Giving Freebsd a try, using it as a dual boot. Anything i should know before hand?

[Tbirdkid]

Ive tried many distros of linux. They seem to be ok but the one thing i will say about it is that it is faster and more stable than windows. I am however, going away from the dual boot linux and xp and going to try freebsd because of a friend of mine who advised me to try it.

Give me some hints and stuff so i can get this thing going..... thanks

 

[drag]

FreeBSD has a good handbook on what to do. It's nice.
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_...8859-1/books/handbook/

You'll have a copy on your harddrive after you install it.

 

[Tbirdkid]

Im having a bit of trouble installing it. It isnt as easy as i thought... i cant seem to partition it correctly. It keeps telling that my drive sizes arent right. Hmmm...

 

[drag]

FreeBSD doesn't use partitions like Linux or Windows.

You see the partition sceme we use is kinda PC originated. FreeBSD sceme pre-dates it. Which is pretty much what we'll be using eventually with stuff like Linux's LVM (or should be using).

You make one big partition and then that is divided up between the different partitions you use for your system. It's more like you create a extended partition and divide it up between logical partitions. Except of course it's not a real extended partition, it's a FreeBSD one. But the idea is similar.

I think that's what may be causing your hang-up. Not sure, though.

 

[Tbirdkid]

its really hard since i have like 3 partitions on my drive already... this will be another one. I have 1 xp, 1 for linux or unix, and one ntfs but for just music, movies etc.... i cant figure out why it wont just do an easy quick install like linux. what a pain in the arse... not to mention, i am kind of impatient right now. i just want it to work.

 

[Zero Plasma]

bump

 

[spamsk8r]

If you're impatient, I don't recommend FreeBSD, or any BSD or Linux distro, because if you're not willing to take the time to learn it, you won't get anything out of it except frustration.

 

[Booty]

Hey drag, care to go into a little more detail about the difference with FreeBSD partitions? I've been fine getting it all set up in the past, but I definitely don't know all the details of the difference in partition schemes. Care to enlighten?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Booty
Hey drag, care to go into a little more detail about the difference with FreeBSD partitions? I've been fine getting it all set up in the past, but I definitely don't know all the details of the difference in partition schemes. Care to enlighten?

They're slices, and IIRC are explained quite well in the handbook.

 

[djdrastic]

The FreeBSD partition editor is a little weird at first pIf you think this is weird you're in for a whole lotta hurt when you start trying netbsd's one tho]


The handbook aint too bad [at least the documentation is kept very well up to date unlinke some linux distros out there ]


Some tips / Cool Stuff you might need to try / do

Your NIC's will be known by their driver names , not by their designation vr0 / lnc0
Your kernel lives in /usr/srv/sys/i386/conf/GENERIC [IIRC]
It comes with an awesome util called sysinstall which allows you to easily add / remove packages that were installed on the distribution
It can be used with with a very scriptable updater / auto updater called cvsup
Getting into single mode hosing something you use boot -s , when the bootloader asks for an image
It comes with support for the venerable ports system , which works just fab IMO
go to bsdforums.org
Replace tux background with horny devil
Pick up " The Comeplete FreeBSD " book which pretty mich covers the whole fbsd OS as a whole
Get ready to read a serious ammount of documentation

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: djdrastic
The FreeBSD partition editor is a little weird at first pIf you think this is weird you're in for a whole lotta hurt when you start trying netbsd's one tho]


The handbook aint too bad [at least the documentation is kept very well up to date unlinke some linux distros out there ]

The BSDs in general are really good about documentation. It can make all of the difference.

Some tips / Cool Stuff you might need to try / do

Your NIC's will be known by their driver names , not by their designation vr0 / lnc0

That rocks.

Your kernel lives in /usr/srv/sys/i386/conf/GENERIC [IIRC]

Do you mean /usr/src/? If so, that's just the source. On OpenBSD the kernel is just /bsd, on NetBSD it's /netbsd, and I imagine FreeBSD does something similar.

It comes with an awesome util called sysinstall which allows you to easily add / remove packages that were installed on the distribution
It can be used with with a very scriptable updater / auto updater called cvsup

The ports system in /usr/ports is also a great way. portsupdate(?) can also come in handy. sysinstall seemed a bit big for most things, IMO.

 

[LuckyTaxi]

I started with Mandrake and then moved on to FreeBSD. The lack of a true GUI installer confused the sh!t out of me at first, hence, I then went back to Linux (Suse, Mandrake, Redhat, even Lycoris)! Anyways, as time went along I tried running OpenBSD per n0c's suggestion but that confused me even more. I went back to FreeBSD and read the handbook and visited various BSD forums.

Now, I run FreeBSD on 3 servers! I highly suggest you look into Linux before you dive into BSD. Better yet, try Slackware and then you'll have no problems with FreeBSD.

BTW ... if you still want to try to install BSD, make sure you exit the installer AFTER it installs the base system. I thought the installer was going to automatically reboot after the installation but it didnt. I thought something was wrong and hit the "Commit" button and it installed once again! After two times I realized I had to manually reboot the system!

Also, regarding the dual boot installation, it helps to have the last partition set for Linux. What I've done in the past is to use PartitionMagic and have three partitions. the first being your WinXP partition and then the second being your NTFS for your files. I would leave room for Linux/BSD. Leave it as empty and NOT convert it to EXT3 or whatever PM calls it. Just leave it unformatted.

Then when you go into FreeBSD's installer it will list ALL 3 partitions. When you see the partition you set aside for FreeBSD, I think you press the corresponding button (I forget what it is but DONT press "A" which will set your WHOLE hard drive to use freebsd). After this, you then create your partition for that piece of space you set aside. This is where I was confused at first. It's basically a two step process where you tell the OS which partition you will be working with and then you set up your /home, /etc, / partitions.

PM me if you need help.

 

[Nothinman]

Your NIC's will be known by their driver names , not by their designation vr0 / lnc0

That rocks.

Right, because it's so nice to change NICs and have to move files around, change scripts, etc because the device name has changed.

 

[drag]

Right now the only thing that sucks with Linux's way of naming devices after their function instead of their names is that the order of the numbering is based on the order at which they are configured/initialized.

Most of the time they are done the same way, so that eth1 will always be eth1 and eth0 will always be eth0, but that's not a garrentee...

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Your NIC's will be known by their driver names , not by their designation vr0 / lnc0

That rocks.

Right, because it's so nice to change NICs and have to move files around, change scripts, etc because the device name has changed.

All but 1 of my nics are fxp or dc. mv /etc/hostname.fxp0 /etc/hostname.dc0 isn't tough. And generally I use the same adapters whenever possible.

The only exceptions are my wireless cards (all wi), and the onboard nic on my main machine (vr). Be prepared.

EDIT: Seeing vr0 in the dmesg gives me a better idea of what kind of card it is. The dmesg in Linux is pretty icky anyhow.

 

[Nothinman]

If it's such a great naming scheme why isn't it used anywhere else? I mean, IDE disks are ad# regardless of chipset, sound is always pcm# (with symlinks for things like /dev/dsp IIRC) regardless of the driver, SCSI is always da# regardless of card in use. Why are network devices the exception?

dmesg in Linux is more verbose, but I wouldn't call it icky.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
If it's such a great naming scheme why isn't it used anywhere else? I mean, IDE disks are ad# regardless of chipset, sound is always pcm# (with symlinks for things like /dev/dsp IIRC) regardless of the driver, SCSI is always da# regardless of card in use. Why are network devices the exception?

Not in OpenBSD. /dev/audio is linked to /dev/emu or whatever my SB Live! card is. My SCSI controller is ahc (IIRC). The drives are always the same, because I don't think hard drives differ that much.

dmesg in Linux is more verbose, but I wouldn't call it icky.

I've never been able to find much useful stuff in the Linux dmesg. I've always thought OpenBSD's dmesg was a lot better.

 

[Nothinman]

The drives are always the same, because I don't think hard drives differ that much.

Only from the user's standpoint, which is the same with network cards for the most part.

I've never been able to find much useful stuff in the Linux dmesg. I've always thought OpenBSD's dmesg was a lot better.

I don't see why, I thought all of the BSD's kernel logs were pretty terse. The Linux dmesg pipe can get wrapped easily thought if you have something like a synaptics touchpad because the driver does a printk every time it loses sync (which happens a lot) or netfilter log rules that get hit a lot. But that can happen if you do something like enable the log_in_vain sysctl on FreeBSD.

I don't have a BSD box handy to look at the dmesg output to compare right now, ironically the only FreeBSD box I have access to right now has only 1 line in it's dmesg buffer. The only real difference that comes to mind is general formatting and the fact that a lot of Linux drivers printk their version on load.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

The drives are always the same, because I don't think hard drives differ that much.

Only from the user's standpoint, which is the same with network cards for the most part.

From an administration standpoint too. A 36GB IBM is going to be almost the same as a 36GB seagate. I can't think of a reason to differentiate between the two.

I've never been able to find much useful stuff in the Linux dmesg. I've always thought OpenBSD's dmesg was a lot better.

I don't see why, I thought all of the BSD's kernel logs were pretty terse. The Linux dmesg pipe can get wrapped easily thought if you have something like a synaptics touchpad because the driver does a printk every time it loses sync (which happens a lot) or netfilter log rules that get hit a lot. But that can happen if you do something like enable the log_in_vain sysctl on FreeBSD.

I don't have a BSD box handy to look at the dmesg output to compare right now, ironically the only FreeBSD box I have access to right now has only 1 line in it's dmesg buffer. The only real difference that comes to mind is general formatting and the fact that a lot of Linux drivers printk their version on load.

Random OpenBSD dmesg on the web (got these from mailing lists):

OpenBSD 3.5 (kernel) #0: Wed Aug 11 16:49:59 EDT 2004
root@norville.se.rit.edu:/root/kernel
cpu0: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz ("GenuineIntel" 686-class) 2.80 GHz
cpu0:
FPU,V86,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,CFLUSH,ACPI,MM \
X,FXSR,SSE,SSE2,SS,HTT,TM,SBF,PNI,MWAIT,CNXT-ID real mem = 536199168 (523632K)
avail mem = 491077632 (479568K)
using 4278 buffers containing 26914816 bytes (26284K) of memory
mainbus0 (root)
bios0 at mainbus0: AT/286+(00) BIOS, date 04/06/04, BIOS32 rev. 0 @ 0xffe90
pcibios0 at bios0: rev. 2.1 @ 0xf0000/0x10000
pcibios0: PCI IRQ Routing Table rev. 1.0 @ 0xfc570/144 (7 entries)
pcibios0: no compatible PCI ICU found: ICU vendor 0x8086 product 0x25a1
pcibios0: Warning, unable to fix up PCI interrupt routing
pcibios0: PCI bus #3 is the last bus
bios0: ROM list: 0xc0000/0x8000 0xc8000/0x1000 0xc9000/0x5600
0xce800/0x1000 0xec000/0x4000!
pci0 at mainbus0 bus 0: configuration mode 1 (no bios)
pchb0 at pci0 dev 0 function 0 "Intel 82875P Host" rev 0x02
ppb0 at pci0 dev 3 function 0 "Intel 82875P PCI-CSA" rev 0x02
pci1 at ppb0 bus 1
em0 at pci1 dev 1 function 0 "Intel PRO/1000MT (82547GI)" rev 0x00: irq
3, address: 00:c0:9f:3f:4a:1e
ppb1 at pci0 dev 28 function 0 vendor "Intel", unknown product 0x25ae
rev 0x02
pci2 at ppb1 bus 2
ahc1 at pci2 dev 1 function 0 "Adaptec AHA-3960D U160" rev 0x01: irq 11
scsibus0 at ahc1: 16 targets
sd0 at scsibus0 targ 0 lun 0: <SEAGATE, ST336607LW, DS09> SCSI3 0/direct
fixed
sd0: 34732MB, 49855 cyl, 2 head, 713 sec, 512 bytes/sec, 71132959 sec total
ahc2 at pci2 dev 1 function 1 "Adaptec AHA-3960D U160" rev 0x01: irq 11
scsibus1 at ahc2: 16 targets
uhci0 at pci0 dev 29 function 0 vendor "Intel", unknown product 0x25a9
rev 0x02: irq 11
usb0 at uhci0: USB revision 1.0
uhub0 at usb0
uhub0: Intel UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub0: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
uhci1 at pci0 dev 29 function 1 vendor "Intel", unknown product 0x25aa
rev 0x02: irq 10
usb1 at uhci1: USB revision 1.0
uhub1 at usb1
uhub1: Intel UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub1: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
vendor "Intel", unknown product 0x25ab (class system subclass
miscellaneous, rev 0x02) at pci0 dev 29 function 4 not configured
vendor "Intel", unknown product 0x25ac (class system subclass 8259 PIC,
rev 0x02) at pci0 dev 29 function 5 not configured
vendor "Intel", unknown product 0x25ad (class serial bus subclass USB,
rev 0x02) at pci0 dev 29 function 7 not configured
ppb2 at pci0 dev 30 function 0 "Intel 82801BA AGP" rev 0x0a
pci3 at ppb2 bus 3
em1 at pci3 dev 2 function 0 "Intel PRO/1000MT (82541GI)" rev 0x00: irq
10, address: 00:c0:9f:3f:4a:1f
vga1 at pci3 dev 14 function 0 "ATI Rage XL" rev 0x27
wsdisplay0 at vga1: console (80x25, vt100 emulation)
wsdisplay0: screen 1-5 added (80x25, vt100 emulation)
pcib0 at pci0 dev 31 function 0 vendor "Intel", unknown product 0x25a1
rev 0x02
pciide0 at pci0 dev 31 function 2 vendor "Intel", unknown product 0x25a3
rev 0x02: DMA (unsupported), channel 0 configured to compatibility,
channel 1 configured to compatibility
atapiscsi0 at pciide0 channel 0 drive 0
scsibus2 at atapiscsi0: 2 targets
cd0 at scsibus2 targ 0 lun 0: <SAMSUNG, CD-ROM SN-124, N104> SCSI0
5/cdrom removable
pciide0: channel 1 ignored (not responding; disabled or no drives?)
vendor "Intel", unknown product 0x25a4 (class serial bus subclass SMBus,
rev 0x02) at pci0 dev 31 function 3 not configured
isa0 at pcib0
isadma0 at isa0
pckbc0 at isa0 port 0x60/5
pckbd0 at pckbc0 (kbd slot)
pckbc0: using irq 1 for kbd slot
wskbd0 at pckbd0: console keyboard, using wsdisplay0
pms0 at pckbc0 (aux slot)
pckbc0: using irq 12 for aux slot
wsmouse0 at pms0 mux 0
pcppi0 at isa0 port 0x61
midi0 at pcppi0: <PC speaker>
sysbeep0 at pcppi0
npx0 at isa0 port 0xf0/16: using exception 16
pccom0 at isa0 port 0x3f8/8 irq 4: ns16550a, 16 byte fifo
fdc0 at isa0 port 0x3f0/6 irq 6 drq 2
fd0 at fdc0 drive 0: 1.44MB 80 cyl, 2 head, 18 sec
biomask 4c40 netmask 4c48 ttymask 5c4a
pctr: user-level cycle counter enabled
ahc1: target 0 using 16bit transfers
ahc1: target 0 synchronous at 80.0MHz DT, offset = 0x3f
dkcsum: sd0 matched BIOS disk 80
root on sd0a
rootdev=0x400 rrootdev=0xd00 rawdev=0xd02
WARNING: / was not properly unmounted

Random FreeBSD dmesg:

Copyright (c) 1992-2004 The FreeBSD Project.
Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
FreeBSD 5.2.1-RELEASE #0: Mon Feb 23 20:45:55 GMT 2004
root@wv1u.btc.adaptec.com:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC
Preloaded elf kernel "/boot/kernel/kernel" at 0xc09e3000.
Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0
CPU: Pentium II/Pentium II Xeon/Celeron (233.34-MHz 686-class CPU)
Origin = "GenuineIntel" Id = 0x652 Stepping = 2

Features=0x183f9ff<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,MMX,FXSR>
real memory = 167739392 (159 MB)
avail memory = 153321472 (146 MB)
Pentium Pro MTRR support enabled
npx0: [FAST]
npx0: <math processor> on motherboard
npx0: INT 16 interface
pcibios: BIOS version 2.10
pcib0: <Intel 82443BX host to PCI bridge (AGP disabled)> at pcibus 0 on
motherboard
pci0: <PCI bus> on pcib0
isab0: <PCI-ISA bridge> at device 7.0 on pci0
isa0: <ISA bus> on isab0
atapci0: <Intel PIIX4 UDMA33 controller> port 0x1020-0x102f at device
7.1 on pci0
ata0: at 0x1f0 irq 14 on atapci0
ata0: [MPSAFE]
ata1: at 0x170 irq 15 on atapci0
ata1: [MPSAFE]
uhci0: <Intel 82371AB/EB (PIIX4) USB controller> port 0x1000-0x101f irq
11 at device 7.2 on pci0
usb0: <Intel 82371AB/EB (PIIX4) USB controller> on uhci0
usb0: USB revision 1.0
uhub0: Intel UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub0: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
piix0: <PIIX Timecounter> port 0xd00-0xd0f at device 7.3 on pci0
Timecounter "PIIX" frequency 3579545 Hz quality 0
pci0: <display, VGA> at device 8.0 (no driver attached)
cbb0: <TI1220 PCI-CardBus Bridge> mem 0x7fffe000-0x7fffefff irq 11 at
device 17.0 on pci0
cardbus0: <CardBus bus> on cbb0
pccard0: <16-bit PCCard bus> on cbb0
cbb0: [MPSAFE]
cbb1: <TI1220 PCI-CardBus Bridge> mem 0x7ffff000-0x7fffffff irq 11 at
device 17.1 on pci0
cardbus1: <CardBus bus> on cbb1
pccard1: <16-bit PCCard bus> on cbb1
cbb1: [MPSAFE]
orm0: <Option ROM> at iomem 0xc0000-0xcafff on isa0
pmtimer0 on isa0
atkbdc0: <Keyboard controller (i8042)> at port 0x64,0x60 on isa0
atkbd0: <AT Keyboard> flags 0x1 irq 1 on atkbdc0
kbd0 at atkbd0
psm0: <PS/2 Mouse> irq 12 on atkbdc0
psm0: model Generic PS/2 mouse, device ID 0
fdc0: <Enhanced floppy controller (i82077, NE72065 or clone)> at port
0x3f7,0x3f0-0x3f5 irq 6 drq 2 on isa0
fdc0: FIFO enabled, 8 bytes threshold
fd0: <1440-KB 3.5" drive> on fdc0 drive 0
ppc0: <Parallel port> at port 0x378-0x37f irq 7 on isa0
ppc0: Generic chipset (EPP/NIBBLE) in COMPATIBLE mode
ppbus0: <Parallel port bus> on ppc0
plip0: <PLIP network interface> on ppbus0
lpt0: <Printer> on ppbus0
lpt0: Interrupt-driven port
ppi0: <Parallel I/O> on ppbus0
sc0: <System console> at flags 0x100 on isa0
sc0: VGA <16 virtual consoles, flags=0x300>
sio0 at port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0x10 on isa0
sio0: type 16550A
sio1: configured irq 3 not in bitmap of probed irqs 0
sio1: port may not be enabled
vga0: <Generic ISA VGA> at port 0x3c0-0x3df iomem 0xa0000-0xbffff on
isa0
unknown: <PNP0401> can't assign resources (port)
unknown: <PNP0501> can't assign resources (port)
unknown: <PNP0511> can't assign resources (irq)
unknown: <PNP0700> can't assign resources (port)
unknown: <PNP0303> can't assign resources (port)
unknown: <PNP0f13> can't assign resources (irq)
unknown: <PNP0c02> can't assign resources (port)
Timecounter "TSC" frequency 233342652 Hz quality 800
Timecounters tick every 10.000 msec
sio4: <Psion Gold Card 56K Combine iT> at port 0x2f8-0x2ff irq 11
function 0 config 5 on pccard0
sio4: type 16550A
sio4: unable to activate interrupt in fast mode - using normal mode
rl0: <RealTek 8139 10/100BaseTX> port 0x1100-0x11ff mem
0x88001000-0x880011ff irq 11 at device 0.0 on cardbus1
rl0: Ethernet address: 00:02:44:7b:52:b8
miibus0: <MII bus> on rl0
rlphy0: <RealTek internal media interface> on miibus0
rlphy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto
GEOM: create disk ad0 dp=0xc23f3460
ad0: 3102MB <IBM-DKLA-23240> [6304/16/63] at ata0-master UDMA33
acd0: CDROM <UJDA150> at ata0-slave PIO4
Mounting root from ufs:/dev/ad0s1a
</blockquot

 

[Nothinman]

From an administration standpoint too. A 36GB IBM is going to be almost the same as a 36GB seagate. I can't think of a reason to differentiate between the two.

And why should you differntiate between a 3com card and an Intel one from an administrative standpoint?

Random OpenBSD dmesg

Thanks, but I don't see what's so great about them. And the excessive lack of capital letters and spacing makes it hard to read IMO.

To pick out something that is similar why is:

ahc1 at pci2 dev 1 function 0 "Adaptec AHA-3960D U160" rev 0x01: irq 11
scsibus0 at ahc1: 16 targets
sd0 at scsibus0 targ 0 lun 0: <SEAGATE, ST336607LW, DS09> SCSI3 0/direct
fixed
sd0: 34732MB, 49855 cyl, 2 head, 713 sec, 512 bytes/sec, 71132959 sec total
ahc2 at pci2 dev 1 function 1 "Adaptec AHA-3960D U160" rev 0x01: irq 11
scsibus1 at ahc2: 16 targets

Better than :

esp0: IRQ 4,7e0 SCSI ID 7 Clk 40MHz CCYC=25000 CCF=8 TOut 167 NCR53C9XF(espfast)
ESP: Total of 1 ESP hosts found, 1 actually in use.
scsi0 : Sparc ESP366-HME
Vendor: SEAGATE Model: ST318203LSUN18G Rev: 034A
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Vendor: IBM Model: DDYST1835SUN18G Rev: S94N
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 03
esp0: target 0 [period 100ns offset 15 20.00MHz FAST-WIDE SCSI-II]
SCSI device sda: 35378533 512-byte hdwr sectors (18114 MB)
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write through
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1 p2 p3 p4
Attached scsi disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
esp0: target 1 [period 100ns offset 15 20.00MHz FAST-WIDE SCSI-II]
SCSI device sdb: 35378533 512-byte hdwr sectors (18114 MB)
SCSI device sdb: drive cache: write through
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target1/lun0: p1 p2 p3
Attached scsi disk sdb at scsi0, channel 0, id 1, lun 0

And please ignore the devfs style names, the stock Debian kernels have devfs enabled but I don't use it so I have 'normal' /dev/sd style names in the filesystem.

edit: Why do I only get an "Attach code" button seemingly randomly? And is there a tag that can be put in here to get the same affect?

 

[djdrastic]

OH Gosh a harcore Linux user and a Hardcore *BSD users fightin it out

Get used to seeing this on many a BSD BBS tho ...

 

[Nothinman]

Wow, I havn't seen the term BBS in a long time...

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

From an administration standpoint too. A 36GB IBM is going to be almost the same as a 36GB seagate. I can't think of a reason to differentiate between the two.

And why should you differntiate between a 3com card and an Intel one from an administrative standpoint?

I guess it isn't. It's probably one of those historical things that's been continued. I do like it though.

Random OpenBSD dmesg

Thanks, but I don't see what's so great about them. And the excessive lack of capital letters and spacing makes it hard to read IMO.

There are capitals where it's important.

To pick out something that is similar why is:

ahc1 at pci2 dev 1 function 0 "Adaptec AHA-3960D U160" rev 0x01: irq 11
scsibus0 at ahc1: 16 targets
sd0 at scsibus0 targ 0 lun 0: <SEAGATE, ST336607LW, DS09> SCSI3 0/direct
fixed
sd0: 34732MB, 49855 cyl, 2 head, 713 sec, 512 bytes/sec, 71132959 sec total
ahc2 at pci2 dev 1 function 1 "Adaptec AHA-3960D U160" rev 0x01: irq 11
scsibus1 at ahc2: 16 targets

Better than :

esp0: IRQ 4,7e0 SCSI ID 7 Clk 40MHz CCYC=25000 CCF=8 TOut 167 NCR53C9XF(espfast)
ESP: Total of 1 ESP hosts found, 1 actually in use.
scsi0 : Sparc ESP366-HME
Vendor: SEAGATE Model: ST318203LSUN18G Rev: 034A
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Vendor: IBM Model: DDYST1835SUN18G Rev: S94N
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 03
esp0: target 0 [period 100ns offset 15 20.00MHz FAST-WIDE SCSI-II]
SCSI device sda: 35378533 512-byte hdwr sectors (18114 MB)
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write through
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1 p2 p3 p4
Attached scsi disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
esp0: target 1 [period 100ns offset 15 20.00MHz FAST-WIDE SCSI-II]
SCSI device sdb: 35378533 512-byte hdwr sectors (18114 MB)
SCSI device sdb: drive cache: write through
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target1/lun0: p1 p2 p3
Attached scsi disk sdb at scsi0, channel 0, id 1, lun 0

And please ignore the devfs style names, the stock Debian kernels have devfs enabled but I don't use it so I have 'normal' /dev/sd style names in the filesystem.

I'm more used to it.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: djdrastic
OH Gosh a harcore Linux user and a Hardcore *BSD users fightin it out

Get used to seeing this on many a BSD BBS tho ...

Nothinman and I can shake our bitch'n'moan, or give each other crap and still agree we're better off than the Microsoft users.

 

[n0cmonkey]

I don't think I've gotten the attach code button in _this_ forum. I've seen it in software and forum issues, but not OS. :|