FreeBSD 5.0 RC3 Now Ready

Dan writes "Scott Long announces that FreeBSD 5.0 RC3 has been released and available at all mirrors sites. Release notes can be viewed here, you can download 5.0 RC3 from ftp.freebsd.org or from one of your favorite mirror sites. Many thanks to the FreeBSD Release Engineering team for their work efforts!"

Re:*BSD Vs. Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

Common question, what you will hear:

1. BSD can do everything Linux can do

2. Better server OS though in recent years linux has greatly caught up

3. Not as good on the desktop on Linux

4. FreeBSD ports system is better than anything linux offers

5. Not as good hardware support on FreeBSD as Linux, or games.

6. I think FreeBSD is easier to install(others think I am crazy)

7. Java sucks on FreeBSD

7. BSD is dead

I switched from linux to FreeBSD and prefer FreeBSD so take my comments with a grain of salt.

Since I don;t want to label a linux-haters and watch my karma drop like a rock, I'm posting ac

Great!

[Tyler Eaves]

Really looking to 5.0-RELEASE, which is getting quite close now. FreeBSD really is a nice OS> I'd really encourage all linux users to give it a try!

Re:*BSD Vs. Linux

[Test Drive]

FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD are available for you to try out in the HP Test Drive Program [hp.com]. We also have several Linux distributions available for you to try, as well as HP-UX, Tru64 UNIX, and OpenVMS. Personally, I've found the *BSDs to be quite stable and easy to comprehend. Try them out for yourself in Test Drive [hp.com] and see what you think.

I may work for HP, but I don't speak for them.

Re:Excellent System

[Tyler Eaves]

Edit in rc.conf:

moused_enable="YES"

moused_flags="-z 4"

moused_port="/dev/psm0"

moused_type="auto"

In your XF86Config:

Section "InputDevice"

Identifier "Mouse0"

Option "Protocol" "auto"

Option "Device" "/dev/sysmouse"

Option "Buttons" "5"

EndSection

That's my setup in 4.7-RELEASE with an MS Optical. Should be generic though.

Re:A more elegant means to acquire upgrades?

[Tyler Eaves]

Look into doing a make world in FreeBSD. This is s omewhat involved process, but after a few hours of compiling and and building a new kernel, a bit of luck, and a reboot, and you'll be running the release of your choice. This is covered in great detail in the excellent FreeBSD handbook.

Re:A more elegant means to acquire upgrades?

[MalHavoc]

What you seek is cvsup:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books /h andbook/synching.html

You create your cvsup config file, and then run the command line cvsup app. It polls a CVS server and downloads the source tree you want into /usr/src, typically. Then you can go about your make buildworld/make buildkernel/make installworld/make installkernel process (documented in /usr/src/UPDATING), and you're golden.

Re:*BSD Vs. Linux

[gomerbud]

I will never consider using Gentoo again until they bump the ebuild version when a change is made to the ebuild script. This lack of versioning is disgusting and can be the cause of serious problems. Use FreeBSD. They bump the patch version of a port when any change is made to the Makefile.

Re:FreeBSD Install Process

[lactose99]

The installer is very similar to that of 4.7, which is probably not as easy to setup as RedHat is. FreeBSD still requires you to know a bit about what hardware is installed, and how you want the system to function (disk partitioning, package installation, user creation, X setup are all still a manual process within the installer).

That being said, I still find it quite easy to install and it works great on newer hardware (FINALLY!! CardBus and ACPI support). Besides, I still think the ports tree is perhaps the easiest and most complete package management system around, light-years ahead of RPM.

Re:Who says that?

[gomerbud]

I hope you know that Mac OS-X is based on a modified FreeBSD kernel.

Mac OS X uses the FreeBSD userland. The kernel is Mach with a BSD API layer on top of it.

Re:*BSD Vs. Linux

[big_groo]

6. I think FreeBSD is easier to install(others think I am crazy)

As a relative noob here, I have to say that I've found the exact same thing. I've tried Redhat, Mandrake, Debian, Slackware(fav. linux distro - since 4.0) Caldera and SuSE. After trying all these, I found that the BSD install just makes sense (and talk about your options!!) Kind of like Slackware.

Re:Still a few gotchas

[gomerbud]

Or you could read their Early Adopter's Guide [freebsd.org] and wait until 5.1-RELEASE or 5.2-RELEASE as suggested if stability is an issue.

Re:been running it since last night

[shlong]

The problems with compiling kdenetwork seem to be fixed in RC3. The full kde suite is also available as an install option now, so there is no need to compile it.

Depends where you're coming from.

[Anonymous Coward]

I always found Debian a bit obtuse, but mostly per the old, now-deprecated package manager it chose to dump you into on install.

The distros that emphasize what you call 'simplicity' seem to work okay for users who expect a full XPerience, but to someone like myself, coming from small, customizable systems like DOS and AmigaOS, I couldn't wrap my head around 900 preinstalled entries in /usr/bin ("and why do I have /usr/local/bin, and why is it empty?").

What finally got me flying with *NIX was an install of OpenBSD; Slack, Gentoo or Sourcemage would probably have worked as well, if they'd existed in modern form at that time. [Of course, in retrospect, OpenBSD is still a bit crufty with BIND and Apache by default, but it was a good start, and I now know when to use each of Free, Net, and Open.]

I should also note I'm one of those weird ones who finds BSD kernel config files much more intelligible than (2.2's, admittedly) menuconfig... that's an even more subjective matter than arguing inits, but when you're a noob praying for hardware support, it makes or breaks you. [This was in the bad old days, when Debian's stable kernel hadn't heard of generic Tulip-based NICs, and FreeBSD hadn't either. I stuck with OS/2 for another dozen months, then put FreeBSD 3.5 on a 486 with a 14.4 modem (no LAN!), and evolved from there.

Re:Upgrade path from 4.x-STABLE to 5.X-STABLE?

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't, unfortunetly. Please read the Changelog/Release Notes. A complete reinstall is recommended.

Re:Java?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's still in negotiation, which will apparently be straightened out somehow Real Soon Now Finally We Mean It This Time, and the end result sounds like it will be availability of a precompiled package from the Pain In The Ass build process, so you don't have to sweat through it yourself.

[Note- I'm not very sure of this at all; I'm just trying to remember what I'd dug up on it. We may be getting a proper set of sources that we can still sweat through building ourselves, but at least without linux-compat.]

As the guy who harassed poor grog about this [daemonnews.org], I have to say I'm somehow disappointed. It's not the FreeBSD team's fault, and Sun's just a Big Braindead Company... but it's fairly aggravating to see Sun lack the intelligence to push their own product (y'know, I haven't checked, but isn't it easier to run 'integrated' C# through Gnome than it is to run Java, now, in BSD-land?), especially coming from OS/2, where IBM's Java integration was just bliss.

I'm also dumb enough to like Tao's Elate/"the AmigaDE," of course. The troll spoofing the "Integrated Java VM into kernel and replaced /usr/bin and /bin with keithw's java byte-code versions. Platform independence, here we come!" changelog entry was just trolling, but things like Elate actually do this, and it is Good(TM).

Re:I feel like such an old fogey

[Moridineas]

I agree with you for most of your post..the upgrade cycle can get painful at times.

On a personal note, on my desktop computer I've gotten much better sound/video performance on current than stable--I don't know why, but that's a big thing for me.

On the server side, Samba ACL's are the big thing..can't wait to upgrade the servers for that (probably will wait until at least 5.2 or more).

Also it's nice to have devfs and the new RCng boot system (from NetBSD) imho.

Re:Watch out. SCO might sue you!

[elbuddha]

No worries. Any code derived from BSD4.4-Lite (e.g., FreeBSD) is indemnified of any SystemV-related intellectual property claims, as per the settlement between Novell and BSDI/UC-Berkeley of the infamous lawsuit begun by AT&T. This is the same SystemV intellectual property that SCO is waving around.

Re:Still a few gotchas

[geniusj]

http://www.freebsd.org/releases/5.0R/todo.html

Cheers,
-JD-

Wait for Stable

[Azoth's Revenge]

It seems some people are confusing Stable and Release branches. 5.0 Release will not be a Stable branch according to Release Engineering. The stable branch will emerge around 5.1 or 5.2.
Just something to keep in mind.

Re:Upgrade path from 4.x-STABLE to 5.X-STABLE?

[Geekboy(Wizard)]

Yea, super easy.

make buildworld
make buildkernel
make installkernel
rm -r /usr/include/c++
make installworld
mergemaster
reboot

(Check UPDATING for more precise instructions.)

Re:Excellent System

[MattBurke]

my XF86Config for a ps2 microsoft wheelmouse:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Buttons" "5"
Option "Protocol" "Auto"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Device" "/dev/psm0"
EndSection

no configuration needed elsewhere

Re:Excellent System

[jonbelson]

>No. In 4.x SMP had what was called the "giant lock". It boils down to not being able to run one given process on more than one processor. The most crude way to perform MP (does work OK though).

Not quite true. The giant lock means that only one process can call a kernel function at any one time.

--Jon

http://www.witchspace.com

Re:Who says that?

[TheGreek]

No. The kernel is xnu. With both Mach and BSD symbols. In one memory space.

Re:Excellent System

[Bishop]

While I love OpenBSD and use it daily, it is lacking in the desktop department. Mozilla can be made to run, but it is not in ports. I also found it a little unstable. The Gnome and KDE ports under FreeBSD are more mature. OpenBSD has a smaller development group whose priority is secure well written code, not desktops.

That said I encourage every one to install OpenBSD twice to get a feel for it. OpenBSD is one of the easiest and fastest installs once you have done it 1-2 times. (Most people screw up their first install of OpenBSD.) If I need a generic unix machine (server or workstation) on the test bench I will always grab my OpenBSD CD.

Re:The only thing keeping me back (warning: woes)

[adolf]

I feel like I'm stating the obvious, but:

Why are you still running token ring?

Cat5 is way cheap. Even good 10/100 ethernet adapters are less than $20. Hubs, switches, and other connection hardware sells for approximately one dime per dozen. And the drivers, generally speaking, don't suck; I've been throwing random ethernet adapters at both Linux and FreeBSD for years, and have never had a driver issue. (YMMV.)

Over at compgeeks.com, a week or two ago, I noticed they were selling a kit with crimpers, strippers, a bag of ends, and a 1000' box of Cat5 for ~$45.

At these prices, which I realize are non-zero, you can probably afford to pull extra pairs for telephone or video at the same time. There's no shortage of applications which directly use Cat5, and baluns are available for most of the rest (probably token ring, too).

This makes for good infrastructure for the home, and would probably help quite a bit with resale value.

And yet, I'm sure you know all of this already. So I'll ask again, because I'm really quite curious: Why are you still running token ring? If it's that cool, I might want to look into it myself...

If you really want to run FreeBSD and the driver support is too horrible to use (due to the problems you state), just set up a Linux box to route IP between the two networks. This'll give you infinite time to transition the rest of the network (or not), while remaining OS-agnostic and allowing you to plug in any of the myraid of Ethernet-equipped devices available today. Minimum hardware required: Two ethernet adapters, one crossover cable. Total investment of less than $10, if you don't mind buying used hardware and are willing to do some legwork.

Re:Excellent System

[phoenix_rizzen]

You need the ZAxisMapping option as well in order to get the scroll wheel/button working.

And for those that don't want a mouse at the console, don't start moused, and change the mouse device in XF86Config to point to the mouse device (/dev/psm0, /dev/ums0, /dev/sio0, and so on).