debian translation needed & lots of questions
 

Hi!
I have to reinstall again freebsd, because I didn`t add myself to wheel group (well you can say I`m very newbie :rolleyes: in the linux distros I´ve tried, I just add to every group I could see, actually not knowing what I was doing :scratch: )
Anyway I started touching conf files like /etc/passwd and the system has become inestable.

So before I give it another try, I have to know if the problems I was getting were because of my mistakes or not.

First of all, I don´t think I´m going to install from source, I have a pretty old machine, pentium 3 128 ram, and I´m still on dialup so, is it necessary to install the ports tree in the installation?

I´ve tried portupgrade -PP with firefox but nothing happens, what is the difference with pkg_add?

And about pkg_add, without the -r options, still gets dependencies?
I´ve read in the openbsd documentation that they have -u option for upgrade an existing package, how to do it with freebsd, first uninstall it, or just download it normally (I´ve tried with firefox myself, but my connection get lost, and by the way pkg_add doesn´t support resume, does it? apt-get does it, right? :confused: and what about the -i options in openbsd?

Bein on dialup I would like to backup downloaded packages, I don´t try my self but I´ve read that in debian can be done by copying the files on /var/cache/apt/archives and then run apt-get update and upgrade, how to do something similar?
Actually I don´t know where pkg_add stores the packages, I look in /var/db/pkg but I don´t see any file.tgz or similar :scratch:

Also where is the pkg_add conf file to change PACKAGESITE?, I´ve tried with export,setenv (with this one worked out, but when trying to dowload again, still use the default site).
when I added another user for me(in wheel group this time :rolleyes: ) I chose bash, but I don´t see any ~.bashrc.

I also would like to do apt-get update and then upgrade like in debian, I know about freebsd-update, this needs the ports? how to get security updates?

Well, sorry for being so long guys :o , but just after the installation freebsd seems pretty fast to me, kde was lighter than in debian sarge, being this one an older version, so I really want to learn and use freebsd!

thanks :D

You shouldn't need to reinstall because you forgot to put yourself in the wheel group (unless you only have remote access but then you can't do the installation anyway). I can't even count the number of times I've forgotten. You just log in as root, edit /etc/group , and add yourself to the end of the correct line.

Typically, I only feel the need to add myself to the wheel and operator groups. The first one you know about, and the second lets you shutdown without becoming root or using sudo.

Don't edit /etc/passwd. Use "vipw" or read the man page for master.passwd really, really carefully and edit that (remembering to follow the steps to update the databases). Seriously, just use vipw (set EDITOR to something if you can't use vi).

It's not necessary. Just don't install it.

I think "portupgrade -PP www/firefox" would have worked better -- but I dont' know your specific command. And if firefox is not installed... remember the -N flag.

Yes, of course it still gets them. And if you're not getting what you want, set PKG_PATH to ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/whatever... and then use "pkg_add ${PKG_PATH}/fullname-of-file-4.22.1.tgz" to force it to grab exactly what you want.

Just use portupgrade, there is no upgrade option of pkg_add. And I have no idea what -i does in OpenBSD nor how apt-get behaves. You lost me at the end... was that even a question?

The tarballs are in /var/tmp when you use -Kr. The "-K" tells the program to keep them after installation. If you ever forget... just use "pkg_create -b pkg-name" to make a brand new tarball from the package installed on your system.

Add it in your startup scripts (create an empty .bashrc if you need one) and remember to export it. If you continue to have problems start a new thread with a detailed explanation of the issues you're having and the steps you've tried to solve them. This one is too long as it is and is too generic to approach this topic. Also... search the forums, I know this has been answered, in some fashion, before (by myself no less).

pkg_add -r freebsd-update

Nope you don't need ports. Apt-get doesn't exist on FreeBSD.

thanks frob, for answering so fast! :)

Yeah, that´s what I think it cause the disaster.:cry:

-i shows the different versions available for a package, so you can choose from.
Searching more about portupgrade, I read that is a way to combine packages and ports, but I don´t going to use ports, so definitely forgotten.

what a great info!!!! I almost get crazy searching for how to do backups, that info it´s not in the handbook, well, at least I didn´t see it.
Do you know any other manual with more in depth info, specially about pkg tools?

Actually I did it, but didn´t work, I edited the file directly, not with export (I don´t know if it´s the same) and I was afraid to touch the startup scripts.

yes, I know I have to :study: a lot, but I´ve been testing linux distros searching for one to be confortable with,get the global picture and then study the inner working.

I never thought of a *BSD, only a few months ago I never hear about them, and look where I am now! :p

thanks a lot
ruth

To be honest, I'm not sure. I've been using the system for a long time and more than once I've read the full manpages for the pkg utilities. The manpages are usually the best and most indepth resource. You'll also find a large selection of articles and books in /usr/share/doc/en/ (or whatever language you prefer). For a full mess of information, make sure you are at least familiar with the handbook (which you've mentioned), the faq, and new-users. The last one might be a little low level (since it's aimed at really new users and you're familiar with *nix) but it's short and a couple things it touches on may be new.

As for the ports and pkg system... it is probably worth a book of its own. There's the porters handbook but that's not really helpful if you're not writing your own. The man pages and sometimes even the .mk files (for ports not pkg_) are the only real way to get an indepth understanding.

Well, yeah... I meant the user scripts... startup was a slip of the fingers. export should be in the file... not what you edit it with. Something like:
in ~/.bashrc -- You need to open a new shell after this. Why it would not be showing up after that... I don't know. Further testing would be needed.


Many years ago, I stumbled onto *BSD and gave it a shot. I remember doing a lot of reading at first but it gets better. Eventually you'll find that you're stuck with a system which runs perfectly... and you have nothing to do but actual work... not play around. And you'll get very comfortable finding the information you need. I didn't know (off the top of my head) where the tarballs would be or how to make sure they weren't deleted. But a couple seconds gave me this:
Oh, and also note: on my system... PKGDIR is defined so I think I said /var/tmp (which isn't even what mine is but that's because I knew you wouldn't have /usr/ports/packages/All) but since you won't have it defined... it will be in the same directory you are in when you type the command.