CS1206: FreeBSD Information

Local Resources

• FreeBSD CD Loaner: Thanks to Markus Groener, I now have two FreeBSD 2.1.5 CDs and one FreeBSD 2.1.6 CD I can loan out for students to use. The loan period is 3 days. If you'd like to borrow one, send me e-mail and I'll put you on the waiting list and let you know when one is available.

• FreeBSD CD Purchases: You can get buy FreeBSD CDs from:
  1. Walnut Creek CDROM: (800) 786-9907 (or their web page)
  2. Egres Systems, Inc.: (800) 651-1105

• The local CS Lab FreeBSD FTP mirror site has the latest official FreeBSD version, as well as the latest ports and packages.

  If you have a direct ethernet connection through your computer (not a dial-up modem connection) you can directly install FreeBSD right over the network once you've made a boot floppy.

• You can download the boot.flp here, as well as the rawrite.exe program necessary to create a bootable installation floppy for version 2.1.7.

• You can download either of two operating system boot selectors to use for choosing the OS you wish when your machine starts up:
  • OSBS 2.0 Beta--the Operating System Boot Selector (used in lab), beta release
  • osbs 1.35--the Operating System Boot Selector, previous stable release
  • BootEasy 1.7--BootEasy, the default installed during FreeBSD installation

Installing FreeBSD

• The official FreeBSD 2.1.7 Installation Guide

• The local CS Lab VTCS CD Installation Guide (which is dated--it uses 2.0.5--but still useful); this guide covers the steps needed to rebuild the default kernel to enable PS/2 mouse support. Note that with versions 2.1.6 and above, PS/2 mouse support can be enabled using visual kernel configuration during the install process, and it is no longer necessary to recompile the kernel to use a PS/2 mouse.

• Special Installation Topics:
  • Installing From a DOS Partition (from the CS1206 FAQ)
  • Setting Up a SLIP/PPP Connection (from the CS1206 FAQ)
  • Configuring X Windows (XFree86)
  • Configuring X to automatically start using xdm as in the labs
  • Craig Struble's overheads for configuring X Windows (PostScript version)
  • Jim Miller's overheads for Network setup (PostScript version)
  • Jim Miller's Network setup script (.tar.gz file)

The Definitive Answers

• FreeBSD's home web site (latest released version is 2.1.7; version in use in lab is 2.2 Gamma)

• The official FreeBSD Handbook

• XFree86's home web site (the latest version is 3.2; version in use in the lab and on the FreeBSD 2.1.5 CD is 3.1.2; users of new 3D graphics boards may need to us the latest version)

• comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.announce newsgroup

• comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc newsgroup

FAQs

• Virginia Tech CS lab's FreeBSD Frequently Asked Questions list (11/06/95)

• The CS1206 FreeBSD Frequently Asked Questions list (05/10/96)

• The official FreeBSD FAQ maintained at www.freebsd.org

• The official XFree86 FAQ maintained at www.xfree86.org