Re: BSD handbook - was Re: debiantutorials.org seeks input and new blood
On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 12:41 PM, Bret Busby <bret@busby.net> wrote:
> On Sun, 3 May 2009, Neal Hogan wrote:
>
>>
>> On Sat, May 2, 2009 at 1:19 PM, Bret Busby <bret@busby.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> On Sat, 2 May 2009, Neal Hogan wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, May 2, 2009 at 9:30 AM, Douglas A. Tutty <dtutty@vianet.ca>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sat, May 02, 2009 at 06:27:44AM -0500, Neal Hogan wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> FYI - While many of the fBSD folks will tout there ports/package
>>>>>> system, I found it to be a pain (especially the upgrade), as did many
>>>>>> others. There has recently been some chatter on their general mailing
>>>>>> list to overhaul how they handle packages. Again, I found oBSD's
>>>>>> package handling system to be superior.
>>>>>
>>>>> Last I looked (last week), OBSD doesn't have security updates (patches)
>>>>> for their packages; they only provide patches for the base release. If
>>>>> you want to run -current, then the packages get security patches.
>>>>> Since
>>>>> I'm on dialup, that would mean a lot of bandwidth time; basically,
>>>>> every
>>>>> time firefox or some third-party app required a security fix, I'd have
>>>>> to download the source for _everything_ and recompile _everything_.
>>>>
>>>> I don't want to labor this point here, but just one more thing. If you
>>>> are going to follow current, the recommended way to go about it is to
>>>> do binary upgrades of the kernel (i.e, snapshots). You don't have to
>>>> compile src every time. The same goes for packages, binary snapshots
>>>> of which are updated every few months or so (probably not that often).
>>>>
>>>> http://www.openbsd.org/faq/current.html
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> Ah.
>>>
>>> Maybe it's too complicated for me.
>>>
>>> I was only ever a user on someone else's (educational instritution's) BSD
>>> system, and did not do, or learn, sysadmin on BSD.
>>>
>>> As a Linux user since around Red Hat 4 or 5, I have never compiled
>>> anything
>>> in Linux, and have relied on package management, and have had problems
>>> with
>>> software that involved using.tar.gz files to install, to the extent that
>>> I
>>> gave up on any package that involved using .tar.gz files to install.
>>>
>>> So, if BSD is more complicated than using package management like RPM in
>>> Red
>>> Hat and .deb in Debian/Ubuntu, then it is probably too complicated for
>>> me.
>>
>>
>> It's not . . . http://www.openbsd.org/ports.html
>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Bret Busby
>>> Armadale
>>> West Australia
>>> ..............
>>
>
> One more thing, regarding the above; multiple booting.
>
> On a (relatively) new laptop, that has 160GB of HDD space, thus leading to
> the potential for multiple booting (at 20GB per OS, plus about 40GB for
> data, that is many OS's), I was thinking (as it supposedly comes with both
> Windows Vista, and Windows XP preinstalled) that it could be possible to
> have multiple booting with Win Vista, Win XP, Debian Linux, Ubuntu Linux,
> and one or more BSD's (OpenBSD and FreeBSD, possibly), and thus, six OS's to
> play with (and learn).
>
> However, on the web page at
> http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html#Multibooting , under the heading "4.8 -
> Multibooting OpenBSD/i386"
> is
> "Only one of the four primary MBR partitions can be used for booting OpenBSD
> (i.e., extended partitions will not work)."
>
> Whilst it would be a 64 bit version that would be intended to be installed,
> to be able to use the full 4GB of RAM, I am concerned at the reference to
> "the four primary MBR partitions".
>
> Does this mean that only four OS's can be installed, for multiple booting?
>
> Whilst this may be digressing, a bit, into BSD stuff, I think that it is
> still relevant here, as it relates to multiple booting, involving Debian,
> and, to what extent it can be done, without having to resort to virtual
> machines like VMWare.
>
> Thank you in anticipation.
>
While I don't know the answer to your particular concern, perhaps you
should ask it on the oBSD mailing list misc@openbsd.org. It seems like
a reasonable question, given that you've done some homework. At the
very least, you can check the list's archive
(http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&r=1&w=2) to see if anyone else has
brought up a similar issue . . . in fact I suggest you check the
archive before posting to the list.
Good luck!
> --
> Bret Busby
> Armadale
> West Australia
> ..............
>
> "So once you do know what the question actually is,
> you'll know what the answer means."
> - Deep Thought,
> Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
> "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
> A Trilogy In Four Parts",
> written by Douglas Adams,
> published by Pan Books, 1992
>
> ....................................................
--
www.nealhogan.net www.lambdaserver.com
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