I see PC-BSD 7.01 has been released

[Bateluer]

PC BSD Official Site
Wiki

I never got FreeBSD 6.x or 7.0 to function very well. They didn't seem to like my KVM switch at all. After some short reading into PC-BSD, it might be worth an install.

Anyone have any experience with it?

 

[Bateluer]

Well, I downloaded, burned, and installed the X86 version of PC-BSD 7.01. Definitely a MUCH smoother install than FreeBSD 6.2 and 7.0 RCx, my previous experiences.

Its almost finished with the install now, I kept most options default for the first install. The only thing I changed was the default shell. Not being familiar with csh, I changed it to bash.

The system its being installed on is a dual P3 1Ghz with 1GB of PC133 RAM, and a GF4 Ti4200. Not exactly a speed demon, but well above the minimum requirements.

I will post my thoughts on it over the next few days, or as I get the opportunity to play with it some more.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
Anyone have any experience with it?

Sorry for replying to a 6 month-old thread, but it's still pertinent...

I've been tinkering with FreeBSD 7.1

First of all I installed the real thing - FreeBSD. It was interesting! Kinda reminded me of doing a text-based Linux install, from the last century. LoL!

Once I got it installed, I had to manually configure X server and get it running, before manually installing Gnome. What a trip!

After Gnome was up n' running I started looking around and realized that I was only about 10% done - and was probably looking at a few days, or maybe a couple of weeks (depending on my work schedule) before I would get FreeBSD 'fully loaded' with the apps I need, yada, yada, yada. Heh! This sorta reminded me of restoring a Windows machine, after it crashes.

Sooo, I gave up on that idea, for now, and decided to wipe the partition and use PC-BSD 7.1 "Galileo Edition" - which, of course, is FreeBSD 7.1 (pre-configured) with a specialized and optimized version of KDE 4.2.2 - and PBI.

The PC-BSD installer was the slickest and easiest one I've ever used - and I've installed a LOT of Linux distros lately! The PC-BSD installer beats them all, for simplicity and ease of installation.

I got PC-BSD 7.1 installed, and I was quite pleased with it. But, as fate would have it, I started messing around with it... compiling different versions of the nVidia drivers (I was too lazy to Google which one works best with my 7600 GTX card) and... I ended up 'black screening' my box. You would think I've learned this by now! Once you get the hardware in a Nux machine nailed down, you ought to live it alone - but, no, I'm never satisfied I had the right config, until I have the wrong config and 'black screen' it. Doh!

I tried all the usual recovery techniques, but I'm not versed in BSD (yet). So, I'll simply wipe the partition again and do another reinstall.

Actually, I wanted to use a UFS2+Journaling anyway!

I found out (after I did the two installs) that UFS2+Journaling eliminates the need to run "FSCK" after a system crash or power outage - a definite plus in my book! The last time I FSCK'ed our (old, slow) Slackware web server, it took 2 days to complete the FSCK - no kidding.

Anyway, I'm gonna continue going down this BSD (on the desktop) path for a while - and we'll see where it leads...

 

[VinDSL]

w00t! Looks like 'third time' is gonna to be a charm!

I went ahead and wiped my drive - not sure if BSD plays well with Windows and Linux (multibooted) - I *think* not...

I used UFS2+Journaling this time, and got lucky with the nVidia drivers - picked the most recent version of the nVidia drivers in the list, and Compiz seems to be working fine.

I rebooted my box a couple of times, to make sure it wasn't going to 'black screen' on me again - and I'm installing updates, as I type. We'll see if the updates bork it...

LoL!

When I was booting up the PC-BSD 7.1 Live CD, I was looking at the BIOS screen, and realized that my P4EE box was OC'ed. I don't know how long I've been running at 3.8GHz - probably months, so I knocked it back to 3.4GHz for the install. When I'm sure everything is up to snuff, I'll bump it again.

My MM box is weird! It's benchmark stable @ 3.8GHz, but I've never been able to push it to 4.0GHz - mostly because I'm on air. It'll boot @ 3.94GHz, but won't pass benchmark tests.

It'll be interesting to see if it'll do 4.0GHz running BSD - or it panics - although, I can't imagine the OS making a lot of difference. But, then again, who knows?!?!?

XP seems to rule the OC roost, so maybe there IS a difference...

 

[Bateluer]

Glad its working well for you. I ran into trouble with video drivers, my 15in LCD, and my KVM switch. The USB mouse and keyboard would switch fine, but when attempting to switch the video would shift the picture 50%. IE, half the video was pushed off the monitor and the on screen controls had to be used to recenter it. Which would shift it the other way when you switched back to the PC-BSD box. This happens a lot with my KVM when I'm switching between Windows and Linux boxes. Interestingly enough, there's no problem when when switching between Windows and Windows.

Also, PC-BSD didn't want to run at the native 1024x768 resolution of my 15in LCD, it wouldn't run any higher than 800x600. The video card was a GF4 ti4200, more than capable of 1024x768. I got involved with other projects and never really isolated the issue.

On the application side, everything seemed to work well out of the box. The install was quick and painless, unlike FreeBSD, the definition of pain.

 

[n0cmonkey]

OpenBSD still has the best installer.

I haven't had any problems with multibooting BSDs and Linux/Windows. Except the Linux distros that wouldn't install to a drive with BSD on it.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
Glad its working well for you. I ran into trouble with video drivers, my 15in LCD, and my KVM switch. The USB mouse and keyboard would switch fine, but when attempting to switch the video would shift the picture 50%...

Heh!

Actually, that's WHY I was playing around with the nVidia drivers. My situation wasn't as extreme as yours - maybe 2% shift in my case - just enough to be irritating, but not a deal breaker.

I'm running 4 computers through this (IOGear MiniView SE) KVM switch - a Slackware web server - my wife's Win2K Pro box - a Win95 SE proxy server - and my P4EE. These are totally different machines, of varying ages, with... well... different everything - except the 'K', the 'V', and the 'M'.

My experience has been, if I have to adjust the monitor (switching between machines) something is wrong! Wrong res, wrong freq, but *usually* wrong driver...

That's why I Was trying different nVidia drivers. I think there were 4 nVidia choices, and I was going through them one at a time, when it froze on me, and 'black screened' at boot-up.

Anyway, the current driver is working GREAT with my 7600 GT - the Compiz (cube) is spinning smoothly with almost no jaggys - and the desktop background image is stunning! :thumbsup:

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
I haven't had any problems with multibooting BSDs and Linux/Windows. Except the Linux distros that wouldn't install to a drive with BSD on it.

Yeah, I should have qualified that statement...

My P4EE box is 'strange brew'! SATA & PATA HD's mixed together - one drive has bad sectors in the boot area - the Windows install was conventional, but I was using LVM on openSUSE, and UFS2+Softupdate on FreeBSD.

LoL!

PC-BSD sort of recognized LVM, but not really! openSUSE sort of recognized UFS2. And, Windows was totally clueless.

The bootloaders were conflicting too, wasn't sure how to get around that hurdle. What I was doing was running GParted, and flagging the boot partition(s) manually, when I was switching OSs.

GParted, BTW, was totally confused by all this happy horsesh!t too...

It was a formula for disaster, and an accident waiting to happen, you know? So, I wiped it!

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
Also, PC-BSD didn't want to run at the native 1024x768 resolution of my 15in LCD, it wouldn't run any higher than 800x600. The video card was a GF4 ti4200, more than capable of 1024x768. I got involved with other projects and never really isolated the issue.

On the application side, everything seemed to work well out of the box. The install was quick and painless, unlike FreeBSD, the definition of pain.

I was watching the script flash by, ever time I re-ran the X setup, and it was compiling the kernel (of course). I did this (probably) 20 times in the last 24 hours.

X setup defaulted to 1024x768 16-bit res, on the sh!tty, generic, nv driver set. I thought... yuck! The screen was offset (as mentioned above) and 3D couldn't be enabled.

I noticed, once you designate 1024x768 16-bit (for instance), run the test, and compile - that's the highest the res will go. However...

I installed the latest nVidia drivers (as determined by the ver number) @ 1280x1024 24-bit,tested and compiled, and life is beautiful.

And, personally, I didn't think the text-based FreeBSD was all that bad. Reminded of the way all LINUX distros used to be, in the last century - the #1 reason a LOT of ppl still hate Linux. These old skool installers are burned into their minds - like a wet fart on a crowded bus - and they don't realize all of this has changed!

Truthfully, if I had 2 weeks to mess around with it - the FreeBSD installer would undoubtedly be the way to go, but I'm just putzing around with everything right now - having fun, casually trying different OSs, et cetera.

If I stick with FreeBSD, this is probably the way I will go! I tend to prefer Gnome over KDE anyway - being a Yankee Doodle Dandy, and all...

 

[n0cmonkey]

Cheap KVMs? I don't think I've ever had a problem with my omnicube.

Buy ATI.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: VinDSL
And, personally, I didn't think the text-based FreeBSD was all that bad. Reminded of the way all LINUX distros used to be, in the last century - the #1 reason a LOT of ppl still hate Linux. These old skool installers are burned into their minds - like a wet fart on a crowded bus - and they don't realize all of this has changed!

It's because they mistakenly think a gui installer makes it better. I'll take OpenBSD's installer over any other any day. It's fast, easy, and installs the system nicely.

If I stick with FreeBSD, this is probably the way I will go! I tend to prefer Gnome over KDE anyway - being a Yankee Doodle Dandy, and all...

I thought KDE was a bit prettier than gnome... To each their own I guess.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
I thought KDE was a bit prettier than gnome... To each their own I guess.

KDE 4.2.2 is drop-dead gorgeous!

I dunno...

I'm like a dog with two bones!

Sometimes I think I like KDE, but Gnome feels more comfortable - for a while - then I like KDE better - again...

The thing I really hated about KDE was the menu, but...

When you right-click on the 'start button', with PC-BSD 7.1, you can choose 'Classic Menu Style' and get rid of that ^%$! 'Kickoff Menu'.

I like the 'Classic Menu' the best of all. Maybe I've been missing this feature in KDE, all this time, but I don't think so.

EDIT: Here's a screenie, if you're curious how it looks...

http://vindsl.com/images/PC-BSD_7.1.png ( My PC-BSD 7.1 Desktop / KDE 4.2.2 / Classic Menu )

 

[VinDSL]

I guess I've never learned to leave 'well enough' alone...

Here's a snappy for you, in case I 'black screen' PC-BDOS 7.1.

http://vindsl.com/images/Nvidia-180.51-Update.png (Screenshot of Nvidia 180.51 Driver Update)

With fingers crossed... :beer:

EDIT: w00t! Worked!

FreeBSD gets a gold star for that one!

Never did a video driver update with Linux (on this machine, or my lappy) without going to hell n' back! :thumbsup:

I'm leaving the hardware drivers alone this time -- really!