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Committer's GuideThe FreeBSD Documentation Project$FreeBSD$199920002001200220032004The FreeBSD Documentation Project
&tm-attrib.freebsd;
&tm-attrib.cvsup;
&tm-attrib.ibm;
&tm-attrib.intel;
&tm-attrib.sparc;
&tm-attrib.general;
This document provides information for the FreeBSD committer
community. All new committers should read this document before they
start, and existing committers are strongly encouraged to review it
from time to time.Administrative DetailsMain Repository Hostncvs.FreeBSD.orgLogin Methods&man.ssh.1;, protocol 2 onlyMain CVSROOTncvs.FreeBSD.org:/home/ncvs (although also see ).
Main &a.cvs;&a.peter; and &a.markm;, as well as &a.joe; and &a.marcus; for
ports/Mailing Lists&a.doc-developers;, &a.doc-committers;;
&a.ports-developers;, &a.ports-committers;;
&a.src-developers;, &a.src-committers;. (Each project
repository has its own -developers and -committers mailing
lists. Archives for these lists may be found in files
/home/mail/repository-name-developers-archive
and
/home/mail/repository-name-committers-archive
on the FreeBSD.org
cluster.)
Core Team monthly reports/home/core/public/monthly-report
on the FreeBSD.org cluster.
Noteworthy CVS TagsRELENG_4 (4.X-STABLE), HEAD (-CURRENT)It is required that you use &man.ssh.1; or &man.telnet.1;
with Kerberos 5 to connect to the project hosts. For
&man.ssh.1; only protocol 2 is allowed.
These are generally more secure than plain &man.telnet.1; or
&man.rlogin.1; since credential negotiation will always be
encrypted. All traffic is encrypted by default with &man.ssh.1;.
With utilities like &man.ssh-agent.1; and &man.scp.1; also
available, &man.ssh.1; is also far more convenient. If you do
not know anything about &man.ssh.1;, please see
.Commit Bit TypesThe FreeBSD CVS repository has a number of components which,
when combined, support the basic operating system source,
documentation, third party application ports infrastructure, and
various maintained utilities. When FreeBSD commit bits are
allocated, the areas of the tree where the bit may be used are
specified. Generally, the areas associated with a bit reflect who
authorized the allocation of the commit bit. Additional areas of
authority may be added at a later date: when this occurs, the
committer should follow normal commit bit allocation procedures for
that area of the tree, seeking approval from the appropriate entity
and possibly getting a mentor for that area for some period of time.
Committer TypeResponsibleTree Componentssrccore@src/, doc/ subject to appropriate reviewdocdoceng@doc/, www/, src/ documentationportsportmgr@ports/Commit bits allocated prior to the development of the notion of
areas of authority may be appropriate for use in many parts of the
tree. However, common sense dictates that a committer who has not
previously worked in an area of the tree seek review prior to
committing, seek approval from the appropriate responsible party,
and/or work with a mentor. Since the rules regarding code
maintenance differ by area of the tree, this is as much for the
benefit of the committer working in an area of less familiarity as
it is for others working on the tree.Committers are encouraged to seek review for their work as part
of the normal development process, regardless of the area of the
tree where the work is occurring.Policy for doc/ committer activity
in src/doc committers may commit documentation
changes to src files, such as man pages, READMEs, fortune
databases, calendar files, and comment fixes without
approval from a src committer, subject to the normal care
and tending of commits.doc committers may commit minor src changes
and fixes, such as build fixes, small features, etc, with an
"Approved by" from a src committer.doc committers may seek an upgrade to a src
commit bit by acquiring a mentor, who will propose the doc
committer to core. When approved, they will be added to
'access' and the normal mentoring period will ensue, which
will involve a continuing of Approved by for
some period."Approved by" is only acceptable from
non-mentored src committers -- mentored committers can
provide a "Reviewed by" but not an "Approved
by".CVS OperationsIt is assumed that you are already familiar with the basic operation
of CVS.The &a.cvs; are the owners of the CVS repository and
are responsible for direct modification of it for the purposes of
cleanup or fixing some grievous abuse of CVS by a committer.
Should you cause some repository accident, say a bad cvs
import or cvs tag operation, mail the &a.cvs;
(or call one of them) and report the problem to one of them. The only
ones able to directly fiddle the repository bits on the repository hosts
are the repomeisters. To enforce this, there are no login shells
available on the repository machines, except to the repomeisters.The CVS tree is currently split into four distinct repositories,
namely doc, ports,
projects and src. These are
combined under a single CVSROOT when distributed
via CVSup for the convenience of our users.Note that the www module containing sources
for the FreeBSD website is
contained within the doc repository.The CVS repositories are hosted on the repository machines.
Currently, each of the repositories above reside on the same physical
machine, ncvs.FreeBSD.org, but to allow for
the possibility of placing each on a separate machine in the future,
there is a separate hostname for each that committers should use.
Additionally, each repository is stored in a separate directory. The
following table summarizes the situation.
&os; CVS Repositories, Hosts and DirectoriesRepositoryHostDirectorydocdcvs.FreeBSD.org/home/dcvsportspcvs.FreeBSD.org/home/pcvsprojectsprojcvs.FreeBSD.org/home/projcvssrcncvs.FreeBSD.org/home/ncvs
CVS operations are done remotely by setting the
CVSROOT environment variable to the appropriate host
and top-level directory (for example,
ncvs.FreeBSD.org:/home/ncvs),
the CVS_RSH variable to ssh, and then
doing the appropriate check-out/check-in operations. Many committers
define aliases which expand to the correct cvs
invocation for the appropriate repository. For example, a &man.tcsh.1;
user may add the following to their .cshrc for this
purpose:alias dcvs env CVS_RSH=ssh cvs -d user@dcvs.FreeBSD.org:/home/dcvs
alias pcvs env CVS_RSH=ssh cvs -d user@pcvs.FreeBSD.org:/home/pcvs
alias projcvs env CVS_RSH=ssh cvs -d user@projcvs.FreeBSD.org:/home/projcvs
alias scvs env CVS_RSH=ssh cvs -d user@ncvs.FreeBSD.org:/home/ncvsThis way they can do all CVS operations
locally and use Xcvs commit for committing
to the official CVS tree. If you wish to add
something which is wholly new (like contrib-ified
sources, etc), cvs import should be used.
Refer to the &man.cvs.1; manual page for usage.Please do not use
cvs checkout or
update with the official repository machine set
as the CVS Root for keeping your source tree up to date.
Remote CVS is not optimized for network distribution
and requires a big work/administrative overhead on the server side.
Please use our advanced cvsup distribution
method for obtaining the repository bits, and only do the actual
commit operation on the repository host.
We provide an extensive cvsup replication network for this purpose,
as well as give access to cvsup-master if you
really need to stay current to the latest changes.
cvsup-master has got the horsepower to deal with
this, the repository master server does not. &a.kuriyama; is in
charge of cvsup-master.
If you need to use CVS add and
delete operations in a manner that is
effectively a &man.mv.1; operation, then a repository
copy is in order rather than using CVS add and
delete. In a repository copy, a CVS Meister will copy the file(s)
to their new name and/or location and let you know when it is
done. The purpose of a repository copy is to preserve file
change history, or logs. We in the FreeBSD Project greatly
value the change history that CVS gives to the project.CVS reference information, tutorials, and FAQs can be found at:
.
The information in Karl Fogel's
chapters from Open Source Development with CVS is also very
useful.&a.des; also supplied the following mini primer for
CVS.Check out a module with the co or
checkout command.&prompt.user; cvs checkout shazamThis checks out a copy of the shazam module. If
there is no shazam module in the modules file, it looks for a
top-level directory named shazam instead.
Useful cvs checkout optionsDo not create empty directoriesCheck out a single level, no subdirectoriesCheck out revision, branch or tag
revCheck out the sources as they were on date
date
Practical FreeBSD examples:Check out the miscfs module,
which corresponds to src/sys/miscfs:&prompt.user; cvs co miscfsYou now have a directory named miscfs
with subdirectories CVS,
deadfs, devfs, and so
on. One of these (linprocfs) is
empty.Check out the same files, but with full path:&prompt.user; cvs co src/sys/miscfsYou now have a directory named src,
with subdirectories CVS and
sys. The src/sys directory has
subdirectories CVS and
miscfs, etc.Check out the same files, but prunes empty
directories:&prompt.user; cvs co -P miscfsYou now have a directory named
miscfs with subdirectories
CVS, deadfs,
devfs... but note that there is no
linprocfs subdirectory, because there
are no files in it.Check out the directory miscfs, but
none of the subdirectories:&prompt.user; cvs co -l miscfsYou now have a directory named miscfs
with just one subdirectory named
CVS.Check out the miscfs module as
it is in the 4.X branch:&prompt.user; cvs co -rRELENG_4 miscfsYou can modify the sources and commit along this
branch.Check out the miscfs module as
it was in 3.4-RELEASE.&prompt.user; cvs co -rRELENG_3_4_0_RELEASE miscfsYou will not be able to commit modifications, since
RELENG_3_4_0_RELEASE is a point in time, not a branch.Check out the miscfs module as it was
on Jan 15 2000.&prompt.user; cvs co -D'01/15/2000' miscfsYou will not be able to commit modifications.Check out the miscfs module as it was
one week ago.&prompt.user; cvs co -D'last week' miscfsYou will not be able to commit modifications.Note that cvs stores metadata in subdirectories named
CVS.Arguments to and
are sticky, which means cvs will remember them later, e.g.
when you do a cvs update.Check the status of checked-out files with the
status command.&prompt.user; cvs status shazamThis displays the status of the
file shazam or of every file in the
shazam directory. For every file, the
status is given as one of:Up-to-dateFile is up-to-date and unmodified.Needs PatchFile is unmodified, but there is a newer revision in
the repository.Locally ModifiedFile is up-to-date, but modified.Needs MergeFile is modified, and there is a newer revision in the
repository.File had conflicts on mergeThere were conflicts the last time this file was
updated, and they have not been resolved yet.You will also see the local revision and date,
the revision number of the newest applicable version
(newest applicable because if you have a
sticky date, tag or branch, it may not be the actual newest
revision), and any sticky tags, dates or options.Once you have checked something out, you can update it with the
update command.&prompt.user; cvs update shazamThis updates the file shazam or the
contents of the shazam directory to the
latest version along the branch you checked out. If you
checked out a point in time, does nothing
unless the tags have moved in the repository or some other weird
stuff is going on.Useful options, in addition to those listed above for
checkout:Check out any additional missing directories.Update to head of main branch.More magic (see below).If you checked out a module with or
, running cvs update
with a different or
argument or with will select a new branch,
revision or date. The option clears all
sticky tags, dates or revisions whereas
and set new ones.Theoretically, specifying HEAD as the
argument to will give you the same result
as , but that is just theory.The option is useful if:somebody has added subdirectories to the module
you have checked out after you checked it out.you checked out with , and later
change your mind and want to check out the subdirectories
as well.you deleted some subdirectories and want to check
them all back out.Watch the output of the cvs
update with care. The letter in front of
each filename indicates what was done with it:UThe file was updated without trouble.PThe file was updated without trouble (you will only see
this when working against a remote repository).MThe file had been modified, and was merged without
conflicts.CThe file had been modified, and was merged with
conflicts.Merging is what happens if you check out a copy of
some source code, modify it, then someone else commits a
change, and you run cvs update. CVS notices
that you have made local changes, and tries to merge your
changes with the changes between the version you originally
checked out and the one you updated to. If the changes are to
separate portions of the file, it will almost always work fine
(though the result might not be syntactically or semantically
correct).CVS will print an M in front of every locally modified
file even if there is no newer version in the repository, so
cvs update is handy for getting a summary
of what you have changed locally.If you get a C, then your changes
conflicted with the changes in the repository (the changes
were to the same lines, or neighboring lines, or you changed
the local file so much that cvs can not
figure out how to apply the repository's changes). You will have
to go through the file manually and resolve the conflicts;
they will be marked with rows of <,
= and > signs. For
every conflict, there will be a marker line with seven
< signs and the name of the file,
followed by a chunk of what your local file contained,
followed by a separator line with seven =
signs, followed by the corresponding chunk in the
repository version, followed by a marker line with seven
> signs and the revision number you
updated to.The option is slightly voodoo. It
updates the local file to the specified revision as if you
used , but it does not change the recorded
revision number or branch of the local file. It is not really
useful except when used twice, in which case it will merge the
changes between the two specified versions into the working
copy.For instance, say you commit a change to
shazam/shazam.c in &os.current; and later
want to MFC it. The change you want to MFC was revision
1.15:Check out the &os.stable; version of the
shazam module:&prompt.user; cvs co -rRELENG_4 shazamApply the changes between rev 1.14 and 1.15:&prompt.user; cvs update -j1.14 -j1.15 shazam/shazam.cYou will almost certainly get a conflict because
- of the $Id: article.sgml,v 1.203 2004-08-02 04:15:08 murray Exp $ (or in FreeBSD's case,
+ of the $Id: article.sgml,v 1.204 2004-08-05 10:04:26 den Exp $ (or in FreeBSD's case,
$FreeBSD$)
lines, so you will have to edit the file to resolve the conflict
- (remove the marker lines and the second $Id: article.sgml,v 1.203 2004-08-02 04:15:08 murray Exp $ line,
- leaving the original $Id: article.sgml,v 1.203 2004-08-02 04:15:08 murray Exp $ line intact).
+ (remove the marker lines and the second $Id: article.sgml,v 1.204 2004-08-05 10:04:26 den Exp $ line,
+ leaving the original $Id: article.sgml,v 1.204 2004-08-05 10:04:26 den Exp $ line intact).
View differences between the local version and the
repository version with the diff
command.&prompt.user; cvs diff shazamshows you every modification you have made to the
shazam file or module.
Useful cvs diff optionsUses the unified diff format.Uses the context diff format.Shows missing or added files.
You always want to use , since
unified diffs are much easier to read than almost any other
diff format (in some circumstances, context diffs generated with
the option may be
better, but they are much bulkier). A unified diff consists of
a series of hunks. Each hunk begins with a line that starts
with two @ signs and specifies where in the
file the differences are and how many lines they span. This
is followed by a number of lines; some (preceded by a blank)
are context; some (preceded by a - sign)
are outtakes and some (preceded by a +) are
additions.You can also diff against a different version
than the one you checked out by specifying a version
with or as in
checkout or update,
or even view the diffs between two arbitrary versions
(without regard for what you have locally) by specifying
two versions with or
.View log entries with the log
command.&prompt.user; cvs log shazamIf shazam is a file, this will print a
header with information about this file, such
as where in the repository this file is stored, which revision is
the HEAD for this file, what branches this file
is in, and any tags that are valid for this file. Then, for each
revision of this file, a log message is printed. This includes
the date and time of the commit, who did the commit, how many lines
were added and/or deleted, and finally the log message that the
committer who did the change wrote.If shazam is a directory, then the log
information described above is printed for each file in the
directory in turn. Unless you give the to
log, the log for all subdirectories of
shazam is printed too, in a recursive
manner.Use the log command to view the history of
one or more files, as it is stored in the CVS repository. You can
even use it to view the log message of a specific revision, if you
add the to the
log command:&prompt.user; cvs log -r1.2 shazamThis will print only the log message for revision
1.2 of file shazam if it is
a file, or the log message for revision 1.2 of
each file under shazam if it is a
directory.See who did what with the annotate command.
This command shows you each line of the specified file or
files, along with which user most recently changed that
line.&prompt.user; cvs annotate shazamAdd new files with the add command.Create the file, cvs add it, then
cvs commit it.Similarly, you can add new directories by creating them
and then cvs adding them. Note that you
do not need to commit directories.Remove obsolete files with the remove command.Remove the file, then cvs rm it, then
cvs commit it.Commit with the commit or
checkin command.
Useful cvs commit optionsForce a commit of an unmodified file.Specify a commit message on the command line rather
than invoking an editor.
Our 32 bit reference platform is i386, and our 64 bit
reference platform is Sparc64. Major design work (including
major API and ABI changes) must prove itself on at least one
32 bit and at least one 64 bit platform, preferably the
primary reference platforms, before it may be committed
to the source tree.
The i386 and Sparc64 platforms were chosen due to being more
readily available to developers and as representatives of more
diverse processor and system designs - big vs little endian,
register file vs register stack, different DMA and cache
implementations, hardware page tables vs software TLB management
etc.While the Alpha is a 64 bit processor, it is a more
traditional processor design and does not provide as good a testbed
for many of the challenges that the other 64 bit platform ports
face. The ia64 platform has many of the same complications that
Sparc64 has, but is still limited in availability to
developers.We will continue to re-evaluate this policy as cost and
availability of the 64 bit platforms change.Developers should also be aware of our Tier Policy for
the long term support of hardware architectures. The rules
here are intended to provide guidance during the development
process, and are distinct from the requirements for features
and architectures listed in that section. The Tier rules for
feature support on architectures at release-time are more
strict than the rules for changes during the development
process.Other SuggestionsWhen committing documentation changes, use a spell checker
before committing. For all SGML docs, you should also
verify that your formatting directives are correct by running
make lint.For all on-line manual pages, run manck
(from ports) over the manual page to verify all of the cross
references and file references are correct and that the man
page has all of the appropriate MLINKs
installed.Do not mix style fixes with new functionality. A style
fix is any change which does not modify the functionality of
the code. Mixing the changes obfuscates the functionality
change when using cvs diff, which can hide
any new bugs. Do not include whitespace changes with content
changes in commits to doc/ or
www/. The extra clutter in the diffs
makes the translators' job much more difficult. Instead, make
any style or whitespace changes in separate commits that are
clearly labeled as such in the commit message.Deprecating FeaturesWhen it is necessary to remove functionality from software
in the base system the following guidelines should be followed
whenever possible:Mention is made in the manual page and possibly the
release notes that the option, utility, or interface is
deprecated. Use of the deprecated feature generates a
warning.The option, utility, or interface is preserved until
the next major (point zero) release.The option, utility, or interface is removed and no
longer documented. It is now obsolete. It is also
generally a good idea to note its removal in the release
notes.Support for Multiple ArchitecturesFreeBSD is a highly portable operating system intended to
function on many different types of hardware architectures.
Maintaining clean separation of Machine Dependent (MD) and Machine
Independent (MI) code, as well as minimizing MD code, is an important
part of our strategy to remain agile with regards to current
hardware trends. Each new hardware architecture supported by
FreeBSD adds substantially to the cost of code maintenance,
toolchain support, and release engineering. It also dramatically
increases the cost of effective testing of kernel changes. As such,
there is strong motivation to differentiate between classes of
support for various architectures while remaining strong in a few
key architectures that are seen as the FreeBSD "target audience".
Statement of General IntentThe FreeBSD Project targets "production quality commercial
off-the-shelf (COTS) workstation, server, and high-end embedded
systems". By retaining a focus on a narrow set of architectures
of interest in these environments, the FreeBSD Project is able
to maintain high levels of quality, stability, and performance,
as well as minimize the load on various support teams on the
project, such as the ports team, documentation team,
security officer, and release engineering teams. Diversity in
hardware support broadens the options for FreeBSD consumers by
offering new features and usage opportunities (such as support
for 64-bit CPUs, use in embedded environments, etc.), but these
benefits must always be carefully considered in terms of the real-world
maintenance cost associated with additional platform support.
The FreeBSD Project differentiates platform targets into
four tiers. Each tier includes a specification of the
requirements for an architecture to be in that tier,
as well as specifying the obligations of developers with
regards to the platform. In addition, a policy is defined
regarding the circumstances required to change the tier
of an architecture.Tier 1: Fully Supported ArchitecturesTier 1 platforms are fully supported by the security
officer, release engineering, and toolchain maintenance staff.
New features added to the operating system must be fully
functional across all Tier 1 architectures for every release
(features which are inherently architecture-specific, such as
support for hardware device drivers, may be exempt from this
requirement). In general, all Tier 1 platforms must have build
and tinderbox support either in the FreeBSD.org cluster, or
easily available for all developers.Tier 1 architectures are expected to be Production Quality
with respects to all aspects of the FreeBSD operating system,
including installation and development environments.Current Tier 1 platforms are i386, Sparc64, AMD64, and PC98.Tier 2: Developmental ArchitecturesTier 2 platforms are not supported by the security officer
and release engineering teams. At the discretion of the
toolchain maintainer, they may be supported in the toolchain. New
features added to FreeBSD should be feasible to implement on these
platforms, but an implementation is not required before the
feature may be added to the FreeBSD source tree. The
implementation of a Tier 2 architecture may be committed to the
main FreeBSD tree as long as it does not interfere with
production work on Tier 1 platforms, or substantially with other
Tier 2 platforms. Before a Tier 2 platform can be added to the
FreeBSD base source tree, the platform must be able to boot to at
least single-user mode on real world commodity hardware. Some
exceptions to these rules may be made for new hardware that is
under development by hardware vendors, but not yet available to
the project.Tier 2 architectures are usually systems targeted at Tier 1
support, but that are still under development. Architectures
reaching end of life may also be moved from Tier 1 status to Tier
2 status as the availability of resources to continue to maintain
the system in a Production Quality state diminishes.Current Tier 2 platforms are Alpha, PowerPC and ia64.Tier 3: Experimental ArchitecturesTier 3 platforms are not supported by the security officer
and release engineering teams. At the discretion of the toolchain
maintainer, they may be supported in the toolchain. Tier 3
platforms are architectures for which hardware is not or will not
be available to the project in the foreseeable future, for which
there are two or fewer active developers, that can not boot to at
least single-user mode on real hardware (or a simulator for new
hardware platforms), or which are considered legacy systems
unlikely to see broad future use. Tier 3 systems will not be
committed to the base source tree, although support for Tier 3
systems may be worked on in the FreeBSD Perforce Repository,
providing source control and easier change integration from the
main FreeBSD tree.Current Tier 3 platforms are &s390;.Tier 4: Unsupported ArchitecturesTier 4 systems are not supported in any form by the project.
All systems not otherwise classified into a support tier
are Tier 4 systems.Policy on Changing the Tier of an ArchitectureSystems may only be moved from one tier to another by
approval of the FreeBSD Core Team, which shall make that
decision in collaboration with the Security Officer, Release
Engineering, and toolchain maintenance teams.Ports Specific FAQAdding a New PortHow do I add a new port?First, please read the section about repository
copies.The easiest way to add a new port is to use the
addport script on
freefall. It will add a port from the
directory you specify, determining the category automatically
from the port Makefile.
It will also add an entry to the
CVSROOT/modules file and the port's
category Makefile. It was
written by &a.mharo; and &a.will;, but Will is the current
maintainer so please send questions/patches about
addport to him.Any other things I need to know when I add a new
port?Check the port, preferably to make sure it compiles
and packages correctly. This is the recommended
sequence:&prompt.root; make install
&prompt.root; make package
&prompt.root; make deinstall
&prompt.root; pkg_add package you built above
&prompt.root; make deinstall
&prompt.root; make reinstall
&prompt.root; make packageThe
- Porters
+ Porters
Handbook contains more detailed
instructions.Use &man.portlint.1; to check the syntax of the port.
You do not necessarily have to eliminate all warnings but
make sure you have fixed the simple ones.If the port came from a submitter who has not
contributed to the project before, add that person's
name to the Additional
+ url="&url.articles.contributors;/contrib-additional.html">Additional
Contributors section of the FreeBSD Contributors
List.Close the PR if the port came in as a PR. To close
a PR, just do
edit-pr PR#
on freefall and change the
state from open
to closed. You will be asked to
enter a log message and then you are done.Repository CopiesWhen do we need a repository copy?When you want to add a port that is related to
any port that is already in the tree in a separate
directory, you have to do a repository copy.
Here related means
it is a different version or a slightly modified
version. Examples are
print/ghostscript* (different
versions) and x11-wm/windowmaker*
(English-only and internationalized version).Another example is when a port is moved from one
subdirectory to another, or when you want to change the
name of a directory because the author(s) renamed their
software even though it is a
descendant of a port already in a tree.When do we not need a
repository copy?When there is no history to preserve. If a port is
added into a wrong category and is moved immediately,
it suffices to simply cvs remove the
old one and addport the new
one.What do I need to do?File a PR in GNATS, listing the
reasons for the repository copy request. Assign it to
portmgr and set state to
repocopy. If &a.portmgr; approves it,
it will be reassigned to cvs. &a.cvs; will
do a repository copy from the old to the new location, and
reassign the PR back to you. Once everything is done, perform the
following:When a port has been repo copied:Upgrade the copied port to the new version (remember
to change the PORTNAME so there
are not duplicate ports with the same name).Add the new subdirectory to the
SUBDIR listing in the parent
directory Makefile. You can run make
checksubdirs in the parent directory to check
this.If the port changed categories, modify the
CATEGORIES line of the port's
Makefile accordinglyAdd the new module entry.Add an entry to
ports/MOVED.When removing a port:Perform a thorough check of the ports collection for
any dependencies on the old port location/name, and
update them. Running grep on
INDEX is not enough because some
ports have dependencies enabled by compile-time options.
A full grep -r of the ports
collection is recommended.Remove the old port, the old
SUBDIR entry and the old module
entry.Add an entry to
ports/MOVED.After repo moves (rename operations where
a port is copied and the old location is removed):Follow the same steps that are outlined in the
previous two entries, to activate the new location of
the port and remove the old one.Ports FreezeWhat is a ports freeze?Before a release, it is necessary to restrict
commits to the ports tree for a short period of time
while the packages and the release itself are being
built. This is to ensure consistency among the various
parts of the release, and is called the ports
freeze.How long is a ports freeze?Usually an hour or two.What does it mean to me?During the ports freeze, you are not allowed to
commit anything to the tree without explicit approval
from the ports manager. Explicit
approval here means either of the
following:You asked the ports manager and got a reply
saying, Go ahead and commit
it.The ports manager sent a mail to you or the
mailing lists during the ports freeze pointing out
that the port is broken and has to be fixed.Note that you do not have implicit permission to fix
a port during the freeze just because it is
broken.How do I know when the ports freeze starts?The ports manager will send out warning messages to
the &a.ports; and &a.committers;
announcing the start of the impending release, usually
two or three weeks in advance. The exact starting time
will not be determined until a few days before the
actual release. This is because the ports freeze has to
be synchronized with the release, and it is usually not
known until then when exactly the release will be
rolled.When the freeze starts, there will be another
announcement to the &a.committers;, of course.How do I know when the ports freeze ends?A few hours after the release, the ports manager
will send out a mail to the &a.ports; and &a.committers;
announcing the end of the ports freeze. Note that the
release being cut does not automatically end the freeze.
We have to make sure there will not be any last minute
snafus that result in an immediate re-rolling of the
release.Creating a New CategoryWhat is the procedure for creating a new category?A developer who wishes to propose a new category
should submit a detailed rationale for the new category,
including why existing categories are not sufficient,
and the list of ports proposed to move.Before submitting, keep in mind that there is a fair
amount of work involved from multiple parties; that the
changes affect everyone who wants to keep up-to-date with
the entire ports tree; and that such proposals tend to
attract controversy.What do I need to do?The procedure is a strict superset of the one to
repocopy individual ports (see above).File a PR in GNATS, listing the
reasons for the category request. Preferably, this should
also include patches for Makefiles for
the old ports, the Makefiles for their
old categories, and the VALID_CATEGORIES
definition in ports/Mk/bsd.port.mk.
Assign the PR to the &a.portmgr; (as portmgr).
If they approve it, it will be reassigned to &a.cvs; (as
cvs), who will do a repository copy from
the old to the new locations and reassign the PR back to you.
Once everything is done, perform the following steps:Upgrade each copied port's
Makefile. Do not connect the
new category to the build yet.To do this, you will need to:Change the port's CATEGORIES
(this was the point of the exercise, remember?)
The new category should be listed
first. This will help to
ensure that the the PKGORIGIN
is correct.Run a make describe. Since
the top-level make index that
you will be running in a few steps is an iteration
of make describe over the entire
ports hierarchy, catching any errors here will
save you having to re-run that step later on.If you want to be really thorough, now might
be a good time to run &man.portlint.1;.Check that the PKGORIGINs are
correct. The ports system uses each port's
CATEGORIES entry to create
its PKGORIGIN, which is used to
connect installed packages to the port directory they
were built from. If this entry is wrong, common port
tools like &man.pkg.version.1; and
&man.portupgrade.1; fail.To do this, use the chkorigin.sh
tool, as follows: env
PORTSDIR=/path/to/ports
sh -e /path/to/ports/Tools/scripts/chkorigin.sh
. This will check every
port in the ports tree, even those not connected to the
build, so you can run it directly after the repocopy.
Hint: do not forget to look at the
PKGORIGINs of any slave ports of the
ports you just repocopied!On your own local system, test the proposed
changes: first, comment out the
SUBDIR entries in the old
ports' categories' Makefiles;
then enable building the new category in
ports/Makefile.
Run make checksubdirs in the
affected category directories to check the
SUBDIR entries. Next, in
the ports/
directory, run make index. This
can take over 40 minutes on even modern systems;
however, it is a necessary step to prevent problems
for other people.Once this is done, you can commit the
updated ports/Makefile to
connect the new category to the build and also
commit the Makefile changes
for the old category or categories.Change all the affected module entries in
CVSROOT-ports/modules.Add appropriate entries to
ports/MOVED.Update the instructions for &man.cvsup.1; by
modifying distrib/cvsup/sup/README
and adding the following files into
cvsup/sup/ports-categoryname:
list.cvs and
releases. (Note: these are
in the src, not the ports, repository).Submit a docs PR to add the new category to both the
-
+
Porter's Handbook and to
www/en/ports/categories.The procedure to update the ports web pages
to reflect the new category is not yet defined.Only once all the above have been done, and
no one is any longer reporting problems with the
new ports, should the old ports be deleted from
their previous locations in the repository.Miscellaneous QuestionsHow do I know if my port is building correctly or
not?First, go check
.
There you will find error logs from the latest package
building runs on all supported platforms for the most
recent branches.However, just because the port does not show up there
does not mean it is building correctly. (One of the
dependencies may have failed, for instance.) The relevant
directories are available on pointyhat under
/a/asami/portbuild/<arch>/<major_version>
so feel free to dig around. Each architecture and version has
the following subdirectories:errors error logs from latest <major_version> run on <arch>
logs all logs from latest <major_version> run on <arch>
packages packages from latest <major_version> run on <arch>
bak/errors error logs from last complete <major_version> run on <arch>
bak/logs all logs from last complete <major_version> run on <arch>
bak/packages packages from last complete <major_version> run on <arch>Basically, if the port shows up in
packages, or it is in
logs but not in
errors, it built fine. (The
errors directories are what you get
from the web page.)I added a new port. Do I need to add it to the
INDEX?No. The ports manager will regenerate the
INDEX and commit it for each
&os; release.Are there any other files I am not allowed to
touch?Any file directly under ports/, or
any file under a subdirectory that starts with an
uppercase letter (Mk/,
Tools/, etc.). In particular, the
ports manager is very protective of
ports/Mk/bsd.port*.mk so do not
commit changes to those files unless you want to face his
wra(i)th.What is the proper procedure for updating the checksum
for a port's distfile when the file changes without a
version change?When the checksum for a port's distfile is updated due
to the author updating the file without changing the port's
revision, the commit message should include a summary of
the relevant diffs between the original and new distfile to
ensure that the distfile has not been corrupted or
maliciously altered. If the current version of the port
has been in the ports tree for a while, a copy of the old
distfile will usually be available on the ftp servers;
otherwise the author or maintainer should be contacted to
find out why the distfile has changed.Perks of the JobUnfortunately, there are not many perks involved with being a
committer. Recognition as a competent software engineer is probably
the only thing that will be of benefit in the long run. However,
there are at least some perks:Direct access to cvsup-masterAs a committer, you may apply to &a.kuriyama; for direct access
to cvsup-master.FreeBSD.org,
providing the public key output from cvpasswd
yourusername@FreeBSD.org
freefall.FreeBSD.org. Please note: you must
specify freefall.FreeBSD.org on the
cvpasswd command line even though the
actual server is cvsup-master. Access to
cvsup-master should not be overused as it is
a busy machine.A Free 4-CD Set or DVD SubscriptionFreeBSD Mall,
Inc. offers a free subscription of the 4-CD set or
the DVD product to all FreeBSD committers. Information about how
to obtain your free media is mailed to
developers@FreeBSD.org following each major
release.Miscellaneous QuestionsWhy are trivial or cosmetic changes to files on a vendor
branch a bad idea?From now on, every new vendor release of that file will
need to have patches merged in by hand.From now on, every new vendor release of that file will
need to have patches verified by hand.The option does not work very well.
Ask &a.obrien; for horror stories.How do I add a new file to a CVS branch?To add a file onto a branch, simply checkout or update
to the branch you want to add to and then add the file using
cvs add as you normally would. For
example, if you wanted to MFC the file
src/sys/alpha/include/smp.h from HEAD
to RELENG_4 and it does not exist in RELENG_4 yet, you would
use the following steps:MFC'ing a New File&prompt.user; cd sys/alpha/include
&prompt.user; cvs update -rRELENG_4
cvs update: Updating .
U clockvar.h
U console.h
...
&prompt.user; cvs update -kk -Ap smp.h > smp.h
===================================================================
Checking out smp.h
RCS: /usr/cvs/src/sys/alpha/include/smp.h,v
VERS: 1.1
***************
&prompt.user; cvs add smp.h
cvs add: scheduling file `smp.h' for addition on branch `RELENG_4'
cvs add: use 'cvs commit' to add this file permanently
&prompt.user; cvs commitWhat meta information should I include in a
commit message?As well as including an informative message with each commit
you may need to include some additional information as
well.This information consists of one or more lines containing the
key word or phrase, a colon, tabs for formatting, and then the
additional information.The key words or phrases are:PR:The problem report (if any) which is affected
(typically, by being closed) by this commit.Submitted by:The name and e-mail address of the person that
submitted the fix; for committers, just the username on
the FreeBSD cluster.Reviewed by:The name and e-mail address of the person or people
that reviewed the change; for committers, just the
username on the FreeBSD cluster. If a patch was
submitted to a mailing list for review, and the review
was favorable, then just include the list name.Approved by:The name and e-mail address of the person or people
that approved the change; for committers, just the
username on the FreeBSD cluster. It is customary to get
prior approval for a commit if it is to an area of the
tree to which you do not usually commit. In addition,
during the run up to a new release all commits
must be approved by the release
engineering team. If these are your first commits then
you should have passed them past your mentor first, and
you should list your mentor, as in
``username-of-mentor(mentor)''.
Obtained from:The name of the project (if any) from which the code
was obtained.MFC after:If you wish to receive an e-mail reminder to
MFC at a later date, specify the
number of days, weeks, or months after which an
MFC is planned.Commit log for a commit based on a PRYou want to commit a change based on a PR submitted by John
Smith containing a patch. The end of the commit message should
look something like this....
PR: foo/12345
Submitted by: John Smith <John.Smith@example.com>Commit log for a commit needing reviewYou want to change the virtual memory system. You have
posted patches to the appropriate mailing list (in this case,
freebsd-arch) and the changes have been
approved....
Reviewed by: -archCommit log for a commit needing approvalYou want to commit a change to a section of the tree with a
MAINTAINER assigned. You have collaborated with the listed
MAINTAINER, who has told you to go ahead and commit....
Approved by: abcWhere abc is the account name of
the person who approved.Commit log for a commit bringing in code from
OpenBSDYou want to commit some code based on work done in the
OpenBSD project....
Obtained from: OpenBSDCommit log for a change to &os.current; with a planned
commit to &os.stable; to follow at a later date.You want to commit some code which will be merged from
&os.current; into the &os.stable; branch after two
weeks....
MFC after: 2 weeksWhere 2 is the number of days,
weeks, or months after which an MFC is
planned. The weeks option may be
day, days,
week, weeks,
month, months,
or may be left off (in which case, days will be assumed).In some cases you may need to combine some of these.Consider the situation where a user has submitted a PR
containing code from the NetBSD project. You are looking at the
PR, but it is not an area of the tree you normally work in, so
you have decided to get the change reviewed by the
arch mailing list. Since the change is
complex, you opt to MFC after one month to
allow adequate testing.The extra information to include in the commit would look
something likePR: foo/54321
Submitted by: John Smith <John.Smith@example.com>
Reviewed by: -arch
Obtained from: NetBSD
MFC after: 1 monthHow do I access people.FreeBSD.org to put up personal
or project information?people.FreeBSD.org is the
same as freefall.FreeBSD.org. Just create a
public_html directory. Anything you
place in that directory will automatically be visible
under .Where are the mailing list archives stored?The mailing lists are archived under /g/mail
which will show up as /hub/g/mail with &man.pwd.1;.
This location is accessible from any machine on the FreeBSD cluster.
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/console-server/Makefile b/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/console-server/Makefile
index b3384825b1..fcb305cc9c 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/console-server/Makefile
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/console-server/Makefile
@@ -1,18 +1,20 @@
#
# $FreeBSD$
#
# Article: Console Server
DOC?= article
FORMATS?= html
WITH_ARTICLE_TOC?= YES
INSTALL_COMPRESSED?=gz
INSTALL_ONLY_COMPRESSED?=
SRCS= article.sgml
IMAGES_EN= tk0231-9-1.png
+URL_RELPREFIX?= ../../../..
DOC_PREFIX?= ${.CURDIR}/../../..
+
.include "${DOC_PREFIX}/share/mk/doc.project.mk"
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/console-server/article.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/console-server/article.sgml
index 890accf8f4..6787bc7af1 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/console-server/article.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/console-server/article.sgml
@@ -1,1481 +1,1483 @@
%man;
%freebsd;
%authors;
%trademark;
+
+%urls;
]>
Console ServerGregoryBondgnb@itga.com.au$FreeBSD$
&tm-attrib.freebsd;
&tm-attrib.cisco;
&tm-attrib.intel;
&tm-attrib.lantronix;
&tm-attrib.microsoft;
&tm-attrib.opengroup;
&tm-attrib.sun;
&tm-attrib.general;
This document describes how you can use &os;
to set up a console server. A console server is
a machine that you can use to monitor the consoles of many other
machines, instead of a bunch of serial terminals.console-serverThe ProblemYou have a computer room with lots of &unix; server machines and lots
of communications hardware. Each of these machines needs a serial
console. But serial terminals are hard to find and quite expensive
(especially compared to a much more capable PC). And they take up a lot
of precious space in the computer room.You need access to the console because when things break, that is
where error messages go. And some tasks have to be done on the console
(e.g. boot problems or OS installs/upgrades). Some &unix; systems allow
the console to break out to the ROM monitor which can sometimes be the
only way to unstick a hung machine. This is often done with a
LINE BREAK sent on the console serial port.If we are going to play about with consoles, then there are a couple
of other things that would be great:Remote access. Even in the same office, it would be convenient
to access all the consoles from your desk without walking into the
computer room. But often the machines are off-site, perhaps even in
another country.Logging. If something has gone wrong, you would like to be able
to have a look at the previous console output to see what is up.
Ordinary console screens give you the last 25 lines. More would be
better.Network Independence. The solution needs to work even if the
network is down. After all, a failed network is when you need
consoles the most! Even better is network independence with remote
access.No single-point failure. A console system that crashes every
machine when it fails is no use. This is particularly tricky with
Sun &unix; hosts as they will interpret a powered-off terminal as a
BREAK, and drop back to the ROM monitor.Interface with a pager or some similar alerter device.Ability to power-cycle machines remotely.Not be too expensive. Free is even
better!Possible SolutionsIf you use PC hardware for your servers, then a so-called KVM
switch is one possible solution. A KVM switch allows the use of
a single keyboard, video screen and mouse for multiple boxes. This cuts
down on the space problem, but only works for PC hardware (not any
communications gear you might have), and is not accessible from outside
the computer room. Nor does it have much scroll-back or logging, and
you have to handle alerting some other way. The big downside is that it
will not work for serial-only devices, such as communications hardware.
This means that even with a room full of PC-based servers, you are
probably still going to need some sort of serial console
solution.Actually, Doug Schache has pointed out that you
can get KVM switches that also do serial consoles
or Sun compatible KVM switching as well as PCs, but they are
expensive. See Avocent
for example.)You might be tempted to do without a console terminal, but when
things go pear-shaped you really need to see what
is on the console. And you have to use the console to boot the machine
and do things like OS upgrades or installs.You might try having a single console terminal and switching from
server to server as needed, either with a serial switch or just by
patching it into the required machine. Serial switches are also hard to
come by and not cheap, and may cause problems with sending
BREAK when they switch. And (if your computer room
is anything like ours) you never seem to have the right combination of
patch leads to connect to the machine you need to, and even if the leads
are there you can never work out exactly which combination of
DTE/DCE
headshells goes with which lead goes with which hardware. So you spend
the first 10 minutes fooling around with breakout boxes and a box of
leads, all while the server is down and the users are screaming. Of
course this does not deal with the logging or remote access
requirements. And inevitably the console is not switched to the machine
you need so you lose all the console messages that might tell you what
is going on.One popular solution is to use terminal server hardware. Typically,
the serial ports are connected to the various machine consoles, and set
up for reverse telnet access. This means a user can
telnet to a given IP/port and be connected to the appropriate console.
This can be very cost-effective, as suitable old terminal servers can be
picked up fairly cheaply (assuming you do not have a couple lying
around). And it is of course network-accessible so suitable for remote
access. But it suffers from one major drawback: if the network is down,
then you have no access to any console, even if you
are standing right next to the machine. (This may be partially
alleviated by having a suitable terminal connected to one of the
terminal server ports and connecting from there, but the terminal server
software may not support that.) Also there is no logging or replay of
console messages. But with a bit of work, and the addition of some
software such as conserver
(described below), this can be made to work pretty well.A possibility suggested by Bron Gondwana is similar to the above
solution. If you use servers with multiple serial ports, you can
connect each spare serial port to the console port of the
next server, creating a ring of console connections (in
some sort of order). This can be made to work reasonably well with the
aid of the conserver
software, but can be a bit confusing otherwise (i.e. remembering which
port is connected to which console). And you are stuck if you need to
use serial ports for other things (such as modems) or you have machines
without spare ports.Or, if your budget exceeds your willingness to hack, you can
buy an off-the-shelf solution. These vary in price and
capability. See, for example,
Lightwave,
Perle,
Avocent or
Black Box.
These solutions can be quite expensive - typically $USD100 - $USD400 per
port.Our SolutionIn light of the above requirements, we chose a solution based on a
dedicated PC running &unix; with a multiport serial card, and some
software designed to handle serial consoles.It includes the following elements:A surplus PC. We used a &pentium; 166, with a PCI bus, 2Gbyte
hard disk and 64Mb of RAM. This is a massive overkill for this
task, and P-100, 500Mb, 32Mb would be more than enough.A PC &unix; system. We used &os; 4.3 as that is used for
other tasks within our office.A multi-port serial card. We chose the &easyio; PCI
8-port card from Stallion
Technologies. This cost us about $AUD740, or under
$100/port, from Harris
Technologies (which has lots of stuff but is by no means the
cheapest place in town - shop around and you might get it a lot
cheaper). This card has a big DB80 connector on the back, and a
cable plugs into that which has a block with 8 RJ-45 sockets on it.
(We chose the RJ-45 version as our entire cable plant is RJ-45.
This allows us to patch connections from the required box to the
console server without any special cables.) This is the only thing
we needed to buy to make this all happen.We build two servers, one for each computer room, with 8 ports
in one and 16 ports (via two &easyio; PCI cards) in the other. If we
needed more than 16 ports, then another of the Stallion cards would
be more cost-effective. We could conceivably support 128 ports in
each server (with 2 EasyConnect 8/64 host cards and 8 16 port RJ-45
modules) for about $AUD12,000.A modem for remote access to the console server host when the
network is down. We have not done this yet as the computer room is
next door, but when we put a server in Sydney we will add the modem.
The idea is that when the network is down, you can dial up and log
into the server machine and run the console program locally. For
security, we will probably leave the modem powered off and ask the
gopher in Sydney to turn on the well-labelled button when we need
it.A program called conserver. This program
does all the magic required to enable remote access to consoles, and
do the replaying and logging etc. It comes in two parts: a server
called conserver that runs as a daemon
and connects to the serial ports, handles logging etc, and a client
program called console that can connect
to the server, display console messages, send keystrokes (and
BREAK), etc.This design covers all the major requirements except remote power
cycling:Remote access comes because the
console client program works across the
network.Logging is handled by the conserver
program.If the network is down, then we can use the console on the PC to
run the console client locally. For
remote sites, we can add a modem for dial-in access to the the
server command line to run the client.By patching the &solaris; servers (see ),
we can avoid pranging the whole computer room when the console
server PC crashes (or the power supply fails, or whatever).We already have pager alerts from another system we have
installed, but the console server has all the required log info so
that could easily be implemented if we needed. And it even has a
modem for calling the pager company!We do not currently support remote power cycling. Some versions
of the conserver program support this, but it does require
specialised serial-controlled power boards. We have no immediate
need for remote power cycling (we have a gopher in each remote
office who can do it by remote control) so this is not a major
problem, and we could add it easily should we ever see the need and
get the appropriate hardware.This solution was very cheap. Total cost for the 9-port server
was $AUD750 for the IO card, as we re-used a surplus PC and already
owned the hardware for the special cables. If we had to buy
everything, then it would still only cost around $AUD1500 for the
8-port server.Setting Up The ServerChecking the Stallion driver&os; has adequate support for modern Stallion cards since
4.4 release. If you are running an older version of &os;, you
will need to upgrade to a more modern version of &os; (which
you should do anyway, to make sure your system is not
vulnerable to known security issues). See the &os;
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/makeworld.html">&os;
Handbook for information about updating your
system.Configuring a new kernelThe Stallion driver is not included in the default
GENERIC kernel, so you will need to create a kernel
config file with the appropriate entries. See &man.stl.4; and the
appropriate section of the &os;
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/kernelconfig.html">&os;
Handbook.Making The DevicesYou will need to make the device notes for the Stallion card
(which are not made by default). A new version of
/dev/MAKEDEV with Stallion support will have been
created by the mergemaster run during the
above procedure. If you have a Stallion card with more than 8 ports,
then you will need to edit /dev/MAKEDEV and
change the definition of maxport at about line 250.
By default, MAKEDEV only makes device nodes for 8
ports to keep the size of the /dev directory
down.Run a command like:
&prompt.root; cd /dev/ && sh MAKEDEV cuaE0
to create dial-out devices for the first Stallion card. See the
comments in MAKEDEV and the &man.stl.4; man page
for more details.Compiling conserverSee the section on conserver versions
; the version I use is
available in the &os; ports collection; however, it is not the only
one.)There are two ways to install conserver.
You can either compile
from the source or use the &os; ports framework.Using the ports frameworkUsing the ports is a bit cleaner, as the package system can then
keep track of installed software and cleanly delete them when not
being used. I recommend using the
comms/conserver-com port.
Change into the
port directory and (as root) type:&prompt.root; make DEFAULTHOST=consolehost installwhere consolehost is the name of the
machine running the console server. Specifying this when the binary
is compiled will avoid having to either specify it each time the
program is run on remote hosts or having to maintain a
conserver.cf file on every host. This command
will fetch, patch, configure, compile and install the
conserver application.You can then run make package to create a
binary package that can be installed on all the other &os; hosts
with &man.pkg.add.1;. For extra style points, you can make a two
versions of the package: one for the console server machine without
a DEFAULTHOST argument, and one for all the other
hosts with a DEFAULTHOST argument. This will
mean the console client program on the console server machine will
default to localhost, which will work in the
absence of name servers when the network is busted, and also allow
trusted (i.e. no password required) connections
via the localhost IP address for users logged into the console
server machine (either via the console screen or the emergency
backup modem). The version for the other machines with a
DEFAULTHOST argument means users can just use the
console client without specifying a
hostname every time, and without needing to configure the
conserver.cf file on every machine.From the source tarballIf you prefer, you can download conserver
and compile it yourself.
You might need to do this if you want to install the
console client on non-&os; systems. We run the client on our
&solaris; hosts and it inter-operates with the &os;-hosted server
with no problems. This allows anyone in the whole company (many of
whom have PCs and no &os; host access on their desk) to access
the console server.Download the file from the conserver.com
FTP site. Extract it into a handy directory then
configure it by running&prompt.user; ./configure The argument avoids having to
specify the master server every time the client is run remotely (or
keeping up-to-date config files on all remote hosts). The
argument avoids having to update
on every machine.Then type make and, as root,
make install.Configuring conserverThe conserver program is configured via a file called
conserver.cf. This file usually lives in
/usr/local/etc and is documented in the
&man.conserver.cf.5; manual page.Our config file looks like this:LOGDIR=/var/log/consoles
gallows:/dev/cuaE0:9600p:&:
roo:/dev/cuaE1:9600p:&:
kanga:/dev/cuaE2:9600p:&:
%%
allow: itga.com.au
trusted: 127.0.0.1 buzzThe first line means all the console log files by default go into
the /var/log/consoles directory. The
& in each line says the log file for that machine
will be
/var/log/consoles/machine.The next three lines show three machines to which we need to
connect. We use the
cuaEx devices
rather than the
ttyEx
devices because console ports typically do not show carrier. This
means that opening
ttyEx would hang
and conserver would never connect. Using
the
cuaEx
device avoids this problem. Another solution would be to use the
ttyEx
devices and enable soft carrier on these ports, perhaps by
setting this using the
ttyiEx
device in the /etc/rc.serial file. See the
comments in this file for more details. Also see &man.sio.4;
for information on the initial-state and locked-state devices. (The
Stallion driver also supports these conventions). And see the
&man.stty.1; for details on setting device modes.The last section shows that any user logged into the
server machine has passwordless access to all consoles. We do
this because there are no user accounts on this machine and it
is safely isolated from the wide world behind our firewall.
The allow line allows anyone on a machine inside our
organisation to access the console server if they provide
their password, which is recorded in the
conserver.passwd file (see next
section).Setting conserver passwordsThe conserver.passwd file contains the
encrypted version of the password that each user. The file is
documented in the conserver.cf(5) manual
page.The only tricky bit is loading the file with encoded passwords.
It appeared in &os; that was is no obvious way to generate an
encrypted password for inclusion in another file (but see below). So
I put together a quick hack perl script to do this:@rands = ();
foreach (0..4) {
push(@rands, rand 64);
}
$salt = join '', ('.', '/', 0..9, 'A'..'Z', 'a'..'z')[@rands];
$salt = '$1$' . $salt . '$';
print 'Enter password: ';
`stty -echo`;
$cleartext = <>;
`stty echo`;
chop($cleartext);
print crypt($cleartext, $salt), "\n";This uses the &os; MD5-style encrypted passwords. Running
this on other &unix; variants, or on &os; with DES passwords, will
likely need a different style of salt.&a.kris; has since pointed out you can get the same effect using
the openssl passwd command:&prompt.user; openssl passwd -1
Password: password
$1$VTd27V2G$eFu23iHpLvCBM5nQtNlKj/Starting conserver at system boot timeThere are two ways this can be done. Firstly, you could start up
conserver from init
by including an entry in
/etc/ttys that is similar to this:cuaE0 "/usr/local/sbin/conserver" unknown on insecureThis has two advantages: init will restart
the master console
server if it ever crashes for any reason (but we have not noticed any
crashes so far), and it arranges for standard output of the
conserver
process to be directed to the named tty (in this case
cuaE0). This is useful because you
can plug a terminal into this port, and the
conserver program
will show all console output not otherwise captured by a
client console connection. This is useful as a general
monitoring tool to see if anything is going on. We set this
terminal up in the computer room but visible from the main
office. It is a very handy feature. The downside of running
conserver
from the ttys file is that it cannot run in daemon
mode (else &man.init.8; would continually restart it). This means
conserver will not write a PID file,
which makes it hard to rotate the log files.So we start conserver from an rc.d script.
If you installed conserver via the port,
there will be a
conserver.sh.sample file installed in
/usr/local/etc/rc.d. Copy and/or rename this to
conserver.sh to enable conserver
to start at boot time.In fact we use a modified version of this script which also
connects conserver to a terminal via a tty device so we can monitor
unwatched console output. Our conserver.sh script looks like
this:#!/bin/sh
#
# Startup for conserver
#
PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin
case "$1" in
'start')
TTY=/dev/cuaE7
conserver -d > $TTY
# get NL->CR+NL mapping so msgs look right
stty < /dev/cuaE7 opost onlcr
echo -n ' conserver'
;;
'stop')
kill `cat /var/run/conserver.pid` && echo -n ' conserver'
;;
*)
echo "Usage: $0 { start | stop }"
;;
esac
exit 0Note the use of cuaE0 device
and the need to set tty modes for proper NL-<CR
handling).Keeping the log files trimmed&os; has a program called
newsyslog that will automatically
handle log file trimming. Just add some lines to the
configuration file /etc/newsyslog.conf
for the console logs:#
# The log files from conserver
/var/log/consoles/gallows 644 10 1000 * Z /var/run/conserver.pid
/var/log/consoles/kanga 644 10 1000 * Z /var/run/conserver.pid
/var/log/consoles/roo 644 10 1000 * Z /var/run/conserver.pidThis tells newsyslog (which is run from cron every hour on the
hour) that the console log files should be archived and compressed
once they reach 1Mb, that we should keep 10 of them, and that to
signal the server program you send a SIGHUP to the process whose PID
is in the conserver.pid file. This is the master server, and it will
arrange to signal all the child processes. Yes, this will send a HUP
to all clients whenever a single log file needs rotating, but that is
quite cheap. See &man.newsyslog.8; for details.CablingThis is always the hardest part of this kind of problem. We had
only a dozen or so cables/headshells to build, and we already had a
collection of the appropriate crimping tools and hardware, so we did it
ourselves. But if you are not set up for this, or you have a large
number of cables to make, then you might consider getting some cables
custom made. Look in the yellow pages, there are a surprising number of
places that do this! Getting custom-made cabling is good, and you can
get much more professional results, but can be expensive. For example,
the RJ-45 to DB-25 adapter kits described below are about $10 each;
custom-made headshells are about twice that (and take a couple of weeks
to arrive). Similarly, crimping custom RJ-45 to RJ-45 leads is quite
cheap (say, $5 each) but it takes a fair amount of time. Custom made
RJ-45 socket to RJ-45 plug converters cost about $25 each.We have settled on RJ-45 Cat-V cabling for all our office and
computer room cabling needs. This included patching between racks in the
computer room. For serial connections, we use patchable headshells that
have RJ-45 sockets on the back. This allows us to patch whatever
RJ-45–DB-25 connections we need.Which is just as well, because there are many incompatible ways to
represent serial connections on the RJ-45 plug. So the cabling has to
be very careful to use the right mapping.RJ-45 colorsRJ-45 cables and plugs have 8 pins/conductors. These are used as
4 matched pairs. There are a couple of conventions about how the
pairs are mapped onto pins, but 100baseT uses the most common (known
as EIA 586B). There are three common color-coding conventions for the
individual conductors in RJ-45 cables. They are:
PinScheme 1Scheme 2 (EIA 568B)Scheme 3 (EIA 568A)Pair1BlueWhite+GreenWhite+Orange2+2OrangeGreenOrange2-3BlackWhite+OrangeWhite+Green3+4RedBlueBlue1+5GreenWhite+BlueWhite+Blue1-6YellowOrangeGreen3-7BrownWhite+BrownWhite+Brown4+8White or GreyBrownBrown4-
Note EIA 468A and EIA 568B are very similar, simply swapping the
colors assigned to pair 2 and pair 3.See for example the Cabletron
Tech Support Site for more details.The pins in the RJ-45 plug are numbered from 1 to 8. Holding a
patch lead with the cable pointing down and the clip away from you,
pin 1 is at the left. Or, looking into an RJ-45 socket with the clip
to the top, pin 1 is on the right. The following illustration
(shamelessly lifted from the Cabletron web site above) shows it pretty
well:We have four classes of equipment to deal with in our
setup:Sun serversSun servers operate as DTE (i.e. send data on TxD and read
RxD, and assert DTR) with a female DB-25 socket on board. So we
need to create a headshell for the Stallion that operates as DCE
and has a male DB-25 plug (i.e. acts as a null
modem cable as well as converts from RJ-45 to DB-25).
We use headshells that have an RJ-45 socket in them and 8 short
flyleads with DB-25 pins on the end. These pins can be inserted
into the DB-25 plug as required. This allows us to create a
custom RJ-45-DB-25 mapping. We used a couple of different
sorts, including the
MOD-TAP
part no. 06-9888-999-00
and the FA730
series from
Black
Box.On our version of the headshells, these flyleads had the
following colours (from Pin 1-8): Blue, Orange, Black, Red,
Green, Yellow, Brown, White. (Looking into an RJ-45 socket,
with the clip towards the top, pin 1 is on the right.) This is
how they are connected to the DB-25 socket:
Note that colours may be different for your
cables/headshells. In particular, pin 8 may be grey instead of
white.Remember to label the headshell
clearly, in a way that will not fade/fall
off/rub off with time!Cisco 16xx/26xx/36xx RoutersI think that all Cisco gear that has RJ-45 console ports and
runs &ios; will have the same cable requirements. But best to
check first. We have tried this on 1600s and 2600s only.Both the Stallion card and the 2600 have RJ-45 connections,
but of course they are not compatible. So you need to crimp up
a special RJ-45-RJ-45 cable. And this cable must be plugged in
the right way round! We use normal RJ-45 flyleads from the
router to the patch panel, then the special flylead from the
patch panel to the Stallion card.We built two special Stallion-Cisco leads by cutting in half
a 2m flylead and crimping an RJ-45 with the appropriate pinouts
to each free end. The original connector will be the Cisco end
of the cable, the new crimped connector will be the Stallion
end. Holding the RJ-45 connector on the flylead with the cable
pointing down and the clip pointing away, this is the order of
the colours of the cables in our flylead (pins 1-8, from L to
R): white/green, green, white/orange, blue, white/blue, orange,
white/brown, brown. For the Stallion end, trim and discard the
brown/white+brown and green/white+green pairs. Then holding the
RJ-45 plug in the same manner (cable down, clip away), the
connections should be (from L to R): None, None, Blue, Orange,
White/Orange, White/Blue, None, None, as shown:
Note again that colours may be different for your
cables/headshells.Carefully label the cable, and each end of the cable, and
test it. If it does not work, testing is
really hard as they do not make RJ-45
serial line testers!Let me state this more strongly: Be very
sure that you label this cable in a way that is easily,
instantly and permanently recognisable as a special cable and
not easily confused with normal drop cables. Some suggestions
(from Hugh Irvine):Make them out of different coloured cable.For marking the ends, clear heat-shrink tubing slipped
over printed labels *before* putting on the connectors is
the best way I have seen for marking what they are.You can also use Panduit or similar tags that you put on
with nylon tie straps, but I find the ink wears off the
tags.Cisco &catalyst; switchesAstoundingly, the pinout on the console ports of the
&catalyst; switches is actually different to the
pinout used on the 26xx-series Cisco hardware. I think the way
to tell which is which is by considering the operating software.
If it uses &ios;, then the previous pinout is required. If it
uses the switch software, then this pinout is required.Fortunately, while the pinouts are different, the &catalyst;
pinout is simply a mirror image of the pinout for the 2600.
Even more fortunately, the Ciscos (both &catalyst; switches and 2600s)
seem to ship with a special rollover cable, which
is exactly what is required in this case. We use the rollover
cable from the &catalyst; switches to the patch panel, then the same cable
as above for the 2600s from the patch panel to the Stallion
card, and it all works just fine.This rollover cable is an RJ-45-RJ-45 cable and is intended
to be used with the shipped (hardwired) RJ-45 - DB-25 and
RJ-45–DB-9 headshells for console connections. Ours are
2m long, either light blue or black, and are quite flat.
Attempts to use them for 100baseT Ethernet will fail miserably!
You can tell it is a rollover cable by holding both ends with
the cable pointing down and the clip pointing away from you.
Check the colour of the leads in each pin in the two connectors,
they should be mirror images. (In our case, one goes
grey-orange-black-red-green-yellow-blue-brown, the other
brown-blue-yellow-green-red-black-orange-grey). This is a
rollover cable.If you do not have a rollover cable present, then you can
use the same cable as for the 26xx except plug it in the other
way around (i.e. original 8-pin plug goes into the Stallion, the
new crimped plug with only 4 active wires goes into the
&catalyst; switch).&os; servers (or any other &i386; PC systems using a serial
console)We run &os; 4 on a couple of &i386; PCs for various peripheral
uses. &os; usually uses a screen and keyboard for the
console, but can be configured to use a serial port (usually the
first serial port known as COM1 in DOS/&windows; or
ttyd0 in &unix;).The cabling for these servers depends on the PC harware. If
the PC has DB-25 female socket on board (as most older PCs do),
then the same headshell as works for the Sun server above will
work fine. If the PC has DB-9 male plug on board (as more
recent PCs tend to do), then there are two choices. Either use
a DB-9 to DB-25 converter (this is not recommended as it can
lead to unreliable connections over the long term as the adapter
is bumped/works loose), or build an RJ-45 to DB-9 cable as
follows:
Synchronous Serial TransmissionSynchronous serial transmission requires that the sender
and receiver share a clock with one another, or that the
sender provide a strobe or other timing signal so that the
receiver knows when to read the next bit of
the data. In most forms of serial Synchronous
communication, if there is no data available at a given
instant to transmit, a fill character must be sent instead
so that data is always being transmitted. Synchronous
communication is usually more efficient because only data
bits are transmitted between sender and receiver, and
synchronous communication can be more costly if extra wiring
and circuits are required to share a clock signal between
the sender and receiver.A form of Synchronous transmission is used with printers
and fixed disk devices in that the data is sent on one set
of wires while a clock or strobe is sent on a different
wire. Printers and fixed disk devices are not normally
serial devices because most fixed disk interface standards
send an entire word of data for each clock or strobe signal
by using a separate wire for each bit of the word. In the
PC industry, these are known as Parallel devices.The standard serial communications hardware in the PC
does not support Synchronous operations. This mode is
described here for comparison purposes only.Asynchronous Serial TransmissionAsynchronous transmission allows data to be transmitted
without the sender having to send a clock signal to the
receiver. Instead, the sender and receiver must agree on
timing parameters in advance and special bits are added to
each word which are used to synchronize the sending and
receiving units.When a word is given to the UART for Asynchronous
transmissions, a bit called the "Start Bit" is added to the
beginning of each word that is to be transmitted. The Start
Bit is used to alert the receiver that a word of data is
about to be sent, and to force the clock in the receiver
into synchronization with the clock in the transmitter.
These two clocks must be accurate enough to not have the
frequency drift by more than 10% during the transmission of
the remaining bits in the word. (This requirement was set
in the days of mechanical teleprinters and is easily met by
modern electronic equipment.)After the Start Bit, the individual bits of the word of
data are sent, with the Least Significant Bit (LSB) being
sent first. Each bit in the transmission is transmitted for
exactly the same amount of time as all of the other bits,
and the receiver looks at the wire at
approximately halfway through the period assigned to each
bit to determine if the bit is a 1 or a
0. For example, if it takes two seconds
to send each bit, the receiver will examine the signal to
determine if it is a 1 or a
0 after one second has passed, then it
will wait two seconds and then examine the value of the next
bit, and so on.The sender does not know when the receiver has
looked at the value of the bit. The sender
only knows when the clock says to begin transmitting the
next bit of the word.When the entire data word has been sent, the transmitter
may add a Parity Bit that the transmitter generates. The
Parity Bit may be used by the receiver to perform simple
error checking. Then at least one Stop Bit is sent by the
transmitter.When the receiver has received all of the bits in the
data word, it may check for the Parity Bits (both sender and
receiver must agree on whether a Parity Bit is to be used),
and then the receiver looks for a Stop Bit. If the Stop Bit
does not appear when it is supposed to, the UART considers
the entire word to be garbled and will report a Framing
Error to the host processor when the data word is read. The
usual cause of a Framing Error is that the sender and
receiver clocks were not running at the same speed, or that
the signal was interrupted.Regardless of whether the data was received correctly or
not, the UART automatically discards the Start, Parity and
Stop bits. If the sender and receiver are configured
identically, these bits are not passed to the host.If another word is ready for transmission, the Start Bit
for the new word can be sent as soon as the Stop Bit for the
previous word has been sent.Because asynchronous data is self
synchronizing, if there is no data to transmit, the
transmission line can be idle.Other UART FunctionsIn addition to the basic job of converting data from
parallel to serial for transmission and from serial to
parallel on reception, a UART will usually provide
additional circuits for signals that can be used to indicate
the state of the transmission media, and to regulate the
flow of data in the event that the remote device is not
prepared to accept more data. For example, when the device
connected to the UART is a modem, the modem may report the
presence of a carrier on the phone line while the computer
may be able to instruct the modem to reset itself or to not
take calls by raising or lowering one more of these
extra signals. The function of each of these additional
signals is defined in the EIA RS232-C standard.The RS232-C and V.24 StandardsIn most computer systems, the UART is connected to
circuitry that generates signals that comply with the EIA
RS232-C specification. There is also a CCITT standard named
V.24 that mirrors the specifications included in
RS232-C.RS232-C Bit Assignments (Marks and Spaces)In RS232-C, a value of 1 is called
a Mark and a value of
0 is called a Space.
When a communication line is idle, the line is said to be
Marking, or transmitting continuous
1 values.The Start bit always has a value of
0 (a Space). The Stop Bit always has a
value of 1 (a Mark). This means that
there will always be a Mark (1) to Space (0) transition on
the line at the start of every word, even when multiple
word are transmitted back to back. This guarantees that
sender and receiver can resynchronize their clocks
regardless of the content of the data bits that are being
transmitted.The idle time between Stop and Start bits does not
have to be an exact multiple (including zero) of the bit
rate of the communication link, but most UARTs are
designed this way for simplicity.In RS232-C, the "Marking" signal (a
1) is represented by a voltage between
-2 VDC and -12 VDC, and a "Spacing" signal (a
0) is represented by a voltage between
0 and +12 VDC. The transmitter is supposed to send +12
VDC or -12 VDC, and the receiver is supposed to allow for
some voltage loss in long cables. Some transmitters in
low power devices (like portable computers) sometimes use
only +5 VDC and -5 VDC, but these values are still
acceptable to a RS232-C receiver, provided that the cable
lengths are short.RS232-C Break SignalRS232-C also specifies a signal called a
Break, which is caused by sending
continuous Spacing values (no Start or Stop bits). When
there is no electricity present on the data circuit, the
line is considered to be sending
Break.The Break signal must be of a
duration longer than the time it takes to send a complete
byte plus Start, Stop and Parity bits. Most UARTs can
distinguish between a Framing Error and a Break, but if
the UART cannot do this, the Framing Error detection can
be used to identify Breaks.In the days of teleprinters, when numerous printers
around the country were wired in series (such as news
services), any unit could cause a Break
by temporarily opening the entire circuit so that no
current flowed. This was used to allow a location with
urgent news to interrupt some other location that was
currently sending information.In modern systems there are two types of Break
signals. If the Break is longer than 1.6 seconds, it is
considered a "Modem Break", and some modems can be
programmed to terminate the conversation and go on-hook or
enter the modems' command mode when the modem detects this
signal. If the Break is smaller than 1.6 seconds, it
signifies a Data Break and it is up to the remote computer
to respond to this signal. Sometimes this form of Break
is used as an Attention or Interrupt signal and sometimes
is accepted as a substitute for the ASCII CONTROL-C
character.Marks and Spaces are also equivalent to
Holes and No Holes in paper
tape systems.Breaks cannot be generated from paper tape or from
any other byte value, since bytes are always sent with
Start and Stop bit. The UART is usually capable of
generating the continuous Spacing signal in response to
a special command from the host processor.RS232-C DTE and DCE DevicesThe RS232-C specification defines two types of
equipment: the Data Terminal Equipment (DTE) and the Data
Carrier Equipment (DCE). Usually, the DTE device is the
terminal (or computer), and the DCE is a modem. Across
the phone line at the other end of a conversation, the
receiving modem is also a DCE device and the computer that
is connected to that modem is a DTE device. The DCE
device receives signals on the pins that the DTE device
transmits on, and vice versa.When two devices that are both DTE or both DCE must be
connected together without a modem or a similar media
translater between them, a NULL modem must be used. The
NULL modem electrically re-arranges the cabling so that
the transmitter output is connected to the receiver input
on the other device, and vice versa. Similar translations
are performed on all of the control signals so that each
device will see what it thinks are DCE (or DTE) signals
from the other device.The number of signals generated by the DTE and DCE
devices are not symmetrical. The DTE device generates
fewer signals for the DCE device than the DTE device
receives from the DCE.RS232-C Pin AssignmentsThe EIA RS232-C specification (and the ITU equivalent,
V.24) calls for a twenty-five pin connector (usually a
DB25) and defines the purpose of most of the pins in that
connector.In the IBM Personal Computer and similar systems, a
subset of RS232-C signals are provided via nine pin
connectors (DB9). The signals that are not included on
the PC connector deal mainly with synchronous operation,
and this transmission mode is not supported by the UART
that IBM selected for use in the IBM PC.Depending on the computer manufacturer, a DB25, a DB9,
or both types of connector may be used for RS232-C
communications. (The IBM PC also uses a DB25 connector
for the parallel printer interface which causes some
confusion.)Below is a table of the RS232-C signal assignments in
the DB25 and DB9 connectors.DB25 RS232-C PinDB9 IBM PC
PinEIA Circuit SymbolCCITT Circuit SymbolCommon
NameSignal SourceDescription1-AA101PG/FG-Frame/Protective Ground23BA103TDDTETransmit Data32BB104RDDCEReceive Data47CA105RTSDTERequest to Send58CB106CTSDCEClear to Send66CC107DSRDCEData Set Ready75AV102SG/GND-Signal Ground81CF109DCD/CDDCEData Carrier Detect9-----Reserved for Test10-----Reserved for Test11-----Reserved for Test12-CI122SRLSDDCESec. Recv. Line Signal Detector13-SCB121SCTSDCESecondary Clear to Send14-SBA118STDDTESecondary Transmit Data15-DB114TSETDCETrans. Sig. Element Timing16-SBB119SRDDCESecondary Received Data17-DD115RSETDCEReceiver Signal Element Timing18--141LOOPDTELocal Loopback19-SCA120SRSDTESecondary Request to Send204CD108.2DTRDTEData Terminal Ready21---RDLDTERemote Digital Loopback229CE125RIDCERing Indicator23-CH111DSRSDTEData Signal Rate Selector24-DA113TSETDTETrans. Sig. Element Timing25--142-DCETest ModeBits, Baud and SymbolsBaud is a measurement of transmission speed in
asynchronous communication. Because of advances in modem
communication technology, this term is frequently misused
when describing the data rates in newer devices.Traditionally, a Baud Rate represents the number of bits
that are actually being sent over the media, not the amount
of data that is actually moved from one DTE device to the
other. The Baud count includes the overhead bits Start, Stop
and Parity that are generated by the sending UART and
removed by the receiving UART. This means that seven-bit
words of data actually take 10 bits to be completely
transmitted. Therefore, a modem capable of moving 300 bits
per second from one place to another can normally only move
30 7-bit words if Parity is used and one Start and Stop bit
are present.If 8-bit data words are used and Parity bits are also
used, the data rate falls to 27.27 words per second, because
it now takes 11 bits to send the eight-bit words, and the
modem still only sends 300 bits per second.The formula for converting bytes per second into a baud
rate and vice versa was simple until error-correcting modems
came along. These modems receive the serial stream of bits
from the UART in the host computer (even when internal
modems are used the data is still frequently serialized) and
converts the bits back into bytes. These bytes are then
combined into packets and sent over the phone line using a
Synchronous transmission method. This means that the Stop,
Start, and Parity bits added by the UART in the DTE (the
computer) were removed by the modem before transmission by
the sending modem. When these bytes are received by the
remote modem, the remote modem adds Start, Stop and Parity
bits to the words, converts them to a serial format and then
sends them to the receiving UART in the remote computer, who
then strips the Start, Stop and Parity bits.The reason all these extra conversions are done is so
that the two modems can perform error correction, which
means that the receiving modem is able to ask the sending
modem to resend a block of data that was not received with
the correct checksum. This checking is handled by the
modems, and the DTE devices are usually unaware that the
process is occurring.By striping the Start, Stop and Parity bits, the
additional bits of data that the two modems must share
between themselves to perform error-correction are mostly
concealed from the effective transmission rate seen by the
sending and receiving DTE equipment. For example, if a
modem sends ten 7-bit words to another modem without
including the Start, Stop and Parity bits, the sending modem
will be able to add 30 bits of its own information that the
receiving modem can use to do error-correction without
impacting the transmission speed of the real data.The use of the term Baud is further confused by modems
that perform compression. A single 8-bit word passed over
the telephone line might represent a dozen words that were
transmitted to the sending modem. The receiving modem will
expand the data back to its original content and pass that
data to the receiving DTE.Modern modems also include buffers that allow the rate
that bits move across the phone line (DCE to DCE) to be a
different speed than the speed that the bits move between
the DTE and DCE on both ends of the conversation. Normally
the speed between the DTE and DCE is higher than the DCE to
DCE speed because of the use of compression by the
modems.Because the number of bits needed to describe a byte
varied during the trip between the two machines plus the
differing bits-per-seconds speeds that are used present on
the DTE-DCE and DCE-DCE links, the usage of the term Baud to
describe the overall communication speed causes problems and
can misrepresent the true transmission speed. So Bits Per
Second (bps) is the correct term to use to describe the
transmission rate seen at the DCE to DCE interface and Baud
or Bits Per Second are acceptable terms to use when a
connection is made between two systems with a wired
connection, or if a modem is in use that is not performing
error-correction or compression.Modern high speed modems (2400, 9600, 14,400, and
19,200bps) in reality still operate at or below 2400 baud,
or more accurately, 2400 Symbols per second. High speed
modem are able to encode more bits of data into each Symbol
using a technique called Constellation Stuffing, which is
why the effective bits per second rate of the modem is
higher, but the modem continues to operate within the
limited audio bandwidth that the telephone system provides.
Modems operating at 28,800 and higher speeds have variable
Symbol rates, but the technique is the same.The IBM Personal Computer UARTStarting with the original IBM Personal Computer, IBM
selected the National Semiconductor INS8250 UART for use in
the IBM PC Parallel/Serial Adapter. Subsequent generations
of compatible computers from IBM and other vendors continued
to use the INS8250 or improved versions of the National
Semiconductor UART family.National Semiconductor UART Family TreeThere have been several versions and subsequent
generations of the INS8250 UART. Each major version is
described below.INS8250 -> INS8250B
\
\
\-> INS8250A -> INS82C50A
\
\
\-> NS16450 -> NS16C450
\
\
\-> NS16550 -> NS16550A -> PC16550DINS8250This part was used in the original IBM PC and
IBM PC/XT. The original name for this part was the
INS8250 ACE (Asynchronous Communications Element)
and it is made from NMOS technology.The 8250 uses eight I/O ports and has a one-byte
send and a one-byte receive buffer. This original
UART has several race conditions and other
flaws. The original IBM BIOS includes code to work
around these flaws, but this made the BIOS dependent
on the flaws being present, so subsequent parts like
the 8250A, 16450 or 16550 could not be used in the
original IBM PC or IBM PC/XT.INS8250-BThis is the slower speed of the INS8250 made
from NMOS technology. It contains the same problems
as the original INS8250.INS8250AAn improved version of the INS8250 using XMOS
technology with various functional flaws
corrected. The INS8250A was used initially in PC
clone computers by vendors who used
clean BIOS designs. Because of the
corrections in the chip, this part could not be used
with a BIOS compatible with the INS8250 or
INS8250B.INS82C50AThis is a CMOS version (low power consumption)
of the INS8250A and has similar functional
characteristics.NS16450Same as NS8250A with improvements so it can be
used with faster CPU bus designs. IBM used this
part in the IBM AT and updated the IBM BIOS to no
longer rely on the bugs in the INS8250.NS16C450This is a CMOS version (low power consumption)
of the NS16450.NS16550Same as NS16450 with a 16-byte send and receive
buffer but the buffer design was flawed and could
not be reliably be used.NS16550ASame as NS16550 with the buffer flaws
corrected. The 16550A and its successors have become
the most popular UART design in the PC industry,
mainly due to its ability to reliably handle higher
data rates on operating systems with sluggish
interrupt response times.NS16C552This component consists of two NS16C550A CMOS
UARTs in a single package.PC16550DSame as NS16550A with subtle flaws
corrected. This is revision D of the 16550 family
and is the latest design available from National
Semiconductor.The NS16550AF and the PC16550D are the same thingNational reorganized their part numbering system a few
years ago, and the NS16550AFN no longer exists by that
name. (If you have a NS16550AFN, look at the date code on
the part, which is a four digit number that usually starts
with a nine. The first two digits of the number are the
year, and the last two digits are the week in that year
when the part was packaged. If you have a NS16550AFN, it
is probably a few years old.)The new numbers are like PC16550DV, with minor
differences in the suffix letters depending on the package
material and its shape. (A description of the numbering
system can be found below.)It is important to understand that in some stores, you
may pay $15(US) for a NS16550AFN made in 1990 and in
the next bin are the new PC16550DN parts with minor fixes
that National has made since the AFN part was in
production, the PC16550DN was probably made in the past
six months and it costs half (as low as $5(US) in
volume) as much as the NS16550AFN because they are readily
available.As the supply of NS16550AFN chips continues to shrink,
the price will probably continue to increase until more
people discover and accept that the PC16550DN really has
the same function as the old part number.National Semiconductor Part Numbering SystemThe older NSnnnnnrqp part
numbers are now of the format
PCnnnnnrgp.The r is the revision
field. The current revision of the 16550 from National
Semiconductor is D.The p is the package-type
field. The types are:"F"QFP(quad flat pack) L lead type"N"DIP(dual inline package) through hole straight lead
type"V"LPCC(lead plastic chip carrier) J lead typeThe g is the product grade
field. If an I precedes the
package-type letter, it indicates an
industrial grade part, which has higher
specs than a standard part but not as high as Military
Specification (Milspec) component. This is an optional
field.So what we used to call a NS16550AFN (DIP Package) is
now called a PC16550DN or PC16550DIN.Other Vendors and Similar UARTsOver the years, the 8250, 8250A, 16450 and 16550 have
been licensed or copied by other chip vendors. In the case
of the 8250, 8250A and 16450, the exact circuit (the
megacell) was licensed to many vendors,
including Western Digital and Intel. Other vendors
reverse-engineered the part or produced emulations that had
similar behavior.In internal modems, the modem designer will frequently
emulate the 8250A/16450 with the modem microprocessor, and
the emulated UART will frequently have a hidden buffer
consisting of several hundred bytes. Because of the size of
the buffer, these emulations can be as reliable as a 16550A
in their ability to handle high speed data. However, most
operating systems will still report that the UART is only a
8250A or 16450, and may not make effective use of the extra
buffering present in the emulated UART unless special
drivers are used.Some modem makers are driven by market forces to abandon
a design that has hundreds of bytes of buffer and instead
use a 16550A UART so that the product will compare favorably
in market comparisons even though the effective performance
may be lowered by this action.A common misconception is that all parts with
16550A written on them are identical in
performance. There are differences, and in some cases,
outright flaws in most of these 16550A clones.When the NS16550 was developed, the National
Semiconductor obtained several patents on the design and
they also limited licensing, making it harder for other
vendors to provide a chip with similar features. Because of
the patents, reverse-engineered designs and emulations had
to avoid infringing the claims covered by the patents.
Subsequently, these copies almost never perform exactly the
same as the NS16550A or PC16550D, which are the parts most
computer and modem makers want to buy but are sometimes
unwilling to pay the price required to get the genuine
part.Some of the differences in the clone 16550A parts are
unimportant, while others can prevent the device from being
used at all with a given operating system or driver. These
differences may show up when using other drivers, or when
particular combinations of events occur that were not well
tested or considered in the &windows; driver. This is because
most modem vendors and 16550-clone makers use the Microsoft
drivers from &windows; for Workgroups 3.11 and the µsoft;
&ms-dos; utility as the primary tests for compatibility with
the NS16550A. This over-simplistic criteria means that if a
different operating system is used, problems could appear
due to subtle differences between the clones and genuine
components.National Semiconductor has made available a program
named COMTEST that performs
compatibility tests independent of any OS drivers. It
should be remembered that the purpose of this type of
program is to demonstrate the flaws in the products of the
competition, so the program will report major as well as
extremely subtle differences in behavior in the part being
tested.In a series of tests performed by the author of this
document in 1994, components made by National Semiconductor,
TI, StarTech, and CMD as well as megacells and emulations
embedded in internal modems were tested with COMTEST. A
difference count for some of these components is listed
below. Because these tests were performed in 1994, they may
not reflect the current performance of the given product
from a vendor.It should be noted that COMTEST normally aborts when an
excessive number or certain types of problems have been
detected. As part of this testing, COMTEST was modified so
that it would not abort no matter how many differences were
encountered.VendorPart NumberErrors (aka "differences" reported)National(PC16550DV)0National(NS16550AFN)0National(NS16C552V)0TI(TL16550AFN)3CMD(16C550PE)19StarTech(ST16C550J)23RockwellReference modem with internal 16550 or an
emulation (RC144DPi/C3000-25)117SierraModem with an internal 16550
(SC11951/SC11351)91To date, the author of this document has not found any
non-National parts that report zero differences using the
COMTEST program. It should also be noted that National
has had five versions of the 16550 over the years and the
newest parts behave a bit differently than the classic
NS16550AFN that is considered the benchmark for
functionality. COMTEST appears to turn a blind eye to the
differences within the National product line and reports
no errors on the National parts (except for the original
16550) even when there are official erratas that describe
bugs in the A, B and C revisions of the parts, so this
bias in COMTEST must be taken into account.It is important to understand that a simple count of
differences from COMTEST does not reveal a lot about what
differences are important and which are not. For example,
about half of the differences reported in the two modems
listed above that have internal UARTs were caused by the
clone UARTs not supporting five- and six-bit character
modes. The real 16550, 16450, and 8250 UARTs all support
these modes and COMTEST checks the functionality of these
modes so over fifty differences are reported. However,
almost no modern modem supports five- or six-bit characters,
particularly those with error-correction and compression
capabilities. This means that the differences related to
five- and six-bit character modes can be discounted.Many of the differences COMTEST reports have to do with
timing. In many of the clone designs, when the host reads
from one port, the status bits in some other port may not
update in the same amount of time (some faster, some slower)
as a real NS16550AFN and COMTEST looks
for these differences. This means that the number of
differences can be misleading in that one device may only
have one or two differences but they are extremely serious,
and some other device that updates the status registers
faster or slower than the reference part (that would
probably never affect the operation of a properly written
driver) could have dozens of differences reported.COMTEST can be used as a screening tool to alert the
administrator to the presence of potentially incompatible
components that might cause problems or have to be handled
as a special case.If you run COMTEST on a 16550 that is in a modem or a
modem is attached to the serial port, you need to first
issue a ATE0&W command to the modem so that the modem
will not echo any of the test characters. If you forget to
do this, COMTEST will report at least this one
difference:Error (6)...Timeout interrupt failed: IIR = c1 LSR = 618250/16450/16550 RegistersThe 8250/16450/16550 UART occupies eight contiguous I/O
port addresses. In the IBM PC, there are two defined
locations for these eight ports and they are known
collectively as COM1 and COM2. The makers of PC-clones and
add-on cards have created two additional areas known as COM3
and COM4, but these extra COM ports conflict with other
hardware on some systems. The most common conflict is with
video adapters that provide IBM 8514 emulation.COM1 is located from 0x3f8 to 0x3ff and normally uses
IRQ 4. COM2 is located from 0x2f8 to 0x2ff and normally uses
IRQ 3. COM3 is located from 0x3e8 to 0x3ef and has no
standardized IRQ. COM4 is located from 0x2e8 to 0x2ef and has
no standardized IRQ.A description of the I/O ports of the 8250/16450/16550
UART is provided below.I/O PortAccess AllowedDescription+0x00write (DLAB==0)Transmit Holding Register
(THR).Information written to this port are
treated as data words and will be transmitted by the
UART.+0x00read (DLAB==0)Receive Buffer Register (RBR).Any
data words received by the UART form the serial link are
accessed by the host by reading this
port.+0x00write/read (DLAB==1)Divisor Latch LSB (DLL)This value
will be divided from the master input clock (in the IBM
PC, the master clock is 1.8432MHz) and the resulting
clock will determine the baud rate of the UART. This
register holds bits 0 thru 7 of the
divisor.+0x01write/read (DLAB==1)Divisor Latch MSB (DLH)This value
will be divided from the master input clock (in the IBM
PC, the master clock is 1.8432MHz) and the resulting
clock will determine the baud rate of the UART. This
register holds bits 8 thru 15 of the
divisor.+0x01write/read (DLAB==0)Interrupt Enable Register
(IER)The 8250/16450/16550 UART
classifies events into one of four categories.
Each category can be configured to generate an
interrupt when any of the events occurs. The
8250/16450/16550 UART generates a single external
interrupt signal regardless of how many events in
the enabled categories have occurred. It is up to
the host processor to respond to the interrupt and
then poll the enabled interrupt categories
(usually all categories have interrupts enabled)
to determine the true cause(s) of the
interrupt.Bit 7Reserved, always 0.Bit 6Reserved, always 0.Bit 5Reserved, always 0.Bit 4Reserved, always 0.Bit 3Enable Modem Status Interrupt (EDSSI). Setting
this bit to "1" allows the UART to generate an
interrupt when a change occurs on one or more of the
status lines.Bit 2Enable Receiver Line Status Interrupt (ELSI)
Setting this bit to "1" causes the UART to generate
an interrupt when the an error (or a BREAK signal)
has been detected in the incoming data.Bit 1Enable Transmitter Holding Register Empty
Interrupt (ETBEI) Setting this bit to "1" causes the
UART to generate an interrupt when the UART has room
for one or more additional characters that are to be
transmitted.Bit 0Enable Received Data Available Interrupt
(ERBFI) Setting this bit to "1" causes the UART to
generate an interrupt when the UART has received
enough characters to exceed the trigger level of the
FIFO, or the FIFO timer has expired (stale data), or
a single character has been received when the FIFO
is disabled.+0x02writeFIFO Control Register (FCR)
(This port does not exist on the 8250 and 16450
UART.)Bit 7Receiver Trigger Bit #1Bit 6Receiver Trigger Bit
#0These two bits control at what
point the receiver is to generate an interrupt
when the FIFO is active.76How many words are received
before an interrupt is generated0010141081114Bit 5Reserved, always 0.Bit 4Reserved, always 0.Bit 3DMA Mode Select. If Bit 0 is
set to "1" (FIFOs enabled), setting this bit changes
the operation of the -RXRDY and -TXRDY signals from
Mode 0 to Mode 1.Bit 2Transmit FIFO Reset. When a
"1" is written to this bit, the contents of the FIFO
are discarded. Any word currently being transmitted
will be sent intact. This function is useful in
aborting transfers.Bit 1Receiver FIFO Reset. When a
"1" is written to this bit, the contents of the FIFO
are discarded. Any word currently being assembled
in the shift register will be received
intact.Bit 016550 FIFO Enable. When set,
both the transmit and receive FIFOs are enabled.
Any contents in the holding register, shift
registers or FIFOs are lost when FIFOs are enabled
or disabled.+0x02readInterrupt Identification
RegisterBit 7FIFOs enabled. On the
8250/16450 UART, this bit is zero.Bit 6FIFOs enabled. On the
8250/16450 UART, this bit is zero.Bit 5Reserved, always 0.Bit 4Reserved, always 0.Bit 3Interrupt ID Bit #2. On the
8250/16450 UART, this bit is zero.Bit 2Interrupt ID Bit #1Bit 1Interrupt ID Bit #0.These
three bits combine to report the category of
event that caused the interrupt that is in
progress. These categories have priorities,
so if multiple categories of events occur at
the same time, the UART will report the more
important events first and the host must
resolve the events in the order they are
reported. All events that caused the current
interrupt must be resolved before any new
interrupts will be generated. (This is a
limitation of the PC architecture.)210PriorityDescription011FirstReceived Error (OE, PE, BI, or
FE)010SecondReceived Data Available110SecondTrigger level identification
(Stale data in receive buffer)001ThirdTransmitter has room for more
words (THRE)000FourthModem Status Change (-CTS, -DSR,
-RI, or -DCD)Bit 0Interrupt Pending Bit. If this
bit is set to "0", then at least one interrupt is
pending.+0x03write/readLine Control Register
(LCR)Bit 7Divisor Latch Access Bit
(DLAB). When set, access to the data
transmit/receive register (THR/RBR) and the
Interrupt Enable Register (IER) is disabled. Any
access to these ports is now redirected to the
Divisor Latch Registers. Setting this bit, loading
the Divisor Registers, and clearing DLAB should be
done with interrupts disabled.Bit 6Set Break. When set to "1",
the transmitter begins to transmit continuous
Spacing until this bit is set to "0". This
overrides any bits of characters that are being
transmitted.Bit 5Stick Parity. When parity is
enabled, setting this bit causes parity to always be
"1" or "0", based on the value of Bit 4.Bit 4Even Parity Select (EPS). When
parity is enabled and Bit 5 is "0", setting this bit
causes even parity to be transmitted and expected.
Otherwise, odd parity is used.Bit 3Parity Enable (PEN). When set
to "1", a parity bit is inserted between the last
bit of the data and the Stop Bit. The UART will
also expect parity to be present in the received
data.Bit 2Number of Stop Bits (STB). If
set to "1" and using 5-bit data words, 1.5 Stop Bits
are transmitted and expected in each data word. For
6, 7 and 8-bit data words, 2 Stop Bits are
transmitted and expected. When this bit is set to
"0", one Stop Bit is used on each data word.Bit 1Word Length Select Bit #1
(WLSB1)Bit 0Word Length Select Bit #0
(WLSB0)Together these
bits specify the number of bits in each data
word.10Word
Length005 Data
Bits016 Data
Bits107 Data
Bits118 Data
Bits+0x04write/readModem Control Register
(MCR)Bit 7Reserved, always 0.Bit 6Reserved, always 0.Bit 5Reserved, always 0.Bit 4Loop-Back Enable. When set to "1", the UART
transmitter and receiver are internally connected
together to allow diagnostic operations. In
addition, the UART modem control outputs are
connected to the UART modem control inputs. CTS is
connected to RTS, DTR is connected to DSR, OUT1 is
connected to RI, and OUT 2 is connected to
DCD.Bit 3OUT 2. An auxiliary output that the host
processor may set high or low. In the IBM PC serial
adapter (and most clones), OUT 2 is used to
tri-state (disable) the interrupt signal from the
8250/16450/16550 UART.Bit 2OUT 1. An auxiliary output that the host
processor may set high or low. This output is not
used on the IBM PC serial adapter.Bit 1Request to Send (RTS). When set to "1", the
output of the UART -RTS line is Low
(Active).Bit 0Data Terminal Ready (DTR). When set to "1",
the output of the UART -DTR line is Low
(Active).+0x05write/readLine Status Register
(LSR)Bit 7Error in Receiver FIFO. On the 8250/16450
UART, this bit is zero. This bit is set to "1" when
any of the bytes in the FIFO have one or more of the
following error conditions: PE, FE, or BI.Bit 6Transmitter Empty (TEMT). When set to "1",
there are no words remaining in the transmit FIFO
or the transmit shift register. The transmitter is
completely idle.Bit 5Transmitter Holding Register Empty (THRE).
When set to "1", the FIFO (or holding register) now
has room for at least one additional word to
transmit. The transmitter may still be transmitting
when this bit is set to "1".Bit 4Break Interrupt (BI). The receiver has
detected a Break signal.Bit 3Framing Error (FE). A Start Bit was detected
but the Stop Bit did not appear at the expected
time. The received word is probably
garbled.Bit 2Parity Error (PE). The parity bit was
incorrect for the word received.Bit 1Overrun Error (OE). A new word was received
and there was no room in the receive buffer. The
newly-arrived word in the shift register is
discarded. On 8250/16450 UARTs, the word in the
holding register is discarded and the newly- arrived
word is put in the holding register.Bit 0Data Ready (DR) One or more words are in the
receive FIFO that the host may read. A word must be
completely received and moved from the shift
register into the FIFO (or holding register for
8250/16450 designs) before this bit is set.+0x06write/readModem Status Register
(MSR)Bit 7Data Carrier Detect (DCD). Reflects the state
of the DCD line on the UART.Bit 6Ring Indicator (RI). Reflects the state of the
RI line on the UART.Bit 5Data Set Ready (DSR). Reflects the state of
the DSR line on the UART.Bit 4Clear To Send (CTS). Reflects the state of the
CTS line on the UART.Bit 3Delta Data Carrier Detect (DDCD). Set to "1"
if the -DCD line has changed state one more
time since the last time the MSR was read by the
host.Bit 2Trailing Edge Ring Indicator (TERI). Set to
"1" if the -RI line has had a low to high transition
since the last time the MSR was read by the
host.Bit 1Delta Data Set Ready (DDSR). Set to "1" if the
-DSR line has changed state one more time
since the last time the MSR was read by the
host.Bit 0Delta Clear To Send (DCTS). Set to "1" if the
-CTS line has changed state one more time
since the last time the MSR was read by the
host.+0x07write/readScratch Register (SCR). This register performs no
function in the UART. Any value can be written by the
host to this location and read by the host later
on.Beyond the 16550A UARTAlthough National Semiconductor has not offered any
components compatible with the 16550 that provide additional
features, various other vendors have. Some of these
components are described below. It should be understood
that to effectively utilize these improvements, drivers may
have to be provided by the chip vendor since most of the
popular operating systems do not support features beyond
those provided by the 16550.ST16650By default this part is similar to the NS16550A, but an
extended 32-byte send and receive buffer can be optionally
enabled. Made by StarTech.TIL16660By default this part behaves similar to the NS16550A,
but an extended 64-byte send and receive buffer can be
optionally enabled. Made by Texas Instruments.Hayes ESPThis proprietary plug-in card contains a 2048-byte send
and receive buffer, and supports data rates to
230.4Kbit/sec. Made by Hayes.In addition to these dumb UARTs, many vendors
produce intelligent serial communication boards. This type of
design usually provides a microprocessor that interfaces with
several UARTs, processes and buffers the data, and then alerts the
main PC processor when necessary. Because the UARTs are not
directly accessed by the PC processor in this type of
communication system, it is not necessary for the vendor to use
UARTs that are compatible with the 8250, 16450, or the 16550 UART.
This leaves the designer free to components that may have better
performance characteristics.Configuring the sio driverThe sio driver provides support
for NS8250-, NS16450-, NS16550 and NS16550A-based EIA RS-232C
(CCITT V.24) communications interfaces. Several multiport
cards are supported as well. See the &man.sio.4; manual page
for detailed technical documentation.Digi International (DigiBoard) PC/8Contributed by &a.awebster;. 26 August
1995.Here is a config snippet from a machine with a Digi
International PC/8 with 16550. It has 8 modems connected to
these 8 lines, and they work just great. Do not forget to
add options COM_MULTIPORT or it will not
work very well!device sio4 at isa? port 0x100 flags 0xb05
device sio5 at isa? port 0x108 flags 0xb05
device sio6 at isa? port 0x110 flags 0xb05
device sio7 at isa? port 0x118 flags 0xb05
device sio8 at isa? port 0x120 flags 0xb05
device sio9 at isa? port 0x128 flags 0xb05
device sio10 at isa? port 0x130 flags 0xb05
device sio11 at isa? port 0x138 flags 0xb05 irq 9The trick in setting this up is that the MSB of the
flags represent the last SIO port, in this case 11 so flags
are 0xb05.Boca 16Contributed by &a.whiteside;. 26 August
1995.The procedures to make a Boca 16 port board with FreeBSD
are pretty straightforward, but you will need a couple
things to make it work:You either need the kernel sources installed so you
can recompile the necessary options or you will need
someone else to compile it for you. The 2.0.5 default
kernel does not come with
multiport support enabled and you will need to add a
device entry for each port anyways.Two, you will need to know the interrupt and IO
setting for your Boca Board so you can set these options
properly in the kernel.One important note — the actual UART chips for the
Boca 16 are in the connector box, not on the internal board
itself. So if you have it unplugged, probes of those ports
will fail. I have never tested booting with the box
unplugged and plugging it back in, and I suggest you do not
either.If you do not already have a custom kernel
configuration file set up, refer to Kernel
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/kernelconfig.html">Kernel
Configuration chapter of the FreeBSD Handbook for
general procedures. The following are the specifics for the
Boca 16 board and assume you are using the kernel name
MYKERNEL and editing with vi.Add the line
options COM_MULTIPORT
to the config file.Where the current device
sion lines are, you
will need to add 16 more devices. The
following example is for a Boca Board with an interrupt
of 3, and a base IO address 100h. The IO address for
Each port is +8 hexadecimal from the previous port, thus
the 100h, 108h, 110h... addresses.device sio1 at isa? port 0x100 flags 0x1005
device sio2 at isa? port 0x108 flags 0x1005
device sio3 at isa? port 0x110 flags 0x1005
device sio4 at isa? port 0x118 flags 0x1005
…
device sio15 at isa? port 0x170 flags 0x1005
device sio16 at isa? port 0x178 flags 0x1005 irq 3The flags entry must be changed
from this example unless you are using the exact same
sio assignments. Flags are set according to
0xMYY
where M indicates the minor
number of the master port (the last port on a Boca 16)
and YY indicates if FIFO is
enabled or disabled(enabled), IRQ sharing is used(yes)
and if there is an AST/4 compatible IRQ control
register(no). In this example, flags
0x1005 indicates that the master port
is sio16. If I added another board and assigned sio17
through sio28, the flags for all 16 ports on
that board would be 0x1C05, where
1C indicates the minor number of the master port. Do
not change the 05 setting.Save and complete the kernel configuration,
recompile, install and reboot. Presuming you have
successfully installed the recompiled kernel and have it
set to the correct address and IRQ, your boot message
should indicate the successful probe of the Boca ports
as follows: (obviously the sio numbers, IO and IRQ could
be different)sio1 at 0x100-0x107 flags 0x1005 on isa
sio1: type 16550A (multiport)
sio2 at 0x108-0x10f flags 0x1005 on isa
sio2: type 16550A (multiport)
sio3 at 0x110-0x117 flags 0x1005 on isa
sio3: type 16550A (multiport)
sio4 at 0x118-0x11f flags 0x1005 on isa
sio4: type 16550A (multiport)
sio5 at 0x120-0x127 flags 0x1005 on isa
sio5: type 16550A (multiport)
sio6 at 0x128-0x12f flags 0x1005 on isa
sio6: type 16550A (multiport)
sio7 at 0x130-0x137 flags 0x1005 on isa
sio7: type 16550A (multiport)
sio8 at 0x138-0x13f flags 0x1005 on isa
sio8: type 16550A (multiport)
sio9 at 0x140-0x147 flags 0x1005 on isa
sio9: type 16550A (multiport)
sio10 at 0x148-0x14f flags 0x1005 on isa
sio10: type 16550A (multiport)
sio11 at 0x150-0x157 flags 0x1005 on isa
sio11: type 16550A (multiport)
sio12 at 0x158-0x15f flags 0x1005 on isa
sio12: type 16550A (multiport)
sio13 at 0x160-0x167 flags 0x1005 on isa
sio13: type 16550A (multiport)
sio14 at 0x168-0x16f flags 0x1005 on isa
sio14: type 16550A (multiport)
sio15 at 0x170-0x177 flags 0x1005 on isa
sio15: type 16550A (multiport)
sio16 at 0x178-0x17f irq 3 flags 0x1005 on isa
sio16: type 16550A (multiport master)If the messages go by too fast to see,
&prompt.root; dmesg | more
will show you the boot messages.Next, appropriate entries in
/dev for the devices must be made
using the /dev/MAKEDEV
script. This step can be omitted if you are running
FreeBSD 5.X with a kernel that has &man.devfs.5;
support compiled in.If you do need to create the /dev
entries, run the following as root:&prompt.root; cd /dev
&prompt.root; ./MAKEDEV tty1
&prompt.root; ./MAKEDEV cua1(everything in between)
&prompt.root; ./MAKEDEV ttyg
&prompt.root; ./MAKEDEV cuagIf you do not want or need call-out devices for some
reason, you can dispense with making the
cua* devices.If you want a quick and sloppy way to make sure the
devices are working, you can simply plug a modem into
each port and (as root)
&prompt.root; echo at > ttyd*
for each device you have made. You
should see the RX lights flash for each
working port.Support for Cheap Multi-UART CardsContributed by Helge Oldach
hmo@sep.hamburg.com, September
1999Ever wondered about FreeBSD support for your 20$
multi-I/O card with two (or more) COM ports, sharing IRQs?
Here is how:Usually the only option to support these kind of boards
is to use a distinct IRQ for each port. For example, if
your CPU board has an on-board COM1
port (aka sio0–I/O address
0x3F8 and IRQ 4) and you have an extension board with two
UARTs, you will commonly need to configure them as
COM2 (aka
sio1–I/O address 0x2F8 and
IRQ 3), and the third port (aka
sio2) as I/O 0x3E8 and IRQ 5.
Obviously this is a waste of IRQ resources, as it should be
basically possible to run both extension board ports using a
single IRQ with the COM_MULTIPORT
configuration described in the previous sections.Such cheap I/O boards commonly have a 4 by 3 jumper
matrix for the COM ports, similar to the following: o o o *
Port A |
o * o *
Port B |
o * o o
IRQ 2 3 4 5Shown here is port A wired for IRQ 5 and port B wired
for IRQ 3. The IRQ columns on your specific board may
vary—other boards may supply jumpers for IRQs 3, 4, 5,
and 7 instead.One could conclude that wiring both ports for IRQ 3
using a handcrafted wire-made jumper covering all three
connection points in the IRQ 3 column would solve the issue,
but no. You cannot duplicate IRQ 3 because the output
drivers of each UART are wired in a totem
pole fashion, so if one of the UARTs drives IRQ 3,
the output signal will not be what you would expect.
Depending on the implementation of the extension board or
your motherboard, the IRQ 3 line will continuously stay up,
or always stay low.You need to decouple the IRQ drivers for the two UARTs,
so that the IRQ line of the board only goes up if (and only
if) one of the UARTs asserts a IRQ, and stays low otherwise.
The solution was proposed by Joerg Wunsch
j@ida.interface-business.de: To solder up a
wired-or consisting of two diodes (Germanium or
Schottky-types strongly preferred) and a 1 kOhm resistor.
Here is the schematic, starting from the 4 by 3 jumper field
above: Diode
+---------->|-------+
/ |
o * o o | 1 kOhm
Port A +----|######|-------+
o * o o | |
Port B `-------------------+ ==+==
o * o o | Ground
\ |
+--------->|-------+
IRQ 2 3 4 5 DiodeThe cathodes of the diodes are connected to a common
point, together with a 1 kOhm pull-down resistor. It is
essential to connect the resistor to ground to avoid
floating of the IRQ line on the bus.Now we are ready to configure a kernel. Staying with
this example, we would configure:# standard on-board COM1 port
device sio0 at isa? port "IO_COM1" flags 0x10
# patched-up multi-I/O extension board
options COM_MULTIPORT
device sio1 at isa? port "IO_COM2" flags 0x205
device sio2 at isa? port "IO_COM3" flags 0x205 irq 3Note that the flags setting for
sio1 and
sio2 is truly essential; refer to
&man.sio.4; for details. (Generally, the
2 in the "flags" attribute refers to
sio2 which holds the IRQ, and you
surely want a 5 low nibble.) With kernel
verbose mode turned on this should yield something similar
to this:sio0: irq maps: 0x1 0x11 0x1 0x1
sio0 at 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0x10 on isa
sio0: type 16550A
sio1: irq maps: 0x1 0x9 0x1 0x1
sio1 at 0x2f8-0x2ff flags 0x205 on isa
sio1: type 16550A (multiport)
sio2: irq maps: 0x1 0x9 0x1 0x1
sio2 at 0x3e8-0x3ef irq 3 flags 0x205 on isa
sio2: type 16550A (multiport master)Though /sys/i386/isa/sio.c is
somewhat cryptic with its use of the irq maps
array above, the basic idea is that you observe
0x1 in the first, third, and fourth
place. This means that the corresponding IRQ was set upon
output and cleared after, which is just what we would
expect. If your kernel does not display this behavior, most
likely there is something wrong with your wiring.Configuring the cy driverContributed by Alex Nash. 6 June
1996.The Cyclades multiport cards are based on the
cy driver instead of the usual
sio driver used by other multiport
cards. Configuration is a simple matter of:Add the cy device to your
kernel configuration (note that your irq and iomem
settings may differ).device cy0 at isa? irq 10 iomem 0xd4000 iosiz 0x2000Rebuild and install the new kernel.Make the device nodes by typing (the following
example assumes an 8-port board)You can omit this part if you are running FreeBSD 5.X
with &man.devfs.5;.:&prompt.root; cd /dev
&prompt.root; for i in 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7;do ./MAKEDEV cuac$i ttyc$i;doneIf appropriate, add dialup entries to
/etc/ttys by duplicating serial
device (ttyd) entries and using
ttyc in place of
ttyd. For example:ttyc0 "/usr/libexec/getty std.38400" unknown on insecure
ttyc1 "/usr/libexec/getty std.38400" unknown on insecure
ttyc2 "/usr/libexec/getty std.38400" unknown on insecure
…
ttyc7 "/usr/libexec/getty std.38400" unknown on insecureReboot with the new kernel.Configuring the si driverContributed by &a.nsayer;. 25 March
1998.The Specialix SI/XIO and SX multiport cards use the
si driver. A single machine can have
up to 4 host cards. The following host cards are
supported:ISA SI/XIO host card (2 versions)EISA SI/XIO host cardPCI SI/XIO host cardISA SX host cardPCI SX host cardAlthough the SX and SI/XIO host cards look markedly
different, their functionality are basically the same. The
host cards do not use I/O locations, but instead require a 32K
chunk of memory. The factory configuration for ISA cards
places this at 0xd0000-0xd7fff. They also
require an IRQ. PCI cards will, of course, auto-configure
themselves.You can attach up to 4 external modules to each host
card. The external modules contain either 4 or 8 serial
ports. They come in the following varieties:SI 4 or 8 port modules. Up to 57600 bps on each port
supported.XIO 8 port modules. Up to 115200 bps on each port
supported. One type of XIO module has 7 serial and 1 parallel
port.SXDC 8 port modules. Up to 921600 bps on each port
supported. Like XIO, a module is available with one parallel
port as well.To configure an ISA host card, add the following line to
your kernel configuration file, changing the numbers as
appropriate:device si0 at isa? iomem 0xd0000 irq 11Valid IRQ numbers are 9, 10, 11, 12 and 15 for SX ISA host
cards and 11, 12 and 15 for SI/XIO ISA host cards.To configure an EISA or PCI host card, use this line:device si0After adding the configuration entry, rebuild and
install your new kernel.The following step, is not necessary if you are using
&man.devfs.5; in FreeBSD 5.X.After rebooting with the new kernel, you need to make the
device nodes in /dev. The MAKEDEV script
will take care of this for you. Count how many total ports
you have and type:&prompt.root; cd /dev
&prompt.root; ./MAKEDEV ttyAnn cuaAnn(where nn is the number of
ports)If you want login prompts to appear on these ports, you
will need to add lines like this to
/etc/ttys:ttyA01 "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600" vt100 on insecureChange the terminal type as appropriate. For modems,
dialup or
unknown is fine.
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/arch-handbook/book.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/arch-handbook/book.sgml
index 35d03ce0b1..3401257fce 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/arch-handbook/book.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/arch-handbook/book.sgml
@@ -1,215 +1,215 @@
%bookinfo;
%man;
%freebsd;
%chapters;
%mac-entities;
%authors
%mailing-lists;
%urls;
]>
&os; Architecture HandbookThe FreeBSD Documentation ProjectAugust 200020002001200220032004The FreeBSD Documentation Project
&bookinfo.trademarks;
&bookinfo.legalnotice;
Welcome to the &os; Architecture Handbook. This manual is a
work in progress and is the work of many
individuals. Many sections do not yet exist and some of those
that do exist need to be updated. 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 in a
variety of formats and compression options from the FreeBSD FTP
server or one of the numerous mirror
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors-ftp.html">mirror
sites.Kernel
&chap.boot;
&chap.locking;
&chap.kobj;
&chap.jail;
&chap.sysinit;
&chap.mac;
&chap.vm;
&chap.smp;
* UFSUFS, FFS, Ext2FS, JFS, inodes, buffer cache, labeling,
locking, metadata, soft-updates, LFS, portalfs, procfs,
vnodes, memory sharing, memory objects, TLBs, caching* AFSAFS, NFS, SANs, etc.* SysconsSyscons, tty, PCVT, serial console, screen savers,
etc.* Compatibility Layers* LinuxLinux, SVR4, etc.Device Drivers
&chap.driverbasics;
&chap.isa;
&chap.pci;
&chap.scsi;
&chap.usb;
&chap.newbus;
&chap.snd;
&chap.pccard;
AppendicesMarshallKirkMcKusickKeithBosticMichaelJKarelsJohnSQuarterman1996Addison-Wesley Publishing Company,
Inc.0-201-54979-4Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD Operating System1-2
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/developers-handbook/book.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/developers-handbook/book.sgml
index b12155cd3d..3b0acaeca6 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/developers-handbook/book.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/developers-handbook/book.sgml
@@ -1,286 +1,286 @@
%bookinfo;
%man;
%freebsd;
%chapters;
%authors
%mailing-lists;
%trademarks;
%urls;
]>
FreeBSD Developers' HandbookThe FreeBSD Documentation ProjectAugust 200020002001200220032004The FreeBSD Documentation Project
&bookinfo.legalnotice;
&tm-attrib.freebsd;
&tm-attrib.apple;
&tm-attrib.ibm;
&tm-attrib.ieee;
&tm-attrib.intel;
&tm-attrib.linux;
&tm-attrib.microsoft;
&tm-attrib.opengroup;
&tm-attrib.sun;
&tm-attrib.general;
Welcome to the Developers' Handbook. This manual is a
work in progress and is the work of many
individuals. Many sections do not yet exist and some of those
that do exist need to be updated. 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 in a
variety of formats and compression options from the FreeBSD FTP
server or one of the numerous mirror
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors-ftp.html">mirror
sites.Basics
&chap.introduction;
&chap.tools;
&chap.secure;
&chap.l10n;
&chap.policies;
&chap.testing;
Interprocess Communication* SignalsSignals, pipes, semaphores, message queues, shared memory,
ports, sockets, doors
&chap.sockets;
&chap.ipv6;
Kernel
&chap.dma;
&chap.kerneldebug;
* UFSUFS, FFS, Ext2FS, JFS, inodes, buffer cache, labeling,
locking, metadata, soft-updates, LFS, portalfs, procfs,
vnodes, memory sharing, memory objects, TLBs, caching* AFSAFS, NFS, SANs, etc.* SysconsSyscons, tty, PCVT, serial console, screen savers,
etc.* Compatibility Layers* LinuxLinux, SVR4, etc.Architectures
&chap.x86;
* AlphaExplanation of alignment errors, how to fix, how to
ignore.Example assembly language code for FreeBSD/alpha.AppendicesDaveAPattersonJohnLHennessy1998Morgan Kaufmann Publishers,
Inc.1-55860-428-6Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc.Computer Organization and DesignThe Hardware / Software Interface1-2W.RichardStevens1993Addison Wesley Longman,
Inc.0-201-56317-7Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment1-2MarshallKirkMcKusickKeithBosticMichaelJKarelsJohnSQuarterman1996Addison-Wesley Publishing Company,
Inc.0-201-54979-4Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD Operating System1-2AlephOnePhrack 49; "Smashing the Stack for Fun and Profit"ChrispinCowanCaltonPuDaveMaierStackGuard; Automatic Adaptive Detection and Prevention of
Buffer-Overflow AttacksToddMillerTheode Raadtstrlcpy and strlcat -- consistent, safe string copy and
concatenation.
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/developers-handbook/kerneldebug/chapter.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/developers-handbook/kerneldebug/chapter.sgml
index c5c841569f..22a5b4dd9b 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/developers-handbook/kerneldebug/chapter.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/developers-handbook/kerneldebug/chapter.sgml
@@ -1,829 +1,829 @@
PaulRichardsContributed by JörgWunschKernel DebuggingObtaining a Kernel Crash DumpWhen running a development kernel (eg: &os.current;), such as a
kernel under extreme conditions (eg: very high load averages,
tens of thousands of connections, exceedingly high number of
concurrent users, hundreds of &man.jail.8;s, etc.), or using a
new feature or device driver on &os.stable; (eg:
PAE), sometimes a kernel will panic. In the
event that it does, this chapter will demonstrate how to extract
useful information out of a crash.A system reboot is inevitable once a kernel panics. Once a
system is rebooted, the contents of a system's physical memory
(RAM) is lost, as well as any bits that are
on the swap device before the panic. To preserve the bits in
physical memory, the kernel makes use of the swap device as a
temporary place to store the bits that are in RAM across a
reboot after a crash. In doing this, when &os; boots after a
crash, a kernel image can now be extracted and debugging can
take place.A swap device that has been configured as a dump
device still acts as a swap device. Dumps to non-swap devices
(such as tapes or CDRWs, for example) are not supported at this time. A
swap device is synonymous with a swap
partition.To be able to extract a usable core, it is required that at
least one swap partition be large enough to hold all of the bits
in physical memory. When a kernel panics, before the system
reboots, the kernel is smart enough to check to see if a swap
device has been configured as a dump device. If there is a
valid dump device, the kernel dumps the contents of what is in
physical memory to the swap device.Configuring the Dump DeviceBefore the kernel will dump the contents of its physical
memory to a dump device, a dump device must be configured. A
dump device is specified by using the &man.dumpon.8; command
to tell the kernel where to save kernel crash dumps. The
&man.dumpon.8; program must be called after the swap partition
has been configured with &man.swapon.8;. This is normally
handled by setting the dumpdev variable in
&man.rc.conf.5; to the path of the swap device (the
recommended way to extract a kernel dump).Alternatively, the dump device can be hard-coded via the
dump clause in the &man.config.5; line of
a kernel configuration file. This approach is deprecated and should
be used only if a kernel is crashing before &man.dumpon.8; can be executed.Check /etc/fstab or
&man.swapinfo.8; for a list of swap devices.Make sure the dumpdir
specified in &man.rc.conf.5; exists before a kernel
crash!&prompt.root; mkdir /var/crash
&prompt.root; chmod 700 /var/crashAlso, remember that the contents of
/var/crash is sensitive and very likely
contains confidential information such as passwords.Extracting a Kernel DumpOnce a dump has been written to a dump device, the dump
must be extracted before the swap device is mounted.
To extract a dump
from a dump device, use the &man.savecore.8; program. If
dumpdev has been set in &man.rc.conf.5;,
&man.savecore.8; will be called automatically on the first
multi-user boot after the crash and before the swap device
is mounted. The location of the extracted core is placed in
the &man.rc.conf.5; value dumpdir, by
default /var/crash and will be named
vmcore.0.In the event that there is already a file called
vmcore.0 in
/var/crash (or whatever
dumpdev is set to), the kernel will
increment the trailing number for every crash to avoid
overwriting an existing vmcore (eg:
vmcore.1). While debugging, it is
highly likely that you will want to use the highest version
vmcore in
/var/crash when searching for the right
vmcore.If you are testing a new kernel but need to boot a different one in
order to get your system up and running again, boot it only into single
user mode using the flag at the boot prompt, and
then perform the following steps:&prompt.root; fsck -p
&prompt.root; mount -a -t ufs # make sure /var/crash is writable
&prompt.root; savecore /var/crash /dev/ad0s1b
&prompt.root; exit # exit to multi-userThis instructs &man.savecore.8; to extract a kernel dump
from /dev/ad0s1b and place the contents in
/var/crash. Don't forget to make sure the
destination directory /var/crash has enough
space for the dump. Also, don't forget to specify the correct path to your swap
device as it is likely different than
/dev/ad0s1b!The recommended, and certainly the easiest way to automate
obtaining crash dumps is to use the dumpdev
variable in &man.rc.conf.5;.Debugging a Kernel Crash Dump with gdbOnce a dump has been obtained, getting useful information
out of the dump is relatively easy for simple problems. Before
launching into the internals of gdb to debug
the crash dump, locate the debug version of your kernel
(normally called kernel.debug) and the path
to the source files used to build your kernel (normally
/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/KERNCONF, where
KERNCONF is the ident
specified in a kernel &man.config.5;). With those two pieces of
info, let the debugging commence!To enter into the debugger and begin getting information
from the dump, the following steps are required at a minimum:
&prompt.root; cd /usr/obj/usr/src/sys/KERNCONF
&prompt.root; gdb -k /boot/kernel/kernel.debug /var/crash/vmcore.0
You can debug the crash dump using the kernel sources just like
you can for any other program.This first dump is from a 5.2-BETA kernel and the crash
comes from deep within the kernel. The ouput below has been
modified to include line numbers on the left. This first trace
inspects the instruction pointer and obtains a back trace. The
address that is used on line 41 for the list
command is the instruction pointer and can be found on line line
17. Most developers will request having at least this
information sent to them if you are unable to debug the problem
yourself. If, however, you do solve the problem, make sure that
your patch winds its way into the source tree via a problem
report, mailing lists, or by being able to commit it!
1:&prompt.root; cd /usr/obj/usr/src/sys/KERNCONF
2:&prompt.root; gdb -k kernel.debug /var/crash/vmcore.0
3:GNU gdb 5.2.1 (FreeBSD)
4:Copyright 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
5:GDB is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License, and you are
6:welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it under certain conditions.
7:Type "show copying" to see the conditions.
8:There is absolutely no warranty for GDB. Type "show warranty" for details.
9:This GDB was configured as "i386-undermydesk-freebsd"...
10:panic: page fault
11:panic messages:
12:---
13:Fatal trap 12: page fault while in kernel mode
14:cpuid = 0; apic id = 00
15:fault virtual address = 0x300
16:fault code: = supervisor read, page not present
17:instruction pointer = 0x8:0xc0713860
18:stack pointer = 0x10:0xdc1d0b70
19:frame pointer = 0x10:0xdc1d0b7c
20:code segment = base 0x0, limit 0xfffff, type 0x1b
21: = DPL 0, pres 1, def32 1, gran 1
22:processor eflags = resume, IOPL = 0
23:current process = 14394 (uname)
24:trap number = 12
25:panic: page fault
26 cpuid = 0;
27:Stack backtrace:
28
29:syncing disks, buffers remaining... 2199 2199 panic: mi_switch: switch in a critical section
30:cpuid = 0;
31:Uptime: 2h43m19s
32:Dumping 255 MB
33: 16 32 48 64 80 96 112 128 144 160 176 192 208 224 240
34:---
35:Reading symbols from /boot/kernel/snd_maestro3.ko...done.
36:Loaded symbols for /boot/kernel/snd_maestro3.ko
37:Reading symbols from /boot/kernel/snd_pcm.ko...done.
38:Loaded symbols for /boot/kernel/snd_pcm.ko
39:#0 doadump () at /usr/src/sys/kern/kern_shutdown.c:240
40:240 dumping++;
41:(kgdb)list *0xc0713860
42:0xc0713860 is in lapic_ipi_wait (/usr/src/sys/i386/i386/local_apic.c:663).
43:658 incr = 0;
44:659 delay = 1;
45:660 } else
46:661 incr = 1;
47:662 for (x = 0; x < delay; x += incr) {
48:663 if ((lapic->icr_lo & APIC_DELSTAT_MASK) == APIC_DELSTAT_IDLE)
49:664 return (1);
50:665 ia32_pause();
51:666 }
52:667 return (0);
53:(kgdb)backtrace
54:#0 doadump () at /usr/src/sys/kern/kern_shutdown.c:240
55:#1 0xc055fd9b in boot (howto=260) at /usr/src/sys/kern/kern_shutdown.c:372
56:#2 0xc056019d in panic () at /usr/src/sys/kern/kern_shutdown.c:550
57:#3 0xc0567ef5 in mi_switch () at /usr/src/sys/kern/kern_synch.c:470
58:#4 0xc055fa87 in boot (howto=256) at /usr/src/sys/kern/kern_shutdown.c:312
59:#5 0xc056019d in panic () at /usr/src/sys/kern/kern_shutdown.c:550
60:#6 0xc0720c66 in trap_fatal (frame=0xdc1d0b30, eva=0)
61: at /usr/src/sys/i386/i386/trap.c:821
62:#7 0xc07202b3 in trap (frame=
63: {tf_fs = -1065484264, tf_es = -1065484272, tf_ds = -1065484272, tf_edi = 1, tf_esi = 0, tf_ebp = -602076292, tf_isp = -602076324, tf_ebx = 0, tf_edx = 0, tf_ecx = 1000000, tf_eax = 243, tf_trapno = 12, tf_err = 0, tf_eip = -1066321824, tf_cs = 8, tf_eflags = 65671, tf_esp = 243, tf_ss = 0})
64: at /usr/src/sys/i386/i386/trap.c:250
65:#8 0xc070c9f8 in calltrap () at {standard input}:94
66:#9 0xc07139f3 in lapic_ipi_vectored (vector=0, dest=0)
67: at /usr/src/sys/i386/i386/local_apic.c:733
68:#10 0xc0718b23 in ipi_selected (cpus=1, ipi=1)
69: at /usr/src/sys/i386/i386/mp_machdep.c:1115
70:#11 0xc057473e in kseq_notify (ke=0xcc05e360, cpu=0)
71: at /usr/src/sys/kern/sched_ule.c:520
72:#12 0xc0575cad in sched_add (td=0xcbcf5c80)
73: at /usr/src/sys/kern/sched_ule.c:1366
74:#13 0xc05666c6 in setrunqueue (td=0xcc05e360)
75: at /usr/src/sys/kern/kern_switch.c:422
76:#14 0xc05752f4 in sched_wakeup (td=0xcbcf5c80)
77: at /usr/src/sys/kern/sched_ule.c:999
78:#15 0xc056816c in setrunnable (td=0xcbcf5c80)
79: at /usr/src/sys/kern/kern_synch.c:570
80:#16 0xc0567d53 in wakeup (ident=0xcbcf5c80)
81: at /usr/src/sys/kern/kern_synch.c:411
82:#17 0xc05490a8 in exit1 (td=0xcbcf5b40, rv=0)
83: at /usr/src/sys/kern/kern_exit.c:509
84:#18 0xc0548011 in sys_exit () at /usr/src/sys/kern/kern_exit.c:102
85:#19 0xc0720fd0 in syscall (frame=
86: {tf_fs = 47, tf_es = 47, tf_ds = 47, tf_edi = 0, tf_esi = -1, tf_ebp = -1077940712, tf_isp = -602075788, tf_ebx = 672411944, tf_edx = 10, tf_ecx = 672411600, tf_eax = 1, tf_trapno = 12, tf_err = 2, tf_eip = 671899563, tf_cs = 31, tf_eflags = 642, tf_esp = -1077940740, tf_ss = 47})
87: at /usr/src/sys/i386/i386/trap.c:1010
88:#20 0xc070ca4d in Xint0x80_syscall () at {standard input}:136
89:---Can't read userspace from dump, or kernel process---
90:(kgdb)quitThis next trace is an older dump from the FreeBSD 2 time
frame, but is more involved and demonstrates more of the
features of gdb. Long lines have been folded
to improve readability, and the lines are numbered for
reference. Despite this, it is a real-world error trace taken
during the development of the pcvt console driver. 1:Script started on Fri Dec 30 23:15:22 1994
2:&prompt.root; cd /sys/compile/URIAH
3:&prompt.root; gdb -k kernel /var/crash/vmcore.1
4:Reading symbol data from /usr/src/sys/compile/URIAH/kernel
...done.
5:IdlePTD 1f3000
6:panic: because you said to!
7:current pcb at 1e3f70
8:Reading in symbols for ../../i386/i386/machdep.c...done.
9:(kgdb)backtrace
10:#0 boot (arghowto=256) (../../i386/i386/machdep.c line 767)
11:#1 0xf0115159 in panic ()
12:#2 0xf01955bd in diediedie () (../../i386/i386/machdep.c line 698)
13:#3 0xf010185e in db_fncall ()
14:#4 0xf0101586 in db_command (-266509132, -266509516, -267381073)
15:#5 0xf0101711 in db_command_loop ()
16:#6 0xf01040a0 in db_trap ()
17:#7 0xf0192976 in kdb_trap (12, 0, -272630436, -266743723)
18:#8 0xf019d2eb in trap_fatal (...)
19:#9 0xf019ce60 in trap_pfault (...)
20:#10 0xf019cb2f in trap (...)
21:#11 0xf01932a1 in exception:calltrap ()
22:#12 0xf0191503 in cnopen (...)
23:#13 0xf0132c34 in spec_open ()
24:#14 0xf012d014 in vn_open ()
25:#15 0xf012a183 in open ()
26:#16 0xf019d4eb in syscall (...)
27:(kgdb)up 10
28:Reading in symbols for ../../i386/i386/trap.c...done.
29:#10 0xf019cb2f in trap (frame={tf_es = -260440048, tf_ds = 16, tf_\
30:edi = 3072, tf_esi = -266445372, tf_ebp = -272630356, tf_isp = -27\
31:2630396, tf_ebx = -266427884, tf_edx = 12, tf_ecx = -266427884, tf\
32:_eax = 64772224, tf_trapno = 12, tf_err = -272695296, tf_eip = -26\
33:6672343, tf_cs = -266469368, tf_eflags = 66066, tf_esp = 3072, tf_\
34:ss = -266427884}) (../../i386/i386/trap.c line 283)
35:283 (void) trap_pfault(&frame, FALSE);
36:(kgdb)frame frame->tf_ebp frame->tf_eip
37:Reading in symbols for ../../i386/isa/pcvt/pcvt_drv.c...done.
38:#0 0xf01ae729 in pcopen (dev=3072, flag=3, mode=8192, p=(struct p\
39:roc *) 0xf07c0c00) (../../i386/isa/pcvt/pcvt_drv.c line 403)
40:403 return ((*linesw[tp->t_line].l_open)(dev, tp));
41:(kgdb)list
42:398
43:399 tp->t_state |= TS_CARR_ON;
44:400 tp->t_cflag |= CLOCAL; /* cannot be a modem (:-) */
45:401
46:402 #if PCVT_NETBSD || (PCVT_FREEBSD >= 200)
47:403 return ((*linesw[tp->t_line].l_open)(dev, tp));
48:404 #else
49:405 return ((*linesw[tp->t_line].l_open)(dev, tp, flag));
50:406 #endif /* PCVT_NETBSD || (PCVT_FREEBSD >= 200) */
51:407 }
52:(kgdb)print tp
53:Reading in symbols for ../../i386/i386/cons.c...done.
54:$1 = (struct tty *) 0x1bae
55:(kgdb)print tp->t_line
56:$2 = 1767990816
57:(kgdb)up
58:#1 0xf0191503 in cnopen (dev=0x00000000, flag=3, mode=8192, p=(st\
59:ruct proc *) 0xf07c0c00) (../../i386/i386/cons.c line 126)
60: return ((*cdevsw[major(dev)].d_open)(dev, flag, mode, p));
61:(kgdb)up
62:#2 0xf0132c34 in spec_open ()
63:(kgdb)up
64:#3 0xf012d014 in vn_open ()
65:(kgdb)up
66:#4 0xf012a183 in open ()
67:(kgdb)up
68:#5 0xf019d4eb in syscall (frame={tf_es = 39, tf_ds = 39, tf_edi =\
69: 2158592, tf_esi = 0, tf_ebp = -272638436, tf_isp = -272629788, tf\
70:_ebx = 7086, tf_edx = 1, tf_ecx = 0, tf_eax = 5, tf_trapno = 582, \
71:tf_err = 582, tf_eip = 75749, tf_cs = 31, tf_eflags = 582, tf_esp \
72:= -272638456, tf_ss = 39}) (../../i386/i386/trap.c line 673)
73:673 error = (*callp->sy_call)(p, args, rval);
74:(kgdb)up
75:Initial frame selected; you cannot go up.
76:(kgdb)quitComments to the above script:line 6:This is a dump taken from within DDB (see below), hence the
panic comment because you said to!, and a rather
long stack trace; the initial reason for going into DDB has been a
page fault trap though.line 20:This is the location of function trap()
in the stack trace.line 36:Force usage of a new stack frame; this is no longer necessary.
The stack frames are supposed to point to the right
locations now, even in case of a trap.
From looking at the code in source line 403, there is a
high probability that either the pointer access for
tp was messed up, or the array access was out of
bounds.line 52:The pointer looks suspicious, but happens to be a valid
address.line 56:However, it obviously points to garbage, so we have found our
error! (For those unfamiliar with that particular piece of code:
tp->t_line refers to the line discipline of
the console device here, which must be a rather small integer
number.)If your system is crashing regularly and you're running
out of disk space, deleting old vmcore
files in /var/crash could save a
considerable amount of disk space!Debugging a Crash Dump with DDDExamining a kernel crash dump with a graphical debugger like
ddd is also possible (you will need to install
the devel/ddd port in order to use the
ddd debugger). Add the
option to the ddd command line you would use
normally. For example;&prompt.root; ddd -k /var/crash/kernel.0 /var/crash/vmcore.0You should then be able to go about looking at the crash dump using
ddd's graphical interface.Post-Mortem Analysis of a DumpWhat do you do if a kernel dumped core but you did not expect it,
and it is therefore not compiled using config -g? Not
everything is lost here. Do not panic!Of course, you still need to enable crash dumps. See above for the
options you have to specify in order to do this.Go to your kernel config directory
(/usr/src/sys/arch/conf)
and edit your configuration file. Uncomment (or add, if it does not
exist) the following line:makeoptions DEBUG=-g #Build kernel with gdb(1) debug symbolsRebuild the kernel. Due to the time stamp change on the Makefile,
some other object files will be rebuilt, for example
trap.o. With a bit of luck, the added
option will not change anything for the generated
code, so you will finally get a new kernel with similar code to the
faulting one but some debugging symbols. You should at least verify the
old and new sizes with the &man.size.1; command. If there is a
mismatch, you probably need to give up here.Go and examine the dump as described above. The debugging symbols
might be incomplete for some places, as can be seen in the stack trace
in the example above where some functions are displayed without line
numbers and argument lists. If you need more debugging symbols, remove
the appropriate object files, recompile the kernel again and repeat the
gdb
session until you know enough.All this is not guaranteed to work, but it will do it fine in most
cases.On-Line Kernel Debugging Using DDBWhile gdb as an off-line debugger provides a very
high level of user interface, there are some things it cannot do. The
most important ones being breakpointing and single-stepping kernel
code.If you need to do low-level debugging on your kernel, there is an
on-line debugger available called DDB. It allows setting of
breakpoints, single-stepping kernel functions, examining and changing
kernel variables, etc. However, it cannot access kernel source files,
and only has access to the global and static symbols, not to the full
debug information like gdb does.To configure your kernel to include DDB, add the option line
options DDB
to your config file, and rebuild. (See The FreeBSD Handbook for details on
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/index.html">The FreeBSD Handbook for details on
configuring the FreeBSD kernel).If you have an older version of the boot blocks, your
debugger symbols might not be loaded at all. Update the boot blocks;
the recent ones load the DDB symbols automatically.Once your DDB kernel is running, there are several ways to enter
DDB. The first, and earliest way is to type the boot flag
right at the boot prompt. The kernel will start up
in debug mode and enter DDB prior to any device probing. Hence you can
even debug the device probe/attach functions.The second scenario is to drop to the debugger once the
system has booted. There are two simple ways to accomplish
this. If you would like to break to the debugger from the
command prompt, simply type the command:&prompt.root; sysctl debug.enter_debugger=ddbAlternatively, if you are at the system console, you may use
a hot-key on the keyboard. The default break-to-debugger
sequence is CtrlAltESC. For
syscons, this sequence can be remapped and some of the
distributed maps out there do this, so check to make sure you
know the right sequence to use. There is an option available
for serial consoles that allows the use of a serial line BREAK on the
console line to enter DDB (options BREAK_TO_DEBUGGER
in the kernel config file). It is not the default since there are a lot
of serial adapters around that gratuitously generate a BREAK
condition, for example when pulling the cable.The third way is that any panic condition will branch to DDB if the
kernel is configured to use it. For this reason, it is not wise to
configure a kernel with DDB for a machine running unattended.The DDB commands roughly resemble some gdb
commands. The first thing you probably need to do is to set a
breakpoint:b function-nameb addressNumbers are taken hexadecimal by default, but to make them distinct
from symbol names; hexadecimal numbers starting with the letters
a-f need to be preceded with 0x
(this is optional for other numbers). Simple expressions are allowed,
for example: function-name + 0x103.To continue the operation of an interrupted kernel, simply
type:cTo get a stack trace, use:traceNote that when entering DDB via a hot-key, the kernel is currently
servicing an interrupt, so the stack trace might be not of much use
to you.If you want to remove a breakpoint, usedeldel address-expressionThe first form will be accepted immediately after a breakpoint hit,
and deletes the current breakpoint. The second form can remove any
breakpoint, but you need to specify the exact address; this can be
obtained from:show bTo single-step the kernel, try:sThis will step into functions, but you can make DDB trace them until
the matching return statement is reached by:nThis is different from gdb's
next statement; it is like gdb's
finish.To examine data from memory, use (for example):
x/wx 0xf0133fe0,40x/hd db_symtab_spacex/bc termbuf,10x/s stringbuf
for word/halfword/byte access, and hexadecimal/decimal/character/ string
display. The number after the comma is the object count. To display
the next 0x10 items, simply use:x ,10Similarly, use
x/ia foofunc,10
to disassemble the first 0x10 instructions of
foofunc, and display them along with their offset
from the beginning of foofunc.To modify memory, use the write command:w/b termbuf 0xa 0xb 0w/w 0xf0010030 0 0The command modifier
(b/h/w)
specifies the size of the data to be written, the first following
expression is the address to write to and the remainder is interpreted
as data to write to successive memory locations.If you need to know the current registers, use:show regAlternatively, you can display a single register value by e.g.
p $eax
and modify it by:set $eax new-valueShould you need to call some kernel functions from DDB, simply
say:call func(arg1, arg2, ...)The return value will be printed.For a &man.ps.1; style summary of all running processes, use:psNow you have examined why your kernel failed, and you wish to
reboot. Remember that, depending on the severity of previous
malfunctioning, not all parts of the kernel might still be working as
expected. Perform one of the following actions to shut down and reboot
your system:panicThis will cause your kernel to dump core and reboot, so you can
later analyze the core on a higher level with gdb. This command
usually must be followed by another continue
statement.call boot(0)Which might be a good way to cleanly shut down the running system,
sync() all disks, and finally reboot. As long as
the disk and filesystem interfaces of the kernel are not damaged, this
might be a good way for an almost clean shutdown.call cpu_reset()This is the final way out of disaster and almost the same as hitting the
Big Red Button.If you need a short command summary, simply type:helpHowever, it is highly recommended to have a printed copy of the
&man.ddb.4; manual page ready for a debugging
session. Remember that it is hard to read the on-line manual while
single-stepping the kernel.On-Line Kernel Debugging Using Remote GDBThis feature has been supported since FreeBSD 2.2, and it is
actually a very neat one.GDB has already supported remote debugging for
a long time. This is done using a very simple protocol along a serial
line. Unlike the other methods described above, you will need two
machines for doing this. One is the host providing the debugging
environment, including all the sources, and a copy of the kernel binary
with all the symbols in it, and the other one is the target machine that
simply runs a similar copy of the very same kernel (but stripped of the
debugging information).You should configure the kernel in question with config
-g, include into the configuration, and
compile it as usual. This gives a large binary, due to the
debugging information. Copy this kernel to the target machine, strip
the debugging symbols off with strip -x, and boot it
using the boot option. Connect the serial line
of the target machine that has "flags 080" set on its sio device
to any serial line of the debugging host.
Now, on the debugging machine, go to the compile directory of the target
kernel, and start gdb:&prompt.user; gdb -k kernel
GDB is free software and you are welcome to distribute copies of it
under certain conditions; type "show copying" to see the conditions.
There is absolutely no warranty for GDB; type "show warranty" for details.
GDB 4.16 (i386-unknown-freebsd),
Copyright 1996 Free Software Foundation, Inc...
(kgdb)Initialize the remote debugging session (assuming the first serial
port is being used) by:(kgdb)target remote /dev/cuaa0Now, on the target host (the one that entered DDB right before even
starting the device probe), type:Debugger("Boot flags requested debugger")
Stopped at Debugger+0x35: movb $0, edata+0x51bc
db>gdbDDB will respond with:Next trap will enter GDB remote protocol modeEvery time you type gdb, the mode will be toggled
between remote GDB and local DDB. In order to force a next trap
immediately, simply type s (step). Your hosting GDB
will now gain control over the target kernel:Remote debugging using /dev/cuaa0
Debugger (msg=0xf01b0383 "Boot flags requested debugger")
at ../../i386/i386/db_interface.c:257
(kgdb)You can use this session almost as any other GDB session, including
full access to the source, running it in gud-mode inside an Emacs window
(which gives you an automatic source code display in another Emacs
window), etc.Debugging Loadable Modules Using GDBWhen debugging a panic that occurred within a module, or
using remote GDB against a machine that uses dynamic modules,
you need to tell GDB how to obtain symbol information for those
modules.First, you need to build the module(s) with debugging
information:&prompt.root; cd /sys/modules/linux
&prompt.root; make clean; make COPTS=-gIf you are using remote GDB, you can run
kldstat on the target machine to find out
where the module was loaded:&prompt.root; kldstat
Id Refs Address Size Name
1 4 0xc0100000 1c1678 kernel
2 1 0xc0a9e000 6000 linprocfs.ko
3 1 0xc0ad7000 2000 warp_saver.ko
4 1 0xc0adc000 11000 linux.koIf you are debugging a crash dump, you will need to walk the
linker_files list, starting at
linker_files->tqh_first and following the
link.tqe_next pointers until you find the
entry with the filename you are looking for.
The address member of that entry is the load
address of the module.Next, you need to find out the offset of the text section
within the module:&prompt.root; objdump --section-headers /sys/modules/linux/linux.ko | grep text
3 .rel.text 000016e0 000038e0 000038e0 000038e0 2**2
10 .text 00007f34 000062d0 000062d0 000062d0 2**2The one you want is the .text section,
section 10 in the above example. The fourth hexadecimal field
(sixth field overall) is the offset of the text section within
the file. Add this offset to the load address of the module to
obtain the relocation address for the module's code. In our
example, we get 0xc0adc000 + 0x62d0 = 0xc0ae22d0. Use the
add-symbol-file command in GDB to tell the
debugger about the module:(kgdb)add-symbol-file /sys/modules/linux/linux.ko 0xc0ae22d0
add symbol table from file "/sys/modules/linux/linux.ko" at text_addr = 0xc0ae22d0?
(y or n) y
Reading symbols from /sys/modules/linux/linux.ko...done.
(kgdb)You should now have access to all the symbols in the
module.Debugging a Console DriverSince you need a console driver to run DDB on, things are more
complicated if the console driver itself is failing. You might remember
the use of a serial console (either with modified boot blocks, or by
specifying at the Boot: prompt),
and hook up a standard terminal onto your first serial port. DDB works
on any configured console driver, including a serial
console.
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/developers-handbook/policies/chapter.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/developers-handbook/policies/chapter.sgml
index 336ac5ec2b..aec9e1649d 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/developers-handbook/policies/chapter.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/developers-handbook/policies/chapter.sgml
@@ -1,434 +1,434 @@
Poul-HenningKampContributed by Source Tree Guidelines and PoliciesThis chapter documents various guidelines and policies in force for
the FreeBSD source tree.MAINTAINER on Makefilesports maintainerIf a particular portion of the FreeBSD distribution is being
maintained by a person or group of persons, they can communicate this
fact to the world by adding a
MAINTAINER= email-addresses
line to the Makefiles covering this portion of the
source tree.The semantics of this are as follows:The maintainer owns and is responsible for that code. This means
that he is responsible for fixing bugs and answering problem reports
pertaining to that piece of the code, and in the case of contributed
software, for tracking new versions, as appropriate.Changes to directories which have a maintainer defined shall be sent
to the maintainer for review before being committed. Only if the
maintainer does not respond for an unacceptable period of time, to
several emails, will it be acceptable to commit changes without review
by the maintainer. However, it is suggested that you try to have the
changes reviewed by someone else if at all possible.It is of course not acceptable to add a person or group as
maintainer unless they agree to assume this duty. On the other hand it
does not have to be a committer and it can easily be a group of
people.Poul-HenningKampContributed by DavidO'BrienContributed Softwarecontributed softwareSome parts of the FreeBSD distribution consist of software that is
actively being maintained outside the FreeBSD project. For historical
reasons, we call this contributed software. Some
examples are sendmail, gcc and patch.Over the last couple of years, various methods have been used in
dealing with this type of software and all have some number of
advantages and drawbacks. No clear winner has emerged.Since this is the case, after some debate one of these methods has
been selected as the official method and will be required
for future imports of software of this kind. Furthermore, it is
strongly suggested that existing contributed software converge on this
model over time, as it has significant advantages over the old method,
including the ability to easily obtain diffs relative to the
official versions of the source by everyone (even without
cvs access). This will make it significantly easier to return changes
to the primary developers of the contributed software.Ultimately, however, it comes down to the people actually doing the
work. If using this model is particularly unsuited to the package being
dealt with, exceptions to these rules may be granted only with the
approval of the core team and with the general consensus of the other
developers. The ability to maintain the package in the future will be a
key issue in the decisions.Because of some unfortunate design limitations with the RCS file
format and CVS's use of vendor branches, minor, trivial and/or
cosmetic changes are strongly discouraged on
files that are still tracking the vendor branch. Spelling
fixes are explicitly included here under the
cosmetic category and are to be avoided for files with
revision 1.1.x.x. The repository bloat impact from a single character
change can be rather dramatic.The Tcl embedded programming
language will be used as example of how this model works:src/contrib/tcl contains the source as
distributed by the maintainers of this package. Parts that are entirely
not applicable for FreeBSD can be removed. In the case of Tcl, the
mac, win and
compat subdirectories were eliminated before the
import.src/lib/libtcl contains only a bmake style
Makefile that uses the standard
bsd.lib.mk makefile rules to produce the library
and install the documentation.src/usr.bin/tclsh contains only a bmake style
Makefile which will produce and install the
tclsh program and its associated man-pages using the
standard bsd.prog.mk rules.src/tools/tools/tcl_bmake contains a couple of
shell-scripts that can be of help when the tcl software needs updating.
These are not part of the built or installed software.The important thing here is that the
src/contrib/tcl directory is created according to
the rules: it is supposed to contain the sources as distributed (on a
proper CVS vendor-branch and without RCS keyword expansion) with as few
FreeBSD-specific changes as possible. The 'easy-import' tool on
freefall will assist in doing the import, but if there are any doubts on
how to go about it, it is imperative that you ask first and not blunder
ahead and hope it works out. CVS is not forgiving of
import accidents and a fair amount of effort is required to back out
major mistakes.Because of the previously mentioned design limitations with CVS's
vendor branches, it is required that official patches from
the vendor be applied to the original distributed sources and the result
re-imported onto the vendor branch again. Official patches should never
be patched into the FreeBSD checked out version and committed, as this
destroys the vendor branch coherency and makes importing future versions
rather difficult as there will be conflicts.Since many packages contain files that are meant for compatibility
with other architectures and environments that FreeBSD, it is
permissible to remove parts of the distribution tree that are of no
interest to FreeBSD in order to save space. Files containing copyright
notices and release-note kind of information applicable to the remaining
files shall not be removed.If it seems easier, the bmakeMakefiles can be produced from the dist tree
automatically by some utility, something which would hopefully make it
even easier to upgrade to a new version. If this is done, be sure to
check in such utilities (as necessary) in the
src/tools directory along with the port itself so
that it is available to future maintainers.In the src/contrib/tcl level directory, a file
called FREEBSD-upgrade should be added and it
should state things like:Which files have been left out.Where the original distribution was obtained from and/or the
official master site.Where to send patches back to the original authors.Perhaps an overview of the FreeBSD-specific changes that have
been made.However, please do not import FREEBSD-upgrade
with the contributed source. Rather you should cvs add
FREEBSD-upgrade ; cvs ci after the initial import. Example
wording from src/contrib/cpio is below:This directory contains virgin sources of the original distribution files
on a "vendor" branch. Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to upgrade
the files in this directory via patches and a cvs commit. New versions or
official-patch versions must be imported. Please remember to import with
"-ko" to prevent CVS from corrupting any vendor RCS Ids.
For the import of GNU cpio 2.4.2, the following files were removed:
INSTALL cpio.info mkdir.c
Makefile.in cpio.texi mkinstalldirs
To upgrade to a newer version of cpio, when it is available:
1. Unpack the new version into an empty directory.
[Do not make ANY changes to the files.]
2. Remove the files listed above and any others that don't apply to
FreeBSD.
3. Use the command:
cvs import -ko -m 'Virgin import of GNU cpio v<version>' \
src/contrib/cpio GNU cpio_<version>
For example, to do the import of version 2.4.2, I typed:
cvs import -ko -m 'Virgin import of GNU v2.4.2' \
src/contrib/cpio GNU cpio_2_4_2
4. Follow the instructions printed out in step 3 to resolve any
conflicts between local FreeBSD changes and the newer version.
Do not, under any circumstances, deviate from this procedure.
To make local changes to cpio, simply patch and commit to the main
branch (aka HEAD). Never make local changes on the GNU branch.
All local changes should be submitted to "cpio@gnu.ai.mit.edu" for
inclusion in the next vendor release.
obrien@FreeBSD.org - 30 March 1997Encumbered FilesIt might occasionally be necessary to include an encumbered file in
the FreeBSD source tree. For example, if a device requires a small
piece of binary code to be loaded to it before the device will operate,
and we do not have the source to that code, then the binary file is said
to be encumbered. The following policies apply to including encumbered
files in the FreeBSD source tree.Any file which is interpreted or executed by the system CPU(s)
and not in source format is encumbered.Any file with a license more restrictive than BSD or GNU is
encumbered.A file which contains downloadable binary data for use by the
hardware is not encumbered, unless (1) or (2) apply to it. It must
be stored in an architecture neutral ASCII format (file2c or
uuencoding is recommended).Any encumbered file requires specific approval from the
- Core team before it is added to the
+ Core team before it is added to the
CVS repository.Encumbered files go in src/contrib or
src/sys/contrib.The entire module should be kept together. There is no point in
splitting it, unless there is code-sharing with non-encumbered
code.Object files are named
arch/filename.o.uu>.Kernel files:Should always be referenced in
conf/files.* (for build simplicity).Should always be in LINT, but the
- Core team decides per case if it
+ Core team decides per case if it
should be commented out or not. The
- Core team can, of course, change
+ Core team can, of course, change
their minds later on.The Release Engineer
decides whether or not it goes into the release.User-land files:core team
- The Core team decides if
+ The Core team decides if
the code should be part of make world.release engineer
- The Release Engineer
+ The Release Engineer
decides if it goes into the release.SatoshiAsamiContributed by PeterWemmDavidO'BrienShared LibrariesIf you are adding shared library support to a port or other piece of
software that does not have one, the version numbers should follow these
rules. Generally, the resulting numbers will have nothing to do with
the release version of the software.The three principles of shared library building are:Start from 1.0If there is a change that is backwards compatible, bump minor
number (note that ELF systems ignore the minor number)If there is an incompatible change, bump major numberFor instance, added functions and bugfixes result in the minor
version number being bumped, while deleted functions, changed function
call syntax, etc. will force the major version number to change.Stick to version numbers of the form major.minor
(x.y). Our a.out
dynamic linker does not handle version numbers of the form
x.y.z
well. Any version number after the y
(i.e. the third digit) is totally ignored when comparing shared lib
version numbers to decide which library to link with. Given two shared
libraries that differ only in the micro revision,
ld.so will link with the higher one. That is, if you link
with libfoo.so.3.3.3, the linker only records
3.3 in the headers, and will link with anything
starting with
libfoo.so.3.(anything >=
3).(highest
available).ld.so will always use the highest
minor revision. For instance, it will use
libc.so.2.2 in preference to
libc.so.2.0, even if the program was initially
linked with libc.so.2.0.In addition, our ELF dynamic linker does not handle minor version
numbers at all. However, one should still specify a major and minor
version number as our Makefiles do the right thing
based on the type of system.For non-port libraries, it is also our policy to change the shared
library version number only once between releases. In addition, it is
our policy to change the major shared library version number only once
between major OS releases (i.e. from 3.0 to 4.0). When you make a
change to a system library that requires the version number to be
bumped, check the Makefile's commit logs. It is the
responsibility of the committer to ensure that the first such change
since the release will result in the shared library version number in
the Makefile to be updated, and any subsequent
changes will not.
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/book.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/book.sgml
index 27d6bbb152..4ae09068ab 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/book.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/book.sgml
@@ -1,12492 +1,12492 @@
%man;
%freebsd;
%authors;
%teams;
%bookinfo;
%mailing-lists;
%urls;
%trademarks;
]>
Frequently Asked Questions for FreeBSD 2.X, 3.X, 4.X and 5.XThe FreeBSD Documentation Project$FreeBSD$1995199619971998199920002001200220032004The FreeBSD Documentation Project
&bookinfo.legalnotice;
&tm-attrib.freebsd;
&tm-attrib.3com;
&tm-attrib.adobe;
&tm-attrib.creative;
&tm-attrib.cvsup;
&tm-attrib.ibm;
&tm-attrib.ieee;
&tm-attrib.intel;
&tm-attrib.iomega;
&tm-attrib.linux;
&tm-attrib.microsoft;
&tm-attrib.mips;
&tm-attrib.netscape;
&tm-attrib.opengroup;
&tm-attrib.oracle;
&tm-attrib.sgi;
&tm-attrib.sparc;
&tm-attrib.sun;
&tm-attrib.usrobotics;
&tm-attrib.xfree86;
&tm-attrib.general;
This is the FAQ for FreeBSD versions 2.X, 3.X, 4.X and 5.X.
All entries are assumed to be relevant to FreeBSD 2.0.5 and
later, unless otherwise noted. 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.IntroductionWelcome to the FreeBSD 2.X-5.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.doc;.What is FreeBSD?Briefly, FreeBSD is a &unix; like operating system for
the &i386;, IA-64, PC-98, Alpha/AXP, and &ultrasparc; 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.For more detailed information on FreeBSD, please see the
- FreeBSD
+ 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 definitely do not
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 license 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 &macos;, expect to
invest additional time learning the &unix; way of doing
things. This FAQ and the FreeBSD Handbook are
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/index.html">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 can really do whatever you
like with it.What are the differences between FreeBSD and NetBSD, OpenBSD,
and other open source BSD operating systems?James Howard wrote a good explanation of the history
and differences between the various projects for DaemonNews,
called The
BSD Family Tree which goes a fair way to answering
this question.What is the latest version of FreeBSD?At this point in FreeBSD's development, there are two
parallel development branches; releases are being made from
both branches. The 4.X series of releases
is being made from the -STABLE branch
and the 5.X series of releases is being made from
-CURRENT.Version &rel.current;
is the latest release from the
-CURRENT branch; it was released in
&rel.current.date;. Version &rel2.current;
is the latest release from the
-STABLE branch; it was released in
&rel2.current.date;.Briefly, -STABLE is aimed at the
ISP, corporate user, or any user who wants stability and a
minimal number of changes compared to the new (and
possibly unstable) 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.More information on FreeBSD releases can be found on
the Release
Engineering page on the FreeBSD Web site.What is FreeBSD-CURRENT?FreeBSD-CURRENT
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/cutting-edge.html#CURRENT">FreeBSD-CURRENT
is the development version of the operating system, which
will in due course become the new &os.stable; branch.
This is expected to happen around 5.3-RELEASE. As such, it is
really only of interest to developers working on the
system and die-hard hobbyists. See the relevant
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/cutting-edge.html#CURRENT">relevant
section in the handbook for details
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/index.html">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. Distributions of the
occasional snapshot are 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 all new features and fixes 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/snapshots/.
3-STABLE snapshots are no longer being produced.Snapshots are generated, on the average, daily for
all actively developed branches.What is the FreeBSD-STABLE concept?Back when FreeBSD 2.0.5 was released, FreeBSD
development branched in two. One branch was named -STABLE,
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/current-stable.html#STABLE">-STABLE,
one -CURRENT.
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/current-stable.html#CURRENT">-CURRENT.
FreeBSD-STABLE is intended for Internet Service Providers
and other commercial enterprises for whom sudden shifts or
experimental features are quite undesirable. It receives
only well-tested bug fixes and other small incremental
enhancements. FreeBSD-CURRENT, on the other hand, has
been one unbroken line since 2.0 was released, leading
towards 5.2.1-RELEASE (and beyond). At 5.3-RELEASE, the
5-STABLE branch is expected to be created, and
&os.current; will become 6-CURRENT. 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 -> ... later 4.X releases ...
|
| (July 2000) (Sep 2000) (Nov 2000)
5.0-RELEASE (Jan 2003)
|
|
5.1-RELEASE (Jun 2003)
|
|
5.2-RELEASE (Jan 2004)
|
|
5.2.1-RELEASE (Feb 2004)
|
\|/
+
[5-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 branch is
&rel2.current;-RELEASE, which was released in
&rel2.current.date;.The 5-CURRENT branch is slowly progressing toward the
creation of a 5-STABLE branch. See What is FreeBSD-CURRENT? for more
information on this branch.When are FreeBSD releases made?The &a.re; releases a new version of FreeBSD about every
four months, on average. Release dates are announced well in
advance, so that the people working on the system know
when their projects need to be finished and tested.
A testing period precedes each release, in order to ensure
that the addition of new features does not compromise the
stability of the release.
Many users regard this caution as one of the best things about
FreeBSD, even though waiting for all the latest goodies to reach
-STABLE can be a little frustrating.More information on the release engineering process
(including a schedule of upcoming releases) can be found
on the release
engineering pages on the FreeBSD Web site.For people who need or want a little more excitement,
binary snapshots are made daily 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
+ URL="&url.articles.contributors;/article.html#STAFF-CORE">core
team of 9 people. There is a much larger team of
more than 300 committers
+ URL="&url.articles.contributors;/article.html#STAFF-COMMITTERS">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 latest 5.X release, &rel.current;-RELEASE can be
found in the &rel.current;-RELEASE directory.The latest 4-STABLE release, &rel2.current;-RELEASE can be
found in the &rel2.current;-RELEASE directory.4.X
snapshots are usually made daily.
5.X Snapshot releases are made daily 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
+ media can be found in the
Handbook.How do I set up a FreeBSD mirror?Information on setting up a FreeBSD mirror can be
- found in the Mirroring
+ found in the Mirroring
FreeBSD article.How do I access the Problem Report database?The Problem Report database of all user change requests
may be queried by using our web-based PR
query
interface. The &man.send-pr.1; command can
be used to submit problem reports and change requests via
electronic mail.The web-based problem report submission interface is
currently disabled due to persistent abuse.Before submitting a problem report, please read Writing
+ URL="&url.articles.problem-reports;/article.html">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
.What other sources of information are there?Please check the Documentation
list on the main FreeBSD web
site.Documentation and SupportWhat good books are there about FreeBSD?The project produces a wide range of documentation,
available online from this link: . The same
documents are available as packages, that you can easily
install on your FreeBSD system. More details on
documentation packages can be found in the next
paragraphs.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:NameMeaningen_US.ISO8859-1US Englishde_DE.ISO8859-1Germanes_ES.ISO8859-1Spanishfr_FR.ISO8859-1Frenchja_JP.eucJPJapanese (EUC encoding)ru_RU.KOI8-RRussian (KOI8-R encoding)zh_TW.Big5Chinese (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. Each format has its own
advantages and disadvantages. Some formats are better suited
for online reading, while others are meant to be aesthetically
pleasing when printed on paper. Having the documentation
available in any of these formats ensures that our readers
will be able to read the parts they are interested in, either
on their monitor, or on paper after printing the documents.
The currently available formats are:FormatMeaninghtml-splitA collection of small, linked, HTML
files.htmlOne large HTML file containing the entire
documentpdbPalm Pilot database format, for use with the
iSilo
reader.pdfAdobe's Portable Document Formatps&postscript;rtfMicrosoft's Rich Text FormatPage numbers are not automatically
updated when loading this format into Word.
Press CTRLA,
CTRLEND,
F9 after loading the
document, to update the page numbers.txtPlain textThe 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 two
compression schemes.SchemeDescriptionzipThe Zip format. If you want to
uncompress this on FreeBSD you will need
to install the archivers/unzip
port first.bz2The BZip2 format. Less widespread
than Zip, 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.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.tgzHaving 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 into
/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 into place.For example, the split HTML version of the FAQ,
compressed using &man.bzip2.1;, can be found in the
doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/book.html-split.tar.bz2
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.bz2
&prompt.root; bzip2 -d book.html-split.tar.bz2
&prompt.root; tar xvf book.html-split.tarYou 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
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/eresources.html#ERESOURCES-MAIL">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
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/eresources-news.html">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 try to get folks there to help you avoid
the pain of reading manual 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 than
#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.FreeBSD Services Ltd provide commercial support for FreeBSD
in the UK (as well as selling FreeBSD on DVD). See their
web site
for more information.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.NikClaytonnik@FreeBSD.orgInstallationWhich 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
+ 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
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/install.html">installation guide to
FreeBSD.Where are the instructions for installing FreeBSD?Installation instructions can be found in the
- Handbook entry on installing FreeBSD.
+ 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.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
+ 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.binand 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 filesystem
option) as appropriate and enter the fixit shell. Then
execute the following command:Fixit#fdisk -B -b /boot/boot0 bootdevicesubstituting 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.ModelBIOS revisionT20IYET49WW or laterT21KZET22WW or laterA20pIVET62WW or laterA20mIWET54WW or laterA21pKYET27WW or laterA21mKXET24WW or laterA21eKUET30WWIt 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 .
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 (ALTF4) 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 ad0snn 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
supportedFreeBSD 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: 63How 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 &windows; 95 or 98 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.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
+ 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
&ms-dos;) 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
(due to 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, Blowfish, or MD5 passwords 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). Installing the crypto libraries
will also allow you to use the Blowfish password format,
which is more secure. Which password format to use for
new passwords is controlled by the
passwd_format login capability in
/etc/login.conf, which takes values
of des, blf (if these are
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 &iomegazip; 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
+ 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 wd2Install 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. 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, or 4TB with a block size of 4K.
Maximum file sizesfs block size2.2.7-stable3.0-currentworksshould work4K4T-14T-14T-1>4T8K>32G8T-1>32G32T-116K>128G16T-1>128G32T-132K>512G32T-1>512G64T-164K>2048G64T-1>2048G128T-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.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
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/install-post.html#SECURITYPROFILE">Security
Profile section of the Handbook's post-install
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/install-post.html">post-install
chapter.Hardware compatibilityGeneralI 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 for &os;
&rel.current;
or
&rel2.current;
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.Architectures and processorsDoes FreeBSD support architectures other than the x86?Yes. FreeBSD currently runs on the Intel x86 and DEC (now
Compaq) Alpha architectures. As of FreeBSD 5.0, the
IA-64, AMD-64 and &sparc64; architectures are also supported.
Upcoming platforms are
&mips; and &powerpc;, join the &a.ppc; or the
&a.mips; respectively for more information about ongoing
work on these platforms. 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.Does FreeBSD support Symmetric Multiprocessing
(SMP)?Yes. SMP is not enabled in the
GENERIC kernel, so you must recompile
your kernel to enable SMP. Take a look at
/sys/i386/conf/LINT to learn what
options to put in your kernel config file.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.Hard drives, tape drives, and CD and DVD drivesWhat 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 Hardware Notes for &os;
&rel.current; or
&rel2.current;.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 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;
manual 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 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 31/33ASound Blaster Non-SCSI CDROMMatsushita/Panasonic CDROMATAPI compatible IDE CDROMsAll non-SCSI cards are known to be extremely slow compared
to SCSI drives, and some ATAPI CDROMs may not work.The official FreeBSD CDROM ISO, and CDROMs from Daemon
News and FreeBSD Mall, support 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 manual 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 &iomegazip; drives?FreeBSD supports SCSI and ATAPI (IDE) &iomegazip; drives out
of the box, of course. SCSI ZIP drives 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.FreeBSD also supports Parallel Port Zip Drives. 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.Keyboards and miceDoes FreeBSD support my USB keyboard?FreeBSD 4.X and later supports USB keyboards
out-of-the-box. Preliminary USB device support appeared
in FreeBSD 3.1, but might not always work as of version
3.2. If you want to experiment with the USB keyboard
support in FreeBSD 3.X, follow the procedure described
below.Use a version of FreeBSD 3.X later than
3.2.Add the following lines to your kernel configuration
file, and rebuild the kernel.controller uhci0
controller ohci0
controller usb0
controller ukbd0
options KBD_INSTALL_CDEVGo to the /dev directory and create
device nodes as follows:&prompt.root; cd /dev
&prompt.root; ./MAKEDEV kbd0 kbd1Edit /etc/rc.conf and add the
following lines:usbd_enable="YES"
usbd_flags=""If you want to use a USB keyboard in FreeBSD 4.X or
later, you just need to enable USB support in
/etc/rc.conf.Once you have USB keyboard support enabled on your
system, 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/nullNote 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. We recommend connecting the keyboard
before starting the system and leaving it connected until the
system is shutdown to avoid troubles.See the &man.ukbd.4; manual 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
fileIn FreeBSD 3.0 or before, add:device mse0 at isa? port 0x23c tty irq5 vector mseintrIn FreeBSD 3.X, the line should be:device mse0 at isa? port 0x23c tty irq5And in FreeBSD 4.X and later, the line should read:device mse0 at isa? port 0x23c irq5Bus 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; manual page for more information.How do I use my PS/2 (mouse port or
keyboard) mouse?The PS/2 mouse is supported out-of-the-box in all
recent versions of FreeBSD. The necessary device driver,
psm, is included in the GENERIC
kernel.If your custom kernel does not have this, add the
appropriate following line 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 psmintrIn FreeBSD 3.1 or later, the line should be:device psm0 at isa? tty irq 12In FreeBSD 4.0 or later, the line should be:device psm0 at atkbdc? irq 12Once the kernel detects 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 psm0when logged in as root.You can omit this step if you are running FreeBSD
5.0-RELEASE or newer with &man.devfs.5; enabled,
since the proper device nodes will be created automatically
under /dev.Is it possible to use a mouse in any way outside the X
Window system?If you are using the default console driver,
&man.syscons.4;, you can use a mouse pointer in text
consoles to cut & paste text. Run the mouse daemon,
&man.moused.8;, and turn on the mouse pointer in the
virtual console:&prompt.root; moused -p /dev/xxxx -t yyyy
&prompt.root; vidcontrol -m onWhere xxxx is the mouse
device name and yyyy is a
protocol type for the mouse. The mouse daemon can
automatically determine the protocol type of most
mice, except old serial mice. Specify the
auto protocol to invoke automatic
detection. If automatic detection does not work, see the
&man.moused.8; manual page for a list of supported
protocol types.If you have a PS/2 mouse, just add
moused_enable="YES" to
/etc/rc.conf to start the mouse
daemon at boot-time. Additionally, if you would like to
use the mouse daemon on all virtual terminals instead of
just the console, add allscreens_flags="-m
on" to /etc/rc.conf.When the mouse daemon is running, access to the mouse
must be coordinated between the mouse daemon and other
programs such as X Windows. Refer to the FAQ Why does my mouse not work with
X? for more details on this issue.How do I cut and paste text with a mouse in the text
console?Once you get the mouse daemon running (see the 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)
to paste it at the text cursor. Pressing button 3 (right
button) will extend the selected region of
text.If your mouse does not have a middle button, you may
wish to emulate one or remap buttons using mouse daemon
options. See the &man.moused.8; manual 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 umsIn versions of FreeBSD before 4.0, use this
instead:controller uhci0
controller ohci0
controller usb0
device ums0Go to the /dev directory and
create a device node as follows:&prompt.root; cd /dev
&prompt.root; ./MAKEDEV ums0You can omit this step if you are running FreeBSD
5.0-RELEASE or newer with &man.devfs.5; enabled,
since the proper device nodes will be created automatically
under /dev.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.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.Networking and serial devicesWhich network cards does FreeBSD support?See the Hardware Notes supplied with each release of
FreeBSD for a more
complete list.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 likepnp 1 0 enable os irq0 3 drq0 0 port0 0x2f8to 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.Is there a native driver for the Broadcom 43xx cards?No, and there is not likely to be.Broadcom refuses to publically release programming
information for their wireless chipsets, most likely because
they use software controlled radios. In order to get FCC type
acceptance for their parts, they have to ensure that users
cannot arbitrarily set things like operating frequencies,
modulation parameters and power output. But without knowing
how to program the chipsets, it is nearly impossible to write
a driver.Which multi-port serial cards are supported by
FreeBSD?There is a list of these in the Miscellaneous
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/install.html#INSTALL-MISC">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; manual page to get more
information on configuring such cards.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.Sound devicesWhich 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
µsoft; 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 100Other hardwareWhat other devices does FreeBSD support?See the Handbook
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/install.html#INSTALL-MISC">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#micronThe boot floppy hangs on a system with an ASUS K7V
motherboard. How do I fix this?Go into the BIOS setup and disable the boot virus
protection.Why does my &tm.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:
TroubleshootingWhat 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; camcontrol modepage sd0 -m 1 -e -P 3and changing the values of AWRE and ARRE from 0 to 1:-AWRE (Auto Write Reallocation Enbld): 1
ARRE (Auto Read Reallocation Enbld): 1The 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 AltF2).
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 an 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
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/kernelconfig.html">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 typeeisa 12
quitat 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.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 &tm.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
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/printing-intro-setup.html#PRINTING-PARALLEL-PORT-MODE">printer
port mode as discussed in the Printer
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/printing-intro-setup.html">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 into
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 behavior. 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 FAQMy 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_*.dbWhat 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/mail/local-host-names
(if you are using FEATURE(use_cw_file)) or add "Cw domain.net"
to /etc/mail/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 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=1The option of &man.sysctl.8; is
deprecated and silently ignored in &os; 4.4-RELEASE and all
newer versions. You can safely ommit it when setting options
with sysctl as shown above.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 snd1You can omit this step if you are running FreeBSD
5.0-RELEASE or newer with &man.devfs.5; enabled,
since the proper device nodes will be created automatically
under /dev.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 cardsWhy 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 behavior 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 contents of this quotation has been updated from
its original text.
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 0x01The 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.Alternatively, if &man.pnpinfo.8; does not list the card in
question, &man.pciconf.8; can be used instead. This is part of
the output from pciconf -vl for an onboard
sound chip:&prompt.root; pciconf -vl
chip1@pci0:31:5: class=0x040100 card=0x00931028 chip=0x24158086 rev=0x02 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
device = '82801AA 8xx Chipset AC'97 Audio Controller'
class = multimedia
subclass = audioHere, you would use the chip value,
0x24158086.This information (Vendor ID or chip value) 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 linestatic 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.XWhy 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
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/configtuning-kernel-limits.html#KERN-MAXFILES">kern.maxfiles
section of the Tuning
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/configtuning-kernel-limits.html">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 HzYou can confirm this by checking the
kern.timecounter.hardware
&man.sysctl.3;.&prompt.root; sysctl kern.timecounter.hardware
kern.timecounter.hardware: TSCThe BIOS may modify the TSC clock—perhaps to change the
speed of the processor when running from batteries, or going into
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 -> i8254Your 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=i8254Why did my laptop fail to correctly probe PC cards?This problem is common on laptops that boot more than
one operating system. Some non-BSD operating systems
leave PC card hardware in an inconsistent state.
pccardd will detect the card as
"(null)""(null)" instead of its
actual model.You must remove all power from the PC card slot to
fully reset the hardware. Completely power off the
laptop. (Don't suspend it, don't let it go into standby;
the power needs to be completely off.) Wait a few
moments, and reboot. Your PC card should work now.Some laptop hardware lies when it claims to be off.
If the above does not work shut down, remove the battery,
wait a moment, replace the battery, and reboot.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
5000/250/60Press 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.What are UDMA ICRC errors, and how do I
fix them?The &man.ata.4; driver reports UDMA ICRC
errors when a DMA transfer to or from a drive is corrupted.
The driver will retry the operation a few times. Should
the retries fail, it will switch from DMA to the slower PIO
mode of communication with the device.The problem can be caused by many factors, although
perhaps the most common cause is faulty or incorrect
cabling. Check that the ATA cables are undamaged and rated
for the Ultra DMA mode in use. If you're using removable
drive trays, they must also be compatible. Be sure that
all connections are making good contact. Problems have
also been noticed when an old drive is installed on the
same ATA channel as an Ultra DMA 66 (or faster) drive.
Lastly, these errors can indicate that the drive is
failing. Most drive vendors provide testing software for
their drives, so test your drive, and, if necessary, back
up your data and replace it.The &man.atacontrol.8; utility can be used to show and
select the DMA or PIO modes used for each ATA device. In
particular, atacontrol mode
channel will show the
modes in use on a particular ATA channel, where the primary
channel is numbered 0, and so on.What is a lock order reversal?&a.rwatson; answered this question very succinctly on
the freebsd-current list in a thread entitled lock
order reversals - what do they mean?
&a.rwatson; on freebsd-current, December 14,
2003These warnings are generated by Witness, a run-time lock
diagnostic system found in FreeBSD 5-CURRENT kernels (but
removed in releases). You can read more about Witness in the
&man.witness.4; man page, which talks about its capabilities. Among
other things, Witness performs run-time lock order verification
using a combination of hard coded lock orders, and run-time
detected lock orders, and generates console warnings when lock
orders are violated. The intent of this is to detect the
potential for deadlocks due to lock order violations; it's worth
observing that Witness is actually slightly conservative, and so
it's possible to get false positives. In the event that Witness
is accurately reporting a lock order problem, it's basically
saying "If you were unlucky, a deadlock would have happened
here". There are a couple of "well known" false positives,
which we need to do a better job of documenting to prevent
spurious reports. The non-well-known ones typically correspond
to bugs in newly added locking, as lock order reversals usually
get fixed pretty quickly because Witness is busy generating
warnings :-).
See Bjoern
Zeeb's lock order reversal page for the status of
known lock order reversals.Commercial ApplicationsThis 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
+ 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
+ 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 pageorsales@apps2go.com or
support@apps2go.comorphone (817) 431 8775 or +1 817 431-8775Contact 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 manual 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 manual 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 pageorsales@metrolink.com
or tech@metrolink.comorphone (954) 938-0283 or +1 954 938-0283The 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 pageorsales@xig.com
or support@xig.comorphone (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 set up
&linux;-&oracle; on FreeBSD:
http://www.scc.nl/~marcel/howto-oracle.html
http://www.lf.net/lf/pi/oracle/install-linux-oracle-on-freebsdUser ApplicationsSo, 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 work on the 4.X and 5.X branches.
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 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-currentor 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.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_EMULATEYou will need to remove the
MATH_EMULATE option when you do
this.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 µsoft; FrontPage should I get?Use the Port, Luke! A pre-patched version of Apache,
www/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.I just tried to build INDEX
using make index, and it failed.
Why?First, always make sure that you have a completely
up-to-date Ports Collection. Errors that affect building
INDEX from an up-to-date copy of the
Ports Collection are high-visibility and are thus almost
always fixed immediately.However, if you are up-to-date, perhaps you are seeing
another problem. make index has a
known bug in dealing with incomplete copies of the Ports
Collection. It assumes that you have a local copy of every
single port that every other port that you have a local copy
of depends on. To explain, if you have a copy of
foo/bar on your disk, and
foo/bar depends on
baz/quux, then you must also have
a copy of baz/quux on your disk, and
the ports baz/quux depends on, and
so on. Otherwise, make index has
insufficient information to create its dependency tree.This is particularly a problem for &os; users who
utilize &man.cvsup.1; to track the Ports Collection but
choose not to install certain categories by specifying
them in refuse. In theory, one
should be able to refuse categories, but in practice
there are too many ports that depend on ports in other
categories. Until someone comes up with a solution for
this problem, the general rule is is that if you want to
build INDEX, you must have a complete
copy of the Ports Collection.There are rare cases where INDEX
will not build due to odd cases involving
WITH_* or
WITHOUT_*
variables being set in make.conf. If
you suspect that this is the case, please try to make
INDEX with those Makevars turned off
before reporting it to &a.ports;.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 cleanIf 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 -c > /tmp/myscriptThe output script must be edited by
hand before you use it. Recent 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.Beginning with FreeBSD 5.0 (and higher revisions),
&man.pkg.version.1; no longer supports the
option.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.I updated parts of the Ports Collection using CVSup, and
now many ports fail to build with mysterious error messages!
What happened? Is the Ports Collection broken in some major
way?If you only update parts of the Ports Collection, using
one of its CVSup subcollections and not the
ports-all CVSup collection, you should
always update the
ports-base subcollection too! The reasons
are described in the
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/cvsup.html#CVSUP-COLLEC-PBASE-WARN">in the
Handbook.How do I create audio CDs from my MIDI files?To create audio CDs from MIDI files, first
install audio/timidity++
from ports then install manually the GUS patches set by Eric
A. Welsh, available at .
After timidity++ has been installed properly, midi files may
be converted to wav's with the following command
line:&prompt.user; timidity -Ow -s 44100 -o /tmp/juke/01.wav 01.midThe wav files can then be converted to other formats
or burned onto audio CDs, as described in the FreeBSD
Handbook.Kernel ConfigurationI would like to customize my kernel. Is it difficult?Not at all! Check out the
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/kernelconfig.html">
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=-gYou 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 an 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 siointrWhy 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.How can I verify which scheduler is in use on a
running system?Just type:
&prompt.root; sysctl kern.quantum
If you see
unknown oid 'kern.quantum'
it means that the current scheduler is SCHED_ULE, however,
if you see
kern.quantum: 100000
then the original scheduler SCHED_4BSD is the current selection.
What is 'kern.quantum'?kern.quantum is the maximum number of
ticks a process can run without being preempted. It is
specific to the 4BSD scheduler, so you can use its
presence or absence to determine which scheduler is in
use.
Disks, Filesystems, and Boot LoadersHow can I add my new hard disk to my FreeBSD system?See the Disk Formatting Tutorial at
+ URL="&url.articles.formatting-media;/index.html">
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
+ url="&url.articles.formatting-media;/index.html">
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 filesystem. 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=15Alternatively, the undocumented DOS
featureC:\>fdisk /mbrwill to install a new master boot record as well, thus
clobbering the BSD bootstrap.Which partitions can safely use Soft Updates? I have
heard that Soft Updates on / can cause
problems.Short answer: you can usually use Soft Updates safely
on all partitions.Long answer: There used to be some concern over using
Soft Updates on the root partition. Soft Updates has two
characteristics that caused this. First, a Soft Updates
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, Soft Updates can cause
temporary space shortages.When using Soft Updates, 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 Soft Updates.These issues affect all partitions using Soft Updates.
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 Soft Updates 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 formatThis 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 labelThis 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 UNIXUFS 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;FreeBSD supports ext2fs
partitions. See &man.mount.ext2fs.8; for more
information.&windowsnt;FreeBSD includes a read-only NTFS driver. For
more information, see &man.mount.ntfs.8;.
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/eYou can omit this step if you are running FreeBSD
5.0-RELEASE or newer with &man.devfs.5;
enabled.Is there a cryptographic filesystem for &os;?Yes; see the security/cfs port.How can I use the &windowsnt; loader to boot FreeBSD?The general idea is that you copy the first sector of your
native root FreeBSD partition into a file in the DOS/&windowsnt;
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"If FreeBSD is installed on the same disk as the &windowsnt; 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./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.Do not simply copy /boot/boot0
instead of /boot/boot1; you will
overwrite your partition table and render your computer
un-bootable!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=FreeBSDIn 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)/kernelOn 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 &windows; 95 (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 &iomegazip; 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 /floppyif it is a floppy, or this:&prompt.root; mount -t msdos /dev/da2s4 /zipfor 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
filesystem 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 autoYou 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 filesystem, this one is on our ZIP
drive using the whole disk:&prompt.root; newfs /dev/rda2cand mount it:&prompt.root; mount /dev/da2c /zipand 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 0Why 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
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/creating-cds.html"> Handbook section on
optical media, specifically the section Using Data
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/creating-cds.html#MOUNTING-CD">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
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/creating-cds.html#MOUNTING-CD">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
+ creating and
using CDROMs, specifically the section on Using Data
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/creating-cds.html#MOUNTING-CD">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
+ Handbook
chapter on creating CDROMs, particularly the
section on burning raw
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/creating-cds.html#RAWDATA-CD">burning raw
data CDs.How can I create an image of a data CD?This is discussed in the Handbook section on duplicating
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/creating-cds.html#IMAGING-CD">duplicating
data CDs. For more on working with CDROMs, see the
- Creating CDs
+ 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=1As 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/fd0To allow users in the group
operator to mount the CDROM drive,
use:&prompt.root; chgrp operator /dev/cd0c
&prompt.root; chmod 640 /dev/cd0cFinally, 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-pointUsers 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 cd9660 /dev/cd0c ~/my-mount-pointUnmounting the device is simple:&prompt.user; umount ~/my-mount-pointEnabling vfs.usermount, however,
has negative security implications. A better way to
access &ms-dos; 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 Soft Updates 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
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/config-tuning.html">Configuration and
Tuning section of the Handbook, you will find a
section
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/adding-swap-space.html">section
describing how to do this.How is it possible for a partition to be more than 100%
full?A portion of each UFS partition (8%, by default) is
reserved for use by the operating system and the
root user.
&man.df.1; does not count that space when
calculating the Capacity column, so it can
exceed 100%. Also, you'll notice that the
Blocks column is always greater than the
sum of the Used and
Avail columns, usually by a factor of
8%.For more details, look up the option
in &man.tunefs.8;.System AdministrationWhere are the system start-up configuration files?The primary configuration file is
/etc/defaults/rc.conf (see
&man.rc.conf.5;) System startup scripts such as
/etc/rc and
/etc/rc.d (see &man.rc.8;) just
include this file. 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 included
DNS server, all you need to do is:&prompt.root; echo named_enable="YES" >> /etc/rc.confTo start up local services, place shell scripts in the
/usr/local/etc/rc.d directory. These
shell scripts should be set executable, and end with a
.sh.How do I add a user easily?Use the &man.adduser.8; command, or the &man.pw.8;
command for more complicated situations.To remove the user, use the &man.rmuser.8; command or,
if necessary, &man.pw.8;.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/crontabThis 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 -rNext 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
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/printing.html">
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 &windowsnt;
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
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/using-localization.html">using
localization, specifically the section on console
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/using-localization.html#SETTING-CONSOLE">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 2001The 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 filesystem that the quotas
are to be enforced on. ie:FilesystemQuota file/usr/usr/admin/quotas/home/home/admin/quotas……Does FreeBSD support System V IPC primitives?Yes, FreeBSD supports System V-style IPC, including
shared memory, messages and semaphores. Versions of
FreeBSD later than 3.2 support System V IPC in the GENERIC
kernel. In earlier versions of FreeBSD, enable this
support by adding the following lines to your kernel
config.options SYSVSHM # enable shared memory
options SYSVSEM # enable for semaphores
options SYSVMSG # enable for messagingRecompile and install your kernel.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 ControlAltDelete
from rebooting the system?If you are using syscons (the default console driver)
build and install a new kernel with the following
option.options SC_DISABLE_REBOOTin the configuration file. If you use the PCVT console
driver, use the following kernel configuration line
instead.options PCVT_CTRL_ALT_DELHow 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-filedos-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.shAlternately, you can remove all
MAKE_KERBEROS options from
/etc/make.conf and rebuild
world.What happened to
/dev/MAKEDEV?FreeBSD 5.X uses the &man.devfs.8; device-on-demand
system. Device drivers automatically create new device
nodes as they are needed, obsoleting
/dev/MAKEDEV.If you are running FreeBSD 4.X or earlier and
/dev/MAKEDEV is missing, then you
really do have a problem. Grab a copy from the system
source code, probably in
/usr/src/etc/MAKEDEV.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 linepseudo-device pty 256in 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 likettyqc none networkThe 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 snd0You can omit this step if you are running FreeBSD
5.0-RELEASE or newer with &man.devfs.5;
enabled.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; exitI tried to update my system to the latest -STABLE, but
got -RC or -PRERELEASE! 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, -PRERELEASE is typically
synonymous with the code freeze before a release. (For
some releases, the -BETA label was used in the same way as
-PRERELEASE.)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 4.5-STABLE,
its name will be changed to 4.6-PRERELEASE 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 4.6-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 (4.6-RELEASE in this example) and
release branch have been made, the branch will be renamed
to 4.6-STABLE.For more information on version numbers and the
various CVS branches, refer to the
- Release
+ Release
Engineering article.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.securelevelYou 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; manual page for details on securelevel, and see
/etc/defaults/rc.conf and the
&man.rc.conf.5; manual 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.securelevelYou 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; manual page for details on
securelevel, and see
/etc/defaults/rc.conf and the
&man.rc.conf.5; manual 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 4555 /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.What do the various memory states displayed by
top mean?Active: pages recently
statistically used.Inactive: pages
recently statistically unused.Cache: (most often)
pages that have percolated from inactive to a status
where they maintain their data, but can often be
immediately reused (either with their old association,
or reused with a new association.) There can be certain
immediate transition from active to 'cache' state if the
page is known to be clean (unmodified), but that
transition is a matter of policy, depending upon the
algorithm choice of the VM system
maintainer.Free: pages without
data content, and can be immediately used in certain
circumstances where cache pages might be ineligible.
Free pages can be reused at interrupt or process
state.Wired: pages that are
fixed into memory, usually for kernel purposes, but also
sometimes for special use in
processes.Pages are most often written to disk (sort of a VM
sync) when they are in the 'inactive' state, but 'active'
pages can also be synced (but requires the
availability of certain CPU features.) This depends upon
the CPU tracking of the 'modified' bit being available,
and in certain situations there can be an advantage for a
block of VM pages to be synced, whether they are active or
inactive. In most common cases, it is best to think of
the 'inactive' queue to be a queue of relatively unused
pages that might or might not be in the process of being
written to disk. 'Cached' pages are already 'synced', not
mapped, but available for immediate process use with their
old association or with a new association. Free pages are
available at interrupt level, but cached or free pages can
be used at process state for reuse. Cache pages aren't
adequately locked to be available at interrupt
level.There are some other flags (e.g. Busy flag or busy
count) that might modify some of the rules that I
described.How much free memory is available?There are a couple of kinds of free
memory. One kind is the amount of memory
immediately available without paging anything else out.
That is approximately the size of cache queue + size of
free queue (with a derating factor, depending upon system
tuning.) Another kind of free memory is
the total amount of VM space. That can
be complex, but is dependent upon the amount of swap space
and memory. Other kinds of free memory
descriptions are also possible, but it is relatively
useless to define these, but rather it is important to
make sure that the paging rate is kept low, and to avoid
running out of swap space.What is /var/empty? I can not
delete it!/var/empty is a directory that the
&man.sshd.8; program uses when performing privilege separation.
The /var/empty directory is empty, owned by
root and has the schg
flag set.Although it is not recommended to delete this directory, to
do so you will need to unset the schg flag
first. See the &man.chflags.1; manual page for more information
(and bear in mind the answer to
the question on unsetting the schg flag).
The X Window System and Virtual ConsolesWhat is the X Window System?The X Window System is the most widely available windowing system
capable of running on &unix; or &unix; like systems, including
&os;. X.org administers
the X protocol
standards. The current release of the specification
is 11.6, so you will often see references shortened to
X11R6 or even just X11.
Many implementations are available for different
architectures and operating systems. For instance, an
implementation of the server-side code is properly known
as an X server.Which X implementations are available for &os;?Historically, the default implementation of X on
&os; has been
&xfree86; which is maintained by
The XFree86 Project,
Inc. This software was installed by default on
&os; versions up until 4.10 and 5.2. Although X.org
itself maintained an implementation during that time
period, it was basically only provided as a reference
platform, as it had suffered greatly from bitrot over
the years.However, early in 2004, some XFree86 developers left
that project
over issues including the pace of code changes, future
directions, and interpersonal conflicts, and are now contributing
code directly to X.org instead. At that time, X.org updated its
source tree to the last &xfree86; release before its subsequent
licensing change (XFree86 version 4.3.99.903), incorporated
many changes that had previously been maintained separately,
and has released that software as X11R6.7.0. A separate but
related project,
freedesktop.org (or fd.o for short),
is working on rearchitecting the original &xfree86; code to
offload more work onto the graphics cards (with the goal of
increased performance) and make it more modular
(with the goal of incresed maintainability, and thus faster
releases as well as easier configuration). X.org intends to
incorporate the freedesktop.org changes in its future releases.As of July 2004, in &os.current;,
&xfree86; has been replaced with x.org as the default
implementation. The &xfree86; ports
(x11/XFree86-4 and
subports) remain in the ports collection and are still
the default for &os.stable;.The above describes the default X implementation installed.
It is still possible to install either implementation by
following the instructions in the entry for 20040723 in
/usr/ports/UPDATING.It is not currently
possible to mix-and-match pieces of each implementation;
one must choose one or the other.The following paragraphs refer to the
&xfree86; implementation, but most should also be applicable
to the x.org implementation as well. While the default
configuration filename for the x.org implementation is
xorg.conf, it will search for
XF86Config if it cannot find it.Will my existing applications run with the X.org suite?The X.org software is written to the same X11R6 specification
that &xfree86; is, so basic applications should work
unchanged. A few lesser-used protocols have been deprecated
(XIE, PEX, and
lbxproxy), but in the first two cases, the
&os; port of &xfree86; did not support them either.Why did the X projects split, anyway?The answer to this question is outside the scope of
this FAQ. Note that there are voluminous postings in various
mailing list archives on the Internet; please use your favorite
search engine to investigate the history instead of asking this
question on the &os; mailing lists. It may even be the case
that only the participants will ever know for certain.Why did &os; choose to go with the X.org ports by default?The X.org developers claim that their goal is to release
more often and incorporate new features more quickly. If they
are able to do so, this will be very attractive. Also, their
software still uses the traditional X license, while &xfree86;
is now using their modified one.This decision is still controversial. Only time will
tell which implementation proves technically superior. Each
&os; user should decide which they prefer.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 probably running at a raised securelevel.
It is not possible to start X at a raised
securelevel. To see why, look at the &man.init.8; manual
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 mouseMy 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 EventsThe 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
EventsTo 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.Pointer Section for Wheeled
Mouse in &xfree86; 3.3.x series XF86Config with moused
TranslationSection "Pointer"
Protocol "SysMouse"
Device "/dev/sysmouse"
Buttons 5
EndSectionInputDevice Section for Wheeled
Mouse in &xfree86; 4.x series XF86Config with X Server
TranslationSection "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/sysmouse"
Option "Buttons" "5"
EndSection.emacs 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
EventsIf 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.Pointer Section for Wheeled
Mouse in XF86Config with X
Server TranslationSection "Pointer"
Protocol "IntelliMouse"
Device "/dev/psm0"
ZAxisMapping 4 5
EndSectionInputDevice Section for Wheeled
Mouse in &xfree86; 4.x series XF86Config with X Server
TranslationSection "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psm0"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection.emacs 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 imwheelNext, 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:Emacs Configuration
for Imwheel;;; 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 sectionFor XEmacs, add the
following to your ~/.emacs file
instead:XEmacs Configuration
for Imwheel;;; For imwheel
(mwheel-install)
(setq mwheel-follow-mouse t)
;;; end imwheel sectionRun ImwheelYou 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.How do I use remote X displays?For security reasons, the default setting is to not allow a
machine to remotely open a window.To enable this feature, simply start
X with the optional
argument:&prompt.user; startx
-listen_tcpWhy 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
ServerNumLockWhat 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 AltF2
(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 AltF1.The default FreeBSD installation has three virtual
consoles enabled (8 starting with 3.3-RELEASE), and
AltF1,
AltF2,
and AltF3
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 secureUse 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 secureto:ttyvb "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 off secureIf 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 vty12On FreeBSD 5.X you do not have to create devices
manually if you are using DEVFS,
since the proper device nodes will be automatically
created under /dev.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 1It 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 CtrlAltFn to switch back to a virtual console.
CtrlAltF1 would return you to the first virtual console.Once you are back to a text console, you can then use
AltFn 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
AltF9 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 vt4The 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/consoleis 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 rare cases the driver may erroneously report
synchronization problem and you may see the kernel
message:psmintr: out of sync (xxxx != yyyy)and notice that your mouse does not 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: -cThen, in the UserConfig command
line, type:UserConfig> flags psm0 0x100
UserConfig> quitWhy 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.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: -cThen, in the UserConfig command line,
type:UserConfig> flags psm0 0x04
UserConfig> quitSee 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= 4How 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.
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 3.1The 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
autobootFreeBSD 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
startand 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
.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 are115 - &windows; key, between
the left-hand Ctrl and Alt keys116 - &windows; key, to the
right of the AltGr key117 - Menu key, to the left of
the right-hand Ctrl keyTo 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
linexmodmap $HOME/.xmodmaprcto your ~/.xinitrc.For example, you could map the 3 keys to 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 = F15If 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 NopHow 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, you can use the binary
drivers provided for FreeBSD 4.7 on the
Drivers section of their website. 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.NetworkingWhere 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
+ please read the
Handbook entry on diskless bootingCan a FreeBSD box be used as a dedicated network
router?Yes. Please see the Handbook entry on advanced
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/advanced-networking.html"> advanced
networking, specifically the section on routing
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/network-routing.html">routing
and gateways.Can I connect my &windows; box to the Internet via
FreeBSD?Typically, people who ask this question have two PC's
at home, one with FreeBSD and one with some version of
&windows; the idea is to use the FreeBSD box to connect to
the Internet and then be able to access the Internet from
the &windows; box through the FreeBSD box. This is really
just a special case of the previous question and works
perfectly well.If you're using dialup to connect to the Internet
user-mode &man.ppp.8; contains a
option. If you run &man.ppp.8; with the
option, set
gateway_enable to
YES in
/etc/rc.conf, and configure your
&windows; machine correctly, this should work fine. For more
information, please see the &man.ppp.8; manual page or the
- Handbook entry on
+ Handbook entry on
user PPP.If you are using kernel-mode PPP or have an Ethernet
connection to the Internet, you need to use
&man.natd.8;. Please look at the natd section
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/network-natd.html">natd section
of the Handbook for a tutorial.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
+ 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?Yes. If you want to use NAT over a user PPP
connection, please see the Handbook entry on user
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/userppp.html">Handbook entry on user
PPP. If you want to use NAT over some other sort
of network connection, please look at the natd section
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/network-natd.html">natd section
of the Handbook.How do I connect two FreeBSD systems over a parallel line
using PLIP?
- Please see the 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 0xffffffffOtherwise, just specify the network address and
netmask as usual:&prompt.root; ifconfig ed0 alias 172.16.141.5 netmask 0xffffff00How 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
+ 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 /mntWhy 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 /mntWhy 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
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/nfs.html">NFS entry in the
Handbook, especially the section on configuring
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/nfs.html#CONFIGURING-NFS">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=NOXylogic's Annex boxes are also broken in this regard
and you must use the above change to connect through
them.How do I enable IP multicast support?FreeBSD supports multicast host operations by
default. If you want your box to run as a multicast
router, you need to recompile your kernel with the
MROUTING option and run
&man.mrouted.8;. FreeBSD 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 chipsetVendorModelASUSPCI-L101-TBAcctonENI1203CogentEM960PCICompexENET32-PCID-LinkDE-530DaynaDP1203, DP2100DECDE435, DE450DanpexEN-9400P3JCISCondor JC1260LinksysEtherPCIMylexLNP101SMCEtherPower 10/100 (Model 9332)SMCEtherPower (Model 8432)TopWareTE-3500PZnyx (2.2.x)ZX312, ZX314, ZX342, ZX345, ZX346, ZX348Znyx (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 linesearch foo.example.org example.orginstead of the previousdomain foo.example.orginto 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 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 anyYou can also set
firewall_type="open" in
/etc/rc.conf.For further information on configuring a FreeBSD
- firewall, see the
+ firewall, see the
Handbook section.How much overhead does IPFW incur?Please see the Handbook's Firewalls
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/firewalls.html">Firewalls
section, specifically the section on IPFW
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/firewalls.html#IPFW-OVERHEAD">IPFW
Overhead & Optimization.Why is my ipfwfwd 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 21When 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.comftpwhere 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 is not in your kernel.
Add this to your kernel config file and build a new
kernel:pseudo-device bpf # Berkeley Packet FilterOn FreeBSD 4.X and earlier, you must also create the
device node. After rebooting, go to the
/dev directory and run:&prompt.root; sh MAKEDEV bpf0Please see the Handbook entry
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/kernelconfig-nodes.html"> Handbook entry
on device nodes for more information on managing
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=300If 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=0Finally, 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.I've just installed CVSup but trying to execute it
produces errors. What is wrong?First, see if the error message you are receiving is
like the one shown below./usr/libexec/ld-elf.so.1: Shared object "libXaw.so.6" not foundErrors like these are caused by installing the
net/cvsup port on a
machine which does not have the
&xfree86; suite. If you want to
use the GUI included with
CVSup you will need to install
&xfree86; now. Alternatively if
you just wish to use CVSup from
a command line you should delete the package previously
installed. Then install the net/cvsup-without-gui port. This
is covered in more detail in the CVSup
section of the Handbook.SecurityWhat 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, andalter &man.ipfirewall.4; rules.To check the status of the securelevel on a running system,
simply execute the following command:&prompt.root; sysctl kern.securelevelThe 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 the &a.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.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 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/suidperlIf 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.PPPI cannot make &man.ppp.8; work. What am I doing wrong?You should first read the &man.ppp.8; manual page and
- the
+ the
PPP section of the handbook. Enable logging with
the commandset log Phase Chat Connect Carrier lcp ipcp ccp commandThis 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.logand 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.example.com foo localhostOtherwise, simply add another entry for your host.
Consult the relevant manual 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 tun0This is assuming that you have used the addresses from the
handbook, the manual 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 theadd 0 0 HISADDRline to one sayingadd 0 0 10.0.0.2Another 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 sayingdelete ALLfrom ppp.conf. If this is the
case, go back to the Final
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/ppp-and-slip.html#USERPPP-FINAL"> Final
system configuration section of the
handbook.What does No route to host mean?This error is usually due to a missingMYADDR:
delete ALL
add 0 0 HISADDRsection 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 HISADDRRefer to the
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/ppp-and-slip.html#USERPPP-DYNAMICIP">
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 lineset timeout NNNwhere 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
ppp's 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 linedisable lqrWhy 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:If the problem is remote, read on entry .If the problem is local, read on entry .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 vjThen 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 &a.brian;.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 activeIt 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 passiveThis 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 3This 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 theset openmode passivecommand. Care should be taken with this option. You
should also use theset stopped Ncommand to limit the amount of time that
&man.ppp.8; waits for the peer to begin
negotiations. Alternatively, theset openmode active Ncommand (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 linedisable pred1Why 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 lineenable lqrLQR 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/ipThis 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 0/0This 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 using email with a
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/smtp-dialup.html">using email with a
dialup connection in the FreeBSD Handbook 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')dnlThis 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 pred1Why 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 +connectThis 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 manual 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
OKorset phone 1234567
set dial "\"\" ATZ OK ATDT\\T"resulting in the following sequence:ATZ
OK
ATDT1234567Why 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/pppYou 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 manual 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 protointernalmachine:portportwhere 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 Callnat port udp
internal
:65000 65000Manually 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 Lifenat port udp
internal:27005
27015PCAnywhere 8.0nat port udp
internal:5632
5632nat port tcp
internal:5631
5631Quakenat port udp
internal:6112
6112Alternatively, you may want to take a look at
www.battle.net for Quake proxy support.Quake 2nat port udp
internal:27901
27910nat port udp
internal:60021
60021nat port udp
internal:60040
60040Red Alertnat port udp
internal:8675
8675nat port udp
internal:5009
5009What 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\MaxMTUIt 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 &windowsnt;
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 CommunicationsThis section answers common questions about serial
communications with FreeBSD. PPP and SLIP are covered in the
Networking 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 sioafter 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 16550AThis 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.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 siointrThe 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/ttyd1When 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 ixoffA 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 57600Now, 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 &WSee 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 insecureThis 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 1This 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 ttyd1How 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 secureThis 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/tipMy stock Hayes modem is not supported---what
can I do?Actually, the manual 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=noneUse 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 cuaa0Or use cu as root with the
following command:&prompt.root; cu -lline -sspeedwith 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 CTRLP
twice to send CTRLP
once?CTRLP
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 CTRL2
or CTRLSPACE.
A pretty good value for
single-char is SHIFTCTRL6,
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-charWhy is everything I type suddenly in UPPER CASE?You must have pressed CTRLA,
&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 CTRL2
and CTRLA
a lot:force=^^
raisechar=^^The ^^ is SHIFTCTRL6.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.Miscellaneous QuestionsFreeBSD 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 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 barHowever, 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; manual 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.Can I run DOS binaries under FreeBSD?Yes, you can use the integrated
doscmd DOS emulation program to
run a subset of DOS commands.If doscmd will not suffice,
the add-on utility emulators/pcemu emulates an 8088 and
enough BIOS services to run many DOS text mode
applications. It requires the X Window System.What do I need to do to translate a FreeBSD document into
my native language?
- See the
+ 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 implements some of the
stricter Postfix checks on incoming mail and 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.The hostname given in the EHLO/HELO part of the SMTP
exchange cannot be resolved to an IP address.A fully qualified, resolvable host name is necessary
in this part of the SMTP dialogue before mail will be
accepted. If you do not have a host name that is registered
in the DNS, then you should use your service provider's mail
server to relay your mail.Your message had a message ID ending with the string
localhost.Some mail user agents generate bad message IDs which will
not be accepted. You will need to persuade your mail user
agent to generate a valid message ID or else configure your
mail transfer agent to rewrite them.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
+ date is
CVSupWhat 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 it is 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 does POLA mean?Principle of Least Astonishment. It means that as
FreeBSD evolves, changes visible to the user should be
kept as unsurprising as possible. For example,
arbitrarily rearranging system startup variables in
/etc/defaults/rc.conf violates POLA.
Developers consider POLA when contemplating user-visible
system changes.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, 1999What 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 into 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 FunniesHow 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 sixty-nine: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 GCC;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 stimulation
- 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 TopicsHow 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
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/bibliography-osinternals.html">Operating
System Internals Bibliography.How can I contribute to FreeBSD?Please see the article on Contributing
+ url="&url.articles.contributing;/article.html">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. (Earlier branches are only changed
very rarely, which is why there are only three active
branches of development):RELENG_3 AKA
3.X-STABLERELENG_4 AKA
4-STABLEHEAD AKA
-CURRENT AKA
5.X-CURRENTHEAD 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.X development
stream and the 4-STABLE branch,
RELENG_4, forked off from
-CURRENT in Mar 2000.How do I make my own custom release?Please see the
+ url="&url.articles.releng;/article.html">
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 isn't cvsup.FreeBSD.org a round robin DNS entry to
share the load amongst the various CVSup servers?While CVSup mirrors update from the master CVSup
server hourly, this update might happen at any time during
the hour. This means that some servers have newer code
than others, even though all servers have code that is
less than an hour old. If cvsup.FreeBSD.org was a round
robin DNS entry that simply redirected users to a random
CVSup server, running CVSup twice in a row could download
code older than the code already on the system.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.
+ URL="&url.books.handbook;/synching.html#CTM">CTM facility.
How did you split the distribution into 240k files?Newer BSD based systems have a
option to &man.split.1; 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
+ URL="&url.articles.contributing;/article.html">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.orgIn 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, it 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?&os.current; after February 2003 has a facility for
dynamically and automatically allocating major numbers for
device drivers at runtime. This mechanism is highly
preferred to the older procedure of statically allocating
device numbers. Some comments on this subject can be
found in src/sys/conf/majors.If you are forced for some reason to use a static
major number, the procedure for obtaining one 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 the &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 1998How 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.orgBen 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 installrebootThe &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)whereNote 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 */
#endifTo 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 TeamIf you see a problem with this FAQ, or wish to submit an
entry, please mail the &a.doc;. 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 formattingJim LoweMulticast information&a.pds;FreeBSD FAQ typing machine slaveyThe FreeBSD TeamKvetching, moaning, submitting dataAnd to any others we have forgotten, apologies and heartfelt
thanks!
&bibliography;
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/fdp-primer/see-also/chapter.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/fdp-primer/see-also/chapter.sgml
index 074ae66502..0ce1e28bd8 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/fdp-primer/see-also/chapter.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/fdp-primer/see-also/chapter.sgml
@@ -1,134 +1,134 @@
See AlsoThis document is deliberately not an exhaustive discussion of SGML,
the DTDs listed, and the FreeBSD Documentation Project. For more
information about these, you are encouraged to see the following web
sites.The FreeBSD Documentation ProjectThe FreeBSD
Documentation Project web pages
- The FreeBSD Handbook
+ The FreeBSD HandbookSGMLThe SGML/XML web
page, a comprehensive SGML resourceGentle introduction to SGMLHTMLThe World Wide Web
ConsortiumThe HTML 4.0
specificationDocBookThe DocBook
Technical Committee, maintainers of the DocBook DTDDocBook: The Definitive
Guide, the online documentation for the DocBook
DTD.The DocBook Open
Repository contains DSSSL stylesheets and other resources
for people using DocBook.The Linux Documentation ProjectThe Linux Documentation
Project web pages
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/fdp-primer/sgml-markup/chapter.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/fdp-primer/sgml-markup/chapter.sgml
index a75a153da6..f92e1f7fbc 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/fdp-primer/sgml-markup/chapter.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/fdp-primer/sgml-markup/chapter.sgml
@@ -1,2692 +1,2692 @@
SGML MarkupThis chapter describes the two markup languages you will encounter
when you contribute to the FreeBSD documentation project. Each section
describes the markup language, and details the markup that you are likely
to want to use, or that is already in use.These markup languages contain a large number of elements, and it can
be confusing sometimes to know which element to use for a particular
situation. This section goes through the elements you are most likely to
need, and gives examples of how you would use them.This is not an exhaustive list of elements, since
that would just reiterate the documentation for each language. The aim of
this section is to list those elements more likely to be useful to you.
If you have a question about how best to markup a particular piece of
content, please post it to the &a.doc;.Inline vs. blockIn the remainder of this document, when describing elements,
inline means that the element can occur within a
block element, and does not cause a line break. A
block element, by comparison, will cause a line
break (and other processing) when it is encountered.HTMLHTML, the HyperText Markup Language, is the markup language of
choice on the World Wide Web. More information can be found at
<URL:>.HTML is used to markup pages on the FreeBSD web site. It should not
(generally) be used to mark up other documentation,
since DocBook offers a
far richer set of elements to choose from. Consequently, you will
normally only encounter HTML pages if you are writing for the web
site.HTML has gone through a number of versions, 1, 2, 3.0, 3.2, and the
latest, 4.0 (available in both strict and
loose variants).The HTML DTDs are available from the ports collection in the
textproc/html port. They are automatically
installed as part of the textproc/docproj
port.Formal Public Identifier (FPI)There are a number of HTML FPIs, depending upon the version (also
known as the level) of HTML that you want to declare your document to
be compliant with.The majority of HTML documents on the FreeBSD web site comply with
the loose version of HTML 4.0.PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"Sectional elementsAn HTML document is normally split into two sections. The first
section, called the head, contains
meta-information about the document, such as its title, the name of
the author, the parent document, and so on. The second section, the
body, contains the content that will be displayed
to the user.These sections are indicated with head and
body elements respectively. These elements are
contained within the top-level html element.Normal HTML document structure<html>
<head>
<title>The document's title</title>
</head>
<body>
…
</body>
</html>Block elementsHeadingsHTML allows you to denote headings in your document, at up to
six different levels.The largest and most prominent heading is h1,
then h2, continuing down to
h6.The element's content is the text of the heading.h1, h2, etc.Use:First section
This is the heading for the first section
This is the heading for the first sub-section
This is the heading for the second section
]]>Generally, an HTML page should have one first level heading
(h1). This can contain many second level
headings (h2), which can in turn contain many
third level headings. Each
hn element should have
the same element, but one further up the hierarchy, preceding it.
Leaving gaps in the numbering is to be avoided.Bad ordering of
hn elementsUse:First section
Sub-section
]]>ParagraphsHTML supports a single paragraph element,
p.pUse:This is a paragraph. It can contain just about any
other element.
]]>
Block quotationsA block quotation is an extended quotation from another document
that should not appear within the current paragraph.blockquoteUse:A small excerpt from the US Constitution:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form
a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic
Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general
Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our
Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the
United States of America.
]]>ListsYou can present the user with three types of lists, ordered,
unordered, and definition.Typically, each entry in an ordered list will be numbered, while
each entry in an unordered list will be preceded by a bullet point.
Definition lists are composed of two sections for each entry. The
first section is the term being defined, and the second section is
the definition of the term.Ordered lists are indicated by the ol
element, unordered lists by the ul element, and
definition lists by the dl element.Ordered and unordered lists contain listitems, indicated by the
li element. A listitem can contain textual
content, or it may be further wrapped in one or more
p elements.Definition lists contain definition terms
(dt) and definition descriptions
(dd). A definition term can only contain inline
elements. A definition description can contain other block
elements.ul and olUse:An unordered list. Listitems will probably be
preceded by bullets.
First item
Second item
Third item
An ordered list, with list items consisting of multiple
paragraphs. Each item (note: not each paragraph) will be
numbered.
This is the first item. It only has one paragraph.
This is the first paragraph of the second item.
This is the second paragraph of the second item.
This is the first and only paragraph of the third
item.
]]>Definition lists with dlUse:
Term 1
Paragraph 1 of definition 1.
Paragraph 2 of definition 1.
Term 2
Paragraph 1 of definition 2.
Term 3
Paragraph 1 of definition 3. Note that the <p>
element is not required in the single paragraph case.
]]>Pre-formatted textYou can indicate that text should be shown to the user exactly
as it is in the file. Typically, this means that the text is shown
in a fixed font, multiple spaces are not merged into one, and line
breaks in the text are significant.In order to do this, wrap the content in the
pre element.preYou could use pre to mark up an e-mail
message; From: nik@FreeBSD.org
To: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org
Subject: New documentation available
There is a new copy of my primer for contributors to the FreeBSD
Documentation Project available at
Comments appreciated.
N]]>TablesMost text-mode browsers (such as Lynx) do not render tables
particularly effectively. If you are relying on the tabular
display of your content, you should consider using alternative
markup to prevent confusion.Mark up tabular information using the table
element. A table consists of one or more table rows
(tr), each containing one or more cells of table
data (td). Each cell can contain other block
elements, such as paragraphs or lists. It can also contain another
table (this nesting can repeat indefinitely). If the cell only
contains one paragraph then you do not need to include the
p element.Simple use of tableUse:This is a simple 2x2 table.
Top left cell
Top right cell
Bottom left cell
Bottom right cell
]]>A cell can span multiple rows and columns. To indicate this,
add the rowspan and/or colspan
attributes, with values indicating the number of rows of columns
that should be spanned.Using rowspanUse:One tall thin cell on the left, two short cells next to
it on the right.
Long and thin
Top cell
Bottom cell
]]>Using colspanUse:One long cell on top, two short cells below it.
Top cell
Bottom left cell
Bottom right cell
]]>Using rowspan and
colspan togetherUse:On a 3x3 grid, the top left block is a 2x2 set of
cells merged into one. The other cells are normal.
Top left large cell
Top right cell
Middle right cell
Bottom left cell
Bottom middle cell
Bottom right cell
]]>In-line elementsEmphasizing informationYou have two levels of emphasis available in HTML,
em and strong.
em is for a normal level of emphasis and
strong indicates stronger emphasis.Typically, em is rendered in italic and
strong is rendered in bold. This is not always
the case, however, and you should not rely on it.em and strongUse:This has been emphasized, while
this has been strongly emphasized.]]>Bold and italicsBecause HTML includes presentational markup, you can also
indicate that particular content should be rendered in bold or
italic. The elements are b and
i respectively.b and iThis is in bold, while this is
in italics.]]>Indicating fixed pitch textIf you have content that should be rendered in a fixed pitch
(typewriter) typeface, use tt (for
teletype).ttUse:This document was originally written by
Nik Clayton, who can be reached by e-mail as
nik@FreeBSD.org.]]>Content sizeYou can indicate that content should be shown in a larger or
smaller font. There are three ways of doing this.Use big and small
around the content you wish to change size. These tags can be
nested, so <big><big>This is much
bigger</big></big> is possible.Use font with the size
attribute set to +1 or -1
respectively. This has the same effect as using
big or small. However,
the use of this approach is deprecated.Use font with the size
attribute set to a number between 1 and 7. The default font size
is 3. This approach is deprecated.big, small, and
fontThe following fragments all do the same thing.This text is slightly smaller. But
this text is slightly bigger.
This text is slightly smaller. But
this text is slightly bigger
This text is slightly smaller. But
this text is slightly bigger.
]]>
LinksLinks are also in-line elements.Linking to other documents on the WWWIn order to include a link to another document on the WWW you
must know the URL of the document you want to link to.The link is indicated with a, and the
href attribute contains the URL of the target
document. The content of the element becomes the link, and is
normally indicated to the user in some way (underlining, change of
color, different mouse cursor when over the link, and so
on).Using <a href="...">Use:More information is available at the
FreeBSD web site.]]>These links will take the user to the top of the chosen
document.Linking to other parts of documentsLinking to a point within another document (or within the same
document) requires that the document author include anchors that you
can link to.Anchors are indicated with a and the
name attribute instead of
href.Using <a name="...">Use:This paragraph can be referenced
in other links with the name para1.]]>To link to a named part of a document, write a normal link to
that document, but include the name of the anchor after a
# symbol.Linking to a named part of another documentAssume that the para1 example resides in a
document called foo.html.More information can be found in the
first paragraph of
foo.html.]]>If you are linking to a named anchor within the same document
then you can omit the document's URL, and just include the name of
the anchor (with the preceding #).Linking to a named part of the same documentAssume that the para1 example resides in
this documentMore information can be found in the
first paragraph of this
document.]]>DocBookDocBook was originally developed by HaL Computer Systems and O'Reilly
& Associates to be a DTD for writing technical documentation
A short history can be found under
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/docbook/intro.shtml.
. Since 1998 it is maintained by the
DocBook Technical Committee. As such, and unlike LinuxDoc
and HTML, DocBook is very heavily oriented towards markup that
describes what something is, rather than describing
how it should be presented.formal vs. informalSome elements may exist in two forms, formal
and informal. Typically, the formal version of
the element will consist of a title followed by the informal
version of the element. The informal version will not have a
title.The DocBook DTD is available from the ports collection in the
textproc/docbook port. It is automatically
installed as part of the textproc/docproj
port.FreeBSD extensionsThe FreeBSD Documentation Project has extended the DocBook DTD by
adding some new elements. These elements serve to make some of the
markup more precise.Where a FreeBSD specific element is listed below it is clearly
marked.Throughout the rest of this document, the term
DocBook is used to mean the FreeBSD extended DocBook
DTD.There is nothing about these extensions that is FreeBSD
specific, it was just felt that they were useful enhancements for
this particular project. Should anyone from any of the other *nix
camps (NetBSD, OpenBSD, Linux, …) be interested in
collaborating on a standard DocBook extension set, please get in
touch with &a.doceng;.The FreeBSD extensions are not (currently) in the ports
collection. They are stored in the FreeBSD CVS tree, as doc/share/sgml/freebsd.dtd.Formal Public Identifier (FPI)In compliance with the DocBook guidelines for writing FPIs for
DocBook customizations, the FPI for the FreeBSD extended DocBook DTD
is;PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook V4.1-Based Extension//EN"Document structureDocBook allows you to structure your documentation in several
ways. In the FreeBSD Documentation Project we are using two primary
types of DocBook document: the book and the article.A book is organized into chapters. This is a
mandatory requirement. There may be parts between
the book and the chapter to provide another layer of organization.
The Handbook is arranged in this way.A chapter may (or may not) contain one or more sections. These
are indicated with the sect1 element. If a section
contains another section then use the sect2
element, and so on, up to sect5.Chapters and sections contain the remainder of the content.An article is simpler than a book, and does not use chapters.
Instead, the content of an article is organized into one or more
sections, using the same sect1 (and
sect2 and so on) elements that are used in
books.Obviously, you should consider the nature of the documentation you
are writing in order to decide whether it is best marked up as a book
or an article. Articles are well suited to information that does not
need to be broken down into several chapters, and that is, relatively
speaking, quite short, at up to 20-25 pages of content. Books are
best suited to information that can be broken up into several
chapters, possibly with appendices and similar content as well.The FreeBSD
tutorials are all marked up as articles, while this
- document, the FreeBSD
+ document, the FreeBSD
FAQ, and the FreeBSD Handbook are
+ url="&url.books.handbook;/index.html">FreeBSD Handbook are
all marked up as books.Starting a bookThe content of the book is contained within the
book element. As well as containing structural
markup, this element can contain elements that include additional
information about the book. This is either meta-information, used
for reference purposes, or additional content used to produce a
title page.This additional information should be contained within
bookinfo.Boilerplate book with
bookinfo<book>
<bookinfo>
<title>Your title here</title>
<author>
<firstname>Your first name</firstname>
<surname>Your surname</surname>
<affiliation>
<address><email>Your e-mail address</email></address>
</affiliation>
</author>
<copyright>
<year>1998</year>
<holder role="mailto:your e-mail address">Your name</holder>
</copyright>
<releaseinfo>$FreeBSD$</releaseinfo>
<abstract>
<para>Include an abstract of the book's contents here.</para>
</abstract>
</bookinfo>
…
</book>Starting an articleThe content of the article is contained within the
article element. As well as containing
structural markup, this element can contain elements that include
additional information about the article. This is either
meta-information, used for reference purposes, or additional content
used to produce a title page.This additional information should be contained within
articleinfo.Boilerplate article with
articleinfo<article>
<articleinfo>
<title>Your title here</title>
<author>
<firstname>Your first name</firstname>
<surname>Your surname</surname>
<affiliation>
<address><email>Your e-mail address</email></address>
</affiliation>
</author>
<copyright>
<year>1998</year>
<holder role="mailto:your e-mail address">Your name</holder>
</copyright>
<releaseinfo>$FreeBSD$</releaseinfo>
<abstract>
<para>Include an abstract of the article's contents here.</para>
</abstract>
</articleinfo>
…
</article>Indicating chaptersUse chapter to mark up your chapters. Each
chapter has a mandatory title. Articles do not
contain chapters, they are reserved for books.A simple chapterThe chapter's title
...
]]>A chapter cannot be empty; it must contain elements in addition
to title. If you need to include an empty
chapter then just use an empty paragraph.Empty chaptersThis is an empty chapter
]]>Sections below chaptersIn books, chapters may (but do not need to) be broken up into
sections, subsections, and so on. In articles, sections are the
main structural element, and each article must contain at least one
section. Use the
sectn element. The
n indicates the section number, which
identifies the section level.The first sectn is
sect1. You can have one or more of these in a
chapter. They can contain one or more sect2
elements, and so on, down to sect5.Sections in chaptersA sample chapterSome text in the chapter.First section (1.1)
…
Second section (1.2)First sub-section (1.2.1)First sub-sub-section (1.2.1.1)
…
Second sub-section (1.2.2)
…
]]>This example includes section numbers in the section titles.
You should not do this in your documents. Adding the section
numbers is carried out by the stylesheets (of which more
later), and you do not need to manage them yourself.Subdividing using partsYou can introduce another layer of organization between
book and chapter with one or
more parts. This cannot be done in an
article.IntroductionOverview
...
What is FreeBSD?
...
History
...
]]>Block elementsParagraphsDocBook supports three types of paragraphs:
formalpara, para, and
simpara.Most of the time you will only need to use
para. formalpara includes a
title element, and simpara
disallows some elements from within para. Stick
with para.paraUse:This is a paragraph. It can contain just about any
other element. ]]>Appearance:This is a paragraph. It can contain just about any other
element.Block quotationsA block quotation is an extended quotation from another document
that should not appear within the current paragraph. You will
probably only need it infrequently.Blockquotes can optionally contain a title and an attribution
(or they can be left untitled and unattributed).blockquoteUse:A small excerpt from the US Constitution;
Preamble to the Constitution of the United StatesCopied from a web site somewhereWe the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect
Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the
common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings
of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America.
]]>Appearance:
Preamble to the Constitution of the United StatesCopied from a web site somewhereWe the People of the United States, in Order to form a more
perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility,
provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and
secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States
of America.
Tips, notes, warnings, cautions, important information and
sidebars.You may need to include extra information separate from the
main body of the text. Typically this is meta
information that the user should be aware of.Depending on the nature of the information, one of
tip, note,
warning, caution, and
important should be used. Alternatively, if the
information is related to the main text but is not one of the above,
use sidebar.The circumstances in which to choose one of these elements over
another is unclear. The DocBook documentation suggests;A Note is for information that should be heeded by all
readers.An Important element is a variation on Note.A Caution is for information regarding possible data loss
or software damage.A Warning is for information regarding possible hardware
damage or injury to life or limb.warningUse:Installing FreeBSD may make you want to delete Windows from your
hard disk.
]]>Installing FreeBSD may make you want to delete Windows from
your hard disk.Lists and proceduresYou will often need to list pieces of information to the user,
or present them with a number of steps that must be carried out in
order to accomplish a particular goal.In order to do this, use itemizedlist,
orderedlist, or
procedureThere are other types of
list element in DocBook, but we are not concerned with those at
the moment.itemizedlist and
orderedlist are similar to their counterparts in
HTML, ul and ol. Each one
consists of one or more listitem elements, and
each listitem contains one or more block
elements. The listitem elements are analogous to
HTML's li tags. However, unlike HTML, they are
required.procedure is slightly different. It consists
of steps, which may in turn consists of more
steps or substeps. Each
step contains block elements.itemizedlist,
orderedlist, and
procedureUse:This is the first itemized item.This is the second itemized item.This is the first ordered item.This is the second ordered item.Do this.Then do this.And now do this.]]>Appearance:This is the first itemized item.This is the second itemized item.This is the first ordered item.This is the second ordered item.Do this.Then do this.And now do this.Showing file samplesIf you want to show a fragment of a file (or perhaps a complete
file) to the user, wrap it in the programlisting
element.White space and line breaks within
programlistingare
significant. In particular, this means that the opening tag should
appear on the same line as the first line of the output, and the
closing tag should appear on the same line as the last line of the
output, otherwise spurious blank lines may be included.programlistingUse:When you have finished, your program should look like
this;
#include <stdio.h>
int
main(void)
{
printf("hello, world\n");
}]]>Notice how the angle brackets in the
#include line need to be referenced by their
entities instead of being included literally.Appearance:When you have finished, your program should look like
this;#include <stdio.h>
int
main(void)
{
printf("hello, world\n");
}CalloutsA callout is a mechanism for referring back to an earlier piece
of text or specific position within an earlier example without
linking to it within the text.To do this, mark areas of interest in your example
(programlisting,
literallayout, or whatever) with the
co element. Each element must have a unique
id assigned to it. After the example include a
calloutlist that refers back to the example and
provides additional commentary.co and
calloutlistWhen you have finished, your program should look like
this;
#include <stdio.h>
int
main(void)
{
printf("hello, world\n");
}Includes the standard IO header file.Specifies that main() returns an
int.The printf() call that writes
hello, world to standard output.]]>Appearance:When you have finished, your program should look like
this;#include <stdio.h>
int
main(void)
{
printf("hello, world\n");
}Includes the standard IO header file.Specifies that main() returns an
int.The printf() call that writes
hello, world to standard output.TablesUnlike HTML, you do not need to use tables for layout purposes,
as the stylesheet handles those issues for you. Instead, just use
tables for marking up tabular data.In general terms (and see the DocBook documentation for more
detail) a table (which can be either formal or informal) consists of
a table element. This contains at least one
tgroup element, which specifies (as an attribute)
the number of columns in this table group. Within the tablegroup
you can then have one thead element, which
contains elements for the table headings (column headings), and one
tbody which contains the body of the
table.Both tgroup and thead
contain row elements, which in turn contain
entry elements. Each entry
element specifies one cell in the table.informaltableUse:This is column head 1This is column head 2Row 1, column 1Row 1, column 2Row 2, column 1Row 2, column 2
]]>Appearance:This is column head 1This is column head 2Row 1, column 1Row 1, column 2Row 2, column 1Row 2, column 2If you do not want a border around the table the
frame attribute can be added to the
informaltable element with a value of
none (i.e., <informaltable
frame="none">).Tables where frame="none"Appearance:This is column head 1This is column head 2Row 1, column 1Row 1, column 2Row 2, column 1Row 2, column 2Examples for the user to followA lot of the time you need to show examples for the user to
follow. Typically, these will consist of dialogs with the computer;
the user types in a command, the user gets a response back, they
type in another command, and so on.A number of distinct elements and entities come into play
here.screenEverything the user sees in this example will be on the
computer screen, so the next element is
screen.Within screen, white space is
significant.prompt,
&prompt.root; and
&prompt.user;Some of the things the user will be seeing on the screen
are prompts from the computer (either from the operating system, command
shell, or application). These should be marked up using
prompt.As a special case, the two shell prompts for the normal
user and the root user have been provided as entities. Every
time you want to indicate the user is at a shell prompt, use
one of &prompt.root; and
&prompt.user; as necessary. They do
not need to be inside prompt.&prompt.root; and
&prompt.user; are FreeBSD
extensions to DocBook, and are not part of the original
DTD.userinputWhen displaying text that the user should type in, wrap it
in userinput tags. It will probably be
displayed differently to the user.screen, prompt, and
userinputUse:&prompt.user; ls -1
foo1
foo2
foo3
&prompt.user; ls -1 | grep foo2
foo2
&prompt.user; suPassword:
&prompt.root; cat foo2
This is the file called 'foo2']]>Appearance:&prompt.user; ls -1
foo1
foo2
foo3
&prompt.user; ls -1 | grep foo2
foo2
&prompt.user; suPassword:
&prompt.root; cat foo2
This is the file called 'foo2'Even though we are displaying the contents of the file
foo2, it is not marked
up as programlisting. Reserve
programlisting for showing fragments of files
outside the context of user actions.In-line elementsEmphasizing informationWhen you want to emphasize a particular word or phrase, use
emphasis. This may be presented as italic, or
bold, or might be spoken differently with a text-to-speech
system.There is no way to change the presentation of the emphasis
within your document, no equivalent of HTML's b
and i. If the information you are presenting is
important then consider presenting it in
important rather than
emphasis.emphasisUse:FreeBSD is without doubt the
premiere Unix like operating system for the Intel architecture.]]>Appearance:FreeBSD is without doubt the premiere Unix
like operating system for the Intel architecture.QuotationsTo quote text from another document or source, or to denote
a phrase that is used figuratively, use quote.
Within a quote tag, you may use most of the
markup tags available for normal text.QuotationsUse:However, make sure that the search does not go beyond the
boundary between local and public administration,
as RFC 1535 calls it.]]>Appearance:However, make sure that the search does not go beyond the
boundary between local and public administration,
as RFC 1535 calls it.Keys, mouse buttons, and combinationsTo refer to a specific key on the keyboard, use
keycap. To refer to a mouse button, use
mousebutton. And to refer to combinations of key
presses or mouse clicks, wrap them all in
keycombo.keycombo has an attribute called
action, which may be one of
click, double-click,
other, press,
seq, or simul. The last two
values denote whether the keys or buttons should be pressed in
sequence, or simultaneously.The stylesheets automatically add any connecting symbols, such
as +, between the key names, when wrapped in
keycombo.Keys, mouse buttons, and combinationsUse:To switch to the second virtual terminal, press
AltF1.
To exit vi without saving your work, type
Esc:q!.My window manager is configured so that
Altright mouse button is used to move windows.]]>Appearance:To switch to the second virtual terminal, press
AltF1.To exit vi without saving your work, type
Esc:q!.My window manager is configured so that
Altright mouse button is used to move windows.Applications, commands, options, and citesYou will frequently want to refer to both applications and
commands when writing for the Handbook. The distinction between
them is simple: an application is the name for a suite (or possibly
just 1) of programs that fulfil a particular task. A command is the
name of a program that the user can run.In addition, you will occasionally need to list one or more of
the options that a command might take.Finally, you will often want to list a command with its manual
section number, in the command(number) format so
common in Unix manuals.Mark up application names with
application.When you want to list a command with its manual section number
(which should be most of the time) the DocBook element is
citerefentry. This will contain a further two
elements, refentrytitle and
manvolnum. The content of
refentrytitle is the name of the command, and the
content of manvolnum is the manual page
section.This can be cumbersome to write, and so a series of general entities
have been created to make this easier. Each entity takes the form
&man.manual-page.manual-section;.The file that contains these entities is in
doc/share/sgml/man-refs.ent, and can be
referred to using this FPI:PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Manual Page Entities//EN"Therefore, the introduction to your documentation will probably
look like this:<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook V4.1-Based Extension//EN" [
<!ENTITY % man PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Manual Page Entities//EN">
%man;
…
]>Use command when you want to include a
command name in-line but present it as something the
user should type in.Use option to mark up a command's
options.When referring to the same command multiple times in
close proximity it is preferred to use the
&man.command.section;
notation to markup the first reference and use
command to markup subsequent references.
This makes the generated output, especially HTML, appear
visually better.This can be confusing, and sometimes the choice is not always
clear. Hopefully this example makes it clearer.Applications, commands, and options.Use:Sendmail is the most
widely used Unix mail application.
Sendmail includes the
sendmail8, &man.mailq.8;, and &man.newaliases.8;
programs.One of the command line parameters to sendmail8, , will display the current
status of messages in the mail queue. Check this on the command
line by running sendmail -bp.]]>Appearance:Sendmail is the most widely used
Unix mail application.Sendmail includes the
sendmail8, mailq8, and newaliases8 programs.One of the command line parameters to sendmail8, , will display the current
status of messages in the mail queue. Check this on the command
line by running sendmail -bp.Notice how the
&man.command.section; notation is easier to follow.Files, directories, extensionsWhenever you wish to refer to the name of a file, a directory,
or a file extension, use filename.filenameUse:The SGML source for the Handbook in English can be
found in /usr/doc/en/handbook/. The first
file is called handbook.sgml in that
directory. You should also see a Makefile
and a number of files with a .ent
extension.]]>Appearance:The SGML source for the Handbook in English can be found in
/usr/doc/en/handbook/. The first file is
called handbook.sgml in that directory. You
should also see a Makefile and a number of
files with a .ent extension.The name of portsFreeBSD extensionThese elements are part of the FreeBSD extension to DocBook,
and do not exist in the original DocBook DTD.You might need to include the name of a program from the
FreeBSD Ports Collection in the documentation. Use the
filename tag with the role
attribute set to package to identify these.
Since ports
can be installed in any number of locations, only include
the category and the port name; do not include
/usr/ports.filename tag with
package roleUse:Install the net/ethereal port to view network traffic.]]>Appearance:Install the net/ethereal
port to view network traffic.DevicesFreeBSD extensionThese elements are part of the FreeBSD extension to DocBook,
and do not exist in the original DocBook DTD.When referring to devices you have two choices. You can either
refer to the device as it appears in /dev, or
you can use the name of the device as it appears in the kernel. For
this latter course, use devicename.Sometimes you will not have a choice. Some devices, such as
networking cards, do not have entries in /dev,
or the entries are markedly different from those entries.devicenameUse:sio is used for serial
communication in FreeBSD. sio manifests
through a number of entries in /dev, including
/dev/ttyd0 and /dev/cuaa0.
By contrast, the networking devices, such as
ed0 do not appear in /dev.In MS-DOS, the first floppy drive is referred to as
a:. In FreeBSD it is
/dev/fd0.]]>Appearance:sio is used for serial communication
in FreeBSD. sio manifests through a
number of entries in /dev, including
/dev/ttyd0 and
/dev/cuaa0.By contrast, the networking devices, such as
ed0 do not appear in
/dev.In MS-DOS, the first floppy drive is referred to as
a:. In FreeBSD it is
/dev/fd0.Hosts, domains, IP addresses, and so forthFreeBSD extensionThese elements are part of the FreeBSD extension to DocBook,
and do not exist in the original DocBook DTD.You can markup identification information for networked
computers (hosts) in several ways, depending on the nature of the
information. All of them use hostid as the
element, with the role attribute selecting the
type of the marked up information.No role attribute, or
role="hostname"With no role attribute (i.e.,
hostid.../hostid) the
marked up information is the simple hostname, such as
freefall or wcarchive.
You can explicitly specify this with
role="hostname".role="domainname"The text is a domain name, such as
FreeBSD.org or
ngo.org.uk. There is no hostname
component.role="fqdn"The text is a Fully Qualified Domain Name, with both
hostname and domain name parts.role="ipaddr"The text is an IP address, probably expressed as a dotted
quad.role="ip6addr"The text is an IPv6 address.role="netmask"The text is a network mask, which might be expressed as a
dotted quad, a hexadecimal string, or as a
/ followed by a number.role="mac"The text is an Ethernet MAC address, expressed as a series
of 2 digit hexadecimal numbers separated by colons.hostid and rolesUse:The local machine can always be referred to by the
name localhost, which will have the IP address
127.0.0.1.
The FreeBSD.org domain
contains a number of different hosts, including
freefall.FreeBSD.org and
bento.FreeBSD.org.When adding an IP alias to an interface (using
ifconfig) always use a
netmask of 255.255.255.255
(which can also be expressed as 0xffffffff.The MAC address uniquely identifies every network card
in existence. A typical MAC address looks like 08:00:20:87:ef:d0.]]>Appearance:The local machine can always be referred to by the name
localhost, which will have the IP address 127.0.0.1.The FreeBSD.org domain
contains a number of different hosts, including freefall.FreeBSD.org and bento.FreeBSD.org.When adding an IP alias to an interface (using
ifconfig) always use a
netmask of 255.255.255.255 (which
can also be expressed as 0xffffffff.The MAC address uniquely identifies every network card in
existence. A typical MAC address looks like 08:00:20:87:ef:d0.UsernamesFreeBSD extensionThese elements are part of the FreeBSD extension to DocBook,
and do not exist in the original DocBook DTD.When you need to refer to a specific username, such as
root or bin, use
username.usernameUse:To carry out most system administration functions you
will need to be root.]]>Appearance:To carry out most system administration functions you will
need to be root.Describing MakefilesFreeBSD extensionThese elements are part of the FreeBSD extension to DocBook,
and do not exist in the original DocBook DTD.Two elements exist to describe parts of
Makefiles, maketarget and
makevar.maketarget identifies a build target exported
by a Makefile that can be given as a parameter
to make. makevar identifies a
variable that can be set (in the environment, on the
make command line, or within the
Makefile) to influence the process.maketarget and
makevarUse:Two common targets in a Makefile
are all and clean.
Typically, invoking all will rebuild the
application, and invoking clean will remove
the temporary files (.o for example) created by
the build process.clean may be controlled by a number of
variables, including CLOBBER and
RECURSE.]]>Appearance:Two common targets in a Makefile are
all and
clean.Typically, invoking all will rebuild
the application, and invoking clean will
remove the temporary files (.o for example)
created by the build process.clean may be controlled by a number
of variables, including CLOBBER and
RECURSE.Literal textYou will often need to include literal text in the
Handbook. This is text that is excerpted from another file, or
which should be copied from the Handbook into another file
verbatim.Some of the time, programlisting will be
sufficient to denote this text. programlisting
is not always appropriate, particularly when you want to include a
portion of a file in-line with the rest of the
paragraph.On these occasions, use literal.literalUse:The maxusers 10 line in the kernel
configuration file determines the size of many system tables, and is
a rough guide to how many simultaneous logins the system will
support.]]>Appearance:The maxusers 10 line in the kernel
configuration file determines the size of many system tables, and
is a rough guide to how many simultaneous logins the system will
support.Showing items that the user must fill
inThere will often be times when you want to show the user what to
do, or refer to a file, or command line, or similar, where the user
cannot simply copy the examples that you provide, but must instead
include some information themselves.replaceable is designed for this eventuality.
Use it inside other elements to indicate parts
of that element's content that the user must replace.replaceableUse:&prompt.user; man command
]]>Appearance:&prompt.user; man commandreplaceable can be used in many different
elements, including literal. This example also
shows that replaceable should only be wrapped
around the content that the user is meant to
provide. The other content should be left alone.Use:The maxusers n
line in the kernel configuration file determines the size of many system
tables, and is a rough guide to how many simultaneous logins the system will
support.
For a desktop workstation, 32 is a good value
for n.]]>Appearance:The maxusers n
line in the kernel configuration file determines the size of many
system tables, and is a rough guide to how many simultaneous
logins the system will support.For a desktop workstation, 32 is a good
value for n.Quoting system errorsYou might want to show errors generated by FreeBSD.
Mark these with errorname. This
indicates the exact error that appears.errornameUse:Panic: cannot mount root ]]>
Appearance:Panic: cannot mount rootImagesImage support in the documentation is currently extremely
experimental. I think the mechanisms described here are unlikely to
change, but that is not guaranteed.You will also need to install the
graphics/ImageMagick port, which is used to
convert between the different image formats. This is a big port,
and most of it is not required. However, while we are working on the
Makefiles and other infrastructure it makes
things easier. This port is not in the
textproc/docproj meta port, you must install it
by hand.The best example of what follows in practice is the
doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/vm-design/ document.
If you are unsure of the description that follows, take a look at the
files in that directory to see how everything hangs together.
Experiment with creating different formatted versions of the
document to see how the image markup appears in the formatted
output.Image formatsWe currently support two formats for images. The format you
should use will depend on the nature of your image.For images that are primarily vector based, such as network
diagrams, time lines, and similar, use Encapsulated Postscript, and
make sure that your images have the .eps
extension.For bitmaps, such as screen captures, use the Portable Network
Graphic format, and make sure that your images have the
.png extension.These are the only formats in which images
should be committed to the CVS repository.Use the right format for the right image. It is to be expected
that your documentation will have a mix of EPS and PNG images. The
Makefiles ensure that the correct format image
is chosen depending on the output format that you use for your
documentation. Do not commit the same image to the
repository in two different formats.It is anticipated that the Documentation Project will switch to
using the Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG) format for vector images.
However, the current state of SVG capable editing tools makes this
impractical.MarkupThe markup for an image is relatively simple. First, markup a
mediaobject. The mediaobject
can contain other, more specific objects. We are concerned with
two, the imageobject and the
textobject.You should include one imageobject, and two
textobject elements. The
imageobject will point to the name of the image
file that will be used (without the extension). The
textobject elements contain information that will
be presented to the user as well as, or instead of, the
image.There are two circumstances where this can happen.When the reader is viewing the documentation in HTML. In
this case, each image will need to have associated alternate
text to show the user, typically whilst the image is loading, or
if they hover the mouse pointer over the image.When the reader is viewing the documentation in plain text.
In this case, each image should have an ASCII art equivalent to
show the user.An example will probably make things easier to understand.
Suppose you have an image, called fig1, that
you want to include in the document. This image is of a rectangle
with an A inside it. The markup for this would be as
follows.<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="fig1">
</imageobject>
<textobject>
<literallayout class="monospaced">+---------------+
| A |
+---------------+</literallayout>
</textobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>A picture</phrase>
</textobject>
</mediaobject>Include an imagedata element inside the
imageobject element. The
fileref attribute should contain the filename
of the image to include, without the extension. The stylesheets
will work out which extension should be added to the filename
automatically.The first textobject should contain a
literallayout element, where the
class attribute is set to
monospaced. This is your opportunity to
demonstrate your ASCII art skills. This content will be used if
the document is converted to plain text.Notice how the first and last lines of the content of the
literallayout element butt up next to the
element's tags. This ensures no extraneous white space is
included.The second textobject should contain a
single phrase element. The contents of this
will become the alt attribute for the image
when this document is converted to HTML.Makefile entriesYour images must be listed in the
Makefile in the IMAGES
variable. This variable should contain the name of all your
source images. For example, if you have
created three figures, fig1.eps,
fig2.png, fig3.png, then
your Makefile should have lines like this in
it.…
IMAGES= fig1.eps fig2.png fig3.png
…or…
IMAGES= fig1.eps
IMAGES+= fig2.png
IMAGES+= fig3.png
…Again, the Makefile will work out the
complete list of images it needs to build your source document, you
only need to list the image files you
provided.Images and chapters in subdirectoriesYou must be careful when you separate your documentation into
smaller files (see ) in
different directories.Suppose you have a book with three chapters, and the chapters
are stored in their own directories, called
chapter1/chapter.sgml,
chapter2/chapter.sgml, and
chapter3/chapter.sgml. If each chapter has
images associated with it, I suggest you place those images in each
chapter's subdirectory (chapter1/,
chapter2/, and
chapter3/).However, if you do this you must include the directory names in
the IMAGES variable in the
Makefile, and you must
include the directory name in the imagedata
element in your document.For example, if you have chapter1/fig1.png,
then chapter1/chapter.sgml should
contain<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="chapter1/fig1">
</imageobject>
…
</mediaobject>The directory name must be included in the
fileref attributeThe Makefile must contain…
IMAGES= chapter1/fig1.png
…Then everything should just work.LinksLinks are also in-line elements.Linking to other parts of the same documentLinking within the same document requires you to specify
where you are linking from (i.e., the text the user will click, or
otherwise indicate, as the source of the link) and where you are
linking to (the link's destination).Each element within DocBook has an attribute called
id. You can place text in this attribute to
uniquely name the element it is attached to.This value will be used when you specify the link
source.Normally, you will only be linking to chapters or sections, so
you would add the id attribute to these
elements.id on chapters and sectionsIntroductionThis is the introduction. It contains a subsection,
which is identified as well.Sub-sect 1This is the subsection.
]]>Obviously, you should use more descriptive values. The values
must be unique within the document (i.e., not just the file, but the
document the file might be included in as well). Notice how the
id for the subsection is constructed by appending
text to the id of the chapter. This helps to
ensure that they are unique.If you want to allow the user to jump into a specific portion of
the document (possibly in the middle of a paragraph or an example),
use anchor. This element has no content, but
takes an id attribute.anchorThis paragraph has an embedded
link target in it. It will not show up in
the document.]]>When you want to provide the user with a link they can activate
(probably by clicking) to go to a section of the document that has
an id attribute, you can use either
xref or link.Both of these elements have a linkend
attribute. The value of this attribute should be the value that you
have used in a id attribute (it does not matter
if that value has not yet occurred in your document; this will work
for forward links as well as backward links).If you use xref then you have no control over
the text of the link. It will be generated for you.Using xrefAssume that this fragment appears somewhere in a document that
includes the id example;More information can be found
in .
More specific information can be found
in .]]>The text of the link will be generated automatically, and will
look like (emphasized text indicates the text
that will be the link);
More information can be found in Chapter
One.More specific information can be found in the
section called Sub-sect 1.
Notice how the text from the link is derived from the section
title or the chapter number.This means that you cannot use
xref to link to an id
attribute on an anchor element. The
anchor has no content, so the
xref cannot generate the text for the
link.If you want to control the text of the link then use
link. This element wraps content, and the
content will be used for the link.Using linkAssume that this fragment appears somewhere in a document that
includes the id example.More information can be found in
the first chapter.
More specific information can be found in
this section.]]>This will generate the following
(emphasized text indicates the text that will
be the link);
More information can be found in the first
chapter.More specific information can be found in
this section.
That last one is a bad example. Never use words like
this or here as the source for the
link. The reader will need to hunt around the surrounding context
to see where the link is actually taking them.You can use link to
include a link to an id on an
anchor element, since the
link content defines the text that will be used
for the link.Linking to documents on the WWWLinking to external documents is much simpler, as long as you
know the URL of the document you want to link to. Use
ulink. The url attribute is
the URL of the page that the link points to, and the content of the
element is the text that will be displayed for the user to
activate.ulinkUse:Of course, you could stop reading this document and
go to the FreeBSD
home page instead.]]>Appearance:Of course, you could stop reading this document and go to the
FreeBSD home page
instead.
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/fdp-primer/the-website/chapter.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/fdp-primer/the-website/chapter.sgml
index 64bcc18e80..9444ecc7af 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/fdp-primer/the-website/chapter.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/fdp-primer/the-website/chapter.sgml
@@ -1,216 +1,216 @@
The WebsitePreparationGet 200MB free disk space. You will need the disk space for the
SGML tools, a subset of the CVS tree, temporary build space and the
installed web pages. If you already have installed the SGML tools and
the CVS tree, you need only ~100MB free disk space.Make sure your documentation ports are up to date! When in
doubt, remove the old ports using &man.pkg.delete.1; command before
installing the port. For example, we currently depend on
jade-1.2 and if you have installed jade-1.1, please do&prompt.root; pkg_delete jade-1.1Set up a CVS repository. You need the directories www, doc and
ports in the CVS tree (plus the CVSROOT of course). Please read the
- CVSup introduction
+ CVSup introduction
on how to mirror a CVS tree or parts of a CVS tree.The essential cvsup collections are: www,
doc-all, cvs-base, and
ports-base.These collections require ~105MB free disk space.A full CVS tree - including src,
doc, www, and
ports - is currently 940MB.Build the web pages from scratchGo to into a build directory with at least 60MB of free
space.&prompt.root; mkdir /var/tmp/webbuild
&prompt.root; cd /var/tmp/webbuildCheckout the SGML files from the CVS tree.&prompt.root; cvs -R co www docChange into the www directory, and
run the &man.make.1; links target, to
create the necessary symbolic links.&prompt.root; cd www
&prompt.root; make linksChange into the en directory, and run
the &man.make.1; all target, to create
the web pages.&prompt.root; cd en
&prompt.root; make allInstall the web pages into your web serverIf you have moved out of the en
directory, change back to it.&prompt.root; cd path/www/enRun the &man.make.1; install target,
setting the DESTDIR variable to the name of the
directory you want to install the files to.&prompt.root; make DESTDIR=/usr/local/www installIf you have previously installed the web pages into the same
directory the install process will not have deleted any old or
outdated pages. For example, if you build and install a new copy
of the site every day, this command will find and delete all
files that have not been updated in three days.&prompt.root; find /usr/local/www -ctime 3 -print0 | xargs -0 rmEnvironment variablesCVSROOTLocation of the CVS tree. Essential.&prompt.root; CVSROOT=/home/ncvs; export CVSROOTENGLISH_ONLYIf set and not empty, the makefiles will build and
install only the English documents. All translations will be
ignored. E.g.:&prompt.root; make ENGLISH_ONLY=YES all installIf you want unset the variable
ENGLISH_ONLY and build all pages, including
translations, set the variable ENGLISH_ONLY
to an empty value&prompt.root; make ENGLISH_ONLY="" all install cleanWEB_ONLYIf set and not empty, the makefiles will build and install
only the HTML pages from the www directory. All documents from
the doc directory (Handbook, FAQ, Tutorials) will be ignored.
E.g.:&prompt.root; make WEB_ONLY=YES all installNOPORTSCVSIf set, the makefiles will not checkout files from the ports
cvs repository. Instead, it will copy the files from
/usr/ports (or where the variable
PORTSBASE points to).CVSROOT is an environment variable. You must set it
on the command line or in your dot files (~/.profile).WEB_ONLY, ENGLISH_ONLY and
NOPORTSCVS are makefile variables. You can set the
variables in /etc/make.conf,
Makefile.inc or as environment variables on the
command line or in your dot files.
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 f0685ad971..a82702f84c 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/advanced-networking/chapter.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/advanced-networking/chapter.sgml
@@ -1,4078 +1,4078 @@
Advanced NetworkingSynopsisThis chapter will cover a number of advanced networking
topics.After reading this chapter, you will know:The basics of gateways and routes.How to set up IEEE 802.11 and &bluetooth; devices.How to make FreeBSD act as a bridge.How to set up network booting on a diskless machine.How to set up network address translation.How to connect two computers via PLIP.How to set up IPv6 on a FreeBSD machine.How to configure ATM under &os; 5.X.Before reading this chapter, you should:Understand the basics of the /etc/rc scripts.Be familiar with basic network terminology.Know how to configure and install a new FreeBSD kernel
().Know how to install additional third-party
software ().CoranthGryphonContributed by Gateways and RoutesroutinggatewaysubnetFor 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 ExampleTo 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 0default routeThe first two lines specify the default route (which we
will cover in the next
section) and the localhost route.loopback deviceThe interface (Netif column) that this
routing table 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.EthernetMAC addressThe 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. When this happens, the
route to this host 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.subnetFreeBSD 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 (i.e. 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 on 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 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 routes.The final line (destination subnet 224) deals
with multicasting, which will be covered in another section.Finally, various attributes of each route can be seen in
the Flags column. Below is a short table
of some of these flags and their meanings:UUp: The route is active.HHost: The route destination is a single host.GGateway: Send anything for this destination on to this
remote system, which will figure out from there where to send
it.SStatic: This route was configured manually, not
automatically generated by the system.CClone: Generates a new route based upon this route for
machines we connect to. This type of route is normally used
for local networks.WWasCloned: Indicated a route that was auto-configured
based upon a local area network (Clone) route.LLink: Route involves references to Ethernet
hardware.Default Routesdefault routeWhen the local system needs to make a connection to a 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 through an
external interface to the ISPs Internet feed.The default routes for each of your machines will be:HostDefault GatewayInterfaceLocal2Local1EthernetLocal1T1-GWPPPA 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.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:HostDefault RouteLocal2 (10.20.30.2)Local1 (10.20.30.1)Local1 (10.20.30.1, 10.9.9.30)T1-GW (10.9.9.1)You can easily define the default route via the
/etc/rc.conf file. In our example, on the
Local2 machine, we added the following line
in /etc/rc.conf:defaultrouter="10.20.30.1"It is also possible to do it directly from the command
line with the &man.route.8; command:&prompt.root; route add default 10.20.30.1For more informations on manual manipulation of network
routing tables, consult &man.route.8; manual page.Dual Homed Hostsdual homed hostsThere 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 router
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. See the next section for more details on how
to do this.Building a RouterrouterA 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 gatewayThis option will set 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. Support for BGP v4, OSPF v2, and other
sophisticated routing protocols is available with the
net/zebra package.
Commercial products such as &gated; are also available for more
complex network routing solutions.BGPRIPOSPFEven 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.AlHoangContributed by Setting Up Static RoutesManual ConfigurationLet us assume we have a network as follows:
INTERNET
| (10.0.0.1/24) Default Router to Internet
|
|Interface xl0
|10.0.0.10/24
+------+
| | RouterA
| | (FreeBSD gateway)
+------+
| Interface xl1
| 192.168.1.1/24
|
+--------------------------------+
Internal Net 1 | 192.168.1.2/24
|
+------+
| | RouterB
| |
+------+
| 192.168.2.1/24
|
Internal Net 2
In this scenario, RouterA is our &os;
machine that is acting as a router to the rest of the
Internet. It has a default route set to 10.0.0.1 which allows it to connect
with the outside world. We will assume that
RouterB is already configured properly and
knows how to get wherever it needs to go. (This is simple
in this picture. Just add a default route on
RouterB using 192.168.1.1 as the gateway.)If we look at the routing table for
RouterA we would see something like the
following:&prompt.user; netstat -nr
Routing tables
Internet:
Destination Gateway Flags Refs Use Netif Expire
default 10.0.0.1 UGS 0 49378 xl0
127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 UH 0 6 lo0
10.0.0/24 link#1 UC 0 0 xl0
192.168.1/24 link#2 UC 0 0 xl1With the current routing table RouterA
will not be able to reach our Internal Net 2. It does not
have a route for 192.168.2.0/24. One way to alleviate
this is to manually add the route. The following command
would add the Internal Net 2 network to
RouterA's routing table using 192.168.1.2 as the next hop:&prompt.root; route add -net 192.168.2.0/24 192.168.1.2Now RouterA can reach any hosts on the
192.168.2.0/24
network.Persistent ConfigurationThe above example is perfect for configuring a static
route on a running system. However, one problem is that the
routing information will not persist if you reboot your &os;
machine. The way to handle the addition of a static route
is to put it in your /etc/rc.conf
file:# Add Internal Net 2 as a static route
static_routes="internalnet2"
route_internalnet2="-net 192.168.2.0/24 192.168.1.2"The static_routes configuration
variable is a list of strings separated by a space. Each
string references to a route name. In our above example we
only have one string in static_routes.
This string is internalnet2. We
then add a configuration variable called
route_internalnet2
where we put all of the configuration parameters we would
give to the &man.route.8; command. For our example above we
would have used the command:&prompt.root; route add -net 192.168.2.0/24 192.168.1.2so we need "-net 192.168.2.0/24 192.168.1.2".As said above, we can have more than one string in
static_routes. This allows us to
create multiple static routes. The following lines shows
an example of adding static routes for the 192.168.0.0/24 and 192.168.1.0/24 networks on an imaginary
router:static_routes="net1 net2"
route_net1="-net 192.168.0.0/24 192.168.0.1"
route_net2="-net 192.168.1.0/24 192.168.1.1"Routing Propagationrouting propagationWe 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.TroubleshootingtracerouteSometimes, 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 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;.Multicast Routingmulticastoptions MROUTINGFreeBSD supports both multicast applications and multicast
routing natively. Multicast applications do not require any
special configuration of FreeBSD; applications will generally
run out of the box. Multicast routing
requires that support be compiled into the kernel:options MROUTINGIn addition, the multicast routing daemon, &man.mrouted.8;
must be configured to set up tunnels and DVMRP via
/etc/mrouted.conf. More details on
multicast configuration may be found in the manual page for
&man.mrouted.8;.EricAndersonWritten by Wireless Networkingwireless networking802.11wireless networkingIntroductionIt can be very useful to be able to use a computer without the
annoyance of having a network cable attached at all times. FreeBSD can
be used as a wireless client, and even as a wireless access
point.Wireless Modes of OperationThere are two different ways to configure 802.11 wireless devices:
BSS and IBSS.BSS ModeBSS mode is the mode that typically is used. BSS mode is
also called infrastructure mode. In this mode, a number of
wireless access points are connected to a wired network. Each
wireless network has its own name. This name is called the
SSID of the network.Wireless clients connect to these wireless access
points. The IEEE 802.11 standard defines the protocol that
wireless networks use to connect. A wireless client can be
tied to a specific network, when a SSID is set. A wireless
client can also attach to any network by not explicitly
setting a SSID.IBSS ModeIBSS mode, also called ad-hoc mode, is designed for point
to point connections. There are actually two types of ad-hoc
mode. One is IBSS mode, also called ad-hoc or IEEE ad-hoc
mode. This mode is defined by the IEEE 802.11 standards.
The second is called demo ad-hoc mode or Lucent ad-hoc mode
(and sometimes, confusingly, ad-hoc mode). This is the old,
pre-802.11 ad-hoc mode and should only be used for legacy
installations. We will not cover either of the ad-hoc modes
further.Infrastructure ModeAccess PointsAccess points are wireless networking devices that allow
one or more wireless clients to use the device as a central
hub. When using an access point, all clients communicate
through the access point. Multiple access points are often
used to cover a complete area such as a house, business, or
park with a wireless network.Access points typically have multiple network
connections: the wireless card, and one or more wired Ethernet
adapters for connection to the rest of the network.
Access points can either be purchased prebuilt, or you
can build your own with FreeBSD and a supported wireless card.
Several vendors make wireless access points and wireless cards
with various features.Building a FreeBSD Access Pointwireless networkingaccess pointRequirementsIn order to set up a wireless access point with
FreeBSD, you need to have a compatible wireless card.
Currently, only cards with the Prism chipset are
supported. You will also need a wired network card that is
supported by FreeBSD (this should not be difficult to find,
FreeBSD supports a lot of different devices). For this
guide, we will assume you want to &man.bridge.4; all traffic
between the wireless device and the network attached to the
wired network card.The hostap functionality that FreeBSD uses to implement
the access point works best with certain versions of
firmware. Prism 2 cards should use firmware version 1.3.4
or newer. Prism 2.5 and Prism 3 cards should use firmware
1.4.9. Older versions of the firmware way or may not
function correctly. At this time, the only way to update
cards is with &windows; firmware update utilities available
from your card's manufacturer.Setting It UpFirst, make sure your system can see the wireless card:&prompt.root; ifconfig -a
wi0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet6 fe80::202:2dff:fe2d:c938%wi0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x7
inet 0.0.0.0 netmask 0xff000000 broadcast 255.255.255.255
ether 00:09:2d:2d:c9:50
media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect (DS/2Mbps)
status: no carrier
ssid ""
stationname "FreeBSD Wireless node"
channel 10 authmode OPEN powersavemode OFF powersavesleep 100
wepmode OFF weptxkey 1Do not worry about the details now, just make sure it shows you
something to indicate you have a wireless card installed.
If you have trouble seeing the wireless interface, and you
are using a PC Card, you may want to check out
&man.pccardc.8; and &man.pccardd.8; manual pages for more
information.Next, you will need to load a module in order to get
the bridging part of FreeBSD ready for the access point.
To load the &man.bridge.4; module, simply run the
following command:&prompt.root; kldload bridgeIt should not have produced any errors when loading the
module. If it did, you may need to compile the
&man.bridge.4; code into your kernel. The Bridging section of this handbook
should be able to help you accomplish that task.Now that you have the bridging stuff done, we need to
tell the FreeBSD kernel which interfaces to bridge together.
We do that by using &man.sysctl.8;:&prompt.root; sysctl net.link.ether.bridge=1
&prompt.root; sysctl net.link.ether.bridge_cfg="wi0,xl0"
&prompt.root; sysctl net.inet.ip.forwarding=1On &os; 5.2-RELEASE and later, you have to use
instead the following options:&prompt.root; sysctl net.link.ether.bridge.enable=1
&prompt.root; sysctl net.link.ether.bridge.config="wi0,xl0"
&prompt.root; sysctl net.inet.ip.forwarding=1Now it is time for the wireless card setup.
The following command will set the card into an access point:
&prompt.root; ifconfig wi0 ssid my_net channel 11 media DS/11Mbps mediaopt hostap up stationname "FreeBSD AP"The &man.ifconfig.8; line brings the
wi0 interface up, sets its SSID to
my_net, and sets the station name to
FreeBSD AP. The sets the card into 11Mbps mode and is
needed for any to take effect.
The option places the
interface into access point mode. The option sets the 802.11b channel to use. The
&man.wicontrol.8; manual page has valid channel options for
your regulatory domain.
Now you should have a complete functioning access point
up and running. You are encouraged to read
&man.wicontrol.8;, &man.ifconfig.8;, and &man.wi.4; for
further information.
It is also suggested that you read the section on encryption that follows.Status InformationOnce the access point is configured and operational,
operators will want to see the clients that are associated
with the access point. At any time, the operator may type:&prompt.root; wicontrol -l
1 station:
00:09:b7:7b:9d:16 asid=04c0, flags=3<ASSOC,AUTH>, caps=1<ESS>, rates=f<1M,2M,5.5M,11M>, sig=38/15
This shows that there is one station associated, along
with its parameters. The signal indicated should be used
as a relative indication of strength only. Its
translation to dBm or other units varies between different
firmware revisions.ClientsA wireless client is a system that accesses an access
point or another client directly. Typically, wireless clients only have one network device,
the wireless networking card.There are a few different ways to configure a wireless
client. These are based on the different wireless modes,
generally BSS (infrastructure mode, which requires an access
point), and IBSS (ad-hoc, or peer-to-peer mode). In our
example, we will use the most popular of the two, BSS mode, to
talk to an access point.RequirementsThere is only one real requirement for setting up FreeBSD as a wireless client.
You will need a wireless card that is supported by FreeBSD.Setting Up a Wireless FreeBSD ClientYou will need to know a few things about the wireless
network you are joining before you start. In this example, we
are joining a network that has a name of
my_net, and encryption turned off.In this example, we are not using encryption, which
is a dangerous situation. In the next section, you will learn
how to turn on encryption, why it is important to do so,
and why some encryption technologies still do not completely
protect you.Make sure your card is recognized by FreeBSD:&prompt.root; ifconfig -a
wi0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet6 fe80::202:2dff:fe2d:c938%wi0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x7
inet 0.0.0.0 netmask 0xff000000 broadcast 255.255.255.255
ether 00:09:2d:2d:c9:50
media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect (DS/2Mbps)
status: no carrier
ssid ""
stationname "FreeBSD Wireless node"
channel 10 authmode OPEN powersavemode OFF powersavesleep 100
wepmode OFF weptxkey 1Now, we can set the card to the correct settings for our
network:&prompt.root; ifconfig wi0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 255.255.255.0 ssid my_netReplace 192.168.0.20 and
255.255.255.0 with a valid IP
address and netmask on your wired network. Remember, our
access point is bridging the data between the wireless
network, and the wired network, so it will appear to the other
devices on your network that you are on the wired network just
as they are.Once you have done that, you should be able to ping hosts
on the wired network just as if you were connected using a
standard wired connection.If you are experiencing problems with your wireless
connection, check to make sure that you are associated
(connected) to the access point:&prompt.root; ifconfig wi0should return some information, and you should see:status: associatedIf it does not show associated, then you may be out of
range of the access point, have encryption on, or
possibly have a configuration problem.Encryptionwireless networkingencryptionEncryption on a wireless network is important because you
no longer have the ability to keep the network contained in a
well protected area. Your wireless data will be broadcast
across your entire neighborhood, so anyone who cares to read it
can. This is where encryption comes in. By encrypting the
data that is sent over the airwaves, you make it much more
difficult for any interested party to grab your data right out
of the air. The two most common ways to encrypt the data between your
client and the access point are WEP, and &man.ipsec.4;.WEPWEPWEP is an abbreviation for Wired Equivalency Protocol.
WEP is an attempt to make wireless networks as safe and secure
as a wired network. Unfortunately, it has been cracked, and is
fairly trivial to break. This also means it is not something
to rely on when it comes to encrypting sensitive data. It is better than nothing, so use the following to turn on
WEP on your new FreeBSD access point:&prompt.root; ifconfig wi0 inet up ssid my_net wepmode on wepkey 0x1234567890 media DS/11Mbps mediaopt hostapAnd you can turn on WEP on a client with this command:&prompt.root; ifconfig wi0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 255.255.255.0 ssid my_net wepmode on wepkey 0x1234567890Note that you should replace the 0x1234567890 with a more unique key.IPsec&man.ipsec.4; is a much more robust and powerful tool for
encrypting data across a network. This is definitely the
preferred way to encrypt data over a wireless network. You can
read more about &man.ipsec.4; security and how to implement it
in the IPsec section of this
handbook.ToolsThere are a small number of tools available for use in
debugging and setting up your wireless network, and here we will
attempt to describe some of them and what they do.The bsd-airtools PackageThe bsd-airtools package is a
complete toolset that includes wireless auditing tools for WEP
key cracking, access point detection, etc.The bsd-airtools utilities can be
installed from the net/bsd-airtools port. Information on
installing ports can be found in of this
handbook.The program dstumbler is the packaged
tool that allows for access point discovery and signal to noise
ratio graphing. If you are having a hard time getting your
access point up and running, dstumbler may
help you get started.To test your wireless network security, you may choose to
use dweputils (dwepcrack,
dwepdump and dwepkeygen)
to help you determine if WEP is the right solution to your
wireless security needs.The wicontrol, ancontrol and raycontrol UtilitiesThese are the tools you can use to control how your wireless
card behaves on the wireless network. In the examples above, we
have chosen to use &man.wicontrol.8;, since our wireless card is
a wi0 interface. If you had a Cisco
wireless device, it would come up as
an0, and therefore you would use
&man.ancontrol.8;.The ifconfig CommandifconfigThe &man.ifconfig.8; command can be used to do many of the same options
as &man.wicontrol.8;, however it does lack a few options. Check
&man.ifconfig.8; for command line parameters and options.Supported CardsAccess PointsThe only cards that are currently supported for BSS (as an
access point) mode are devices based on the Prism 2, 2.5, or 3
chipsets. For a complete list, look at &man.wi.4;.ClientsAlmost all 802.11b wireless cards are currently supported
under FreeBSD. Most cards based on Prism, Spectrum24, Hermes,
Aironet, and Raylink will work as a wireless network card in
IBSS (ad-hoc, peer-to-peer, and BSS) mode.PavLucistnikWritten by pav@oook.czBluetoothBluetoothIntroductionBluetooth is a wireless technology for creating personal networks
operating in the 2.4 GHz unlicensed band, with a range of 10 meters.
Networks are usually formed ad-hoc from portable devices such as
cellular phones, handhelds and laptops. Unlike the other popular
wireless technology, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth offers higher level service
profiles, e.g. FTP-like file servers, file pushing, voice transport,
serial line emulation, and more.The Bluetooth stack in &os; is implemented using the Netgraph
framework (see &man.netgraph.4;). A broad variety of Bluetooth USB
dongles is supported by the &man.ng.ubt.4; driver. The Broadcom BCM2033
chip based Bluetooth devices are supported via the &man.ubtbcmfw.4; and
&man.ng.ubt.4; drivers. The 3Com Bluetooth PC Card 3CRWB60-A is
supported by the &man.ng.bt3c.4; driver. Serial and UART based
Bluetooth devices are supported via &man.sio.4;, &man.ng.h4.4;
and &man.hcseriald.8;. This section describes the use of the USB
Bluetooth dongle. Bluetooth support is available in &os; 5.0 and newer
systems.Plugging in the DeviceBy default Bluetooth device drivers are available as kernel modules.
Before attaching a device, you will need to load the driver into the
kernel:&prompt.root; kldload ng_ubtIf the Bluetooth device is present in the system during system
startup, load the module from
/boot/loader.conf:ng_ubt_load="YES"Plug in your USB dongle. The output similar to the following will
appear on the console (or in syslog):ubt0: vendor 0x0a12 product 0x0001, rev 1.10/5.25, addr 2
ubt0: Interface 0 endpoints: interrupt=0x81, bulk-in=0x82, bulk-out=0x2
ubt0: Interface 1 (alt.config 5) endpoints: isoc-in=0x83, isoc-out=0x3,
wMaxPacketSize=49, nframes=6, buffer size=294Copy
/usr/share/examples/netgraph/bluetooth/rc.bluetooth
into some convenient place, like /etc/rc.bluetooth.
This script is used to start and stop the Bluetooth stack. It is a good
idea to stop the stack before unplugging the device, but it is not
(usually) fatal. When starting the stack, you will receive output similar
to the following:&prompt.root; /etc/rc.bluetooth start ubt0
BD_ADDR: 00:02:72:00:d4:1a
Features: 0xff 0xff 0xf 00 00 00 00 00
<3-Slot> <5-Slot> <Encryption> <Slot offset>
<Timing accuracy> <Switch> <Hold mode> <Sniff mode>
<Park mode> <RSSI> <Channel quality> <SCO link>
<HV2 packets> <HV3 packets> <u-law log> <A-law log> <CVSD>
<Paging scheme> <Power control> <Transparent SCO data>
Max. ACL packet size: 192 bytes
Number of ACL packets: 8
Max. SCO packet size: 64 bytes
Number of SCO packets: 8HCIHost Controller Interface (HCI)Host Controller Interface (HCI) provides a command interface to the
baseband controller and link manager, and access to hardware status and
control registers. This interface provides a uniform method of accessing
the Bluetooth baseband capabilities. HCI layer on the Host exchanges
data and commands with the HCI firmware on the Bluetooth hardware.
The Host Controller Transport Layer (i.e. physical bus) driver provides
both HCI layers with the ability to exchange information with each
other.A single Netgraph node of type hci is
created for a single Bluetooth device. The HCI node is normally
connected to the Bluetooth device driver node (downstream) and
the L2CAP node (upstream). All HCI operations must be performed
on the HCI node and not on the device driver node. Default name
for the HCI node is devicehci.
For more details refer to the &man.ng.hci.4; manual page.One of the most common tasks is discovery of Bluetooth devices in
RF proximity. This operation is called inquiry.
Inquiry and other HCI related operations are done with the
&man.hccontrol.8; utility. The example below shows how to find out
which Bluetooth devices are in range. You should receive the list of
devices in a few seconds. Note that a remote device will only answer
the inquiry if it put into discoverable
mode.&prompt.user; hccontrol -n ubt0hci inquiry
Inquiry result, num_responses=1
Inquiry result #0
BD_ADDR: 00:80:37:29:19:a4
Page Scan Rep. Mode: 0x1
Page Scan Period Mode: 00
Page Scan Mode: 00
Class: 52:02:04
Clock offset: 0x78ef
Inquiry complete. Status: No error [00]BD_ADDR is unique address of a Bluetooth
device, similar to MAC addresses of a network card. This address
is needed for further communication with a device. It is possible
to assign human readable name to a BD_ADDR.
The /etc/bluetooth/hosts file contains information
regarding the known Bluetooth hosts. The following example shows how
to obtain human readable name that was assigned to the remote
device:&prompt.user; hccontrol -n ubt0hci remote_name_request 00:80:37:29:19:a4
BD_ADDR: 00:80:37:29:19:a4
Name: Pav's T39If you perform an inquiry on a remote Bluetooth device, it will
find your computer as your.host.name (ubt0). The name
assigned to the local device can be changed at any time.The Bluetooth system provides a point-to-point connection (only two
Bluetooth units involved), or a point-to-multipoint connection. In the
point-to-multipoint connection the connection is shared among several
Bluetooth devices. The following example shows how to obtain the list
of active baseband connections for the local device:&prompt.user; hccontrol -n ubt0hci read_connection_list
Remote BD_ADDR Handle Type Mode Role Encrypt Pending Queue State
00:80:37:29:19:a4 41 ACL 0 MAST NONE 0 0 OPENA connection handle is useful when termination
of the baseband connection is required. Note, that it is normally not
required to do it by hand. The stack will automatically terminate
inactive baseband connections.&prompt.root; hccontrol -n ubt0hci disconnect 41
Connection handle: 41
Reason: Connection terminated by local host [0x16]Refer to hccontrol help for a complete listing
of available HCI commands. Most of the HCI commands do not require
superuser privileges.L2CAPLogical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol (L2CAP)Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol (L2CAP) provides
connection-oriented and connectionless data services to upper layer
protocols with protocol multiplexing capability and segmentation and
reassembly operation. L2CAP permits higher level protocols and
applications to transmit and receive L2CAP data packets up to 64
kilobytes in length.L2CAP is based around the concept of channels.
Channel is a logical connection on top of baseband connection. Each
channel is bound to a single protocol in a many-to-one fashion. Multiple
channels can be bound to the same protocol, but a channel cannot be
bound to multiple protocols. Each L2CAP packet received on a channel is
directed to the appropriate higher level protocol. Multiple channels
can share the same baseband connection.A single Netgraph node of type l2cap is
created for a single Bluetooth device. The L2CAP node is normally
connected to the Bluetooth HCI node (downstream) and Bluetooth sockets
nodes (upstream). Default name for the L2CAP node is
devicel2cap. For more details refer to the
&man.ng.l2cap.4; manual page.A useful command is &man.l2ping.8;, which can be used to ping
other devices. Some Bluetooth implementations might not return all of
the data sent to them, so 0 bytes in the following
example is normal.&prompt.root; l2ping -a 00:80:37:29:19:a4
0 bytes from 0:80:37:29:19:a4 seq_no=0 time=48.633 ms result=0
0 bytes from 0:80:37:29:19:a4 seq_no=1 time=37.551 ms result=0
0 bytes from 0:80:37:29:19:a4 seq_no=2 time=28.324 ms result=0
0 bytes from 0:80:37:29:19:a4 seq_no=3 time=46.150 ms result=0The &man.l2control.8; utility is used to perform various operations
on L2CAP nodes. This example shows how to obtain the list of logical
connections (channels) and the list of baseband connections for the
local device:&prompt.user; l2control -a 00:02:72:00:d4:1a read_channel_list
L2CAP channels:
Remote BD_ADDR SCID/ DCID PSM IMTU/ OMTU State
00:07:e0:00:0b:ca 66/ 64 3 132/ 672 OPEN
&prompt.user; l2control -a 00:02:72:00:d4:1a read_connection_list
L2CAP connections:
Remote BD_ADDR Handle Flags Pending State
00:07:e0:00:0b:ca 41 O 0 OPENAnother diagnostic tool is &man.btsockstat.1;. It does a job
similar to as &man.netstat.1; does, but for Bluetooth network-related
data structures. The example below shows the same logical connection as
&man.l2control.8; above.&prompt.user; btsockstat
Active L2CAP sockets
PCB Recv-Q Send-Q Local address/PSM Foreign address CID State
c2afe900 0 0 00:02:72:00:d4:1a/3 00:07:e0:00:0b:ca 66 OPEN
Active RFCOMM sessions
L2PCB PCB Flag MTU Out-Q DLCs State
c2afe900 c2b53380 1 127 0 Yes OPEN
Active RFCOMM sockets
PCB Recv-Q Send-Q Local address Foreign address Chan DLCI State
c2e8bc80 0 250 00:02:72:00:d4:1a 00:07:e0:00:0b:ca 3 6 OPENRFCOMMRFCOMM ProtocolThe RFCOMM protocol provides emulation of serial ports over the
L2CAP protocol. The protocol is based on the ETSI standard TS 07.10.
RFCOMM is a simple transport protocol, with additional provisions for
emulating the 9 circuits of RS-232 (EIATIA-232-E) serial ports. The
RFCOMM protocol supports up to 60 simultaneous connections (RFCOMM
channels) between two Bluetooth devices.For the purposes of RFCOMM, a complete communication path involves
two applications running on different devices (the communication
endpoints) with a communication segment between them. RFCOMM is intended
to cover applications that make use of the serial ports of the devices
in which they reside. The communication segment is a Bluetooth link from
one device to another (direct connect).RFCOMM is only concerned with the connection between the devices in
the direct connect case, or between the device and a modem in the
network case. RFCOMM can support other configurations, such as modules
that communicate via Bluetooth wireless technology on one side and
provide a wired interface on the other side.In &os; the RFCOMM protocol is implemented at the Bluetooth sockets
layer.pairingPairing of DevicesBy default, Bluetooth communication is not authenticated, and any
device can talk to any other device. A Bluetooth device (for example,
cellular phone) may choose to require authentication to provide a
particular service (for example, Dial-Up service). Bluetooth
authentication is normally done with PIN codes.
A PIN code is an ASCII string up to 16 characters in length. User is
required to enter the same PIN code on both devices. Once user has
entered the PIN code, both devices will generate a
link key. After that the link key can be stored
either in the devices themselves or in a persistent storage. Next time
both devices will use previously generated link key. The described
above procedure is called pairing. Note that if
the link key is lost by any device then pairing must be repeated.The &man.hcsecd.8; daemon is responsible for handling of all
Bluetooth authentication requests. The default configuration file is
/etc/bluetooth/hcsecd.conf. An example section for
a cellular phone with the PIN code arbitrarily set to
1234 is shown below:device {
bdaddr 00:80:37:29:19:a4;
name "Pav's T39";
key nokey;
pin "1234";
}There is no limitation on PIN codes (except length). Some devices
(for example Bluetooth headsets) may have a fixed PIN code built in.
The switch forces the &man.hcsecd.8; daemon to stay
in the foreground, so it is easy to see what is happening. Set the
remote device to receive pairing and initiate the Bluetooth connection
to the remote device. The remote device should say that pairing was
accepted, and request the PIN code. Enter the same PIN code as you
have in hcsecd.conf. Now your PC and the remote
device are paired. Alternatively, you can initiate pairing on the remote
device. The following is a sample of the
hcsecd daemon output:hcsecd[16484]: Got Link_Key_Request event from 'ubt0hci', remote bdaddr 0:80:37:29:19:a4
hcsecd[16484]: Found matching entry, remote bdaddr 0:80:37:29:19:a4, name 'Pav's T39', link key doesn't exist
hcsecd[16484]: Sending Link_Key_Negative_Reply to 'ubt0hci' for remote bdaddr 0:80:37:29:19:a4
hcsecd[16484]: Got PIN_Code_Request event from 'ubt0hci', remote bdaddr 0:80:37:29:19:a4
hcsecd[16484]: Found matching entry, remote bdaddr 0:80:37:29:19:a4, name 'Pav's T39', PIN code exists
hcsecd[16484]: Sending PIN_Code_Reply to 'ubt0hci' for remote bdaddr 0:80:37:29:19:a4SDPService Discovery Protocol (SDP)The Service Discovery Protocol (SDP) provides the means for client
applications to discover the existence of services provided by server
applications as well as the attributes of those services. The attributes
of a service include the type or class of service offered and the
mechanism or protocol information needed to utilize the service.SDP involves communication between a SDP server and a SDP client.
The server maintains a list of service records that describe the
characteristics of services associated with the server. Each service
record contains information about a single service. A client may
retrieve information from a service record maintained by the SDP server
by issuing a SDP request. If the client, or an application associated
with the client, decides to use a service, it must open a separate
connection to the service provider in order to utilize the service.
SDP provides a mechanism for discovering services and their attributes,
but it does not provide a mechanism for utilizing those services.Normally, a SDP client searches for services based on some desired
characteristics of the services. However, there are times when it is
desirable to discover which types of services are described by an SDP
server's service records without any a priori information about the
services. This process of looking for any offered services is called
browsing.The Bluetooth SDP server &man.sdpd.8; and command line client
&man.sdpcontrol.8; are included in the standard &os; installation.
The following example shows how to perform a SDP browse query.&prompt.user; sdpcontrol -a 00:01:03:fc:6e:ec browse
Record Handle: 00000000
Service Class ID List:
Service Discovery Server (0x1000)
Protocol Descriptor List:
L2CAP (0x0100)
Protocol specific parameter #1: u/int/uuid16 1
Protocol specific parameter #2: u/int/uuid16 1
Record Handle: 0x00000001
Service Class ID List:
Browse Group Descriptor (0x1001)
Record Handle: 0x00000002
Service Class ID List:
LAN Access Using PPP (0x1102)
Protocol Descriptor List:
L2CAP (0x0100)
RFCOMM (0x0003)
Protocol specific parameter #1: u/int8/bool 1
Bluetooth Profile Descriptor List:
LAN Access Using PPP (0x1102) ver. 1.0
... and so on. Note that each service has a list of attributes
(RFCOMM channel for example). Depending on the service you might need to
make a note of some of the attributes. Some Bluetooth implementations do
not support service browsing and may return an empty list. In this case
it is possible to search for the specific service. The example below
shows how to search for the OBEX Object Push (OPUSH) service:&prompt.user; sdpcontrol -a 00:01:03:fc:6e:ec search OPUSHOffering services on &os; to Bluetooth clients is done with the
&man.sdpd.8; server:&prompt.root; sdpdThe local server application that wants to provide Bluetooth
service to the remote clients will register service with the local
SDP daemon. The example of such application is &man.rfcomm.pppd.8;.
Once started it will register Bluetooth LAN service with the local
SDP daemon.The list of services registered with the local SDP server can be
obtained by issuing SDP browse query via local control channel:&prompt.root; sdpcontrol -l browseDial-Up Networking (DUN) and Network Access with PPP (LAN)
ProfilesThe Dial-Up Networking (DUN) profile is mostly used with modems
and cellular phones. The scenarios covered by this profile are the
following:use of a cellular phone or modem by a computer as
a wireless modem for connecting to a dial-up Internet access server,
or using other dial-up services;use of a cellular phone or modem by a computer to
receive data calls.Network Access with PPP (LAN) profile can be used in the following
situations:LAN access for a single Bluetooth device;
LAN access for multiple Bluetooth devices;
PC to PC (using PPP networking over serial cable
emulation).In &os; both profiles are implemented with &man.ppp.8; and
&man.rfcomm.pppd.8; - a wrapper that converts RFCOMM Bluetooth
connection into something PPP can operate with. Before any profile
can be used, a new PPP label in the /etc/ppp/ppp.conf
must be created. Consult &man.rfcomm.pppd.8; manual page for examples.
In the following example &man.rfcomm.pppd.8; will be used to open
RFCOMM connection to remote device with BD_ADDR 00:80:37:29:19:a4 on
DUN RFCOMM channel. The actual RFCOMM channel number will be obtained
from the remote device via SDP. It is possible to specify RFCOMM channel
by hand, and in this case &man.rfcomm.pppd.8; will not perform SDP
query. Use &man.sdpcontrol.8; to find out RFCOMM
channel on the remote device.&prompt.root; rfcomm_pppd -a 00:80:37:29:19:a4 -c -C dun -l rfcomm-dialupIn order to provide Network Access with PPP (LAN) service the
&man.sdpd.8; server must be running. A new entry for LAN clients must
be created in the /etc/ppp/ppp.conf file. Consult
&man.rfcomm.pppd.8; manual page for examples. Finally, start RFCOMM PPP
server on valid RFCOMM channel number. The RFCOMM PPP server will
automatically register Bluetooth LAN service with the local SDP daemon.
The example below shows how to start RFCOMM PPP server.&prompt.root; rfcomm_pppd -s -C 7 -l rfcomm-serverOBEXOBEX Object Push (OPUSH) ProfileOBEX is a widely used protocol for simple file transfers between
mobile devices. Its main use is in infrared communication, where it is
used for generic file transfers between notebooks or PDAs,
and for sending business cards or calendar entries between cellular
phones and other devices with PIM applications.The OBEX server and client are implemented as a third-party package
obexapp, which is available as
comms/obexapp port.OBEX client is used to push and/or pull objects from the OBEX server.
An object can, for example, be a business card or an appointment.
The OBEX client can obtain RFCOMM channel number from the remote device
via SDP. This can be done by specifying service name instead of RFCOMM
channel number. Supported service names are: IrMC, FTRN and OPUSH.
It is possible to specify RFCOMM channel as a number. Below is an
example of an OBEX session, where device information object is pulled
from the cellular phone, and a new object (business card) is pushed
into the phone's directory.&prompt.user; obexapp -a 00:80:37:29:19:a4 -C IrMC
obex> get
get: remote file> telecom/devinfo.txt
get: local file> devinfo-t39.txt
Success, response: OK, Success (0x20)
obex> put
put: local file> new.vcf
put: remote file> new.vcf
Success, response: OK, Success (0x20)
obex> di
Success, response: OK, Success (0x20)In order to provide OBEX Object Push service,
&man.sdpd.8; server must be running. A root folder, where all incoming
objects will be stored, must be created. The default path to the root
folder is /var/spool/obex. Finally, start OBEX
server on valid RFCOMM channel number. The OBEX server will
automatically register OBEX Object Push service with the local SDP
daemon. The example below shows how to start OBEX server.&prompt.root; obexapp -s -C 10Serial Port Profile (SPP)The Serial Port Profile (SPP) allows Bluetooth devices to perform
RS232 (or similar) serial cable emulation. The scenario covered by this
profile deals with legacy applications using Bluetooth as a cable
replacement, through a virtual serial port abstraction.The &man.rfcomm.sppd.1; utility implements the Serial Port profile.
A pseudo tty is used as a virtual serial port abstraction. The example
below shows how to connect to a remote device Serial Port service.
Note that you do not have to specify a RFCOMM channel -
&man.rfcomm.sppd.1; can obtain it from the remote device via SDP.
If you would like to override this, specify a RFCOMM channel on the
command line.&prompt.root; rfcomm_sppd -a 00:07:E0:00:0B:CA -t /dev/ttyp6
rfcomm_sppd[94692]: Starting on /dev/ttyp6...Once connected, the pseudo tty can be used as serial port:&prompt.root; cu -l ttyp6TroubleshootingA remote device cannot connectSome older Bluetooth devices do not support role switching.
By default, when &os; is accepting a new connection, it tries to
perform a role switch and become master. Devices, which do not
support this will not be able to connect. Note that role switching is
performed when a new connection is being established, so it is not
possible to ask the remote device if it does support role switching.
There is a HCI option to disable role switching on the local
side:&prompt.root; hccontrol -n ubt0hci write_node_role_switch 0Something is going wrong, can I see what exactly is happening?Yes, you can. Use the hcidump-1.5
third-party package that can be downloaded from
.
The hcidump utility is similar to
&man.tcpdump.1;. It can be used to display the content of the Bluetooth
packets on the terminal and to dump the Bluetooth packets to a
file.StevePetersonWritten by BridgingIntroductionIP subnetbridgeIt 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 AppropriateThere are two common situations in which a bridge is used
today.High Traffic on a SegmentSituation 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 network 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 Firewallfirewallnetwork address translationThe second common situation is where firewall functionality is
needed without network address translation (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.routerDSLISDNA 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 BridgeNetwork Interface Card SelectionA 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 Changeskernel optionsoptions BRIDGETo enable kernel support for bridging, add the:options BRIDGEstatement to your kernel configuration file, and rebuild your
kernel.Firewall SupportfirewallIf 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 a 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 SupportIf 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 BridgeAdd the line:net.link.ether.bridge=1to /etc/sysctl.conf to enable the bridge at
runtime, and the line:net.link.ether.bridge_cfg=if1,if2to enable bridging on the specified interfaces (replace
if1 and
if2 with the names of your two
network interfaces). If you want the bridged packets to be
filtered by &man.ipfw.8;, you should add:net.link.ether.bridge_ipfw=1as well.For &os; 5.2-RELEASE and later, use instead the following
lines:net.link.ether.bridge.enable=1
net.link.ether.bridge.config=if1,if2
net.link.ether.bridge.ipfw=1Other InformationIf you want to be able to &man.ssh.1; into the bridge from the network,
it is correct 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.A bridge can add latency to your &man.ping.8; times, especially for
traffic from one segment to another.Jean-FrançoisDockèsUpdated by AlexDupreReorganized and enhanced by Diskless Operationdiskless workstationdiskless operationA FreeBSD machine can boot over the network and operate without a
local disk, using filesystems mounted from an NFS server. No system
modification is necessary, beyond standard configuration files.
Such a system is relatively 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: The &intel; 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 (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 variations on 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 / filesystem, and a shared
read-only /usr.The root filesystem 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; (&os; 4.X) or &man.md.4; (&os; 5.X) filesystems. Any changes
will be lost when the system reboots.The kernel is transferred and loaded either with
Etherboot or PXE
as some situations may mandate the use of either method.As described, this system is insecure. It should
live in a protected area of a network, and be untrusted by
other hosts.All the information in this section has been tested
using &os; releases 4.9-RELEASE and 5.2.1-RELEASE. The text is
primarily structured for 4.X usage. Notes have been inserted where
appropriate to indicate 5.X changes.Background InformationSetting up diskless workstations is both relatively
straightforward and prone to errors. These are sometimes
difficult to diagnose for a number of reasons. For example:Compile time options may determine different behaviors at
runtime.Error messages are often cryptic or totally absent.In this context, having some knowledge of the background
mechanisms involved is very useful to solve the problems that
may arise.Several operations need to be performed for a successful
bootstrap:The machine needs to obtain initial parameters such as its IP
address, executable filename, server name, root path. This is
done using the DHCP or BOOTP protocols.
DHCP is a compatible extension of BOOTP, and
uses the same port numbers and basic packet format.It is possible to configure a system to use only BOOTP.
The &man.bootpd.8; server program is included in the base &os;
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 will describe mainly a
DHCP configuration, with equivalent examples
using &man.bootpd.8; when possible. The sample configuration will
use the ISC DHCP software package
(release 3.0.1.r12 was installed on the test server).The machine needs to transfer one or several programs to local
memory. Either TFTP or NFS
are used. The choice between TFTP and
NFS is a compile time option in several places.
A common source of error is to specify filenames for the wrong
protocol: TFTP typically transfers all files from
a single directory on the server, and would expect filenames
relative to this directory. NFS needs absolute
file paths.The possible intermediate bootstrap programs and the kernel
need to be initialized and executed. There are several important
variations in this area:PXE will load &man.pxeboot.8;, which is
a modified version of the &os; third stage loader. The
&man.loader.8; will obtain most parameters necessary to system
startup, and leave them in the kernel environment before
transferring control. It is possible to use a
GENERIC kernel in this case.Etherboot, will directly
load the kernel, with less preparation. You will need to
build a kernel with specific options.PXE and Etherboot
work equally well with 4.X systems. Because 5.X kernels
normally let the &man.loader.8; do more work for them,
PXE is preferred for 5.X systems.If your BIOS and network cards support
PXE, you should probably use it. However,
it is still possible to start a 5.X system with
Etherboot.Finally, the machine needs to access its filesystems.
NFS is used in all cases.See also &man.diskless.8; manual page.Setup InstructionsConfiguration Using ISC DHCPDHCPdiskless operationThe ISC DHCP server can answer
both BOOTP and DHCP requests.As of release 4.9, ISC DHCP
3.0 is not part of the base
system. You will first need to install the
net/isc-dhcp3-server port or the
corresponding package.Once ISC DHCP is installed, it
needs a configuration file to run, (normally named
/usr/local/etc/dhcpd.conf). Here follows
a commented example, where host margaux
uses Etherboot and host
corbieres uses PXE:
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 "/data/misc/kernel.diskless";
option root-path "192.168.4.4:/data/misc/diskless";
}
host corbieres {
hardware ethernet 00:02:b3:27:62:df;
fixed-address corbieres.example.com;
next-server 192.168.4.4;
filename "pxeboot";
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 or NFS server to
use for loading loader or kernel file (the default is to use
the same host as the
DHCP server).The
filename directive defines the file that
Etherboot or PXE
will load for the next execution step. It must be specified
according to the transfer method used.
Etherboot can be compiled to use
NFS or TFTP. The &os;
port configures NFS by default.
PXE uses TFTP, which is
why a relative filename is used here (this may depend on the
TFTP server configuration, but would be
fairly typical). Also, PXE loads
pxeboot, not the kernel. There are other
interesting possibilities, like loading
pxeboot from a &os; CD-ROM
/boot directory (as
&man.pxeboot.8; can load a GENERIC kernel,
this makes it possible to use PXE to boot
from a remote CD-ROM).The
root-path option defines the path to
the root filesystem, in usual NFS notation.
When using PXE, it is possible to leave off
the host's IP as long as you do not enable the kernel option
BOOTP. The NFS server will then be
the same as the TFTP one.Configuration Using BOOTPBOOTPdiskless operationHere follows an equivalent bootpd
configuration (reduced to one client). 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
EtherbootEtherbootEtherboot'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 the net/etherboot package or port.You can change the Etherboot
configuration (i.e. to use TFTP instead of
NFS) by editing the Config
file in the Etherboot source
directory.For our setup, we shall use a boot floppy. For other methods
(PROM, or &ms-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.fd0devicetype 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.Booting with PXEBy default, the &man.pxeboot.8; loader loads the kernel via
NFS. It can be compiled to use
TFTP instead by specifying the
LOADER_TFTP_SUPPORT option in
/etc/make.conf. See the comments in
/etc/defaults/make.conf (or
/usr/share/examples/etc/make.conf for 5.X
systems) for instructions.There are two other undocumented make.conf
options which may be useful for setting up a serial console diskless
machine: BOOT_PXELDR_PROBE_KEYBOARD, and
BOOT_PXELDR_ALWAYS_SERIAL (the latter only exists
on &os; 5.X).To use PXE when the machine starts, you will
usually need to select the Boot from network
option in your BIOS setup, or type a function key
during the PC initialization.Configuring the TFTP and NFS ServersTFTPdiskless operationNFSdiskless operationIf you are using PXE or
Etherboot configured to use
TFTP, you need to enable
tftpd on the file server:Create a directory from which tftpd
will serve the files, e.g. /tftpboot.Add this line to your
/etc/inetd.conf:tftp dgram udp wait root /usr/libexec/tftpd tftpd -l -s /tftpbootIt 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.In all cases, you also need to enable NFS 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 replace margaux corbieres
with the names of the diskless workstations):/data/misc -alldirs -ro margaux corbieresTell mountd to reread its configuration
file. If you actually needed to enable NFS in
/etc/rc.conf
at the first step, you probably want to reboot instead.&prompt.root; kill -HUP `cat /var/run/mountd.pid`Building a Diskless Kerneldiskless operationkernel configurationIf using Etherboot, you need to
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
You may also want to use BOOTP_NFSV3,
BOOT_COMPAT and BOOTP_WIRED_TO
(refer to LINT in 4.X or
NOTES on 5.X).These option names are historical and slightly misleading as
they actually enable indifferent use of DHCP and
BOOTP inside the kernel (it is also possible to force strict BOOTP
or DHCP use).Build the kernel (see ),
and copy it to the place specified
in dhcpd.conf.When using PXE, building a kernel with the
above options is not strictly necessary (though suggested).
Enabling them will cause more DHCP requests to be
issued during kernel startup, with a small risk of inconsistency
between the new values and those retrieved by &man.pxeboot.8; in some
special cases. The advantage of using them is that the host name
will be set as a side effect. Otherwise you will need to set the
host name by another method, for example in a client-specific
rc.conf file.In order to be loadable with
Etherboot, a 5.X kernel needs to have
the device hints compiled in. You would typically set the
following option in the configuration file (see the
NOTES configuration comments file):hints "GENERIC.hints"Preparing the Root Filesystemroot file systemdiskless operationYou need to create a root filesystem for the diskless
workstations, in the location listed as
root-path in
dhcpd.conf. The following sections describe
two ways to do it.Using the clone_root ScriptThis is the quickest way to create a root filesystem, but
currently it is only supported on &os; 4.X. This shell script
is located at
/usr/share/examples/diskless/clone_root
and 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 files.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
the system startup scripts in
/etc, 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.Using the Standard make world
ProcedureThis method can be applied to either &os; 4.X or 5.X and
will install a complete virgin system (not only the root filesystem)
into DESTDIR.
All you have to do is simply execute the following script:#!/bin/sh
export DESTDIR=/data/misc/diskless
mkdir -p ${DESTDIR}
cd /usr/src; make world && make kernel
cd /usr/src/etc; make distributionOnce done, you may need to customize your
/etc/rc.conf and
/etc/fstab placed into
DESTDIR according to your needs.Configuring SwapIf needed, a swap file located on the server can be
accessed via NFS. One of the methods commonly
used to do this has been discontinued in release 5.X.NFS Swap with &os; 4.XThe swap file location and size can be specified with
BOOTP/DHCP &os;-specific options 128 and 129.
Examples of configuration files for
ISC DHCP 3.0 or
bootpd follow: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;
}
swap-path is the path to a directory
where swap files will be located. Each file will be named
swap.client-ip.Older versions of dhcpd used a syntax of
option option-128 "..., which is no
longer supported./etc/bootptab would use the
following syntax instead:T128="192.168.4.4:/netswapvolume/netswap":T129=0000fa00In /etc/bootptab, the swap
size must be expressed in hexadecimal format.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.192.168.4.6192.168.4.6 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 corbieresThen tell mountd to reread the
exports file, as above.NFS Swap with &os 5.XThe kernel does not support enabling NFS
swap at boot time. Swap must be enabled by the startup scripts,
by mounting a writeable file system and creating and enabling a
swap file. To create a swap file of appropriate size, you can do
like this:&prompt.root; dd if=/dev/zero of=/path/to/swapfile bs=1k count=1 oseek=100000To enable it you have to add the following line to your
rc.conf:swapfile=/path/to/swapfileMiscellaneous IssuesRunning with a Read-only /usrdiskless operation/usr read-onlyIf 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 ServerWhen the server for the root filesystem is not running FreeBSD,
you will have to create the root filesystem 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 (FreeBSD 5.0 and later
use &man.devfs.5; to allocate device nodes transparently for
the user, running MAKEDEV on these
versions is pointless).ISDNISDNA 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.HellmuthMichaelisContributed by ISDN CardsISDNcardsFreeBSD'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.The isdn4bsd software 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 &man.sppp.4; 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
&a.isdn.name; mailing list is available.ISDN Terminal AdaptersTerminal adapters (TA), are to ISDN what modems are to regular
phone lines.modemMost 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.PPPThe 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 set up. 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 userland PPP.The following TA's are known to work with FreeBSD:Motorola BitSurfer and Bitsurfer ProAdtranMost 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 that, like modems,
you need a good serial card in your computer.You should read the FreeBSD Serial
+ url="&url.articles.serial-uart;/index.html">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 115.2 Kbs, even though you have a 128 Kbs connection.
To fully utilize the 128 Kbs 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 synchronous card/TA v.s. stand-alone router is largely a
religious issue. There has been some discussion of this in
the mailing lists. We suggest you search the archives for
the complete discussion.Stand-alone ISDN Bridges/RoutersISDNstand-alone bridges/routersISDN 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 section, 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 than 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 Network10 base 2Network 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
|
Stand-alone router
|
ISDN BRI line10 Base 2 EthernetIf 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 LAN10 base TNetwork 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 lineISDN Network DiagramOne 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 a 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 (64 Kbps) 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/SPXAn 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.ChernLeeContributed by Network Address TranslationOverviewnatdFreeBSD'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. &man.natd.8; 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 sharingIP masqueradingThe most common use of NAT is to perform what is commonly known as
Internet Connection Sharing.SetupDue 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 LayoutA 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.kernelconfigurationConfigurationThe following options must be in the kernel configuration
file:options IPFIREWALL
options IPDIVERTAdditionally, at choice, the following may also be suitable:options IPFIREWALL_DEFAULT_TO_ACCEPT
options IPFIREWALL_VERBOSEThe 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 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.It is also possible to use a configuration file for
&man.natd.8; when there are too many options to pass. In this
case, the configuration file must be defined by adding the
following line to /etc/rc.conf:natd_flags="-f /etc/natd.conf"The /etc/natd.conf file will
contain a list of configuration options, one per line. For
example the next section case would use the following
file:redirect_port tcp 192.168.0.2:6667 6667
redirect_port tcp 192.168.0.3:80 80For more information about the configuration file,
consult the &man.natd.8; manual page about the
option.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 &man.natd.8; to work.Port RedirectionThe drawback with &man.natd.8; 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 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 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;, placed within the
natd_flags="" option in
/etc/rc.conf,
or passed via a configuration file.For further configuration options, consult &man.natd.8;Address Redirectionaddress redirectionAddress 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 syntax is as follows:-redirect_address localIP publicIPlocalIPThe internal IP address of the LAN client.publicIPThe external IP address corresponding to the LAN client.In the example, this argument would read:-redirect_address 192.168.0.2 128.1.1.2
-redirect_address 192.168.0.3 128.1.1.3Like , these arguments are also placed within
the natd_flags="" option of /etc/rc.conf, or passed via a configuration file. 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.Parallel Line IP (PLIP)PLIPParallel Line IPPLIP 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 CableYou can purchase a parallel cable at most computer supply
stores. If you cannot do that, or you just want to know how
it is done, the following table shows how to make one out of a normal parallel
printer cable.
Setting Up PLIPFirst, you have to get a laplink cable.
Then, confirm that both computers have a kernel with &man.lpt.4; driver
support:&prompt.root; grep lp /var/run/dmesg.boot
lpt0: <Printer> on ppbus0
lpt0: Interrupt-driven portThe parallel port must be an interrupt driven port, under
&os; 4.X, you should have a line similar to the
following in your kernel configuration file:device ppc0 at isa? irq 7Under &os; 5.X, the
/boot/device.hints file should contain the
following lines:hint.ppc.0.at="isa"
hint.ppc.0.irq="7"Then check if the kernel configuration file has a
device plip line or if the
plip.ko kernel module is loaded. In both
cases the parallel networking interface should appear when you
directly use the &man.ifconfig.8; command. Under
&os; 4.X like this:&prompt.root; ifconfig lp0
lp0: flags=8810<POINTOPOINT,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500and for &os; 5.X:&prompt.root; ifconfig plip0
plip0: flags=8810<POINTOPOINT,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500The device name used for parallel interface is
different between &os; 4.X
(lpX)
and &os; 5.X
(plipX).Plug in the laplink cable into the parallel interface on
both computers.Configure the network interface parameters on both
sites as root. For example, if you want connect
the host host1 running &os; 4.X with host2 running &os; 5.X: host1 <-----> host2
IP Address 10.0.0.1 10.0.0.2Configure the interface on host1 by doing:&prompt.root; ifconfig lp0 10.0.0.1 10.0.0.2Configure the interface on host2 by doing:&prompt.root; ifconfig plip0 10.0.0.2 10.0.0.1You now should have a working connection. Please read the
manual 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.domainTo 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 0 0 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 msAaronKaplanOriginally Written by TomRhodesRestructured and Added by BradDavisExtended by IPv6IPv6 (also know as IPng IP next generation) is
the new version of the well known IP protocol (also know as
IPv4). Like the other current *BSD systems,
FreeBSD includes the KAME IPv6 reference implementation.
So your FreeBSD system comes with all you will need to experiment with IPv6.
This section focuses on getting IPv6 configured and running.In the early 1990s, people became aware of the rapidly
diminishing address space of IPv4. Given the expansion rate of the
Internet there were two major concerns:Running out of addresses. Today this is not so much of a concern
anymore since private address spaces
(10.0.0.0/8,
192.168.0.0/24,
etc.) and Network Address Translation (NAT) are
being employed.Router table entries were getting too large. This is
still a concern today.IPv6 deals with these and many other issues:128 bit address space. In other words theoretically there are
340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 addresses
available. This means there are approximately
6.67 * 10^27 IPv6 addresses per square meter on our planet.Routers will only store network aggregation addresses in their routing
tables thus reducing the average space of a routing table to 8192
entries.There are also lots of other useful features of IPv6 such as:Address autoconfiguration (RFC2462)Anycast addresses (one-out-of many)Mandatory multicast addressesIPsec (IP security)Simplified header structureMobile IPIPv6-to-IPv4 transition mechanismsFor more information see:IPv6 overview at playground.sun.comKAME.net6bone.netBackground on IPv6 AddressesThere are different types of IPv6 addresses: Unicast, Anycast and
Multicast.Unicast addresses are the well known addresses. A packet sent
to a unicast address arrives exactly at the interface belonging to
the address.Anycast addresses are syntactically indistinguishable from unicast
addresses but they address a group of interfaces. The packet destined for
an anycast address will arrive at the nearest (in router metric)
interface. Anycast addresses may only be used by routers.Multicast addresses identify a group of interfaces. A packet destined
for a multicast address will arrive at all interfaces belonging to the
multicast group.The IPv4 broadcast address (usually xxx.xxx.xxx.255) is expressed
by multicast addresses in IPv6.
Reserved IPv6 addressesIPv6 addressPrefixlength (Bits)DescriptionNotes::128 bitsunspecifiedcf. 0.0.0.0 in
IPv4::1128 bitsloopback addresscf. 127.0.0.1 in
IPv4::00:xx:xx:xx:xx96 bitsembedded IPv4The lower 32 bits are the IPv4 address. Also
called IPv4 compatible IPv6
address::ff:xx:xx:xx:xx96 bitsIPv4 mapped IPv6 addressThe lower 32 bits are the IPv4 address.
For hosts which do not support IPv6.fe80:: - feb::10 bitslink-localcf. loopback address in IPv4fec0:: - fef::10 bitssite-localff::8 bitsmulticast001 (base
2)3 bitsglobal unicastAll global unicast addresses are assigned from
this pool. The first 3 bits are
001.
Reading IPv6 AddressesThe canonical form is represented as: x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x, each
x being a 16 Bit hex value. For example
FEBC:A574:382B:23C1:AA49:4592:4EFE:9982Often an address will have long substrings of all zeros
therefore one such substring per address can be abbreviated by ::.
Also up to three leading 0s per hexquad can be omitted.
For example fe80::1
corresponds to the canonical form
fe80:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001.A third form is to write the last 32 Bit part in the
well known (decimal) IPv4 style with dots .
as separators. For example
2002::10.0.0.1
corresponds to the (hexadecimal) canonical representation
2002:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0a00:0001
which in turn is equivalent to
writing 2002::a00:1.By now the reader should be able to understand the following:&prompt.root; ifconfigrl0: flags=8943<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet 10.0.0.10 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 10.0.0.255
inet6 fe80::200:21ff:fe03:8e1%rl0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
ether 00:00:21:03:08:e1
media: Ethernet autoselect (100baseTX )
status: activefe80::200:21ff:fe03:8e1%rl0
is an auto configured link-local address. It is generated from the MAC
address as part of the auto configuration.For further information on the structure of IPv6 addresses
see RFC3513.Getting ConnectedCurrently there are four ways to connect to other IPv6 hosts and networks:Join the experimental 6boneGetting an IPv6 network from your upstream provider. Talk to your
Internet provider for instructions.Tunnel via 6-to-4 (RFC3068)Use the net/freenet6 port if you are on a dial-up connection.Here we will talk on how to connect to the 6bone since it currently seems
to be the most popular way.First take a look at the 6bone site and find a 6bone connection nearest to
you. Write to the responsible person and with a little bit of luck you
will be given instructions on how to set up your connection. Usually this
involves setting up a GRE (gif) tunnel.Here is a typical example on setting up a &man.gif.4; tunnel:&prompt.root; ifconfig gif0 create
&prompt.root; ifconfig gif0
gif0: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1280
&prompt.root; ifconfig gif0 tunnel MY_IPv4_ADDRHIS_IPv4_ADDR
&prompt.root; ifconfig gif0 inet6 alias MY_ASSIGNED_IPv6_TUNNEL_ENDPOINT_ADDRReplace the capitalized words by the information you received from the
upstream 6bone node.This establishes the tunnel. Check if the tunnel is working by &man.ping6.8;
'ing ff02::1%gif0. You should receive two ping replies.In case you are intrigued by the address ff02:1%gif0, this is a
multicast address. %gif0 states that the multicast address at network
interface gif0 is to be used. Since we ping a multicast address the
other endpoint of the tunnel should reply as well.By now setting up a route to your 6bone uplink should be rather
straightforward:&prompt.root; route add -inet6 default -interface gif0
&prompt.root; ping6 -n MY_UPLINK&prompt.root; traceroute6 www.jp.FreeBSD.org
(3ffe:505:2008:1:2a0:24ff:fe57:e561) from 3ffe:8060:100::40:2, 30 hops max, 12 byte packets
1 atnet-meta6 14.147 ms 15.499 ms 24.319 ms
2 6bone-gw2-ATNET-NT.ipv6.tilab.com 103.408 ms 95.072 ms *
3 3ffe:1831:0:ffff::4 138.645 ms 134.437 ms 144.257 ms
4 3ffe:1810:0:6:290:27ff:fe79:7677 282.975 ms 278.666 ms 292.811 ms
5 3ffe:1800:0:ff00::4 400.131 ms 396.324 ms 394.769 ms
6 3ffe:1800:0:3:290:27ff:fe14:cdee 394.712 ms 397.19 ms 394.102 msThis output will differ from machine to machine. By now you should be
able to reach the IPv6 site www.kame.net
and see the dancing tortoise — that is if you have a IPv6 enabled browser such as
www/mozilla, Konqueror,
which is part of x11/kdebase3,
or www/epiphany.DNS in the IPv6 WorldThere used to be two types of DNS records for IPv6. The IETF
has declared A6 records obsolete. AAAA records are the standard
now.Using AAAA records is straightforward. Assign your hostname to the new
IPv6 address you just received by adding:MYHOSTNAME AAAA MYIPv6ADDRTo your primary zone DNS file. In case you do not serve your own
DNS zones ask your DNS provider.
Current versions of bind (version 8.3 and 9)
and dns/djbdns (with the IPv6 patch)
support AAAA records.Applying the needed changes to /etc/rc.confIPv6 Client SettingsThese settings will help you configure a machine that will be on
your LAN and act as a client, not a router. To have &man.rtsol.8;
autoconfigure your interface on boot all you need to add is:ipv6_enable="YES"To statically assign an IP address such as
2001:471:1f11:251:290:27ff:fee0:2093, to your
fxp0 interface, add:ipv6_ifconfig_fxp0="2001:471:1f11:251:290:27ff:fee0:2093"To assign a default router of
2001:471:1f11:251::1
add the following to /etc/rc.conf:ipv6_defaultrouter="2001:471:1f11:251::1"IPv6 Router/Gateway SettingsThis will help you take the directions that your tunnel provider,
such as the 6bone, has
given you and convert it into settings that will persist through reboots.
To restore your tunnel on startup use something like the following in
/etc/rc.conf:List the Generic Tunneling interfaces that will be configured, for
example gif0:gif_interfaces="gif0"To configure the interface with a local endpoint of
MY_IPv4_ADDR to a remote endpoint of
REMOTE_IPv4_ADDR:gif_config_gif0="MY_IPv4_ADDR REMOTE_IPv4_ADDR"To apply the IPv6 address you have been assigned for use as your
IPv6 tunnel endpoint, add:ipv6_ifconfig_gif0="MY_ASSIGNED_IPv6_TUNNEL_ENDPOINT_ADDR"Then all you have to do is set the default route for IPv6. This is
the other side of the IPv6 tunnel:ipv6_defaultrouter="MY_IPv6_REMOTE_TUNNEL_ENDPOINT_ADDR"Router Advertisement and Host Auto ConfigurationThis section will help you setup &man.rtadvd.8; to advertise the
IPv6 default route.To enable &man.rtadvd.8; you will need the following in your
/etc/rc.conf:rtadvd_enable="YES"It is important that you specify the interface on which to do
IPv6 router solicitation. For example to tell &man.rtadvd.8; to use
fxp0:rtadvd_interfaces="fxp0"Now we must create the configuration file,
/etc/rtadvd.conf. Here is an example:fxp0:\
:addrs#1:addr="2001:471:1f11:246::":prefixlen#64:tc=ether:Replace fxp0 with the interface you
are going to be using.Next, replace 2001:471:1f11:246::
with the prefix of your allocation.If you are dedicated a /64 subnet
you will not need to change anything else. Otherwise, you will need to
change the prefixlen# to the correct value.HartiBrandtContributed by Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) on &os; 5.XConfiguring classical IP over ATM (PVCs)Classical IP over ATM (CLIP) is the
simplest method to use Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
with IP. It can be used with
switched connections (SVCs) and with permanent connections
(PVCs). This section describes how to set up a network based
on PVCs.Fully meshed configurationsThe first method to set up a CLIP with
PVCs is to connect each machine to each other machine in the
network via a dedicated PVC. While this is simple to
configure it tends to become impractical for a larger number
of machines. The example supposes that we have four
machines in the network, each connected to the ATM network
with an ATM adapter card. The first step is the planning of
the IP addresses and the ATM connections between the
machines. We use the following:HostIP AddresshostA192.168.173.1hostB192.168.173.2hostC192.168.173.3hostD192.168.173.4To build a fully meshed net we need one ATM connection
between each pair of machines:MachinesVPI.VCI couplehostA - hostB0.100hostA - hostC0.101hostA - hostD0.102hostB - hostC0.103hostB - hostD0.104hostC - hostD0.105The VPI and VCI values at each end of the connection may
of course differ, but for simplicity we assume that they are
the same. Next we need to configure the ATM interfaces on
each host:hostA&prompt.root; ifconfig hatm0 192.168.173.1 up
hostB&prompt.root; ifconfig hatm0 192.168.173.2 up
hostC&prompt.root; ifconfig hatm0 192.168.173.3 up
hostD&prompt.root; ifconfig hatm0 192.168.173.4 upassuming that the ATM interface is
hatm0 on all hosts. Now the PVCs
need to be configured on hostA (we assume that
they are already configured on the ATM switches, you need to
consult the manual for the switch on how to do this).hostA&prompt.root; atmconfig natm add 192.168.173.2 hatm0 0 100 llc/snap ubr
hostA&prompt.root; atmconfig natm add 192.168.173.3 hatm0 0 101 llc/snap ubr
hostA&prompt.root; atmconfig natm add 192.168.173.4 hatm0 0 102 llc/snap ubr
hostB&prompt.root; atmconfig natm add 192.168.173.1 hatm0 0 100 llc/snap ubr
hostB&prompt.root; atmconfig natm add 192.168.173.3 hatm0 0 103 llc/snap ubr
hostB&prompt.root; atmconfig natm add 192.168.173.4 hatm0 0 104 llc/snap ubr
hostC&prompt.root; atmconfig natm add 192.168.173.1 hatm0 0 101 llc/snap ubr
hostC&prompt.root; atmconfig natm add 192.168.173.2 hatm0 0 103 llc/snap ubr
hostC&prompt.root; atmconfig natm add 192.168.173.4 hatm0 0 105 llc/snap ubr
hostD&prompt.root; atmconfig natm add 192.168.173.1 hatm0 0 102 llc/snap ubr
hostD&prompt.root; atmconfig natm add 192.168.173.2 hatm0 0 104 llc/snap ubr
hostD&prompt.root; atmconfig natm add 192.168.173.3 hatm0 0 105 llc/snap ubrOf course other traffic contracts than UBR can be used
given the ATM adapter supports those. In this case the name
of the traffic contract is followed by the parameters of the
traffic. Help for the &man.atmconfig.8; tool can be
obtained with:&prompt.root; atmconfig help natm addor in the &man.atmconfig.8; manual page.The same configuration can also be done via
/etc/rc.conf.
For hostA this would look like:network_interfaces="lo0 hatm0"
ifconfig_hatm0="inet 192.168.173.1 up"
natm_static_routes="hostB hostC hostD"
route_hostB="192.168.173.2 hatm0 0 100 llc/snap ubr"
route_hostC="192.168.173.3 hatm0 0 101 llc/snap ubr"
route_hostD="192.168.173.4 hatm0 0 102 llc/snap ubr"The current state of all CLIP routes
can be obtained with:hostA&prompt.root; atmconfig natm show
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography/chapter.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography/chapter.sgml
index 74c259089e..9647102c58 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography/chapter.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography/chapter.sgml
@@ -1,596 +1,596 @@
BibliographyWhile the manual pages provide the definitive reference for individual
pieces of the FreeBSD operating system, they are notorious for not
illustrating how to put the pieces together to make the whole operating
system run smoothly. For this, there is no substitute for a good book on
&unix; system administration and a good users' manual.Books & Magazines Specific to FreeBSDInternational books &
Magazines:Using FreeBSD (in Chinese).FreeBSD for PC 98'ers (in Japanese), published by SHUWA System
Co, LTD. ISBN 4-87966-468-5 C3055 P2900E.FreeBSD (in Japanese), published by CUTT. ISBN 4-906391-22-2
C3055 P2400E.Complete Introduction to FreeBSD (in Japanese), published by Shoeisha Co., Ltd. ISBN 4-88135-473-6 P3600E.Personal UNIX Starter Kit FreeBSD (in Japanese), published by ASCII. ISBN 4-7561-1733-3 P3000E.FreeBSD Handbook (Japanese translation), published by ASCII. ISBN 4-7561-1580-2
P3800E.FreeBSD mit Methode (in German), published by Computer und
Literatur Verlag/Vertrieb Hanser, 1998. ISBN 3-932311-31-0.FreeBSD 4 - Installieren, Konfigurieren, Administrieren
(in German), published by Computer und Literatur Verlag, 2001.
ISBN 3-932311-88-4.FreeBSD 5 - Installieren, Konfigurieren, Administrieren
(in German), published by Computer und Literatur Verlag, 2003.
ISBN 3-936546-06-1.
FreeBSD de Luxe (in German), published by
Verlag Modere Industrie,
2003. ISBN 3-8266-1343-0.
FreeBSD Install and Utilization Manual (in Japanese), published by Mainichi Communications Inc..Onno W Purbo, Dodi Maryanto, Syahrial Hubbany, Widjil Widodo
Building Internet Server with
FreeBSD (in Indonesia Language), published
by Elex Media Komputindo.English language books & Magazines:Absolute
BSD: The Ultimate Guide to FreeBSD, published by
No Starch Press, 2002.
ISBN: 1886411743
The Complete FreeBSD, published by
O'Reilly, 2003.
ISBN: 0596005164The
FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide, published by
Addison-Wesley, 2000.
ISBN: 0201704811
FreeBSD: An Open-Source Operating System for Your Personal
Computer, published by The Bit Tree Press, 2001.
ISBN: 0971204500Teach Yourself FreeBSD in 24 Hours, published by
Sams, 2002.
ISBN: 0672324245FreeBSD unleashed, published by
Sams, 2002.
ISBN: 0672324563FreeBSD: The Complete Reference, published by
McGrawHill, 2003.
ISBN: 0072224096 Users' GuidesComputer Systems Research Group, UC Berkeley. 4.4BSD
User's Reference Manual. O'Reilly & Associates,
Inc., 1994. ISBN 1-56592-075-9Computer Systems Research Group, UC Berkeley. 4.4BSD
User's Supplementary Documents. O'Reilly &
Associates, Inc., 1994. ISBN 1-56592-076-7UNIX in a Nutshell. O'Reilly &
Associates, Inc., 1990. ISBN 093717520XMui, Linda. What You Need To Know When You Can't Find
Your UNIX System Administrator. O'Reilly &
Associates, Inc., 1995. ISBN 1-56592-104-6Ohio State
University has written a UNIX
Introductory Course which is available online in HTML and
PostScript format.An Italian translation
+ url="&url.doc.base;/it_IT.ISO8859-15/books/unix-introduction/index.html">translation
of this document is available as part of the FreeBSD Italian
Documentation Project.Jpman Project, Japan
FreeBSD Users Group. FreeBSD User's
Reference Manual (Japanese translation). Mainichi Communications
Inc., 1998. ISBN4-8399-0088-4 P3800E.Edinburgh
University has written an Online Guide for
newcomers to the UNIX environment.Administrators' GuidesAlbitz, Paul and Liu, Cricket. DNS and
BIND, 4th Ed. O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 2001.
ISBN 1-59600-158-4Computer Systems Research Group, UC Berkeley. 4.4BSD
System Manager's Manual. O'Reilly & Associates,
Inc., 1994. ISBN 1-56592-080-5Costales, Brian, et al. Sendmail, 2nd Ed.
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 1997. ISBN 1-56592-222-0Frisch, Æleen. Essential System
Administration, 2nd Ed. O'Reilly & Associates,
Inc., 1995. ISBN 1-56592-127-5Hunt, Craig. TCP/IP Network
Administration, 2nd Ed. O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 1997.
ISBN 1-56592-322-7Nemeth, Evi. UNIX System Administration
Handbook. 3rd Ed. Prentice Hall, 2000. ISBN
0-13-020601-6Stern, Hal Managing NFS and NIS O'Reilly
& Associates, Inc., 1991. ISBN 0-937175-75-7Jpman Project, Japan
FreeBSD Users Group. FreeBSD System
Administrator's Manual (Japanese translation). Mainichi Communications
Inc., 1998. ISBN4-8399-0109-0 P3300E.Dreyfus, Emmanuel. Cahiers
de l'Admin: BSD 2nd Ed. (in French), Eyrolles, 2004.
ISBN 2-212-11463-XProgrammers' GuidesAsente, Paul, Converse, Diana, and Swick, Ralph.
X Window System Toolkit. Digital Press,
1998. ISBN 1-55558-178-1Computer Systems Research Group, UC Berkeley. 4.4BSD
Programmer's Reference Manual. O'Reilly &
Associates, Inc., 1994. ISBN 1-56592-078-3Computer Systems Research Group, UC Berkeley. 4.4BSD
Programmer's Supplementary Documents. O'Reilly &
Associates, Inc., 1994. ISBN 1-56592-079-1Harbison, Samuel P. and Steele, Guy L. Jr. C: A
Reference Manual. 4rd ed. Prentice Hall, 1995.
ISBN 0-13-326224-3Kernighan, Brian and Dennis M. Ritchie. The C
Programming Language.. PTR Prentice Hall, 1988.
ISBN 0-13-110362-9Lehey, Greg. Porting UNIX Software.
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 1995. ISBN 1-56592-126-7Plauger, P. J. The Standard C Library.
Prentice Hall, 1992. ISBN 0-13-131509-9Spinellis, Diomidis. Code
Reading: The Open Source Perspective.
Addison-Wesley, 2003. ISBN 0-201-79940-5Stevens, W. Richard. Advanced Programming in the UNIX
Environment. Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley, 1992.
ISBN 0-201-56317-7Stevens, W. Richard. UNIX Network
Programming. 2nd Ed, PTR Prentice Hall, 1998. ISBN
0-13-490012-XWells, Bill. Writing Serial Drivers for UNIX.
Dr. Dobb's Journal. 19(15), December 1994.
pp68-71, 97-99.Operating System InternalsAndleigh, Prabhat K. UNIX System
Architecture. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1990. ISBN
0-13-949843-5Jolitz, William. Porting UNIX to the 386.
Dr. Dobb's Journal. January 1991-July
1992.Leffler, Samuel J., Marshall Kirk McKusick, Michael J Karels and
John Quarterman The Design and Implementation of the
4.3BSD UNIX Operating System. Reading, Mass. :
Addison-Wesley, 1989. ISBN 0-201-06196-1Leffler, Samuel J., Marshall Kirk McKusick, The Design
and Implementation of the 4.3BSD UNIX Operating System: Answer
Book. Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley, 1991. ISBN
0-201-54629-9McKusick, Marshall Kirk, Keith Bostic, Michael J Karels, and
John Quarterman. The Design and Implementation of the
4.4BSD Operating System. Reading, Mass. :
Addison-Wesley, 1996. ISBN 0-201-54979-4(Chapter 2 of this book is available online as part of
+ url="&url.books.design-44bsd;/book.html">online as part of
the FreeBSD Documentation Project, and chapter 9
here.)Stevens, W. Richard. TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1:
The Protocols. Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley,
1996. ISBN 0-201-63346-9Schimmel, Curt. Unix Systems for Modern
Architectures. Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley, 1994.
ISBN 0-201-63338-8Stevens, W. Richard. TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 3:
TCP for Transactions, HTTP, NNTP and the UNIX Domain
Protocols. Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley, 1996.
ISBN 0-201-63495-3Vahalia, Uresh. UNIX Internals -- The New
Frontiers. Prentice Hall, 1996. ISBN
0-13-101908-2Wright, Gary R. and W. Richard Stevens. TCP/IP
Illustrated, Volume 2: The Implementation. Reading,
Mass. : Addison-Wesley, 1995. ISBN 0-201-63354-XSecurity ReferenceCheswick, William R. and Steven M. Bellovin. Firewalls
and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker.
Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley, 1995. ISBN
0-201-63357-4Garfinkel, Simson and Gene Spafford.
Practical UNIX & Internet Security.
2nd Ed. O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 1996. ISBN
1-56592-148-8Garfinkel, Simson. PGP Pretty Good
Privacy O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 1995. ISBN
1-56592-098-8Hardware ReferenceAnderson, Don and Tom Shanley. Pentium Processor
System Architecture. 2nd Ed. Reading, Mass. :
Addison-Wesley, 1995. ISBN 0-201-40992-5Ferraro, Richard F. Programmer's Guide to the EGA,
VGA, and Super VGA Cards. 3rd ed. Reading, Mass. :
Addison-Wesley, 1995. ISBN 0-201-62490-7Intel Corporation publishes documentation on their CPUs,
chipsets and standards on their developer web site,
usually as PDF files.Shanley, Tom. 80486 System Architecture.
3rd ed. Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley, 1995. ISBN
0-201-40994-1Shanley, Tom. ISA System Architecture.
3rd ed. Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley, 1995. ISBN
0-201-40996-8Shanley, Tom. PCI System Architecture.
4th ed. Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley, 1999. ISBN
0-201-30974-2Van Gilluwe, Frank. The Undocumented PC, 2nd Ed.
Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., 1996. ISBN
0-201-47950-8Messmer, Hans-Peter. The Indispensable PC Hardware Book, 4th Ed.
Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., 2002. ISBN
0-201-59616-4&unix; HistoryLion, John Lion's Commentary on UNIX, 6th Ed. With
Source Code. ITP Media Group, 1996. ISBN
1573980137Raymond, Eric S. The New Hacker's Dictionary, 3rd
edition. MIT Press, 1996. ISBN
0-262-68092-0. Also known as the Jargon
FileSalus, Peter H. A quarter century of UNIX.
Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1994. ISBN
0-201-54777-5Simon Garfinkel, Daniel Weise, Steven Strassmann. The
UNIX-HATERS Handbook. IDG Books Worldwide, Inc.,
1994. ISBN 1-56884-203-1Don Libes, Sandy Ressler Life with UNIX
— special edition. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1989. ISBN
0-13-536657-7The BSD family tree.
or /usr/share/misc/bsd-family-tree
on a modern FreeBSD machine.The BSD Release Announcements collection.
1997. Networked Computer Science Technical Reports
Library. Old BSD releases from the Computer Systems Research
group (CSRG).
:
The 4CD set covers all BSD versions from 1BSD to 4.4BSD and
4.4BSD-Lite2 (but not 2.11BSD, unfortunately). As well, the last
disk holds the final sources plus the SCCS files.Magazines and JournalsThe C/C++ Users Journal. R&D
Publications Inc. ISSN 1075-2838Sys Admin — The Journal for UNIX System
Administrators Miller Freeman, Inc., ISSN
1061-2688freeX — Das Magazin für Linux - BSD - UNIX
(in German) Computer- und Literaturverlag GmbH, ISSN 1436-7033
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ChernLeeWritten by MikeSmithBased on a tutorial written by MattDillonAlso based on tuning(7) written by Configuration and TuningSynopsissystem configurationsystem optimizationOne of the important aspects of &os; is system configuration.
Correct system configuration will help prevent headaches during future upgrades.
This chapter will explain much of the &os; configuration process,
including some of the parameters which
can be set to tune a &os; system.
After reading this chapter, you will know:How to efficiently work with
file systems and swap partitions.The basics of rc.conf configuration and
/usr/local/etc/rc.d startup systems.How to configure and test a network card.How to configure virtual hosts on your network devices.How to use the various configuration files in
/etc.How to tune &os; using sysctl
variables.How to tune disk performance and modify kernel
limitations.Before reading this chapter, you should:Understand &unix; and &os; basics ().Be familiar with the basics of kernel configuration/compilation
().Initial ConfigurationPartition Layoutpartition layout/etc/var/usrBase PartitionsWhen laying out file systems with &man.disklabel.8;
or &man.sysinstall.8;, remember that hard
drives transfer data faster from the outer
tracks to the inner.
Thus smaller and heavier-accessed file systems
should be closer to the outside of the drive, while
larger partitions like /usr should be placed
toward the inner. It is a good idea to create
partitions in a similar order to: root, swap,
/var, /usr.The size of /var
reflects the intended machine usage.
/var is used to hold
mailboxes, log files, and printer spools. Mailboxes and log
files can grow to unexpected sizes depending
on how many users exist and how long log
files are kept. Most users would never require a gigabyte,
but remember that /var/tmp
must be large enough to contain packages.
The /usr partition holds much
of the files required to support the system, the &man.ports.7;
collection (recommended) and the source code (optional). Both
of which are optional at install time.
At least 2 gigabytes would be recommended for this partition.When selecting partition sizes, keep the space
requirements in mind. Running out of space in
one partition while barely using another can be a
hassle.Some users have found that &man.sysinstall.8;'s
Auto-defaults partition sizer will
sometimes select smaller than adequate /var
and / partitions. Partition wisely and
generously.Swap Partitionswap sizingswap partitionAs a rule of thumb, the swap partition should be
about double the size of system memory (RAM). For example,
if the machine has 128 megabytes of memory,
the swap file should be 256 megabytes. Systems with
less memory may perform better with more swap.
Less than 256 megabytes of swap is not recommended and
memory expansion should be considered.
The kernel's VM paging algorithms are tuned to
perform best when the swap partition is at least two times the
size of main memory. Configuring too little swap can lead to
inefficiencies in the VM page scanning code and might create
issues later if more memory is added.On larger systems with multiple SCSI disks (or
multiple IDE disks operating on different controllers), it is
recommend that a swap is configured on each drive (up
to four drives). The swap partitions should be
approximately the same size. The kernel can handle arbitrary
sizes but internal data structures scale to 4 times the
largest swap partition. Keeping the swap partitions near the
same size will allow the kernel to optimally stripe swap space
across disks.
Large swap sizes are fine, even if swap is not
used much. It might be easier to recover
from a runaway program before being forced to reboot.Why Partition?Several users think a single large partition will be fine,
but there are several reasons why this is a bad idea.
First, each partition has different operational
characteristics and separating them allows the file system to
tune accordingly. For example, the root
and /usr partitions are read-mostly, without
much writing. While a lot of reading and writing could
occur in /var and
/var/tmp.By properly partitioning a system, fragmentation
introduced in the smaller write heavy partitions
will not bleed over into the mostly-read partitions.
Keeping the write-loaded partitions closer to
the disk's edge,
will
increase I/O performance in the partitions where it occurs
the most. Now while I/O
performance in the larger partitions may be needed,
shifting them more toward the edge of the disk will not
lead to a significant performance improvement over moving
/var to the edge.
Finally, there are safety concerns. A smaller, neater root
partition which is mostly read-only has a greater
chance of surviving a bad crash.Core Configurationrc filesrc.confThe principal location for system configuration information
is within /etc/rc.conf. This file
contains a wide range of configuration information, principally
used at system startup to configure the system. Its name
directly implies this; it is configuration information for the
rc* files.An administrator should make entries in the
rc.conf file to
override the default settings from
/etc/defaults/rc.conf. The defaults file
should not be copied verbatim to /etc - it
contains default values, not examples. All system-specific
changes should be made in the rc.conf
file itself.A number of strategies may be applied in clustered
applications to separate site-wide configuration from
system-specific configuration in order to keep administration
overhead down. The recommended approach is to place site-wide
configuration into another file,
such as /etc/rc.conf.site, and then include
this file into /etc/rc.conf, which will
contain only system-specific information.As rc.conf is read by &man.sh.1; it is
trivial to achieve this. For example:rc.conf: . rc.conf.site
hostname="node15.example.com"
network_interfaces="fxp0 lo0"
ifconfig_fxp0="inet 10.1.1.1"rc.conf.site: defaultrouter="10.1.1.254"
saver="daemon"
blanktime="100"The rc.conf.site file can then be
distributed to every system using rsync or a
similar program, while the rc.conf file
remains unique.Upgrading the system using &man.sysinstall.8;
or make world will not overwrite the
rc.conf
file, so system configuration information will not be lost.Application ConfigurationTypically, installed applications have their own
configuration files, with their own syntax, etc. It is
important that these files be kept separate from the base
system, so that they may be easily located and managed by the
package management tools./usr/local/etcTypically, these files are installed in
/usr/local/etc. In the case where an
application has a large number of configuration files, a
subdirectory will be created to hold them.Normally, when a port or package is installed, sample
configuration files are also installed. These are usually
identified with a .default suffix. If there
are no existing
configuration files for the application, they will be created by
copying the .default files.For example, consider the contents of the directory
/usr/local/etc/apache:-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 2184 May 20 1998 access.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 2184 May 20 1998 access.conf.default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 9555 May 20 1998 httpd.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 9555 May 20 1998 httpd.conf.default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 12205 May 20 1998 magic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 12205 May 20 1998 magic.default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 2700 May 20 1998 mime.types
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 2700 May 20 1998 mime.types.default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 7980 May 20 1998 srm.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 7933 May 20 1998 srm.conf.defaultThe file sizes show that only the srm.conf
file has been changed. A later update of the Apache port would not
overwrite this changed file.Starting ServicesservicesIt is common for a system to host a number of services.
These may be started in several different fashions, each having
different advantages./usr/local/etc/rc.dSoftware installed from a port or the packages collection
will often place a script in
/usr/local/etc/rc.d which is invoked at
system startup with a argument, and at
system shutdown with a argument.
This is the recommended way for
starting system-wide services that are to be run as
root, or that
expect to be started as root.
These scripts are registered as
part of the installation of the package, and will be removed
when the package is removed.A generic startup script in
/usr/local/etc/rc.d looks like:#!/bin/sh
echo -n ' FooBar'
case "$1" in
start)
/usr/local/bin/foobar
;;
stop)
kill -9 `cat /var/run/foobar.pid`
;;
*)
echo "Usage: `basename $0` {start|stop}" >&2
exit 64
;;
esac
exit 0
The startup scripts of &os; will look in
/usr/local/etc/rc.d for scripts that have an
.sh extension and are executable by
root. Those scripts that are found are called with
an option at startup, and
at shutdown to allow them to carry out their purpose. So if you wanted
the above sample script to be picked up and run at the proper time during
system startup, you should save it to a file called
FooBar.sh in
/usr/local/etc/rc.d and make sure it is
executable. You can make a shell script executable with &man.chmod.1;
as shown below:&prompt.root; chmod 755 FooBar.shSome services expect to be invoked by &man.inetd.8; when a
connection is received on a suitable port. This is common for
mail reader servers (POP and IMAP, etc.). These services are
enabled by editing the file /etc/inetd.conf.
See &man.inetd.8; for details on editing this file.Some additional system services may not be covered by the
toggles in /etc/rc.conf. These are
traditionally enabled by placing the command(s) to invoke them
in /etc/rc.local. As of &os; 3.1 there
is no default /etc/rc.local; if it is
created by the administrator it will however be honored in the
normal fashion. Note that rc.local is
generally regarded as the location of last resort; if there is a
better place to start a service, do it there.Do not place any commands in
/etc/rc.conf. To start daemons, or
run any commands at boot time, place a script in
/usr/local/etc/rc.d instead.It is also possible to use the &man.cron.8; daemon to start
system services. This approach has a number of advantages, not
least being that because &man.cron.8; runs these processes as the
owner of the crontab, services may be started
and maintained by non-root users.This takes advantage of a feature of &man.cron.8;: the
time specification may be replaced by @reboot,
which will
cause the job to be run when &man.cron.8; is started shortly after
system boot.TomRhodesContributed by Configuring the cron UtilitycronconfigurationOne of the most useful utilities in &os; is &man.cron.8;. The
cron utility runs in the background and constantly
checks the /etc/crontab file. The cron
utility also checks the /var/cron/tabs directory, in
search of new crontab files. These
crontab files store information about specific
functions which cron is supposed to perform at
certain times.The cron utility uses two different
types of configuration files, the system crontab and user crontabs. The
only difference between these two formats is the sixth field. In the
system crontab, the sixth field is the name of a user for the command
to run as. This gives the system crontab the ability to run commands
as any user. In a user crontab, the sixth field is the command to run,
and all commands run as the user who created the crontab; this is an
important security feature.User crontabs allow individual users to schedule tasks without the
need for root privileges. Commands in a user's crontab run with the
permissions of the user who owns the crontab.The root user can have a user crontab just like
any other user. This one is different from
/etc/crontab (the system crontab). Because of the
system crontab, there's usually no need to create a user crontab
for root.Let us take a look at the /etc/crontab file
(the system crontab):# /etc/crontab - root's crontab for &os;
#
# $&os;: src/etc/crontab,v 1.32 2002/11/22 16:13:39 tom Exp $
#
#
SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=/etc:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin
HOME=/var/log
#
#
#minute hour mday month wday who command
#
#
*/5 * * * * root /usr/libexec/atrun Like most &os; configuration files, the #
character represents a comment. A comment can be placed in
the file as a reminder of what and why a desired action is performed.
Comments cannot be on the same line as a command or else they will
be interpreted as part of the command; they must be on a new line.
Blank lines are ignored.First, the environment must be defined. The equals
(=) character is used to define any environment
settings, as with this example where it is used for the SHELL,
PATH, and HOME options. If the shell line is
omitted, cron will use the default, which is
sh. If the PATH variable is
omitted, no default will be used and file locations will need to
be absolute. If HOME is omitted, cron
will use the invoking users home directory.This line defines a total of seven fields. Listed here are the
values minute, hour,
mday, month, wday,
who, and command. These
are almost all self explanatory. minute is the time in minutes the
command will be run. hour is similar to the minute option, just in
hours. mday stands for day of the month. month is similar to hour
and minute, as it designates the month. The wday option stands for
day of the week. All these fields must be numeric values, and follow
the twenty-four hour clock. The who field is special,
and only exists in the /etc/crontab file.
This field specifies which user the command should be run as.
When a user installs his or her crontab file, they
will not have this option. Finally, the command option is listed.
This is the last field, so naturally it should designate the command
to be executed.This last line will define the values discussed above. Notice here
we have a */5 listing, followed by several more
* characters. These * characters
mean first-last, and can be interpreted as
every time. So, judging by this line,
it is apparent that the atrun command is to be invoked by
root every five minutes regardless of what
day or month it is. For more information on the atrun command,
see the &man.atrun.8; manual page.Commands can have any number of flags passed to them; however,
commands which extend to multiple lines need to be broken with the backslash
\ continuation character.This is the basic set up for every
crontab file, although there is one thing
different about this one. Field number six, where we specified
the username, only exists in the system
/etc/crontab file. This field should be
omitted for individual user crontab
files.Installing a CrontabYou must not use the procedure described here to
edit/install the system crontab. Simply use your favorite
editor: the cron utility will notice that the file
has changed and immediately begin using the updated version.
See
-
+
this FAQ entry for more information.To install a freshly written user
crontab, first use your favorite editor to create
a file in the proper format, and then use the
crontab utility. The most common usage
is:&prompt.user; crontab crontab-fileIn this example, crontab-file is the filename
of a crontab that was previously created.There is also an option to list installed
crontab files: just pass the
option to crontab and look
over the output.For users who wish to begin their own crontab file from scratch,
without the use of a template, the crontab -e
option is available. This will invoke the selected editor
with an empty file. When the file is saved, it will be
automatically installed by the crontab command.
If you later want to remove your user crontab
completely, use crontab with the
option.
TomRhodesContributed by Using rc under FreeBSD 5.XrcNG&os; has recently integrated the NetBSD
rc.d system for system initialization.
Users should notice the files listed in the
/etc/rc.d directory. Many of these files
are for basic services which can be controlled with the
, ,
and options.
For instance, &man.sshd.8; can be restarted with the following
command:&prompt.root; /etc/rc.d/sshd restartThis procedure is similar for other services. Of course,
services are usually started automatically as specified in
&man.rc.conf.5;. For example, enabling the Network Address
Translation daemon at startup is as simple as adding the
following line to /etc/rc.conf:natd_enable="YES"If a line is already
present, then simply change the to
. The rc scripts will automatically load
any other dependent services during the next reboot, as
described below.Since the rc.d system is primarily
intended to start/stop services at system startup/shutdown time,
the standard ,
and options will only
perform their action if the appropriate
/etc/rc.conf variables are set. For
instance the above sshd restart command will
only work if sshd_enable is set to
in /etc/rc.conf. To
, or
a service regardless of the settings in
/etc/rc.conf, the commands should be
prefixed with force. For instance to restart
sshd regardless of the current
/etc/rc.conf setting, execute the following
command:&prompt.root; /etc/rc.d/sshd forcerestartIt is easy to check if a service is enabled in
/etc/rc.conf by running the appropriate
rc.d script with the option
. Thus, an administrator can check that
sshd is in fact enabled in
/etc/rc.conf by running:&prompt.root; /etc/rc.d/sshd rcvar
# sshd
$sshd_enable=YESThe second line (# sshd) is the output
from the sshd command, not a root
console.To determine if a service is running, a
option is available. For instance to
verify that sshd is actually started:&prompt.root; /etc/rc.d/sshd status
sshd is running as pid 433.It is also possible to a service.
This will attempt to send a signal to an individual service, forcing the
service to reload its configuration files. In most cases this
means sending the service a SIGHUP
signal.The rcNG structure is not only used for network services, it also
contributes to most of the system initialization. For
instance, consider the bgfsck file. When
this script is executed, it will print out the following
message:Starting background file system checks in 60 seconds.Therefore this file is used for background file system
checks, which are done only during system initialization.Many system services depend on other services to function
properly. For example, NIS and other RPC-based services may
fail to start until after the rpcbind
(portmapper) service has started. To resolve this issue,
information about dependencies and other meta-data is included
in the comments at the top of each startup script. The
&man.rcorder.8; program is then used to parse these comments
during system initialization to determine the order in which
system services should be invoked to satisfy the dependencies.
The following words may be included at the top of each startup
file:PROVIDE: Specifies the services this file provides.REQUIRE: Lists services which are required for this
service. This file will run after
the specified services.BEFORE: Lists services which depend on this service.
This file will run before
the specified services.KEYWORD: &os; or NetBSD. This is used for *BSD dependent features.By using this method, an administrator can easily control system
services without the hassle of runlevels like
some other &unix; operating systems.Additional information about the &os; 5.X
rc.d system can be found in the &man.rc.8;
and &man.rc.subr.8; manual pages.MarcFonvieilleContributed by Setting Up Network Interface Cardsnetwork card configurationNowadays we can not think about a computer without thinking
about a network connection. Adding and configuring a network
card is a common task for any &os; administrator.Locating the Correct Drivernetwork card configurationlocating the driverBefore you begin, you should know the model of the card
you have, the chip it uses, and whether it is a PCI or ISA card.
&os; supports a wide variety of both PCI and ISA cards.
Check the Hardware Compatibility List for your release to see
if your card is supported.Once you are sure your card is supported, you need
to determine the proper driver for the card. The file
/usr/src/sys/i386/conf/LINT will give you
the list of network interfaces drivers with some information
about the supported chipsets/cards. If you have doubts about
which driver is the correct one, read the manual page of the
driver. The manual page will give you more information about
the supported hardware and even the possible problems that
could occur.If you own a common card, most of the time you will not
have to look very hard for a driver. Drivers for common
network cards are present in the GENERIC
kernel, so your card should show up during boot, like so:dc0: <82c169 PNIC 10/100BaseTX> port 0xa000-0xa0ff mem 0xd3800000-0xd38
000ff irq 15 at device 11.0 on pci0
dc0: Ethernet address: 00:a0:cc:da:da:da
miibus0: <MII bus> on dc0
ukphy0: <Generic IEEE 802.3u media interface> on miibus0
ukphy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto
dc1: <82c169 PNIC 10/100BaseTX> port 0x9800-0x98ff mem 0xd3000000-0xd30
000ff irq 11 at device 12.0 on pci0
dc1: Ethernet address: 00:a0:cc:da:da:db
miibus1: <MII bus> on dc1
ukphy1: <Generic IEEE 802.3u media interface> on miibus1
ukphy1: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, autoIn this example, we see that two cards using the &man.dc.4;
driver are present on the system.To use your network card, you will need to load the proper
driver. This may be accomplished in one of two ways. The
easiest way is to simply load a kernel module for your network
card with &man.kldload.8;. A module is not available for all
network card drivers (ISA cards and cards using the &man.ed.4;
driver, for example). Alternatively, you may statically compile
the support for your card into your kernel. Check
/usr/src/sys/i386/conf/LINT and the
manual page of the driver to know what to add in your kernel
configuration file. For more information about recompiling your
kernel, please see . If your card
was detected at boot by your kernel (GENERIC)
you do not have to build a new kernel.Configuring the Network CardNetwork card configurationconfigurationOnce the right driver is loaded for the network card, the
card needs to be configured. As with many other things, the
network card may have been configured at installation time by
sysinstall.To display the configuration for the network interfaces on
your system, enter the following command:&prompt.user; ifconfig
dc0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet 192.168.1.3 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
ether 00:a0:cc:da:da:da
media: Ethernet autoselect (100baseTX <full-duplex>)
status: active
dc1: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet 10.0.0.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 10.0.0.255
ether 00:a0:cc:da:da:db
media: Ethernet 10baseT/UTP
status: no carrier
lp0: flags=8810<POINTOPOINT,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
tun0: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1500Old versions of &os; may require the
option following &man.ifconfig.8;, for more details about the
correct syntax of &man.ifconfig.8;, please refer to the manual
page. Note also that entries concerning IPv6
(inet6 etc.) were omitted in this
example.In this example, the following devices were
displayed:dc0: The first Ethernet
interfacedc1: The second Ethernet
interfacelp0: The parallel port
interfacelo0: The loopback devicetun0: The tunnel device used by
ppp&os; uses the driver name followed by the order in
which one the card is detected at the kernel boot to name the
network card. For example sis2 would
be the third network card on the system using the &man.sis.4;
driver.In this example, the dc0 device is
up and running. The key indicators are:UP means that the card is configured
and ready.The card has an Internet (inet)
address (in this case
192.168.1.3).It has a valid subnet mask (netmask;
0xffffff00 is the same as
255.255.255.0).It has a valid broadcast address (in this case,
192.168.1.255).The MAC address of the card (ether)
is 00:a0:cc:da:da:daThe physical media selection is on autoselection mode
(media: Ethernet autoselect (100baseTX
<full-duplex>)). We see that
dc1 was configured to run with
10baseT/UTP media. For more
information on available media types for a driver, please
refer to its manual page.The status of the link (status)
is active, i.e. the carrier is detected.
For dc1, we see
status: no carrier. This is normal when
an Ethernet cable is not plugged into the card.If the &man.ifconfig.8; output had shown something similar
to:dc0: flags=8843<BROADCAST,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether 00:a0:cc:da:da:dait would indicate the card has not been configured.To configure your card, you need root
privileges. The network card configuration can be done from the
command line with &man.ifconfig.8; but you would have to do it
after each reboot of the system. The file
/etc/rc.conf is where to add the network
card's configuration.Open /etc/rc.conf in your favorite
editor. You need to add a line for each network card present on
the system, for example in our case, we added these lines:ifconfig_dc0="inet 192.168.1.3 netmask 255.255.255.0"
ifconfig_dc1="inet 10.0.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 media 10baseT/UTP"You have to replace dc0,
dc1, and so on, with
the correct device for your cards, and the addresses with the
proper ones. You should read the card driver and
&man.ifconfig.8; manual pages for more details about the allowed
options and also &man.rc.conf.5; manual page for more
information on the syntax of
/etc/rc.conf.If you configured the network during installation, some
lines about the network card(s) may be already present. Double
check /etc/rc.conf before adding any
lines.You will also have to edit the file
/etc/hosts to add the names and the IP
addresses of various machines of the LAN, if they are not already
there. For more information please refer to &man.hosts.5;
and to /usr/share/examples/etc/hosts.Testing and TroubleshootingOnce you have made the necessary changes in
/etc/rc.conf, you should reboot your
system. This will allow the change(s) to the interface(s) to
be applied, and verify that the system restarts without any
configuration errors.Once the system has been rebooted, you should test the
network interfaces.Testing the Ethernet Cardnetwork card configurationtesting the cardTo verify that an Ethernet card is configured correctly,
you have to try two things. First, ping the interface itself,
and then ping another machine on the LAN.First test the local interface:&prompt.user; ping -c5 192.168.1.3
PING 192.168.1.3 (192.168.1.3): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.3: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.082 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.3: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.074 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.3: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.076 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.3: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.108 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.3: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=0.076 ms
--- 192.168.1.3 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 0.074/0.083/0.108/0.013 msNow we have to ping another machine on the LAN:&prompt.user; ping -c5 192.168.1.2
PING 192.168.1.2 (192.168.1.2): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.2: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.726 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.2: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.766 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.2: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.700 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.2: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.747 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.2: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=0.704 ms
--- 192.168.1.2 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 0.700/0.729/0.766/0.025 msYou could also use the machine name instead of
192.168.1.2 if you have set up the
/etc/hosts file.Troubleshootingnetwork card configurationtroubleshootingTroubleshooting hardware and software configurations is always
a pain, and a pain which can be alleviated by checking the simple
things first. Is your network cable plugged in? Have you properly
configured the network services? Did you configure the firewall
correctly? Is the card you are using supported by &os;? Always
check the hardware notes before sending off a bug report. Update
your version of &os; to the latest STABLE version. Check the
mailing list archives, or perhaps search the Internet.If the card works, yet performance is poor, it would be
worthwhile to read over the &man.tuning.7; manual page. You
can also check the network configuration as incorrect network
settings can cause slow connections.Some users experience one or two device
timeouts, which is normal for some cards. If they
continue, or are bothersome, you may wish to be sure the
device is not conflicting with another device. Double check
the cable connections. Perhaps you may just need to get
another card.At times, users see a few watchdog timeout
errors. The first thing to do here is to check your network
cable. Many cards require a PCI slot which supports Bus
Mastering. On some old motherboards, only one PCI slot allows
it (usually slot 0). Check the network card and the
motherboard documentation to determine if that may be the
problem.No route to host messages occur if the
system is unable to route a packet to the destination host.
This can happen if no default route is specified, or if a
cable is unplugged. Check the output of netstat
-rn and make sure there is a valid route to the host
you are trying to reach. If there is not, read on to .ping: sendto: Permission denied error
messages are often caused by a misconfigured firewall. If
ipfw is enabled in the kernel but no rules
have been defined, then the default policy is to deny all
traffic, even ping requests! Read on to for more information.Sometimes performance of the card is poor, or below average.
In these cases it is best to set the media selection mode
from autoselect to the correct media selection.
While this usually works for most hardware, it may not resolve
this issue for everyone. Again, check all the network settings,
and read over the &man.tuning.7; manual page.Virtual Hostsvirtual hostsIP aliasesA very common use of &os; is virtual site hosting, where
one server appears to the network as many servers. This is
achieved by assigning multiple network addresses to a single
interface.A given network interface has one real address,
and may have any number of alias addresses.
These aliases are
normally added by placing alias entries in
/etc/rc.conf.An alias entry for the interface fxp0
looks like:ifconfig_fxp0_alias0="inet xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx netmask xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"Note that alias entries must start with alias0 and proceed
upwards in order, (for example, _alias1, _alias2, and so on).
The configuration process will stop at the first missing number.
The calculation of alias netmasks is important, but
fortunately quite simple. For a given interface, there must be
one address which correctly represents the network's netmask.
Any other addresses which fall within this network must have a
netmask of all 1s.For example, consider the case where the
fxp0 interface is
connected to two networks, the 10.1.1.0
network with a netmask of 255.255.255.0
and the 202.0.75.16 network with
a netmask of 255.255.255.240.
We want the system to appear at 10.1.1.1
through 10.1.1.5 and at
202.0.75.17 through
202.0.75.20.The following entries configure the adapter correctly for
this arrangement: ifconfig_fxp0="inet 10.1.1.1 netmask 255.255.255.0"
ifconfig_fxp0_alias0="inet 10.1.1.2 netmask 255.255.255.255"
ifconfig_fxp0_alias1="inet 10.1.1.3 netmask 255.255.255.255"
ifconfig_fxp0_alias2="inet 10.1.1.4 netmask 255.255.255.255"
ifconfig_fxp0_alias3="inet 10.1.1.5 netmask 255.255.255.255"
ifconfig_fxp0_alias4="inet 202.0.75.17 netmask 255.255.255.240"
ifconfig_fxp0_alias5="inet 202.0.75.18 netmask 255.255.255.255"
ifconfig_fxp0_alias6="inet 202.0.75.19 netmask 255.255.255.255"
ifconfig_fxp0_alias7="inet 202.0.75.20 netmask 255.255.255.255"Configuration Files/etc LayoutThere are a number of directories in which configuration
information is kept. These include:/etcGeneric system configuration information; data here is
system-specific./etc/defaultsDefault versions of system configuration files./etc/mailExtra &man.sendmail.8; configuration, other
MTA configuration files.
/etc/pppConfiguration for both user- and kernel-ppp programs.
/etc/namedbDefault location for &man.named.8; data. Normally
named.conf and zone files are stored
here./usr/local/etcConfiguration files for installed applications.
May contain per-application subdirectories./usr/local/etc/rc.dStart/stop scripts for installed applications./var/dbAutomatically generated system-specific database files,
such as the package database, the locate database, and so
onHostnameshostnameDNS/etc/resolv.confresolv.conf/etc/resolv.conf dictates how &os;'s
resolver accesses the Internet Domain Name System (DNS).The most common entries to resolv.conf are:
nameserverThe IP address of a name server the resolver
should query. The servers are queried in the order
listed with a maximum of three.searchSearch list for hostname lookup. This is normally
determined by the domain of the local hostname.domainThe local domain name.A typical resolv.conf:search example.com
nameserver 147.11.1.11
nameserver 147.11.100.30Only one of the search and
domain options should be used.If you are using DHCP, &man.dhclient.8; usually rewrites
resolv.conf with information received from the
DHCP server./etc/hostshosts/etc/hosts is a simple text
database reminiscent of the old Internet. It works in
conjunction with DNS and NIS providing name to IP address
mappings. Local computers connected via a LAN can be placed
in here for simplistic naming purposes instead of setting up
a &man.named.8; server. Additionally,
/etc/hosts can be used to provide a
local record of Internet names, reducing the need to query
externally for commonly accessed names.# $&os;$
#
# Host Database
# This file should contain the addresses and aliases
# for local hosts that share this file.
# In the presence of the domain name service or NIS, this file may
# not be consulted at all; see /etc/nsswitch.conf for the resolution order.
#
#
::1 localhost localhost.my.domain myname.my.domain
127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.my.domain myname.my.domain
#
# Imaginary network.
#10.0.0.2 myname.my.domain myname
#10.0.0.3 myfriend.my.domain myfriend
#
# According to RFC 1918, you can use the following IP networks for
# private nets which will never be connected to the Internet:
#
# 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
# 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
# 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255
#
# In case you want to be able to connect to the Internet, you need
# real official assigned numbers. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not try
# to invent your own network numbers but instead get one from your
# network provider (if any) or from the Internet Registry (ftp to
# rs.internic.net, directory `/templates').
#/etc/hosts takes on the simple format
of:[Internet address] [official hostname] [alias1] [alias2] ...For example:10.0.0.1 myRealHostname.example.com myRealHostname foobar1 foobar2Consult &man.hosts.5; for more information.Log File Configurationlog filessyslog.confsyslog.confsyslog.conf is the configuration file
for the &man.syslogd.8; program. It indicates which types
of syslog messages are logged to particular
log files.# $&os;$
#
# Spaces ARE valid field separators in this file. However,
# other *nix-like systems still insist on using tabs as field
# separators. If you are sharing this file between systems, you
# may want to use only tabs as field separators here.
# Consult the syslog.conf(5) manual page.
*.err;kern.debug;auth.notice;mail.crit /dev/console
*.notice;kern.debug;lpr.info;mail.crit;news.err /var/log/messages
security.* /var/log/security
mail.info /var/log/maillog
lpr.info /var/log/lpd-errs
cron.* /var/log/cron
*.err root
*.notice;news.err root
*.alert root
*.emerg *
# uncomment this to log all writes to /dev/console to /var/log/console.log
#console.info /var/log/console.log
# uncomment this to enable logging of all log messages to /var/log/all.log
#*.* /var/log/all.log
# uncomment this to enable logging to a remote log host named loghost
#*.* @loghost
# uncomment these if you're running inn
# news.crit /var/log/news/news.crit
# news.err /var/log/news/news.err
# news.notice /var/log/news/news.notice
!startslip
*.* /var/log/slip.log
!ppp
*.* /var/log/ppp.logConsult the &man.syslog.conf.5; manual page for more
information.newsyslog.confnewsyslog.confnewsyslog.conf is the configuration
file for &man.newsyslog.8;, a program that is normally scheduled
to run by &man.cron.8;. &man.newsyslog.8; determines when log
files require archiving or rearranging.
logfile is moved to
logfile.0, logfile.0
is moved to logfile.1, and so on.
Alternatively, the log files may be archived in &man.gzip.1; format
causing them to be named: logfile.0.gz,
logfile.1.gz, and so on.newsyslog.conf indicates which log
files are to be managed, how many are to be kept, and when
they are to be touched. Log files can be rearranged and/or
archived when they have either reached a certain size, or at a
certain periodic time/date.# configuration file for newsyslog
# $&os;$
#
# filename [owner:group] mode count size when [ZB] [/pid_file] [sig_num]
/var/log/cron 600 3 100 * Z
/var/log/amd.log 644 7 100 * Z
/var/log/kerberos.log 644 7 100 * Z
/var/log/lpd-errs 644 7 100 * Z
/var/log/maillog 644 7 * @T00 Z
/var/log/sendmail.st 644 10 * 168 B
/var/log/messages 644 5 100 * Z
/var/log/all.log 600 7 * @T00 Z
/var/log/slip.log 600 3 100 * Z
/var/log/ppp.log 600 3 100 * Z
/var/log/security 600 10 100 * Z
/var/log/wtmp 644 3 * @01T05 B
/var/log/daily.log 640 7 * @T00 Z
/var/log/weekly.log 640 5 1 $W6D0 Z
/var/log/monthly.log 640 12 * $M1D0 Z
/var/log/console.log 640 5 100 * ZConsult the &man.newsyslog.8; manual page for more
information.sysctl.confsysctl.confsysctlsysctl.conf looks much like
rc.conf. Values are set in a
variable=value
form. The specified values are set after the system goes into
multi-user mode. Not all variables are settable in this mode.A sample sysctl.conf turning off logging
of fatal signal exits and letting Linux programs know they are really
running under &os;:kern.logsigexit=0 # Do not log fatal signal exits (e.g. sig 11)
compat.linux.osname=&os;
compat.linux.osrelease=4.3-STABLETuning with sysctlsysctltuningwith sysctl&man.sysctl.8; is an interface that allows you to make changes
to a running &os; system. This includes many advanced
options of the TCP/IP stack and virtual memory system that can
dramatically improve performance for an experienced system
administrator. Over five hundred system variables can be read
and set using &man.sysctl.8;.At its core, &man.sysctl.8; serves two functions: to read and
to modify system settings.To view all readable variables:&prompt.user; sysctl -aTo read a particular variable, for example,
kern.maxproc:&prompt.user; sysctl kern.maxproc
kern.maxproc: 1044To set a particular variable, use the intuitive
variable=value
syntax:&prompt.root; sysctl kern.maxfiles=5000
kern.maxfiles: 2088 -> 5000Settings of sysctl variables are usually either strings,
numbers, or booleans (a boolean being 1 for yes
or a 0 for no).If you want to set automatically some variables each time
the machine boots, add them to the
/etc/sysctl.conf file. For more information
see the &man.sysctl.conf.5; manual page and the
.TomRhodesContributed by &man.sysctl.8; Read-onlyIn some cases it may be desirable to modify read-only &man.sysctl.8;
values. While this is not recommended, it is also sometimes unavoidable.For instance on some laptop models the &man.cardbus.4; device will
not probe memory ranges, and fail with errors which look similar to:cbb0: Could not map register memory
device_probe_and_attach: cbb0 attach returned 12Cases like the one above usually require the modification of some
default &man.sysctl.8; settings which are set read only. To overcome
these situations a user can put &man.sysctl.8; OIDs
in their local /boot/loader.conf. Default
settings are located in the /boot/defaults/loader.conf
file.Fixing the problem mentioned above would require a user to set
in the aforementioned
file. Now &man.cardbus.4; will work properly.Tuning DisksSysctl Variablesvfs.vmiodirenablevfs.vmiodirenableThe vfs.vmiodirenable sysctl variable
may be set to either 0 (off) or 1 (on); it is 1 by default.
This variable controls how directories are cached by the
system. Most directories are small, using just a single
fragment (typically 1 K) in the file system and less
(typically 512 bytes) in the buffer cache.
However, when operating in the default mode the buffer
cache will only cache a fixed number of directories even if
you have a huge amount of memory. Turning on this sysctl
allows the buffer cache to use the VM Page Cache to cache the
directories, making all the memory available for caching
directories. However,
the minimum in-core memory used to cache a directory is the
physical page size (typically 4 K) rather than 512
bytes. We recommend turning this option on if you are running
any services which manipulate large numbers of files. Such
services can include web caches, large mail systems, and news
systems. Turning on this option will generally not reduce
performance even with the wasted memory but you should
experiment to find out.vfs.write_behindvfs.write_behindThe vfs.write_behind sysctl variable
defaults to 1 (on). This tells the file system
to issue media writes as full clusters are collected, which
typically occurs when writing large sequential files. The idea
is to avoid saturating the buffer cache with dirty buffers when
it would not benefit I/O performance. However, this may stall
processes and under certain circumstances you may wish to turn it
off.vfs.hirunningspacevfs.hirunningspaceThe vfs.hirunningspace sysctl variable
determines how much outstanding write I/O may be queued to disk
controllers system-wide at any given instance. The default is
usually sufficient but on machines with lots of disks you may
want to bump it up to four or five megabytes.
Note that setting too high a value (exceeding the buffer cache's
write threshold) can lead to extremely bad clustering
performance. Do not set this value arbitrarily high! Higher
write values may add latency to reads occurring at the same time.
There are various other buffer-cache and VM page cache
related sysctls. We do not recommend modifying these values. As
of &os; 4.3, the VM system does an extremely good job of
automatically tuning itself.vm.swap_idle_enabledvm.swap_idle_enabledThe vm.swap_idle_enabled sysctl variable
is useful in large multi-user systems where you have lots of
users entering and leaving the system and lots of idle processes.
Such systems tend to generate a great deal of continuous pressure
on free memory reserves. Turning this feature on and tweaking
the swapout hysteresis (in idle seconds) via
vm.swap_idle_threshold1 and
vm.swap_idle_threshold2 allows you to depress
the priority of memory pages associated with idle processes more
quickly then the normal pageout algorithm. This gives a helping
hand to the pageout daemon. Do not turn this option on unless
you need it, because the tradeoff you are making is essentially
pre-page memory sooner rather than later; thus eating more swap
and disk bandwidth. In a small system this option will have a
determinable effect but in a large system that is already doing
moderate paging this option allows the VM system to stage whole
processes into and out of memory easily.hw.ata.wchw.ata.wc&os; 4.3 flirted with turning off IDE write caching.
This reduced write bandwidth to IDE disks but was considered
necessary due to serious data consistency issues introduced
by hard drive vendors. The problem is that IDE
drives lie about when a write completes. With IDE write
caching turned on, IDE hard drives not only write data
to disk out of order, but will sometimes delay writing some
blocks indefinitely when under heavy disk loads. A crash or
power failure may cause serious file system corruption.
&os;'s default was changed to be safe. Unfortunately, the
result was such a huge performance loss that we changed
write caching back to on by default after the release. You
should check the default on your system by observing the
hw.ata.wc sysctl variable. If IDE write
caching is turned off, you can turn it back on by setting
the kernel variable back to 1. This must be done from the
boot loader at boot time. Attempting to do it after the
kernel boots will have no effect.For more information, please see &man.ata.4;.
(kern.cam.scsi_delay)kern.cam.scsi_delayThe kernel config may be used to
reduce system boot times. The defaults are fairly high and can be
responsible for 15+ seconds of delay in the
boot process. Reducing it to 5 seconds usually
works (especially with modern drives). Newer versions of &os;
(5.0+) should use the kern.cam.scsi_delay
boot time tunable. The tunable, and kernel config option accept
values in terms of milliseconds and
notseconds.Soft UpdatesSoft UpdatestunefsThe &man.tunefs.8; program can be used to fine-tune a
file system. This program has many different options, but for
now we are only concerned with toggling Soft Updates on and
off, which is done by:&prompt.root; tunefs -n enable /filesystem
&prompt.root; tunefs -n disable /filesystemA filesystem cannot be modified with &man.tunefs.8; while
it is mounted. A good time to enable Soft Updates is before any
partitions have been mounted, in single-user mode.As of &os; 4.5, it is possible to enable Soft Updates
at filesystem creation time, through use of the -U
option to &man.newfs.8;.Soft Updates drastically improves meta-data performance, mainly
file creation and deletion, through the use of a memory cache. We
recommend to use Soft Updates on all of your file systems. There
are two downsides to Soft Updates that you should be aware of: First,
Soft Updates guarantees filesystem consistency in the case of a crash
but could very easily be several seconds (even a minute!) behind
updating the physical disk. If your system crashes you may lose more
work than otherwise. Secondly, Soft Updates delays the freeing of
filesystem blocks. If you have a filesystem (such as the root
filesystem) which is almost full, performing a major update, such as
make installworld, can cause the filesystem to run
out of space and the update to fail.More Details about Soft UpdatesSoft UpdatesdetailsThere are two traditional approaches to writing a file
systems meta-data back to disk. (Meta-data updates are
updates to non-content data like inodes or
directories.)Historically, the default behavior was to write out
meta-data updates synchronously. If a directory had been
changed, the system waited until the change was actually
written to disk. The file data buffers (file contents) were
passed through the buffer cache and backed up
to disk later on asynchronously. The advantage of this
implementation is that it operates safely. If there is
a failure during an update, the meta-data are always in a
consistent state. A file is either created completely
or not at all. If the data blocks of a file did not find
their way out of the buffer cache onto the disk by the time
of the crash, &man.fsck.8; is able to recognize this and
repair the filesystem by setting the file length to
0. Additionally, the implementation is clear and simple.
The disadvantage is that meta-data changes are slow. An
rm -r, for instance, touches all the files
in a directory sequentially, but each directory
change (deletion of a file) will be written synchronously
to the disk. This includes updates to the directory itself,
to the inode table, and possibly to indirect blocks
allocated by the file. Similar considerations apply for
unrolling large hierarchies (tar -x).The second case is asynchronous meta-data updates. This
is the default for Linux/ext2fs and
mount -o async for *BSD ufs. All
meta-data updates are simply being passed through the buffer
cache too, that is, they will be intermixed with the updates
of the file content data. The advantage of this
implementation is there is no need to wait until each
meta-data update has been written to disk, so all operations
which cause huge amounts of meta-data updates work much
faster than in the synchronous case. Also, the
implementation is still clear and simple, so there is a low
risk for bugs creeping into the code. The disadvantage is
that there is no guarantee at all for a consistent state of
the filesystem. If there is a failure during an operation
that updated large amounts of meta-data (like a power
failure, or someone pressing the reset button),
the filesystem
will be left in an unpredictable state. There is no opportunity
to examine the state of the filesystem when the system
comes up again; the data blocks of a file could already have
been written to the disk while the updates of the inode
table or the associated directory were not. It is actually
impossible to implement a fsck which is
able to clean up the resulting chaos (because the necessary
information is not available on the disk). If the
filesystem has been damaged beyond repair, the only choice
is to use &man.newfs.8; on it and restore it from backup.
The usual solution for this problem was to implement
dirty region logging, which is also
referred to as journaling, although that
term is not used consistently and is occasionally applied
to other forms of transaction logging as well. Meta-data
updates are still written synchronously, but only into a
small region of the disk. Later on they will be moved
to their proper location. Because the logging
area is a small, contiguous region on the disk, there
are no long distances for the disk heads to move, even
during heavy operations, so these operations are quicker
than synchronous updates.
Additionally the complexity of the implementation is fairly
limited, so the risk of bugs being present is low. A disadvantage
is that all meta-data are written twice (once into the
logging region and once to the proper location) so for
normal work, a performance pessimization
might result. On the other hand, in case of a crash, all
pending meta-data operations can be quickly either rolled-back
or completed from the logging area after the system comes
up again, resulting in a fast filesystem startup.Kirk McKusick, the developer of Berkeley FFS,
solved this problem with Soft Updates: all pending
meta-data updates are kept in memory and written out to disk
in a sorted sequence (ordered meta-data
updates). This has the effect that, in case of
heavy meta-data operations, later updates to an item
catch the earlier ones if the earlier ones are still in
memory and have not already been written to disk. So all
operations on, say, a directory are generally performed in
memory before the update is written to disk (the data
blocks are sorted according to their position so
that they will not be on the disk ahead of their meta-data).
If the system crashes, this causes an implicit log
rewind: all operations which did not find their way
to the disk appear as if they had never happened. A
consistent filesystem state is maintained that appears to
be the one of 30 to 60 seconds earlier. The
algorithm used guarantees that all resources in use
are marked as such in their appropriate bitmaps: blocks and inodes.
After a crash, the only resource allocation error
that occurs is that resources are
marked as used which are actually free.
&man.fsck.8; recognizes this situation,
and frees the resources that are no longer used. It is safe to
ignore the dirty state of the filesystem after a crash by
forcibly mounting it with mount -f. In
order to free resources that may be unused, &man.fsck.8;
needs to be run at a later time. This is the idea behind
the background fsck: at system startup
time, only a snapshot of the
filesystem is recorded. The fsck can be
run later on. All file systems can then be mounted
dirty, so the system startup proceeds in
multiuser mode. Then, background fscks
will be scheduled for all file systems where this is required, to free
resources that may be unused. (File systems that do not use
Soft Updates still need the usual foreground
fsck though.)The advantage is that meta-data operations are nearly as
fast as asynchronous updates (i.e. faster than with
logging, which has to write the
meta-data twice). The disadvantages are the complexity of
the code (implying a higher risk for bugs in an area that
is highly sensitive regarding loss of user data), and a
higher memory consumption. Additionally there are some
idiosyncrasies one has to get used to.
After a crash, the state of the filesystem appears to be
somewhat older. In situations where
the standard synchronous approach would have caused some
zero-length files to remain after the
fsck, these files do not exist at all
with a Soft Updates filesystem because neither the meta-data
nor the file contents have ever been written to disk.
Disk space is not released until the updates have been
written to disk, which may take place some time after
running rm. This may cause problems
when installing large amounts of data on a filesystem
that does not have enough free space to hold all the files
twice.Tuning Kernel Limitstuningkernel limitsFile/Process Limitskern.maxfileskern.maxfileskern.maxfiles can be raised or
lowered based upon your system requirements. This variable
indicates the maximum number of file descriptors on your
system. When the file descriptor table is full,
file: table is full will show up repeatedly
in the system message buffer, which can be viewed with the
dmesg command.Each open file, socket, or fifo uses one file
descriptor. A large-scale production server may easily
require many thousands of file descriptors, depending on the
kind and number of services running concurrently.kern.maxfile's default value is
dictated by the option in your
kernel configuration file. kern.maxfiles grows
proportionally to the value of . When
compiling a custom kernel, it is a good idea to set this kernel
configuration option according to the uses of your system. From
this number, the kernel is given most of its pre-defined limits.
Even though a production machine may not actually have 256 users
connected at once, the resources needed may be similar to a
high-scale web server.As of &os; 4.5, setting to
0 in your kernel configuration file will choose
a reasonable default value based on the amount of RAM present in
your system.kern.ipc.somaxconnkern.ipc.somaxconnThe kern.ipc.somaxconn sysctl variable
limits the size of the listen queue for accepting new TCP
connections. The default value of 128 is
typically too low for robust handling of new connections in a
heavily loaded web server environment. For such environments, it
is recommended to increase this value to 1024 or
higher. The service daemon may itself limit the listen queue size
(e.g. &man.sendmail.8;, or Apache) but
will often have a directive in its configuration file to adjust
the queue size. Large listen queues also do a better job of
avoiding Denial of Service (DoS) attacks.Network LimitsThe kernel configuration
option dictates the amount of network Mbufs available to the
system. A heavily-trafficked server with a low number of Mbufs
will hinder &os;'s ability. Each cluster represents
approximately 2 K of memory, so a value of 1024 represents 2
megabytes of kernel memory reserved for network buffers. A
simple calculation can be done to figure out how many are
needed. If you have a web server which maxes out at 1000
simultaneous connections, and each connection eats a 16 K receive
and 16 K send buffer, you need approximately 32 MB worth of
network buffers to cover the web server. A good rule of thumb is
to multiply by 2, so 2x32 MB / 2 KB =
64 MB / 2 kB = 32768. We recommend
values between 4096 and 32768 for machines with greater amounts
of memory. Under no circumstances should you specify an
arbitrarily high value for this parameter as it could lead to a
boot time crash. The option to
&man.netstat.1; may be used to observe network cluster
use.kern.ipc.nmbclusters loader tunable should
be used to tune this at boot time. Only older versions of &os;
will require you to use the kernel
&man.config.8; option.For busy servers that make extensive use of the
&man.sendfile.2; system call, it may be necessary to increase
the number of &man.sendfile.2; buffers via the
kernel configuration option or by
setting its value in /boot/loader.conf
(see &man.loader.8; for details). A common indicator that
this parameter needs to be adjusted is when processes are seen
in the sfbufa state. The sysctl
variable kern.ipc.nsfbufs is a read-only
glimpse at the kernel configured variable. This parameter
nominally scales with kern.maxusers,
however it may be necessary to tune accordingly.Even though a socket has been marked as non-blocking,
calling &man.sendfile.2; on the non-blocking socket may
result in the &man.sendfile.2; call blocking until enough
struct sf_buf's are made
available.net.inet.ip.portrange.*net.inet.ip.portrange.*The net.inet.ip.portrange.* sysctl
variables control the port number ranges automatically bound to TCP
and UDP sockets. There are three ranges: a low range, a default
range, and a high range. Most network programs use the default
range which is controlled by the
net.inet.ip.portrange.first and
net.inet.ip.portrange.last, which default to
1024 and 5000, respectively. Bound port ranges are used for
outgoing connections, and it is possible to run the system out of
ports under certain circumstances. This most commonly occurs
when you are running a heavily loaded web proxy. The port range
is not an issue when running servers which handle mainly incoming
connections, such as a normal web server, or has a limited number
of outgoing connections, such as a mail relay. For situations
where you may run yourself out of ports, it is recommended to
increase net.inet.ip.portrange.last modestly.
A value of 10000, 20000 or
30000 may be reasonable. You should also
consider firewall effects when changing the port range. Some
firewalls may block large ranges of ports (usually low-numbered
ports) and expect systems to use higher ranges of ports for
outgoing connections — for this reason it is recommended that
net.inet.ip.portrange.first be lowered.TCP Bandwidth Delay ProductTCP Bandwidth Delay Product Limitingnet.inet.tcp.inflight_enableThe TCP Bandwidth Delay Product Limiting is similar to
TCP/Vegas in NetBSD. It can be
enabled by setting net.inet.tcp.inflight_enable
sysctl variable to 1. The system will attempt
to calculate the bandwidth delay product for each connection and
limit the amount of data queued to the network to just the amount
required to maintain optimum throughput.This feature is useful if you are serving data over modems,
Gigabit Ethernet, or even high speed WAN links (or any other link
with a high bandwidth delay product), especially if you are also
using window scaling or have configured a large send window. If
you enable this option, you should also be sure to set
net.inet.tcp.inflight_debug to
0 (disable debugging), and for production use
setting net.inet.tcp.inflight_min to at least
6144 may be beneficial. However, note that
setting high minimums may effectively disable bandwidth limiting
depending on the link. The limiting feature reduces the amount of
data built up in intermediate route and switch packet queues as
well as reduces the amount of data built up in the local host's
interface queue. With fewer packets queued up, interactive
connections, especially over slow modems, will also be able to
operate with lower Round Trip Times. However,
note that this feature only effects data transmission (uploading
/ server side). It has no effect on data reception (downloading).
Adjusting net.inet.tcp.inflight_stab is
not recommended. This parameter defaults to
20, representing 2 maximal packets added to the bandwidth delay
product window calculation. The additional window is required to
stabilize the algorithm and improve responsiveness to changing
conditions, but it can also result in higher ping times over slow
links (though still much lower than you would get without the
inflight algorithm). In such cases, you may wish to try reducing
this parameter to 15, 10, or 5; and may also have to reduce
net.inet.tcp.inflight_min (for example, to
3500) to get the desired effect. Reducing these parameters
should be done as a last resort only.Adding Swap SpaceNo matter how well you plan, sometimes a system does not run
as you expect. If you find you need more swap space, it is
simple enough to add. You have three ways to increase swap
space: adding a new hard drive, enabling swap over NFS, and
creating a swap file on an existing partition.Swap on a New Hard DriveThe best way to add swap, of course, is to use this as an
excuse to add another hard drive. You can always use another
hard drive, after all. If you can do this, go reread the
discussion of swap space
in
of the Handbook for some suggestions on how to best
arrange your swap.Swapping over NFSSwapping over NFS is only recommended if you do not have a
local hard disk to swap to. Swapping over NFS is slow and
inefficient in versions of &os; prior to 4.X. It is
reasonably fast and efficient in 4.0-RELEASE and newer. Even
with newer versions of &os;, NFS swapping will be limited
by the available network bandwidth and puts an additional
burden on the NFS server.SwapfilesYou can create a file of a specified size to use as a swap
file. In our example here we will use a 64MB file called
/usr/swap0. You can use any name you
want, of course.Creating a Swapfile on &os; 4.XBe certain that your kernel configuration includes
the vnode driver. It is not in recent versions of
GENERIC.pseudo-device vn 1 #Vnode driver (turns a file into a device)Create a vn-device:&prompt.root; cd /dev
&prompt.root; sh MAKEDEV vn0Create a swapfile (/usr/swap0):&prompt.root; dd if=/dev/zero of=/usr/swap0 bs=1024k count=64Set proper permissions on (/usr/swap0):&prompt.root; chmod 0600 /usr/swap0Enable the swap file in /etc/rc.conf:swapfile="/usr/swap0" # Set to name of swapfile if aux swapfile desired.Reboot the machine or to enable the swap file immediately,
type:&prompt.root; vnconfig -e /dev/vn0b /usr/swap0 swapCreating a Swapfile on &os; 5.XBe certain that your kernel configuration includes
the memory disk driver (&man.md.4;). It is default in
GENERIC kernel.device md # Memory "disks"Create a swapfile (/usr/swap0):&prompt.root; dd if=/dev/zero of=/usr/swap0 bs=1024k count=64Set proper permissions on (/usr/swap0):&prompt.root; chmod 0600 /usr/swap0Enable the swap file in /etc/rc.conf:swapfile="/usr/swap0" # Set to name of swapfile if aux swapfile desired.Reboot the machine or to enable the swap file immediately,
type:&prompt.root; mdconfig -a -t vnode -f /usr/swap0 -u 0 && swapon /dev/md0HitenPandyaWritten by TomRhodesPower and Resource ManagementIt is very important to utilize hardware resources in an
efficient manner. Before ACPI was introduced,
it was very difficult and inflexible for operating systems to manage
the power usage and thermal properties of a system. The hardware was
controlled by some sort of BIOS embedded
interface, such as Plug and Play BIOS (PNPBIOS), or
Advanced Power Management (APM) and so on.
Power and Resource Management is one of the key components of a modern
operating system. For example, you may want an operating system to
monitor system limits (and possibly alert you) in case your system
temperature increased unexpectedly.In this section of the &os; Handbook, we will provide
comprehensive information about ACPI. References
will be provided for further reading at the end. Please be aware
that ACPI is available on &os; 5.X and
above systems as a default kernel module. For &os; 4.9,
ACPI can be enabled by adding the line
device acpica to a kernel configuration and
rebuilding.What Is ACPI?Advanced Configuration and Power Interface
(ACPI) is a standard written by
an alliance of vendors to provide a standard interface for
hardware resources and power management (hence the name).
It is a key element in Operating System-directed
configuration and Power Management, i.e.: it provides
more control and flexibility to the operating system
(OS).
Modern systems stretched the limits of the
current Plug and Play interfaces (such as APM, which is used in
&os; 4.X), prior to the introduction of
ACPI. ACPI is the direct
successor to APM
(Advanced Power Management).Shortcomings of Advanced Power Management (APM)The Advanced Power Management (APM)
facility control's the power usage of a system based on its
activity. The APM BIOS is supplied by the (system) vendor and
it is specific to the hardware platform. An APM driver in the
OS mediates access to the APM Software Interface,
which allows management of power levels.There are four major problems in APM. Firstly, power
management is done by the (vendor-specific) BIOS, and the OS
does not have any knowledge of it. One example of this, is when
the user sets idle-time values for a hard drive in the APM BIOS,
that when exceeded, it (BIOS) would spin down the hard drive,
without the consent of the OS. Secondly, the APM logic is
embedded in the BIOS, and it operates outside the scope of the
OS. This means users can only fix problems in their APM BIOS by
flashing a new one into the ROM; which, is a very dangerous
procedure, and if it fails, it could leave the system in an
unrecoverable state. Thirdly, APM is a vendor-specific
technology, which, means that there is a lot or parity
(duplication of efforts) and bugs found in one vendor's BIOS,
may not be solved in others. Last but not the least, the APM
BIOS did not have enough room to implement a sophisticated power
policy, or one that can adapt very well to the purpose of the
machine.Plug and Play BIOS (PNPBIOS) was
unreliable in many situations. PNPBIOS is 16-bit technology,
so the OS has to use 16-bit emulation in order to
interface with PNPBIOS methods.The &os; APM driver is documented in
the &man.apm.4; manual page.Configuring ACPIThe acpi.ko driver is loaded by default
at start up by the &man.loader.8; and should not
be compiled into the kernel. The reasoning behind this is that modules
are easier to work with, say if switching to another acpi.ko
without doing a kernel rebuild. This has the advantage of making testing easier.
Another reason is that starting ACPI after a system has been
brought up is not too useful, and in some cases can be fatal. In doubt, just
disable ACPI all together. This driver should not and can not
be unloaded because the system bus uses it for various hardware interactions.
ACPI can be disabled with the &man.acpiconf.8; utility.
In fact most of the interaction with ACPI can be done via
&man.acpiconf.8;. Basically this means, if anything about ACPI
is in the &man.dmesg.8; output, then most likely it is already running.ACPI and APM cannot coexist and
should be used separately. The last one to load will terminate if the driver
notices the other running.In the simplest form, ACPI can be used to put the
system into a sleep mode with &man.acpiconf.8;, the
flag, and a 1-5 option. Most users will only need
1. Option 5 will do a soft-off
which is the same action as:&prompt.root; halt -pThe other options are available. Check out the &man.acpiconf.8;
manual page for more information.NateLawsonWritten by PeterSchultzWith contributions from TomRhodesUsing and Debugging &os; ACPIACPI is a fundamentally new way of
discovering devices, managing power usage, and providing
standardized access to various hardware previously managed
by the BIOS. Progress is being made toward
ACPI working on all systems, but bugs in some
motherboards' ACPI Machine
Language (AML) bytecode,
incompleteness in &os;'s kernel subsystems, and bugs in the Intel
ACPI-CA interpreter continue to appear.This document is intended to help you assist the &os;
ACPI maintainers in identifying the root cause
of problems you observe and debugging and developing a solution.
Thanks for reading this and we hope we can solve your system's
problems.Submitting Debugging InformationBefore submitting a problem, be sure you are running the latest
BIOS version and, if available, embedded
controller firmware version.For those of you that want to submit a problem right away,
please send the following information to
freebsd-acpi@FreeBSD.orgDescription of the buggy behavior, including system type
and model and anything that causes the bug to appear. Also,
please note as accurately as possible when the bug began
occurring if it is new for you.The dmesg output after boot
, including any error messages
generated by you exercising the bug.dmesg output from boot
with ACPI
disabled, if disabling it helps fix the problem.Output from sysctl hw.acpi. This is also
a good way of figuring out what features your system
offers.URL where your
ACPI Source Language
(ASL)
can be found. Do not send the
ASL directly to the list as it can be
very large. Generate a copy of your ASL
by running this command:&prompt.root; acpidump -t -d > name-system.asl(Substitute your login name for
name and manufacturer/model for
system. Example:
njl-FooCo6000.asl)Most of the developers watch the &a.current;
but please submit problems to &a.acpi.name; to be sure it is
seen. Please be patient, all of us have full-time jobs
elsewhere. If your bug is not immediately apparent, we will
probably ask you to submit a PR via
&man.send-pr.1;. When entering a PR, please
include the same information as requested above. This will help
us track the problem and resolve it. Do not send a
PR without emailing &a.acpi.name; first as we use
PRs as reminders of existing problems, not a
reporting mechanism. It is likely that your problem has been
reported by someone before.BackgroundACPI is present in all modern computers
that conform to the ia32 (x86), ia64 (Itanium), and amd64 (AMD)
architectures. The full standard has many features including
CPU performance management, power planes
control, thermal zones, various battery systems, embedded
controllers, and bus enumeration. Most systems implement less
than the full standard. For instance, a desktop system usually
only implements the bus enumeration parts while a laptop might
have cooling and battery management support as well. Laptops
also have suspend and resume, with their own associated
complexity.An ACPI-compliant system has various
components. The BIOS and chipset vendors
provide various fixed tables (e.g., FADT)
in memory that specify things like the APIC
map (used for SMP), config registers, and
simple configuration values. Additionally, a table of bytecode
(the Differentiated System Description Table
DSDT) is provided that specifies a
tree-like name space of devices and methods.The ACPI driver must parse the fixed
tables, implement an interpreter for the bytecode, and modify
device drivers and the kernel to accept information from the
ACPI subsystem. For &os;, Intel has
provided an interpreter (ACPI-CA) that is
shared with Linux and NetBSD. The path to the
ACPI-CA source code is
src/sys/contrib/dev/acpica.
The glue code that allows ACPI-CA to work on
&os; is in
src/sys/dev/acpica/Osd. Finally, drivers
that implement various ACPI devices are found
in
src/sys/dev/acpica.Common ProblemsFor ACPI to work correctly, all the parts
have to work correctly. Here are some common problems, in order
of frequency of appearance, and some possible workarounds or
fixes.Suspend/ResumeACPI has three suspend to
RAM (STR) states,
S1-S3, and one suspend
to disk state (STD), called
S4. S5 is
soft off and is the normal state your system
is in when plugged in but not powered up.
S4 can actually be implemented two separate
ways. S4BIOS is a
BIOS-assisted suspend to disk.
S4OS is implemented
entirely by the operating system.Start by checking sysctl
for the suspend-related items. Here
are the results for my Thinkpad:hw.acpi.supported_sleep_state: S3 S4 S5hw.acpi.s4bios: 0This means that I can use acpiconf -s
to test S3,
S4OS, and
S5. If was one
(1), I would have
S4BIOS
support instead of S4
OS.When testing suspend/resume, start with
S1, if supported. This state is most
likely to work since it doesn't require much driver support.
No one has implemented S2 but if you have
it, it's similar to S1. The next thing
to try is S3. This is the deepest
STR state and requires a lot of driver
support to properly reinitialize your hardware. If you have
problems resuming, feel free to email the &a.acpi.name; list but
do not expect the problem to be resolved since there are a lot
of drivers/hardware that need more testing and work.To help isolate the problem, remove as many drivers from
your kernel as possible. If it works, you can narrow down
which driver is the problem by loading drivers until it fails
again. Typically binary drivers like
nvidia.ko, X11
display drivers, and USB will have the most
problems while Ethernet interfaces usually work fine. If you
can load/unload the drivers ok, you can automate this by
putting the appropriate commands in
/etc/rc.suspend and
/etc/rc.resume. There is a
commented-out example for unloading and loading a driver. Try
setting to zero (0) if
your display is messed up after resume. Try setting longer or
shorter values for to see
if that helps.Another thing to try is load a recent Linux distribution
with ACPI support and test their
suspend/resume support on the same hardware. If it works
on Linux, it's likely a &os; driver problem and narrowing down
which driver causes the problems will help us fix the problem.
Note that the ACPI maintainers do not
usually maintain other drivers (e.g sound,
ATA, etc.) so any work done on tracking
down a driver problem should probably eventually be posted
to the &a.current.name; list and mailed to the driver
maintainer. If you are feeling adventurous, go ahead and
start putting some debugging &man.printf.3;s in a problematic
driver to track down where in its resume function it
hangs.Finally, try disabling ACPI and
enabling APM instead. If suspend/resume
works with APM, you may be better off
sticking with APM, especially on older
hardware (pre-2000). It took vendors a while to get
ACPI support correct and older hardware is
more likely to have BIOS problems with
ACPI.System Hangs (temporary or permanent)Most system hangs are a result of lost interrupts or an
interrupt storm. Chipsets have a lot of problems based on how
the BIOS configures interrupts before boot,
correctness of the APIC
(MADT) table, and routing of the
System Control Interrupt
(SCI).Interrupt storms can be distinguished from lost interrupts
by checking the output of vmstat -i
and looking at the line that has
acpi0. If the counter is increasing at more
than a couple per second, you have an interrupt storm. If the
system appears hung, try breaking to DDB
(CTRLALTESC on
console) and type .Your best hope when dealing with interrupt problems is to
try disabling APIC support with
hint.apic.0.disabled="1" in
loader.conf.PanicsPanics are relatively rare for ACPI and
are the top priority to be fixed. The first step is to
isolate the steps to reproduce the panic (if possible)
and get a backtrace. Follow the advice for enabling
and setting up a serial console
(see )
or setting up a &man.dump.8; partition. You can get a
backtrace in DDB with
. If you have to handwrite the
backtrace, be sure to at least get the lowest five (5) and top
five (5) lines in the trace.Then, try to isolate the problem by booting with
ACPI disabled. If that works, you can
isolate the ACPI subsystem by using various
values of . See the
&man.acpi.4; manual page for some examples.System Powers Up After Suspend or ShutdownFirst, try setting
0
in &man.loader.conf.5;. This keeps ACPI
from disabling various events during the shutdown process.
Some systems need this value set to 1 (the
default) for the same reason. This usually fixes
the problem of a system powering up spontaneously after a
suspend or poweroff.Other ProblemsIf you have other problems with ACPI
(working with a docking station, devices not detected, etc.),
please email a description to the mailing list as well;
however, some of these issues may be related to unfinished
parts of the ACPI subsystem so they might
take a while to be implemented. Please be patient and
prepared to test patches we may send you.ASL, acpidump, and
IASLThe most common problem is the BIOS
vendors providing incorrect (or outright buggy!) bytecode. This
is usually manifested by kernel console messages like
this:ACPI-1287: *** Error: Method execution failed [\\_SB_.PCI0.LPC0.FIGD._STA] \\
(Node 0xc3f6d160), AE_NOT_FOUNDOften, you can resolve these problems by updating your
BIOS to the latest revision. Most console
messages are harmless but if you have other problems like
battery status not working, they're a good place to start
looking for problems in the AML. The
bytecode, known as AML, is compiled from a
source language called ASL. The
AML is found in the table known as the
DSDT. To get a copy of your
ASL, use &man.acpidump.8;. You should use
both the (show contents of the fixed tables)
and (disassemble AML to
ASL) options. See the
Submitting Debugging
Information section for an example syntax.The simplest first check you can do is to recompile your
ASL to check for errors. Warnings can
usually be ignored but errors are bugs that will usually prevent
ACPI from working correctly. To recompile
your ASL, issue the following command:&prompt.root; iasl your.aslFixing Your ASLIn the long run, our goal is for almost everyone to have
ACPI work without any user intervention. At
this point, however, we are still developing workarounds for
common mistakes made by the BIOS vendors.
The Microsoft interpreter (acpi.sys and
acpiec.sys) does not strictly check for
adherence to the standard, and thus many BIOS
vendors who only test ACPI under Windows
never fix their ASL. We hope to continue to
identify and document exactly what non-standard behavior is
allowed by Microsoft's interpreter and replicate it so &os; can
work without forcing users to fix the ASL.
As a workaround and to help us identify behavior, you can fix
the ASL manually. If this works for you,
please send a &man.diff.1; of the old and new
ASL so we can possibly work around the buggy
behavior in ACPI-CA and thus make your fix
unnecessary.Here is a list of common error messages, their cause, and
how to fix them:_OS dependenciesSome AML assumes the world consists of
various Windows versions. You can tell &os; to claim it is
any OS to see if this fixes problems you
may have. An easy way to override this is to set
=Windows 2001
in /boot/loader.conf or other similar
strings you find in the ASL.Missing Return statementsSome methods do not explicitly return a value as the
standard requires. While ACPI-CA
does not handle this, &os; has a workaround that allows it to
return the value implicitly. You can also add explicit
Return statements where required if you know what value should
be returned. To force iasl to compile the
ASL, use the
flag.Overriding the Default AMLAfter you customize your.asl, you
will want to compile it, run:&prompt.root; iasl your.aslYou can add the flag to force creation
of the AML, even if there are errors during
compilation. Remember that some errors (e.g., missing Return
statements) are automatically worked around by the
interpreter.DSDT.aml is the default output
filename for iasl. You can load this
instead of your BIOS's buggy copy (which
is still present in flash memory) by editing
/boot/loader.conf as
follows:acpi_dsdt_load="YES"
acpi_dsdt_name="/boot/DSDT.aml"Be sure to copy your DSDT.aml to the
/boot directory.Getting Debugging Output From
ACPIThe ACPI driver has a very flexible
debugging facility. It allows you to specify a set of subsystems
as well as the level of verbosity. The subsystems you wish to
debug are specified as layers and are broken down
into ACPI-CA components (ACPI_ALL_COMPONENTS)
and ACPI hardware support (ACPI_ALL_DRIVERS).
The verbosity of debugging output is specified as the
level and ranges from ACPI_LV_ERROR (just report
errors) to ACPI_LV_VERBOSE (everything). The
level is a bitmask so multiple options can be set
at once, separated by spaces. In practice, you will want to use
a serial console to log the output if it is so long
it flushes the console message buffer. A full list of the
individual layers and levels is found in the &man.acpi.4; manual
page.Debugging output is not enabled by default. To enable it,
add to your kernel config
if ACPI is compiled into the kernel. You can
add to your
/etc/make.conf to enable it globally. If
it is a module, you can recompile just your
acpi.ko module as follows:&prompt.root; cd /sys/modules/acpi/acpi
&& make clean &&
make ACPI_DEBUG=1Install acpi.ko in
/boot/kernel and add your
desired level and layer to loader.conf.
This example enables debug messages for all
ACPI-CA components and all
ACPI hardware drivers
(CPU, LID, etc.) It will
only output error messages, the least verbose level.debug.acpi.layer="ACPI_ALL_COMPONENTS ACPI_ALL_DRIVERS"
debug.acpi.level="ACPI_LV_ERROR"If the information you want is triggered by a specific event
(say, a suspend and then resume), you can leave out changes to
loader.conf and instead use
sysctl to specify the layer and level after
booting and preparing your system for the specific event. The
sysctls are named the same as the tunables
in loader.conf.ReferencesMore information about ACPI may be found
in the following locations:The &a.acpi;The ACPI Mailing List Archives
The old ACPI Mailing List Archives
The ACPI 2.0 Specification
&os; Manual pages: &man.acpi.4;,
&man.acpi.thermal.4;, &man.acpidump.8;, &man.iasl.8;,
&man.acpidb.8;
DSDT debugging resource.
(Uses Compaq as an example but generally useful.)
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install/chapter.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install/chapter.sgml
index f9f2a06c9c..8c46e4cc8d 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install/chapter.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install/chapter.sgml
@@ -1,5568 +1,5568 @@
JimMockRestructured, reorganized, and parts
rewritten by RandyPrattThe sysinstall walkthrough, screenshots, and general
copy by Installing FreeBSDSynopsisinstallationFreeBSD 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. Although this
guide is kept as up to date as possible, you may find minor
differences between the installer and what is shown here. It is
suggested that you use this chapter as a general guide rather
than a literal installation manual.Pre-installation TasksInventory Your ComputerBefore 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 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 InventoryDevice NameIRQIO port(s)NotesFirst hard diskN/AN/A40 GB, made by Seagate, first IDE masterCDROMN/AN/AFirst IDE slaveSecond hard diskN/AN/A20 GB, made by IBM, second IDE masterFirst IDE controller140x1f0Network cardN/AN/A&intel; 10/100ModemN/AN/A&tm.3com; 56K faxmodem, on COM1…
Backup Your DataIf 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 before writing any
data to your disk, but once that process has started it cannot be
undone.Decide Where to Install FreeBSDIf you want FreeBSD to use your entire hard disk, then there is nothing
more to concern yourself with at this point — you can skip this
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 into 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 of 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 100 MB of disk
space. However, that is a very minimal install,
leaving almost no space for your own files. A more realistic minimum
is 250 MB without a graphical environment, and 350 MB 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 &partitionmagic;
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, namely
FIPS and
PResizer. Documentation for both
of these is available in the same directory.
FIPS,
PResizer, and
&partitionmagic; can resize
FAT16 and FAT32
partitions — used in &ms-dos; through &windows; ME.
&partitionmagic; is the only known
application that can resize NTFS.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 UnchangedSuppose that you have a computer with a single 4 GB disk that
already has a version of &windows; installed, and you have split the
disk into two drive letters, C: and
D:, each of which is 2 GB in size. You have
1 GB of data on C:, and 0.5 GB 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 PartitionSuppose that you have a computer with a single 4 GB 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 4 GB in size. You are
currently using 1.5 GB of space, and want FreeBSD to have 2 GB of
space.In order to install FreeBSD you will need to either:Backup your &windows; data, and then reinstall &windows;,
asking for a 2 GB partition at install time.Use one of the tools such as &partitionmagic;,
described above, to shrink your &windows;
partition.Disk Layouts for the AlphaAlphaYou 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 EIDEThis 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 disk 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 DetailsIf 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 ModemIf you connect to an Ethernet network, or you have an Internet
connection using an Ethernet adapter via cable or DSL, then you will need the following
information:IP addressIP address of the default gatewayHostnameDNS server IP addressesSubnet MaskIf 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 ModemIf 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 ISPThe COM: port your modem is connected toThe username and password for your ISP accountCheck for FreeBSD ErrataAlthough the FreeBSD project strives to ensure that each release
of FreeBSD is as stable as possible, bugs do occasionally creep into
the process. On very rare occasions those bugs affect the
installation process. As these problems are discovered and fixed, they
are noted in the FreeBSD Errata, which is found 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.Obtain the FreeBSD Installation FilesThe FreeBSD installation process can install FreeBSD from files
located in any of the following places:Local MediaA CDROM or DVDA DOS partition on the same computerA SCSI or QIC tapeFloppy disksNetworkAn FTP site, going through a firewall, or using an HTTP proxy,
as necessaryAn NFS serverA dedicated parallel or serial connectionIf you have purchased FreeBSD on CD or DVD then you already have
everything you need, and should proceed to the next section
().If you have not obtained the FreeBSD installation files you should
skip ahead to which explains how
to prepare to install FreeBSD from any of the above. After reading
that section, you should come back here, and read on to
.Prepare the Boot MediaThe FreeBSD installation process is started by booting your
computer into the FreeBSD installer—it is not a program you run
within another operating system. Your computer normally boots using
the operating system installed on your hard disk, but it can also be
configured to use a bootable floppy disk.
Most modern computers can also
boot from a CDROM in the CDROM drive.If you have FreeBSD on CDROM or DVD (either one you purchased
or you prepared yourself), 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.To create boot floppy images, follow these steps:Acquire the Boot Floppy ImagesThe boot disks are available on your installation media
in the floppies/ directory, and
can also be downloaded from the floppies directory, ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/<arch>/<version>-RELEASE/floppies/.
Replace <arch> and
<version>
with the architecture and the version number
which you want to install, respectively.
For example, the boot floppy images for
&os; &rel.current;-RELEASE for &i386; are available
from .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 just need
two files, kern.flp and
mfsroot.flp. Additional device drivers may
be necessary for some systems. These drivers are provided
on the drivers.flp image. Check
README.TXT in the same directory for the
most up to date information about these floppy images.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 DisksYou 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. The format
utility in &windows; will not tell about the presence of
bad blocks, it simply marks them as bad
and ignores them. It is advised that you use brand new
floppies if choosing this installation route.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 new disks and try
again.Write the Image Files to the Floppy DisksThe .flp files are
not regular files you copy to the disk.
They are images of the complete contents of the
disk. This means that you cannot simply
copy files from one disk to another.
Instead, you must use specific tools to write the
images directly to the disk.DOSIf you are creating the floppies on a computer running
&ms-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/fd0On 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 InstallationBy default, the installation will not make any changes to your
disk(s) until you see the following message:Last Chance: Are you SURE you 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.BootingBooting 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
AltS. 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 usually labeled as the Boot Order
and 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.Your particular BIOS does not support booting from
the desired media.FreeBSD will start to boot. If you are booting from CDROM you
will see a display similar to this (version information omitted):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 D: is disk3
BIOS 639kB/261120kB available memory
FreeBSD/i386 bootstrap loader, Revision 0.8
/kernel text=0x277391 data=0x3268c+0x332a8 |
|
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 (version information omitted):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
/kernel text=0x277391 data=0x3268c+0x332a8 |
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.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 AlphaAlphaStart 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.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 ConfigurationFrom FreeBSD versions 5.0 and later, userconfig has been deprecated
in favor of the new &man.device.hints.5; method. For more information
on &man.device.hints.5; please visit The kernel is the core of the operating
system. It is responsible for many things, including access to all
the devices you may have on your system, such as hard disks, network
cards, sound cards, and so on. Each piece of hardware supported by
the FreeBSD kernel has a driver associated with it. Each driver has a
two or three letter name, such as sa for the
SCSI sequential access driver, or sio for the
Serial I/O driver (which manages COM ports).When the kernel starts, each driver checks the system to see
whether or not the hardware it supports exists on your system. If it
does, then the driver configures the hardware and makes it available
to the rest of the kernel.This checking is commonly referred to as device
probing. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to do
this in a safe way. Some hardware drivers do not co-exist well,
and probing for one piece of hardware can sometimes leave
another in an inconsistent state. This is a basic
limitation of the PC design.Many older devices are called ISA devices—as opposed
to PCI devices. The ISA specification requires each device to have
some information hard coded into it, typically the Interrupt Request
Line number (IRQ) and IO port address that the driver uses. This
information is commonly set by using physical
jumpers on the card, or by using a DOS based
utility.This was often a source of problems, because it was not possible
to have two devices that shared the same IRQ or port address.Newer devices follow the PCI specification, which does not require
this, as the devices are supposed to cooperate with the BIOS, and are
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 into the kernel, and either disable some of them, if you
do not own that device, or confirm (and alter) the driver's
configuration if you do own the device but the defaults are
wrong.This probably sounds much more complicated than it actually
is. 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&txt.install.userconfig;The kernel configuration screen ()
is then divided into four sections:A collapsible list of all the drivers that are currently
marked as active, subdivided into groups such as
Storage, and Network. Each
driver is shown as a description, its two or three letter driver
name, and the IRQ and memory port used by that driver. In
addition, if an active driver conflicts with another active driver
then CONF is shown next to the driver name.
This section also shows the total number of conflicting drivers
that are currently active.Drivers that have been marked inactive. They remain in the
kernel, but they will not probe for their device when the kernel
starts. These are subdivided into groups in the same way as the
active driver list.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&txt.install.userconfig2;Do not worry if any conflicts are listed,
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 ConflictsPress 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 ListDisable 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 into 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 ConflictsAs 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 to memory
(it will be saved to disk if you finish the install) 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 MenuReviewing the Device Probe ResultsThe 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 Resultsavail memory = 253050880 (247120K bytes)
Preloaded elf kernel "kernel" at 0xc0817000.
Preloaded mfs_root "/mfsroot" at 0xc0817084.
md0: Preloaded image </mfsroot> 4423680 bytes at 0xc03ddcd4
md1: Malloc disk
Using $PIR table, 4 entries at 0xc00fde60
npx0: <math processor> on motherboard
npx0: INT 16 interface
pcib0: <Host to PCI bridge> on motherboard
pci0: <PCI bus> on pcib0
pcib1:<VIA 82C598MVP (Apollo MVP3) PCI-PCI (AGP) bridge> at device 1.0 on pci0
pci1: <PCI bus> on pcib1
pci1: <Matrox MGA G200 AGP graphics accelerator> at 0.0 irq 11
isab0: <VIA 82C586 PCI-ISA bridge> at device 7.0 on pci0
isa0: <iSA bus> on isab0
atapci0: <VIA 82C586 ATA33 controller> port 0xe000-0xe00f at device 7.1 on pci0
ata0: at 0x1f0 irq 14 on atapci0
ata1: at 0x170 irq 15 on atapci0
uhci0 <VIA 83C572 USB controller> port 0xe400-0xe41f irq 10 at device 7.2 on pci
0
usb0: <VIA 83572 USB controller> on uhci0
usb0: USB revision 1.0
uhub0: VIA UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr1
uhub0: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
pci0: <unknown card> (vendor=0x1106, dev=0x3040) at 7.3
dc0: <ADMtek AN985 10/100BaseTX> port 0xe800-0xe8ff mem 0xdb000000-0xeb0003ff ir
q 11 at device 8.0 on pci0
dc0: Ethernet address: 00:04:5a:74:6b:b5
miibus0: <MII bus> on dc0
ukphy0: <Generic IEEE 802.3u media interface> on miibus0
ukphy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto
ed0: <NE2000 PCI Ethernet (RealTek 8029)> port 0xec00-0xec1f irq 9 at device 10.
0 on pci0
ed0 address 52:54:05:de:73:1b, type NE2000 (16 bit)
isa0: too many dependant configs (8)
isa0: unexpected small tag 14
orm0: <Option ROM> at iomem 0xc0000-0xc7fff on isa0
fdc0: <NEC 72065B or clone> at port 0x3f0-0x3f5,0x3f7 irq 6 drq2 on isa0
fdc0: FIFO enabled, 8 bytes threshold
fd0: <1440-KB 3.5" drive> on fdc0 drive 0
atkbdc0: <Keyboard controller (i8042)> at port 0x60,0x64 on isa0
atkbd0: <AT Keyboard> flags 0x1 irq1 on atkbdc0
kbd0 at atkbd0
psm0: <PS/2 Mouse> irq 12 on atkbdc0
psm0: model Generic PS/@ mouse, device ID 0
vga0: <Generic ISA VGA> at port 0x3c0-0x3df iomem 0xa0000-0xbffff on isa0
sc0: <System console> at flags 0x100 on isa0
sc0: VGA <16 virtual consoles, flags=0x300>
sio0 at port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0x10 on isa0
sio0: type 16550A
sio1 at port 0x2f8-0x2ff irq 3 on isa0
sio1: type 16550A
ppc0: <Parallel port> at port 0x378-0x37f irq 7 on isa0
pppc0: SMC-like chipset (ECP/EPP/PS2/NIBBLE) in COMPATIBLE mode
ppc0: FIFO with 16/16/15 bytes threshold
plip0: <PLIP network interface> on ppbus0
ad0: 8063MB <IBM-DHEA-38451> [16383/16/63] at ata0-master UDMA33
acd0: CD-RW <LITE-ON LTR-1210B> at ata1-slave PIO4
Mounting root from ufs:/dev/md0c
/stand/sysinstall running as init on vty0Check 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,
it is easy to exit the sysinstall program
and start over again. It is also a good way to become more familiar
with the process.Select Sysinstall ExitUse 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 ] NoThe install program will start again if the CDROM is left
in the drive and [Yes] is selected.If you are booting from floppies it will be necessary to remove
the mfsroot.flp floppy and replace it with
kern.flp before rebooting.Introducing SysinstallThe sysinstall utility 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 MenuSelecting the Documentation MenuFrom the Main Menu, select Doc with
the arrow keys and
press Enter.Selecting Documentation MenuThis will display the Documentation Menu.Sysinstall Documentation MenuIt 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 MenuTo change the keyboard mapping, use the arrow keys to select
Keymap from the menu and press
Enter. This is only required if you are
using a non-standard or non-US keyboard.Sysinstall Main MenuA 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; by pressing Tab will use the default
keymap and return to the Main Install Menu.Sysinstall Keymap MenuInstallation Options ScreenSelect Options and press
Enter.Sysinstall Main MenuSysinstall OptionsThe default values are usually fine for most users and do
not need to be changed. The release name will vary according
to the version being installed.The description of the selected item will appear at the
bottom of the screen highlighted in blue. Notice that one of the
options is Use Defaults to reset all
values to startup defaults.Press F1 to read the help screen about the
various options.Pressing Q will return to the Main Install
menu.Begin a Standard InstallationThe 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 InstallationAllocating Disk SpaceYour 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 NumberingBefore 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.DOSMicrosoft WindowsIn a PC running a BIOS-dependent operating system such as
&ms-dos; or µsoft.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.SCSIBIOSMore 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.Creating Slices Using FDiskNo 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 or press U to use the Undo option.
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 or space ]Press Enter as instructed. You will then be
shown a list of all the hard drives that the kernel found when it
carried out the device probes.
shows an example from a
system with two IDE disks. They have been called
ad0 and ad2.Select Drive for FDiskYou 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 into three
sections.The first section, covering the first two lines of the display,
shows details about the currently selected disk, including its FreeBSD
name, the disk geometry, and the total size of the disk.The second section shows the slices that are currently on the
disk, where they start and end, how large they are, the name FreeBSD
gives them, and their description and sub-type. This example shows two
small unused slices, which are artifacts of disk layout schemes on the
PC. It also shows one large FAT slice, which almost certainly appears
as C: in &ms-dos; / &windows;, and an extended
slice, which may contain other drive letters for &ms-dos; / &windows;.The third section shows the commands that are available in
FDisk.Typical Fdisk Partitions before EditingWhat 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 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. The default
value in this box represents the largest possible slice you can
make, which could be the largest contiguous block of unallocated
space or the size of the entire hard disk.If you have already made space for FreeBSD (perhaps by using a
tool such as &partitionmagic;) 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 DiskWhen finished, press Q. Your changes will be
saved in sysinstall, but will not yet be
written to disk.Install a Boot ManagerYou 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.If FreeBSD is going to be the only operating system on
this machine, installed on the first hard disk, then the
Standard boot manager will suffice.
Choose None if you are using a
third-party boot manager capable of booting FreeBSD.Make your choice and press Enter.Sysinstall Boot Manager MenuThe 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 DriveIf 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.If you are installing FreeBSD on a drive other than your
first, then the FreeBSD boot manager needs to be installed on
both drives.Exit Select DriveThe 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
DisklabelYou 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 DiskPartitionFilesystemSizeDescriptiona/100 MBThis is the root filesystem. Every other filesystem
will be mounted somewhere under this one. 100 MB 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 40 MB of data here. The remaining space is for temporary
data, and also leaves expansion space if future versions of
FreeBSD need more space in /.bN/A2-3 x RAMThe 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).
You should also have at least 64 MB of swap, so if you have
less than 32 MB of RAM in your computer then set the swap
amount to 64 MB.
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., 128 MB), 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, 64 MB of swap per
disk.e/var50 MBThe /var directory contains
files that are constantly varying;
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 optimize the access of these
files without affecting other files in other directories that
do not have the same access pattern.f/usrRest of diskAll 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 DisksPartitionFilesystemSizeDescriptionbN/ASee descriptionAs 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/disknRest of diskThe 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 or space ]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 EditorDisklabel 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 DefaultsIf you choose to not use the default partitions and wish to
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
/ — root), make sure the proper disk slice 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 as a
number followed by either M for megabytes,
G for gigabytes, or C for
cylinders.Beginning with FreeBSD 5.X, users can: select
UFS2 using the Custom Newfs
(Z) option, create labels with
Auto Defaults and modify them with the Custom Newfs option or
add during the regular creation period.
Do not forget to add for SoftUpdates if you use the Custom Newfs
option!Free Space for Root PartitionThe default size shown will create a partition that takes up the
rest of the slice. If you are using the partition sizes described
in the earlier example, then delete the existing figure using
Backspace, and then type in
64M, as shown in
. Then press
&gui.ok;.Edit Root Partition SizeHaving chosen the partition's size you will then be 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 press
Enter.Choose the Root Partition TypeFinally, 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 PointThe 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 EditorChoosing What to InstallSelect the Distribution SetDeciding which distribution set to install will depend largely
on the intended use of the system and the amount of disk space
available. The predefined options range from installing the
smallest possible configuration to everything. Those who are
new to &unix; and/or FreeBSD should almost certainly select one
of these canned options. Customizing a distribution set is
typically for the more experienced user.Press F1 for more information on the
distribution set options and what they contain. When finished
reviewing the help, pressing Enter will return
to the Select Distributions Menu.If a graphical user interface is desired then a distribution
set that is preceded by an X should be
chosen. The configuration of &xfree86; and selection of a default
desktop is part of the post-installation steps.The default version of &xfree86; that is installed depends on the
version of the FreeBSD that you are installing. For FreeBSD versions
prior to 4.6, &xfree86; 3.X is installed. For FreeBSD 4.6 and later,
&xfree86; 4.X is the default.You should check to see whether your video card is supported at the
&xfree86; web site. If
your video card
is not supported under the default version that FreeBSD will install,
you should select a distribution without X for installation. After
installation, install and configure the appropriate version of
&xfree86; using the ports collection.If compiling a custom kernel is anticipated, select an option
which includes the source code. For more information on why a
custom kernel should be built or how to build a custom kernel, see
.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.
Do not fret over the perfect choice, as other distributions can be
added after installation.Choose DistributionsInstalling the Ports CollectionAfter 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. Instead, it is a collection of files which
automates the downloading, compiling and installation
of third-party software packages.
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. As of FreeBSD &rel.current;, the FreeBSD
Ports Collection takes up about &ports.size; of disk space.
You can safely assume a larger value for more recent versions
of FreeBSD. 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 &ports.size; 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 ] NoSelect [ 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 DistributionsIf satisfied with the options, select
Exit with the arrow keys, ensure that
&gui.ok; is highlighted, and pressing
Enter to continue.Choosing Your Installation MediaIf Installing from a CDROM or DVD, 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 MediaFTP Installation ModesinstallationnetworkFTPThere are three FTP installation modes you can choose from:
active FTP, passive FTP, or via a HTTP proxy.FTP Active: Install from an FTP
serverThis 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
firewallFTPpassive modeThis option instructs sysinstall to use
Passive mode for all FTP operations.
This allows the user to pass through firewalls
that do not allow incoming connections on random TCP ports.
FTP via a HTTP proxy: Install from an FTP server
through a http proxyFTPvia a HTTP proxyThis option instructs sysinstall 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 InstallationThe 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 ] NoSelect [ Yes ] and press
Enter to proceed.The installation time will vary according to the distribution
chosen, installation media, 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 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-installationConfiguration 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 ConfigurationIf you previously configured PPP for an FTP install, this screen
will not display and can be configured later as described
above.For detailed information on Local Area Networks and
configuring FreeBSD as a gateway/router refer to the
Advanced Networking
chapter. User Confirmation Requested
Would you like to configure any Ethernet or SLIP/PPP network devices?
[ Yes ] NoTo configure a network device, select
[ Yes ] and press Enter.
Otherwise, select [ No ] to continue.Selecting an Ethernet DeviceSelect 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 are connected to an existing IPv6 network
with an RA server, then 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 ed0Use Tab to select the information fields and
fill in appropriate information:HostThe fully-qualified hostname, such as k6-2.example.com in
this case.DomainThe name of the domain that your machine is
in, such as example.com for this case.IPv4 GatewayIP address of host forwarding packets to non-local
destinations. You must fill this in 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. The IPv4 Gateway is also known as the default
gateway or default route.Name serverIP 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 addressThe IP address to be used for this interface was
192.168.0.1NetmaskThe 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 ifconfigAny 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 ] NoChoosing [ Yes ] and pressing
Enter will bring
the machine up on the network and be ready for use. However,
this does not accomplish much during installation, since
the machine still needs to be rebooted.Configure Gateway User Confirmation Requested
Do you want this machine to function as a network gateway?
[ Yes ] NoIf 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 ] NoSelect [ Yes ] to continue. User Confirmation Requested
inetd(8) relies on its configuration file, /etc/inetd.conf, to determine
which of its Internet services will be available. The default FreeBSD
inetd.conf(5) leaves all services disabled by default, so they must be
specifically enabled in the configuration file before they will
function, even once inetd(8) is enabled. Note that services for
IPv6 must be separately enabled from IPv4 services.
Select [Yes] now to invoke an editor on /etc/inetd.conf, or [No] to
use the current settings.
[ Yes ] NoSelecting [ Yes ] will allow adding
services by deleting the # at the beginning
of a line.Editing inetd.confAfter 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 FTPSelecting the default [ No ] and pressing
Enter will still allow users who have accounts
with passwords to use FTP to access the machine.Allow Anonymous FTPAnyone 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 screen (or similar) will display:Default Anonymous FTP ConfigurationPressing 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 ] NoIf you select [ Yes ] and press
Enter, an editor will automatically start
allowing you to edit the message.Edit the FTP Welcome MessageThis 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 of the editor screen.Press Esc and a pop-up menu will default
to a) leave editor. Press
Enter to exit and continue. Press
Enter again to save changes if you made
any.Configure Network File SystemNetwork File System (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,
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 filesystems.
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 exportsUse the instructions to add the actual exported filesystems
now or later using a text editor of your choice. Note the
file name/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 ClientThe NFS client allows your machine to access NFS servers. 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 ProfileA 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 ProfilesExtremeModerate&man.sendmail.8;NOYES&man.sshd.8;NOYES&man.portmap.8;NOMAYBE
The portmapper is enabled if the machine has
been configured as an NFS client or server earlier
in the installation.NFS serverNOYES&man.securelevel.8;YES
If you choose a security profile that sets the
securelevel to 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 ] NoSelecting [ 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 OptionsPress 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 SettingsThere are several options available to customize the system
console. User Confirmation Requested
Would you like to customize your system console settings?
[ Yes ] NoTo view and configure the options, select
[ Yes ] and press
Enter.System Console Configuration OptionsA commonly used option is the screen saver. Use the arrow keys
to select Saver and then press
Enter.Screen Saver OptionsSelect the desired screen saver using the arrow keys
and then press Enter. The System Console
Configuration menu will redisplay.The default time interval is 300 seconds. To change the time
interval, select Saver again. At the
Screen Saver Options menu, select Timeout
using the arrow keys and press Enter. A pop-up
menu will appear:Screen Saver TimeoutThe value can be changed, then select &gui.ok;
and press Enter to return to the System Console
Configuration menu.System Console Configuration ExitSelecting Exit and pressing
Enter will continue with the post-installation
configurations.Setting the Time ZoneSetting the time zone for your machine will allow it to
automatically correct for any regional time changes and perform
other time zone related functions properly.The example shown is for a machine located in the Eastern
time zone of the United States. Your selections will vary according
to your geographical location. User Confirmation Requested
Would you like to set this machine's time zone now?
[ Yes ] NoSelect [ 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 RegionThe appropriate region is selected using the arrow keys
and then pressing Enter.Select Your CountrySelect the appropriate country using the arrow keys
and press Enter.Select Your Time ZoneThe appropriate time zone is selected using the arrow
keys and pressing Enter. Confirmation
Does the abbreviation 'EDT' look reasonable?
[ Yes ] NoConfirm 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 ] NoSelecting [ Yes ] and pressing
Enter will allow
running Linux software on FreeBSD. The install will 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 SettingsThis 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 configuration (such as a PS/2 or COM port 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 TypeUse the arrow keys to select Type and
press Enter.Set Mouse ProtocolThe 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 PortUse the arrow keys to select Port and
press Enter.Setting the Mouse PortThis 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 DaemonLast, use the arrow keys to select
Enable, and press
Enter to enable and test the mouse
daemon.Test the Mouse DaemonMove the mouse around the screen and verify the cursor
shown responds properly. If it does, select
[ Yes ] and press Enter. If
not, the mouse has not been configured correctly — select
[ No ] and try using different configuration
options.Select Exit with the arrow keys
and press Enter to return to continue with the
post-installation configuration.Configure Additional Network ServicesConfiguring network services can be a daunting
task for new users if they lack previous
knowledge in this area. Networking, including the Internet,
is critical to all modern operating systems including &os;;
as a result, it is very useful to have some understanding
&os;'s extensive networking capabilities. Doing this
during the installation will ensure users have some
understanding of the various services available to them.Network services are programs that accept input from
anywhere on the network. Every effort is made to make sure
these programs will not do anything harmful.
Unfortunately, programmers are not perfect and through time
there have been cases where bugs in network services have been
exploited by attackers to do bad things. It is important that
you only enable the network services you know that you need. If
in doubt it is best if you do not enable a network service until
you find out that you do need it. You can always enable it
later by re-running sysinstall or by
using the features provided by the
/etc/rc.conf file.Selecting the Networking option will display
a menu similar to the one below:Network Configuration Upper-levelThe first option, Interfaces, was previously covered during
the , thus this option can
safely be ignored.Selecting the AMD option adds
support for the BSD automatic mount utility.
This is usually used in conjunction with the
NFS protocol (see below)
for automatically mounting remote file systems.
No special configuration is required here.Next in line is the AMD Flags
option. When selected, a menu will pop up for you
to enter specific AMD flags.
The menu already contains a set of default options:-a /.amd_mnt -l syslog /host /etc/amd.map /net /etc/amd.mapThe option sets the default mount
location which is specified here as
/.amd_mnt. The
option specifies the default log file;
however, when syslogd is used all log
activity will be sent to the system log daemon. The
/host directory is used
to mount an exported file system from a remote
host, while /net
directory is used to mount an exported file system from an
IP address. The
/etc/amd.map file defines the default
options for AMD exports.The Anon FTP option permits anonymous
FTP connections. Select this option to
make this machine an anonymous FTP server.
Be aware of the security risks involved with this option.
Another menu will be displayed to explain the security risks
and configuration in depth.The Gateway configuration menu will set
the machine up to be a gateway as explained previously. This
can be used to unset the Gateway option if you accidentally
selected it during the installation process.The Inetd option can be used to configure
or completely disable the &man.inetd.8; daemon as discussed
above.The Mail option is used to configure the system's
default MTA or Mail Transfer Agent.
Selecting this option will bring up the following menu:Select a default MTAHere you are offered a choice as to which
MTA to install
and set as the default. An MTA is nothing
more than a mail server which delivers email to users on the
system or the Internet.Selecting Sendmail will install
the popular sendmail server which
is the &os; default. The Sendmail local option
will set sendmail to be the default
MTA, but disable its ability to receive
incoming email from the Internet. The other options here,
Postfix and
Exim act similar to
Sendmail. They both deliver
email; however, some users prefer these alternatives to the
sendmail
MTA.After selecting an MTA, or choosing
not to select an MTA, the network configuration menu will appear
with the next option being NFS client.The NFS client option will
configure the system to communicate with a server via
NFS. An NFS server
makes file systems available to other machines on the
network via the NFS protocol. If this is
a stand alone machine, this option can remain unselected.
The system may require more configuration later; see
for more
information about client and server configuration.Below that option is the NFS server
option, permitting you to set the system up as an
NFS server. This adds the required
information to start up the RPC remote
procedure call services. RPC is used to
coordinate connections between hosts and programs.Next in line is the Ntpdate option,
which deals with time synchronization. When selected, a menu
like the one below shows up:Ntpdate ConfigurationFrom this menu, select the server which is the closest
to your location. Selecting a close one will make the time
synchronization more accurate as a server further from your
location may have more connection latency.The next option is the PCNFSD selection.
This option will install the
net/pcnfsd package from
the ports collection. This is a useful utility which provides
NFS authentication services for systems which
are unable to provide their own, such as Microsoft's
&ms-dos; operating system.Now you must scroll down a bit to see the other
options:Network Configuration Lower-levelThe &man.rpcbind.8;, &man.rpc.statd.8;, and
&man.rpc.lockd.8; utilities are all used for Remote Procedure
Calls (RPC).
The rpcbind utility manages communication
between NFS servers and clients, and is
required for NFS servers to operate
correctly. The rpc.statd daemon interacts
with the rpc.statd daemon on other hosts to
provide status monitoring. The reported status is usually held
in the /var/db/statd.status file. The
next option listed here is the rpc.lockd
option, which, when selected, will provide file locking
services. This is usually used with
rpc.statd to monitor what hosts are
requesting locks and how frequently they request them.
While these last two options are marvelous for debugging, they
are not required for NFS servers and clients
to operate correctly.As you progress down the list the next item here is
Routed, which is the routing daemon. The
&man.routed.8; utility manages network routing tables,
discovers multicast routers, and supplies a copy of the routing
tables to any physically connected host on the network upon
request. This is mainly used for machines which act as a
gateway for the local network. When selected, a menu will be
presented requesting the default location of the utility.
The default location is already defined for you and can be
selected with the Enter key. You will then
be presented with yet another menu, this time asking for the
flags you wish to pass on to routed. The
default is and it should already appear
on the screen.Next in line is the Rwhod option which,
when selected, will start the &man.rwhod.8; daemon
during system initialization. The rwhod
utility broadcasts system messages across the network
periodically, or collects them when in consumer
mode. More information can be found in the &man.ruptime.1; and
&man.rwho.1; manual pages.The next to the last option in the list is for the
&man.sshd.8; daemon. This is the secure shell server for
OpenSSH and it is highly recommended
over the standard telnet and
FTP servers. The sshd
server is used to create a secure connection from one host to
another by using encrypted connections.Finally there is the TCP Extensions
option. This enables the TCP Extensions
defined in RFC 1323 and
RFC 1644. While on many hosts this can
speed up connections, it can also cause some connections to be
dropped. It is not recommended for servers, but may be
beneficial for stand alone machines.Now that you have configured the network services, you can
scroll up to the very top item which is Exit
and continue on to the next configuration section.Configure X ServerIn order to use a graphical user interface such as
KDE, GNOME,
or others, the X server will need to be configured.In order to run &xfree86; as a
non root user you will need to
have x11/wrapper installed.
This is installed by default beginning with FreeBSD 4.7. For
earlier versions this can be added
from the Package Selection menu.To see whether your video card is supported, check the
&xfree86; web site. User Confirmation Requested
Would you like to configure your X server at this time?
[ Yes ] NoIt 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. Improper configuration
of the X server at this time can leave the machine in a
frozen state. It is often advised to configure the X server
once the installation has completed.
If you have graphics card and monitor information, select
[ Yes ] and press Enter
to proceed with configuring the X server.Select Configuration Method MenuThere are several ways to configure the X server.
Use the arrow keys to select one of the methods and press
Enter. Be sure to read all instructions
carefully.The xf86cfg and
xf86cfg -textmode methods may make the screen
go dark and take a few seconds to start. Be patient.The following will illustrate the use of the
xf86config configuration tool. The
configuration choices you make will depend on the hardware in the
system so your choices will probably be different than those
shown: Message
You have configured and been running the mouse daemon.
Choose "/dev/sysmouse" as the mouse port and "SysMouse" or
"MouseSystems" as the mouse protocol in the X configuration utility.
[ OK ]
[ Press enter to continue ]This indicates that the mouse daemon previously configured has been
detected.
Press Enter to continue.Starting xf86config will display
a brief introduction:This program will create a basic XF86Config file, based on menu selections you
make.
The XF86Config file usually resides in /usr/X11R6/etc/X11 or /etc/X11. A sample
XF86Config file is supplied with XFree86; it is configured for a standard
VGA card and monitor with 640x480 resolution. This program will ask for a
pathname when it is ready to write the file.
You can either take the sample XF86Config as a base and edit it for your
configuration, or let this program produce a base XF86Config file for your
configuration and fine-tune it.
Before continuing with this program, make sure you know what video card
you have, and preferably also the chipset it uses and the amount of video
memory on your video card. SuperProbe may be able to help with this.
Press enter to continue, or ctrl-c to abort.Pressing Enter will start the mouse
configuration. Be sure to follow the instructions and use
Mouse Systems as the mouse protocol and
/dev/sysmouse as the mouse port even if
using a PS/2 mouse is shown as an illustration.First specify a mouse protocol type. Choose one from the following list:
1. Microsoft compatible (2-button protocol)
2. Mouse Systems (3-button protocol) & FreeBSD moused protocol
3. Bus Mouse
4. PS/2 Mouse
5. Logitech Mouse (serial, old type, Logitech protocol)
6. Logitech MouseMan (Microsoft compatible)
7. MM Series
8. MM HitTablet
9. Microsoft IntelliMouse
If you have a two-button mouse, it is most likely of type 1, and if you have
a three-button mouse, it can probably support both protocol 1 and 2. There are
two main varieties of the latter type: mice with a switch to select the
protocol, and mice that default to 1 and require a button to be held at
boot-time to select protocol 2. Some mice can be convinced to do 2 by sending
a special sequence to the serial port (see the ClearDTR/ClearRTS options).
Enter a protocol number: 2
You have selected a Mouse Systems protocol mouse. If your mouse is normally
in Microsoft-compatible mode, enabling the ClearDTR and ClearRTS options
may cause it to switch to Mouse Systems mode when the server starts.
Please answer the following question with either 'y' or 'n'.
Do you want to enable ClearDTR and ClearRTS? n
You have selected a three-button mouse protocol. It is recommended that you
do not enable Emulate3Buttons, unless the third button doesn't work.
Please answer the following question with either 'y' or 'n'.
Do you want to enable Emulate3Buttons? y
Now give the full device name that the mouse is connected to, for example
/dev/tty00. Just pressing enter will use the default, /dev/mouse.
On FreeBSD, the default is /dev/sysmouse.
Mouse device: /dev/sysmouseThe keyboard is the next item to be configured. A generic
101-key model is shown for illustration. Any name may be used
for the variant or simply press Enter to accept
the default value.Please select one of the following keyboard types that is the better
description of your keyboard. If nothing really matches,
choose 1 (Generic 101-key PC)
1 Generic 101-key PC
2 Generic 102-key (Intl) PC
3 Generic 104-key PC
4 Generic 105-key (Intl) PC
5 Dell 101-key PC
6 Everex STEPnote
7 Keytronic FlexPro
8 Microsoft Natural
9 Northgate OmniKey 101
10 Winbook Model XP5
11 Japanese 106-key
12 PC-98xx Series
13 Brazilian ABNT2
14 HP Internet
15 Logitech iTouch
16 Logitech Cordless Desktop Pro
17 Logitech Internet Keyboard
18 Logitech Internet Navigator Keyboard
19 Compaq Internet
20 Microsoft Natural Pro
21 Genius Comfy KB-16M
22 IBM Rapid Access
23 IBM Rapid Access II
24 Chicony Internet Keyboard
25 Dell Internet Keyboard
Enter a number to choose the keyboard.
1
Please select the layout corresponding to your keyboard
1 U.S. English
2 U.S. English w/ ISO9995-3
3 U.S. English w/ deadkeys
4 Albanian
5 Arabic
6 Armenian
7 Azerbaidjani
8 Belarusian
9 Belgian
10 Bengali
11 Brazilian
12 Bulgarian
13 Burmese
14 Canadian
15 Croatian
16 Czech
17 Czech (qwerty)
18 Danish
Enter a number to choose the country.
Press enter for the next page
1
Please enter a variant name for 'us' layout. Or just press enter
for default variant
us
Please answer the following question with either 'y' or 'n'.
Do you want to select additional XKB options (group switcher,
group indicator, etc.)? nNext, we proceed to the configuration for the monitor. Do not
exceed the ratings of your monitor. Damage could occur. If you
have any doubts, do the configuration after you have the
information.Now we want to set the specifications of the monitor. The two critical
parameters are the vertical refresh rate, which is the rate at which the
whole screen is refreshed, and most importantly the horizontal sync rate,
which is the rate at which scanlines are displayed.
The valid range for horizontal sync and vertical sync should be documented
in the manual of your monitor. If in doubt, check the monitor database
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc/Monitors to see if your monitor is there.
Press enter to continue, or ctrl-c to abort.
You must indicate the horizontal sync range of your monitor. You can either
select one of the predefined ranges below that correspond to industry-
standard monitor types, or give a specific range.
It is VERY IMPORTANT that you do not specify a monitor type with a horizontal
sync range that is beyond the capabilities of your monitor. If in doubt,
choose a conservative setting.
hsync in kHz; monitor type with characteristic modes
1 31.5; Standard VGA, 640x480 @ 60 Hz
2 31.5 - 35.1; Super VGA, 800x600 @ 56 Hz
3 31.5, 35.5; 8514 Compatible, 1024x768 @ 87 Hz interlaced (no 800x600)
4 31.5, 35.15, 35.5; Super VGA, 1024x768 @ 87 Hz interlaced, 800x600 @ 56 Hz
5 31.5 - 37.9; Extended Super VGA, 800x600 @ 60 Hz, 640x480 @ 72 Hz
6 31.5 - 48.5; Non-Interlaced SVGA, 1024x768 @ 60 Hz, 800x600 @ 72 Hz
7 31.5 - 57.0; High Frequency SVGA, 1024x768 @ 70 Hz
8 31.5 - 64.3; Monitor that can do 1280x1024 @ 60 Hz
9 31.5 - 79.0; Monitor that can do 1280x1024 @ 74 Hz
10 31.5 - 82.0; Monitor that can do 1280x1024 @ 76 Hz
11 Enter your own horizontal sync range
Enter your choice (1-11): 6
You must indicate the vertical sync range of your monitor. You can either
select one of the predefined ranges below that correspond to industry-
standard monitor types, or give a specific range. For interlaced modes,
the number that counts is the high one (e.g. 87 Hz rather than 43 Hz).
1 50-70
2 50-90
3 50-100
4 40-150
5 Enter your own vertical sync range
Enter your choice: 2
You must now enter a few identification/description strings, namely an
identifier, a vendor name, and a model name. Just pressing enter will fill
in default names.
The strings are free-form, spaces are allowed.
Enter an identifier for your monitor definition: HitachiThe selection of a video card driver from a list is
next. If you pass your card on the list, continue to press
Enter and the list will repeat. Only an
excerpt from the list is shown:Now we must configure video card specific settings. At this point you can
choose to make a selection out of a database of video card definitions.
Because there can be variation in Ramdacs and clock generators even
between cards of the same model, it is not sensible to blindly copy
the settings (e.g. a Device section). For this reason, after you make a
selection, you will still be asked about the components of the card, with
the settings from the chosen database entry presented as a strong hint.
The database entries include information about the chipset, what driver to
run, the Ramdac and ClockChip, and comments that will be included in the
Device section. However, a lot of definitions only hint about what driver
to run (based on the chipset the card uses) and are untested.
If you can't find your card in the database, there's nothing to worry about.
You should only choose a database entry that is exactly the same model as
your card; choosing one that looks similar is just a bad idea (e.g. a
GemStone Snail 64 may be as different from a GemStone Snail 64+ in terms of
hardware as can be).
Do you want to look at the card database? y
288 Matrox Millennium G200 8MB mgag200
289 Matrox Millennium G200 SD 16MB mgag200
290 Matrox Millennium G200 SD 4MB mgag200
291 Matrox Millennium G200 SD 8MB mgag200
292 Matrox Millennium G400 mgag400
293 Matrox Millennium II 16MB mga2164w
294 Matrox Millennium II 4MB mga2164w
295 Matrox Millennium II 8MB mga2164w
296 Matrox Mystique mga1064sg
297 Matrox Mystique G200 16MB mgag200
298 Matrox Mystique G200 4MB mgag200
299 Matrox Mystique G200 8MB mgag200
300 Matrox Productiva G100 4MB mgag100
301 Matrox Productiva G100 8MB mgag100
302 MediaGX mediagx
303 MediaVision Proaxcel 128 ET6000
304 Mirage Z-128 ET6000
305 Miro CRYSTAL VRX Verite 1000
Enter a number to choose the corresponding card definition.
Press enter for the next page, q to continue configuration.
288
Your selected card definition:
Identifier: Matrox Millennium G200 8MB
Chipset: mgag200
Driver: mga
Do NOT probe clocks or use any Clocks line.
Press enter to continue, or ctrl-c to abort.
Now you must give information about your video card. This will be used for
the "Device" section of your video card in XF86Config.
You must indicate how much video memory you have. It is probably a good
idea to use the same approximate amount as that detected by the server you
intend to use. If you encounter problems that are due to the used server
not supporting the amount memory you have (e.g. ATI Mach64 is limited to
1024K with the SVGA server), specify the maximum amount supported by the
server.
How much video memory do you have on your video card:
1 256K
2 512K
3 1024K
4 2048K
5 4096K
6 Other
Enter your choice: 6
Amount of video memory in Kbytes: 8192
You must now enter a few identification/description strings, namely an
identifier, a vendor name, and a model name. Just pressing enter will fill
in default names (possibly from a card definition).
Your card definition is Matrox Millennium G200 8MB.
The strings are free-form, spaces are allowed.
Enter an identifier for your video card definition:Next, the video modes are set for the resolutions
desired. Typically, useful ranges are 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768
but those are a function of video card capability, monitor size,
and eye comfort. When selecting a color depth, select the highest
mode that your card will support.For each depth, a list of modes (resolutions) is defined. The default
resolution that the server will start-up with will be the first listed
mode that can be supported by the monitor and card.
Currently it is set to:
"640x480" "800x600" "1024x768" "1280x1024" for 8-bit
"640x480" "800x600" "1024x768" "1280x1024" for 16-bit
"640x480" "800x600" "1024x768" "1280x1024" for 24-bit
Modes that cannot be supported due to monitor or clock constraints will
be automatically skipped by the server.
1 Change the modes for 8-bit (256 colors)
2 Change the modes for 16-bit (32K/64K colors)
3 Change the modes for 24-bit (24-bit color)
4 The modes are OK, continue.
Enter your choice: 2
Select modes from the following list:
1 "640x400"
2 "640x480"
3 "800x600"
4 "1024x768"
5 "1280x1024"
6 "320x200"
7 "320x240"
8 "400x300"
9 "1152x864"
a "1600x1200"
b "1800x1400"
c "512x384"
Please type the digits corresponding to the modes that you want to select.
For example, 432 selects "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480", with a
default mode of 1024x768.
Which modes? 432
You can have a virtual screen (desktop), which is screen area that is larger
than the physical screen and which is panned by moving the mouse to the edge
of the screen. If you don't want virtual desktop at a certain resolution,
you cannot have modes listed that are larger. Each color depth can have a
differently-sized virtual screen
Please answer the following question with either 'y' or 'n'.
Do you want a virtual screen that is larger than the physical screen? n
For each depth, a list of modes (resolutions) is defined. The default
resolution that the server will start-up with will be the first listed
mode that can be supported by the monitor and card.
Currently it is set to:
"640x480" "800x600" "1024x768" "1280x1024" for 8-bit
"1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" for 16-bit
"640x480" "800x600" "1024x768" "1280x1024" for 24-bit
Modes that cannot be supported due to monitor or clock constraints will
be automatically skipped by the server.
1 Change the modes for 8-bit (256 colors)
2 Change the modes for 16-bit (32K/64K colors)
3 Change the modes for 24-bit (24-bit color)
4 The modes are OK, continue.
Enter your choice: 4
Please specify which color depth you want to use by default:
1 1 bit (monochrome)
2 4 bits (16 colors)
3 8 bits (256 colors)
4 16 bits (65536 colors)
5 24 bits (16 million colors)
Enter a number to choose the default depth.
4Finally, the configuration needs to be saved. Be sure
to enter /etc/XF86Config as the location
for saving the configuration.I am going to write the XF86Config file now. Make sure you don't accidently
overwrite a previously configured one.
Shall I write it to /etc/X11/XF86Config? yIf the configuration fails, you can try the configuration again
by selecting [ Yes ] when the following
message appears: User Confirmation Requested
The XFree86 configuration process seems to have
failed. Would you like to try again?
[ Yes ] NoIf you have trouble configuring &xfree86;, select
[ No ] and press Enter
and continue with the installation process. After installation
you can use xf86cfg -textmode or
xf86config to access the command line
configuration utilities as root. There is
an additional method for configuring &xfree86; described in
. If you choose not to configure
&xfree86; at this time the next menu will be for package
selection.The default setting which allows the server to be killed
is the hotkey sequence CtrlAltBackspace. 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
CtrlAlt+ or
CtrlAlt-.
After you have &xfree86;
running, 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 Window. There may be some display differences when switching
back to text mode, but it is better than damaging equipment.Read the &man.xvidtune.1; manual page before making
any adjustments.Following a successful &xfree86; configuration, it will proceed
to the selection of a default desktop.Select Default X DesktopThere 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 DesktopUse the arrow keys to select a desktop and press
Enter. Installation of the selected desktop will
proceed.Install PackagesPackages 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 ] NoSelecting [ Yes ] and pressing
Enter will be
followed by the Package Selection screens:Select Package CategoryOnly packages on the current installation media are
available for installation at any given time.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 PackagesThe bash shell is shown selected.
Select as many as desired by highlighting the package and pressing the
Space key. A short description of each package will
appear in the lower left corner of the screen.Pressing the Tab key will toggle between the last
selected package, &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 PackagesUse the Tab and arrow keys to select [ Install ]
and press Enter. You will then need to confirm
that you want to install the packages:Confirm Package InstallationSelecting &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. If you end up not selecting any packages, and wish
to return to the final configuration, select
Install anyways.Add Users/GroupsYou 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 ] NoSelect [ Yes ] and press
Enter to continue with adding a user.Select UserSelect User with the arrow keys
and press Enter.Add User InformationThe 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 IDThe login name of the new user (mandatory).UIDThe numerical ID for this user (leave blank for
automatic choice).GroupThe login group name for this user (leave blank for
automatic choice).PasswordThe password for this user (enter this field with
care!).Full nameThe user's full name (comment).Member groupsThe groups this user belongs to (i.e. gets access
rights for).Home directoryThe user's home directory (leave blank for
default).Login shellThe user's login shell (leave blank for
default, e.g. /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 most common shell used in the
BSD-world is the C shell, which can be indicated as
/bin/tcsh.The user was also added to the wheel group
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 ManagementGroups can 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 the root Password Message
Now you must set the system manager's password.
This is the password you'll use to log in as "root".
[ OK ]
[ Press enter to continue ]Press Enter to set the root
password.The password will need to be typed in twice correctly. Needless to
say, make sure you have a way of finding the password if you
forget.Changing local password for root.
New password :
Retype new password :The installation will continue after the password is
successfully entered.Exiting InstallIf you need to configure additional network devices or
any other configuration, you can do it at this point or
after installation with /stand/sysinstall. User Confirmation Requested
Visit the general configuration menu for a chance to set any last
options?
Yes [ No ]Select [ No ] with the arrow keys
and press Enter to return to the Main
Installation Menu.Exit InstallSelect [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 ] NoSelect [ Yes ] and remove the floppy if
booting from the floppy. The CDROM drive is locked until the machine
starts to reboot. The CDROM drive is then unlocked and the disk can
be removed from drive (quickly).The system will reboot so watch for any error messages that
may appear.FreeBSD BootupFreeBSD 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 (version information omitted):Copyright (c) 1992-2002 The FreeBSD Project.
Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz
CPU: AMD-K6(tm) 3D processor (300.68-MHz 586-class CPU)
Origin = "AuthenticAMD" Id = 0x580 Stepping = 0
Features=0x8001bf<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,MCE,CX8,MMX>
AMD Features=0x80000800<SYSCALL,3DNow!>
real memory = 268435456 (262144K bytes)
config> di sn0
config> di lnc0
config> di le0
config> di ie0
config> di fe0
config> di cs0
config> di bt0
config> di aic0
config> di aha0
config> di adv0
config> q
avail memory = 256311296 (250304K bytes)
Preloaded elf kernel "kernel" at 0xc0491000.
Preloaded userconfig_script "/boot/kernel.conf" at 0xc049109c.
md0: Malloc disk
Using $PIR table, 4 entries at 0xc00fde60
npx0: <math processor> on motherboard
npx0: INT 16 interface
pcib0: <Host to PCI bridge> on motherboard
pci0: <PCI bus> on pcib0
pcib1: <VIA 82C598MVP (Apollo MVP3) PCI-PCI (AGP) bridge> at device 1.0 on pci0
pci1: <PCI bus> on pcib1
pci1: <Matrox MGA G200 AGP graphics accelerator> at 0.0 irq 11
isab0: <VIA 82C586 PCI-ISA bridge> at device 7.0 on pci0
isa0: <ISA bus> on isab0
atapci0: <VIA 82C586 ATA33 controller> port 0xe000-0xe00f at device 7.1 on pci0
ata0: at 0x1f0 irq 14 on atapci0
ata1: at 0x170 irq 15 on atapci0
uhci0: <VIA 83C572 USB controller> port 0xe400-0xe41f irq 10 at device 7.2 on pci0
usb0: <VIA 83C572 USB controller> on uhci0
usb0: USB revision 1.0
uhub0: VIA UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub0: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
chip1: <VIA 82C586B ACPI interface> at device 7.3 on pci0
ed0: <NE2000 PCI Ethernet (RealTek 8029)> port 0xe800-0xe81f irq 9 at
device 10.0 on pci0
ed0: address 52:54:05:de:73:1b, type NE2000 (16 bit)
isa0: too many dependant configs (8)
isa0: unexpected small tag 14
fdc0: <NEC 72065B or clone> at port 0x3f0-0x3f5,0x3f7 irq 6 drq 2 on isa0
fdc0: FIFO enabled, 8 bytes threshold
fd0: <1440-KB 3.5" drive> on fdc0 drive 0
atkbdc0: <keyboard controller (i8042)> at port 0x60-0x64 on isa0
atkbd0: <AT Keyboard> flags 0x1 irq 1 on atkbdc0
kbd0 at atkbd0
psm0: <PS/2 Mouse> irq 12 on atkbdc0
psm0: model Generic PS/2 mouse, device ID 0
vga0: <Generic ISA VGA> at port 0x3c0-0x3df iomem 0xa0000-0xbffff on isa0
sc0: <System console> at flags 0x1 on isa0
sc0: VGA <16 virtual consoles, flags=0x300>
sio0 at port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0x10 on isa0
sio0: type 16550A
sio1 at port 0x2f8-0x2ff irq 3 on isa0
sio1: type 16550A
ppc0: <Parallel port> at port 0x378-0x37f irq 7 on isa0
ppc0: SMC-like chipset (ECP/EPP/PS2/NIBBLE) in COMPATIBLE mode
ppc0: FIFO with 16/16/15 bytes threshold
ppbus0: IEEE1284 device found /NIBBLE
Probing for PnP devices on ppbus0:
plip0: <PLIP network interface> on ppbus0
lpt0: <Printer> on ppbus0
lpt0: Interrupt-driven port
ppi0: <Parallel I/O> on ppbus0
ad0: 8063MB <IBM-DHEA-38451> [16383/16/63] at ata0-master using UDMA33
ad2: 8063MB <IBM-DHEA-38451> [16383/16/63] at ata1-master using UDMA33
acd0: CDROM <DELTA OTC-H101/ST3 F/W by OIPD> at ata0-slave using PIO4
Mounting root from ufs:/dev/ad0s1a
swapon: adding /dev/ad0s1b as swap device
Automatic boot in progress...
/dev/ad0s1a: FILESYSTEM CLEAN; SKIPPING CHECKS
/dev/ad0s1a: clean, 48752 free (552 frags, 6025 blocks, 0.9% fragmentation)
/dev/ad0s1f: FILESYSTEM CLEAN; SKIPPING CHECKS
/dev/ad0s1f: clean, 128997 free (21 frags, 16122 blocks, 0.0% fragmentation)
/dev/ad0s1g: FILESYSTEM CLEAN; SKIPPING CHECKS
/dev/ad0s1g: clean, 3036299 free (43175 frags, 374073 blocks, 1.3% fragmentation)
/dev/ad0s1e: filesystem CLEAN; SKIPPING CHECKS
/dev/ad0s1e: clean, 128193 free (17 frags, 16022 blocks, 0.0% fragmentation)
Doing initial network setup: hostname.
ed0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet 192.168.0.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.0.255
inet6 fe80::5054::5ff::fede:731b%ed0 prefixlen 64 tentative scopeid 0x1
ether 52:54:05:de:73:1b
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x8
inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
Additional routing options: IP gateway=YES TCP keepalive=YES
routing daemons:.
additional daemons: syslogd.
Doing additional network setup:.
Starting final network daemons: creating ssh RSA host key
Generating public/private rsa1 key pair.
Your identification has been saved in /etc/ssh/ssh_host_key.
Your public key has been saved in /etc/ssh/ssh_host_key.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
cd:76:89:16:69:0e:d0:6e:f8:66:d0:07:26:3c:7e:2d root@k6-2.example.com
creating ssh DSA host key
Generating public/private dsa key pair.
Your identification has been saved in /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key.
Your public key has been saved in /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
f9:a1:a9:47:c4:ad:f9:8d:52:b8:b8:ff:8c:ad:2d:e6 root@k6-2.example.com.
setting ELF ldconfig path: /usr/lib /usr/lib/compat /usr/X11R6/lib
/usr/local/lib
a.out ldconfig path: /usr/lib/aout /usr/lib/compat/aout /usr/X11R6/lib/aout
starting standard daemons: inetd cron sshd usbd sendmail.
Initial rc.i386 initialization:.
rc.i386 configuring syscons: blank_time screensaver moused.
Additional ABI support: linux.
Local package initialization:.
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 AlphaAlphaOnce the install procedure has finished, you will be
able to start FreeBSD by typing something like this to the
SRM prompt:>>>BOOT DKC0This 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 BOOTThe boot messages will be similar (but not identical) to
those produced by FreeBSD booting on the &i386;.FreeBSD ShutdownIt is important to properly shutdown the operating
system. Do not just turn off power. First, become a superuser by
typing su at the command line and entering the
root password. This will work only if the user
is a member of the wheel group.
Otherwise, login as root and use
shutdown -h now.The operating system has halted.
Please press any key to reboot.It is safe to turn off the power after the shutdown command
has been issued and the message Please press any key to reboot
appears. If any key is pressed instead of turning off the power
switch, the system will reboot.You could also use the
CtrlAltDel
key combination to reboot the system, however this is not recommended
during normal operation.Supported HardwarehardwareFreeBSD 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. Copies of the supported
hardware list for various releases and architectures can also be
found on the Release
Information page of the FreeBSD Web site.TroubleshootinginstallationtroubleshootingThe 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 WrongDue 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 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.Disable device drivers for hardware that is not present in
your system.Change IRQs, DRQs, and IO port addresses used by a device
driver.After adjusting the kernel to match your hardware
configuration, type Q to boot with the new
settings. Once the installation has completed, any changes you
made in the configuration mode will be permanent so you do not have
to reconfigure every time you boot. It is still highly likely that
you will eventually want to build a custom kernel.Dealing with Existing &ms-dos; PartitionsDOSMany users wish to install &os; on PCs inhabited by
µsoft; based operating systems. For those instances, &os; has a
utility known as FIPS. This utility can be found
in the tools directory on the install CD-ROM, or downloaded
from one of various &os; mirrors.The FIPS utility 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 need to defragment your &ms-dos; partition using the &windows;;
Disk Defragmenter utility (go into Explorer, right-click on
the hard drive, and choose to defrag your hard drive), or use
Norton Disk Tools. Now you can run the
FIPS utility. It will prompt you for the rest of
the information, just follow the on screen instructions. Afterwards, you can
reboot and install &os; 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.There is also a very useful product from PowerQuest
(http://www.powerquest.com) called
&partitionmagic;. This application has far more
functionality than FIPS, and is highly recommended
if you plan to add/remove operating systems often. It does cost money, so if you
plan to install &os; and keep it installed, FIPS
will probably be fine for you.Using &ms-dos; and &windows; File SystemsAt this time, &os; does not support file systems compressed with the
Double Space™ application. Therefore the file
system will need to be uncompressed before &os; can access the data. This
can be done by running the Compression Agent
located in the Start> Programs >
System Tools menu.&os; can support &ms-dos; based file systems. This requires you use
the &man.mount.msdos.8; command (in &os; 5.X, the command is &man.mount.msdosfs.8;)
with the required parameters. The utilities most common usage is:&prompt.root; mount_msdos /dev/ad0s1 /mntIn this example, the &ms-dos; file system is located on the first partition of
the primary hard disk. Your situation may be different, check the output from
the dmesg, and mount commands. They should
produce enough information too give an idea of the partition layout.Extended &ms-dos; file systems are usually mapped after the &os;
partitions. In other words, the slice number may be higher than the ones
&os; is using. For instance, the first &ms-dos; partition may be
/dev/ad0s1, the &os; partition may be
/dev/ad0s2, with the extended &ms-dos; partition being
located on /dev/ad0s3. To some, this can be confusing
at first.NTFS partitions can also be mounted in a similar manner
using the &man.mount.ntfs.8; command.Alpha User's Questions and AnswersAlphaThis section answers some commonly asked questions about
installing FreeBSD on Alpha systems.Can I boot from the ARC or Alpha BIOS Console?ARCAlpha BIOSSRMNo. &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.ValentinoVaschettoContributed by Advanced Installation GuideThis section describes how to install FreeBSD in exceptional
cases.Installing FreeBSD on a System without a Monitor or
Keyboardinstallationheadless (serial console)serial consoleThis 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 the steps to create
installation floppies, explained in .To modify these floppies to boot into a serial console, follow
these steps:Enabling the Boot Floppies to Boot into a Serial ConsolemountIf 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 /mntNow that you have the floppy mounted, you must
change into the /mnt directory:&prompt.root; cd /mntHere 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.configNow that you have your floppy configured correctly,
you must unmount the floppy using the &man.umount.8;
command:&prompt.root; cd /
&prompt.root; umount /mntNow you can remove the floppy from the floppy
drive.Connecting Your Null Modem Cablenull modem cableYou 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 InstallIt 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 MachinecuNow you have to connect to that machine with
&man.cu.1;:&prompt.root; cu -l /dev/cuaa0That's it! You should now be able to control the headless machine
through your cu session. 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. Select the
FreeBSD color console and proceed with your install!Preparing Your Own Installation MediaTo 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, and FreeBSD does not recognize your CD/DVD
drive, but &ms-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 an Installation CDROMAs part of each release, the FreeBSD project makes available two
CDROM images (ISO images). These images can be written
(burned) to CDs if you have a CD writer, and then used
to install FreeBSD. If you have a CD writer, and bandwidth is cheap,
then this is the easiest way to install FreeBSD.Download the Correct ISO ImagesThe ISO images for each release can be downloaded from ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ISO-IMAGES-arch/version or the closest mirror.
Substitute arch and
version as appropriate.That directory will normally contain the following images:
FreeBSD ISO Image Names and MeaningsFilenameContainsversion-mini.isoEverything you need to install FreeBSD.version-disc1.isoEverything you need to install FreeBSD, and as many
additional third party packages as would fit on the
disc.version-disc2.isoA live filesystem, which is used in
conjunction with the Repair facility in
sysinstall. A copy of the
FreeBSD CVS tree. As many additional third party packages
as would fit on the disc.
You must download one of either the mini
ISO image, or the image of disc one. Do not download both of them,
since the disc one image contains everything that the mini ISO
image contains.Use the mini ISO if Internet access is cheap for you. It will
let you install FreeBSD, and you can then install third party
packages by downloading them using the ports/packages system (see
) as
necessary.Use the image of disc one if you want a reasonable selection
of third party packages on the disc as well.The additional disc images are useful, but not essential,
especially if you have high-speed access to the Internet.Write the CDsYou must then write the CD images to disc. If you will be
doing this on another FreeBSD system then see
for more information (in
particular, and
).If you will be doing this on another platform then you will
need to use whatever utilities exist to control your CD writer on
that platform. The images provided are in the standard ISO format,
which many CD writing applications support.Creating a Local FTP Site with a FreeBSD DiskinstallationnetworkFTPFreeBSD 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 /cdromCreate 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:/nonexistentEnsure 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 FloppiesinstallationfloppiesIf you must install from floppy disk (which we suggest you
do not do), either due to unsupported
hardware or simply because you insist on doing things the hard
way, you must first prepare some floppies for the installation.At a minimum, you will need as many 1.44 MB or 1.2 MB floppies
as it takes to hold all the files in the
bin (binary distribution) directory. If
you are preparing the floppies from DOS, then they
must be formatted using the &ms-dos;
FORMAT command. If you are using &windows;,
use Explorer to format the disks (right-click on the
A: drive, and select Format.Do not trust factory pre-formatted
floppies. Format them again yourself, just to be sure. Many
problems reported by our users in the past have resulted from
the use of improperly formatted media, which is why we are
making a point of it now.If you are creating the floppies on another FreeBSD machine,
a format is still not a bad idea, though you do not need to put
a DOS filesystem on each floppy. You can use the
disklabel and newfs
commands to put a UFS filesystem on them instead, as the
following sequence of commands (for a 3.5" 1.44 MB floppy)
illustrates:&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/fd0Use fd0.1200 and
floppy5 for 5.25" 1.2 MB 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 five of them will fit on a conventional
1.44 MB floppy. Go through all your floppies, packing as many
files as will fit on each one, until you have all of the
distributions you want packed up in this fashion. Each
distribution should go into a subdirectory on the floppy, e.g.:
a:\bin\bin.aa,
a:\bin\bin.ab, and so on.Once you come to the Media screen during the install
process, select Floppy and you
will be prompted for the rest.Installing from an &ms-dos; Partitioninstallationfrom MS-DOSTo prepare for an installation from an &ms-dos; partition,
copy the files from the distribution into a directory
called freebsd in the root directory of the
partition. For example, c:\freebsd. The
directory structure of the CDROM or FTP site must be partially
reproduced within this directory, so we suggest using the DOS
xcopy command if you are copying it from a CD.
For example, to prepare for a minimal installation of
FreeBSD:C:\>md c:\freebsdC:\>xcopy e:\bin c:\freebsd\bin\ /sC:\>xcopy e:\manpages c:\freebsd\manpages\ /sAssuming that C: is where you have
free space and E: is where your CDROM
is mounted.If you do not have a CDROM drive, you can download the
distribution from ftp.FreeBSD.org.
Each distribution is in its own directory; for example, the
base distribution can be found in the &rel.current;/base/
directory.In the 4.X and older releases of &os; the base
distribution is called bin. Adjust the sample
commands and URLs above accordingly, if you are using one of these
versions.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 Tapeinstallationfrom QIC/SCSI TapeInstalling 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 ... dist2When you perform the installation, you should 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.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 Networkinstallationnetworkserial (SLIP or PPP)installationnetworkparallel (PLIP)installationnetworkEthernetThere are three types of network installations available.
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.
+ url="&url.books.faq;/ppp.html">FAQ entries for further information.
If you have problems, logging can be directed to the screen using
the command set log local ....If a hard-wired connection to another FreeBSD (2.0-R or
later) machine is available, you might also consider installing
over a laplink parallel port cable. The data rate
over the parallel port is much higher than what is typically
possible over a serial line (up to 50 kbytes/sec), thus resulting
in a quicker installation.Finally, for the fastest possible network installation, an
Ethernet adapter is always a good choice! FreeBSD supports most
common PC Ethernet cards; a table of supported cards (and their
required settings) is provided in the Hardware Notes for each
release of FreeBSD. If you are using one of the supported PCMCIA
Ethernet cards, also be sure that it is plugged in
before the laptop is powered on! FreeBSD does
not, unfortunately, currently support hot insertion of PCMCIA cards
during installation.You will also need to know your IP address on the network,
the netmask value for your address class, and the name of your
machine. If you are installing over a PPP connection and do not
have a static IP, fear not, the IP address can be dynamically
assigned by your ISP. Your system administrator can tell you
which values to use for your particular network setup. If you
will be referring to other hosts by name rather than IP address,
you will also need a name server and possibly the address of a
gateway (if you are using PPP, it is your provider's IP address)
to use in talking to it. If you want to install by FTP via a
HTTP proxy, 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 NFSinstallationnetworkNFSThe NFS installation is fairly straight-forward. Simply
copy the FreeBSD distribution files you want onto an NFS server
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 the 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
flag.In order for NFS installation to work, the server must
support subdir mounts, for example, if your FreeBSD &rel.current; 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 options. 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.
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/introduction/chapter.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/introduction/chapter.sgml
index 3d6aa38b12..77de3f4724 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/introduction/chapter.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/introduction/chapter.sgml
@@ -1,943 +1,943 @@
JimMockRestructured, reorganized, and parts
rewritten by IntroductionSynopsisThank you for your interest in FreeBSD! The following chapter
covers various aspects of the FreeBSD Project, such as its history,
goals, development model, and so on.After reading this chapter, you will know:How FreeBSD relates to other computer operating systems.The history of the FreeBSD Project.The goals of the FreeBSD Project.The basics of the FreeBSD open-source development model.And of course: where the name FreeBSD comes from.Welcome to FreeBSD!4.4BSD-LiteFreeBSD is a 4.4BSD-Lite based operating system for
Intel (x86 and &itanium;), AMD64, Alpha, Sun
&ultrasparc; computers. Ports to other
architectures are also underway.
You can also
read about the history of FreeBSD,
or the current release. If you
are interested in contributing something to the Project (code,
hardware, unmarked bills), see the Contributing to FreeBSD article.
+ url="&url.articles.contributing;/index.html">Contributing to FreeBSD article.
What Can FreeBSD Do?FreeBSD has many noteworthy features. Some of these
are:preemptive multitaskingPreemptive multitasking with
dynamic priority adjustment to ensure smooth and fair
sharing of the computer between applications and users, even
under the heaviest of loads.multi-user facilitiesMulti-user facilities which allow many
people to use a FreeBSD system simultaneously for a variety
of things. This means, for example, that system peripherals
such as printers and tape drives are properly shared between
all users on the system or the network and that individual
resource limits can be placed on users or groups of users,
protecting critical system resources from over-use.TCP/IP networkingStrong TCP/IP networking with
support for industry standards such as SLIP, PPP, NFS, DHCP,
and NIS. This means that your FreeBSD machine can
interoperate easily with other systems as well as act as an
enterprise server, providing vital functions such as NFS
(remote file access) and email services or putting your
organization on the Internet with WWW, FTP, routing and
firewall (security) services.memory protectionMemory protection ensures that
applications (or users) cannot interfere with each other. One
application crashing will not affect others in any way.FreeBSD is a 32-bit operating
system (64-bit on the Alpha, &itanium;, AMD64, and &ultrasparc;) and was
designed as such from the ground up.X Window SystemXFree86The industry standard X Window System
(X11R6) provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for the cost
of a common VGA card and monitor and comes with full
sources.binary compatibilityLinuxbinary compatibilitySCObinary compatibilitySVR4binary compatibilityBSD/OSbinary compatibilityNetBSDBinary compatibility with many
programs built for Linux, SCO, SVR4, BSDI and NetBSD.Thousands of ready-to-run
applications are available from the FreeBSD
ports and packages
collection. Why search the net when you can find it all right
here?Thousands of additional and
easy-to-port applications are available
on the Internet. FreeBSD is source code compatible with most
popular commercial &unix; systems and thus most applications
require few, if any, changes to compile.virtual memoryDemand paged virtual memory and
merged VM/buffer cache design efficiently
satisfies applications with large appetites for memory while
still maintaining interactive response to other users.Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP)SMP support for machines with
multiple CPUs.compilersCcompilersC++compilersFORTRANA full complement of C,
C++, Fortran, and
Perl development tools.
Many additional languages for advanced research
and development are also available in the ports and packages
collection.source codeSource code for the entire system
means you have the greatest degree of control over your
environment. Why be locked into a proprietary solution
at the mercy of your vendor when you can have a truly open
system?Extensive online
documentation.And many more!4.4BSD-LiteComputer Systems Research Group (CSRG)U.C. BerkeleyFreeBSD is based on the 4.4BSD-Lite release from Computer
Systems Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California at
Berkeley, and carries on the distinguished tradition of BSD
systems development. In addition to the fine work provided by
CSRG, the FreeBSD Project has put in many thousands of hours in
fine tuning the system for maximum performance and reliability in
real-life load situations. As many of the commercial giants
struggle to field PC operating systems with such features,
performance and reliability, FreeBSD can offer them
now!The applications to which FreeBSD can be put are truly
limited only by your own imagination. From software development
to factory automation, inventory control to azimuth correction of
remote satellite antennae; if it can be done with a commercial
&unix; product then it is more than likely that you can do it with
FreeBSD too! FreeBSD also benefits significantly from
literally thousands of high quality applications developed by
research centers and universities around the world, often
available at little to no cost. Commercial applications are also
available and appearing in greater numbers every day.Because the source code for FreeBSD itself is generally
available, the system can also be customized to an almost unheard
of degree for special applications or projects, and in ways not
generally possible with operating systems from most major
commercial vendors. Here is just a sampling of some of the
applications in which people are currently using FreeBSD:Internet Services: The robust TCP/IP
networking built into FreeBSD makes it an ideal platform for a
variety of Internet services such as:FTP serversFTP serversweb serversWorld Wide Web servers (standard or secure
[SSL])firewallIP masqueradingFirewalls and NAT (IP masquerading)
gatewayselectronic mailElectronic Mail serversUSENETUSENET News or Bulletin Board SystemsAnd more...With FreeBSD, you can easily start out small with an
inexpensive 386 class PC and upgrade all the way up to a
quad-processor Xeon with RAID storage as your enterprise
grows.Education: Are you a student of
computer science or a related engineering field? There is no
better way of learning about operating systems, computer
architecture and networking than the hands on, under the hood
experience that FreeBSD can provide. A number of freely
available CAD, mathematical and graphic design packages also
make it highly useful to those whose primary interest in a
computer is to get other work
done!Research: With source code for the
entire system available, FreeBSD is an excellent platform for
research in operating systems as well as other branches of
computer science. FreeBSD's freely available nature also makes
it possible for remote groups to collaborate on ideas or
shared development without having to worry about special
licensing agreements or limitations on what may be discussed
in open forums.routerDNS ServerNetworking: Need a new router? A
name server (DNS)? A firewall to keep people out of your
internal network? FreeBSD can easily turn that unused 386 or
486 PC sitting in the corner into an advanced router with
sophisticated packet-filtering capabilities.X Window SystemXFree86X Window SystemAccelerated-XX Window workstation: FreeBSD is a
fine choice for an inexpensive X terminal solution, either
using the freely available &xfree86; server or one of the
excellent commercial servers provided by Xi Graphics. Unlike an
X terminal, FreeBSD allows many applications to be run
locally if desired, thus relieving the burden on a central
server. FreeBSD can even boot diskless, making
individual workstations even cheaper and easier to
administer.GNU Compiler CollectionSoftware Development: The basic
FreeBSD system comes with a full complement of development
tools including the renowned GNU C/C++ compiler and
debugger.FreeBSD is available in both source and binary form on CDROM,
DVD,
and via anonymous FTP. Please see
for more information about obtaining FreeBSD.Who Uses FreeBSD?UsersLarge sites running FreeBSDFreeBSD is used to power some of the biggest sites on the
Internet, including:Yahoo!Yahoo!ApacheApacheBlue Mountain ArtsBlue Mountain
ArtsPair NetworksPair
NetworksSony JapanSony
JapanNetcraftNetcraftWeathernewsWeathernewsSupervaluSupervaluTELEHOUSE AmericaTELEHOUSE
AmericaSophos Anti-VirusSophos
Anti-VirusJMA WiredJMA Wiredand many more.About the FreeBSD ProjectThe following section provides some background information on
the project, including a brief history, project goals, and the
development model of the project.JordanHubbardContributed by A Brief History of FreeBSD386BSD PatchkitHubbard, JordanWilliams, NateGrimes, RodFreeBSD ProjecthistoryThe FreeBSD project had its genesis in the early part of 1993,
partially as an outgrowth of the Unofficial 386BSD
Patchkit by the patchkit's last 3 coordinators: Nate
Williams, Rod Grimes and myself.386BSDOur original goal was to produce an intermediate snapshot of
386BSD in order to fix a number of problems with it that the
patchkit mechanism just was not capable of solving. Some of you
may remember the early working title for the project being
386BSD 0.5 or 386BSD Interim in
reference to that fact.Jolitz, Bill386BSD was Bill Jolitz's operating system, which had been up
to that point suffering rather severely from almost a year's worth
of neglect. As the patchkit swelled ever more uncomfortably with
each passing day, we were in unanimous agreement that something
had to be done and decided to assist Bill by providing
this interim cleanup snapshot. Those plans came to
a rude halt when Bill Jolitz suddenly decided to withdraw his
sanction from the project without any clear indication of what
would be done instead.Greenman, DavidWalnut Creek CDROMIt did not take us long to decide that the goal remained
worthwhile, even without Bill's support, and so we adopted the
name FreeBSD, coined by David Greenman. Our initial
objectives were set after consulting with the system's current
users and, once it became clear that the project was on the road
to perhaps even becoming a reality, I contacted Walnut Creek CDROM
with an eye toward improving FreeBSD's distribution channels for
those many unfortunates without easy access to the Internet.
Walnut Creek CDROM not only supported the idea of distributing
FreeBSD on CD but also went so far as to provide the project with a
machine to work on and a fast Internet connection. Without Walnut
Creek CDROM's almost unprecedented degree of faith in what was, at
the time, a completely unknown project, it is quite unlikely that
FreeBSD would have gotten as far, as fast, as it has today.4.3BSD-LiteNet/2U.C. Berkeley386BSDFree Software FoundationThe first CDROM (and general net-wide) distribution was
FreeBSD 1.0, released in December of 1993. This was based on the
4.3BSD-Lite (Net/2) tape from U.C. Berkeley, with
many components also provided by 386BSD and the Free Software
Foundation. It was a fairly reasonable success for a first
offering, and we followed it with the highly successful FreeBSD
1.1 release in May of 1994.NovellU.C. BerkeleyNet/2AT&TAround this time, some rather unexpected storm clouds formed
on the horizon as Novell and U.C. Berkeley settled their
long-running lawsuit over the legal status of the Berkeley Net/2
tape. A condition of that settlement was U.C. Berkeley's
concession that large parts of Net/2 were encumbered
code and the property of Novell, who had in turn acquired it from
AT&T some time previously. What Berkeley got in return was
Novell's blessing that the 4.4BSD-Lite release, when
it was finally released, would be declared unencumbered and all
existing Net/2 users would be strongly encouraged to switch. This
included FreeBSD, and the project was given until the end of July
1994 to stop shipping its own Net/2 based product. Under the
terms of that agreement, the project was allowed one last release
before the deadline, that release being FreeBSD 1.1.5.1.FreeBSD then set about the arduous task of literally
re-inventing itself from a completely new and rather incomplete
set of 4.4BSD-Lite bits. The Lite releases were
light in part because Berkeley's CSRG had removed large chunks of
code required for actually constructing a bootable running system
(due to various legal requirements) and the fact that the Intel
port of 4.4 was highly incomplete. It took the project until
November of 1994 to make this transition, at which point it
released FreeBSD 2.0 to the net and on CDROM (in late December).
Despite being still more than a little rough around the edges,
the release was a significant success and was followed by the
more robust and easier to install FreeBSD 2.0.5 release in June of
1995.We released FreeBSD 2.1.5 in August of 1996, and it appeared
to be popular enough among the ISP and commercial communities that
another release along the 2.1-STABLE branch was merited. This was
FreeBSD 2.1.7.1, released in February 1997 and capping the end of
mainstream development on 2.1-STABLE. Now in maintenance mode,
only security enhancements and other critical bug fixes will be
done on this branch (RELENG_2_1_0).FreeBSD 2.2 was branched from the development mainline
(-CURRENT) in November 1996 as the RELENG_2_2
branch, and the first full release (2.2.1) was released in April
1997. Further releases along the 2.2 branch were done in the
summer and fall of '97, the last of which (2.2.8) appeared in
November 1998. The first official 3.0 release appeared in
October 1998 and spelled the beginning of the end for the 2.2
branch.The tree branched again on Jan 20, 1999, leading to the
4.0-CURRENT and 3.X-STABLE branches. From 3.X-STABLE, 3.1 was
released on February 15, 1999, 3.2 on May 15, 1999, 3.3 on
September 16, 1999, 3.4 on December 20, 1999, and 3.5 on
June 24, 2000, which was followed a few days later by a minor
point release update to 3.5.1, to incorporate some last-minute
security fixes to Kerberos. This will be the final release in the
3.X branch.There was another branch on March 13, 2000, which saw the
emergence of the 4.X-STABLE branch, now considered to be the
current -stable branch. There have been several releases
from it so far: 4.0-RELEASE was introduced in March 2000, and
the most recent &rel2.current;-RELEASE came out in
&rel2.current.date;. There will be additional releases
along the 4.X-stable (RELENG_4) branch well into 2003.The long-awaited 5.0-RELEASE was announced on January 19,
2003. The culmination of nearly three years of work, this
release started FreeBSD on the path of advanced multiprocessor
and application thread support and introduced support for the
&ultrasparc; and ia64 platforms. This release was followed by 5.1 in
June of 2003. Besides a number of new features, the 5.X
releases also contain a number of major developments in the
underlying system architecture. Along with these advances,
however, comes a system that incorporates a tremendous amount of
new and not-widely-tested code. For this reason, the 5.X
releases are considered New Technology releases, while the 4.X
series function as Production releases. In time, 5.X will be
declared stable and work will commence on the next development
branch, 6.0-CURRENT.For now, long-term development projects continue to take place in the
5.X-CURRENT (trunk) branch, and SNAPshot releases of 5.X on
CDROM (and, of course, on the net) are continually made available
from
the snapshot server as work progresses.JordanHubbardContributed by FreeBSD Project GoalsFreeBSD ProjectgoalsThe goals of the FreeBSD Project are to provide software that
may be used for any purpose and without strings attached. Many of
us have a significant investment in the code (and project) and
would certainly not mind a little financial compensation now and
then, but we are definitely not prepared to insist on it. We
believe that our first and foremost mission is to
provide code to any and all comers, and for whatever purpose, so
that the code gets the widest possible use and provides the widest
possible benefit. This is, I believe, one of the most fundamental
goals of Free Software and one that we enthusiastically
support.GNU General Public License (GPL)GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)BSD CopyrightThat code in our source tree which falls under the GNU
General Public License (GPL) or Library General Public License
(LGPL) comes with slightly more strings attached, though at
least on the side of enforced access rather than the usual
opposite. Due to the additional complexities that can evolve
in the commercial use of GPL software we do, however, prefer
software submitted under the more relaxed BSD copyright when
it is a reasonable option to do so.SatoshiAsamiContributed by The FreeBSD Development ModelFreeBSD Projectdevelopment modelThe development of FreeBSD is a very open and flexible
process, being literally built from the contributions
of hundreds of people around the world, as can be seen from
our list of
+ url="&url.articles.contributors;/article.html">list of
contributors. FreeBSD's development infrastructure allow
these hundreds of developers to collaborate over the Internet.
We are constantly on the lookout for
new developers and ideas, and those interested in becoming
more closely involved with the project need simply contact us
at the &a.hackers;. The &a.announce; is also available to
those wishing to make other FreeBSD users aware of major areas
of work.Useful things to know about the FreeBSD project and its
development process, whether working independently or in close
cooperation:The CVS repositoryCVSrepositoryConcurrent Versions SystemCVSThe central source tree for FreeBSD is maintained by
CVS
(Concurrent Versions System), a freely available source code
control tool that comes bundled with FreeBSD. The primary
CVS
repository resides on a machine in Santa Clara CA, USA
from where it is replicated to numerous mirror machines
throughout the world. The CVS tree, which contains the -CURRENT and -STABLE trees,
can all be easily replicated to your own machine as well.
Please refer to the Synchronizing
your source tree section for more information on
doing this.The committers listcommittersThe committers
are the people who have write access to
the CVS tree, and are authorized to make modifications
to the FreeBSD source (the term committer
comes from the &man.cvs.1; commit
command, which is used to bring new changes into the CVS
repository). The best way of making submissions for review
by the committers list is to use the &man.send-pr.1;
command. If something appears to be jammed in the
system, then you may also reach them by sending mail to
the &a.committers;.The FreeBSD core teamcore teamThe FreeBSD core team
would be equivalent to the board of directors if the FreeBSD
Project were a company. The primary task of the core team
is to make sure the project, as a whole, is in good shape
and is heading in the right directions. Inviting dedicated
and responsible developers to join our group of committers
is one of the functions of the core team, as is the
recruitment of new core team members as others move on.
The current core team was elected from a pool of committer
candidates in July 2004. Elections are held every 2 years.
Some core team members also have specific areas of
responsibility, meaning that they are committed to
ensuring that some large portion of the system works as
advertised. For a complete list of FreeBSD developers
and their areas of responsibility, please see the Contributors
+ url="&url.articles.contributors;/article.html">Contributors
ListMost members of the core team are volunteers when it
comes to FreeBSD development and do not benefit from the
project financially, so commitment should
also not be misconstrued as meaning guaranteed
support. The board of directors
analogy above is not very accurate, and it may be
more suitable to say that these are the people who gave up
their lives in favor of FreeBSD against their better
judgment!Outside contributorscontributorsLast, but definitely not least, the largest group of
developers are the users themselves who provide feedback and
bug fixes to us on an almost constant basis. The primary
way of keeping in touch with FreeBSD's more non-centralized
development is to subscribe to the &a.hackers where such
things are discussed. See for more information about
the various FreeBSD mailing lists.The
+ url="&url.articles.contributors;/article.html">The
FreeBSD Contributors List is a long
and growing one, so why not join it by contributing
something back to FreeBSD today?Providing code is not the only way of contributing to
the project; for a more complete list of things that need
doing, please refer to the FreeBSD Project web
site.In summary, our development model is organized as a loose set
of concentric circles. The centralized model is designed for the
convenience of the users of FreeBSD, who are
provided with an easy way of tracking one central code
base, not to keep potential contributors out! Our desire is to
present a stable operating system with a large set of coherent
application programs that the users
can easily install and use — this model works very well in
accomplishing that.All we ask of those who would join us as FreeBSD developers is
some of the same dedication its current people have to its
continued success!The Current FreeBSD ReleaseNetBSDOpenBSD386BSDFree Software FoundationU.C. BerkeleyComputer Systems Research Group (CSRG)FreeBSD is a freely available, full source 4.4BSD-Lite based
release for Intel &i386;, &i486;, &pentium;,
&pentium; Pro,
&celeron;,
&pentium; II,
&pentium; III,
&pentium; 4 (or compatible),
&xeon;, DEC Alpha
and Sun &ultrasparc; based computer
systems. It is based primarily on software from U.C. Berkeley's
CSRG group, with some enhancements from NetBSD, OpenBSD, 386BSD, and
the Free Software Foundation.Since our release of FreeBSD 2.0 in late 94, the performance,
feature set, and stability of FreeBSD has improved dramatically.
The largest change is a revamped virtual memory system with a merged
VM/file buffer cache that not only increases performance, but also
reduces FreeBSD's memory footprint, making a 5 MB configuration a
more acceptable minimum. Other enhancements include full NIS client
and server support, transaction TCP support, dial-on-demand PPP,
integrated DHCP support, an improved SCSI subsystem, ISDN support,
support for ATM, FDDI, Fast and Gigabit Ethernet (1000 Mbit)
adapters, improved support for the latest Adaptec controllers, and
many thousands of bug fixes.In addition to the base distributions, FreeBSD offers a
ported software collection with thousands of commonly
sought-after programs. At the time of this printing, there
were over &os.numports; ports! The list of ports ranges from
http (WWW) servers, to games, languages, editors, and almost
everything in between. The entire ports collection requires
approximately &ports.size; of storage, all ports being expressed as
deltas to their original sources. This makes
it much easier for us to update ports, and greatly reduces the
disk space demands made by the older 1.0 ports collection. To
compile a port, you simply change to the directory of the
program you wish to install, type make
install, and let the system do the rest. The full
original distribution for each port you build is retrieved
dynamically off the CDROM or a local FTP site, so you need
only enough disk space to build the ports you want. Almost
every port is also provided as a pre-compiled
package, which can be installed with a simple
command (pkg_add) by those who do not wish
to compile their own ports from source. More information on
packages and ports can be found in .A number of additional documents which you may find very helpful
in the process of installing and using FreeBSD may now also be found
in the /usr/share/doc directory on any recent
FreeBSD machine. You may view the locally installed
manuals with any HTML capable browser using the following
URLs:The FreeBSD Handbook/usr/share/doc/handbook/index.htmlThe FreeBSD FAQ/usr/share/doc/faq/index.htmlYou can also view the master (and most frequently updated)
copies at http://www.FreeBSD.org/.
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ports/chapter.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ports/chapter.sgml
index 4262bf80e5..cbbc3ba36b 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ports/chapter.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ports/chapter.sgml
@@ -1,1310 +1,1310 @@
Installing Applications: Packages and PortsSynopsisportspackagesFreeBSD is bundled with a rich collection of system tools as
part of the base system. However, there is only so much one can
do before needing to install an additional third-party
application to get real work done. FreeBSD provides two
complementary technologies for installing third party software
on your system: the FreeBSD Ports Collection, and binary
software packages. Either system may be used to install the
newest version of your favorite applications from local media or
straight off the network.After reading this chapter, you will know:How to install third-party binary software packages.How to build third-party software from the ports
collection.How to remove previously installed packages or ports.How to override the default values that the ports
collection uses.How to find the appropriate software package.How to upgrade your ports.Overview of Software InstallationIf you have used a &unix; system before you will know that
the typical procedure for installing third party software goes
something like this:Download the software, which might be distributed in
source code format, or as a binary.Unpack the software from its distribution format
(typically a tarball compressed with &man.compress.1;,
&man.gzip.1;, or &man.bzip2.1;).Locate the documentation (perhaps an
INSTALL or README
file, or some files in a doc/
subdirectory) and read up on how to install the
software.If the software was distributed in source format,
compile it. This may involve editing a
Makefile, or running a
configure script, and other work.Test and install the software.And that is only if everything goes well. If you are
installing a software package that was not deliberately ported
to FreeBSD you may even have to go in and edit the code to make
it work properly.Should you want to, you can continue to install software the
traditional way with FreeBSD. However, FreeBSD
provides two technologies which can save you a lot of effort:
packages and ports. At the time of writing, over &os.numports;
third party applications have been made available in this
way.For any given application, the FreeBSD package for that
application is a single file which you must download. The
package contains pre-compiled copies of all the commands for the
application, as well as any configuration files or
documentation. A downloaded package file can be manipulated
with FreeBSD package management commands, such as
&man.pkg.add.1;, &man.pkg.delete.1;, &man.pkg.info.1;, and so
on. Installing a new application can be carried out with a
single command.A FreeBSD port for an application is a collection of files
designed to automate the process of compiling an application
from source code.Remember that there are a number of steps you would normally
carry out if you compiled a program yourself (downloading,
unpacking, patching, compiling, installing). The files that
make up a port contain all the necessary information to allow
the system to do this for you. You run a handful of simple
commands and the source code for the application is
automatically downloaded, extracted, patched, compiled, and
installed for you.In fact, the ports system can also be used to generate packages
which can later be manipulated with pkg_add
and the other package management commands that will be introduced
shortly.Both packages and ports understand
dependencies. Suppose you want to install
an application that depends on a specific library being
installed. Both the application and the library have been made
available as FreeBSD ports and packages. If you use the
pkg_add command or the ports system to add
the application, both will notice that the library has not been
installed, and automatically install the library first.Given that the two technologies are quite similar, you might
be wondering why FreeBSD bothers with both. Packages and ports
both have their own strengths, and which one you use will depend
on your own preference.Package BenefitsA compressed package tarball is typically smaller than
the compressed tarball containing the source code for the
application.Packages do not require any additional compilation. For
large applications, such as
Mozilla,
KDE, or
GNOME this can be important,
particularly if you are on a slow system.Packages do not require any understanding of the process
involved in compiling software on FreeBSD.Ports BenefitsPackages are normally compiled with conservative options,
because they have to run on the maximum number of systems. By
installing from the port, you can tweak the compilation options to
(for example) generate code that is specific to a Pentium
IV or Athlon processor.Some applications have compile time options relating to
what they can and cannot do. For example,
Apache can be configured with a
wide variety of different built-in options. By building
from the port you do not have to accept the default options,
and can set them yourself.In some cases, multiple packages will exist for the same
application to specify certain settings. For example,
Ghostscript is available as a
ghostscript package and a
ghostscript-nox11 package, depending on
whether or not you have installed an X11 server. This sort
of rough tweaking is possible with packages, but rapidly
becomes impossible if an application has more than one or
two different compile time options.The licensing conditions of some software distributions forbid
binary distribution. They must be distributed as source
code.Some people do not trust binary distributions. At least
with source code, you can (in theory) read through it and
look for potential problems yourself.If you have local patches, you will need the source in order to
apply them.Some people like having code around, so they can read it
if they get bored, hack it, borrow from it (license
permitting, of course), and so on.To keep track of updated ports, subscribe to the
&a.ports; and the &a.ports-bugs;.Before installing any application, you should check for security issues
related to your application.You can also install security/portaudit which will
automatically check all installed applications for known
vulnerabilities, a check will be also performed before any port
build. Meanwhile, you can use the command portaudit
-F -a after you have installed some
packages.The remainder of this chapter will explain how to use
packages and ports to install and manage third party software on
FreeBSD.Finding Your ApplicationBefore you can install any applications you need to know what you
want, and what the application is called.FreeBSD's list of available applications is growing all the
time. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to find what you
want:The FreeBSD web site maintains an up-to-date searchable
list of all the available applications, at http://www.FreeBSD.org/ports/.
The ports are divided into categories, and you may either
search for an application by name (if you know it), or see
all the applications available in a category.FreshPortsDan Langille maintains FreshPorts, at . FreshPorts
tracks changes to the applications in the ports tree as they
happen, allows you to watch one or more
ports, and can send you email when they are updated.FreshMeatIf you do not know the name of the application you want,
try using a site like FreshMeat () to find an
application, then check back at the FreeBSD site to see if
the application has been ported yet.If you know the exact name of the port, but just need to
find out which category it is in, you can use the
&man.whereis.1; command.
Simply type whereis
file, where
file is the program you want to
install. If it is found on your system, you will be told
where it is, as follows:&prompt.root; whereis lsof
lsof: /usr/ports/sysutils/lsofThis tells us that lsof (a system
utility) can be found in the
/usr/ports/sysutils/lsof
directory.Yet another way to find a particular port is by using the
ports collection's built-in search mechanism. To use the
search feature, you will need to be in the
/usr/ports directory. Once in that
directory, run make search
name=program-name where
program-name is the name of the
program you want to find. For example, if you were looking
for lsof:&prompt.root; cd /usr/ports
&prompt.root; make search name=lsof
Port: lsof-4.56.4
Path: /usr/ports/sysutils/lsof
Info: Lists information about open files (similar to fstat(1))
Maint: obrien@FreeBSD.org
Index: sysutils
B-deps:
R-deps: The part of the output you want to pay particular
attention to is the Path: line, since that
tells you where to find the port. The other information
provided is not needed in order to install the port, so it
will not be covered here.For more in-depth searching you can also use make
search key=string where
string is some text to search for.
This searches port names, comments, descriptions and
dependencies and can be used to find ports which relate to a
particular subject if you don't know the name of the program
you are looking for.In both of these cases, the search string is case-insensitive.
Searching for LSOF will yield the same results as
searching for lsof.ChernLeeContributed by Using the Packages SystemInstalling a Packagepackagesinstallingpkg_addYou can use the &man.pkg.add.1; utility to install a
FreeBSD software package from a local file or from a server on
the network.Downloading a Package Manually and Installing It Locally&prompt.root; ftp -a ftp2.FreeBSD.org
Connected to ftp2.FreeBSD.org.
220 ftp2.FreeBSD.org FTP server (Version 6.00LS) ready.
331 Guest login ok, send your email address as password.
230-
230- This machine is in Vienna, VA, USA, hosted by Verio.
230- Questions? E-mail freebsd@vienna.verio.net.
230-
230-
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp>cd /pub/FreeBSD/ports/packages/sysutils/
250 CWD command successful.
ftp>get lsof-4.56.4.tgz
local: lsof-4.56.4.tgz remote: lsof-4.56.4.tgz
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for 'lsof-4.56.4.tgz' (92375 bytes).
100% |**************************************************| 92375 00:00 ETA
226 Transfer complete.
92375 bytes received in 5.60 seconds (16.11 KB/s)
ftp>exit
&prompt.root; pkg_add lsof-4.56.4.tgzIf you do not have a source of local packages (such as a
FreeBSD CD-ROM set) then it will probably be easier to use the
option to &man.pkg.add.1;. This will
cause the utility to automatically determine the correct
object format and release and then fetch and install the
package from an FTP site.
pkg_add&prompt.root; pkg_add -r lsofThe example above would download the correct package and
add it without any further user intervention.
If you want to specify an alternative &os; Packages Mirror,
instead of the main distribution site, you have to set
PACKAGESITE accordingly, to
override the default settings. &man.pkg.add.1;
uses &man.fetch.3; to download the files, which honors various
environment variables, including
FTP_PASSIVE_MODE, FTP_PROXY, and
FTP_PASSWORD. You may need to set one or more
of these if you are behind a firewall, or need to use an
FTP/HTTP proxy. See &man.fetch.3; for the complete list.
Note that in the example above
lsof is used instead of
lsof-4.56.4. When the remote fetching
feature is used, the version number of the package must be
removed. &man.pkg.add.1; will automatically fetch the latest
version of the application.&man.pkg.add.1; will download the latest version of
your application if you are using &os.current; or
&os.stable;. If you run a -RELEASE version, it will grab
the version of the package that was built with your
release. It is possible to change this behavior by
overriding the PACKAGESITE environment
variable.Package files are distributed in .tgz
and .tbz formats. You can find them at ,
or on the FreeBSD CD-ROM distribution. Every CD on the
FreeBSD 4-CD set (and the PowerPak, etc.) contains packages
in the /packages directory. The layout
of the packages is similar to that of the
/usr/ports tree. Each category has its
own directory, and every package can be found within the
All directory.
The directory structure of the package system matches the
ports layout; they work with each other to form the entire
package/port system.
Managing Packagespackagesmanaging&man.pkg.info.1; is a utility that lists and describes
the various packages installed.
pkg_info&prompt.root; pkg_info
cvsup-16.1 A general network file distribution system optimized for CV
docbook-1.2 Meta-port for the different versions of the DocBook DTD
...&man.pkg.version.1; is a utility that summarizes the
versions of all installed packages. It compares the package
version to the current version found in the ports tree.
pkg_version&prompt.root; pkg_version
cvsup =
docbook =
...The symbols in the second column indicate the relative age
of the installed version and the version available in the
local ports tree.SymbolMeaning=The version of the
installed package matches the one found in the
local ports tree.<The installed version is older than the one available
in the ports tree.>The installed version is newer
than the one found in the local ports tree. (The local ports
tree is probably out of date.)?The installed package cannot be
found in the ports index. (This can happen, for instance, if an
installed port is removed from the ports collection or
renamed.)*There are multiple versions of the
package.Deleting a Packagepkg_deletepackagesdeletingTo remove a previously installed software package, use the
&man.pkg.delete.1; utility.
&prompt.root; pkg_delete xchat-1.7.1MiscellaneousAll package information is stored within the
/var/db/pkg directory. The installed
file list and descriptions of each package can be found within
files in this directory.
Using the Ports CollectionThe following sections provide basic instructions on using the
ports collection to install or remove programs from your
system.Obtaining the Ports CollectionBefore you can install ports, you must first obtain the
ports collection—which is essentially a set of
Makefiles, patches, and description files
placed in /usr/ports.
When installing your FreeBSD system,
sysinstall asked if you would like
to install the ports collection. If you chose no, you can
follow these instructions to obtain the ports
collection:Sysinstall MethodThis method involves using
sysinstall again to manually
install the ports collection.As root, run
/stand/sysinstall as shown
below:&prompt.root; /stand/sysinstallScroll down and select Configure,
press Enter.Scroll down and select
Distributions, press
Enter.Scroll down to ports, press
Space.Scroll up to Exit, press
Enter.Select your desired installation media, such as CDROM,
FTP, and so on.Scroll up to Exit and press
Enter.Press X to exit
sysinstall.The alternative method to obtain and keep your ports
collection up to date is by using
CVSup. Look at the ports
CVSup file,
/usr/share/examples/cvsup/ports-supfile.
See Using CVSup () for more information on using
CVSup and this file.CVSup MethodThis is a quick method for getting the ports collection
using CVSup. If you want to keep
your ports tree up to date, or learn more about
CVSup, read the previously
mentioned sections.Install the net/cvsup port. See CVSup Installation () for more details.As root, copy
/usr/share/examples/cvsup/ports-supfile
to a new location, such as /root or your
home directory.Edit ports-supfile.Change
CHANGE_THIS.FreeBSD.org to a
CVSup server near you. See
CVSup Mirrors () for a complete listing of mirror
sites.Run cvsup:&prompt.root; cvsup -g -L 2 /root/ports-supfileRunning this command later will download and apply all
the recent changes to your ports collection, except
actually rebuilding the ports for your own system.Installing PortsportsinstallingThe first thing that should be explained when it comes to
the ports collection is what is actually meant by a
skeleton. In a nutshell, a port skeleton is a
minimal set of files that tell your FreeBSD system how to
cleanly compile and install a program. Each port skeleton
includes:A Makefile. The
Makefile contains various statements
that specify how the application should be compiled and
where it should be installed on your system.A distinfo file. This file
contains information about the files that must be
downloaded to build the port and their checksums, to
verify that files have not been corrupted during the
download using &man.md5.1;.A files directory. This
directory contains patches to make the program compile and
install on your FreeBSD system. Patches are basically
small files that specify changes to particular files.
They are in plain text format, and basically say
Remove line 10 or Change line 26 to
this .... Patches are also known as
diffs because they are generated by the
&man.diff.1; program.This directory may also contain other files used to build
the port.A pkg-descr file. This is a more
detailed, often multiple-line, description of the program.A pkg-plist file. This is a list
of all the files that will be installed by the port. It
also tells the ports system what files to remove upon
deinstallation.Some ports have other files, such as
pkg-message. The ports system uses these
files to handle special situations. If you want more details
on these files, and on ports in general, check out the FreeBSD Porter's
+ url="&url.books.porters-handbook;/index.html">FreeBSD Porter's
Handbook.The port includes instructions on how to build source
code, but does not include the actual source code. You can
get the source code from a CD-ROM or from the Internet.
Source code is distributed in whatever manner the software
author desires. Frequently this is a tarred and gzipped file,
but it might be compressed with some other tool or even
uncompressed. The program source code, whatever form it comes
in, is called a distfile. The two method for
installing a &os; port are described below.You must be logged in as root to
install ports.Before installing any port, you should be sure to have
an up-to-date ports collection and you should check for security issues
related to your port.A security vulnerabilities check can be automatically
done by portaudit before any new
application installation. This tool can be found in the
ports collection (security/portaudit). Consider
running portaudit -F before installing a
new port, to fetch the current vulnerabilities database. A
security audit and an update of the database will be
performed during the daily security system check. For more
informations read the &man.portaudit.1; and &man.periodic.8;
manual pages.Installing Ports from a CD-ROMportsinstalling from CD-ROMThe FreeBSD Project's official CD-ROM images no longer
include distfiles. They take up a lot of room that is
better used for precompiled packages. CD-ROM products such as
the FreeBSD PowerPak do include distfiles, and you can
order these sets from a vendor such as the FreeBSD Mall.
This section assumes you have such a FreeBSD CD-ROM
set.Place your FreeBSD CD-ROM in the drive. Mount it on
/cdrom. (If you use a different mount
point, the install will not work.) To begin, change to the
directory for the port you want to install:&prompt.root; cd /usr/ports/sysutils/lsofOnce inside the lsof directory, you
will see the port skeleton. The next step is to compile, or
build, the port. This is done by simply
typing make at the prompt. Once you have
done so, you should see something like this:&prompt.root; make
>> lsof_4.57D.freebsd.tar.gz doesn't seem to exist in /usr/ports/distfiles/.
>> Attempting to fetch from file:/cdrom/ports/distfiles/.
===> Extracting for lsof-4.57
...
[extraction output snipped]
...
>> Checksum OK for lsof_4.57D.freebsd.tar.gz.
===> Patching for lsof-4.57
===> Applying FreeBSD patches for lsof-4.57
===> Configuring for lsof-4.57
...
[configure output snipped]
...
===> Building for lsof-4.57
...
[compilation output snipped]
...
&prompt.root;Notice that once the compile is complete you are
returned to your prompt. The next step is to install the
port. In order to install it, you simply need to tack one word
onto the make command, and that word is
install:&prompt.root; make install
===> Installing for lsof-4.57
...
[installation output snipped]
...
===> Generating temporary packing list
===> Compressing manual pages for lsof-4.57
===> Registering installation for lsof-4.57
===> SECURITY NOTE:
This port has installed the following binaries which execute with
increased privileges.
&prompt.root;Once you are returned to your prompt, you should be able to
run the application you just installed. Since
lsof is a
program that runs with increased privileges, a security
warning is shown. During the building and installation of
ports, you should take heed of any other warnings that
may appear.You can save an extra step by just running make
install instead of make and
make install as two separate steps.Some shells keep a cache of the commands that are
available in the directories listed in the
PATH environment variable, to speed up
lookup operations for the executable file of these
commands. If you are using one of these shells, you might
have to use the rehash command after
installing a port, before the newly installed commands can
be used. This is true for both shells that are part of
the base-system (such as tcsh) and
shells that are available as ports (for instance,
shells/zsh).Please be aware that the licenses of a few ports do
not allow for inclusion on the CD-ROM. This could be
because a registration form needs to be filled out before
downloading or redistribution is not allowed, or for
another reason. If you wish to install a port not
included on the CD-ROM, you will need to be online in
order to do so (see the next
section).Installing Ports from the InternetAs with the last section, this section makes an
assumption that you have a working Internet connection. If
you do not, you will need to perform the CD-ROM installation, or put a copy
of the distfile into
/usr/ports/distfiles manually.Installing a port from the Internet is done exactly the
same way as it would be if you were installing from a
CD-ROM. The only difference between the two is that the
distfile is downloaded from the Internet instead of read
from the CD-ROM.The steps involved are identical:&prompt.root; make install
>> lsof_4.57D.freebsd.tar.gz doesn't seem to exist in /usr/ports/distfiles/.
>> Attempting to fetch from ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/distfiles/.
Receiving lsof_4.57D.freebsd.tar.gz (439860 bytes): 100%
439860 bytes transferred in 18.0 seconds (23.90 kBps)
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>> Checksum OK for lsof_4.57D.freebsd.tar.gz.
===> Patching for lsof-4.57
===> Applying FreeBSD patches for lsof-4.57
===> Configuring for lsof-4.57
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===> Building for lsof-4.57
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===> Installing for lsof-4.57
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===> Generating temporary packing list
===> Compressing manual pages for lsof-4.57
===> Registering installation for lsof-4.57
===> SECURITY NOTE:
This port has installed the following binaries which execute with
increased privileges.
&prompt.root;As you can see, the only difference is the line that tells
you where the system is fetching the port distfile from.The ports system uses &man.fetch.1; to download the
files, which honors various environment variables, including
FTP_PASSIVE_MODE, FTP_PROXY,
and FTP_PASSWORD. You may need to set one or
more of these if you are behind a firewall, or need to use
an FTP/HTTP proxy. See &man.fetch.3; for the complete
list.For users which cannot be connected all the time, the
make fetch option is
provided. Just run this command at the top level directory
(/usr/ports) and the required files
will be downloaded for you. This command will also work in
the lower level categories, for example:
/usr/ports/net.
Note that if a port depends on libraries or other ports this will
not fetch the distfiles of those ports too.
Replace fetch with
fetch-recursive
if you want to fetch all the dependencies of a port too.You can build all the ports in a category or as a
whole by running make in the top level
directory, just like the aforementioned make
fetch method. This is
dangerous, however, as some ports cannot co-exist. In other
cases, some ports can install two different files with the
same filename.In some rare cases, users may need to acquire the
tarballs from a site other than the
MASTER_SITES (the location where files
are downloaded from). You can override the
MASTER_SITES option with the following
command:&prompt.root; cd /usr/ports/directory
&prompt.root; make MASTER_SITE_OVERRIDE= \
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/distfiles/ fetchIn this example we change the
MASTER_SITES option to ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/distfiles/.Some ports allow (or even require) you to provide
build options which can enable/disable parts of the
application which are unneeded, certain security options,
and other customizations. A few which come to mind are
www/mozilla, security/gpgme, and mail/sylpheed-claws. A message
will be displayed when options such as these are
available.Overriding the Default Ports DirectoriesSometimes it is useful (or mandatory) to use a different
distfiles and ports directory. The
PORTSDIR and PREFIX
variables can override the default directories. For
example:&prompt.root; make PORTSDIR=/usr/home/example/ports installwill compile the port in
/usr/home/example/ports and install
everything under /usr/local.&prompt.root; make PREFIX=/usr/home/example/local installwill compile it in /usr/ports and
install it in
/usr/home/example/local.And of course,&prompt.root; make PORTSDIR=../ports PREFIX=../local installwill combine the two (it is too long to completely write
on this page, but it should give you the general
idea).Alternatively, these variables can also be set as part
of your environment. Read the manual page for your shell
for instructions on doing so.Dealing with imakeSome ports that use imake (a part of
the X Window System) do not work well with
PREFIX, and will insist on installing
under /usr/X11R6. Similarly, some Perl
ports ignore PREFIX and install in the
Perl tree. Making these ports respect
PREFIX is a difficult or impossible
job.Removing Installed PortsportsremovingNow that you know how to install ports, you are probably
wondering how to remove them, just in case you install one and
later on decide that you installed the wrong port.
We will remove our previous example (which was
lsof for
those of you not paying attention). As with installing ports,
the first thing you must do is change to the port directory,
/usr/ports/sysutils/lsof. After you change
directories, you are ready to uninstall lsof.
This is done with
the make deinstall command:&prompt.root; cd /usr/ports/sysutils/lsof
&prompt.root; make deinstall
===> Deinstalling for lsof-4.57That was easy enough. You have removed
lsof
from your system. If you would like to reinstall it, you can do
so by running make reinstall from the
/usr/ports/sysutils/lsof directory.The make deinstall and make
reinstall sequence does not work once you have run
make clean. If you want to deinstall a
port after cleaning, use &man.pkg.delete.1; as
discussed in the Packages
section of the Handbook.Ports and Disk Spaceportsdisk-spaceUsing the ports collection can defiantly eat up your disk
space. For this reason you should always remember to clean up
the work directories using the make
clean option. This will remove
the work directory after a port has been
built, and installed. You can also remove the tar files from
the distfiles directory, and remove the
installed ports when their use has delimited.Some users choose to limit the port categories by placing an entry
in the refuse file. This way when they run the
CVSup application, it will not download the
files in that category.Upgrading PortsportupgradeportsupgradingOnce you updated your ports collection, before
attempting a port upgrade, you should check the
/usr/ports/UPDATING file. This file
describes various issues and additional steps users may
encounter and need to perform when updating a port.Keeping your ports up to date can be a tedious job. For
instance, to upgrade a port you would go to the ports
directory, build the port, deinstall the old port, install the
new port, and then clean up after the build. Imagine doing
that for five ports, tedious right? This was a large problem
for system administrators to deal with, and now we have
utilities which do this for us. For instance the sysutils/portupgrade utility will do
everything for you! Just install it like you would any other
port, using the make install
clean command.Now create a database with the pkgdb -F
command. This will read the list of installed ports and
create a database file in the /var/db/pkg
directory. Now when you run portupgrade
-a, it will read this and the ports
INDEX file. Finally,
portupgrade will begin to download, build,
backup, install, and clean the ports which have been updated.
portupgrade comes with a lot of options
for different use cases, the most important ones will be presented
below.If you want to upgrade only a certain application, not the
complete database, use portupgrade
pkgname,
include the flags if
portupgrade should act on all
those packages depending on the given package as well, and
to act on all packages required by
the given packages.
To use packages instead of ports for installation, provide
and to just fetch distfiles without
building or installing anything, use .
For further information see &man.portupgrade.1;.It is important to regularly update the package database using
pkgdb -F to fix inconsistencies, especially when
portupgrade asks you to. Do not abort
portupgrade while it is updating the
package database, this will leave you an inconsistent
database.Other utilities exist which will do this, check out the
ports/sysutils directory and see what you
come up with.Post-installation ActivitiesAfter installing a new application you will normally want to
read any documentation it may have included, edit any
configuration files that are required, ensure that the
application starts at boot time (if it is a daemon), and so
on.The exact steps you need to take to configure each
application will obviously be different. However, if you have
just installed a new application and are wondering What
now? these tips might help:Use &man.pkg.info.1; to find out which files were installed,
and where. For example, if you have just
installed FooPackage version 1.0.0, then this command&prompt.root; pkg_info -L foopackage-1.0.0 | lesswill show all the files installed by the package. Pay
special attention to files in man/
directories, which will be manual pages,
etc/ directories, which will be
configuration files, and doc/, which
will be more comprehensive documentation.If you are not sure which version of the application was
just installed, a command like this&prompt.root; pkg_info | grep -i foopackagewill find all the installed packages that have
foopackage in the package name.
Replace foopackage in your
command line as necessary.Once you have identified where the application's manual
pages have been installed, review them using &man.man.1;.
Similarly, look over the sample configuration files, and any
additional documentation that may have been provided.If the application has a web site, check it for
additional documentation, frequently asked questions, and so
forth. If you are not sure of the web site address it may
be listed in the output from&prompt.root; pkg_info foopackage-1.0.0A WWW: line, if present, should provide a URL
for the application's web site.Ports that should start at boot (such as Internet
servers) will usually install a sample script in
/usr/local/etc/rc.d. You should
review this script for correctness and edit or rename it if
needed. See Starting
Services for more information.Dealing with Broken PortsIf you come across a port that does not work for you,
there are a few things you can do, including:Fix it! The Porter's
+ url="&url.books.porters-handbook;/index.html">Porter's
Handbook includes detailed information on the
Ports infrastructure so that you can fix the occasional
broken port or even submit your own!Gripe—by email only! Send
email to the maintainer of the port first. Type
make maintainer or read the
Makefile to find the maintainer's
email address. Remember to include the name and version
of the port (send the $FreeBSD:
line from the Makefile) and the
output leading up to the error when you email the
maintainer. If you do not get a response from the
maintainer, you can use &man.send-pr.1; to submit a bug
report.Grab the package from an FTP site near you. The
master package collection is on ftp.FreeBSD.org in the packages
directory, but be sure to check your local mirror
first! These are more likely to work
than trying to compile from source and are a lot faster as
well. Use the &man.pkg.add.1; program to install the
package on your system.
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/serialcomms/chapter.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/serialcomms/chapter.sgml
index d1983ca314..bbdda1767c 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/serialcomms/chapter.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/serialcomms/chapter.sgml
@@ -1,2667 +1,2667 @@
Serial CommunicationsSynopsisserial communications&unix; has always had support for serial communications. In fact,
the very first &unix; machines relied on serial lines for user input
and output. Things have changed a lot from the days when the average
terminal consisted of a 10-character-per-second serial
printer and a keyboard. This chapter will cover some of the ways in
which FreeBSD uses serial communications.After reading this chapter, you will know:How to connect terminals to your FreeBSD
system.How to use a modem to dial out to remote
hosts.How to allow remote users to login to your
system with a modem.How to boot your system from a serial
console.Before reading this chapter, you should:Know how to configure and install a new kernel ().Understand &unix; permissions and processes ().Have access to the technical manual for the
serial hardware (modem or multi-port card) that you would like
to use with FreeBSD.IntroductionTerminologybits-per-secondbpsBits per Second — the rate at which data is
transmittedDTEDTEData Terminal Equipment — for example, your
computerDCEDCEData Communications Equipment — your modemRS-232RS-232C cablesEIA standard for hardware serial communicationsWhen talking about communications data rates, this section
does not use the term baud. Baud refers to the
number of electrical state transitions that may be made in a
period of time, while bps (bits per second) is
the correct term to use (at least it does not
seem to bother the curmudgeons quite as much).Cables and PortsTo connect a modem or terminal to your FreeBSD system, you
will need a serial port on your computer and the proper cable to connect
to your serial device. If you are already familiar with your
hardware and the cable it requires, you can safely skip this
section.CablesThere are several different kinds of serial cables. The
two most common types for our purposes are null-modem cables
and standard (straight) RS-232 cables. The documentation
for your hardware should describe the type of cable
required.Null-modem Cablesnull-modem cableA null-modem cable passes some signals, such as signal
ground, straight through, but switches other signals. For
example, the send data pin on one end goes to the
receive data pin on the other end.If you like making your own cables, you can construct
a null-modem cable for use with
terminals. This table shows the RS-232C signal names and the pin
numbers on a DB-25 connector.SignalPin #Pin #SignalSG7connects to7SGTD2connects to3RDRD3connects to2TDRTS4connects to5CTSCTS5connects to4RTSDTR20connects to6DSRDCD86DSRDSR6connects to20DTRConnect Data Set Ready (DSR) and
Data Carrier Detect (DCD) internally in the
connector hood, and then to Data Terminal
Ready (DTR) in the remote hood.Standard RS-232C CablesRS-232C cablesA standard serial cable passes all the RS-232C signals
straight-through. That is, the send data pin on one
end of the cable goes to the send data pin on the
other end. This is the type of cable to use to connect a modem to your
FreeBSD system, and is also appropriate for some
terminals.PortsSerial ports are the devices through which data is transferred
between the FreeBSD host computer and the terminal. This section
describes the kinds of ports that exist and how they are addressed
in FreeBSD.Kinds of PortsSeveral kinds of serial ports exist. Before you purchase or
construct a cable, you need to make sure it will fit the ports on
your terminal and on the FreeBSD system.Most terminals will have DB25 ports. Personal computers,
including PCs running FreeBSD, will have DB25 or DB9 ports. If you
have a multiport serial card for your PC, you may have RJ-12 or
RJ-45 ports.See the documentation that accompanied the hardware for
specifications on the kind of port in use. A visual inspection of
the port often works too.Port NamesIn FreeBSD, you access each serial port through an entry in
the /dev directory. There are two different
kinds of entries:Call-in ports are named
/dev/ttydN
where N is the port number,
starting from zero. Generally, you use the call-in port for
terminals. Call-in ports require that the serial line assert
the data carrier detect (DCD) signal to work correctly.Call-out ports are named
/dev/cuaaN.
You usually do not use the call-out port for terminals, just
for modems. You may use the call-out port if the serial cable
or the terminal does not support the carrier detect
signal.If you have connected a terminal to the first serial port
(COM1 in &ms-dos;), then you will
use /dev/ttyd0 to refer to the terminal. If
the terminal is on the second serial port (also known as
COM2), use
/dev/ttyd1, and so forth.Kernel ConfigurationFreeBSD supports four serial ports by default. In the
&ms-dos; world, these are known as
COM1,
COM2,
COM3, and
COM4. FreeBSD currently supports
dumb multiport serial interface cards, such as
the BocaBoard 1008 and 2016, as well as more
intelligent multi-port cards such as those made by Digiboard
and Stallion Technologies. However, the default kernel only looks
for the standard COM ports.To see if your kernel recognizes any of your serial ports, watch
for messages while the kernel is booting, or use the
/sbin/dmesg command to replay the kernel's boot
messages. In particular, look for messages that start with the
characters sio.To view just the messages that have the word
sio, use the command:&prompt.root; /sbin/dmesg | grep 'sio'For example, on a system with four serial ports, these are the
serial-port specific kernel boot messages:sio0 at 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 on isa
sio0: type 16550A
sio1 at 0x2f8-0x2ff irq 3 on isa
sio1: type 16550A
sio2 at 0x3e8-0x3ef irq 5 on isa
sio2: type 16550A
sio3 at 0x2e8-0x2ef irq 9 on isa
sio3: type 16550AIf your kernel does not recognize all of your serial
ports, you will probably need to configure a custom FreeBSD
kernel for your system. For detailed information on
configuring your kernel, please see .The relevant device lines for your kernel configuration
file would look like this, for FreeBSD 4.X:device sio0 at isa? port IO_COM1 irq 4
device sio1 at isa? port IO_COM2 irq 3
device sio2 at isa? port IO_COM3 irq 5
device sio3 at isa? port IO_COM4 irq 9and like this, for FreeBSD 5.X:device sioYou can comment-out or completely remove lines for devices
you do not have in the case of FreeBSD 4.X; for
FreeBSD 5.X you have to edit your
/boot/device.hints file to configure your
serial ports. Please refer to the &man.sio.4; manual page for
more information on serial ports and multiport boards configuration.
Be careful if you are using a configuration
file that was previously used for a different version of
FreeBSD because the device flags and the syntax have changed between
versions.port IO_COM1 is a substitution for
port 0x3f8, IO_COM2 is
0x2f8, IO_COM3 is
0x3e8, and IO_COM4 is
0x2e8, which are fairly common port addresses for
their respective serial ports; interrupts 4, 3, 5, and 9 are fairly
common interrupt request lines. Also note that regular serial ports
cannot share interrupts on ISA-bus PCs
(multiport boards have on-board electronics that allow all the
16550A's on the board to share one or two interrupt request
lines).Device Special FilesMost devices in the kernel are accessed through device
special files, which are located in the
/dev directory. The sio
devices are accessed through the
/dev/ttydN (dial-in)
and /dev/cuaaN
(call-out) devices. FreeBSD also provides initialization devices
(/dev/ttyidN and
/dev/cuaiaN) and
locking devices
(/dev/ttyldN and
/dev/cualaN). The
initialization devices are used to initialize communications port
parameters each time a port is opened, such as
crtscts for modems which use
RTS/CTS signaling for flow control. The locking
devices are used to lock flags on ports to prevent users or programs
changing certain parameters; see the manual pages &man.termios.4;,
&man.sio.4;, and &man.stty.1; for
information on the terminal settings, locking and initializing
devices, and setting terminal options, respectively.Making Device Special FilesFreeBSD 5.0 includes the &man.devfs.5;
filesystem which automatically creates device nodes as
needed. If you are running a version of FreeBSD with
devfs enabled then you can safely skip
this section.A shell script called MAKEDEV in the
/dev directory manages the device special
files. To use MAKEDEV to make dial-up device
special files for COM1 (port 0),
cd to /dev and issue the
command MAKEDEV ttyd0. Likewise, to make dial-up
device special files for COM2 (port 1),
use MAKEDEV ttyd1.MAKEDEV not only creates the
/dev/ttydN device
special files, but also the
/dev/cuaaN,
/dev/cuaiaN,
/dev/cualaN,
/dev/ttyldN,
and
/dev/ttyidN
nodes.After making new device special files, be sure to check the
permissions on the files (especially the
/dev/cua* files) to make sure that only users
who should have access to those device special files can read and
write on them — you probably do not want to allow your average
user to use your modems to dial-out. The default permissions on the
/dev/cua* files should be sufficient:crw-rw---- 1 uucp dialer 28, 129 Feb 15 14:38 /dev/cuaa1
crw-rw---- 1 uucp dialer 28, 161 Feb 15 14:38 /dev/cuaia1
crw-rw---- 1 uucp dialer 28, 193 Feb 15 14:38 /dev/cuala1These permissions allow the user uucp and
users in the group dialer to use the call-out
devices.Serial Port ConfigurationttydcuaaThe ttydN (or
cuaaN) 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/ttyd1When 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 mode, 8 bit communication,
and flow control by default for
ttyd5, type:&prompt.root; stty -f /dev/ttyid5 clocal cs8 ixon ixoffrc filesrc.serialSystem-wide initialization of the serial devices is
controlled in /etc/rc.serial. This file
affects the default settings of serial devices.To prevent certain settings from being changed by an
application, make adjustments to the lock state
device. For example, to lock the speed of
ttyd5 to 57600 bps, type:&prompt.root; stty -f /dev/ttyld5 57600Now, an application that opens
ttyd5 and tries to change the speed of
the port will be stuck with 57600 bps.MAKEDEVNaturally, you should make the initial state and lock state devices
writable only by the root account.SeanKellyContributed by TerminalsterminalsTerminals provide a convenient and low-cost way to access
your FreeBSD system when you are not at the computer's console or on
a connected network. This section describes how to use terminals with
FreeBSD.Uses and Types of TerminalsThe original &unix; systems did not have consoles. Instead, people
logged in and ran programs through terminals that were connected to
the computer's serial ports. It is quite similar to using a modem and
terminal software to dial into a remote system to do text-only
work.Today's PCs have consoles capable of high quality graphics, but
the ability to establish a login session on a serial port still exists
in nearly every &unix; style operating system today; FreeBSD is no
exception. By using a terminal attached to an unused serial port, you
can log in and run any text program that you would normally run on the
console or in an xterm window in the X Window
System.For the business user, you can attach many terminals to a FreeBSD
system and place them on your employees' desktops. For a home user, a
spare computer such as an older IBM PC or a &macintosh; can be a
terminal wired into a more powerful computer running FreeBSD. You can
turn what might otherwise be a single-user computer into a powerful
multiple user system.For FreeBSD, there are three kinds of terminals:Dumb terminalsPCs acting as terminalsX terminalsThe remaining subsections describe each kind.Dumb TerminalsDumb terminals are specialized pieces of hardware that let you
connect to computers over serial lines. They are called
dumb because they have only enough computational power
to display, send, and receive text. You cannot run any programs on
them. It is the computer to which you connect them that has all the
power to run text editors, compilers, email, games, and so
forth.There are hundreds of kinds of dumb terminals made by many
manufacturers, including Digital Equipment Corporation's VT-100 and
Wyse's WY-75. Just about any kind will work with FreeBSD. Some
high-end terminals can even display graphics, but only certain
software packages can take advantage of these advanced
features.Dumb terminals are popular in work environments where workers do
not need access to graphical applications such as those provided by
the X Window System.PCs Acting as TerminalsIf a dumb terminal has just
enough ability to display, send, and receive text, then certainly
any spare personal computer can be a dumb terminal. All you need is
the proper cable and some terminal emulation
software to run on the computer.Such a configuration is popular in homes. For example, if your
spouse is busy working on your FreeBSD system's console, you can do
some text-only work at the same time from a less powerful personal
computer hooked up as a terminal to the FreeBSD system.X TerminalsX terminals are the most sophisticated kind of terminal
available. Instead of connecting to a serial port, they usually
connect to a network like Ethernet. Instead of being relegated to
text-only applications, they can display any X application.We introduce X terminals just for the sake of completeness.
However, this chapter does not cover setup,
configuration, or use of X terminals.ConfigurationThis section describes what you need to configure on your FreeBSD
system to enable a login session on a terminal. It assumes you have
already configured your kernel to support the serial port to which the
terminal is connected—and that you have connected it.Recall from that the
init process is responsible for all process
control and initialization at system startup. One of the
tasks performed by init is to read the
/etc/ttys file and start a
getty process on the available terminals.
The getty process is responsible for
reading a login name and starting the login
program.Thus, to configure terminals for your FreeBSD system the
following steps should be taken as root:Add a line to /etc/ttys for the entry in
the /dev directory for the serial port if it
is not already there.Specify that /usr/libexec/getty be run on
the port, and specify the appropriate
getty type from the
/etc/gettytab file.Specify the default terminal type.Set the port to on.Specify whether the port should be
secure.Force init to reread the
/etc/ttys file.As an optional step, you may wish to create a custom
getty type for use in step 2 by making an
entry in /etc/gettytab. This chapter does
not explain how to do so; you are encouraged to see the
&man.gettytab.5; and the &man.getty.8; manual pages for more
information.Adding an Entry to /etc/ttysThe /etc/ttys file lists all of the ports
on your FreeBSD system where you want to allow logins. For example,
the first virtual console ttyv0 has an entry in
this file. You can log in on the console using this entry. This
file also contains entries for the other virtual consoles, serial ports,
and pseudo-ttys. For a hardwired terminal, just list the serial
port's /dev entry without the
/dev part (for example,
/dev/ttyv0 would be listed as
ttyv0).A default FreeBSD install includes an
/etc/ttys file with support for the first
four serial ports: ttyd0 through
ttyd3. If you are attaching a terminal
to one of those ports, you do not need to add another entry.Adding Terminal Entries to
/etc/ttysSuppose we would like to connect two terminals to the
system: a Wyse-50 and an old 286 IBM PC running
Procomm terminal software
emulating a VT-100 terminal. We connect the Wyse to the
second serial port and the 286 to the sixth serial port (a
port on a multiport serial card). The corresponding
entries in the /etc/ttys file would
look like this:ttyd1 "/usr/libexec/getty std.38400" wy50 on insecure
ttyd5 "/usr/libexec/getty std.19200" vt100 on insecure
The first field normally specifies the name of
the terminal special file as it is found in
/dev.The second field is the command to execute for
this line, which is usually &man.getty.8;.
getty initializes and opens the
line, sets the speed, prompts for a user name and then
executes the &man.login.1; program.The getty program accepts one
(optional) parameter on its command line, the
getty type. A
getty type configures
characteristics on the terminal line, like bps rate
and parity. The getty program reads
these characteristics from the file
/etc/gettytab.The file /etc/gettytab
contains lots of entries for terminal lines both old
and new. In almost all cases, the entries that start
with the text std will work for
hardwired terminals. These entries ignore parity.
There is a std entry for each bps
rate from 110 to 115200. Of course, you can add your
own entries to this file. The &man.gettytab.5; manual
page provides more information.When setting the getty
type in the /etc/ttys file, make
sure that the communications settings on the terminal
match.For our example, the Wyse-50 uses no parity and
connects at 38400 bps. The 286 PC uses no parity and
connects at 19200 bps.The third field is the type of terminal usually
connected to that tty line. For dial-up ports,
unknown or
dialup is typically used in this
field since users may dial up with practically any
type of terminal or software. For hardwired
terminals, the terminal type does not change, so you
can put a real terminal type from the &man.termcap.5;
database file in this field.For our example, the Wyse-50 uses the real
terminal type while the 286 PC running
Procomm will be set to
emulate at VT-100. The fourth field specifies if the port should be
enabled. Putting on here will have
the init process start the program
in the second field, getty. If you
put off in this field, there will
be no getty, and hence no logins on
the port.The final field is used to specify whether the
port is secure. Marking a port as secure means that
you trust it enough to allow the
root account (or any account with
a user ID of 0) to login from that port. Insecure
ports do not allow root logins.
On an insecure port, users must login from
unprivileged accounts and then use &man.su.1; or a
similar mechanism to gain superuser privileges.It is highly recommended that you use
insecure
even for terminals that are behind locked doors. It
is quite easy to login and use su
if you need superuser privileges.Force init to Reread
/etc/ttysAfter making the necessary changes to the
/etc/ttys file you should send a SIGHUP
(hangup) signal to the init process to
force it to re-read its configuration file. For example:&prompt.root; kill -HUP 1init is always the first process run
on a system, therefore it will always have PID 1.If everything is set up correctly, all cables are in
place, and the terminals are powered up, then a
getty process should be running on each
terminal and you should see login prompts on your terminals
at this point.Troubleshooting Your ConnectionEven with the most meticulous attention to detail, something could
still go wrong while setting up a terminal. Here is a list of
symptoms and some suggested fixes.No Login Prompt AppearsMake sure the terminal is plugged in and powered up. If it
is a personal computer acting as a terminal, make sure it is
running terminal emulation software on the correct serial
port.Make sure the cable is connected firmly to both the terminal
and the FreeBSD computer. Make sure it is the right kind of
cable.Make sure the terminal and FreeBSD agree on the bps rate and
parity settings. If you have a video display terminal, make
sure the contrast and brightness controls are turned up. If it
is a printing terminal, make sure paper and ink are in good
supply.Make sure that a getty process is running
and serving the terminal. For example, to get a list of
running getty processes with
ps, type:&prompt.root; ps -axww|grep gettyYou should see an entry for the terminal. For
example, the following display shows that a
getty is running on the second serial
port ttyd1 and is using the
std.38400 entry in
/etc/gettytab:22189 d1 Is+ 0:00.03 /usr/libexec/getty std.38400 ttyd1If no getty process is running, make sure
you have enabled the port in /etc/ttys.
Also remember to run kill -HUP 1
after modifying the ttys file.If the getty process is running
but the terminal still does not display a login prompt,
or if it displays a prompt but will not allow you to
type, your terminal or cable may not support hardware
handshaking. Try changing the entry in
/etc/ttys from
std.38400 to
3wire.38400 remember to run
kill -HUP 1 after modifying
/etc/ttys). The
3wire entry is similar to
std, but ignores hardware
handshaking. You may need to reduce the baud rate or
enable software flow control when using
3wire to prevent buffer
overflows.If Garbage Appears Instead of a Login PromptMake sure the terminal and FreeBSD agree on the bps rate and
parity settings. Check the getty processes
to make sure the
correct getty type is in use. If
not, edit /etc/ttys and run kill
-HUP 1.Characters Appear Doubled; the Password Appears When TypedSwitch the terminal (or the terminal emulation software)
from half duplex or local echo to
full duplex.GuyHelmerContributed by SeanKellyAdditions by Dial-in Servicedial-in serviceConfiguring your FreeBSD system for dial-in service is very
similar to connecting terminals except that you are dealing with
modems instead of terminals.External vs. Internal ModemsExternal modems seem to be more convenient for dial-up, because
external modems often can be semi-permanently configured via
parameters stored in non-volatile RAM and they usually provide
lighted indicators that display the state of important RS-232
signals. Blinking lights impress visitors, but lights are also very
useful to see whether a modem is operating properly.Internal modems usually lack non-volatile RAM, so their
configuration may be limited only to setting DIP switches. If your
internal modem has any signal indicator lights, it is probably
difficult to view the lights when the system's cover is in
place.Modems and CablesmodemIf you are using an external modem, then you will of
course need the proper cable. A standard RS-232C serial
cable should suffice as long as all of the normal signals
are wired:Transmitted Data (TD)Received Data (RD)Request to Send (RTS)Clear to Send (CTS)Data Set Ready (DSR)Data Terminal Ready (DTR)Carrier Detect (CD)Signal Ground (SG)FreeBSD needs the RTS and
CTS signals for flow-control at speeds above
2400 bps, the CD signal to detect when a call has
been answered or the line has been hung up, and the
DTR signal to reset the modem after a session is
complete. Some cables are wired without all of the needed signals,
so if you have problems, such as a login session not going away when
the line hangs up, you may have a problem with your cable.Like other &unix; like operating systems, FreeBSD uses the
hardware signals to find out when a call has been answered
or a line has been hung up and to hangup and reset the modem
after a call. FreeBSD avoids sending commands to the modem
or watching for status reports from the modem. If you are
familiar with connecting modems to PC-based bulletin board
systems, this may seem awkward.Serial Interface ConsiderationsFreeBSD supports NS8250-, NS16450-, NS16550-, and NS16550A-based
EIA RS-232C (CCITT V.24) communications interfaces. The 8250 and
16450 devices have single-character buffers. The 16550 device
provides a 16-character buffer, which allows for better system
performance. (Bugs in plain 16550's prevent the use of the
16-character buffer, so use 16550A's if possible). Because
single-character-buffer devices require more work by the operating
system than the 16-character-buffer devices, 16550A-based serial
interface cards are much preferred. If the system has many active
serial ports or will have a heavy load, 16550A-based cards are
better for low-error-rate communications.Quick OverviewgettyAs with terminals, init spawns a
getty process for each configured serial
port for dial-in connections. For example, if a modem is
attached to /dev/ttyd0, the command
ps ax might show this: 4850 ?? I 0:00.09 /usr/libexec/getty V19200 ttyd0When a user dials the modem's line and the modems connect, the
CD (Carrier Detect) line is reported by the modem.
The kernel
notices that carrier has been detected and completes
getty's open of the port. getty
sends a login: prompt at the specified initial line
speed. getty watches to see if legitimate
characters are received, and, in a typical configuration, if it finds
junk (probably due to the modem's connection speed being different
than getty's speed), getty tries
adjusting the line speeds until it receives reasonable
characters./usr/bin/loginAfter the user enters his/her login name,
getty executes
/usr/bin/login, which completes the login
by asking for the user's password and then starting the user's
shell.Configuration FilesThere are three system configuration files in the
/etc directory that you will probably need to
edit to allow dial-up access to your FreeBSD system. The first,
/etc/gettytab, contains configuration information
for the /usr/libexec/getty daemon. Second,
/etc/ttys holds information that tells
/sbin/init what tty devices
should have getty processes running on them.
Lastly, you can place port initialization commands in the
/etc/rc.serial script.There are two schools of thought regarding dial-up modems on &unix;.
One group likes to configure their modems and systems so that no matter
at what speed a remote user dials in, the local computer-to-modem
RS-232 interface runs at a locked speed. The benefit of this
configuration is that the remote user always sees a system login
prompt immediately. The downside is that the system does not know
what a user's true data rate is, so full-screen programs like Emacs
will not adjust their screen-painting methods to make their response
better for slower connections.The other school configures their modems' RS-232 interface to vary
its speed based on the remote user's connection speed. For example,
V.32bis (14.4 Kbps) connections to the modem might make the modem run
its RS-232 interface at 19.2 Kbps, while 2400 bps connections make the
modem's RS-232 interface run at 2400 bps. Because
getty does not understand any particular modem's
connection speed reporting, getty gives a
login: message at an initial speed and watches the
characters that come back in response. If the user sees junk, it is
assumed that they know they should press the
Enter key until they see a recognizable
prompt. If the data rates do not match, getty sees
anything the user types as junk, tries going to the next
speed and gives the login: prompt again. This
procedure can continue ad nauseam, but normally only takes a keystroke
or two before the user sees a good prompt. Obviously, this login
sequence does not look as clean as the former
locked-speed method, but a user on a low-speed
connection should receive better interactive response from full-screen
programs.This section will try to give balanced configuration information,
but is biased towards having the modem's data rate follow the
connection rate./etc/gettytab/etc/gettytab/etc/gettytab is a &man.termcap.5;-style
file of configuration information for &man.getty.8;. Please see the
&man.gettytab.5; manual page for complete information on the
format of the file and the list of capabilities.Locked-speed ConfigIf you are locking your modem's data communications rate at a
particular speed, you probably will not need to make any changes
to /etc/gettytab.Matching-speed ConfigYou will need to set up an entry in
/etc/gettytab to give
getty information about the speeds you wish to
use for your modem. If you have a 2400 bps modem, you can
probably use the existing D2400 entry.#
# Fast dialup terminals, 2400/1200/300 rotary (can start either way)
#
D2400|d2400|Fast-Dial-2400:\
:nx=D1200:tc=2400-baud:
3|D1200|Fast-Dial-1200:\
:nx=D300:tc=1200-baud:
5|D300|Fast-Dial-300:\
:nx=D2400:tc=300-baud:If you have a higher speed modem, you will probably need to
add an entry in /etc/gettytab; here is an
entry you could use for a 14.4 Kbps modem with a top interface
speed of 19.2 Kbps:#
# Additions for a V.32bis Modem
#
um|V300|High Speed Modem at 300,8-bit:\
:nx=V19200:tc=std.300:
un|V1200|High Speed Modem at 1200,8-bit:\
:nx=V300:tc=std.1200:
uo|V2400|High Speed Modem at 2400,8-bit:\
:nx=V1200:tc=std.2400:
up|V9600|High Speed Modem at 9600,8-bit:\
:nx=V2400:tc=std.9600:
uq|V19200|High Speed Modem at 19200,8-bit:\
:nx=V9600:tc=std.19200:This will result in 8-bit, no parity connections.The example above starts the communications rate at 19.2 Kbps
(for a V.32bis connection), then cycles through 9600 bps (for
V.32), 2400 bps, 1200 bps, 300 bps, and back to 19.2 Kbps.
Communications rate cycling is implemented with the
nx= (next table) capability.
Each of the lines uses a tc= (table
continuation) entry to pick up the rest of the
standard settings for a particular data rate.If you have a 28.8 Kbps modem and/or you want to take
advantage of compression on a 14.4 Kbps modem, you need to use a
higher communications rate than 19.2 Kbps. Here is an example of
a gettytab entry starting a 57.6 Kbps:#
# Additions for a V.32bis or V.34 Modem
# Starting at 57.6 Kbps
#
vm|VH300|Very High Speed Modem at 300,8-bit:\
:nx=VH57600:tc=std.300:
vn|VH1200|Very High Speed Modem at 1200,8-bit:\
:nx=VH300:tc=std.1200:
vo|VH2400|Very High Speed Modem at 2400,8-bit:\
:nx=VH1200:tc=std.2400:
vp|VH9600|Very High Speed Modem at 9600,8-bit:\
:nx=VH2400:tc=std.9600:
vq|VH57600|Very High Speed Modem at 57600,8-bit:\
:nx=VH9600:tc=std.57600:If you have a slow CPU or a heavily loaded system and do
not have 16550A-based serial ports, you may receive
siosilo errors at 57.6 Kbps./etc/ttys/etc/ttysConfiguration of the /etc/ttys file
was covered in .
Configuration for modems is similar but we must pass a
different argument to getty and specify a
different terminal type. The general format for both
locked-speed and matching-speed configurations is:ttyd0 "/usr/libexec/getty xxx" dialup onThe first item in the above line is the device special file for
this entry — ttyd0 means
/dev/ttyd0 is the file that this
getty will be watching. The second item,
"/usr/libexec/getty
xxx"
(xxx will be replaced by the initial
gettytab capability) is the process
init will run on the device. The third item,
dialup, is the default terminal type. The fourth
parameter, on, indicates to
init that the line is operational. There can be
a fifth parameter, secure, but it should only be
used for terminals which are physically secure (such as the system
console).The default terminal type (dialup in the
example above) may depend on local preferences.
dialup is the traditional default terminal type
on dial-up lines so that users may customize their login scripts to
notice when the terminal is dialup and
automatically adjust their terminal type. However, the author finds
it easier at his site to specify vt102 as the
default terminal type, since the users just use VT102 emulation on
their remote systems.After you have made changes to /etc/ttys,
you may send the init process a
HUP signal to re-read the file. You can use the
command
&prompt.root; kill -HUP 1
to send the signal. If this is your first time setting up the
system, you may want to wait until your modem(s) are properly
configured and connected before signaling init.
Locked-speed ConfigFor a locked-speed configuration, your
ttys entry needs to have a fixed-speed entry
provided to getty. For a modem whose port
speed is locked at 19.2 Kbps, the ttys entry
might look like this:ttyd0 "/usr/libexec/getty std.19200" dialup onIf your modem is locked at a different data rate,
substitute the appropriate value for
std.speed
instead of std.19200. Make sure that
you use a valid type listed in
/etc/gettytab.Matching-speed ConfigIn a matching-speed configuration, your
ttys entry needs to reference the appropriate
beginning auto-baud (sic) entry in
/etc/gettytab. For example, if you added the
above suggested entry for a matching-speed modem that starts at
19.2 Kbps (the gettytab entry containing the
V19200 starting point), your
ttys entry might look like this:ttyd0 "/usr/libexec/getty V19200" dialup on/etc/rc.serialrc filesrc.serialHigh-speed modems, like V.32, V.32bis, and V.34 modems,
need to use hardware (RTS/CTS) flow
control. You can add stty commands to
/etc/rc.serial to set the hardware flow
control flag in the FreeBSD kernel for the modem
ports.For example to set the termios flag
crtscts on serial port #1's
(COM2) dial-in and dial-out initialization
devices, the following lines could be added to
/etc/rc.serial:# Serial port initial configuration
stty -f /dev/ttyid1 crtscts
stty -f /dev/cuaia1 crtsctsModem SettingsIf you have a modem whose parameters may be permanently set in
non-volatile RAM, you will need to use a terminal program (such as
Telix under &ms-dos; or tip under FreeBSD) to set the
parameters. Connect to the modem using the same communications speed
as the initial speed getty will use and configure
the modem's non-volatile RAM to match these requirements:CD asserted when connectedDTR asserted for operation; dropping DTR
hangs up line and resets modemCTS transmitted data flow controlDisable XON/XOFF flow controlRTS received data flow controlQuiet mode (no result codes)No command echoPlease read the documentation for your modem to find out what
commands and/or DIP switch settings you need to give it.For example, to set the above parameters on a &usrobotics;
&sportster; 14,400 external modem, one could give these commands to
the modem:ATZ
AT&C1&D2&H1&I0&R2&WYou might also want to take this opportunity to adjust other
settings in the modem, such as whether it will use V.42bis and/or MNP5
compression.The &usrobotics; &sportster; 14,400 external modem also has some DIP switches
that need to be set; for other modems, perhaps you can use these
settings as an example:Switch 1: UP — DTR NormalSwitch 2: N/A (Verbal Result Codes/Numeric Result
Codes)Switch 3: UP — Suppress Result CodesSwitch 4: DOWN — No echo, offline commandsSwitch 5: UP — Auto AnswerSwitch 6: UP — Carrier Detect NormalSwitch 7: UP — Load NVRAM DefaultsSwitch 8: N/A (Smart Mode/Dumb Mode)Result codes should be disabled/suppressed for dial-up modems to
avoid problems that can occur if getty mistakenly
gives a login: prompt to a modem that is in command
mode and the modem echoes the command or returns a result
code. This sequence can result in a extended, silly conversation
between getty and the modem.Locked-speed ConfigFor a locked-speed configuration, you will need to configure the
modem to maintain a constant modem-to-computer data rate independent
of the communications rate. On a &usrobotics; &sportster; 14,400 external
modem, these commands will lock the modem-to-computer data rate at
the speed used to issue the commands:ATZ
AT&B1&WMatching-speed ConfigFor a variable-speed configuration, you will need to configure
your modem to adjust its serial port data rate to match the incoming
call rate. On a &usrobotics; &sportster; 14,400 external modem, these commands
will lock the modem's error-corrected data rate to the speed used to
issue the commands, but allow the serial port rate to vary for
non-error-corrected connections:ATZ
AT&B2&WChecking the Modem's ConfigurationMost high-speed modems provide commands to view the modem's
current operating parameters in a somewhat human-readable fashion.
On the &usrobotics; &sportster; 14,400 external modems, the command
ATI5 displays the settings that are stored in the
non-volatile RAM. To see the true operating parameters of the modem
(as influenced by the modem's DIP switch settings), use the commands
ATZ and then ATI4.If you have a different brand of modem, check your modem's
manual to see how to double-check your modem's configuration
parameters.TroubleshootingHere are a few steps you can follow to check out the dial-up modem
on your system.Checking Out the FreeBSD SystemHook up your modem to your FreeBSD system, boot the system, and,
if your modem has status indication lights, watch to see whether the
modem's DTR indicator lights when the
login: prompt appears on the system's console
— if it lights up, that should mean that FreeBSD has started a
getty process on the appropriate communications
port and is waiting for the modem to accept a call.If the DTR indicator does not light, login to
the FreeBSD system through the console and issue a ps
ax to see if FreeBSD is trying to run a
getty process on the correct port. You should see
lines like these among the processes displayed: 114 ?? I 0:00.10 /usr/libexec/getty V19200 ttyd0
115 ?? I 0:00.10 /usr/libexec/getty V19200 ttyd1If you see something different, like this: 114 d0 I 0:00.10 /usr/libexec/getty V19200 ttyd0and the modem has not accepted a call yet, this means that
getty has completed its open on the
communications port. This could indicate a problem with the cabling
or a mis-configured modem, because getty should
not be able to open the communications port until
CD (carrier detect) has been asserted by the
modem.If you do not see any getty processes waiting
to open the desired
ttydN port,
double-check your entries in /etc/ttys to see
if there are any mistakes there. Also, check the log file
/var/log/messages to see if there are any log
messages from init or getty
regarding any problems. If there are any messages, triple-check the
configuration files /etc/ttys and
/etc/gettytab, as well as the appropriate
device special files /dev/ttydN, for any
mistakes, missing entries, or missing device special files.Try Dialing InTry dialing into the system; be sure to use 8 bits, no parity,
and 1
stop bit on the remote system. If you do not get a prompt right
away, or get garbage, try pressing Enter
about once per second. If you still do not see a
login: prompt after a while, try sending a
BREAK. If you are using a high-speed modem to do
the dialing, try dialing again after locking the dialing modem's
interface speed (via AT&B1 on a &usrobotics;
&sportster; modem, for example).If you still cannot get a login: prompt, check
/etc/gettytab again and double-check
thatThe initial capability name specified in
/etc/ttys for the line matches a name of a
capability in /etc/gettytabEach nx= entry matches another
gettytab capability nameEach tc= entry matches another
gettytab capability nameIf you dial but the modem on the FreeBSD system will not answer,
make sure that the modem is configured to answer the phone when
DTR is asserted. If the modem seems to be
configured correctly, verify that the DTR line is
asserted by checking the modem's indicator lights (if it has
any).If you have gone over everything several times and it still does
not work, take a break and come back to it later. If it still does
not work, perhaps you can send an electronic mail message to the
&a.questions; describing your modem and your problem, and the good
folks on the list will try to help.Dial-out Servicedial-out serviceThe following are tips for getting your host to be able to connect
over the modem to another computer. This is appropriate for
establishing a terminal session with a remote host.This is useful to log onto a BBS.This kind of connection can be extremely helpful to get a file on
the Internet if you have problems with PPP. If you need to FTP
something and PPP is broken, use the terminal session to FTP it. Then
use zmodem to transfer it to your machine.My Stock Hayes Modem Is Not Supported, What Can I Do?Actually, the manual page for tip is out of date.
There is a generic Hayes dialer already built in. Just use
at=hayes in your /etc/remote
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 tip (using
ATX0&W).Also, the dial timeout for tip is 60 seconds.
Your modem should use something less, or else tip will think there is
a communication problem. Try ATS7=45&W.As shipped, tip does not yet support
Hayes modems 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?/etc/remoteMake what is called a direct entry in your
/etc/remote file. 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=noneUse the highest bps rate your modem supports in the br capability.
Then, type tip cuaa0 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 cuaa0Or use cu as root with the
following command:&prompt.root; cu -lline -sspeedline is the serial port
(e.g./dev/cuaa0) and
speed is the speed
(e.g.57600). When you are done entering the AT
commands hit ~. to exit.The @ Sign for the pn Capability Does 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. 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 things like:&prompt.root; tip -115200 5551234If you prefer cu over tip,
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:&prompt.root; cu 5551234 -s 115200Do 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. tip 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.I Access a Number of Hosts Through a Terminal ServerRather than waiting until you are connected and typing
CONNECT <host> each time, use tip's
cm capability. For example, these entries in
/etc/remote: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 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:big-university 5551111
big-university 5551112
big-university 5551113
big-university 5551114tip will try each one in the listed order, then
give up. If you want to keep retrying, run tip in
a while loop.Why Do I Have to Hit
CtrlP
Twice to Send
CtrlP
Once?CtrlP is the default force character, used to tell
tip 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
Ctrl2
or
CtrlSpace.
A pretty good value for single-char is
ShiftCtrl6, which is 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>Suddenly Everything I Type Is in Upper Case??You must have pressed
CtrlA, tip's
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
Ctrl2
and
CtrlA
a lot:force=^^
raisechar=^^The ^^ is
ShiftCtrl6.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
cat and echo on the remote
system to accept and send files. The syntax is:~plocal-fileremote-file~tremote-filelocal-fileThere is no error checking, so you probably should use another
protocol, like zmodem.How Can I Run zmodem with tip?To receive files, start the sending program on the remote end.
Then, type ~C rz to begin receiving them
locally.To send files, start the receiving program on the remote end.
Then, type ~C sz files
to send them to the remote system.KazutakaYOKOTAContributed by BillPaulBased on a document by Setting Up the Serial Consoleserial consoleIntroductionFreeBSD has the ability to boot on a system with only
a dumb terminal on a serial port as a console. Such a configuration
should be useful for two classes of people: system administrators who
wish to install FreeBSD on machines that have no keyboard or monitor
attached, and developers who want to debug the kernel or device
drivers.As described in , FreeBSD employs a three stage
bootstrap. The first two stages are in the boot block code which is
stored at the beginning of the FreeBSD slice on the boot disk. The
boot block will then load and run the boot loader
(/boot/loader) as the third stage code.In order to set up the serial console you must configure the boot
block code, the boot loader code and the kernel.Serial Console Configuration, Terse VersionThis section assumes that you are using the default setup,
know how to connect serial ports and just want a fast overview
of a serial console. If you encounter difficulty with these
steps, please see the more extensive explanation of all the
options and advanced settings in
.Connect the serial port. The serial console will be
on COM1.echo -h > /boot.config to enable
the serial console for the boot loader and kernel.Edit /etc/ttys and change
off to on for the
ttyd0 entry. This enables a login
prompt on the serial console, which mirrors how video
consoles are typically setup.shutdown -r now will reboot the
system with the serial console.Serial Console ConfigurationPrepare a serial cable.null-modem cableYou will need either a null-modem cable or a standard serial
cable and a null-modem adapter. See for
a discussion on serial cables.Unplug your keyboard.Most PC systems probe for the keyboard during the Power-On
Self-Test (POST) and will generate an error if the keyboard is not
detected. Some machines complain loudly about the lack of a
keyboard and will not continue to boot until it is plugged
in.If your computer complains about the error, but boots anyway,
then you do not have to do anything special. (Some machines with
Phoenix BIOS installed merely say Keyboard
failed and continue to boot normally.)If your computer refuses to boot without a keyboard attached
then you will have to configure the BIOS so that it ignores this
error (if it can). Consult your motherboard's manual for details
on how to do this.Setting the keyboard to Not installed in the
BIOS setup does not mean that you will not
be able to use your keyboard. All this does is tell the BIOS
not to probe for a keyboard at power-on, so it will not
complain if the keyboard is not plugged in. You can leave the
keyboard plugged in even with this flag set to Not
installed and the keyboard will still work.If your system has a &ps2; mouse, chances are very good that
you may have to unplug your mouse as well as your keyboard.
This is because &ps2; mice share some hardware with the keyboard
and leaving the mouse plugged in can fool the keyboard probe
into thinking the keyboard is still there. It is said that a
Gateway 2000 Pentium 90 MHz system with an AMI BIOS that behaves
this way. In general, this is not a problem since the mouse is
not much good without the keyboard anyway.Plug a dumb terminal into COM1
(sio0).If you do not have a dumb terminal, you can use an old PC/XT
with a modem program, or the serial port on another &unix; box. If
you do not have a COM1
(sio0), get one. At this time, there is
no way to select a port other than COM1
for the boot blocks without recompiling the boot blocks. If you
are already using COM1 for another
device, you will have to temporarily remove that device and
install a new boot block and kernel once you get FreeBSD up and
running. (It is assumed that COM1 will
be available on a file/compute/terminal server anyway; if you
really need COM1 for something else
(and you cannot switch that something else to
COM2 (sio1)),
then you probably should not even be bothering with all this in
the first place.)Make sure the configuration file of your kernel has
appropriate flags set for COM1
(sio0).Relevant flags are:0x10Enables console support for this unit. The other
console flags are ignored unless this is set. Currently, at
most one unit can have console support; the first one (in
config file order) with this flag set is preferred. This
option alone will not make the serial port the console. Set
the following flag or use the option
described below, together with this flag.0x20Forces this unit to be the console (unless there is
another higher priority console), regardless of the
option discussed below. This flag
replaces the COMCONSOLE option in FreeBSD
versions 2.X. The flag 0x20 must be used
together with the flag.0x40Reserves this unit (in conjunction with
0x10) and makes the unit
unavailable for normal access. You should not set
this flag to the serial port unit which you want to
use as the serial console. The only use of this
flag is to designate the unit for kernel remote
debugging. See The
+ url="&url.books.developers-handbook;/index.html">The
Developer's Handbook for more information on
remote debugging.In FreeBSD 4.0 or later the semantics of the
flag 0x40 are slightly different and
there is another flag to specify a serial port for remote
debugging.Example:device sio0 at isa? port IO_COM1 flags 0x10 irq 4See the &man.sio.4; manual page for more details.If the flags were not set, you need to run UserConfig (on a
different console) or recompile the kernel.Create boot.config in the root directory
of the a partition on the boot drive.This file will instruct the boot block code how you would like
to boot the system. In order to activate the serial console, you
need one or more of the following options—if you want
multiple options, include them all on the same line:Toggles internal and serial consoles. You can use this
to switch console devices. For instance, if you boot from
the internal (video) console, you can use
to direct the boot loader and the kernel
to use the serial port as its console device. Alternatively,
if you boot from the serial port, you can use the
to tell the boot loader and the kernel
to use the video display as the console instead.Toggles single and dual console configurations. In the
single configuration the console will be either the internal
console (video display) or the serial port, depending on the
state of the option above. In the dual
console configuration, both the video display and the
serial port will become the console at the same time,
regardless of the state of the option.
However, note that the dual console configuration takes effect
only during the boot block is running. Once the boot loader
gets control, the console specified by the
option becomes the only console.Makes the boot block probe the keyboard. If no keyboard
is found, the and
options are automatically set.Due to space constraints in the current version of the
boot blocks, the option is capable of
detecting extended keyboards only. Keyboards with less
than 101 keys (and without F11 and F12 keys) may not be
detected. Keyboards on some laptop computers may not be
properly found because of this limitation. If this is
the case with your system, you have to abandon using
the option. Unfortunately there is no
workaround for this problem.Use either the option to select the
console automatically, or the option to
activate the serial console.You may include other options described in &man.boot.8; as
well.The options, except for , will be passed to
the boot loader (/boot/loader). The boot
loader will determine which of the internal video or the serial
port should become the console by examining the state of the
option alone. This means that if you specify
the option but not the
option in /boot.config, you can use the
serial port as the console only during the boot block; the boot
loader will use the internal video display as the console.Boot the machine.When you start your FreeBSD box, the boot blocks will echo the
contents of /boot.config to the console. For
example:/boot.config: -P
Keyboard: noThe second line appears only if you put in
/boot.config and indicates presence/absence
of the keyboard. These messages go to either serial or internal
console, or both, depending on the option in
/boot.config.OptionsMessage goes tononeinternal consoleserial consoleserial and internal consolesserial and internal consoles, keyboard presentinternal console, keyboard absentserial consoleAfter the above messages, there will be a small pause before
the boot blocks continue loading the boot loader and before any
further messages printed to the console. Under normal
circumstances, you do not need to interrupt the boot blocks, but
you may want to do so in order to make sure things are set up
correctly.Hit any key, other than Enter, at the console to
interrupt the boot process. The boot blocks will then prompt you
for further action. You should now see something like:>> FreeBSD/i386 BOOT
Default: 0:ad(0,a)/boot/loader
boot:Verify the above message appears on either the serial or
internal console or both, according to the options you put in
/boot.config. If the message appears in the
correct console, hit Enter to continue the boot
process.If you want the serial console but you do not see the prompt
on the serial terminal, something is wrong with your settings. In
the meantime, you enter and hit Enter/Return
(if possible) to tell the boot block (and then the boot loader and
the kernel) to choose the serial port for the console. Once the
system is up, go back and check what went wrong.After the boot loader is loaded and you are in the third stage of
the boot process you can still switch between the internal console and
the serial console by setting appropriate environment variables in the
boot loader. See .SummaryHere is the summary of various settings discussed in this section
and the console eventually selected.Case 1: You Set the Flags to 0x10 for
sio0device sio0 at isa? port IO_COM1 flags 0x10 irq 4Options in /boot.configConsole during boot blocksConsole during boot loaderConsole in kernelnothinginternalinternalinternalserialserialserialserial and internalinternalinternalserial and internalserialserial, keyboard presentinternalinternalinternal, keyboard absentserial and internalserialserialCase 2: You Set the Flags to 0x30 for sio0device sio0 at isa? port IO_COM1 flags 0x30 irq 4Options in /boot.configConsole during boot blocksConsole during boot loaderConsole in kernelnothinginternalinternalserialserialserialserialserial and internalinternalserialserial and internalserialserial, keyboard presentinternalinternalserial, keyboard absentserial and internalserialserialTips for the Serial ConsoleSetting a Faster Serial Port SpeedBy default, the serial port settings are: 9600 baud, 8
bits, no parity, and 1 stop bit. If you wish to change the speed, you
need to recompile at least the boot blocks. Add the following line
to /etc/make.conf and compile new boot
blocks:BOOT_COMCONSOLE_SPEED=19200See for detailed
instructions about building and installing new boot blocks.If the serial console is configured in some other way than by
booting with , or if the serial console used by
the kernel is different from the one used by the boot blocks, then
you must also add the following option to the kernel configuration
file and compile a new kernel:options CONSPEED=19200Using Serial Port Other Than sio0 for
the ConsoleUsing a port other than sio0 as the
console requires some recompiling. If you want to use another
serial port for whatever reasons, recompile the boot blocks, the
boot loader and the kernel as follows.Get the kernel source. (See )Edit /etc/make.conf and set
BOOT_COMCONSOLE_PORT to the address of the
port you want to use (0x3F8, 0x2F8, 0x3E8 or 0x2E8). Only
sio0 through
sio3 (COM1
through COM4) can be used; multiport
serial cards will not work. No interrupt setting is
needed.Create a custom kernel configuration file and add
appropriate flags for the serial port you want to use. For
example, if you want to make sio1
(COM2) the console:device sio1 at isa? port IO_COM2 flags 0x10 irq 3ordevice sio1 at isa? port IO_COM2 flags 0x30 irq 3The console flags for the other serial ports should not be
set.Recompile and install the boot blocks and the boot loader:&prompt.root; cd /sys/boot
&prompt.root; make
&prompt.root; make installRebuild and install the kernel.Write the boot blocks to the boot disk with
&man.disklabel.8; and boot from the new kernel.Entering the DDB Debugger from the Serial LineIf you wish to drop into the kernel debugger from the serial
console (useful for remote diagnostics, but also dangerous if you
generate a spurious BREAK on the serial port!) then you should
compile your kernel with the following options:options BREAK_TO_DEBUGGER
options DDBGetting a Login Prompt on the Serial ConsoleWhile this is not required, you may wish to get a
login prompt over the serial line, now that you
can see boot messages and can enter the kernel debugging session
through the serial console. Here is how to do it.Open the file /etc/ttys with an editor
and locate the lines:ttyd0 "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600" unknown off secure
ttyd1 "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600" unknown off secure
ttyd2 "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600" unknown off secure
ttyd3 "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600" unknown off securettyd0 through ttyd3
corresponds to COM1 through
COM4. Change off to
on for the desired port. If you have changed the
speed of the serial port, you need to change
std.9600 to match the current setting, e.g.
std.19200.You may also want to change the terminal type from
unknown to the actual type of your serial
terminal.After editing the file, you must kill -HUP 1
to make this change take effect.Changing Console from the Boot LoaderPrevious sections described how to set up the serial console by
tweaking the boot block. This section shows that you can specify the
console by entering some commands and environment variables in the
boot loader. As the boot loader is invoked at the third stage of the
boot process, after the boot block, the settings in the boot loader
will override the settings in the boot block.Setting Up the Serial ConsoleYou can easily specify the boot loader and the kernel to use the
serial console by writing just one line in
/boot/loader.rc:set console=comconsoleThis will take effect regardless of the settings in the boot
block discussed in the previous section.You had better put the above line as the first line of
/boot/loader.rc so as to see boot messages on
the serial console as early as possible.Likewise, you can specify the internal console as:set console=vidconsoleIf you do not set the boot loader environment variable
console, the boot loader, and subsequently the
kernel, will use whichever console indicated by the
option in the boot block.In versions 3.2 or later, you may specify the console in
/boot/loader.conf.local or
/boot/loader.conf, rather than in
/boot/loader.rc. In this method your
/boot/loader.rc should look like:include /boot/loader.4th
startThen, create /boot/loader.conf.local and
put the following line there.console=comconsoleorconsole=vidconsoleSee &man.loader.conf.5; for more information.At the moment, the boot loader has no option equivalent to the
option in the boot block, and there is no
provision to automatically select the internal console and the
serial console based on the presence of the keyboard.Using a Serial Port Other Than sio0 for
the ConsoleYou need to recompile the boot loader to use a serial port other
than sio0 for the serial console. Follow the
procedure described in .CaveatsThe idea here is to allow people to set up dedicated servers that
require no graphics hardware or attached keyboards. Unfortunately,
while most systems will let you boot without a keyboard, there
are quite a few that will not let you boot without a graphics adapter.
Machines with AMI BIOSes can be configured to boot with no graphics
adapter installed simply by changing the graphics adapter setting in
the CMOS configuration to Not installed.However, many machines do not support this option and will refuse
to boot if you have no display hardware in the system. With these
machines, you will have to leave some kind of graphics card plugged in,
(even if it is just a junky mono board) although you will not have to
attach a monitor. You might also try installing an AMI
BIOS.
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/Makefile b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/Makefile
index b31fb33fb5..c0ffab6a1e 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/Makefile
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/Makefile
@@ -1,41 +1,43 @@
#
# $FreeBSD$
#
# Build the FreeBSD Porter's Handbook.
#
MAINTAINER=doc@FreeBSD.org
DOC?= book
FORMATS?= html-split
INSTALL_COMPRESSED?= gz
INSTALL_ONLY_COMPRESSED?=
#
# SRCS lists the individual SGML files that make up the document. Changes
# to any of these files will force a rebuild
#
# SGML content
SRCS= book.sgml
# Use the local DSSSL file
DSLHTML?= ${.CURDIR}/freebsd.dsl
DSLPRINT?= ${.CURDIR}/freebsd.dsl
# Images from the cross-document image library
IMAGES_LIB+= callouts/1.png
IMAGES_LIB+= callouts/2.png
IMAGES_LIB+= callouts/3.png
IMAGES_LIB+= callouts/4.png
IMAGES_LIB+= callouts/5.png
IMAGES_LIB+= callouts/6.png
IMAGES_LIB+= callouts/7.png
IMAGES_LIB+= callouts/8.png
IMAGES_LIB+= callouts/9.png
IMAGES_LIB+= callouts/10.png
+URL_RELPREFIX?= ../../../..
DOC_PREFIX?= ${.CURDIR}/../../..
+
.include "${DOC_PREFIX}/share/mk/doc.project.mk"
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/book.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/book.sgml
index 3fe9cf6cf5..d070d44550 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/book.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/book.sgml
@@ -1,8300 +1,8301 @@
%man;
%bookinfo;
%authors;
%teams;
%mailing-lists;
%freebsd;
-
+
+%urls;
]>
FreeBSD Porter's HandbookThe FreeBSD Documentation ProjectApril 200020002001200220032004The FreeBSD Documentation
Project
&bookinfo.trademarks;
&bookinfo.legalnotice;
IntroductionThe FreeBSD ports collection is the way almost everyone
installs applications ("ports") on FreeBSD. Like everything
else about FreeBSD, it is primarily a volunteer effort.
It is important to keep this in mind when reading this
document.In FreeBSD, anyone may submit a new port, or volunteer
to maintain an existing port if it is unmaintained—you
do not need any special commit privileges to do so.Making a port yourselfSo, you are interested in making your own port or
upgrading an existing one? Great!What follows are some guidelines for creating a new port for
FreeBSD. If you want to upgrade an existing port, you should
read this and then read .When this document is not sufficiently detailed, you should
refer to /usr/ports/Mk/bsd.port.mk, which
all port Makefiles include. Even if you do not hack Makefiles
daily, it is well commented, and you will still gain much
knowledge from it. Additionally, you may send specific questions
to the &a.ports;.Only a fraction of the variables
(VAR) that can be
overridden are mentioned in this document. Most (if not all)
are documented at the start of /usr/ports/Mk/bsd.port.mk;
the others probably ought to be.
Note that this file uses a non-standard tab setting:
Emacs and
Vim should recognize the setting on
loading the file. Both &man.vi.1; and
&man.ex.1; can be set to use the correct value by
typing :set tabstop=4 once the file has been
loaded.Quick PortingThis section tells you how to do a quick port. In many cases, it
is not sufficient, so you will have to read further on into
the document.First, get the original tarball and put it into
DISTDIR, which defaults to
/usr/ports/distfiles.The following assumes that the software compiled out-of-the-box,
i.e., there was absolutely no change required for the port to work
on your FreeBSD box. If you needed to change something, you will
have to refer to the next section too.Writing the MakefileThe minimal Makefile would look something
like this:# New ports collection makefile for: oneko
# Date created: 5 December 1994
# Whom: asami
#
# $FreeBSD$
#
PORTNAME= oneko
PORTVERSION= 1.1b
CATEGORIES= games
MASTER_SITES= ftp://ftp.cs.columbia.edu/archives/X11R5/contrib/
MAINTAINER= asami@FreeBSD.org
COMMENT= A cat chasing a mouse all over the screen
MAN1= oneko.1
MANCOMPRESSED= yes
USE_IMAKE= yes
.include <bsd.port.mk>See if you can figure it out. Do not worry about the contents
of the $FreeBSD$ line, it will be
filled in automatically by CVS when the port is imported to our main
ports tree. You can find a more detailed example in the sample Makefile section.Writing the description filesThere are two description files that are required for
any port, whether they actually package or not. They are
pkg-descr and
pkg-plist. Their
pkg- prefix distinguishes them from
other files.pkg-descrThis is a longer description of the port. One to a few
paragraphs concisely explaining what the port does is
sufficient.This is not a manual or an in-depth
description on how to use or compile the port! Please
be careful if you are copying from the
README or manpage; too often
they are not a concise description of the port or are in an
awkward format (e.g., manpages have justified spacing). If the
ported software has an official WWW homepage, you should list it
here. Prefix one of the websites with
WWW: so that automated tools will work
correctly.It is recommended that you sign your name at the end of this
file, as in:This is a port of oneko, in which a cat chases a poor mouse all over
the screen.
:
(etc.)
WWW: http://www.oneko.org/
- Satoshi
asami@cs.berkeley.edupkg-plistThis file lists all the files installed by the port. It is
also called the packing list because the package is
generated by packing the files listed here. The pathnames are
relative to the installation prefix (usually
/usr/local or
/usr/X11R6). If you are using the
MANn variables (as
you should be), do not list any manpages here.Here is a small example:bin/oneko
lib/X11/app-defaults/Oneko
lib/X11/oneko/cat1.xpm
lib/X11/oneko/cat2.xpm
lib/X11/oneko/mouse.xpm
@dirrm lib/X11/onekoRefer to the &man.pkg.create.1; manual page for details on the
packing list.You should list all the files, but not the name directories,
in the list. Also, if the port creates directories for itself
during installation, make sure to add @dirrm
lines as necessary to remove them when the port is
deleted.It is recommended that you keep all the filenames in this
file sorted alphabetically. It will make verifying the changes
when you upgrade the port much easier.Creating a packing list manually can be a very tedious
task. If the port installs a large numbers of files, creating the packing list
automatically might save time.There is only one case when pkg-plist
can be omitted from a port. If the port installs just a handful
of files, and perhaps directories, the files and directories may
be listed in the variables PLIST_FILES and
PLIST_DIRS, respectively, within the port's
Makefile. For instance, we could get along
without pkg-plist in the above
oneko port by adding the
following lines to the Makefile:PLIST_FILES= bin/oneko \
lib/X11/app-defaults/Oneko \
lib/X11/oneko/cat1.xpm \
lib/X11/oneko/cat2.xpm \
lib/X11/oneko/mouse.xpm
PLIST_DIRS= lib/X11/onekoOf course, PLIST_DIRS should be left
unset if a port installs no directories of its own.The price for this way of listing port's files and
directories is that you cannot use command sequences
described in &man.pkg.create.1;. Therefore, it is suitable
only for simple ports and makes them even simpler. At the
same time, it has the advantage of reducing the number of files
in the ports collection. Please consider using this technique
before you resort to pkg-plist.Later we will see how pkg-plist
and PLIST_FILES can be used to fulfil
more sophisticated
tasks.Creating the checksum fileJust type make makesum. The ports make rules
will automatically generate the file
distinfo.Testing the portYou should make sure that the port rules do exactly what you
want them to do, including packaging up the port. These are the
important points you need to verify.pkg-plist does not contain anything not
installed by your portpkg-plist contains everything that is
installed by your portYour port can be installed multiple times using the
reinstall targetYour port cleans up
after itself upon deinstallRecommended test orderingmake installmake packagemake deinstallpkg_add package-namemake deinstallmake reinstallmake packageMake sure that there are not any warnings issued in any of the
package and
deinstall stages. After step 3, check to
see if all the new directories are correctly deleted. Also, try
using the software after step 4, to ensure that it works correctly
when installed from a package.Checking your port with portlintPlease use portlint to see if your port
conforms to our guidelines. The portlint program
is part of the ports collection. In particular, you may want to
check if the Makefile is in
the right shape and the package is named
appropriately.Submitting the portFirst, make sure you have read the DOs and DON'Ts section.Now that you are happy with your port, the only thing remaining
is to put it in the main FreeBSD ports tree and make everybody else
happy about it too. We do not need your work
directory or the pkgname.tgz package, so delete
them now. Next, simply include the output of shar `find
port_dir` in a bug report and send it with the
- &man.send-pr.1; program (see Bug
+ &man.send-pr.1; program (see Bug
Reports and General Commentary for more information about
&man.send-pr.1;). If the uncompressed port is larger than 20KB,
you should compress it into a tarfile and use &man.uuencode.1;
before including it in the bug report (uuencoded tarfiles are
acceptable even if the bug report is smaller than 20KB but are not
preferred). Be sure to classify the bug report as category
ports and class
change-request (Do not mark the report
confidential!).
Also add a short description of the program you ported
to the Description field of the PR and
the shar or uuencoded tarfile to the
Fix field.You can make our work a lot easier, if you use a good
description in the synopsis of the problem report.
We prefer something like
New port: <category>/<portname>
<short description of the port> for new ports and
Update port: <category>/<portname>
<short description of the update> for port updates.
If you stick to this scheme, the chance that someone will take a
look at your PR soon is much better.One more time, do not include the original source
distfile, the work directory, or the package
you built with make package.After you have submitted your port, please be patient.
Sometimes it can take a few months before a port is included
in FreeBSD, although it might only take a few days. You can
view the list of ports
waiting to be committed to FreeBSD.Once we have looked at your port, we will get back to you if necessary, and put
it in the tree. Your name will also appear in the list of
- Additional FreeBSD Contributors
+ Additional FreeBSD Contributors
and other files. Isn't that great?!? :-)Slow PortingOk, so it was not that simple, and the port required some
modifications to get it to work. In this section, we will explain,
step by step, how to modify it to get it to work with the ports
paradigm.How things workFirst, this is the sequence of events which occurs when the user
first types make in your port's directory.
You may find that having bsd.port.mk in another
window while you read this really helps to understand it.But do not worry if you do not really understand what
bsd.port.mk is doing, not many people do...
:->The fetch target is run. The
fetch target is responsible for making
sure that the tarball exists locally in
DISTDIR. If fetch
cannot find the required files in DISTDIR it
will look up the URL MASTER_SITES, which is
set in the Makefile, as well as our main FTP site at ,
where we put sanctioned distfiles as backup. It will then
attempt to fetch the named distribution file with
FETCH, assuming that the requesting site has
direct access to the Internet. If that succeeds, it will save
the file in DISTDIR for future use and
proceed.The extract target is run. It
looks for your port's distribution file (typically a gzip'd
tarball) in DISTDIR and unpacks it into a
temporary subdirectory specified by WRKDIR
(defaults to work).The patch target is run. First,
any patches defined in PATCHFILES are
applied. Second, if any patch files named
patch-* are found in
PATCHDIR (defaults to the
files subdirectory), they are applied at
this time in alphabetical order.The configure target is run. This
can do any one of many different things.If it exists, scripts/configure is
run.If HAS_CONFIGURE or
GNU_CONFIGURE is set,
WRKSRC/configure is
run.If USE_IMAKE is set,
XMKMF (default: xmkmf
-a) is run.The build target is run. This is
responsible for descending into the port's private working
directory (WRKSRC) and building it. If
USE_GMAKE is set, GNU make
will be used, otherwise the system make will
be used.The above are the default actions. In addition, you can define
targets
pre-something or
post-something,
or put scripts with those names, in the scripts
subdirectory, and they will be run before or after the default
actions are done.For example, if you have a post-extract
target defined in your Makefile, and a file
pre-build in the scripts
subdirectory, the post-extract target will
be called after the regular extraction actions, and the
pre-build script will be executed before the
default build rules are done. It is recommended that you use
Makefile targets if the actions are simple
enough, because it will be easier for someone to figure out what
kind of non-default action the port requires.The default actions are done by the
bsd.port.mk targets
do-something.
For example, the commands to extract a port are in the target
do-extract. If you are not happy with the
default target, you can fix it by redefining the
do-something
target in your Makefile.The main targets (e.g.,
extract,
configure, etc.) do nothing more than
make sure all the stages up to that one are completed and call
the real targets or scripts, and they are not intended to be
changed. If you want to fix the extraction, fix
do-extract, but never ever change
the way extract operates!Now that you understand what goes on when the user types
make, let us go through the recommended steps to
create the perfect port.Getting the original sourcesGet the original sources (normally) as a compressed tarball
(foo.tar.gz or
foo.tar.Z) and copy
it into DISTDIR. Always use
mainstream sources when and where you
can.You will need to set the variable MASTER_SITES
to reflect where the original tarball resides. You will find
convenient shorthand definitions for most mainstream sites
in bsd.sites.mk. Please use these
sites—and the associated definitions—if
at all possible, to help avoid the problem of having the same
information repeated over again many times in the source base.
As these sites tend to change over time, this becomes a
maintenance nightmare for everyone involved.If you cannot find a FTP/HTTP site that is well-connected to the
net, or can only find sites that have irritatingly non-standard
formats, you might want to put a copy on a reliable FTP or HTTP
server that you control (e.g., your home page).If you cannot find somewhere convenient and reliable to put the
distfile
we can house it ourselves
on ftp.FreeBSD.org; however, this is the
least-preferred solution.
The distfile must be placed into
~/public_distfiles/ of someone's
freefall account.
Ask the person who commits your port to do this.
This person will also set MASTER_SITES to
MASTER_SITE_LOCAL and
MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR to their
freefall username.If your port's distfile changes all the time without any
kind of version update by the author,
consider putting the distfile on your home page and listing it as
the first MASTER_SITES. If you can, try
to talk the port author out of doing this; it
really does help to establish some kind of source code control.
Hosting your own version will prevent users
from getting checksum mismatch errors, and
also reduce the workload of maintainers of our FTP site. Also, if
there is only one master site for the port, it is recommended that
you house a backup at your site and list it as the second
MASTER_SITES.If your port requires some additional `patches' that are
available on the Internet, fetch them too and put them in
DISTDIR. Do not worry if they come from a site
other than where you got the main source tarball, we have a way to
handle these situations (see the description of PATCHFILES below).Modifying the portUnpack a copy of the tarball in a private directory and make
whatever changes are necessary to get the port to compile properly
under the current version of FreeBSD. Keep careful
track of everything you do, as you will be automating
the process shortly. Everything, including the deletion, addition,
or modification of files should be doable using an automated script
or patch file when your port is finished.If your port requires significant user interaction/customization
to compile or install, you should take a look at one of Larry Wall's
classic Configure scripts and perhaps do
something similar yourself. The goal of the new ports collection is
to make each port as plug-and-play as possible for the
end-user while using a minimum of disk space.Unless explicitly stated, patch files, scripts, and other
files you have created and contributed to the FreeBSD ports
collection are assumed to be covered by the standard BSD copyright
conditions.PatchingIn the preparation of the port, files that have been added or
changed can be picked up with a recursive &man.diff.1;
for later feeding to &man.patch.1;. Each set of patches you
wish to apply should be collected into a file named
patch-* where
* denotes the sequence in which the
patches will be applied — these are done in
alphabetical order, thus aa
first, ab second and so on. If you wish,
you can use names that indicate the pathnames of the files that
are patched, such as patch-Imakefile or
patch-src-config.h. These files should
be stored in PATCHDIR, from where they will be
automatically applied. All patches should be relative to
WRKSRC (generally the directory your port's
tarball unpacks itself into, that being where the build is done).
To make fixes and upgrades easier, you should avoid having more than
one patch fix the same file (e.g., patch-aa and
patch-ab both changing
WRKSRC/foobar.c).Do not put RCS strings in patches. CVS will mangle them when we
put the files into the ports tree, and when we check them out again,
they will come out different and the patch will fail. RCS strings
are surrounded by dollar ($) signs, and
typically start with $Id or
$RCS.Using the recurse () option to
&man.diff.1; to generate patches is fine, but please take
a look at the resulting patches to make sure you do not have any
unnecessary junk in there. In particular, diffs between two backup
files, Makefiles when the port uses
Imake or GNU configure, etc.,
are unnecessary and should be deleted. If you had to edit
configure.in and run
autoconf to regenerate
configure, do not take the diffs of
configure (it often grows to a few thousand
lines!); define USE_AUTOCONF_VER=213 and take the
diffs of configure.in.Also, if you had to delete a file, then you can do it in the
post-extract target rather than as part of
the patch. Once you are happy with the resulting diff, please split
it up into one source file per patch file.ConfiguringInclude any additional customization commands in your
configure script and save it in the
scripts subdirectory. As mentioned above, you
can also do this with Makefile targets and/or
scripts with the name pre-configure or
post-configure.Handling user inputIf your port requires user input to build, configure, or install,
you must set IS_INTERACTIVE in your Makefile. This
will allow overnight builds to skip your port if the
user sets the variable BATCH in his environment (and
if the user sets the variable INTERACTIVE, then
only those ports requiring interaction are
built). This will save a lot of wasted time on the set of
machines that continually build ports (see below).It is also recommended that if there are reasonable default
answers to the questions, you check the
PACKAGE_BUILDING variable and turn off the
interactive script when it is set. This will allow us to build the
packages for CDROMs and FTP.Configuring the MakefileConfiguring the Makefile is pretty simple, and again we suggest
that you look at existing examples before starting. Also, there is a
sample Makefile in this
handbook, so take a look and please follow the ordering of variables
and sections in that template to make your port easier for others to
read.Now, consider the following problems in sequence as you design
your new Makefile:The original sourceDoes it live in DISTDIR as a standard
gzip'd tarball named something like
foozolix-1.2.tar.gz? If so, you can go on
to the next step. If not, you should look at overriding any of
the DISTNAME, EXTRACT_CMD,
EXTRACT_BEFORE_ARGS,
EXTRACT_AFTER_ARGS,
EXTRACT_SUFX, or DISTFILES
variables, depending on how alien a format your port's
distribution file is. (The most common case is
EXTRACT_SUFX=.tar.Z, when the tarball is
condensed by regular compress, not
gzip.)In the worst case, you can simply create your own
do-extract target to override the
default, though this should be rarely, if ever,
necessary.NamingThe first part of the port's Makefile names
the port, describes its version number, and lists it in the correct
category.PORTNAME and PORTVERSIONYou should set PORTNAME to the
base name of your port, and PORTVERSION
to the version number of the port.PORTREVISION and
PORTEPOCHPORTREVISIONThe PORTREVISION variable is a
monotonically increasing value which is reset to 0 with
every increase of PORTVERSION (i.e.
every time a new official vendor release is made), and
appended to the package name if non-zero.
Changes to PORTREVISION are
used by automated tools (e.g. &man.pkg.version.1;)
to highlight the fact that a new package is
available.PORTREVISION should be increased
each time a change is made to the port which significantly
affects the content or structure of the derived
package.Examples of when PORTREVISION
should be bumped:Addition of patches to correct security
vulnerabilities, bugs, or to add new functionality to
the port.Changes to the port Makefile to enable or disable
compile-time options in the package.Changes in the packing list or the install-time
behavior of the package (e.g. change to a script
which generates initial data for the package, like ssh
host keys).Version bump of a port's shared library dependency
(in this case, someone trying to install the old
package after installing a newer version of the
dependency will fail since it will look for the old
libfoo.x instead of libfoo.(x+1)).Silent changes to the port distfile which have
significant functional differences, i.e. changes to
the distfile requiring a correction to
distinfo with no corresponding change to
PORTVERSION, where a diff
-ru of the old and new versions shows
non-trivial changes to the code.Examples of changes which do not require a
PORTREVISION bump:Style changes to the port skeleton with no
functional change to what appears in the resulting
package.Changes to MASTER_SITES or
other functional changes to the port which do not
affect the resulting package.Trivial patches to the distfile such as correction
of typos, which are not important enough that users of
the package should go to the trouble of
upgrading.Build fixes which cause a package to become
compilable where it was previously failing (as long as
the changes do not introduce any functional change on
any other platforms on which the port did previously
build). Since PORTREVISION reflects
the content of the package, if the package was not
previously buildable then there is no need to increase
PORTREVISION to mark a
change.A rule of thumb is to ask yourself whether a change
committed to a port is something which everyone
would benefit from having (either because of an
enhancement, fix, or by virtue that the new package will
actually work at all), and weigh that against that fact
that it will cause everyone who regularly updates their
ports tree to be compelled to update. If yes, the
PORTREVISION should be bumped.PORTEPOCHFrom time to time a software vendor or FreeBSD porter
will do something silly and release a version of their
software which is actually numerically less than the
previous version. An example of this is a port which goes
from foo-20000801 to foo-1.0 (the former will be
incorrectly treated as a newer version since 20000801 is a
numerically greater value than 1).In situations such as this, the
PORTEPOCH version should be increased.
If PORTEPOCH is nonzero it is appended
to the package name as described in section 0 above.
PORTEPOCH must never be decreased or reset
to zero, because that would cause comparison to a package
from an earlier epoch to fail (i.e. the package would not
be detected as out of date): the new version number (e.g.
1.0,1 in the above example) is still
numerically less than the previous version (20000801), but
the ,1 suffix is treated specially by
automated tools and found to be greater than the implied
suffix ,0 on the earlier package.Dropping or resetting PORTEPOCH
incorrectly leads
to no end of grief; if you do not understand the above discussion,
please keep after it until you do, or ask questions on
the mailing lists.It is expected that PORTEPOCH will
not be used for the majority of ports, and that sensible
use of PORTVERSION can often pre-empt
it becoming necessary if a future release of the software
should change the version structure. However, care is
needed by FreeBSD porters when a vendor release is made
without an official version number — such as a code
snapshot release. The temptation is to label the
release with the release date, which will cause problems
as in the example above when a new official release is
made.For example, if a snapshot release is made on the date
20000917, and the previous version of the software was
version 1.2, the snapshot release should be given a
PORTVERSION of 1.2.20000917 or similar,
not 20000917, so that the succeeding release, say 1.3, is
still a numerically greater value.Example of PORTREVISION and
PORTEPOCH usageThe gtkmumble port, version
0.10, is committed to the ports
collection:PORTNAME= gtkmumble
PORTVERSION= 0.10PKGNAME becomes
gtkmumble-0.10.A security hole is discovered which requires a local
FreeBSD patch. PORTREVISION is bumped
accordingly.PORTNAME= gtkmumble
PORTVERSION= 0.10
PORTREVISION= 1PKGNAME becomes
gtkmumble-0.10_1A new version is released by the vendor, numbered 0.2
(it turns out the author actually intended
0.10 to actually mean
0.1.0, not what comes after
0.9 - oops, too late now). Since the new minor
version 2 is numerically less than the
previous version 10, the
PORTEPOCH must be bumped to manually
force the new package to be detected as newer. Since it
is a new vendor release of the code,
PORTREVISION is reset to 0 (or removed
from the Makefile).PORTNAME= gtkmumble
PORTVERSION= 0.2
PORTEPOCH= 1PKGNAME becomes
gtkmumble-0.2,1The next release is 0.3. Since
PORTEPOCH never decreases, the version
variables are now:PORTNAME= gtkmumble
PORTVERSION= 0.3
PORTEPOCH= 1PKGNAME becomes
gtkmumble-0.3,1If PORTEPOCH were reset
to 0 with this upgrade, someone who had
installed the gtkmumble-0.10_1 package would not detect
the gtkmumble-0.3 package as newer, since
3 is still numerically less than
10. Remember, this is the whole point of
PORTEPOCH in the first place.PKGNAMEPREFIX and PKGNAMESUFFIXTwo optional variables, PKGNAMEPREFIX and
PKGNAMESUFFIX, are combined with
PORTNAME and
PORTVERSION to
form PKGNAME as
${PKGNAMEPREFIX}${PORTNAME}${PKGNAMESUFFIX}-${PORTVERSION}.
Make sure this conforms to our guidelines for a good package
name. In particular, you are not allowed to use a
hyphen (-) in
PORTVERSION. Also, if the package name
has the language- or the
-compiled.specifics part (see below), use
PKGNAMEPREFIX and
PKGNAMESUFFIX, respectively. Do not make
them part of PORTNAME.Package Naming ConventionsThe following are the conventions you should follow in naming your
packages. This is to have our package directory easy to scan, as
there are already thousands of packages and users are going to
turn away if they hurt their eyes!The package name should look like
language_region-name-compiled.specifics-version.numbers.The package name is defined as
${PKGNAMEPREFIX}${PORTNAME}${PKGNAMESUFFIX}-${PORTVERSION}.
Make sure to set the variables to conform to that format.FreeBSD strives to support the native language of its users.
The language- part should be a two
letter abbreviation of the natural language defined by ISO-639 if
the port is specific to a certain language. Examples are
ja for Japanese, ru for
Russian, vi for Vietnamese,
zh for Chinese, ko for
Korean and de for German.If the port is specific to a certain region within the
language area, add the two letter country code as well.
Examples are en_US for US English and
fr_CH for Swiss French.The language- part should
be set in the PKGNAMEPREFIX variable.The first letter of name part
should be lowercase. (The rest of the name can contain
capital letters, so use your own discretion when you are
converting a software name that has some capital letters in it.)
There is a tradition of naming perl 5 modules by
prepending p5- and converting the double-colon
separator to a hyphen; for example, the
Data::Dumper module becomes
p5-Data-Dumper. If the software in question
has numbers, hyphens, or underscores in its name, you may include
them as well (like kinput2).If the port can be built with different hardcoded defaults (usually
part of the directory name in a family of ports), the
-compiled.specifics part should state
the compiled-in defaults (the hyphen is optional). Examples are
papersize and font units.The -compiled.specifics part
should be set in the PKGNAMESUFFIX
variable.The version string should follow a dash
(-) and be a period-separated list of
integers and single lowercase alphabetics. In particular,
it is not permissible to have another dash inside the
version string. The only exception is the string
pl (meaning patchlevel), which can be
used only when there are no major and
minor version numbers in the software. If the software
version has strings like alpha, beta, rc, or pre, take
the first letter and put it immediately after a period.
If the version string continues after those names, the
numbers should follow the single alphabet without an extra
period between them.The idea is to make it easier to sort ports by looking
at the version string. In particular, make sure version
number components are always delimited by a period, and
if the date is part of the string, use the
yyyy.mm.dd
format, not
dd.mm.yyyy
or the non-Y2K compliant
yy.mm.dd
format.Here are some (real) examples on how to convert the name
as called by the software authors to a suitable package
name:Distribution NamePKGNAMEPREFIXPORTNAMEPKGNAMESUFFIXPORTVERSIONReasonmule-2.2.2(empty)mule(empty)2.2.2No changes requiredXFree86-3.3.6(empty)XFree86(empty)3.3.6No changes requiredEmiClock-1.0.2(empty)emiclock(empty)1.0.2No uppercase names for single programsrdist-1.3alpha(empty)rdist(empty)1.3.aNo strings like alpha
allowedes-0.9-beta1(empty)es(empty)0.9.b1No strings like beta
allowedmailman-2.0rc3(empty)mailman(empty)2.0.r3No strings like rc
allowedv3.3beta021.src(empty)tiff(empty)3.3What the heck was that anyway?tvtwm(empty)tvtwm(empty)pl11Version string always requiredpiewm(empty)piewm(empty)1.0Version string always requiredxvgr-2.10pl1(empty)xvgr(empty)2.10.1pl allowed only when no
major/minor version numbersgawk-2.15.6ja-gawk(empty)2.15.6Japanese language versionpsutils-1.13(empty)psutils-letter1.13Papersize hardcoded at package build timepkfonts(empty)pkfonts3001.0Package for 300dpi fontsIf there is absolutely no trace of version information in the
original source and it is unlikely that the original author will ever
release another version, just set the version string to
1.0 (like the piewm example above). Otherwise, ask
the original author or use the date string
(yyyy.mm.dd)
as the version.CategorizationCATEGORIESWhen a package is created, it is put under
/usr/ports/packages/All and links are made from
one or more subdirectories of
/usr/ports/packages. The names of these
subdirectories are specified by the variable
CATEGORIES. It is intended to make life easier
for the user when he is wading through the pile of packages on the
FTP site or the CDROM. Please take a look at the current list of categories and pick the ones
that are suitable for your port.This list also determines where in the ports tree the port is
imported. If you put more than one category here, it is assumed
that the port files will be put in the subdirectory with the name in
the first category. See below for more
discussion about how to pick the right categories.If your port truly belongs to something that is different from
all the existing ones, you can even create a new category name. In
that case, please send mail to the &a.ports; to propose a new
category. However, in general, until there are more than a
handful of ports which could be reclassified into the category
you propose, you will probably be turned down.Occasionally someone proposes reorganizing the categories
with either a 2-level structure, or some other kind of keyword
structure. To date, nothing has come of any of these proposals
because, while they are very easy to make, the effort involved to
retrofit the entire existing ports collection with any kind of
reorganization is daunting to say the very least. Please read
the history of these proposals in the mailing list archives before
you post this idea; furthermore, you should be prepared to be
challenged to offer a working prototype.Current list of categoriesHere is the current list of port categories. Those
marked with an asterisk (*) are
virtual categories—those that do not have
a corresponding subdirectory in the ports tree. They are only
used as secondary categories, and only for search purposes.For non-virtual categories, you will find a one-line
description in the COMMENT in that
subdirectory's Makefile.CategoryDescriptionNotesaccessibilityPorts to help disabled users.afterstep*Ports to support the
AfterStep
window manager.arabicArabic language support.archiversArchiving tools.astroAstronomical ports.audioSound support.benchmarksBenchmarking utilities.biologyBiology-related software.cadComputer aided design tools.chineseChinese language support.commsCommunication software.Mostly software to talk to your serial port.convertersCharacter code converters.databasesDatabases.deskutilsThings that used to be on the desktop before
computers were invented.develDevelopment utilities.Do not put libraries here just because they are
libraries—unless they truly do not belong anywhere
else, they should not be in this category.dnsDNS-related software.editorsGeneral editors.Specialized editors go in the section for those
tools (e.g., a mathematical-formula editor will go
in math).elisp*Emacs-lisp ports.emulatorsEmulators for other operating systems.Terminal emulators do not belong
here—X-based ones should go to
x11 and text-based ones to either
comms or misc,
depending on the exact functionality.financeMonetary, financial and related applications.frenchFrench language support.ftpFTP client and server utilities.If your port speaks both FTP and HTTP, put it in
ftp with a secondary
category of www.gamesGames.germanGerman language support.gnome*Ports from the GNOME
Project.graphicsGraphics utilities.haskell*Software related to the Haskell language.hebrewHebrew language support.hungarianHungarian language support.ipv6*IPv6 related software.ircInternet Relay Chat utilities.japaneseJapanese language support.javaSoftware related to the Java language.kde*Ports from the K Desktop Environment (KDE)
Project.koreanKorean language support.langProgramming languages.linux*Linux applications and support utilities.lisp*Software related to the Lisp language.mailMail software.mathNumerical computation software and other utilities
for mathematics.mboneMBone applications.miscMiscellaneous utilitiesBasically things that
do not belong anywhere else.
If at all possible, try to
find a better category for your port than
misc, as ports tend to get overlooked
in here.multimediaMultimedia software.netMiscellaneous networking software.net-mgmtNetworking management software.newsUSENET news software.offix*Ports from the OffiX suite.palmSoftware support for the Palm™ series.parallel*Applications dealing with parallelism in computing.pear*Ports related to the Pear PHP framework.perl5*Ports that require Perl version 5 to run.picobsdPorts to support PicoBSD.plan9*Various programs from Plan9.polishPolish language support.portuguesePortuguese language support.printPrinting software.Desktop publishing tools
(previewers, etc.) belong here too.python*Software related to the Python language.ruby*Software related to the Ruby language.russianRussian language support.scienceScientific ports that do not fit into other
categories such as astro,
biology and
math.securitySecurity utilities.shellsCommand line shells.sysutilsSystem utilities.tcl76*Ports that use Tcl version 7.6 to run.tcl80*Ports that use Tcl version 8.0 to run.tcl81*Ports that use Tcl version 8.1 to run.tcl82*Ports that use Tcl version 8.2 to run.tcl83*Ports that use Tcl version 8.3 to run.textprocText processing utilities.It does not include
desktop publishing tools, which go to print.tk42*Ports that use Tk version 4.2 to run.tk80*Ports that use Tk version 8.0 to run.tk81*Ports that use Tk version 8.1 to run.tk82*Ports that use Tk version 8.2 to run.tk83*Ports that use Tk version 8.3 to run.tkstep80*Ports that use TkSTEP version 8.0 to run.ukrainianUkrainian language support.vietnameseVietnamese language support.windowmaker*Ports to support the WindowMaker window
manager.wwwSoftware related to the World Wide Web.HTML language
support belongs here too.x11The X Window System and friends.This category is only
for software that directly supports the window system. Do not
put regular X applications here; most of them should go
into other x11-* categories (see below).
If your port is an X
application, define USE_XLIB (implied by
USE_IMAKE) and put it in the appropriate
category.x11-clocksX11 clocks.x11-fmX11 file managers.x11-fontsX11 fonts and font utilities.x11-serversX11 servers.x11-toolkitsX11 toolkits.x11-wmX11 window managers.zope*Zope support.Choosing the right categoryAs many of the categories overlap, you often have to choose
which of the categories should be the primary category of your port.
There are several rules that govern this issue. Here is the list of
priorities, in decreasing order of precedence:The first category must be a physical category (see
above). This is
necessary to make the packaging work. Virtual categories and
physical categories may be intermixed after that.Language specific categories always come first. For
example, if your port installs Japanese X11 fonts, then your
CATEGORIES line would read japanese
x11-fonts.Specific categories are listed before less-specific ones. For
instance, an HTML editor should be listed as www
editors, not the other way around. Also, you should not
list net when the port belongs to
any of irc, mail,
mbone, news,
security, or www, as
net is included implicitly.x11 is used as a secondary category only
when the primary category is a natural language. In particular,
you should not put x11 in the category line
for X applications.Emacs modes should be
placed in the same ports category as the application
supported by the mode, not in
editors. For example, an
Emacs mode to edit source
files of some programming language should go into
lang.
misc
should not appear with any other non-virtual category.
If you have misc with something else in
your CATEGORIES line, that means you can
safely delete misc and just put the port
in that other subdirectory!If your port truly does not belong anywhere else, put it in
misc.If you are not sure about the category, please put a comment to
that effect in your &man.send-pr.1; submission so we can
discuss it before we import it. If you are a committer, send a note
to the &a.ports; so we can discuss it first. Too often, new ports are
imported to the wrong category only to be moved right away.
This causes unnecessary and undesirable bloat in the master
source repository.The distribution filesThe second part of the Makefile describes the
files that must be downloaded in order to build the port, and where
they can be downloaded from.DISTNAMEDISTNAME is the name of the port as
called by the authors of the software.
DISTNAME defaults to
${PORTNAME}-${PORTVERSION}, so override it only if necessary.
DISTNAME is only used in two places.
First, the distribution file list
(DISTFILES) defaults to
${DISTNAME}${EXTRACT_SUFX}.
Second, the distribution file is expected to extract into a
subdirectory named WRKSRC, which defaults
to work/${DISTNAME}.PKGNAMEPREFIX and
PKGNAMESUFFIX do not affect
DISTNAME. Also note that if
WRKSRC is equal to
work/${PORTNAME}-${PORTVERSION}
while the original source archive is named something other than
${PORTNAME}-${PORTVERSION}${EXTRACT_SUFX},
you should probably leave DISTNAME
alone— you are better off defining
DISTFILES than having to set both
DISTNAME and WRKSRC
(and possibly EXTRACT_SUFX).MASTER_SITESRecord the directory part of the FTP/HTTP-URL pointing at the
original tarball in MASTER_SITES. Do not forget
the trailing slash (/)!The make macros will try to use this
specification for grabbing the distribution file with
FETCH if they cannot find it already on the
system.It is recommended that you put multiple sites on this list,
preferably from different continents. This will safeguard against
wide-area network problems. We are even planning to add support
for automatically determining the closest master site and fetching
from there; having multiple sites will go a long way towards
helping this effort.If the original tarball is part of one of the popular
archives such as X-contrib, GNU, or Perl CPAN, you may be able
refer to those sites in an easy compact form using
MASTER_SITE_*
(e.g., MASTER_SITE_XCONTRIB and
MASTER_SITE_PERL_GNU). Simply set
MASTER_SITES to one of these variables and
MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR to the path within the
archive. Here is an example:MASTER_SITES= ${MASTER_SITE_XCONTRIB}
MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR= applicationsThese variables are defined in
/usr/ports/Mk/bsd.sites.mk. There are
new entries added all the time, so make sure to check the
latest version of this file before submitting a port.The user can also set the MASTER_SITE_*
variables in /etc/make.conf to override our
choices, and use their favorite mirrors of these popular archives
instead.EXTRACT_SUFXIf you have one distribution file, and it uses an odd suffix to
indicate the compression mechanism, set
EXTRACT_SUFX.For example, if the distribution file was named
foo.tgz instead of the more normal
foo.tar.gz, you would write:DISTNAME= foo
EXTRACT_SUFX= .tgzThe USE_BZIP2 and USE_ZIP
variables automatically set EXTRACT_SUFX to
.bz2 or .zip as necessary. If
neither of these are set then EXTRACT_SUFX
defaults to .tar.gz.You never need to set both EXTRACT_SUFX and
DISTFILES.DISTFILESSometimes the names of the files to be downloaded have no
resemblance to the name of the port. For example, it might be
called source.tar.gz or similar. In other
cases the application's source code might be in several different
archives, all of which must be downloaded.If this is the case, set DISTFILES to be a
space separated list of all the files that must be
downloaded.DISTFILES= source1.tar.gz source2.tar.gzIf not explicitly set, DISTFILES defaults to
${DISTNAME}${EXTRACT_SUFX}.EXTRACT_ONLYIf only some of the DISTFILES must be
extracted—for example, one of them is the source code, while
another is an uncompressed document—list the filenames that
must be extracted in EXTRACT_ONLY.DISTFILES= source.tar.gz manual.html
EXTRACT_ONLY= source.tar.gzIf none of the DISTFILES
should be uncompressed then set EXTRACT_ONLY to
the empty string.EXTRACT_ONLY=PATCHFILESIf your port requires some additional patches that are available
by FTP or HTTP, set PATCHFILES to the names of
the files and PATCH_SITES to the URL of the
directory that contains them (the format is the same as
MASTER_SITES).If the patch is not relative to the top of the source tree
(i.e., WRKSRC) because it contains some extra
pathnames, set PATCH_DIST_STRIP accordingly. For
instance, if all the pathnames in the patch have an extra
foozolix-1.0/ in front of the filenames, then set
PATCH_DIST_STRIP=-p1.Do not worry if the patches are compressed; they will be
decompressed automatically if the filenames end with
.gz or .Z.If the patch is distributed with some other files, such as
documentation, in a gzip'd tarball, you cannot just use
PATCHFILES. If that is the case, add the name
and the location of the patch tarball to
DISTFILES and MASTER_SITES.
Then, use the EXTRA_PATCHES variable to
point to those files and bsd.port.mk
will automatically apply them for you. In particular, do
not copy patch files into the
PATCHDIR directory—that directory may
not be writable.The tarball will have been extracted alongside the
regular source by then, so there is no need to explicitly extract
it if it is a regular gzip'd or compress'd tarball. If you do the
latter, take extra care not to overwrite something that already
exists in that directory. Also, do not forget to add a command to
remove the copied patch in the pre-clean
target.Multiple distribution files or patches from different
sites and subdirectories
(MASTER_SITES:n)(Consider this to be a somewhat advanced topic;
those new to this document may wish to skip this section at first).
This section has information on the fetching mechanism
known as both MASTER_SITES:n and
MASTER_SITES_NN. We will refer to this
mechanism as MASTER_SITES:n
hereon.A little background first. OpenBSD has a neat feature
inside both DISTFILES and
PATCHFILES variables, both files and
patches can be postfixed with :n
identifiers where n both can be
[0-9] and denote a group designation.
For example:DISTFILES= alpha:0 beta:1In OpenBSD, distribution file alpha
will be associated with variable
MASTER_SITES0 instead of our common
MASTER_SITES and
beta with
MASTER_SITES1.This is a very interesting feature which can decrease
that endless search for the correct download site.Just picture 2 files in DISTFILES and
20 sites in MASTER_SITES, the sites slow
as hell where beta is carried by all
sites in MASTER_SITES, and
alpha can only be found in the 20th
site. It would be such a waste to check all of them if
maintainer knew this beforehand, would it not? Not a good
start for that lovely weekend!Now that you have the idea, just imagine more
DISTFILES and more
MASTER_SITES. Surely our
distfiles survey meister would appreciate the
relief to network strain that this would bring.In the next sections, information will follow on the
FreeBSD implementation of this idea. We improved a bit on
OpenBSD's concept.Simplified informationThis section tells you how to quickly prepare fine
grained fetching of multiple distribution files and
patches from different sites and subdirectories. We
describe here a case of simplified
MASTER_SITES:n usage. This will be
sufficient for most scenarios. However, if you need
further information, you will have to refer to the next
section.Some applications consist of multiple distribution
files that must be downloaded from a number of different
sites. For example,
Ghostscript consists of the
core of the program, and then a large number of driver
files that are used depending on the user's printer. Some
of these driver files are supplied with the core, but many
others must be downloaded from a variety of different
sites.To support this, each entry in
DISTFILES may be followed by a colon
and a tag name. Each site listed in
MASTER_SITES is then followed by a
colon, and the tag that indicates which distribution files
should be downloaded from this site.For example, consider an application with the source
split in two parts, source1.tar.gz
and source2.tar.gz, which must be
downloaded from two different sites. The port's
Makefile would include lines like
.Simplified use of MASTER_SITES:n
with 1 file per siteMASTER_SITES= ftp://ftp.example1.com/:source1 \
ftp://ftp.example2.com/:source2
DISTFILES= source1.tar.gz:source1 \
source2.tar.gz:source2Multiple distribution files can have the same tag.
Continuing the previous example, suppose that there was a
third distfile, source3.tar.gz, that
should be downloaded from
ftp.example2.com. The
Makefile would then be written like
.Simplified use of MASTER_SITES:n
with more than 1 file per siteMASTER_SITES= ftp://ftp.example1.com/:source1 \
ftp://ftp.example2.com/:source2
DISTFILES= source1.tar.gz:source1 \
source2.tar.gz:source2 \
source3.tar.gz:source2Detailed informationOkay, so the previous section example did not reflect
your needs? In this section we will explain in detail how
the fine grained fetching mechanism
MASTER_SITES:n works and how you can
modify your ports to use it.Elements can be postfixed with
:n where
n is
[^:,]+, i.e.,
n could conceptually be any
alphanumeric string but we will limit it to
[a-zA-Z_][0-9a-zA-Z_]+ for
now.Moreover, string matching is case sensitive;
i.e., n is different from
N.However, the following words cannot be used for
postfixing purposes since they yield special meaning:
default, all and
ALL (they are used internally in
item ).
Furthermore, DEFAULT is a special
purpose word (check item ).Elements postfixed with :n
belong to the group n,
:m belong to group
m and so forth.Elements without a postfix are groupless, i.e.,
they all belong to the special group
DEFAULT. If you postfix any
elements with DEFAULT, you are just
being redundant unless you want to have an element
belonging to both DEFAULT and other
groups at the same time (check item ).The following examples are equivalent but the
first one is preferred:MASTER_SITES= alpha
MASTER_SITES= alpha:DEFAULTGroups are not exclusive, an element may belong to
several different groups at the same time and a group
can either have either several different elements or
none at all. Repeated elements within the same group
will be simply that, repeated elements.When you want an element to belong to several
groups at the same time, you can use the comma
operator (,).Instead of repeating it several times, each time
with a different postfix, we can list several groups
at once in a single postfix. For instance,
:m,n,o marks an element that
belongs to group m,
n and o.All the following examples are equivalent but the
last one is preferred:MASTER_SITES= alpha alpha:SOME_SITE
MASTER_SITES= alpha:DEFAULT alpha:SOME_SITE
MASTER_SITES= alpha:SOME_SITE,DEFAULT
MASTER_SITES= alpha:DEFAULT,SOME_SITEAll sites within a given group are sorted
according to MASTER_SORT_AWK. All
groups within MASTER_SITES and
PATCH_SITES are sorted as
well.Group semantics can be used in any of the
following variables MASTER_SITES,
PATCH_SITES,
MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR,
PATCH_SITE_SUBDIR,
DISTFILES, and
PATCHFILES according to the
following syntax:All MASTER_SITES,
PATCH_SITES,
MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR and
PATCH_SITE_SUBDIR elements must
be terminated with the forward slash
/ character. If any elements
belong to any groups, the group postfix
:n
must come right after the terminator
/. The
MASTER_SITES:n mechanism relies
on the existence of the terminator
/ to avoid confusing elements
where a :n is a valid part of
the element with occurrences where
:n denotes group
n. For compatibility purposes,
since the / terminator was not
required before in both
MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR and
PATCH_SITE_SUBDIR elements, if
the postfix immediate preceding character is not
a / then :n
will be considered a valid part of the element
instead of a group postfix even if an element is
postfixed with :n. See both
and .Detailed use of
MASTER_SITES:n in
MASTER_SITE_SUBDIRMASTER_SITE_SUBDIR= old:n new/:NEWDirectories within group
DEFAULT -> old:nDirectories within group
NEW -> newDetailed use of
MASTER_SITES:n with comma
operator, multiple files, multiple sites and
multiple subdirectoriesMASTER_SITES= http://site1/%SUBDIR%/ http://site2/:DEFAULT \
http://site3/:group3 http://site4/:group4 \
http://site5/:group5 http://site6/:group6 \
http://site7/:DEFAULT,group6 \
http://site8/%SUBDIR%/:group6,group7 \
http://site9/:group8
DISTFILES= file1 file2:DEFAULT file3:group3 \
file4:group4,group5,group6 file5:grouping \
file6:group7
MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR= directory-trial:1 directory-n/:groupn \
directory-one/:group6,DEFAULT \
directoryThe previous example results in the
following fine grained fetching. Sites are
listed in the exact order they will be
used.file1 will be
fetched fromMASTER_SITE_OVERRIDEhttp://site1/directory/http://site1/directory-one/http://site1/directory-trial:1/http://site2/http://site7/MASTER_SITE_BACKUPfile2 will be
fetched exactly as
file1 since they
both belong to the same groupMASTER_SITE_OVERRIDEhttp://site1/directory/http://site1/directory-one/http://site1/directory-trial:1/http://site2/http://site7/MASTER_SITE_BACKUPfile3 will be
fetched fromMASTER_SITE_OVERRIDEhttp://site3/MASTER_SITE_BACKUPfile4 will be
fetched fromMASTER_SITE_OVERRIDEhttp://site4/http://site5/http://site6/http://site7/http://site8/directory-one/MASTER_SITE_BACKUPfile5 will be
fetched fromMASTER_SITE_OVERRIDEMASTER_SITE_BACKUPfile6 will be
fetched fromMASTER_SITE_OVERRIDEhttp://site8/directory-one/MASTER_SITE_BACKUPHow do I group one of the special variables from
bsd.sites.mk, e.g.,
MASTER_SITE_SOURCEFORGE?See .Detailed use of
MASTER_SITES:n with
MASTER_SITE_SOURCEFORGEMASTER_SITES= http://site1/ ${MASTER_SITE_SOURCEFORGE:S/$/:sourceforge,TEST/}
DISTFILES= something.tar.gz:sourceforgesomething.tar.gz will be
fetched from all sites within
MASTER_SITE_SOURCEFORGE.How do I use this with PATCH*
variables?All examples were done with
MASTER* variables but they work
exactly the same for PATCH* ones as
can be seen in .Simplified use of
MASTER_SITES:n with
PATCH_SITES.PATCH_SITES= http://site1/ http://site2/:test
PATCHFILES= patch1:testWhat does change for ports? What does not?All current ports remain the same. The
MASTER_SITES:n feature code is only
activated if there are elements postfixed with
:n like
elements according to the aforementioned syntax rules,
especially as shown in item .The port targets remain the same:
checksum,
makesum,
patch,
configure,
build, etc. With the obvious
exceptions of do-fetch,
fetch-list,
master-sites and
patch-sites.do-fetch: deploys the
new grouping postfixed
DISTFILES and
PATCHFILES with their matching
group elements within both
MASTER_SITES and
PATCH_SITES which use matching
group elements within both
MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR and
PATCH_SITE_SUBDIR. Check .fetch-list: works
like old fetch-list with
the exception that it groups just like
do-fetch.master-sites and
patch-sites:
(incompatible with older versions) only return the
elements of group DEFAULT; in
fact, they execute targets
master-sites-default and
patch-sites-default
respectively.Furthermore, using target either
master-sites-all or
patch-sites-all is
preferred to directly checking either
MASTER_SITES or
PATCH_SITES. Also,
directly checking is not guaranteed to work in any
future versions. Check item
for more information on these new port
targets.New port targetsThere are
master-sites-n
and
patch-sites-n
targets which will list the elements of the
respective group n
within MASTER_SITES and
PATCH_SITES respectively. For
instance, both
master-sites-DEFAULT and
patch-sites-DEFAULT will
return the elements of group
DEFAULT,
master-sites-test and
patch-sites-test of group
test, and thereon.There are new targets
master-sites-all and
patch-sites-all which do
the work of the old
master-sites and
patch-sites ones. They
return the elements of all groups as if they all
belonged to the same group with the caveat that it
lists as many
MASTER_SITE_BACKUP and
MASTER_SITE_OVERRIDE as there
are groups defined within either
DISTFILES or
PATCHFILES; respectively for
master-sites-all and
patch-sites-all.DIST_SUBDIRDo not let your port clutter
/usr/ports/distfiles. If your port requires a
lot of files to be fetched, or contains a file that has a name that
might conflict with other ports (e.g.,
Makefile), set DIST_SUBDIR
to the name of the port (${PORTNAME} or
${PKGNAMEPREFIX}${PORTNAME}
should work fine). This will change
DISTDIR from the default
/usr/ports/distfiles to
/usr/ports/distfiles/DIST_SUBDIR,
and in effect puts everything that is required for your port into
that subdirectory.It will also look at the subdirectory with the same name on the
backup master site at ftp.FreeBSD.org.
(Setting DISTDIR explicitly in your
Makefile will not accomplish this, so please use
DIST_SUBDIR.)This does not affect the MASTER_SITES you
define in your Makefile.MAINTAINERSet your mail-address here. Please. :-)Note that only a single address without the comment part is
allowed as a MAINTAINER value.
The format used should be user@hostname.domain.
Please do not include any descriptive text such as your real
name in this entry—that merely confuses
bsd.port.mk. Instead, put that information
into your pkg-descr.For a detailed description of the responsibilities of maintainers,
- refer to the MAINTAINER on
+ refer to the MAINTAINER on
Makefiles section.If the maintainer of a port does not respond to an update
request from a user after two weeks (excluding major public
holidays), then that is considered a maintainer timeout, and the
update may be made without explicit maintainer approval. If the
maintainer does not respond within three months, then that
maintainer is considered absent without leave, and can be
replaced as the maintainer of the particular port in question.
Exceptions to this are anything maintained by the &a.portmgr;, or
the &a.security-officer;. No unauthorized commits may ever be
made to ports maintained by those groups.The &a.portmgr; reserves the right to revoke or override
anyone's maintainership for any reason, and the &a.security-officer;
reserves the right to revoke or override maintainership for security
reasons.COMMENTThis is a one-line description of the port.
Please do not include the package name (or
version number of the software) in the comment. The comment
should begin with a capital and end without a period. Here
is an example:COMMENT= A cat chasing a mouse all over the screenThe COMMENT variable should immediately follow the MAINTAINER
variable in the Makefile.Please try to keep the COMMENT line less than 70
characters, as it is displayed to users as a one-line
summary of the port.DependenciesMany ports depend on other ports. There are seven variables that
you can use to ensure that all the required bits will be on the
user's machine. There are also some pre-supported dependency
variables for common cases, plus a few more to control the behavior
of dependencies.LIB_DEPENDSThis variable specifies the shared libraries this port depends
on. It is a list of
lib:dir:target
tuples where lib is the name of the
shared library, dir is the
directory in which to find it in case it is not available, and
target is the target to call in that
directory. For example, LIB_DEPENDS=
jpeg.9:${PORTSDIR}/graphics/jpeg:install
will check for a shared jpeg library with major version 9, and
descend into the graphics/jpeg subdirectory
of your ports tree to build and install it if it is not found.
The target part can be omitted if it is
equal to DEPENDS_TARGET (which defaults to
install).The lib part is an argument given
to ldconfig -r | grep -wF. There shall be no
regular expressions in this variable.The dependency is checked twice, once from within the
extract target and then from within the
install target. Also, the name of the
dependency is put into the package so that
&man.pkg.add.1; will automatically install it if it is
not on the user's system.RUN_DEPENDSThis variable specifies executables or files this port depends
on during run-time. It is a list of
path:dir:target
tuples where path is the name of the
executable or file, dir is the
directory in which to find it in case it is not available, and
target is the target to call in that
directory. If path starts with a slash
(/), it is treated as a file and its existence
is tested with test -e; otherwise, it is
assumed to be an executable, and which -s is
used to determine if the program exists in the user's search
path.For example,RUN_DEPENDS= ${LOCALBASE}/etc/innd:${PORTSDIR}/news/inn \
wish8.0:${PORTSDIR}/x11-toolkits/tk80will check if the file or directory
/usr/local/etc/innd exists, and build and
install it from the news/inn subdirectory of
the ports tree if it is not found. It will also see if an
executable called wish8.0 is in your search
path, and descend into the x11-toolkits/tk80
subdirectory of your ports tree to build and install it if it is
not found.In this case, innd is actually an
executable; if an executable is in a place that is not expected
to be in a normal user's search path, you should use the full
pathname.The dependency is checked from within the
install target. Also, the name of the
dependency is put into the package so that
&man.pkg.add.1; will automatically install it if it is
not on the user's system. The target
part can be omitted if it is the same as
DEPENDS_TARGET.BUILD_DEPENDSThis variable specifies executables or files this port
requires to build. Like RUN_DEPENDS, it is a
list of
path:dir:target
tuples. For example, BUILD_DEPENDS=
unzip:${PORTSDIR}/archivers/unzip will check
for an executable called unzip, and descend
into the archivers/unzip subdirectory of your
ports tree to build and install it if it is not found.build here means everything from extraction to
compilation. The dependency is checked from within the
extract target. The
target part can be omitted if it is
the same as DEPENDS_TARGETFETCH_DEPENDSThis variable specifies executables or files this port
requires to fetch. Like the previous two, it is a list of
path:dir:target
tuples. For example, FETCH_DEPENDS=
ncftp2:${PORTSDIR}/net/ncftp2 will check for an
executable called ncftp2, and descend into the
net/ncftp2 subdirectory of your ports tree to
build and install it if it is not found.The dependency is checked from within the
fetch target. The
target part can be omitted if it is the
same as DEPENDS_TARGET.EXTRACT_DEPENDSThis variable specifies executables or files this port
requires for extraction. Like the previous, it is a list of
path:dir:target
tuples. For example, EXTRACT_DEPENDS=
unzip:${PORTSDIR}/archivers/unzip will check
for an executable called unzip, and descend
into the archivers/unzip subdirectory of
your ports tree to build and install it if it is not found.The dependency is checked from within the
extract target. The
target part can be omitted if it is the
same as DEPENDS_TARGET.Use this variable only if the extraction does not already
work (the default assumes gzip) and cannot
be made to work using USE_ZIP or
USE_BZIP2 described in .PATCH_DEPENDSThis variable specifies executables or files this port
requires to patch. Like the previous, it is a list of
path:dir:target
tuples. For example, PATCH_DEPENDS=
${NONEXISTENT}:${PORTSDIR}/java/jfc:extract
will descend into the
java/jfc subdirectory of your ports tree to
build and install it if it is not found.The dependency is checked from within the
patch target. The
target part can be omitted if it is the
same as DEPENDS_TARGET.DEPENDSIf there is a dependency that does not fall into either of the
above categories, or your port requires having the source of
the other port extracted in addition to having it installed,
then use this variable. This is a list of
dir:target,
as there is nothing to check, unlike the previous four. The
target part can be omitted if it is the
same as DEPENDS_TARGET.USE_*A number of variables exist in order to encapsulate common
dependencies that many ports have. Although their use is
optional, they can help to reduce the verbosity of the port
Makefiles. Each of them is styled
as USE_*. The
usage of these variables is restricted to the port
Makefiles and
ports/Mk/bsd.*.mk and is not designed
to encapsulate user-settable options — use
WITH_* and
WITHOUT_*
for that purpose.It is always incorrect to set
any USE_*
in /etc/make.conf. For instance,
setting USE_GCC=3.2
would adds a dependency on gcc32 for every port,
including gcc32 itself!
The USE_*
variablesVariableMeansUSE_BZIP2The port's tarballs are compressed with
bzip2.USE_ZIPThe port's tarballs are compressed with
zip.USE_GMAKEThe port requires gmake to
build.USE_PERL5The port requires perl 5 to build and install. See
for additional variables that
can be set relating to perl.USE_X_PREFIXThe port installs in to X11BASE
rather than PREFIX. See
for additional variables that
can be set relating to X11.USE_AUTOMAKE_VERThe port uses GNU automake as part
of its build process. See
for additional variables that can be set relating to
automake.USE_AUTOCONF_VERThe port uses GNU autoconf as part
of its build process. See
for additional variables that can be set relating to
autoconf.USE_LIBTOOL_VERThe port uses GNU libtool as part of
its build process. See for
additional variables that can be set relating to
libtool.GMAKEThe full path for gmake if it is not
in the PATH.USE_BISONThe port uses bison for
building.USE_SDLThe port uses SDL for
building and running. See on how to use
USE_SDL.NO_INSTALL_MANPAGESDo not use the install.man
target.
Define USE_XLIB=yes if your port requires
the X Window System to be installed (it is implied by
USE_IMAKE). Define
USE_GMAKE=yes if your port requires GNU
make instead of BSD make.
Define USE_AUTOCONF_VER=213 if your port requires
GNU autoconf to be run. Define USE_QT_VER=3 if
your port uses the latest Qt toolkit. Use
USE_PERL5=yes if your port requires version 5
of the perl language. (The last is especially important since
some versions of FreeBSD have perl5 as part of the base system
while others do not.)Notes on dependenciesAs mentioned above, the default target to call when a
dependency is required is DEPENDS_TARGET.
It defaults to install. This is a user
variable; it is never defined in a port's
Makefile. If your port needs a special way
to handle a dependency, use the :target part of
the *_DEPENDS variables instead of redefining
DEPENDS_TARGET.When you type make clean, its dependencies
are automatically cleaned too. If you do not wish this to happen,
define the variable NOCLEANDEPENDS in your
environment. This may be particularly desirable if the port
has something that takes a long time to rebuild in its
dependency list, such as KDE, GNOME or Mozilla.To depend on another port unconditionally, use the
variable ${NONEXISTENT} as the first field
of BUILD_DEPENDS or
RUN_DEPENDS. Use this only when you need to
get the source of the other port. You can often save
compilation time by specifying the target too. For
instance
BUILD_DEPENDS= ${NONEXISTENT}:${PORTSDIR}/graphics/jpeg:extract
will always descend to the jpeg port and extract it.Do not use DEPENDS unless there is no other
way the behavior you want can be accomplished. It will cause the
other port to always be built (and installed, by default), and the
dependency will go into the packages as well. If this is really
what you need, you should probably write it as
BUILD_DEPENDS and
RUN_DEPENDS instead—at least the
intention will be clear.Circular dependencies are fatalDo not introduce any circular dependencies into the
ports tree!The ports building technology does not tolerate
circular dependencies. If you introduce one, you will have
someone, somewhere in the world, whose FreeBSD installation will
break almost immediately, with many others quickly to follow.
These can really be hard to detect; if in doubt, before
you make that change, make sure you have done the following:
cd /usr/ports; make index. That process
can be quite slow on older machines, but you may be able to
save a large number of people—including yourself—
a lot of grief in the process.Makefile OptionsSome large applications can be built in a number of
configurations, adding functionality if one of a number of
libraries or applications is available. Examples include
choice of natural (human) language, GUI versus command-line,
or type of database to support. Since not all users
want those libraries or applications, the ports system
provides hooks that the port author can use to control which
configuration should be built. Supporting these properly will
make users happy, and effectively provide 2 or more ports for the
price of one.WITH_* and
WITHOUT_*These variables are designed to be set by the system
administrator. There are many that are standardized in
ports/Mk/bsd.*.mk; others are not,
which can be confusing. If you need to add such a
configuration variable, please consider using one of the
ones from the following list.You should not assume that a
WITH_*
necessarily has a corresponding
WITHOUT_*
variable and vice versa. In general, the default is
simply assumed.Unless otherwise specified, these variables are only
tested for being set or not set, rather than being set to
some kind of variable such as YES or
NO.
The WITH_*
and WITHOUT_*
variablesVariableMeansWITH_APACHE2If set, use
www/apache2
instead of the default of
www/apache.WITH_BERKELEY_DBDefine this variable to specify the ability to
use a variant of the Berkeley database package such as
databases/db41.
An associated variable,
WITH_BDB_VER, may be
set to values such as 2, 3, 4, 41 or 42.WITH_MYSQLDefine this variable to specify the ability to
use a variant of the MySQL database package such as
databases/mysql40-server.
An associated variable,
WANT_MYSQL_VER, may be
set to values such as 323, 40, 41, or 50.WITHOUT_NLSIf set, says that internationalization is not
needed, which can save compile time. By default,
internalization is used.WITH_OPENSSL_BASEUse the version of OpenSSL in the base system.WITH_OPENSSL_PORTUse the version of OpenSSL from
security/openssh,
overwriting the version that was originally installed
in the base system.WITH_POSTGRESQLDefine this variable to specify the ability to
use a variant of the PostGreSQL database package such as
databases/postgresql72.
WITHOUT_X11If the port can be built both with and without
X support, then it should normally be built with
with X support. If this variable is defined, then
then the version that does not have X support should
be built instead.
Specifying the working directoryEach port is extracted in to a working directory, which must be
writable. The ports system defaults to having the
DISTFILES unpack in to a directory called
${DISTNAME}. In other words, if you have
set:PORTNAME= foo
PORTVERSION= 1.0then the port's distribution files contain a top-level directory,
foo-1.0, and the rest of the files are located
under that directory.There are a number of variables you can override if that is not the
case.WRKSRCThe variable lists the name of the directory that is created when
the application's distfiles are extracted. If our previous example
extracted into a directory called foo (and not
foo-1.0) you would write:WRKSRC= ${WRKDIR}/fooor possiblyWRKSRC= ${WRKDIR}/${PORTNAME}NO_WRKSUBDIRIf the port does not extract in to a subdirectory at all then
you should set NO_WRKSUBDIR to indicate
that.NO_WRKSUBDIR= yesCONFLICTSIf your package cannot coexist with other packages
(because of file conflicts, runtime incompatibility, etc.),
list the other package names in the CONFLICTS
variable. You can use shell globs like * and
? here. Packages names should be
enumerated the same way they appear in
/var/db/pkg. Please make sure that
CONFLICTS does not match this port's
package itself, or else forcing its installation with
FORCE_PKG_REGISTER will no longer work.
Building mechanismsIf your package uses GNU make, set
USE_GMAKE=yes. If your package uses
configure, set
HAS_CONFIGURE=yes. If your package uses GNU
configure, set
GNU_CONFIGURE=yes (this implies
HAS_CONFIGURE). If you want to give some extra
arguments to configure (the default argument list
--prefix=${PREFIX} for GNU
configure and empty for non-GNU
configure), set those extra arguments in
CONFIGURE_ARGS. If your package uses GNU
autoconf, set
USE_AUTOCONF_VER=213. This implies
GNU_CONFIGURE, and will cause
autoconf to be run before
configure.If your package uses GNU configure, and
the resulting executable file has a strange name
like
i386-portbld-freebsd4.7-appname,
you will need to additionally override the
CONFIGURE_TARGET variable to specify the
target in the way required by scripts generated by recent
versions of autoconf. Add the following line
immediately after the GNU_CONFIGURE=yes line
in your Makefile:CONFIGURE_TARGET=--build=${MACHINE_ARCH}-portbld-freebsd${OSREL}If your package is an X application that creates
Makefiles from Imakefiles
using imake, then set
USE_IMAKE=yes. This will cause the configure
stage to automatically do an xmkmf -a. If the
flag is a problem for your port, set
XMKMF=xmkmf. If the port uses
imake but does not understand the
install.man target,
NO_INSTALL_MANPAGES=yes should be set. In
addition, the author of the original port should be shot. :->If your port's source Makefile has
something else than all as the main build
target, set ALL_TARGET accordingly. Same goes
for install and
INSTALL_TARGET.Special considerationsThere are some more things you have to take into account when you
create a port. This section explains the most common of those.Shared LibrariesIf your port installs one or more shared libraries, define a
INSTALLS_SHLIB make variable, which will instruct
a bsd.port.mk to run
${LDCONFIG} -m on the directory where the
new library is installed (usually
PREFIX/lib) during
post-install target to register it into the
shared library cache. This variable, when defined, will also
facilitate addition of an appropriate
@exec /sbin/ldconfig -m and
@unexec /sbin/ldconfig -R pair into your
pkg-plist file, so that a user who installed
the package can start using the shared library immediately and
de-installation will not cause the system to still believe the
library is there.If you need, you can override the default location where the new
library is installed by defining the LDCONFIG_DIRS
make variable, which should contain a list of directories into which
shared libraries are to be installed. For example if your port
installs shared libraries into
PREFIX/lib/foo and
PREFIX/lib/bar directories
you could use the following in your
Makefile:INSTALLS_SHLIB= yes
LDCONFIG_DIRS= %%PREFIX%%/lib/foo %%PREFIX%%/lib/barNote that content of LDCONFIG_DIRS is passed
through &man.sed.1; just like the rest of pkg-plist,
so PLIST_SUB substitutions also apply here. It is
recommended that you use %%PREFIX%% for
PREFIX, %%LOCALBASE%% for
LOCALBASE and %%X11BASE%% for
X11BASE.Ports with distribution restrictionsLicenses vary, and some of them place restrictions on how the
application can be packaged, whether it can be sold for profit, and so
on.It is your responsibility as a porter to read the licensing
terms of the software and make sure that the FreeBSD project will
not be held accountable for violating them by redistributing the
source or compiled binaries either via FTP/HTTP or CD-ROM. If in doubt,
please contact the &a.ports;.In situations like this, the variables described in the following
sections can be set.NO_PACKAGEThis variable indicates that we may not generate a binary
package of the application. For instance, the license may
disallow binary redistribution, or it may prohibit distribution
of packages created from patched sources.However, the port's DISTFILES may be
freely mirrored on FTP/HTTP. They may also be distributed on
a CD-ROM (or similar media) unless NO_CDROM
is set as well.NO_PACKAGE should also be used if the binary
package is not generally useful, and the application should always
be compiled from the source code. For example, if the application
has configuration information that is site specific hard coded in to
it at compile time, set NO_PACKAGE.NO_PACKAGE should be set to a string
describing the reason why the package should not be
generated.NO_CDROMThis variable alone indicates that, although we are allowed
to generate binary packages, we may put neither those packages
nor the port's DISTFILES onto a CD-ROM (or
similar media) for resale. However, the binary packages and
the port's DISTFILES will still be available
via FTP/HTTP. If this variable is set along with
NO_PACKAGE, then only the port's
DISTFILES will be available, and only via
FTP/HTTP.NO_CDROM should be set to a string
describing the reason why the port cannot be redistributed
on CD-ROM. For instance, this should be used if the port's license
is for non-commercial use only.RESTRICTEDSet this variable alone if the application's license permits
neither mirroring the application's DISTFILES
nor distributing the binary package in any way.NO_CDROM or NO_PACKAGE
should not be set along with RESTRICTED
since the latter variable implies the former ones.RESTRICTED should be set to a string
describing the reason why the port cannot be redistributed.
Typically, this indicates that the port contains proprietary
software and that the user will need to manually download the
DISTFILES, possibly after registering for the
software or agreeing to accept the terms of an
EULA.RESTRICTED_FILESWhen RESTRICTED or NO_CDROM
is set, this variable defaults to ${DISTFILES}
${PATCHFILES}, otherwise it is empty. If only some of the
distribution files are restricted, then set this variable to list
them.Note that the port committer should add an entry to
/usr/ports/LEGAL for every listed distribution
file, describing exactly what the restriction entails.Using perl
Variables for ports that use perlVariableMeansUSE_PERL5Says that the port uses perl 5 to build and run.USE_PERL5_BUILDSays that the port uses perl 5 to build.USE_PERL5_RUNSays that the port uses perl 5 to run.PERLThe full path of perl 5, either in the
system or installed from a port, but without the version
number. Use this if you need to replace
#!lines in scripts.PERL_CONFIGUREConfigure using Perl's MakeMaker. It implies
USE_PERL5.Read only variablesPERL_VERSIONThe full version of perl installed (e.g.,
5.00503).PERL_VERThe short version of perl installed (e.g.,
5.005).PERL_LEVELThe installed perl version as an integer of the form MNNNPP
(e.g., 500503).PERL_ARCHWhere perl stores architecture dependent libraries.
Defaults to ${ARCH}-freebsd.PERL_PORTName of the perl port that is
installed (e.g., perl5).SITE_PERLDirectory name where site specific
perl packages go.
This value is added to PLIST_SUB.
Using X11
Variables for ports that use XUSE_X_PREFIXThe port installs in X11BASE, not
PREFIX.USE_XLIBThe port uses the X libraries.USE_MOTIFThe port uses the Motif toolkit. Implies
USE_XPM.USE_IMAKEThe port uses imake. Implies
USE_X_PREFIX.XMKMFSet to the path of xmkmf if not in the
PATH. Defaults to xmkmf
-a.
Using automake, autoconf,
and libtool
Variables for ports that use automake, autoconf or
libtoolVariableMeansAUTOMAKEThe full path for automake if it is
not in the PATH.USE_AUTOMAKE_VERThe port uses automake. Valid values
for this variable are 14 and
15, and sets the
AUTOMAKE_DIR and
ACLOCAL_DIR variables
appropriately.AUTOMAKE_ARGSOne or more command line arguments to pass to
AUTOMAKE if
USE_AUTOMAKE_VER is set.AUTOMAKE_ENVOne or more environment variables to set (and their
values) before running AUTOMAKE.ACLOCALSet to the path of the GNU aclocal if
it is not in the PATH. The default is set
according to the USE_AUTOMAKE_VER
variable.ACLOCAL_DIRSet to the path of the GNU aclocal
shared directory. The default is set according to the
USE_AUTOMAKE_VER variable.AUTOMAKE_DIRSet to the path of the GNU automake
shared directory. The default is set according to the
USE_AUTOMAKE_VER variable.USE_AUTOCONF_VERSpecifies that the port uses autoconf.
Implies GNU_CONFIGURE.
The default value is 213.AUTOCONFSet to the path of GNU autoconf if it
is not in the PATH. The default is set
according to the USE_AUTOCONF_VER
variable.AUTOCONF_ARGSCommand line arguments to pass to
autoconf.AUTOCONF_ENVSet these
variable=value
pairs in the environment before running
autoconf.USE_AUTOHEADER_VERSpecifies that the port uses autoheader.
Implies USE_AUTOCONF_VER.
The default value is 213.AUTOHEADERSet to the path of GNU autoheader if
it is not in the PATH. The default is set
according to USE_AUTOCONF_VER.AUTORECONFSet to the path of GNU autoreconf if
it is not in the PATH. The default is set
according to USE_AUTOCONF_VER.AUTOSCANSet to the path of GNU autoscan if it
is not set in the PATH. The default is set
according to USE_AUTOCONF_VER.AUTOIFNAMESSet to the path of GNU autoifnames if
it is not set in the PATH. The default is set
according to USE_AUTOCONF_VER.USE_LIBTOOL_VERThe port uses libtool. Implies
GNU_CONFIGURE.
The default value is 13.LIBTOOLSet to the path of libtool if it is
not set in the PATH.LIBTOOLFILESThe files to patch for libtool.
Defaults to aclocal.m4 if
USE_AUTOCONF is defined,
configure otherwise.LIBTOOLFLAGSAdditional flags to pass to
ltconfig. Defaults to
--disable-ltlibs.
Using GNOMEThe FreeBSD/GNOME project uses its own set of variables
to define which GNOME components a
particular port uses. A
comprehensive
list of these variables exists within the FreeBSD/GNOME
project's homepage.Using KDE
Variables for ports that use KDEUSE_QT_VERThe port uses the Qt toolkit. Possible values are
1 and
3; each specify the major version
of Qt to use. Sets both MOC and
QTCPPFLAGSto default appropriate
values.USE_KDELIBS_VERThe port uses KDE libraries. Possible values are
3; each specify the major version
of KDE to use. Implies USE_QT_VER
of the appropriate version.USE_KDEBASE_VERThe port uses KDE base. Possible values are
3; each specify the major version
of KDE to use. Implies USE_KDELIBS_VER
of the appropriate version.MOCSet to the path of moc.
Default set according to USE_QT_VER
value.QTCPPFLAGSSet the CPPFLAGS to use when
processing Qt code. Default set according to
USE_QT_VER value.
Using BisonThis section is yet to be written.Using JavaVariable definitionsIf your port needs a Java™ Development Kit (JDK) to
either build, run or even extract the distfile, then it should
define USE_JAVA.There are several JDKs in the ports collection, from various
vendors, and in several versions. If your port must use one of
these versions, you can define which one. The most current
version is java/jdk14.
Variables that may be set by ports that use JavaVariableMeansUSE_JAVAShould be defined for the remaining variables to have any
effect.JAVA_VERSIONList of space-separated suitable Java versions for
the port. An optional "+" allows you to
specify a range of versions (allowed values:
1.1[+] 1.2[+] 1.3[+] 1.4[+]).JAVA_OSList of space-separated suitable JDK port operating
systems for the port (allowed values: native
linux).JAVA_VENDORList of space-separated suitable JDK port vendors for
the port (allowed values: freebsd bsdjava sun ibm
blackdown).JAVA_BUILDWhen set, it means that the selected JDK port should
be added to the build dependencies of the port.JAVA_RUNWhen set, it means that the selected JDK port should
be added to the run dependencies of the port.JAVA_EXTRACTWhen set, it means that the selected JDK port should
be added to the extract dependencies of the port.USE_JIKESWhether the port should or should not use the
jikes bytecode compiler to build. When
no value is set for this variable, the port will use
jikes to build if available. You may
also explicitely forbid or enforce the use of
jikes (by setting 'no'
or 'yes'). In the later case, devel/jikes will be added to build
dependencies of the port.
Below is the list of all settings a port will receive after
setting USE_JAVA:
Variables provided to ports that use JavaVariableValueJAVA_PORTThe name of the JDK port (e.g.
'java/jdk14').JAVA_PORT_VERSIONThe full version of the JDK port (e.g.
'1.4.2'). If you only need the first
two digits of this version number, use
${JAVA_PORT_VERSION:C/^([0-9])\.([0-9])(.*)$/\1.\2/}.JAVA_PORT_OSThe operating system used by the JDK port (e.g.
'linux').JAVA_PORT_VENDORThe vendor of the JDK port (e.g.
'sun').JAVA_PORT_OS_DESCRIPTIONDescription of the operating system used by the JDK port
(e.g. 'Linux').JAVA_PORT_VENDOR_DESCRIPTIONDescription of the vendor of the JDK port (e.g.
'FreeBSD Foundation').JAVA_HOMEPath to the installation directory of the JDK (e.g.
'/usr/local/jdk1.3.1').JAVACPath to the Java compiler to use (e.g.
'/usr/local/jdk1.1.8/bin/javac' or
'/usr/local/bin/jikes').JARPath to the jar tool to use (e.g.
'/usr/local/jdk1.2.2/bin/jar' or
'/usr/local/bin/fastjar').APPLETVIEWERPath to the appletviewer utility (e.g.
'/usr/local/linux-jdk1.2.2/bin/appletviewer').JAVAPath to the java executable. Use
this for executing Java programs (e.g.
'/usr/local/jdk1.3.1/bin/java').JAVADOCPath to the javadoc utility
program.JAVAHPath to the javah program.JAVAPPath to the javap program.JAVA_KEYTOOLPath to the keytool utility program.
This variable is availble only if the JDK is Java 1.2 or
higher.JAVA_N2APath to the native2ascii tool.JAVA_POLICYTOOLPath to the policytool program.
This variable is available only if the JDK is Java 1.2 or
higher.JAVA_SERIALVERPath to the serialver utility
program.RMICPath to the RMI stub/skeleton generator,
rmic.RMIREGISTRYPath to the RMI registry program,
rmiregistry.RMIDPath to the RMI daemon program rmid.
This variable is only available if the JDK is Java 1.2
or higher.JAVA_CLASSESPath to the archive that contains the JDK class
files. On JDK 1.2 or later, this is
${JAVA_HOME}/jre/lib/rt.jar. Earlier
JDKs used
${JAVA_HOME}/lib/classes.zip.
You may use the java-debug make target
to get information for debugging your port. It will display the
value of many of the forecited variables.Additionally, the following constants are defined so all
Java ports may be installed in a consistent way:
Constants defined for ports that use JavaConstantValueJAVASHAREDIRThe base directory for everything related to Java.
Default: ${PREFIX}/share/java.
JAVAJARDIRThe directory where JAR files should be installed.
Default:
${JAVASHAREDIR}/classes.
Best practicesWhen porting a Java library, your port should install the
JAR file(s) in ${JAVAJARDIR}, and everything
else under ${JAVASHAREDIR}/${PORTNAME}
(except for the documentation, see below). In order to reduce
the packing file size, you may reference the JAR file(s) directly
in the Makefile. Just use the following
statement (where myport.jar is the name
of the JAR file installed as part of the port):PLIST_FILES+= ${JAVAJARDIR:S,^${PREFIX}/,,}/myport.jarWhen porting a Java application, the port usually installs
everything under a single directory (including its JAR
dependencies). The use of
${JAVASHAREDIR}/${PORTNAME} is strongly
encouraged in this regard. It is up the porter to decide
whether the port should install the additional JAR dependencies
under this directory or directly use the already installed ones
(from ${JAVAJARDIR}).Regardless of the type of your port (library or application),
the additional documentation should be installed in the
same location as for
any other port. The JavaDoc tool is known to produce a
different set of files depending on the version of the JDK that
is used. For ports that do not enforce the use of a particular
JDK, it is therefore a complex task to specify the packing list
(pkg-plist). This is one reason why
porters are strongly encouraged to use the
PORTDOCS macro. Moreover, even if you can
predict the set of files that will be generated by
javadoc, the size of the resulting
pkg-plist advocates for the use of
PORTDOCS.The default value for DATADIR is
${PREFIX}/share/${PORTNAME}. It is a good
idea to override DATADIR to
${JAVASHAREDIR}/${PORTNAME} for Java ports.
Indeed, DATADIR is automatically addded to
PLIST_SUB (documented here) so you may use
%%DATADIR%% directly in
pkg-plist.As for the choice of building Java ports from source or
directly installing them from a binary distribution, there is
no defined policy at the time of writing. However, people from
the &os; Java Project
encourage porters to have their ports built from source whenever
it is a trivial task.All the features that have been presented in this section
are implemented in bsd.java.mk. If you
ever think that your port needs more sophisticated Java support,
please first have a look at the
bsd.java.mk CVS log as it usually takes some time to
document the latest features. Then, if you think the support
you are lacking would be beneficial to many other Java ports,
feel free to discuss it on the &a.java;.Although there is a java category for
PRs, it refers to the JDK porting effort from the &os; Java
project. Therefore, you should submit your Java port in the
ports category as for any other port, unless
the issue you are trying to resolve is related to either a JDK
implementation or bsd.java.mk.Using PythonThis section is yet to be written.Using EmacsThis section is yet to be written.Using RubyThis section is yet to be written.Using SDLThe USE_SDL variable is used to autoconfigure
the dependencies for ports which use an SDL based library like
devel/sdl12 and
x11-toolkits/sdl_gui.The following SDL libraries are recognized at the moment:sdl: devel/sdl12gfx: graphics/sdl_gfxgui: x11-toolkits/sdl_guiimage: graphics/sdl_imageldbad: devel/sdl_ldbadmixer: audio/sdl_mixermm: devel/sdlmmnet: net/sdl_netsound: audio/sdl_soundttf: graphics/sdl_ttfTherefore, if a port has a dependency on
net/sdl_net and
audio/sdl_mixer,
the syntax will be:USE_SDL= net mixerThe dependency devel/sdl12,
which is required by net/sdl_net and
audio/sdl_mixer, is automatically
added as well.If you use USE_SDL, it will automatically:Add a dependency on sdl12-config to
BUILD_DEPENDSAdd the variable SDL_CONFIG to
CONFIGURE_ENVAdd the dependencies of the selected libraries to the
LIB_DEPENDSTo check whether an SDL library is available, you can do it
with the WANT_SDL variable:WANT_SDL=yes
.include <bsd.port.pre.mk>
.if ${HAVE_SDL:Mmixer}!=""
USE_SDL+= mixer
.endif
.include <bsd.port.post.mk>MASTERDIRIf your port needs to build slightly different versions of
packages by having a variable (for instance, resolution, or paper
size) take different values, create one subdirectory per package to
make it easier for users to see what to do, but try to share as many
files as possible between ports. Typically you only need a very short
Makefile in all but one of the directories if you
use variables cleverly. In the sole Makefile,
you can use MASTERDIR to specify the directory
where the rest of the files are. Also, use a variable as part of
PKGNAMESUFFIX so
the packages will have different names.This will be best demonstrated by an example. This is part of
japanese/xdvi300/Makefile;PORTNAME= xdvi
PORTVERSION= 17
PKGNAMEPREFIX= ja-
PKGNAMESUFFIX= ${RESOLUTION}
:
# default
RESOLUTION?= 300
.if ${RESOLUTION} != 118 && ${RESOLUTION} != 240 && \
${RESOLUTION} != 300 && ${RESOLUTION} != 400
@${ECHO} "Error: invalid value for RESOLUTION: \"${RESOLUTION}\""
@${ECHO} "Possible values are: 118, 240, 300 (default) and 400."
@${FALSE}
.endifjapanese/xdvi300 also has all the regular
patches, package files, etc. If you type make
there, it will take the default value for the resolution (300) and
build the port normally.As for other resolutions, this is the entirexdvi118/Makefile:RESOLUTION= 118
MASTERDIR= ${.CURDIR}/../xdvi300
.include "${MASTERDIR}/Makefile"(xdvi240/Makefile and
xdvi400/Makefile are similar). The
MASTERDIR definition tells
bsd.port.mk that the regular set of
subdirectories like FILESDIR and
SCRIPTDIR are to be found under
xdvi300. The RESOLUTION=118
line will override the RESOLUTION=300 line in
xdvi300/Makefile and the port will be built with
resolution set to 118.Shared library versions
- Please read our policy on
+ Please read our policy on
shared library versioning to understand what to do with
shared library versions in general. Do not blindly assume software
authors know what they are doing; many of them do not. It is very
important that these details are carefully considered, as we have
quite a unique situation where we are trying to have dozens of
potentially incompatible software pairs co-exist. Careless port
imports have caused great trouble regarding shared libraries in the
past (ever wondered why the port jpeg-6b has a
shared library version of 9?). If in doubt, send a message to the
&a.ports;. Most of the time, your job ends by determining the right
shared library version and making appropriate patches to implement
it.ManpagesThe MAN[1-9LN] variables will automatically add
any manpages to pkg-plist (this means you must
not list manpages in the
pkg-plist—see generating PLIST for more). It also
makes the install stage automatically compress or uncompress manpages
depending on the setting of NOMANCOMPRESS in
/etc/make.conf.If your port tries to install multiple names for manpages using
symlinks or hardlinks, you must use the MLINKS
variable to identify these. The link installed by your port will
be destroyed and recreated by bsd.port.mk
to make sure it points to the correct file. Any manpages
listed in MLINKS must not be listed in the
pkg-plist.To specify whether the manpages are compressed upon installation,
use the MANCOMPRESSED variable. This variable can
take three values, yes, no and
maybe. yes means manpages are
already installed compressed, no means they are
not, and maybe means the software already respects
the value of NOMANCOMPRESS so
bsd.port.mk does not have to do anything
special.MANCOMPRESSED is automatically set to
yes if USE_IMAKE is set and
NO_INSTALL_MANPAGES is not set, and to
no otherwise. You do not have to explicitly define
it unless the default is not suitable for your port.If your port anchors its man tree somewhere other than
PREFIX, you can use the
MANPREFIX to set it. Also, if only manpages in
certain sections go in a non-standard place, such as some perl modules
ports, you can set individual man paths using
MANsectPREFIX (where
sect is one of 1-9,
L or N).If your manpages go to language-specific subdirectories, set the
name of the languages to MANLANG. The value of
this variable defaults to "" (i.e., English
only).Here is an example that puts it all together.MAN1= foo.1
MAN3= bar.3
MAN4= baz.4
MLINKS= foo.1 alt-name.8
MANLANG= "" ja
MAN3PREFIX= ${PREFIX}/share/foobar
MANCOMPRESSED= yesThis states that six files are installed by this port;${PREFIX}/man/man1/foo.1.gz
${PREFIX}/man/ja/man1/foo.1.gz
${PREFIX}/share/foobar/man/man3/bar.3.gz
${PREFIX}/share/foobar/man/ja/man3/bar.3.gz
${PREFIX}/man/man4/baz.4.gz
${PREFIX}/man/ja/man4/baz.4.gzAdditionally ${PREFIX}/man/man8/alt-name.8.gz
may or may not be installed by your port. Regardless, a
symlink will be made to join the foo(1) manpage and
alt-name(8) manpage.Ports that require MotifThere are many programs that require a Motif library (available
from several commercial vendors, while there is a free clone reported
to be able to run many applications in
x11-toolkits/lesstif) to compile. Since it is a
popular toolkit and their licenses usually permit redistribution of
statically linked binaries, we have made special provisions for
handling ports that require Motif in a way that we can easily compile
binaries linked either dynamically (for people who are compiling from
the port) or statically (for people who distribute packages).USE_MOTIFIf your port requires Motif, define this variable in the
Makefile. This will prevent people who do not own a copy of Motif
from even attempting to build it.MOTIFLIBThis variable will be set by bsd.port.mk to
be the appropriate reference to the Motif library. Please patch the
source of your port to reference this wherever the Motif library is referenced in the
Makefile or
Imakefile.There are two common cases:If the port refers to the Motif library as
-lXm in its Makefile or
Imakefile, simply substitute
${MOTIFLIB} for it.If the port uses XmClientLibs in its
Imakefile, change it to
${MOTIFLIB} ${XTOOLLIB}
${XLIB}.Note that MOTIFLIB (usually) expands to
-L/usr/X11R6/lib -lXm or
/usr/X11R6/lib/libXm.a, so there is no need to
add -L or -l in front.X11 fontsIf your port installs fonts for the X Window System, put them in
X11BASE/lib/X11/fonts/local.
This directory was new to XFree86 3.3.3. If it does not exist,
please create it, and print out a message urging the user to update
their XFree86 to 3.3.3 or newer, or at least add this directory to the
font path in /etc/XF86Config.Info filesIf your package needs to install GNU info files, they should be
listed in the INFO variable (without the trailing
.info), and appropriate installation/de-installation
code will be automatically added to the temporary
pkg-plist before package registration.The pkg-* filesThere are some tricks we have not mentioned yet about the
pkg-* files
that come in handy sometimes.pkg-messageIf you need to display a message to the installer, you may place
the message in pkg-message. This capability is
often useful to display additional installation steps to be taken
after a &man.pkg.add.1; or to display licensing
information.The pkg-message file does not need to be
added to pkg-plist. Also, it will not get
automatically printed if the user is using the port, not the
package, so you should probably display it from the
post-install target yourself.pkg-installIf your port needs to execute commands when the binary package
is installed with &man.pkg.add.1; you can do this via the
pkg-install script. This script will
automatically be added to the package, and will be run twice by
&man.pkg.add.1;: the first time as
${SH} pkg-install ${PKGNAME}
PRE-INSTALL and the second time as
${SH} pkg-install ${PKGNAME} POST-INSTALL.
$2 can be tested to determine which mode
the script is being run in. The PKG_PREFIX
environmental variable will be set to the package installation
directory. See &man.pkg.add.1; for
additional information.This script is not run automatically if you install the port
with make install. If you are depending on it
being run, you will have to explicitly call it from your port's
Makefile.pkg-deinstallThis script executes when a package is removed.
This script will be run twice by &man.pkg.delete.1;.
The first time as ${SH} pkg-install ${PKGNAME}
DEINSTALL and the second time as
${SH} pkg-install ${PKGNAME} POST-DEINSTALL.
pkg-reqIf your port needs to determine if it should install or not, you
can create a pkg-reqrequirements
script. It will be invoked automatically at
installation/de-installation time to determine whether or not
installation/de-installation should proceed.The script will be run at installation time by
&man.pkg.add.1; as
pkg-req ${PKGNAME} INSTALL.
At de-installation time it will be run by
&man.pkg.delete.1; as
pkg-req ${PKGNAME} DEINSTALL.Changing pkg-plist based on make
variablesSome ports, particularly the p5- ports,
need to change their pkg-plist depending on
what options they are configured with (or version of
perl, in the case of p5-
ports). To make this easy, any instances in the
pkg-plist of %%OSREL%%,
%%PERL_VER%%, and
%%PERL_VERSION%% will be substituted for
appropriately. The value of %%OSREL%% is the
numeric revision of the operating system (e.g.,
4.9). %%PERL_VERSION%% is
the full version number of perl (e.g.,
5.00502) and %%PERL_VER%%
is the perl version number minus
the patchlevel (e.g., 5.005). Several other
%%VARS%% related to
port's documentation files are described in the relevant section.If you need to make other substitutions, you can set the
PLIST_SUB variable with a list of
VAR=VALUE
pairs and instances of
%%VAR%% will be
substituted with VALUE in the
pkg-plist.For instance, if you have a port that installs many files in a
version-specific subdirectory, you can put something likeOCTAVE_VERSION= 2.0.13
PLIST_SUB= OCTAVE_VERSION=${OCTAVE_VERSION}in the Makefile and use
%%OCTAVE_VERSION%% wherever the version shows up
in pkg-plist. That way, when you upgrade the port,
you will not have to change dozens (or in some cases, hundreds) of
lines in the pkg-plist.This substitution (as well as addition of any manual pages) will be done between
the pre-install and
do-install targets, by reading from
PLIST and writing to
TMPPLIST
(default:
WRKDIR/.PLIST.mktmp). So if
your port builds PLIST
on the fly, do so in or
before pre-install. Also, if your port
needs to edit the resulting file, do so in
post-install to a file named
TMPPLIST.Another possibility to modify port's packing list is based
on setting the variables PLIST_FILES and
PLIST_DIRS. The value of each variable
is regarded as a list of pathnames to
write to TMPPLIST
along with PLIST
contents. Names listed in PLIST_FILES
and PLIST_DIRS are subject to
%%VAR%%
substitution, as described above.
Except for that, names from PLIST_FILES
will appear in the final packing list unchanged,
while @dirrm will be
prepended to names from PLIST_DIRS.
To take effect, PLIST_FILES and
PLIST_DIRS must be set before
TMPPLIST is written,
i.e. in pre-install or earlier.Changing the names of
pkg-* filesAll the names of pkg-* files
are defined using variables so you can change them in your
Makefile if need be. This is especially useful
when you are sharing the same pkg-* files
among several ports or have to write to one of the above files (see
writing to places other than
WRKDIR for why it is a bad idea to write
directly into the pkg-* subdirectory).Here is a list of variable names and their default
values. (PKGDIR defaults to
${MASTERDIR}.)VariableDefault valueDESCR${PKGDIR}/pkg-descrPLIST${PKGDIR}/pkg-plistPKGINSTALL${PKGDIR}/pkg-installPKGDEINSTALL${PKGDIR}/pkg-deinstallPKGREQ${PKGDIR}/pkg-reqPKGMESSAGE${PKGDIR}/pkg-messagePlease change these variables rather than overriding
PKG_ARGS. If you change
PKG_ARGS, those files will not correctly be
installed in /var/db/pkg upon install from a
port.Testing your portRunning make describeSeveral of the &os; port maintainance tools, such as
&man.portupgrade.1;, rely on a database called
/usr/ports/INDEX which keeps track of such
items as port dependencies. INDEX is created
by the top-level ports/Makefile via
make index, which descends into each
port subdirectory and executes make describe
there. Thus, if make describe fails in any
port, no one can generate INDEX, and many
people will quickly become unhappy.It is important to be able to generate this file no
matter what options are present in make.conf,
so please avoid doing things such as using .error
statements when (for instance) a dependency is not satisfied.How to avoid using .errorAssume that someone has the line
USE_POINTYHAT=yes
in make.conf. The first of
the next two Makefile snippets will
cause make index to fail, while the
second one will not:
.if USE_POINTYHAT
.error "POINTYHAT is not supported"
.endif.if USE_POINTYHAT
IGNORE=POINTYHAT is not supported
.endifIf make describe produces a string
rather than an error message, you are probably safe. See
bsd.port.mk for the meaning of the
string produced.Also note that running a recent version of
portlint (as specified in the next section)
will cause make describe to be run
automatically.PortlintDo check your work with portlint
before you submit or commit it. portlint
warns you about many common errors, both functional and
stylistic. For a new (or repocopied) port,
portlint -A is the most thorough; for an
existing port, portlint -C is sufficient.Since portlint uses heuristics to
try to figure out errors, it can produce false positive
warnings. In addition, occasionally something that is
flagged as a problem really cannot be done in any other
way due to limitations in the ports framework. When in
doubt, the best thing to do is ask on &a.ports;.PREFIXDo try to make your port install relative to
PREFIX. (The value of this variable will be set
to LOCALBASE (default
/usr/local), unless
USE_X_PREFIX or USE_IMAKE is
set, in which case it will be X11BASE (default
/usr/X11R6).Avoiding the hard-coding of /usr/local or
/usr/X11R6 anywhere in the source will make the
port much more flexible and able to cater to the needs of other
sites. For X ports that use imake, this is
automatic; otherwise, this can often be done by simply replacing the
occurrences of /usr/local (or
/usr/X11R6 for X ports that do not use imake)
in the various scripts/Makefiles in the port to read
${PREFIX}, as this variable is automatically passed
down to every stage of the build and install processes.Make sure your application is not installing things in
/usr/local instead of PREFIX.
A quick test for this is to do this is:&prompt.root; make clean; make package PREFIX=/var/tmp/port-nameIf anything is installed outside of PREFIX,
the package creation process will complain that it
cannot find the files.This does not test for the existence of internal references,
or correct use of LOCALBASE for references to
files from other ports. Testing the installation in
/var/tmp/port-name
to do that while you have it installed would do that.Do not set USE_X_PREFIX unless your port
truly requires it (i.e., it links against X libs or it needs to
reference files in X11BASE).The variable PREFIX can be reassigned in your
Makefile or in the user's environment.
However, it is strongly discouraged for individual ports to set this
variable explicitly in the Makefiles.Also, refer to programs/files from other ports with the
variables mentioned above, not explicit pathnames. For instance, if
your port requires a macro PAGER to be the full
pathname of less, use the compiler flag:
-DPAGER=\"${PREFIX}/bin/less\"
or
-DPAGER=\"${LOCALBASE}/bin/less\"
if this is an X port, instead of
-DPAGER=\"/usr/local/bin/less\". This way it will
have a better chance of working if the system administrator has
moved the whole /usr/local tree somewhere else.UpgradingWhen you notice that a port is out of date compared to the latest
version from the original authors, you should first ensure that you
have the latest
port. You can find them in the
ports/ports-current directory of the &os; FTP mirror
sites. However, if you are working with more than a few
ports, you will probably find it easier to use
CVSup to keep your whole ports collection
up-to-date, as described in the
- Handbook.
+ Handbook.
This will have the added benefit of tracking all the ports'
dependencies.The next step is to see if there is an update already pending.
To do this, you have two options. There is a searchable interface
to the
FreeBSD Problem Report (PR) database (also known as
GNATS). Select ports in the
dropdown, and enter the name of the port.However, sometimes people forget to put the name of the port
into the Synopsis field in an unambiguous fashion. In that case,
you can try the
FreeBSD Ports Monitoring System (also known as
portsmon). This system attempts to classify
port PRs by portname. To search for PRs about a particular port,
use the
Overview of One Port.If there is no pending PR, the next step is to send an email
to the port's maintainer, as shown by
make maintainer. That person may
already be working on an upgrade, or have a reason to not upgrade the
port right now (because of, for example, stability problems of the new
version); you would not want to duplicate their work. Note that
unmaintained ports are listed with a maintainer of
ports@FreeBSD.org, which is just the general
ports mailing list, so sending mail there
probably will not help in this case.If the maintainer asks you to do the upgrade or there is
no maintainer, then you have a chance to help out &os; by
preparing the update yourself! Please make the changes and save
the result of the
recursive diff output
of the new and old
ports directories (e.g., if your modified port directory is
called superedit and the original is in our tree
as superedit.bak, then save the result of
diff -ruN superedit.bak superedit). Either
unified or context diff is fine, but port committers generally
prefer unified diffs. Note the use of the -N
option—this is the accepted way to force diff to properly
deal with the case of new files being added or old files being
deleted. Before sending us the diff, please examine the
output to make sure all the changes make sense. To
simplify common operations with patch files, you can use
/usr/ports/Tools/scripts/patchtool.py.
Before using it, please read
/usr/ports/Tools/scripts/README.patchtool.If the port is unmaintained, and you are actively using
it yourself, please consider volunteering to become its
maintainer. &os; has over 2000 ports without maintainers,
and this is an area where more volunteers are always needed.
(For a detailed description of the responsibilities of maintainers,
refer to the
-
+
MAINTAINER on Makefiles section.) The best way to
send us the diff is by including it via &man.send-pr.1; (category
ports). If you are volunteering to maintain the
port,
be sure to put [maintainer update] at the beginning
of your synopsis line and set the Class of your PR
to maintainer-update. Otherwise, the
Class of your PR should be
change-request. Please mention any added or
deleted files in the message, as they have to be explicitly specified
to &man.cvs.1; when doing a commit. If the diff is more than about 20KB,
please compress and uuencode it; otherwise, just include it in the PR
as is.Before you &man.send-pr.1;, you should review the
-
+
Writing the problem report section in the Problem
Reports article; it contains far more information about how to write
useful problem reports.If your upgrade is motivated by security concerns or a
serious fault in the currently committed port, please notify
the &a.portmgr; to request immediate rebuilding and
redistribution of your port's package. Unsuspecting users
of &man.pkg.add.1; will otherwise continue to install the
old version via pkg_add -r for several
weeks.Once again, please use &man.diff.1; and not &man.shar.1; to send
updates to existing ports!Now that you have done all that, you will want to read about
how to keep up-to-date in .Ports securityWhy security is so importantBugs are occasionally introduced to the software.
Arguably, the most dangerous of them are those opening
security vulnerabilities. From the technical viewpoint,
such vulnerabilities are to be closed by exterminating
the bugs that caused them. However, the policies for
handling mere bugs and security vulnerabilities are
very different.A typical small bug affects only those users who have
enabled some combination of options triggering the bug.
The developer will eventually release a patch followed
by a new version of the software, free of the bug, but
the majority of users will not take the trouble of upgrading
immediately because the bug has never vexed them. A
critical bug that may cause data loss represents a graver
issue. Nevertheless, prudent users know that a lot of
possible accidents, besides software bugs, are likely to
lead to data loss, and so they make backups of important
data; in addition, a critical bug will be discovered
really soon.A security vulnerability is all different. First,
it may remain unnoticed for years because often it does
not cause software malfunction. Second, a malicious party
can use it to gain unauthorized access to a vulnerable
system, to destroy or alter sensitive data; and in the
worst case the user will not even notice the harm caused.
Third, exposing a vulnerable system often assists attackers
to break into other systems that could not be compromised
otherwise. Therefore closing a vulnerability alone is
not enough: the audience should be notified of it in most
clear and comprehensive manner, which will allow to
evaluate the danger and take appropriate actions.Fixing security vulnerabilitiesWhile on the subject of ports and packages, a security
vulnerability may initially appear in the original
distribution or in the port files. In the former case,
the original software developer is likely to release a
patch or a new version instantly, and you will
only need to update the port promptly with respect to
the author's fix. If the fix is delayed for some reason,
you should either mark the port as
FORBIDDEN
or introduce a patch file of your own to the port. In
the case of a vulnerable port, just fix the port as soon as
possible. In either case, the
standard procedure for submitting your change should
be followed unless you have rights to commit it directly
to the ports tree.Being a ports committer is not enough to commit to
an arbitrary port. Remember that ports usually have
maintainers, whom you should respect.Please make sure that the port's revision is bumped
as soon as the vulnerability has been closed.
That is how the users who upgrade installed packages
on a regular basis will see they need to run an update.
Besides, a new package will be built and distributed
over FTP and WWW mirrors, replacing the vulnerable one.
PORTREVISION should be bumped unless
PORTVERSION has changed in the course
of correcting the vulnerability. That is you should
bump PORTREVISION if you have added a
patch file to the port, but you should not if you have updated
the port to the latest software version and thus already
touched PORTVERSION. Please refer to the
corresponding section
for more information.Keeping the community informedThe VuXML databaseA very important and urgent step to take as early as
a security vulnerability is discovered is to notify the
community of port users about the jeopardy. Such
notification serves two purposes. First, should the danger
be really severe, it will be wise to apply an instant workaround,
e.g., stop the affected network service or even deinstall
the port completely, until the vulnerability is closed.
Second, a lot of users tend to upgrade installed packages
just occasionally. They will know from the notification
that they must update the package
without delay as soon as a corrected version is available.
Given the huge number of ports in the tree,
a security advisory cannot be issued on each incident
without creating a flood and losing the attention of
the audience by the time it comes to really serious
matters. Therefore security vulnerabilities found in
ports are recorded in the FreeBSD VuXML
database. The Security Officer Team members
are monitoring it for issues requiring their
intervention.If you have committer rights, you can update the VuXML
database by yourself. So you will both help the Security
Officer Team and deliver the crucial information to the
community earlier. However, if you are not a committer,
or you believe you have found an exceptionally severe
vulnerability, or whatever, please do not hesitate to
contact the Security Officer Team directly as described
on the FreeBSD
Security Information page.All right, you elected the hard way. As it may be obvious
from its title, the VuXML database is essentially an
XML document. Its source file vuln.xml
is kept right inside the port security/vuxml. Therefore
the file's full pathname will be
PORTSDIR/security/vuxml/vuln.xml.
Each time you discover a security vulnerability in a
port, please add an entry for it to that file.
Until you are familiar with VuXML, the best thing you can
do is to find an existing entry fitting your case, then copy
it and use as a template.A short introduction to VuXMLThe full-blown XML is complex and far beyond the scope of
this book. However, to gain basic insight on the structure
of a VuXML entry, you need only the notion of tags. XML
tag names are enclosed in angle brackets. Each opening
<tag> must have a matching closing </tag>.
Tags may be nested. If nesting, the inner tags must be
closed before the outer ones. There is a hierarchy of
tags, i.e. more complex rules of nesting them. Sounds
very similar to HTML, doesn't it? The major difference
is that XML is eXtensible, i.e. based
on defining custom tags. Due to its intrinsic structure,
XML puts otherwise amorphous data into shape. VuXML is
particularly tailored to mark up descriptions of security
vulnerabilities.Now let's consider a realistic VuXML entry:<vuln vid="f4bc80f4-da62-11d8-90ea-0004ac98a7b9">
<topic>Several vulnerabilities found in Foo</topic>
<affects>
<package>
<name>foo</name>
<name>foo-devel</name>
<name>ja-foo</name>
<range><ge>1.6</ge><lt>1.9</lt></range>
<range><ge>2.*</ge><lt>2.4_1</lt></range>
<range><eq>3.0b1</eq></range>
</package>
<package>
<name>openfoo</name>
<range><lt>1.10_7</lt></range>
<range><ge>1.2,1</ge><lt>1.3_1,1</lt></range>
</package>
</affects>
<description>
<body xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<p>J. Random Hacker reports:</p>
<blockquote
cite="http://j.r.hacker.com/advisories/1">
<p>Several issues in the Foo software may be exploited
via carefully crafted QUUX requests. These requests will
permit the injection of Bar code, mumble theft, and the
readability of the Foo administrator account.</p>
</blockquote>
</body>
</description>
<references>
<freebsdsa>SA-10:75.foo</freebsdsa>
<freebsdpr>ports/987654</freebsdpr>
<cvename>CAN-2010-0201</cvename>
<cvename>CAN-2010-0466</cvename>
<bid>96298</bid>
<certsa>CA-2010-99</certsa>
<certvu>740169</certvu>
<uscertsa>SA10-99A</uscertsa>
<uscertta>SA10-99A</uscertta>
<mlist msgid="201075606@hacker.com">http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=bugtraq&m=203886607825605</mlist>
<url>http://j.r.hacker.com/advisories/1</url>
</references>
<dates>
<discovery>2010-05-25</discovery>
<entry>2010-07-13</entry>
<modified>2010-09-17</entry>
</dates>
</vuln>The tag names are supposed to be self-descriptive,
so we shall take a closer look only at fields you will need
to fill in by yourself:This is the top-level tag of a VuXML entry. It has
a mandatory attribute, vid,
specifying a universally unique identifier (UUID) for
this entry (in quotes). You should generate a UUID
for each new VuXML entry (and don't forget to substitute
it for the template UUID unless you are writing the
entry from scratch). You can use &man.uuidgen.1; in
FreeBSD 5.x, or you may install the port devel/p5-Data-UUID and issue
the following command:perl -MData::UUID -le 'print lc new Data::UUID->create_str'This is a one-line description of the issue found.The names of packages affected are listed there.
Multiple names can be given since several packages may be
based on a single master port or software product. This
may include stable and development branches, localized
versions, and slave ports featuring different choices of
important build-time configuration options.It is your resposibility to find all such related
packages when writing a VuXML entry. Keep in mind that
make search name=foo is your friend.
The primary points to look for are as follows:the foo-devel variant
for a foo port;other variants with a suffix like
-a4 (for print-related packages),
-without-gui (for packages with X
support disabled), or similar;jp-, ru-,
zh-, and other possible localized
variants in the corresponding national categories of
the ports collection.Affected versions of the package(s) are specified
there as one or more ranges using a combination of
<lt>, <le>,
<eq>, <ge>,
and <gt> elements. The
version ranges given should not overlap.In a range specification, * (asterisk)
denotes the smallest version number. In particular,
2.* is less than 2.a.
Therefore an asterisk may be used for a range to match all
possible alpha, beta,
and RC versions. For instance,
<ge>2.*</ge><lt>3.*</lt>
will selectively match every 2.x version while
<ge>2.0</ge><lt>3.0</lt>
will obviously not since the latter misses
2.r3 and matches
3.b.The above example
specifies that affected are versions from 1.6
to 1.9 inclusive, versions
2.x before 2.4_1,
and version 3.0b1.Several related package groups (essentially, ports)
can be listed in the <affected>
section. This can be used if several software products
(say FooBar, FreeBar and OpenBar) grow from the same code base
and still share its bugs and vulnerabilities. Note the
difference from listing multiple names within a single
<package> section.The version ranges should allow for
PORTEPOCH and
PORTREVISION if applicable.
Please remember that according to the collation rules,
a version with a non-zero PORTEPOCH is
greater than any version without
PORTEPOCH, e.g., 3.0,1
is greater than 3.1 or even than
8.9.This is a summary of the issue.
XHTML is used in this field. At least enclosing
<p> and </p>
should appear. More complex mark-up may be used, but only for
the sake of accuracy and clarity: No eye candy please.This section contains references to relevant documents.
As many references as apply are encouraged.This is a
FreeBSD
security advisory.This is a
FreeBSD
problem report.This is a Mitre
CVE identifier.This is a
SecurityFocus
Bug ID.This is a
US-CERT
security advisory.This is a
US-CERT
vulnerability note.This is a
US-CERT
Cyber Security Alert.This is a
US-CERT
Technical Cyber Security Alert.This is a URL to an archived posting in a mailing list.
The attribute msgid is optional and
may specify the message ID of the posting.This is a generic URL. It should be used only if none of
the other reference categories apply.This is the date when the issue was disclosed
(YYYY-MM-DD).This is the date when the entry was added
(YYYY-MM-DD).This is the date when any information in the entry
was last modified (YYYY-MM-DD).
New entries must not include this field. It should be added
upon editing an existing entry.Testing your changes to the VuXML databaseAssume you just wrote or filled in an entry for a
vulnerability in the package clamav
that has been fixed in version 0.65_7.As a prerequisite, you need to install fresh versions of the
ports security/portaudit and
security/portaudit-db.First, check whether there already is an entry for this
vulnerability. If there were such entry, it would match the
previous version of the package,
0.65_6:&prompt.user; packaudit
&prompt.user; portaudit clamav-0.65_6To run packaudit, you must have
permission to write to its
DATABASEDIR,
typically /var/db/portaudit.If there is none found, you get the green light to add
a new entry for this vulnerability. Now you can generate
a brand-new UUID (assume it's
74a9541d-5d6c-11d8-80e3-0020ed76ef5a) and
add your new entry to the VuXML database. Please verify
its syntax after that as follows:&prompt.user; cd ${PORTSDIR}/security/vuxml && make validateYou will need at least one of the following packages
installed: textproc/libxml2,
textproc/jade.Now rebuild the portaudit database
from the VuXML file:&prompt.user; packauditTo verify that the <affected>
section of your entry will match correct package(s), issue
the following command:&prompt.user; portaudit -f /usr/ports/INDEX -r 74a9541d-5d6c-11d8-80e3-0020ed76ef5aPlease refer to &man.portaudit.1; for better understanding
of the command syntax.Make sure that your entry produces no spurious matches
in the output.Now check whether the right package versions are matched
by your entry:&prompt.user; portaudit clamav-0.65_6 clamav-0.65_7
Affected package: clamav-0.65_6 (matched by clamav<0.65_7)
Type of problem: clamav remote denial-of-service.
Reference: <http://www.freebsd.org/ports/portaudit/74a9541d-5d6c-11d8-80e3-0020ed76ef5a.html>
1 problem(s) found.Obviously, the former version should match while the
latter one should not.Finally, verify whether the web page generated from the
VuXML database looks like expected:&prompt.user; mkdir -p ~/public_html/portaudit
&prompt.user; packaudit
&prompt.user; lynx ~/public_html/portaudit/74a9541d-5d6c-11d8-80e3-0020ed76ef5a.htmlIf VuXML still scares you...As an easy alternative to writing VuXML, you may opt to add
a single line to a different file with much simpler syntax,
PORTSDIR/security/portaudit-db/database/portaudit.txt,
which resides within the port security/portaudit-db, and
send a request for review to the Security Officer Team
as described on the FreeBSD
Security Information page.A line in that file consists of four fields
separated by |, a pipe character.
The first field is a &man.pkg.version.1; pattern
expression matching the vulnerable packages. The second
field contains URLs to relevant information, separated
by space characters. The third field is a one-line
description of the issue. The fourth and last field
is the entry's UUID.You may want take a closer look at existing entries in
portaudit.txt before adding your
first line to that file.Dos and Don'tsIntroductionHere is a list of common dos and don'ts that you encounter during
the porting process. You should check your own port against this list,
but you can also check ports in the PR database that others have
submitted. Submit any comments on ports you check as described in
- Bug Reports and General
+ Bug Reports and General
Commentary. Checking ports in the PR database will both make
it faster for us to commit them, and prove that you know what you are
doing.Stripping BinariesDo not strip binaries manually unless you have to. All binaries
should be stripped, but the INSTALL_PROGRAM
macro will install and strip a binary at the same time (see the next
section).If you need to strip a file, but do not wish to use the
INSTALL_PROGRAM macro,
${STRIP_CMD} will strip your program. This is
typically done within the post-install
target. For example:post-install:
${STRIP_CMD} ${PREFIX}/bin/xdlUse the &man.file.1; command on the installed executable to
check whether the binary is stripped or not. If it does not say
not stripped, it is stripped. Additionally,
&man.strip.1; will not strip a previously stripped program; it
will instead exit cleanly.INSTALL_* macrosDo use the macros provided in bsd.port.mk
to ensure correct modes and ownership of files in your own
*-install targets.INSTALL_PROGRAM is a command to install
binary executables.INSTALL_SCRIPT is a command to install
executable scripts.INSTALL_DATA is a command to install
sharable data.INSTALL_MAN is a command to install
manpages and other documentation (it does not compress
anything).These are basically the install command with
all the appropriate flags. See below for an example on how to use
them.WRKDIRDo not write anything to files outside
WRKDIR. WRKDIR is the only
place that is guaranteed to be writable during the port build (see
-
+
installing ports from a CDROM for an
example of building ports from a read-only tree). If you need to
modify one of the pkg-*
files, do so by redefining a variable, not by
writing over it.WRKDIRPREFIXMake sure your port honors WRKDIRPREFIX.
Most ports do not have to worry about this. In particular, if you
are referring to a WRKDIR of another port, note
that the correct location is
WRKDIRPREFIXPORTSDIR/subdir/name/work not PORTSDIR/subdir/name/work or .CURDIR/../../subdir/name/work or some such.Also, if you are defining WRKDIR yourself,
make sure you prepend
${WRKDIRPREFIX}${.CURDIR} in the
front.Differentiating operating systems and OS versionsYou may come across code that needs modifications or conditional
compilation based upon what version of Unix it is running under. If
you need to make such changes to the code for conditional
compilation, make sure you make the changes as general as possible
so that we can back-port code to older FreeBSD systems and cross-port
to other BSD systems such as 4.4BSD from CSRG, BSD/386, 386BSD,
NetBSD, and OpenBSD.The preferred way to tell 4.3BSD/Reno (1990) and newer versions
of the BSD code apart is by using the BSD macro
defined in <sys/param.h>. Hopefully that
file is already included; if not, add the code:#if (defined(__unix__) || defined(unix)) && !defined(USG)
#include <sys/param.h>
#endifto the proper place in the .c file. We
believe that every system that defines these two symbols has
sys/param.h. If you find a system that
does not, we would like to know. Please send mail to the
&a.ports;.Another way is to use the GNU Autoconf style of doing
this:#ifdef HAVE_SYS_PARAM_H
#include <sys/param.h>
#endifDo not forget to add -DHAVE_SYS_PARAM_H to the
CFLAGS in the Makefile for
this method.Once you have sys/param.h included, you may
use:#if (defined(BSD) && (BSD >= 199103))to detect if the code is being compiled on a 4.3 Net2 code base
or newer (e.g. FreeBSD 1.x, 4.3/Reno, NetBSD 0.9, 386BSD, BSD/386
1.1 and below).Use:#if (defined(BSD) && (BSD >= 199306))to detect if the code is being compiled on a 4.4 code base or
newer (e.g. FreeBSD 2.x, 4.4, NetBSD 1.0, BSD/386 2.0 or
above).The value of the BSD macro is
199506 for the 4.4BSD-Lite2 code base. This is
stated for informational purposes only. It should not be used to
distinguish between versions of FreeBSD based only on 4.4-Lite vs.
versions that have merged in changes from 4.4-Lite2. The
__FreeBSD__ macro should be used instead.Use sparingly:__FreeBSD__ is defined in all versions of
FreeBSD. Use it if the change you are making
only affects FreeBSD. Porting gotchas like
the use of sys_errlist[] vs
strerror() are Berkeley-isms, not FreeBSD
changes.In FreeBSD 2.x, __FreeBSD__ is defined to
be 2. In earlier versions, it is
1. Later versions always bump it to match
their major version number.If you need to tell the difference between a FreeBSD 1.x
system and a FreeBSD 2.x or above system, usually the right answer
is to use the BSD macros described above. If
there actually is a FreeBSD specific change (such as special
shared library options when using ld) then it
is OK to use __FreeBSD__ and #if
__FreeBSD__ > 1 to detect a FreeBSD 2.x and later
system. If you need more granularity in detecting FreeBSD
systems since 2.0-RELEASE you can use the following:#if __FreeBSD__ >= 2
#include <osreldate.h>
# if __FreeBSD_version >= 199504
/* 2.0.5+ release specific code here */
# endif
#endifIn the hundreds of ports that have been done, there have only
been one or two cases where __FreeBSD__ should
have been used. Just because an earlier port screwed up and used it
in the wrong place does not mean you should do so too.__FreeBSD_version valuesHere is a convenient list of
__FreeBSD_version values as defined in
sys/param.h:
__FreeBSD_version valuesRelease__FreeBSD_version2.0-RELEASE1194112.1-CURRENT199501, 1995032.0.5-RELEASE1995042.2-CURRENT before 2.11995082.1.0-RELEASE1995112.2-CURRENT before 2.1.51995122.1.5-RELEASE1996072.2-CURRENT before 2.1.61996082.1.6-RELEASE1996122.1.7-RELEASE1996122.2-RELEASE2200002.2.1-RELEASE220000 (no change)2.2-STABLE after 2.2.1-RELEASE220000 (no change)2.2-STABLE after texinfo-3.92210012.2-STABLE after top2210022.2.2-RELEASE2220002.2-STABLE after 2.2.2-RELEASE2220012.2.5-RELEASE2250002.2-STABLE after 2.2.5-RELEASE2250012.2-STABLE after ldconfig -R merge2250022.2.6-RELEASE2260002.2.7-RELEASE2270002.2-STABLE after 2.2.7-RELEASE2270012.2-STABLE after &man.semctl.2; change2270022.2.8-RELEASE2280002.2-STABLE after 2.2.8-RELEASE2280013.0-CURRENT before &man.mount.2; change3000003.0-CURRENT after &man.mount.2; change3000013.0-CURRENT after &man.semctl.2; change3000023.0-CURRENT after ioctl arg changes3000033.0-CURRENT after ELF conversion3000043.0-RELEASE3000053.0-CURRENT after 3.0-RELEASE3000063.0-STABLE after 3/4 branch3000073.1-RELEASE3100003.1-STABLE after 3.1-RELEASE3100013.1-STABLE after C++ constructor/destructor order
change3100023.2-RELEASE3200003.2-STABLE3200013.2-STABLE after binary-incompatible IPFW and
socket changes3200023.3-RELEASE3300003.3-STABLE3300013.3-STABLE after adding &man.mkstemp.3;
to libc3300023.4-RELEASE3400003.4-STABLE3400013.5-RELEASE3500003.5-STABLE3500014.0-CURRENT after 3.4 branch4000004.0-CURRENT after change in dynamic linker
handling4000014.0-CURRENT after C++ constructor/destructor
order change4000024.0-CURRENT after functioning &man.dladdr.3;4000034.0-CURRENT after __deregister_frame_info dynamic
linker bug fix (also 4.0-CURRENT after EGCS 1.1.2
integration)
4000044.0-CURRENT after &man.suser.9; API change
(also 4.0-CURRENT after newbus)4000054.0-CURRENT after cdevsw registration change4000064.0-CURRENT after the addition of so_cred for
socket level credentials4000074.0-CURRENT after the addition of a poll syscall
wrapper to libc_r4000084.0-CURRENT after the change of the kernel's
dev_t type to struct
specinfo pointer4000094.0-CURRENT after fixing a hole
in &man.jail.2;4000104.0-CURRENT after the sigset_t
datatype change4000114.0-CURRENT after the cutover to the GCC 2.95.2
compiler4000124.0-CURRENT after adding pluggable linux-mode
ioctl handlers4000134.0-CURRENT after importing OpenSSL4000144.0-CURRENT after the C++ ABI change in GCC 2.95.2
from -fvtable-thunks to -fno-vtable-thunks by
default4000154.0-CURRENT after importing OpenSSH4000164.0-RELEASE4000174.0-STABLE after 4.0-RELEASE4000184.0-STABLE after the introduction of delayed
checksums.4000194.0-STABLE after merging libxpg4 code into
libc.4000204.0-STABLE after upgrading Binutils to 2.10.0, ELF
branding changes, and tcsh in the base system.4000214.1-RELEASE4100004.1-STABLE after 4.1-RELEASE4100014.1-STABLE after &man.setproctitle.3; moved from
libutil to libc.4100024.1.1-RELEASE4110004.1.1-STABLE after 4.1.1-RELEASE4110014.2-RELEASE4200004.2-STABLE after combining libgcc.a and
libgcc_r.a, and associated GCC linkage changes.4200014.3-RELEASE4300004.3-STABLE after wint_t introduction.4300014.3-STABLE after PCI powerstate API merge.4300024.4-RELEASE4400004.4-STABLE after d_thread_t introduction.4400014.4-STABLE after mount structure changes (affects
filesystem klds).4400024.4-STABLE after the userland components of smbfs
were imported.4400034.5-RELEASE4500004.5-STABLE after the usb structure element rename.4500014.5-STABLE after the
sendmail_enable &man.rc.conf.5;
variable was made to take the value
NONE.4500044.5-STABLE after moving to XFree86 4 by default
for package builds.4500054.5-STABLE after accept filtering was fixed so
that is no longer susceptible to an easy DoS.4500064.6-RELEASE4600004.6-STABLE &man.sendfile.2; fixed to comply with
documentation, not to count any headers sent against
the amount of data to be sent from the file.4600014.6.2-RELEASE4600024.6-STABLE4601004.6-STABLE after MFC of `sed -i'.4601014.6-STABLE after MFC of many new pkg_install
features from the HEAD.4601024.7-RELEASE4700004.7-STABLE470100Start generated __std{in,out,err}p references rather
than __sF. This changes std{in,out,err} from a
compile time expression to a runtime one.4701014.7-STABLE after MFC of mbuf changes to replace
m_aux mbufs by m_tag's4701024.7-STABLE gets OpenSSL 0.9.74701034.8-RELEASE4800004.8-STABLE4801004.8-STABLE after &man.realpath.3; has been made
thread-safe4801014.8-STABLE 3ware API changes to twe.4801024.9-RELEASE4900004.9-STABLE4901004.9-STABLE after e_sid was added to struct
kinfo_eproc.4901014.9-STABLE after MFC of libmap functionality
for rtld.4901024.10-RELEASE4910004.10-STABLE4911005.0-CURRENT5000005.0-CURRENT after adding addition ELF header fields,
and changing our ELF binary branding method.5000015.0-CURRENT after kld metadata changes.5000025.0-CURRENT after buf/bio changes.5000035.0-CURRENT after binutils upgrade.5000045.0-CURRENT after merging libxpg4 code into
libc and after TASKQ interface introduction.5000055.0-CURRENT after the addition of AGP
interfaces.5000065.0-CURRENT after Perl upgrade to 5.6.05000075.0-CURRENT after the update of KAME code to
2000/07 sources.5000085.0-CURRENT after ether_ifattach() and
ether_ifdetach() changes.5000095.0-CURRENT after changing mtree defaults
back to original variant, adding -L to follow
symlinks.5000105.0-CURRENT after kqueue API changed.5000115.0-CURRENT after &man.setproctitle.3; moved from
libutil to libc.5000125.0-CURRENT after the first SMPng commit.5000135.0-CURRENT after <sys/select.h> moved to
<sys/selinfo.h>.5000145.0-CURRENT after combining libgcc.a and
libgcc_r.a, and associated GCC linkage changes.5000155.0-CURRENT after change allowing libc and libc_r
to be linked together, deprecating -pthread
option.5000165.0-CURRENT after switch from struct ucred to
struct xucred to stabilize kernel-exported API for
mountd et al.5000175.0-CURRENT after addition of CPUTYPE make variable
for controlling CPU-specific optimizations.5000185.0-CURRENT after moving machine/ioctl_fd.h to
sys/fdcio.h5000195.0-CURRENT after locale names renaming.5000205.0-CURRENT after Bzip2 import.
Also signifies removal of S/Key.5000215.0-CURRENT after SSE support.5000225.0-CURRENT after KSE Milestone 2.5000235.0-CURRENT after d_thread_t,
and moving UUCP to ports.5000245.0-CURRENT after ABI change for descriptor
and creds passing on 64 bit platforms.5000255.0-CURRENT after moving to XFree86 4 by default for
package builds, and after the new libc strnstr() function
was added.5000265.0-CURRENT after the new libc strcasestr() function
was added.5000275.0-CURRENT after the userland components of smbfs
were imported.5000285.0-CURRENT after the new C99 specific-width
integer types were added.(Not incremented.)5.0-CURRENT after a change was made in the return
value of &man.sendfile.2;.5000295.0-CURRENT after the introduction of the
type fflags_t, which is the
appropriate size for file flags.5000305.0-CURRENT after the usb structure element rename.5000315.0-CURRENT after the introduction of
Perl 5.6.1.5000325.0-CURRENT after the
sendmail_enable &man.rc.conf.5;
variable was made to take the value
NONE.5000335.0-CURRENT after mtx_init() grew a third argument.5000345.0-CURRENT with Gcc 3.1.5000355.0-CURRENT without Perl in /usr/src5000365.0-CURRENT after the addition of &man.dlfunc.3;5000375.0-CURRENT after the types of some struct
sockbuf members were changed and the structure was
reordered.5000385.0-CURRENT after headers stopped using
_BSD_FOO_T_ and started using _FOO_T_DECLARED.
This value can also be used as a conservative
estimate of the start of &man.bzip2.1; package
support.5000395.0-CURRENT after various changes to disk functions
were made in the name of removing dependency on disklabel
structure internals.5000405.0-CURRENT after the addition of &man.getopt.long.3;
to libc.5000415.0-CURRENT after Binutils 2.13 upgrade, which
included new FreeBSD emulation, vec, and output format.
5000425.0-CURRENT after adding weak pthread_XXX stubs
to libc, obsoleting libXThrStub.so. 5.0-RELEASE.5000435.0-CURRENT after branching for RELENG_5_0500100<sys/dkstat.h> is empty and should
not be included.5001015.0-CURRENT after the d_mmap_t interface
change.5001025.0-CURRENT after taskqueue_swi changed to run
without Giant, and taskqueue_swi_giant added to run
with Giant.500103cdevsw_add() and cdevsw_remove() no
longer exists.
Appearance of MAJOR_AUTO allocation facility.5001045.0-CURRENT after new cdevsw initialization method.500105devstat_add_entry() has been replaced by
devstat_new_entry()500106Devstat interface change; see sys/sys/param.h 1.149500107Token-Ring interface changes.500108Addition of vm_paddr_t.5001095.0-CURRENT after &man.realpath.3; has been made
thread-safe5001105.0-CURRENT after &man.usbhid.3; has been synced with
NetBSD5001115.0-CURRENT after new NSS implementation
and addition of POSIX.1 getpw*_r, getgr*_r
functions5001125.0-CURRENT after removal of the old rc system.5001135.1-RELEASE.5010005.1-CURRENT after branching for RELENG_5_1.5011005.1-CURRENT after correcting the semantics of
sigtimedwait(2) and sigwaitinfo(2).5011015.1-CURRENT after adding the lockfunc and lockfuncarg
fields to &man.bus.dma.tag.create.9;.5011025.1-CURRENT after GCC 3.3.1-pre 20030711 snapshot
integration.5011035.1-CURRENT 3ware API changes to twe.5011045.1-CURRENT dynamically-linked /bin and /sbin
support and movement of libraries to /lib.5011055.1-CURRENT after adding kernel support for
Coda 6.x.5011065.1-CURRENT after 16550 UART constants moved from
<dev/sio/sioreg.h> to
<dev/ic/ns16550.h>.
Also when libmap functionality was unconditionally
supported by rtld.5011075.1-CURRENT after PFIL_HOOKS API update5011085.1-CURRENT after adding kiconv(3)5011095.1-CURRENT after changing default operations
for open and close in cdevsw5011105.1-CURRENT after changed layout of cdevsw501111 5.1-CURRENT after adding kobj multiple inheritance
501112 5.1-CURRENT after the if_xname change in
struct ifnet501113 5.1-CURRENT after changing /bin and /sbin to
be dynamically linked5011145.2-RELEASE5020005.2.1-RELEASE5020105.2-CURRENT after branching for RELENG_5_25021005.2-CURRENT after __cxa_atexit/__cxa_finalize
functions were added to libc.5021015.2-CURRENT after change of default thread library
from libc_r to libpthread.5021025.2-CURRENT after device driver API megapatch.
5021035.2-CURRENT after getopt_long_only() addition.
5021045.2-CURRENT after NULL is made into ((void *)0)
for C, creating more warnings.
5021055.2-CURRENT after pf is linked to the build and
install.
5021065.2-CURRENT after time_t is changed to a
64-bit value on sparc64.
5021075.2-CURRENT after Intel C/C++ compiler support in some headers and execve(2) changes to be more strictly conforming to POSIX.
5021085.2-CURRENT after the introduction of the
bus_alloc_resource_any API
5021095.2-CURRENT after the addition of UTF-8 locales
5021105.2-CURRENT after the removal of the getvfsent(3)
API
5021115.2-CURRENT after the addition of the .warning
directive for make.5021125.2-CURRENT after ttyioctl() was made mandatory
for serial drivers.5021135.2-CURRENT after import of the ALTQ framework.
5021145.2-CURRENT after changing sema_timedwait(9) to
return 0 on success and a non-zero error code on
failure.
5021155.2-CURRENT after changing kernel dev_t to
be pointer to struct cdev *.
5021165.2-CURRENT after changing kernel udev_t to dev_t.
5021175.2-CURRENT after adding support for CLOCK_VIRTUAL
and CLOCK_PROF to clock_gettime(2) and clock_getres(2).
5021185.2-CURRENT after changing network interface
cloning overhaul.
5021195.2-CURRENT after the update of the package tools
to revision 20040629.
5021205.2-CURRENT after marking Bluetooth code as
non-i386 specific.
5021215.2-CURRENT after the introduction of the KDB
debugger framework, the conversion of DDB into a
backend and the introduction of the GDB backend.
5021225.2-CURRENT after change to make
VFS_ROOT take a struct
thread argument as does vflush. Struct kinfo_proc
now has a user data pointer.
The switch of the default X implementation to
xorg was also made at this time.
5021235.2-CURRENT after the change to separate the way
ports rc.d and legacy scripts are started.
5021245.2-CURRENT after the backout of the
previous change.
5021255.2-CURRENT after the removal of
kmem_alloc_pageable().
502126
Note that 2.2-STABLE sometimes identifies itself as
2.2.5-STABLE after the 2.2.5-RELEASE. The pattern
used to be year followed by the month, but we decided to change it
to a more straightforward major/minor system starting from 2.2.
This is because the parallel development on several branches made
it infeasible to classify the releases simply by their real
release dates. If you are making a port now, you do not have to
worry about old -CURRENTs; they are listed here just for your
reference.Writing something after
bsd.port.mkDo not write anything after the .include
<bsd.port.mk> line. It usually can be avoided by
including bsd.port.pre.mk somewhere in the
middle of your Makefile and
bsd.port.post.mk at the end.You need to include either the
bsd.port.pre.mk/bsd.port.post.mk pair or
bsd.port.mk only; do not mix these two usages.bsd.port.pre.mk only defines a few
variables, which can be used in tests in the
Makefile, bsd.port.post.mk
defines the rest.Here are some important variables defined in
bsd.port.pre.mk (this is not the complete list,
please read bsd.port.mk for the complete
list).VariableDescriptionARCHThe architecture as returned by uname
-m (e.g., i386)OPSYSThe operating system type, as returned by
uname -s (e.g.,
FreeBSD)OSRELThe release version of the operating system (e.g.,
2.1.5 or
2.2.7)OSVERSIONThe numeric version of the operating system; the same as
__FreeBSD_version.PORTOBJFORMATThe object format of the system
(elf or aout;
note that for modern versions of FreeBSD,
aout is deprecated.)LOCALBASEThe base of the local tree (e.g.,
/usr/local/)X11BASEThe base of the X11 tree (e.g.,
/usr/X11R6)PREFIXWhere the port installs itself (see more on
PREFIX).If you have to define the variables
USE_IMAKE, USE_X_PREFIX, or
MASTERDIR, do so before including
bsd.port.pre.mk.Here are some examples of things you can write after
bsd.port.pre.mk:# no need to compile lang/perl5 if perl5 is already in system
.if ${OSVERSION} > 300003
BROKEN= perl is in system
.endif
# only one shlib version number for ELF
.if ${PORTOBJFORMAT} == "elf"
TCL_LIB_FILE= ${TCL_LIB}.${SHLIB_MAJOR}
.else
TCL_LIB_FILE= ${TCL_LIB}.${SHLIB_MAJOR}.${SHLIB_MINOR}
.endif
# software already makes link for ELF, but not for a.out
post-install:
.if ${PORTOBJFORMAT} == "aout"
${LN} -sf liblinpack.so.1.0 ${PREFIX}/lib/liblinpack.so
.endifYou did remember to use tab instead of spaces after
BROKEN= and
TCL_LIB_FILE=, did you not?
:-).Install additional documentationIf your software has some documentation other than the standard
man and info pages that you think is useful for the user, install it
under PREFIX/share/doc.
This can be done, like the previous item, in the
post-install target.Create a new directory for your port. The directory name should
reflect what the port is. This usually means
PORTNAME. However, if you
think the user might want different versions of the port to be
installed at the same time, you can use the whole
PKGNAME.Make the installation dependent on the variable
NOPORTDOCS so that users can disable it in
/etc/make.conf, like this:post-install:
.if !defined(NOPORTDOCS)
${MKDIR} ${DOCSDIR}
${INSTALL_MAN} ${WRKSRC}/docs/xvdocs.ps ${DOCSDIR}
.endifHere are some handy variables and how they are expanded
by default when used
in the Makefile:DATADIR gets expanded to
PREFIX/share/PORTNAME.DOCSDIR gets expanded to
PREFIX/share/doc/PORTNAME.EXAMPLESDIR gets expanded to
PREFIX/share/examples/PORTNAME.These variables are exported to PLIST_SUB.
Their values will appear there as pathnames relative to
PREFIX if possible.
That is, share/doc/PORTNAME
will be substituted for %%DOCSDIR%%
in the packing list by default, and so on.
(See more on pkg-plist substitution
here.)All documentation files and directories installed should
be included in pkg-plist with the
%%PORTDOCS%% prefix, for example:%%PORTDOCS%%%%DOCSDIR%%/AUTHORS
%%PORTDOCS%%%%DOCSDIR%%/CONTACT
%%PORTDOCS%%@dirrm %%DOCSDIR%%As an alternative to enumerating the documentation files
in pkg-plist, a port can set the variable
PORTDOCS to a list of file names and shell
glob patterns to add to the final packing list.
The names will be relative to DOCSDIR.
Therefore, a port that utilizes PORTDOCS and
uses a non-default location for its documentation should set
DOCSDIR accordingly.
If a directory is listed in PORTDOCS
or matched by a glob pattern from this variable,
the entire subtree of contained files and directories will be
registered in the final packing list. PORTDOCS
should not be set if NOPORTDOCS is in
effect. Installing the documentation at PORTDOCS
as shown above remains up to the port itself.
A typical example of utilizing PORTDOCS
looks as follows:.if !defined(NOPORTDOCS)
PORTDOCS= *
.endifYou can also use the pkg-message file to
display messages upon installation. See the section on using
pkg-message for details.
The pkg-message file does not need to be
added to pkg-plist.SubdirectoriesTry to let the port put things in the right subdirectories of
PREFIX. Some ports lump everything and put it in
the subdirectory with the port's name, which is incorrect. Also,
many ports put everything except binaries, header files and manual
pages in the a subdirectory of lib, which does
not work well with the BSD paradigm. Many of the files should be
moved to one of the following: etc
(setup/configuration files), libexec
(executables started internally), sbin
(executables for superusers/managers), info
(documentation for info browser) or share
(architecture independent files). See &man.hier.7; for details;
the rules governing
/usr pretty much apply to
/usr/local too. The exception are ports
dealing with USENET news. They may use
PREFIX/news as a destination
for their files.Cleaning up empty directoriesDo make your ports clean up after themselves when they are
de-installed. This is usually accomplished by adding
@dirrm lines for all directories that are
specifically created by the port. You need to delete subdirectories
before you can delete parent directories. :
lib/X11/oneko/pixmaps/cat.xpm
lib/X11/oneko/sounds/cat.au
:
@dirrm lib/X11/oneko/pixmaps
@dirrm lib/X11/oneko/sounds
@dirrm lib/X11/onekoHowever, sometimes @dirrm will give you
errors because other ports also share the same subdirectory. You
can call rmdir from @unexec to
remove only empty directories without warning.@unexec rmdir %D/share/doc/gimp 2>/dev/null || trueThis will neither print any error messages nor cause
&man.pkg.delete.1; to exit abnormally even if
PREFIX/share/doc/gimp is not
empty due to other ports installing some files in there.UIDsIf your port requires a certain user to be on the installed
system, let the pkg-install script call
pw to create it automatically. Look at
net/cvsup-mirror for an example.If your port must use the same user/group ID number when it is
installed as a binary package as when it was compiled, then you must
choose a free UID from 50 to 999 and register it below. Look at
japanese/Wnn6 for an example.Make sure you do not use a UID already used by the system or
other ports.This is the current list of UIDs between 50 and 999.bind:*:53:53:Bind Sandbox:/:/sbin/nologin
majordom:*:54:54:Majordomo Pseudo User:/usr/local/majordomo:/nonexistent
rdfdb:*:55:55:rdfDB Daemon:/var/db/rdfdb:/bin/sh
cyrus:*:60:60:the cyrus mail server:/nonexistent:/nonexistent
gnats:*:61:1:GNATS database owner:/usr/local/share/gnats/gnats-db:/bin/sh
proxy:*:62:62:Packet Filter pseudo-user:/nonexistent:/nonexistent
uucp:*:66:66:UUCP pseudo-user:/var/spool/uucppublic:/usr/libexec/uucp/uucico
xten:*:67:67:X-10 daemon:/usr/local/xten:/nonexistent
pop:*:68:6:Post Office Owner (popper):/nonexistent:/sbin/nologin
wnn:*:69:7:Wnn:/nonexistent:/nonexistent
pgsql:*:70:70:PostgreSQL pseudo-user:/usr/local/pgsql:/bin/sh
oracle:*:71:71::0:0:Oracle:/usr/local/oracle7:/sbin/nologin
ircd:*:72:72:IRC daemon:/nonexistent:/nonexistent
ircservices:*:73:73:IRC services:/nonexistent:/nonexistent
ifmail:*:75:66:Ifmail user:/nonexistent:/nonexistent
www:*:80:80:World Wide Web Owner:/nonexistent:/sbin/nologin
alias:*:81:81:QMail user:/var/qmail/alias:/nonexistent
qmaild:*:82:81:QMail user:/var/qmail:/nonexistent
qmaill:*:83:81:QMail user:/var/qmail:/nonexistent
qmailp:*:84:81:QMail user:/var/qmail:/nonexistent
qmailq:*:85:82:QMail user:/var/qmail:/nonexistent
qmailr:*:86:82:QMail user:/var/qmail:/nonexistent
qmails:*:87:82:QMail user:/var/qmail:/nonexistent
mysql:*:88:88:MySQL Daemon:/var/db/mysql:/sbin/nologin
vpopmail:*:89:89:VPop Mail User:/usr/local/vpopmail:/nonexistent
firebird:*:90:90:Firebird Database Administrator:/usr/local/firebird:/bin/sh
mailman:*:91:91:Mailman User:/usr/local/mailman:/sbin/nologin
gdm:*:92:92:GDM Sandbox:/:/sbin/nologin
jabber:*:93:93:Jabber Daemon:/nonexistent:/nonexistent
p4admin:*:94:94:Perforce admin:/usr/local/perforce:/sbin/nologin
interch:*:95:95:Interchange user:/usr/local/interchange:/sbin/nologin
squeuer:*:96:96:SQueuer Owner:/nonexistent:/bin/sh
mud:*:97:97:MUD Owner:/usr/local/share/dgd:/bin/sh
msql:*:98:98:mSQL-2 pseudo-user:/var/db/msqldb:/bin/sh
rscsi:*:99:99:Remote SCSI:/usr/local/rscsi:/usr/local/sbin/rscsi
squid:*:100:100:squid caching-proxy pseudo user:/usr/local/squid:/sbin/nologin
quagga:*:101:101:Quagga route daemon pseudo user:/usr/local/etc/quagga:/sbin/nologin
ganglia:*:102:102:Ganglia User:/nonexistent:/sbin/nologin
sgeadmin:*:103:103:Sun Grid Engine Admin:/nonexistent:/sbin/nologin
slimserv:*:104:104:Slim Devices SlimServer pseudo-user:/nonexistent:/sbin/nologin
dnetc:*:105:105:distributed.net client and proxy pseudo-user:/nonexistent:/sbin/nologin
clamav:*:106:106:Clamav Antivirus:/nonexistent:/sbin/nologin
cacti:*:107:107:Cacti Sandbox:/nonexistent:/sbin/nologin
webkit:*:108:108:WebKit Default User:/usr/local/www/webkit:/bin/sh
quickml:*:109:109:quickml Server:/nonexistent:/sbin/nologin
fido:*:111:111:Fido System:/usr/local/fido:/bin/sh
postfix:*:125:125:Postfix Mail System:/var/spool/postfix:/sbin/nologin
rbldns:*:153:153:rbldnsd pseudo-user:/nonexistent:/sbin/nologin
sfs:*:171:171:Self-Certifying File System:/nonexistent:/sbin/nologin
agk:*:172:172:AquaGateKeeper:/nonexistent:/nonexistent
moinmoin:*:192:192:MoinMoin User:/nonexistent:/sbin/nologin
ldap:*:389:389:OpenLDAP Server:/nonexistent:/sbin/nologin
drweb:*:426:426:Dr.Web Mail Scanner:/nonexistent:/sbin/nologin
courier:*:465:465:Courier Mail Server:/nonexistent:/sbin/nologin
qtss:*:554:554:Darwin Streaming Server:/nonexistent:/sbin/nologin
ircdru:*:555:555:Russian hybrid IRC server:/nonexistent:/bin/sh
messagebus:*:556:556:D-BUS Daemon User:/nonexistent:/sbin/nologin
bacula:*:910:910:Bacula Daemon:/var/db/bacula:/sbin/nologinThis is the current list of reserved GIDs.bind:*:53:
rdfdb:*:55:
cyrus:*:60:
proxy:*:62:
authpf:*:63:
uucp:*:66:
dialer:*:68:
network:*:69:
pgsql:*:70:
www:*:80:
qnofiles:*:81:
qmail:*:82:
mailman:*:91:
postfix:*:125:
maildrop:*:126:
rbldns:*:153:
moinmoin:*:192:
courier:*:465:
qtss:*:554:
ircdru:*:555:
messagebus:*:556:Please include a notice when you submit a port (or an upgrade)
that reserves a new UID or GID in this range. This allows us to
keep the list of reserved IDs up to date.Do things rationallyThe Makefile should do things simply and
reasonably. If you can make it a couple of lines shorter or more
readable, then do so. Examples include using a make
.if construct instead of a shell
if construct, not redefining
do-extract if you can redefine
EXTRACT* instead, and using
GNU_CONFIGURE instead of CONFIGURE_ARGS
+= --prefix=${PREFIX}.If you find yourself having to write a lot
of new code to try to do something, please go back and review
bsd.port.mk to see if it contains an
existing implementation of what you are trying to do. While
hard to read, there are a great many seemingly-hard problems for
which bsd.port.mk already provides a
shorthand solution.Respect both CC and
CXXThe port should respect both CC
and CXX variables. What we mean by this
is that the port should not set the values of these variables
absolutely, overriding existing values; instead, it should append
whatever values it needs to the existing values. This is so that
build options that affect all ports can be set globally.If the port does not respect these variables,
please add NO_PACKAGE=ignores either cc or
cxx to the Makefile.An example of a Makefile respecting
both CC and CXX
variables follows. Note the ?=:CC ?= gccCXX ?= g++Here is an example which respects neither
CC nor CXX
variables:CC = gccCXX = g++Both CC and CFLAGS
variables can be defined on FreeBSD systems in
/etc/make.conf. The first example
defines a value if it was not previously set in
/etc/make.conf, preserving any
system-wide definitions. The second example clobbers
anything previously defined.Respect CFLAGSThe port should respect the CFLAGS variable.
What we mean by this is that the port should not set the value of
this variable absolutely, overriding the existing value; instead,
it should append whatever values it needs to the existing value.
This is so that build options that affect all ports can be set
globally.If it does not, please add NO_PACKAGE=ignores
cflags to the Makefile.An example of a Makefile respecting
the CFLAGS variable follows. Note the
+=:CFLAGS += -Wall -WerrorHere is an example which does not respect the
CFLAGS variable:CFLAGS = -Wall -WerrorThe CFLAGS variable is defined on
FreeBSD systems in /etc/make.conf. The
first example appends additional flags to the
CFLAGS variable, preserving any system-wide
definitions. The second example clobbers anything previously
defined.Configuration filesIf your port requires some configuration files in
PREFIX/etc, do
not just install them and list them in
pkg-plist. That will cause
&man.pkg.delete.1; to delete files carefully edited by
the user and a new installation to wipe them out.Instead, install sample files with a suffix
(filename.sample
will work well) and print out a message pointing out that the
user has to copy and edit the file before the software can be made
to work.FeedbackDo send applicable changes/patches to the original
author/maintainer for inclusion in next release of the code. This
will only make your job that much easier for the next
release.README.htmlDo not include the README.html file. This
file is not part of the cvs collection but is generated using the
make readme command.
Marking a port BROKEN, FORBIDDEN, or otherwiseInvariably there will come a time when a particular port
will contain a security vulnerability, will be radically
broken and needs many hours of tender loving care, or is
generally obsoleted, but for one reason or another should
remain in the tree (and get fixed, right?). To designate a
port as broken, there are three make
variables that can be used in a port's
Makefile. The value of the following
make variables will be the reason that is
given back to users for why the port was marked as broken.
Please use the correct make variable as
each make variable conveys radically different meanings to
both users, and to automated systems that parse
Makefiles.BROKEN is reserved for ports that
do not work and should not be installed by users. This
will prevent users from installing the port.TRYBROKEN is used for ports
if you want to attempt a build of a
BROKEN port. Ports marked as
TRYBROKEN will be also built by
the Pointyhat
cluster.FORBIDDEN is used for ports that
do contain a security vulnerability or induce grave
concern regarding the security of a FreeBSD system with
a given port installed (ex: a reputably insecure program
or a program that provides easily exploitable services).
Ports should be marked as FORBIDDEN
as soon as a particular piece of software has a
vulnerability and there is no released upgrade. Ideally
ports should be upgraded as soon as possible when a
security vulnerability is discovered so as to reduce the
number of vulnerable FreeBSD hosts (we like being known
for being secure), however sometimes there is a
noticeable time gap between disclosure of a
vulnerability and an updated release of the
vulnerable software. Do not mark a port
FORBIDDEN for any reason other than
security.IGNORE is reserved for ports that
should not be built for one reason or another. Users
and the Pointyhat
cluster will not, under any
circumstances, build ports marked as
IGNORE. If in doubt, do use
IGNORE to prevent a port from being
built.Do remember that these variables are to be used as a
last resort if a port is not upgradeable. Permanently
broken ports should be removed from the tree
entirely.Necessary workaroundsSometimes it is necessary to work around bugs in
software included with older versions of &os;.Some versions of &man.make.1; were broken
on at least 4.8 and 5.0 with respect to handling
comparisons based on OSVERSION.
This would often lead to failures during
make describe (and thus, the overall
ports make index). The workaround is
to enclose the conditional comparison in spaces, e.g.:
if ( ${OSVERSION} > 500023 )
Be aware that test-installing a port on 4.9 or 5.2
will not detect this problem.MiscellaneaThe files
pkg-descr and pkg-plist
should each be double-checked. If you are reviewing a port and feel
they can be worded better, do so.Do not copy more copies of the GNU General Public License into
our system, please.Please be careful to note any legal issues! Do not let us
illegally distribute software!If you are stuck…Do look at existing examples and the
bsd.port.mk file before asking us questions!
;-)Do ask us questions if you have any trouble! Do not just beat
your head against a wall! :-)A Sample MakefileHere is a sample Makefile that you can use to
create a new port. Make sure you remove all the extra comments (ones
between brackets)!It is recommended that you follow this format (ordering of
variables, empty lines between sections, etc.). This format is
designed so that the most important information is easy to locate. We
recommend that you use portlint to check the
Makefile.[the header...just to make it easier for us to identify the ports.]
# New ports collection makefile for: xdvi
[the "version required" line is only needed when the PORTVERSION
variable is not specific enough to describe the port.]
# Date created: 26 May 1995
[this is the person who did the original port to FreeBSD, in particular, the
person who wrote the first version of this Makefile. Remember, this should
not be changed when upgrading the port later.]
# Whom: Satoshi Asami <asami@FreeBSD.org>
#
# $FreeBSD$
[ ^^^^^^^^^ This will be automatically replaced with RCS ID string by CVS
when it is committed to our repository. If upgrading a port, do not alter
this line back to "$FreeBSD$". CVS deals with it automatically.]
#
[section to describe the port itself and the master site - PORTNAME
and PORTVERSION are always first, followed by CATEGORIES,
and then MASTER_SITES, which can be followed by MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR.
PKGNAMEPREFIX and PKGNAMESUFFIX, if needed, will be after that.
Then comes DISTNAME, EXTRACT_SUFX and/or DISTFILES, and then
EXTRACT_ONLY, as necessary.]
PORTNAME= xdvi
PORTVERSION= 18.2
CATEGORIES= print
[do not forget the trailing slash ("/")!
if you are not using MASTER_SITE_* macros]
MASTER_SITES= ${MASTER_SITE_XCONTRIB}
MASTER_SITE_SUBDIR= applications
PKGNAMEPREFIX= ja-
DISTNAME= xdvi-pl18
[set this if the source is not in the standard ".tar.gz" form]
EXTRACT_SUFX= .tar.Z
[section for distributed patches -- can be empty]
PATCH_SITES= ftp://ftp.sra.co.jp/pub/X11/japanese/
PATCHFILES= xdvi-18.patch1.gz xdvi-18.patch2.gz
[maintainer; *mandatory*! This is the person (preferably with commit
privileges) whom a user can contact for questions and bug reports - this
person should be the porter or someone who can forward questions to the
original porter reasonably promptly. If you really do not want to have
your address here, set it to "ports@FreeBSD.org".]
MAINTAINER= asami@FreeBSD.org
COMMENT= A DVI Previewer for the X Window System
[dependencies -- can be empty]
RUN_DEPENDS= gs:${PORTSDIR}/print/ghostscript
LIB_DEPENDS= Xpm.5:${PORTSDIR}/graphics/xpm
[this section is for other standard bsd.port.mk variables that do not
belong to any of the above]
[If it asks questions during configure, build, install...]
IS_INTERACTIVE= yes
[If it extracts to a directory other than ${DISTNAME}...]
WRKSRC= ${WRKDIR}/xdvi-new
[If the distributed patches were not made relative to ${WRKSRC}, you
may need to tweak this]
PATCH_DIST_STRIP= -p1
[If it requires a "configure" script generated by GNU autoconf to be run]
GNU_CONFIGURE= yes
[If it requires GNU make, not /usr/bin/make, to build...]
USE_GMAKE= yes
[If it is an X application and requires "xmkmf -a" to be run...]
USE_IMAKE= yes
[et cetera.]
[non-standard variables to be used in the rules below]
MY_FAVORITE_RESPONSE= "yeah, right"
[then the special rules, in the order they are called]
pre-fetch:
i go fetch something, yeah
post-patch:
i need to do something after patch, great
pre-install:
and then some more stuff before installing, wow
[and then the epilogue]
.include <bsd.port.mk>Automated package list creationFirst, make sure your port is almost complete, with only
pkg-plist missing.Next, create a temporary directory tree into which your port can be
installed, and install any dependencies.
port-type should be local
for non-X ports and x11-4 or x11
for ports which install into the directory hierarchy of XFree86 4
or an earlier XFree86 release, respectively.&prompt.root; mkdir /var/tmp/port-name
&prompt.root; mtree -U -f /etc/mtree/BSD.port-type.dist -d -e -p /var/tmp/port-name
&prompt.root; make depends PREFIX=/var/tmp/port-nameStore the directory structure in a new file.&prompt.root; (cd /var/tmp/port-name && find -d * -type d) | sort > OLD-DIRSCreate an empty pkg-plist file:&prompt.root; touch pkg-plistIf your port honors PREFIX (which it should)
you can then install the port and create the package list.&prompt.root; make install PREFIX=/var/tmp/port-name
&prompt.root; (cd /var/tmp/port-name && find -d * \! -type d) | sort > pkg-plistYou must also add any newly created directories to the packing
list.&prompt.root; (cd /var/tmp/port-name && find -d * -type d) | sort | comm -13 OLD-DIRS - | sort -r | sed -e 's#^#@dirrm #' >> pkg-plistFinally, you need to tidy up the packing list by hand; it is not
all automated. Manual pages should be listed in
the port's Makefile under
MANn, and not in the
package list. User configuration files should be removed, or
installed as
filename.sample.
The info/dir file should not be listed
and appropriate install-info lines should
be added as noted in the info
files section. Any
libraries installed by the port should be listed as specified in the
shared libraries section.Alternatively, use the plist script in
/usr/ports/Tools/scripts/ to build the
package list automatically. The first step is the same as
above: take the first three lines, that is,
mkdir, mtree and
make depends. Then build and install the
port:&prompt.root; make install PREFIX=/var/tmp/port-nameAnd let plist create the
pkg-plist file:&prompt.root; /usr/ports/Tools/scripts/plist -Md -m /etc/mtree/BSD.port-type.dist /var/tmp/port-name > pkg-plistThe packing list still have to tidied up the by hand as
stated above.Keeping UpThe &os; Ports Collection is constantly changing. Here is
some information on how to keep up.FreshPortsOne of the easiest ways to learn about updates that have
already been committed is by subscribing to
FreshPorts.
You can select multiple ports to monitor. Maintainers are
strongly encouraged to subscribe, because they will receive
notification of not only their own changes, but also any
changes that any other &os; committer has made. (These are
often necessary to keep up with changes in the underlying
ports framework—although it would be most polite to
receive an advance heads-up from those committing such changes,
sometimes this is overlooked or just simply impractical.
Also, in some cases, the changes are very minor in nature.
We expect everyone to use their best judgement in these
cases.)If you wish to use FreshPorts, all you need is an
account. If your registered email address is
@FreeBSD.org, you'll see the opt-in link on the
right hand side of the webpages.
For those of you who already have a FreshPorts account, but are not
using your @FreeBSD.org email address,
just change your email to @FreeBSD.org, subscribe,
then change it back again.FreshPorts also has
a sanity test feature which automatically tests each commit to the
FreeBSD ports tree. If subscribed to this service, you will be
notified of any errors which FreshPorts detects during sanity
testing of your commits.The Web Interface to the Source RepositoryIt is possible to browse the files in the source repository by
using a web interface. Changes that affect the entire port system
are now documented in the
CHANGES file. Changes that affect individual ports
are now documented in the
UPDATING file. However, the definitive answer to any
question is undoubtedly to read the source code of
bsd.port.mk, and associated files.The &os; Ports Mailing ListIf you maintain ports, you should consider following the
&a.ports;. Important changes to the way ports work will be announced
there, and then committed to CHANGES.The &os; Port Building ClusterOne of the least-publicized strengths of &os; is that
an entire cluster of machines is dedicated to continually
building the Ports Collection, for each of the major OS
releases and for each Tier-1 architecture. You can find
the results of these builds at
package building logs
and errors.The &os; Port Distfile SurveyThe build cluster is dedicated to building the latest
release of each port with distfiles that have already been
fetched. However, as the Internet continually changes,
distfiles can quickly go missing. The FreeBSD
Ports distfiles survey attempts to query every
download site for every port to find out if each distfile
is still currently available. Maintainers are asked to
check this report periodically, not only to speed up the
building process for users, but to help avoid wasting
bandwidth of the sites that volunteer to host all these
distfiles.The &os; Ports Monitoring SystemAnother handy resource is the
FreeBSD Ports Monitoring System (also known as
portsmon). This system comprises a
database that processes information from several sources
and allows its to be browsed via a web interface. Currently,
the ports Problem Reports (PRs), the error logs from
the build cluster, and individual files from the ports
collection are used. In the future, this will be expanded
to include the distfile survey, as well as other sources.To get started, you can view all information about a
particular port by using the
Overview of One Port.
diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/share/sgml/glossary/freebsd-glossary.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/share/sgml/glossary/freebsd-glossary.sgml
index 13dd1914b5..989640e58d 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/share/sgml/glossary/freebsd-glossary.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/share/sgml/glossary/freebsd-glossary.sgml
@@ -1,236 +1,236 @@
&os; GlossaryThis glossary contains terms and acronyms used within the &os;
community and documentation.BBerkeley Software Distribution
BSD
This is the name that the Computer Systems Research Group
(CSRG) at The University
of California at Berkeley
gave to their improvements and modifications to
AT&T's 32V &unix;.
&os; is a descendant of the CSRG work.Bikeshed BuildingA phenomenon whereby many people will give an opinion on
an uncomplicated topic, whilst a complex topic receives little
or no discussion. See the
- FAQ for
+ FAQ for
the origin of the term.BSDGGiantThe name of a mutual exclusion mechanism
(a sleep mutex) that protects a large
set of kernel resources. Although a simple locking mechanism
was adequate in the days where a machine might have only
a few dozen processes, one networking card, and certainly
only one processor, in current times it is an unacceptable
performance bottleneck. &os; developers are actively working
to replace it with locks that protect individual resources,
which will allow a much greater degree of parallelism for
both single-processor and multi-processor machines.KKernel Scheduler Entities
KSE
A kernel-supported threading system. See the project home page
for further details.KSELLock Order Reversal
LOR
The &os; kernel uses a number of resource locks to
arbitrate contention for those resources. A run-time
lock diagnostic system found in &os.current; kernels
(but removed for releases), called &man.witness.4;,
detects the potential for deadlocks due to locking errors.
(&man.witness.4; is actually slightly conservative, so
it is possible to get false positives.) A true positive
report indicates that if you were unlucky, a deadlock would
have happened here.True positive LORs tend to get fixed quickly, so
check &a.current.url; and the
LORs Seen page before posting to the mailing lists.LORMMerge From Current
MFC
To merge functionality or a patch from the -CURRENT
branch to another, most often -STABLE.Merge From Stable
MFS
In the normal course of FreeBSD development, a change will
be committed to the -CURRENT branch for testing before being
merged to -STABLE. On rare occasions, a change will go into
-STABLE first and then be merged to -CURRENT.This term is also used when a patch is merged from -STABLE
to a security branch.MFCMFSNNDISulatorOOvertaken By Events
OBE
Indicates a suggested change (such as a Problem Report
or a feature request) which is no longer relevant or
applicable due to such things as later changes to &os;,
changes in networking standards, the affected hardware
having since become obsolete, and so forth.OBEPPointy HatA mythical piece of headgear, much like a
dunce cap, awarded to any &os;
committer who breaks the build, makes revision numbers
go backwards, or creates any other kind of havoc in
the source base. Any committer worth his or her salt
will soon accumulate a large collection. The usage is
(almost always?) humorous.Principle Of Least Astonishment
POLA
As &os; evolves, changes visible to the user should be
kept as unsurprising as possible. For example, arbitrarily
rearranging system startup variables in
/etc/defaults/rc.conf violates
POLA. Developers consider
POLA when contemplating user-visible
system changes.POLAProject EvilThe working title for the NDISulator,
written by Bill Paul, who named it referring to how awful
it is (from a philosophical standpoint) to need to have
something like this in the first place. The
NDISulator is a special compatibility
module to allow Microsoft Windows™ NDIS miniport
network drivers to be used with &os;/i386. This is usually
the only way to use cards where the driver is closed-source.
See src/sys/compat/ndis/subr_ndis.c.