Hi everyone.
I installed OpenBSD for the first time. I am not an experienced *NIX or *BSD user. Privacy matters so OpenBSD seemed to me a good choice.
My main question it`s a simple problem:
I mounted the cd-rom. In the cd-rom there is firmware which probably would solve another problem (wireless internet connection with INTEL PRO/wireless 2200GB).
I am getting an error message when I try to install the firmware contained in the cd-rom.

pkg_add /cdrom/iwi-firmware-2.3.gz

error message:
can`t find /cdrom/iwi-firmware-2.3.gz
/usr/sbin/pkg_add : /cdrom/iwi-firmware-2.3.gz : fatal error

1. What should I do to install this file from cd-rom?

For the non experienced OpenBSD it`s difficult, everything I do(from the command-line) I need to search or google it, sometimes books don`t give me a quickly answer about what to do to perform a task or about an specific error. When I don`t know, the books I have don`t show the solution, the internet doesn`t show the situation I am looking for, I think I must ask, and the question is where to ask. I subscribed a mailing list, Openbsd-newbies@sfobug.org

2. Wherelse can I ask OpenBSD and security newbie questions with some feedback quality and without being judge for my ignorance, in the web, and besides LQ?

3. Which books or information do you recommend me to my situation, in order to become basically confortable with the command line and with the essential of OpenBSD?

4. My keyboard it not properly configured, keys doesn`t correspond to symbols, my country it`s Portugal (pt), how can i correct this situation?

5. Is OpenBSD good in order to preserve digital information across the time or data "one of these days" will be lost forever?

6. Can I surf the Internet nicely without windows manager or desktop? How can I install and use a desktop or windows manager? Do I need an graphical environment to use Firefox and Gnu Privacy Guard?

7. Anonym.OS it`s an OpenBSD derived. Do you know where to find more information about this Operating System? How can I acced the command-line in Anomym.OS in order to config the wireless internet? When I save something using the live cd where the information will be stored? Can this information be retrieved by the other mainy OS installed already (not live cd)?

Thanks in Advance.

The best place to ask questions is newbies@sfobug.org, for sure. If you ask a question on misc@openbsd.org and the answer happens to be on the www.openbsd.org website, you will be ridiculed for not reading the documentation.

As for the other stuff, are you sure the CD-ROM is actually mounted on /cdrom? What command did you issue to do that? OpenBSD doesn't use auto-mount daemons for removable devices, you have to issue the mount command manually.

Are you sure the file is actually a package? It might just be a gzipped file that you have to place in a certain directory. I've never used a card that needed a firmware blob, but I think the firmware directory is /etc/firmware... you should check to see if you just have to unzip the file and place it there.

For books, you should get Absolute OpenBSD by Lucas. It's definitely a great book, even if it is from several versions ago.

You should have been prompted to choose a keyboard map during the installation, I'm not sure how you missed that. Try man kbd 8 and go from there...

You can surf the internet without a graphical environment by using lynx, or installing another CURSES-based browser from the ports tree... if you want to run Firefox, you have to have X though. GPG can be run as command-line, it doesn't need a GUI.

You can certainly preserve data with OpenBSD, but it's no different than other OS in that respect. Make sure to make backup copies of everything important.

Note that "mounting" a CD-R disc, placing the disc in the drive, is not the same thing as "mounting" in the software sense understood by OpenBSD. For the command needed to mount the disc residing in the drive, read the "EXAMPLES" section in the manpage to mount(8).
I assume you are wanting to install the iwi(4) which it appears you manually downloaded separately. You should read & study both the manpage to pkg_add(1) & Section 15 of the official FAQ:

http://openbsd.org/faq/faq15.html
The official FAQ is one of the best sources for information about OpenBSD.
It sounds like you are also new to Unix in general. You may want to go to a library and/or bookstore & study an introductory book on Unix.
http://daemonforums.org/index.php

There is also a Portuguese mailing list. Information for it can be found at the following:

http://www.openbsd-pt.com/

Everyone was new to OpenBSD and/or Unix at one point. Studying the information provided & asking thoughtful questions will not be looked down by anyone.
As mentioned earlier, Absolute OpenBSD is a great resource for those new to OpenBSD. You would also benefit from an introductory Unix text as well.
Study Section 7 of the FAQ:

http://openbsd.org/faq/faq7.html
Your question is not entirely clear. Can OpenBSD be used to store & protect sensitive data? Yes. Can data be lost due to issuing incorrect commands? Yes. Both of these answers hold for virtually all operating systems.
You can easily install X when the operating system is installed. Once X is installed, the fvwm(1) window manager will be both installed & configured by default. The minimalist cwm(1) window manager will be installed as well (but not configured...).
Study Sections 4 & 11 in the official FAQ:

http://openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html
http://openbsd.org/faq/faq11.html
Yes.
Yes, it is available as a package or port:

http://www.openbsd.org/4.3_packages/....tgz-long.html
http://sourceforge.net/projects/anonym-os/

Another live CD choice would be jggimi's:

http://jggimi.homeip.net/

...which personally, I think is better.

Hi again.
Thanks for your advices, answers and help.
My main question remains.
I think cd-rom is mounted in /cdrom since I did this:
# mkdir /crdrom
# mount_cd9660 /dev/cd0a /cdrom
After this cd-rom can´t be ejected unless I unmount it.
Is the cd-rom mounted in the sofwtare sense?
I believe the file it`s a package:
http://damien.bergamini.free.fr/ipw/iwi-openbsd.html
I can`t find information in FAQ or man pages about this error.

Thanks

Yes.
Are you executing pkg_add(1) as root?

Hi.
when OS starts I login as root.
Like this:

login: root
password: xxxxxxxxxxx

The manpage to iwi(4) specifies iwi-firmware.tgz, not iwi-firmware.gz. This could account for why pkg_add(1) is failing.

You should also ensure:

• the file downloaded is correct.
• the file is burned to disc using the 9660 format.

Do you not have an Internet connection on this machine? If you do, then you can install the firmware directly by:
Lastly, the OpenBSD 4.3 manpage for iwi(4) specifies version 3.0. Is there a reason you are wanting to use version 2.3?

Note that logging in as root is a frowned upon practice. You are less likely to do something catastrophic if you create & use a regular user account & use su(1) or better yet sudo(8) on the occasions when executing commands as root are required. Section 10.1 of the FAQ discusses a common mistake most do when first using su(1):

http://openbsd.org/faq/faq10.html#wheel

As a newcomer to OpenBSD, you should also study the afterboot(8) manpage.

The problem was in the "specification" of the file, I was using another OS (windows), I renamed the file to .tgz instead of .gz and burned in a cd again, this way pkg_add works fine. I was using firmware 2.3 by mistake so this time I used 3.0. I have another error now. I am writing just to clarify. Thanks again.