securitybreach Posted July 31, 2009 Share Posted July 31, 2009 (edited) I have an extra 100gb partition and I thought I would try out BSD. Well I downloaded FreeBSD 7.1.1 and at the partition step I am a bit confused on how the partitions work. I am used to a Linux based cfdisk or fdisk and I completely confused on the slice concept in BSD. I was wondering if anyone had a good link explaining how the BSD partitions work and some other useful information on initial setup along side Linux. I have the partitions already setup so it is matter of understanding how cfdisk works on BSD. In Linux, I just make a /, /home, and swap and set mount points and run the installer. I was also wondering if I can use the same partition for swap as I use on Linux. I plan on installing without installing the BSD MBR since I have a nice Arch grub setup and I would appreciate some thoughts on how to add BSD to grub. I am now downloading PC-BSD to see if the installation is explained a little clearer since I would rather use the normal FreeBSD than PC-BSD. I just need to understand the basics of the differences between Linux and BSD. I had tried BSD years ago but the partition part messed me up and I screwed up the partition table since I did not fully understand the concept. I am trying not to do that again, so any advice or others would be appreciated. Once I understand the installation a little better, I plan on setting up regular FreeBSD. I am comfortable in the ncurses installer and I do not need a complete walk through but just a starting point to help me understand BSD versus Linux, as far as install goes. Thanks alot.I am reading the handbook http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ and maybe it can provide some insight. Edited July 31, 2009 by securitybreach Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted July 31, 2009 Share Posted July 31, 2009 Interesting. I actually d-loaded FreeBSD a while back, but didn't install it for some reason. I'm interested to see how this pans out for you.Here's a tutorial about installing FreeBSD (might be a bit out-dated):http://linux.about.com/library/bl/bl_freebsd_inst_conf.htmand here's and explanation for BSD "disklabel":http://onlamp.com/pub/a/bsd/2002/06/27/Big...ry_Daemons.htmlMaybe those will help you a bit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted July 31, 2009 Share Posted July 31, 2009 Got another link for you from The Linux Documentation Project::http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Linux+FreeBSD.html#toc3Andhttp://tldp.org/HOWTO/Linux+FreeBSD-2.html . . . and sharing swap:http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Linux+FreeBSD-3.html Bruno Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onederer Posted July 31, 2009 Share Posted July 31, 2009 I've always wondered about this. Does FreeBSD support as many applications and peripherals as Linux does?Is it now GUI oriented? Or is it heavily text oriented? How about codecs and applications for wireless operation?Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted July 31, 2009 Author Share Posted July 31, 2009 Thanks a lot everyone for the links. This evening after work I am going to give it a go. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longgone Posted July 31, 2009 Share Posted July 31, 2009 Go to .... the BSD web site think it is www.bsd.org ... I have been messing with BSD for over a year now .. get ready .. it is an experience ... first off you will probably have to set up "X" ... then add either KDM or GDM as the GUI you want ... lots of new stuff there .. lots Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted July 31, 2009 Author Share Posted July 31, 2009 (edited) Go to .... the BSD web site think it is www.bsd.org ... I have been messing with BSD for over a year now .. get ready .. it is an experience ... first off you will probably have to set up "X" ... then add either KDM or GDM as the GUI you want ... lots of new stuff there .. lotsWell I am used to that since I have Archlinux on all my machines. I have no problem finishing the installation with just a shell and building from there. I also tend to not use a gui login so no KDM or GDM and I usually run Openbox or Xmonad. Also, the website is http://www.freebsd.org/ although there is http://www.bsd.org but it only gives an overview of the types of BSD.Thanks Edited July 31, 2009 by securitybreach Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted July 31, 2009 Author Share Posted July 31, 2009 (edited) I've always wondered about this. Does FreeBSD support as many applications and peripherals as Linux does?Is it now GUI oriented? Or is it heavily text oriented? How about codecs and applications for wireless operation?Thanks!Well I guess it depends on what window manager you want. It can be Gnome, KDE, XFCE, etc. Most of all the same packages you use in Linux are ported to BSD. Here is some info on the package management system of FreeBSD: http://www.hypexr.org/freebsd_ports_help.php As far as wireless, FreeBSD is supposed to support most all hardware and I have heard it actually supports more than Linux but that may just be an opinion. I have read that FreeBSD supports most all wireless chipsets so you should be good to go.Thanks Edited July 31, 2009 by securitybreach Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonbiber Posted July 31, 2009 Share Posted July 31, 2009 aside from pcbsdhttp://www.pcbsd.org/There's also desktopbsdhttp://desktopbsd.net/I installed freebsd a long long time ago. I remember that it took some timeto adjust to their way of naming the devices (plus the slices)I installed pcbsd on VirtualBox a couple of timesYou can actually install it on a partition and if you have other systems in theother partitions (linux, mscrap ...) and a boot loader (grub/lilo) you areoffered the choice of not installing the bsd boot loader to the mbrboth pcbsd and desktopbsd use kde Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted July 31, 2009 Author Share Posted July 31, 2009 (edited) Thanks for the links although I will probably just go with regular FreeBSD. Also, I was plan to just manually add FreeBSD to my Archlinux grub anyway.Thanks Edited July 31, 2009 by securitybreach Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted July 31, 2009 Author Share Posted July 31, 2009 (edited) Well it seems BSD can only be installed onto primary partitions. Now this is a problem because my partitions are:/dev/sda1 * 1 8924 71680000 7 HPFS/NTFS WINDOWS/dev/sda2 8924 13179 34178287+ 83 Linux //dev/sda3 13179 13665 3903795 82 Linux swap / Solaris swap/dev/sda4 13665 121601 866996895 5 Extended /dev/sda5 13665 108495 761721943+ 83 Linux /home/dev/sda6 108495 121601 105274919+ 83 Linux Where BSD would of gone.So it looks as though I would have to redo my partition table which means a reinstallation of Archlinux. Or I could back up my /home and wipe out swap. Then make a BSD partition and make swap and /home on logical partition. Any ideals before I take the dive? Ok I decided to leave Arch installed and just change the partition under /, home and swap to logical partitions. Then I should be able to edit fstab accordingly. Wish me luck.Thanks Edited July 31, 2009 by securitybreach Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted August 1, 2009 Share Posted August 1, 2009 AHA! That's why I didn't install the FreeBSD after I downloaded it a few weeks back. I 'member now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted August 1, 2009 Author Share Posted August 1, 2009 (edited) It gets worse...........To begin with I had to remove the partitions as stated above to make a primary partition but then FreeBSD would say the partitions were in use. So I deleted the logical partitions completely and made a "slice". Basically BSD takes a partition and then makes slices for /, /home/ swap, /boot, etc. The installer was ncurses like Slackware and Arch and was pretty straighforward. First BSD was installed(like 3 minutes), then the installer gave the option to install various OSS software including a LInux emulator?. As I was watching the installer, I saw that it installed all the gstreamer codecs and flash. Then it installed X and gnome. After boot, I could not figure out how to start gnome even though it was installed the package was missing. I think I need to understand the BSD way before going with the vanilla FreeBSD.Next I went to install PC-BSD and since I already had a BSD partition, that part was easy. The installer looks very professional and is very easy to use. Once again all codecs, flash, and kde. This time around though I could not get it to boot without errors. I had regular FreeBSD booted without any problems besides not knowing how to startx. So for tonight I am done with the BSD adventure, gonna try again tomorrow but for now I am having to restore 700gb worth of data to my /home. Even worse somehow in the whole partitioning nightmare my /backup harddrive gave me e2fsck errors when booting Archlinux. So I will have to reformat it and rsync my /home again.Thanks Edited August 1, 2009 by securitybreach Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted August 1, 2009 Share Posted August 1, 2009 I think the best advice for people that want to experiment with BSD is: Pull out the HD of your computer next dig in your box of old parts and find an old HD to replace it. This way you can allow BSD to use the full disk without the risk of messing up any distros you have installed.Once you know all the ins and outs of BSD you can swap the HDs again and add your favourite BSD to the multibootB) Bruno Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted August 1, 2009 Author Share Posted August 1, 2009 (edited) Ok I finally got it booted and as I was setting up my dual display. I realized there is NO 64bit BSD Nvidia drivers and the nv is crap. Also, I have 8gb of ram so I have to run 64bit. After all that trouble, I realize BSD will not work for me unless I left HALF or my ram unused.Well atleast I learned about the ext3 data recovery program foremost. That is one handy tool. I had formatted the partition and ran e2fsck on it and Foremost recovered everything. Except the naming convention was crap but it did recover them. I guess we all learn from are mistakes. Maybe I should read into it a little more next time. Oh well, what Unix can I install now.....maybe OpenSolaris?Crap: The quibbles? nVidia Ethernet still isn't supported directly OpenSolaris 09.06 (32 and 64-bit)There went that ideal.Thanks Edited August 1, 2009 by securitybreach Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted August 1, 2009 Share Posted August 1, 2009 Stick with Linux. Maybe it's time for you to do the "Linux From Scratch" deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted August 1, 2009 Author Share Posted August 1, 2009 Stick with Linux. Maybe it's time for you to do the "Linux From Scratch" deal. Yeah I was thinking about that.Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonbiber Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 Oh well, what Unix can I install now.....maybe OpenSolaris?as far as I'm concerned OpenSolaris sucks. I tried to install it once. I didn't like it.If you have an available linux-formatted partition and you have grub installed on your MBR(I guess lilo should work too, but I use grub and I prefer it over lilo)you can do a frugal install of several linux live systems.I have a partition that I use mainly for storage. I copied there and tweaked a bitthese live distros:slax, RIPlinux, pmagic, grml, tinycore, slamppand created entries in my grub menu.lstI could give more info if you're interestedSpeaking of BSD, there's a freebsd-live.iso (about 223MB):ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/release...i386-livefs.iso Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted August 5, 2009 Author Share Posted August 5, 2009 as far as I'm concerned OpenSolaris sucks. I tried to install it once. I didn't like it.If you have an available linux-formatted partition and you have grub installed on your MBR(I guess lilo should work too, but I use grub and I prefer it over lilo)you can do a frugal install of several linux live systems.I have a partition that I use mainly for storage. I copied there and tweaked a bitthese live distros:slax, RIPlinux, pmagic, grml, tinycore, slamppand created entries in my grub menu.lstI could give more info if you're interestedSpeaking of BSD, there's a freebsd-live.iso (about 223MB):ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/release...i386-livefs.iso Thanks for the link. I probably will leave BSD alone for now since there is no Nvidia driver for a 64bit BSD. I have 8gb of ram so a 32 bit install is pointless since I could only use 3.5 of 8gb.Thanks though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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