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FreeBSD: Frequently Asked Questions

What is FreeBSD?

FreeBSD is an advanced operating system (OS) for x86 compatible, AMD64 compatible, Alpha, IA-64, PC-98, and UltraSPARC architectures. FreeBSD grew out of the BSD (Berkeley Software Development) code base, which was developed at UC Berkeley. The current production release is version 5.4, and the current legacy release is 4.11. This platform is currently maintained by a large team of individuals.
Briefly, FreeBSD is a UNIX® like operating system for the Alpha/AXP, AMD64 and Intel® EM64T, i386™ IA-64, PC-98, 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. ...
Briefly, FreeBSD is a UNIX® like operating system for AMD64 and Intel® EM64T, i386™ PC-98, IA-64, ARM®, PowerPC® 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. ...
BSD (Berkley Software Distribution) is an operating system that was developed in the mid 1970's at the University of California in Berkley. It is very similar to commercial Unix, not Linux, as some believe. Although, Linux is also a Unix-like system. In the early 1990's several variations spawned from BSD: NetBSD, OpenBSD, FreeBSD and BSD/os, the original system. Each flavor has its strong points while substantially keeping the same kernel. The world's best published secret. ...

Why FreeBSD?

My first reaction is to say that most of my friends run FreeBSD, so it was just easier for me to get help with. However, now that I've used it some, and have used Linux, I have a couple of reasons of my own. The biggest reason for me these days is the ports system. Linux doesn't compare.
Source: www.grrl.org

What is better, FreeBSD or Linux?

Hire a consultant. (Though most of the #unixers tend to prefer BSD. ) Q: A: Please do your homework yourself.

Why is BizGuardian built on FreeBSD?

BizGuardian is built around a hardened FreeBSD kernel, which is exceptionally robust and stable. It has credibility and a long Unix track record compared to some of the newer variants available. It has a well-proven, controlled and structured development methodology. It is the platform of choice for many high traffic web sites including Yahoo! It supports the biggest single-machine ftp server in the world. It has a sensible and flexible licence, which encourages new added-value commercial products such as BizGuardian. ...

Does it work on FreeBSD?

As of December 23rd, 2005, the answer is yes. At least, it seems to. I have ported the software to FreeBSD 4.9. It should work on newer versions too. At this point, I havn't done much testing on FreeBSD (mostly because I don't have a machine to do the testing on). To make it work on freebsd, you will need the libevent port: # cd /usr/ports/devel/libevent # make && make install Check out the latest source using subversion: $ svn co http://svn.smallwhitecube.com/wicap-php/trunk wicap-php Compile the source with the provided alternate makefile $ cd wicap-php/source $ mv ...

Is there a cryptographic filesystem for FreeBSD?

Yes. If you are running FreeBSD 5.0 or later, see gbde (8) . For earlier releases, see the security/cfs port.
Yes. You can use either gbde(8) or geli(8), see the Encrypting Disk Partitions section of the FreeBSD Handbook.

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 team of 9 people. There is a much larger team of more than 300 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.
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 team of 8 people. There is a much larger team of more than 300 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.
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 team of 9 people. There is a much larger team of more than 350 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.
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 team of 9 people. There is a much larger team of more than 200 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.

Why FreeBSD and Linux?

The IX86 version of the SPIN Operating System uses code borrowed from the FreeBSD Operating System for its device driver layer. The build environment we use at the University of Washington uses AFS. At the time that SPIN was ported to the x86 platform, an AFS client for FreeBSD did not exist. Consequently we don't build SPIN using FreeBSD, at least not yet. For the time being our customers will have to use Linux as their build environment. The alternative is to attempt to build SPIN on FreeBSD on your own .

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). ...

Where are the instructions for installing FreeBSD?

Installation instructions can be found in the Handbook entry on installing FreeBSD .

Is there a "port" of scsh for FreeBSD?

Installing scsh on FreeBSD is best done by compiling FreeBSD's scsh "port" (meaning the FreeBSD term of a port, which is an integrated third-party package) or by getting a binary "package" from a FreeBSD ftp server. The FreeBSD port is available under `ports/lang/scsh'.
Installing scsh on FreeBSD is best done by compiling FreeBSD's scsh "port" (meaning the FreeBSD term of a port, which is an integrated third-party package) or by getting a binary "package" from a FreeBSD ftp server. The FreeBSD port is available under ports/lang/scsh . [ < ] [ > ] [ << ] [ Up ] [ >> ] [ Top ]

Is FreeBSD a UNIX system?

While FreeBSD resembles a UNIX system and provides a UNIX-compatible environment, it has not yet been formally certified as a UNIX system. On the other hand, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it's probably a duck.

Does it run on FreeBSD?

If it is not on the list of supported platforms it is not available in binary form. We expect the source to be easy to port to FreeBSD , since it runs on BSD/OS and Linux already. You may even be able to run the BSD/OS binaries on FreeBSD, if you try that and it works let radoc@livingston.com know what release of FreeBSD it ran under and we will update this answer.

Why the FreeBSD-style license instead of GPL?

Kannel is under the FreeBSD-style license because we want to limit the use of Kannel as little as possible. Section 2. Installation

Why does RAT crash on FreeBSD 2.2.x?

This appears to be due to a bug in the FreeBSD networking code. Upgrade to a more recent version of FreeBSD (FreeBSD 3.x or later work).

Why does RAT crash on FreeBSD 4.0-RELEASE?

This appears to be due to a bug in the FreeBSD audio driver code. It is hoped that this will be fixed in a future version of FreeBSD.

What FreeBSD kernel should I use?

KPilot is developed on FreeBSD 6-STABLE on an amd64, most of the time. So use 6-STABLE, that is easiest. You will need the following settings: device uvisor (for instance, add uvisor_load="YES" to the file /boot/loader.conf ) devfs rules to allow you to read and write to the device for the handheld. The following works for me in /etc/devfs.rules : [localrules=10] add path 'ttyU*' mode 0660 group operator usbd rules to set up the link from /dev/pilot to the device created when the HotSync starts (optional). ...

Does FreeBSD support ZIP drives?

FreeBSD supports the SCSI ZIP drive out of the box, of course. The ZIP drive 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. ATAPI (IDE) Zip drives are supported in FreeBSD 2.2.6 and later releases. ...

Can I run FlagShip on FreeBSD?

Yes, you can. But since there is no special FreeBSD port of FlagShip, you will need to develop/compile your sources on Linux, link statically and then execute it in your FreeBSD box. See additional details about the Linux compatibility in the FreeBSD Handbook chapter 20 (linuxemu-lbc-install) - or in the extract from available in OReilly's linuxapps .

When are FreeBSD releases made?

The Release Engineering Team 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. ...

Why don't password work in freebsd?

Ok, this is possible, but normally superfluous, as FreeBSD has perl builtin. But anyhow, I tried and it worked: 1. ) Get the perl-RPM from the RedHat 5.2 Distro (as FreeBSD Linux-Compat bases on that distro). I used the perl-RPM from the Linux-Mandrake 5.3 Distro (which was a very close clone to RedHat 5.2 at that time), it is called perl-5.004m4-1.i386.rpm (I guest it is the same as the RH 5.2 one) 2. ...

How does FreeBSD compare to Linux?

FreeBSD is very similar to Linux in that it also relies on a large number of GNU packages. Most of the packages available for Linux are also available for FreeBSD. The arguments comparing FreeBSD to Linux center around the differences between how various kernel functions are implemented. Depending on the area you look at, either Linux or FreeBSD will have a better implementation. ...
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