly to disk. On FreeBSD, you would run: &prompt.root; dd if=kern.flp of=/dev/fd0 On FreeBSD, /dev/fd0 refers to the first floppy disk (the A: drive). /dev/fd1 would be the B: drive, and so on. Other Unix variants might have different names for the floppy disk devices, and you will need to check the documentation for the system as necessary. You are now ready to start installing FreeBSD. Starting the Installation By default, the installation will not make any changes to your disk(s) until you see the following message. Last Chance: Are you SURE your want continue the installation? If you're running this on a disk with data you wish to save then WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO MAKE PROPER BACKUPS before proceeding! We can take no responsibility for lost disk contents! The install can be exited at any time prior to the final warning without changing the contents of the hard drive. If you are concerned that you have configured something incorrectly you can just turn the computer off before this point, and no damage will be done. Booting Booting for the i386 Start with your computer turned off. Turn on the computer. As it starts it should display an option to enter the system set up menu, or BIOS, commonly reached by keys like F2, F10, Del, or Alt S . Use whichever keystroke is indicated on screen. In some cases your computer may display a graphic while it starts. Typically, pressing Esc will dismiss the graphic and allow you to see the necessary messages. Find the setting that controls which devices the system boots from. This is commonly shown as a list of devices, such as Floppy, CDROM, First Hard Disk, and so on. If you needed to prepare boot floppies, then make sure that the floppy disk is selected. If you are booting from the CDROM then make sure that that is selected instead. In case of doubt, you should consult the manual that came with your computer, and/or its motherboard. Make the change, then save and exit. The computer should now restart. If you needed to prepare boot floppies, as described in then one of them will be the first boot disc, probably the one containing kern.flp. Put this disc in your floppy drive. If you are booting from CDROM, then you will need to turn on the computer, and insert the CDROM at the first opportunity. If your computer starts up as normal, and loads your existing operating system then either: The disks were not inserted early enough in the boot process. Leave them in, and try restarting your computer. The BIOS changes earlier did not work correctly. You should redo that step until you get the right option. FreeBSD will start to boot. If you are booting from CDROM you will see a display similar to this: Verifying DMI Pool Data ........ Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM : 1. FD 2.88MB System Type-(00) Uncompressing ... done BTX loader 1.00 BTX version is 1.01 Console: internal video/keyboard BIOS drive A: is disk0 BIOS drive B: is disk1 BIOS drive C: is disk2 BIOS drive C: is disk3 BIOS 639kB/261120kB available memory FreeBSD/i386 bootstrap loader, Revision 0.8 (murray@builder.freebsdmall.com, Thu Jan 17 19:28:57 PST 2002) /kernel text=0x266691 data=0x407c+0x20d68 \ | Hit [Enter] to boot immediately, or any other key for command prompt. Booting [kernel] in 9 seconds... _ If you are booting from floppy disc, you will see a display similar to this: Verifying DMI Pool Data ........ BTX loader 1.00 BTX version is 1.01 Console: internal video/keyboard BIOS drive A: is disk0 BIOS drive C: is disk1 BIOS 639kB/261120kB available memory FreeBSD/i386 bootstrap loader, Revision 0.8 (murray@builder.freebsdmall.com, Thu Jan 17 19:28:57 PST 2002) /kernel text=0x266691 data=0x407c+0x20d68 | Please insert MFS root floppy and press enter: Follow these instructions by removing the kern.flp disc, insert the mfsroot.flp disc, and press Enter. Irrespective of whether you booted from floppy or CDROM, the boot process will then get to this point. Hit [Enter] to boot immediately, or any other key for command prompt. Booting [kernel] in 9 seconds... _ Either wait ten seconds, or press Enter. This will then launch the kernel configuration menu. Booting for the Alpha Alpha Start with your computer turned off. Turn on the computer and wait for a boot monitor prompt. If you needed to prepare boot floppies, as described in then one of them will be the first boot disc, probably the one containing kern.flp. Put this disc in your floppy drive and type the following command to boot the disk (substituting the name of your floppy drive if necessary): >>>BOOT DVA0 -FLAGS '' -FILE '' If you are booting from CDROM, insert the CDROM into the drive and type the following command to start the installation (substituting the name of the appropriate CDROM drive if necessary): >>>BOOT DKA0 -FLAGS '' -FILE '' FreeBSD will start to boot. If you are booting from a floppy disc, at some point you will see the message: Please insert MFS root floppy and press enter: Follow these instructions by removing the kern.flp disc, insert the mfsroot.flp disc, and press Enter. Irrespective of whether you booted from floppy or CDROM, the boot process will then get to this point. Hit [Enter] to boot immediately, or any other key for command prompt. Booting [kernel] in 9 seconds... _ Either wait ten seconds, or press Enter. This will then launch the kernel configuration menu. 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 together, and probing for one piece of hardware can sometimes leave another in an inconsistent state. This is a basic limitation of the design of the PC. 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 ) 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 in to 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. 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.
Kernel Configuration Menu
The kernel configuration screen () is then divided into four sections. A collapsible list of all the drivers that are currently marked as active, subdivided in to groups such as Storage, and Network. Each driver is shown as a description, its two 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. 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 in to groups in the same way as the active driver list. More detail about the currently selected driver, including its IRQ and memory port address. Information about the keystrokes that are valid at this point in time.
The Kernel Device Configuration Visual Interface
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. Resolving Driver Conflicts Press X. This will completely expand the list of drivers, so you can see all of them. You will need to use the arrow keys to scroll back and forth through the active driver list. shows the result of pressing X.
Expanded Driver List
Disable all the drivers for devices that you do not have. To disable a driver, highlight it with the arrow keys and press Del. The driver will be moved to the Inactive Drivers list. If you inadvertently disable a device that you need then press Tab to switch to the Inactive Drivers list, select the driver that you disabled, and press Enter to move it back to the active list. Do not disable sc0. This controls the screen, and you will need this unless you are installing over a serial cable. Only disable atkbd0 if you are using a USB keyboard. If you have a normal keyboard then you must keep atkbd0. If there are no conflicts listed then you can skip this step. Otherwise, the remaining conflicts need to be examined. If they do not have the indication of an allowed conflict in the message area, then either the IRQ/address for device probe will need to be changed, or the IRQ/address on the hardware will need to be changed. To change the driver's configuration for IRQ and IO port address, select the device and press Enter. The cursor will move to the third section of the screen, and you can change the values. You should enter the values for IRQ and port address that you discovered when you made your hardware inventory. Press Q to finish editing the device's configuration and return to the active driver list. If you are not sure what these figures should be then you can try using -1. Some FreeBSD drivers can safely probe the hardware to discover what the correct value should be, and a value of -1 configures them to do this. The procedure for changing the address on the hardware varies from device to device. For some devices you may need to physically remove the card from your computer and adjust jumper settings or DIP switches. Other cards may have come with a DOS floppy that contains the programs used to reconfigure the card. In any case, you should refer to the documentation that came with the device. This will obviously entail restarting your computer, so you will need to boot back in to the FreeBSD installation routine when you have reconfigured the card. When all the conflicts have been resolved the screen will look similar to .
Driver Configuration With No Conflicts
As you can see, the active driver list is now much smaller, with only drivers for the hardware that actually exists being listed. You can now save these changes, and move on to the next step of the install. Press Q to quit the device configuration interface. This message will appear. Save these parameters before exiting? ([Y]es/[N]o/[C]ancel) Answer Y to save the parameters and the probing will start. After displaying the probe results in white on black text Sysinstall will start and display its main menu ().
Sysinstall Main Menu
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 , although the precise text will differ depending on the devices that you have in your computer.
Typical Device Probe Results avail memory = 254611456 (248644K bytes) Preloaded elf kernel "kernel" at 0xc069a000. Preloaded mfs_root "/mfsroot" at 0xc069a084. md1: Malloc disk 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 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 (16bit) 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 irq6 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 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 0x3c0-0c3df 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 irq3 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: ppi0: <Parallel I/O> on ppbus0 plip0: <PLIP network interface> on ppbus0 ad0: 8063MB <IBM-DHEA-38451> [16383/16/63] at ata0-master using UDMA33 acd0: CDROM <DELTA OTC-H101/ST3 F/W by OIPD> at ata0-slave using 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.
Select Sysinstall Exit
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 mfs.root floppy and replace it with kern.flp before rebooting. Introducing Sysinstall Sysinstall is the installation application provided by the FreeBSD Project. It is console based and is divided into a number of menus and screens that you can use to configure and control the installation process. The Sysinstall menu system is controlled by the arrow keys, Enter, Space. and other keys. A detailed description of these keys, and what they do, is contained in Sysinstall's usage information. To review this information, ensure that the Usage entry is highlighted and that the [Select] button is selected, as shown in , then press Enter. The instructions for using the menu system will be displayed. After reviewing them, press Enter to return to the Main Menu.
Selecting Usage From Sysinstall Main Menu
Selecting The Documentation Menu From the Main Menu, select Doc with the arrow keys and press Enter.
Selecting Documentation Menu
This will display the Documentation Menu.
Sysinstall 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. Selecting The Keymap Menu To change the keyboard mapping, use the arrow keys to select Keymap from the menu and press Enter
Sysinstall Main Menu
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 &gui.ok; using the arrow keys and press Enter. Only a partial list is shown in this screen representation. Selecting &gui.cancel; will use the default keymap and return to the Main Install Menu.
Sysinstall Keymap Menu
Installation Options Screen Select Options and press Enter
Sysinstall Main Menu
Sysinstall Options
The default values are usually fine for most users and do not need to be changed. 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. 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.
Begin Standard Installation
Allocating Disk Space Your first task is to allocate disk space for FreeBSD, and label that space so that Sysinstall can prepare it. In order to do this you need to know how FreeBSD expects to find information on the disk. 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. DOS Microsoft Windows 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. SCSI BIOS 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. An Illustration from the Files of Bill and Fred's Exceptional Adventures: Bill breaks-down an older Wintel box to make another FreeBSD box for Fred. Bill installs a single SCSI drive as SCSI unit zero and installs FreeBSD on it. Fred begins using the system, but after several days notices that the older SCSI drive is reporting numerous soft errors and reports this fact to Bill. After several more days, Bill decides it is time to address the situation, so he grabs an identical SCSI drive from the disk drive archive in the back room. An initial surface scan indicates that this drive is functioning well, so Bill installs this drive as SCSI unit four and makes an image copy from drive zero to drive four. Now that the new drive is installed and functioning nicely, Bill decides that it is a good idea to start using it, so he uses features in the SCSI BIOS to re-order the disk drives so that the system boots from SCSI unit four. FreeBSD boots and runs just fine. Fred continues his work for several days, and soon Bill and Fred decide that it is time for a new adventure -- time to upgrade to a newer version of FreeBSD. Bill removes SCSI unit zero because it was a bit flaky and replaces it with another identical disk drive from the archive. Bill then installs the new version of FreeBSD onto the new SCSI unit zero using Fred's magic Internet FTP floppies. The installation goes well. Fred uses the new version of FreeBSD for a few days, and certifies that it is good enough for use in the engineering department...it is time to copy all of his work from the old version. So Fred mounts SCSI unit four (the latest copy of the older FreeBSD version). Fred is dismayed to find that none of his precious work is present on SCSI unit four. Where did the data go? When Bill made an image copy of the original SCSI unit zero onto SCSI unit four, unit four became the new clone, When Bill re-ordered the SCSI BIOS so that he could boot from SCSI unit four, he was only fooling himself. FreeBSD was still running on SCSI unit zero. Making this kind of BIOS change will cause some or all of the Boot and Loader code to be fetched from the selected BIOS drive, but when the FreeBSD kernel drivers take-over, the BIOS drive numbering will be ignored, and FreeBSD will transition back to normal drive numbering. In the illustration at hand, the system continued to operate on the original SCSI unit zero, and all of Fred's data was there, not on SCSI unit four. The fact that the system appeared to be running on SCSI unit four was simply an artifact of human expectations. We are delighted to mention that no data bytes were killed or harmed in any way by our discovery of this phenomenon. The older SCSI unit zero was retrieved from the bone pile, and all of Fred's work was returned to him, (and now Bill knows that he can count as high as zero). Although SCSI drives were used in this illustration, the concepts apply equally to IDE drives. 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. / | +--- A1 | `--- A2 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. / | +--- A1 | | | +--- B1 | | | `--- B2 | `--- A2 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; / | +--- A1 | `--- A2 | +--- B1 | `--- B2 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. / | +--- A1 | `--- A2 | +--- B1 | | | +--- C1 | | | `--- C2 | `--- B2 Or C could be mounted directly on to the A filesystem, under the A1 directory. / | +--- A1 | | | +--- C1 | | | `--- C2 | `--- A2 | +--- B1 | `--- B2 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. FreeBSD 4.4 and up have a featured command, the &man.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. Partition Convention a Normally contains the root filesystem b Normally contains swap space c Normally the same size as the enclosing slice. This allows utilities that need to work on the entire slice (for example, a bad block scanner) to work on the c partition. You would not normally create a filesystem on this partition. d Partition d used to have a special meaning associated with it, although that is now gone. To this day, some tools may operate oddly if told to work on partition d, so Sysinstall will not normally create partition d. 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. slices partitions dangerously dedicated 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 a 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 . 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 . 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. Disk Device Codes Code Meaning ad ATAPI (IDE) disk da SCSI direct access disk acd ATAPI (IDE) CDROM cd SCSI CDROM fd Floppy disk
Sample Disk, Slice, and Partition Names Name Meaning ad0s1a The first partition (a) on the first slice (s1) on the first IDE disk (ad0). da1s2e The fifth partition (e) on the second slice (s2) on the second SCSI disk (da1). Conceptual Model of a Disk This diagram shows FreeBSD's view of the first IDE disk attached to the system. Assume that the disk is 4GB in size, and contains two 2GB slices (DOS partitions). The first slice contains a DOS disk, C:, and the second slice contains a FreeBSD installation. This example FreeBSD installation has three partitions, and a swap partition. The three partitions will each hold a filesystem. Partition a will be used for the root filesystem, e for the /var directory hierarchy, and f for the /usr directory hierarchy. .-----------------. --. | | | | DOS / Windows | | : : > First slice, ad0s1 : : | | | | :=================: ==: --. | | | Partition a, mounted as / | | | > referred to as ad0s2a | | | | | :-----------------: ==: | | | | Partition b, used as swap | | | > referred to as ad0s2b | | | | | :-----------------: ==: | Partition c, no | | | Partition e, used as /var > filesystem, all | | > referred to as ad0s2e | of FreeBSD slice, | | | | ad0s2c :-----------------: ==: | | | | | : : | Partition f, used as /usr | : : > referred to as ad0s2f | : : | | | | | | | | --' | `-----------------' --' Creating Slices using FDisk No changes you make at this point will be written to the disk. If you think you have made a mistake and want to start again you can use the menus to exit Sysinstall and try again. If you get confused and can not see how to exit you can always turn your computer off. 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 to continue ] 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. shows an example from a system with two IDE disks. They have been called ad0 and ad2.
Select Drive for FDisk
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 &gui.ok;. FDisk will start, with a display similar to that shown in . The FDisk display is broken in to 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.
Typical Fdisk Partitions Before Editing
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 . 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.
Fdisk Partition Using Entire Disk
When finished, press Q. Your changes will be saved in Sysinstall, but will not yet be written to disk. 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.
Sysinstall Boot Manager Menu
The help screen, reached by pressing F1, discusses the problems that can be encountered when trying to share the hard disk between operating systems. 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,
Exit Select Drive
The Tab key toggles between the last drive selected, &gui.ok;, and &gui.cancel;. Press the Tab once to toggle to the &gui.ok;, then press Enter to continue with the installation. Creating Partitions using <application>Disklabel</application> 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. Partition Layout for First Disk Partition Filesystem Size Description a / 100MB This is the root file system. Every other filesystem will be mounted somewhere under this one. 100MB is a reasonable size for this filesystem. You will not be storing too much data on it, as a regular FreeBSD install will put about 40MB of data here. The remaining space is for temporary data, and also leaves expansion space if future versions of FreeBSD need more space in / b N/A 2-3 x RAM The system's swap space is kept on this partition. Choosing the right amount of swap space can be a bit of an art. A good rule of thumb is that your swap space should be two or three times as much as the available physical memory (RAM). So if you have You should also have at least 64MB of swap, so if you have less than 32MB of RAM in your computer then set the swap amount to 64MB. If you have more than one disk then you can put swap space on each disk. FreeBSD will then use each disk for swap, which effectively speeds up the act of swapping. In this case, calculate the total amount of swap you need (e.g., 128MB), and then divide this by the number of disks you have (e.g., two disks) to give the amount of swap you should put on each disk, in this example, 64MB of swap per disk. e /var 50MB The /var directory contains variable length files; log files, and other administrative files. Many of these files are read-from or written-to extensively during FreeBSD's day-to-day running. Putting these files on another filesystem allows FreeBSD to optimise the access of these files without affecting other files in other directories that do not have the same access pattern. f /usr Rest of disk All your other files will typically be stored in /usr, and its subdirectories.
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. Partition Layout for Subsequent Disks Partition Filesystem Size Description b N/A See description As already discussed, you can split swap space across each disk. Even though the a partition is free, convention dictates that swap space stays on the b partition. e /diskn Rest of disk The rest of the disk is taken up with one big partition. This could easily be put on the a partition, instead of the e partition. However, convention says that the a partition on a slice is reserved for the filesystem that will be the root (/) filesystem. You do not have to follow this convention, but Sysinstall does, so following it yourself makes the installation slightly cleaner. You can choose to mount this filesystem anywhere; this example suggests that you mount them as directories /diskn, where n is a number that changes for each disk. But you can use another scheme if you prefer.
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 to start the FreeBSD partition editor, called Disklabel. 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.
Sysinstall Disklabel Editor
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 . 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. Beginning with FreeBSD 4.5, the default partitioning assigns the /tmp directory its own partition instead of being part of the / partition. This helps avoid filling the / partition with temporary files.
Sysinstall Disklabel Editor With Auto 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 ). 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.
Free Space For Root Partition
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 . Then press &gui.ok;.
Edit Root Partition Size
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 . This first partition will contain a filesystem, so check that FS is selected and then press Enter.
Choose The Root Partition Type
Finally, because you are creating a filesystem, you must tell Disklabel where the filesystem is to be mounted. The dialog box is shown in . The root filesystem's mount point is /, so type /, and then press Enter.
Choose The Root Mount Point
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 , although your values chosen may be different. Press Q to finish.
Sysinstall Disklabel Editor
Choosing What To Install 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 XFree86 version installed is the 3.x branch. You should check to see whether your video card is supported at the XFree86 web site. If it is only supported under the 4.x branch, then you will need to install and configure XFree86 4.x after installation. Select a distribution without X and refer to for more information. 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 . Obviously, the most versatile system is one that includes everything. If there is adequate disk space, select All as shown in 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.
Choose Distributions
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. 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 &os.numports; ported software packages, at a cost of around 100MB 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.
Confirm Distributions
If satisfied with the options, select Exit with the arrow keys, ensure that &gui.ok; is highlighted, and press Enter to continue. Choosing Your Installation Media If Installing from a CDROM, use the arrow keys to highlight Install from a FreeBSD CD/DVD. Ensure that &gui.ok; is highlighted, then press Enter to proceed with the installation. For other methods of installation, select the appropriate option and follow the instructions. Press F1 to display the Online Help for installation media. Press Enter to return to the media selection menu.
Choose Installation Media
FTP Installation Modes installation network FTP There are three FTP installation modes you can choose from: active FTP, passive FTP, or via a HTTP proxy. FTP Active, Install from an FTP server This option will make all FTP transfers use Active mode. This will not work through firewalls, but will often work with older FTP servers that do not support passive mode. If your connection hangs with passive mode (the default), try active! FTP Passive, Install from an FTP server through a firewall FTP Passive mode This option instructs FreeBSD to use Passive mode for all FTP operations. This allows the user to pass through firewalls that do not allow incoming connections on random port addresses. FTP via a HTTP proxy, Install from an FTP server through a http proxy FTP via a HTTP proxy This option instructs FreeBSD to use the HTTP protocol (like a web browser) to connect to a proxy for all FTP operations. The proxy will translate the requests and send them to the FTP server. This allows the user to pass through firewalls that do not allow FTP at all, but offer a HTTP proxy. In this case, you have to specify the proxy in addition to the FTP server. For a proxy FTP server, you should usually give the name of the server you really want as a part of the username, after an @ sign. The proxy server then fakes the real server. For example, assuming you want to install from ftp.FreeBSD.org, using the proxy FTP server foo.example.com, listening on port 1024. In this case, you go to the options menu, set the FTP username to ftp@ftp.FreeBSD.org, and the password to your email address. As your installation media, you specify FTP (or passive FTP, if the proxy supports it), and the URL ftp://foo.example.com:1234/pub/FreeBSD. Since /pub/FreeBSD from ftp.FreeBSD.org is proxied under foo.example.com, you are able to install from that machine (which will fetch the files from ftp.FreeBSD.org as your installation requests them. Committing to the Installation The installation can now proceed if desired. This is also the last chance for aborting the installation to prevent changes to the hard drive. User Confirmation Requested Last Chance! Are you SURE you want to continue the installation? If you're running this on a disk with data you wish to save then WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO MAKE PROPER BACKUPS before proceeding! We can take no responsibility for lost disk contents! [ Yes ] No Select [ Yes ] and press Enter to proceed. The installation time will vary according to the distribution chosen, installation media used, and the speed of the computer. There will be a series of messages displayed indicating the status. The installation is complete when the following message is displayed: Message Congratulations! You now have FreeBSD installed on your system. We will now move on to the final configuration questions. For any option you do not wish to configure, simply select No. If you wish to re-enter this utility after the system is up, you may do so by typing: /stand/sysinstall . [ OK ] [ Press enter to continue ] Press Enter to proceed with post-installation configurations. Selecting [ No ] and pressing Enter will abort the installation so no changes will be made to your system. The following message will appear: Message Installation complete with some errors. You may wish to scroll through the debugging messages on VTY1 with the scroll-lock feature. You can also choose "No" at the next prompt and go back into the installation menus to try and retry whichever operations have failed. [ OK ] This message is generated because nothing was installed. Pressing Enter will return to the Main Installation Menu to exit the installation. Post-installation Configuration of various options follows the successful installation. An option can be configured by re-entering the configuration options before booting the new FreeBSD system or after installation using /stand/sysinstall and selecting Configure. 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 tutorial PPP- Pendantic PPP Primer. User Confirmation Requested Would you like to configure Ethernet or SLIP/PPP network devices? [ Yes ] No To configure a network device, select [ Yes ] and press Enter. Otherwise, select [ No ] to continue.
Selecting An Ethernet Device
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 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.
Set Network Configuration For ed0
Use Tab to select the information fields and fill in appropriate information: Host The fully-qualified hostname, e.g. k6-2.example.com in this case. Domain The name of the domain that your machine is in, e.g. example.com for this case. IPv4 Gateway IP address of host forwarding packets to non-local destinations. Fill this in only if the machine is a node on the network. Leave this field blank if the machine is the gateway to the Internet for the network. Name server IP address of your local DNS server. There is no local DNS server on this private local area network so the IP address of the provider's DNS server (208.163.10.2) was used. IPv4 address The IP address to be used for this interface was (192.168.0.1). Netmask The address block being used for this local area network is a Class C block (192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255). The default netmask is for a Class C network (255.255.255.0). Extra options to ifconfig Any interface-specific options to ifconfig you would like to add. There were none in this case. Use Tab to select &gui.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 leaving the installation. 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. 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 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 seperately 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.
Editing <filename>inetd.conf</filename>
After adding the desired services, pressing Esc will display a menu which will allow exiting and saving the changes. Anonymous FTP User Confirmation Requested Do you want to have anonymous FTP access to this machine? Yes [ No ] Deny Anonymous FTP Selecting the default [ No ] and pressing Enter will still allow users who have accounts with passwords to use FTP to access the machine. Allow Anonymous FTP Anyone can access your machine if you elect to allow anonymous FTP connections. The security implications should be considered before enabling this option. For more information about security see . To allow anonymous FTP, use the arrow keys to select [ Yes ] and press Enter. The following screens (or similar) will display:
Default Anonymous FTP Configuration
Pressing F1 will display the help: 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. The ftp root directory will be put in /var by default. If you do not have enough room there for the anticipated FTP needs, the /usr directory could be used by setting the FTP Root Directory to /usr/ftp. When you are satisfied with the values, press Enter to continue. User Confirmation Requested Create a welcome message file for anonymous FTP users? [ Yes ] No If you select [ Yes ] and press Enter, an editor will automatically start allowing you to edit the message.
Edit The FTP Welcome Message
This is a text editor called ee. Use the instructions to change the message or change the message later using a text editor of your choice. Note the file name/location at the bottom. Press Esc and a pop-up menu will default to a) leave editor. Press Enter to exit and continue. 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 for a more information. NFS Server User Confirmation Requested Do you want to configure this machine as an NFS server? Yes [ No ] If there is no need for a Network File System server or client, select [ No ] and press Enter. If [ Yes ] is chosen, a message will pop-up indicating that the exports file must be created. 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 file systems. Press [Enter] now to invoke an editor on /etc/exports [ OK ] Press Enter to continue. A text editor will start allowing the exports file to be created and edited.
Editing the Exports File
Use the instructions to add the actual exported filesystems now or later using a text editor of your choice. Note the filename/location at the bottom of the editor screen. Press Esc and a pop-up menu will default to a) leave editor. Press Enter to exit and continue. NFS Client User Confirmation Requested Do you want to configure this machine as an NFS client? Yes [ No ] With the arrow keys, select [ Yes ] or [ No ] as appropriate and press Enter. 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 &man.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. Possible security profiles Extreme Moderate &man.sendmail.8; NO YES &man.sshd.8; NO YES &man.portmap.8; NO MAYBE The portmapper is enabled if the machine has been configured as an NFS client or server earlier in the installation. NFS server NO YES &man.securelevel.8; YES (2) If you choose a security profile that sets the securelevel (Extreme or High), you must be aware of the implications. Please read the &man.init.8; manual page and pay particular attention to the meanings of the security levels, or you may have significant trouble later! NO
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.
Security Profile Options
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 &gui.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. The security profile is not a silver bullet! Even if you use the extreme setting, you need to keep up with security issues by reading an appropriate mailing list, using good passwords and passphrases, and generally adhering to good security practices. It simply sets up the desired security to convenience ratio out of the box. 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.
System Console Configuration Options
A commonly used option is the screensaver. Use the arrow keys to select Saver and then press Enter.
Screensaver Options
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 Screensaver Options menu, select Timeout using the arrow keys and press Enter. A pop-up menu will appear:
Screensaver Timeout
The value can be changed, then select &gui.ok; and press Enter to return to the System Console Configuration menu.
System Console Configuration Exit
Selecting Exit and pressing Enter will continue with the post-installation configurations. Setting The Time Zone Setting the timezone for your machine will allow it to automatically correct for any regional time changes and perform other timezone 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.
Select Your Region
The appropriate region is selected using the arrow keys and then press Enter.
Select Your Country
Select the appropriate country using the arrow keys and press Enter.
Select Your Timezone
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. 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. 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, &man.moused.8;, after installation for details on emulating the 3-button style. This example depicts a non-USB mouse. 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.
Select Mouse Protocol Type
Use the arrow keys to select Type and press Enter
Set Mouse Protocol
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 &gui.ok; is highlighted and press Enter to exit this menu.
Configure Mouse Port
Use the arrow keys to select Port and press Enter.
Setting The Mouse Port
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.
Enable The Mouse Daemon
Last, the mouse daemon is enabled and tested.
Test The Mouse Daemon
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. 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. If your video card is only supported under XFree86 4.x, refer to for installation and configuration. User Confirmation Requested Would you like to configure your X server at this time? [ Yes ] No It is necessary to know your monitor specifications and video card information. Equipment damage can occur if settings are incorrect. If you do not have this information, select [ No ] and perform the configuration after installation when you have the information using /stand/sysinstall, selecting Configure and then XFree86. If you have graphics card and monitor information, select [ Yes ] and press Enter to proceed with configuring the X server.
Select Configuration Method Menu
There are several ways to configure the X server. XF86Setup is fully graphical and probably the easiest. Use the arrow keys to select the XF86Setup and press Enter. 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. Press [Enter] to switch to graphics mode. This may take a while... [ OK ] Press Enter to switch to the graphics mode and continue. It will not try to switch to the graphics mode until Enter is pressed. The screen will go black and then shortly a screen with a large X in the center will appear. Be patient and wait. After a few more moments, the XF86Setup introduction will display. Read all instructions carefully. Press Enter to continue. <application>XF86Setup</application> Overview There are several areas of configuration to be completed. The configuration choices you make will depend on the hardware in the system so only a general overview can be given here. Along the top of the configuration tool there are buttons indicating the areas to be configured. You should be able to use the mouse if it was previously configured and select each item by clicking on it. Review each area and make appropriate selections for your system. <guimenuitem>Mouse</guimenuitem> The mouse is the first item to be configured. If you previously configured your mouse, the mouse daemon will already be running and should indicate SysMouse automatically for the mouse protocol. If you are use a two button mouse, you should also select Emulate3Buttons. There are other settings that can be tweaked if necessary. After completing your selections, click on the Apply and check the mouse actions are working properly. If further adjustment is needed, make them and recheck the operation by clicking on Apply again. When finished, move on to the next item. <guimenuitem>Keyboard</guimenuitem> Select the appropriate keyboard model. The default keyboard is Generic 101-key PC. Select the language layout for your keyboard. The default layout is U.S. English. If you are not using a U.S. keyboard, you may need to additionally select a variant. There are other options under Group Shift/Lock behavior and Control Key Position that can be selected if desired. Generally the default settings are fine. After completing the keyboard configuration, click on Apply and move on to the next item. <guimenuitem>Card</guimenuitem> Click on Read README file for additional help in configuring your video card. Select the appropriate video card from the list using the scrollbar. Clicking on your card will show as Card selected: above the list box. Next, the Detailed Setup was selected just to check details. Typically, if your video card was in the list, no changes will be needed here. When finished, move on to the next item. <guimenuitem>Monitor</guimenuitem> There are two ways to proceed. One method requires that you enter the horizontal and vertical sweep capabilities of your monitor in the text boxes. Choosing one of the monitor options listed that the monitor is the other method. After selecting a listed option, the horizontal and vertical sweep rates that will be used will display. Compare those to your monitor specifications. The monitor must be capable of using those ranges. Do not exceed the ratings of your monitor. Damage could occur. If you have doubts select ABORT and get the information. The remainder of the installation process will be unaffected and configuring the X-Server can be done later using /stand/sysinstall. When finished, move on to the next item. <guimenuitem>Mode</guimenuitem> Select the video mode(s) that you want to use. You can select more than one option. Typically, useful ranges are 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768 but those are a function of video card capability, monitor size, and eye comfort. Next, select the default color depth you want to use. Your choices are 8bpp, 16bpp, 24bpp, and 32bpp. Select the highest color depth that your video card will support. When finished, move on to the next item. <guimenuitem>Other</guimenuitem> The default settings are reasonable values, so you probably will not need to change anything here. The default setting which allows the server to be killed with the hotkey sequence CtrlAlt Backspace should be left on. 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 Alt+ or Alt- . Testing the Server Verify all the settings once again and select Done and the following message will display: If you've finished configuring everything press the Okay button to start the X server using the configuration you've selected. If you still wish to configure some things, press one of the buttons at the top and then press "Done" again, when you've finished. After selecting Okay, some messages will briefly appear advising to wait and attempting to start the X-server. This process takes a few moments, so be patient. The screen will go blank for a short period of time and then a screen will appear with the message Congratulations, you've got a running server! If nothing appears or the display is distorted, kill the X-server using Ctrl Alt Backspace and adjust the settings or revisit them after installation. Running <command>xvidtune</command> The display can be adjusted for height, width, or centering by using 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-windows. There may be some display differences when switching back to text mode, but it is better than damaging equipment. xvidtune can be ran later using /stand/sysinstall. Read the &man.xvidtune.1; man page before making any adjustments. Saving Configuration When you are satisfied, the configuration can now be saved. Select Save the configuration and Exit The configuration file will be saved to /etc/XF86Config. Once the configuration is done, the installation program will need to create a link to the server: Do you want to create an 'X' link to the SVGA server? (the link will be created in the directory: /usr/X11R6/bin) Okay? [ Yes ] No Select [ Yes ] and press Enter to create the link. Link created successfully. [ OK ] Press Enter to continue configuration. 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.
Select Default Desktop
Use the arrow keys to select a desktop and press Enter. Installation of the selected desktop will proceed. 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:
Select Package Category
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.
Select Packages
The bash shell is shown selected. Select as many as desired by highlighting the package and pressing the Space. 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, &gui.ok;, and &gui.cancel;. When you have finished marking the packages for installation, press Tab once to toggle to the &gui.ok; and press Enter to return to the Package Selection menu. The left and right arrow keys will also toggle between &gui.ok; and &gui.cancel;. This method can also be used to select &gui.ok; and press Enter to return to the Package Selection menu.
Install Packages
Use the arrow keys to select [ Install ] and press Enter. You will then need to confirm that you want to install the packages.
Confirm Package Installation
Selecting &gui.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. Add User/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 Add User
Select Add User with the arrow keys and press Enter.
Add User Information
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. Login ID The login name of the new user (mandatory) UID The numerical ID for this user (leave blank for automatic choice) Group The login group name for this user (leave blank for automatic choice) Password The password for this user (enter this field with care!) Full name The user's full name (comment) Member groups The groups this user belongs to (i.e. gets access rights for) Home directory The user's home directory (leave blank for default) Login shell The user's login shell (leave blank for default). (/bin/sh) 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 group wheel to be able to become a superuser with root privileges. When you are satisfied, press &gui.ok; and the User and Group Management menu will redisplay.
Exit User and Group Management
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. Set <username>root</username> 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. 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 ] Selecting [ No ] with the arrow keys and pressing Enter returns to the Main Installation Menu
Exit Install
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 floppy if booting from floppy. The CDROM drive is locked until the machine starts to reboot. The CDROM drive is then unlocked and can be removed from drive (quickly). The system will reboot so watch for any error messages that may appear. FreeBSD Bootup FreeBSD Bootup on the i386 If everything went well, you will see messages scroll off the screen and you will arrive at a login prompt. You can view the content of the messages by pressing Scroll-Lock and using PgUp and PgDn. Pressing Scroll-Lock again will return to the prompt. The entire message may not display (buffer limitation) but it can be viewed from the command line after logging in by typing dmesg at the prompt. Login using the username/password you set during installation (rpratt, in this example). Avoid logging in as root except when necessary. Typical boot messages: 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. FreeBSD 4.5-RC2 #0: Thu Jan 17 21:24:52 GMT 2002 murray@builder.freebsdmall.com:/usr/src/sys/compile/GENERIC 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: Generating the RSA and DSA keys may take some time on slower machines. This happens only on the initial boot-up of a new installation. Subsequent boots will be faster. If the X server has been configured and a Default Desktop chosen, it can be started by typing startx at the command line. Bootup of FreeBSD on the Alpha Alpha Once the install procedure has finished, you will be able to start FreeBSD by typing something like this to the SRM prompt: >>>BOOT DKC0 This instructs the firmware to boot the specified disk. To make FreeBSD boot automatically in the future, use these commands: >>> SET BOOT_OSFLAGS A >>> SET BOOT_FILE '' >>> SET BOOTDEF_DEV DKC0 >>> SET AUTO_ACTION BOOT The boot messages will be similar (but not identical) to those produced by FreeBSD booting on the i386. 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 group wheel. 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. Supported Hardware hardware FreeBSD currently runs on a wide variety of ISA, VLB, EISA, and PCI bus-based PCs with Intel, AMD, Cyrix, or NexGen x86 processors, as well as a number of machines based on the Compaq Alpha processor. Support for generic IDE or ESDI drive configurations, various SCSI controllers, PCMCIA cards, USB devices, and network and serial cards is also provided. FreeBSD also supports IBM's microchannel (MCA) bus. A list of supported hardware is provided with each FreeBSD release in the FreeBSD Hardware Notes. This document can usually be found in a file named HARDWARE.TXT, in the top-level directory of a CDROM or FTP distribution or in sysinstall's documentation menu. It lists, for a given architecture, what hardware devices are known to be supported by each release of FreeBSD. Troubleshooting installation troubleshooting The following section covers basic installation troubleshooting, such as common problems people have reported. There are also a few questions and answers for people wishing to dual-boot FreeBSD with MS-DOS. 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. Some installation problems can be avoided or alleviated by by updating the firmware on various hardware components, most notably the motherboard. The motherboard firmware may also be referred to as BIOS and most of the motherboard or computer manufactures have a website where the upgrades and upgrade information may be located. Most manufacturers strongly advise against upgrading the motherboard BIOS unless there is a good reason for doing so, which could possibly be a critical update of sorts. The upgrade process can go wrong, causing permanent damage to the BIOS chip. Do not disable any drivers you will need during the installation, such as your screen (sc0). If the installation wedges or fails mysteriously after leaving the configuration editor, you have probably removed or changed something you should not have. Reboot and try again. In configuration mode, you can: List the device drivers installed in the kernel. Change 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. MS-DOS User's Questions and Answers DOS Many users wish to install FreeBSD on PCs inhabited by MS-DOS. Here are some commonly asked questions about installing FreeBSD on such systems. Help, I have no space! Do I need to delete everything first? If your machine is already running MS-DOS and has little or no free space available for the FreeBSD installation, all hope is not lost! You may find the FIPS utility, provided in the tools directory on the FreeBSD CDROM or various FreeBSD FTP sites to be quite useful. FIPS FIPS allows you to split an existing MS-DOS partition into two pieces, preserving the original partition and allowing you to install onto the second free piece. You first defragment your MS-DOS partition using the Windows DEFRAG utility (go into Explorer, right-click on the hard drive, and choose to defrag your hard drive), or Norton Disk Tools. You then must run FIPS. It will prompt you for the rest of the information it needs. Afterwards, you can reboot and install FreeBSD on the new free slice. See the Distributions menu for an estimate of how much free space you will need for the kind of installation you want. Partition Magic There is also a very useful product from PowerQuest called Partition Magic. This application has far more functionality than FIPS, and is highly recommended if you plan to often add/remove operating systems (like me). However, it does cost money, and if you plan to install FreeBSD once and then leave it there, FIPS will probably be fine for you. Can I use compressed MS-DOS filesystems from FreeBSD? - No. If you are using a utility such as Stacker or - DoubleSpace, FreeBSD will only be able to use whatever - portion of the filesystem you leave uncompressed. The rest - of the filesystem will show up as one large file (the - stacked/double spaced file!). Do not remove that - file or you will probably regret it - greatly! + No. If you are using a utility such as + Stacker or + DoubleSpace, FreeBSD + will only be able to use whatever portion of the filesystem + you leave uncompressed. The rest of the filesystem will + show up as one large file (the stacked/double spaced file!). + Do not remove that file or you will probably regret + it greatly! It is probably better to create another uncompressed primary MS-DOS partition and use this for communications between MS-DOS and FreeBSD. Can I mount my extended MS-DOS partition? partitions slices Yes. DOS extended partitions are mapped in at the end of the other slices in FreeBSD, e.g., your D: drive might be /dev/da0s5, your E: drive, /dev/da0s6, and so on. This example assumes, of course, that your extended partition is on SCSI drive 0. For IDE drives, substitute ad for da appropriately if installing 4.0-RELEASE or later, and substitute wd for da if you are installing a version of FreeBSD prior to 4.0. You otherwise mount extended partitions exactly like you would any other DOS drive, for example: &prompt.root; mount -t msdos /dev/ad0s5 /dos_d Alpha User's Questions and Answers Alpha This section answers some commonly asked questions about installing FreeBSD on Alpha systems. Can I boot from the ARC or Alpha BIOS Console? ARC Alpha BIOS SRM No. &os;, like Compaq Tru64 and VMS, will only boot from the SRM console. Help, I have no space! Do I need to delete everything first? Unfortunately, yes. Can I mount my Compaq Tru64 or VMS filesystems? No, not at this time. Valentino Vaschetto Contributed by Advanced Installation Guide This section describes how to install FreeBSD in exceptional cases. Installing FreeBSD on a System without a Monitor or Keyboard installation headless (serial console) serial console 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: Fetch the Right Boot Floppy Images First you will need to get the right disk images so that you can boot into the install program. The secret with using a serial console is that you tell the boot loader to send I/O through a serial port instead of displaying console output to the VGA device and trying to read input from a local keyboard. Enough of that now, let's get back to getting these disk images. You will need to get kern.flp and mfsroot.flp from the floppies directory. Write the Image Files to the Floppy Disks. The image files, such as kern.flp, are not regular files that you copy to the disk. Instead, they are images of the complete contents of the disk. This means that you can not use commands like DOS' copy to write the files. Instead, you must use specific tools to write the images directly to the disk. fdimage If you are creating the floppies on a computer running DOS then we provide a tool to do this called fdimage. If you are using the floppies from the CDROM, and your CDROM is the E: drive then you would run this: E:\> tools\fdimage floppies\kern.flp A: Repeat this command for each .flp file, replacing the floppy disk each time. Adjust the command line as necessary, depending on where you have placed the .flp files. If you do not have the CDROM then fdimage can be downloaded from the tools directory on the FreeBSD FTP site. If you are writing the floppies on a Unix system (such as another FreeBSD system) you can use the &man.dd.1; command to write the image files directly to disk. On FreeBSD you would run: &prompt.root; dd if=kern.flp of=/dev/fd0 On FreeBSD /dev/fd0 refers to the first floppy disk (the A: drive). /dev/fd1 would be the B: drive, and so on. Other Unix variants might have different names for the floppy disk devices, and you will need to check the documentation for the system as necessary. Enabling the Boot Floppies to Boot into a Serial Console Do not try to mount the floppy if it is write-protected mount If you were to boot into the floppies that you just made, FreeBSD would boot into its normal install mode. We want FreeBSD to boot into a serial console for our install. To do this, you have to mount the kern.flp floppy onto your FreeBSD system using the &man.mount.8; command. &prompt.root; mount /dev/fd0 /mnt Now that you have the floppy mounted, you must change into the floppy directory &prompt.root; cd /mnt Here is where you must set the floppy to boot into a serial console. You have to make a file called boot.config containing /boot/loader -h. All this does is pass a flag to the bootloader to boot into a serial console. &prompt.root; echo "/boot/loader -h" > boot.config Now that you have your floppy configured correctly, you must unmount the floppy using the &man.umount.8; command &prompt.root; cd / &prompt.root; umount /mnt Now you can remove the floppy from the floppy drive Connecting Your Null Modem Cable null-modem cable You now need to connect a null modem cable between the two machines. Just connect the cable to the serial ports of the 2 machines. A normal serial cable will not work here, you need a null modem cable because it has some of the wires inside crossed over. Booting Up for the Install It is now time to go ahead and start the install. Put the kern.flp floppy in the floppy drive of the machine you are doing the headless install on, and power on the machine. Connecting to Your Headless Machine cu Now you have to connect to that machine with &man.cu.1;: &prompt.root; cu -l /dev/cuaa0 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! Preparing Your Own Installation Media To prevent repetition, FreeBSD disk in this context means a FreeBSD CDROM or DVD that you have purchased, or produced yourself. There may be some situations in which you need to create your own FreeBSD installation media and/or source. This might be physical media, such as a tape, or a source that Sysinstall can use to retrieve the files, such as a local FTP site, or an MS-DOS partition. For example: You have many machines connected to your local network, and one FreeBSD disk. You want to create a local FTP site using the contents of the FreeBSD disk, and then have your machines use this local FTP site instead of needing to connect to the Internet. You have a FreeBSD disk, FreeBSD does not recognize your CD/DVD drive, but DOS/Windows does. You want to copy the FreeBSD installations files to a DOS partition on the same computer, and then install FreeBSD using those files. The computer you want to install on does not have a CD/DVD drive, or a network card, but you can connect a Laplink-style serial or parallel cable to a computer that does. You want to create a tape that can be used to install FreeBSD. Creating a Local FTP Site with a FreeBSD Disk installation network FTP 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. On the FreeBSD computer that will host the FTP site, ensure that the CDROM is in the drive, and mounted on /cdrom. &prompt.root; mount /cdrom Create an account for anonymous FTP in /etc/passwd. Do this by editing /etc/passwd using &man.vipw.8; and adding this line. ftp:*:99:99::0:0:FTP:/cdrom:/nonexistent Ensure that the FTP service is enabled in /etc/inetd.conf. 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. This approach is OK for a machine that is on your local network, and that is protected by your firewall. Offering up FTP services to other machines over the Internet (and not your local network) exposes your computer to the attention of crackers and other undesirables. We strongly recommend that you follow good security practices if you do this. Creating Installation Floppies 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 1.44MB or 1.2MB 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" 1.44MB floppy) illustrates: &prompt.root; fdformat -f 1440 fd0.1440 &prompt.root; disklabel -w -r fd0.1440 floppy3 &prompt.root; newfs -t 2 -u 18 -l 1 -i 65536 /dev/fd0 Use fd0.1200 and floppy5 for 5.25" 1.2MB disks. 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 1.44MB 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. Installing from an MS-DOS Partition installation from MS-DOS To prepare for an installation from an MS-DOS partition, copy the files from the distribution into a directory on that 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 bin distribution can be found in the &rel.current;/bin/ 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. Creating an Installation Tape installation from QIC/SCSI 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: &prompt.root; cd /freebsd/distdir &prompt.root; 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. When starting the installation, the tape must be in the drive before booting from the boot floppy. The installation probe may otherwise fail to find it. Before Installing over a Network installation network serial (SLIP or PPP) installation network parallel (PLIP) installation network Ethernet 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 50kbytes/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. Before Installing via NFS installation network NFS The NFS installation is fairly straight-forward. Simply copy the FreeBSD distribution files you want onto a server somewhere and then point the NFS media selection at it. If this server supports only privileged port (as is generally the default for Sun workstations), you will need to set this option in the Options menu before installation can proceed. If you have a poor quality Ethernet card which suffers from very slow transfer rates, you may also wish to toggle the appropriate Options flag. In order for NFS installation to work, the server must support subdir mounts, e.g., if your FreeBSD 3.4 distribution directory lives on:ziggy:/usr/archive/stuff/FreeBSD, then ziggy will have to allow the direct mounting of /usr/archive/stuff/FreeBSD, not just /usr or /usr/archive/stuff. In FreeBSD's /etc/exports file, this is controlled by the . Other NFS servers may have different conventions. If you are getting permission denied messages from the server, then it is likely that you do not have this enabled properly.