sysinstall, packages, ports q.s

Wed Sep 5 05:26:54 PDT 2007

Sur Demir wrote:
> { this is my second attempt to post, first one over Gmane did not
> appear in list. Sorry if you get this twice. }
>
> Hi,
> I'm a bit new to FreeBSD, and have few questions challenging my Gentoo
> Linux mindset:
>
>   
Welcome to the FreeBSD club!
May I first suggest you read the handbook:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/

I will attempt to give you some quick hints to get you started, but you 
will find a lot of details for all this stuff in the handbook, and also 
googling and searching the list archives.
> 1. I performed a Minimal 6.2 installation (it boots OK). Then I
> selected
> Post installation tasks -> Distributions. There I see "base
> (required)",
> it appears unselected. Does this install anything more than what
> Minimal
> install did at the first place?
>   
I believe the minimal install just installs the base system. I usually 
perform a custom installation and select absolutely everything but the 
Xorg distribution, which has been updated anyway and there is no real 
reason to install from CD at this point.
> 2. I see pkg_add, pkg_delete, pkg_info but no pkg_update. How am I
> supposed to keep my system up to date, unless I revert to ports?
>   
There are ways to keep your system updated using binary packages if you 
prefer. Most people however tend to compile from source (the ports 
system). I use portupgrade (which you can install from 
/usr/ports/ports-mgmt/portupgrade or portupgrade-devel  port), and there 
is an option in it to use binary packages. I can do something like:

portupgrade -PP -a

to upgrade all my apps using binary packages. However I much prefer to 
use ports (except for large apps like openoffice that may - depending on 
your hardware - take even days to compile). In fact for some ports you 
may not get a binary package at all, or it may be outdated. Ports always 
offer the latest version. There are quite a few port management 
utilities except portupgrade as well.

> 3. Minimal install provides a number of commands by default like pkg_*,
> portsnap, gcc, ls, vi, etc but pkg_info does not list any of their
> packages, which means they're not managed under /var/db/pkg. Then, how
> am I supposed to upgrade them without ending up with multiple versions?
>   
That is because you have not installed any packages really! You just 
have the base system, which is not managed by these utilities. Pkg_info 
is for third party apps you install from ports (or binary packages). If 
you need to upgrade the base system there are quite a few options:

1. Run the freebsd-update utility to get your system up to date by 
downloading binary patches for the main system. You will still be 
running a -RELEASE version, albeit a patched one (e.g. 6.2-RELEASE-p7). 
These are mostly security patches.

2. Use csup to get the sources from -STABLE or -CURRENT, compile and 
install kernel and world. You will get either a STABLE or a CURRENT 
system. The process is well described in the handbook. If you are a 
beginner I suggest you stay with the RELEASE (+freebsd-update) version 
for a while. This is painless (just two commands: freebsd-update fetch 
followed by freebsd-update install). As an intermediate step, learn how 
to configure & compile your own custom kernel (it is easier than it 
sounds, and also well described in the handbook).

3. Upgrade from CD/DVD when a new release is out.
> 4. I want to avoid the -CURRENT branch and want to stay with -STABLE
> branch for now. The page http://www.freebsd.org/ports/index.html says:
> "The Ports Collection supports the latest release on the
> FreeBSD-CURRENT
> and FreeBSD-STABLE branches."
> This not clear to me: If I start using ports, am I on -STABLE or not?
>   
You will be using STABLE only if you use csup to get the sources for the 
base system, and perform (2) above. It is perfectly valid to install 
updated ports on a RELEASE system. For this, you will have to update 
your ports tree using csup. A quick start for this:

- copy the file /usr/share/examples/ports-supfile to a convenient place 
(e.g. /root)
- Edit the copied file and change the host line (CHANGE_THIS) to a 
mirror near you.
- Run a command like csup -g -L 2 /root/ports-supfile to upgrade your 
ports tree

Many beginners are confused by the idea that csup (or cvsup) can be used 
to upgrade both the ports tree (for applications) and the src tree (base 
system upgrades). Yes, it is the same utility, but you will be using 
different configuration files.
> 5. make.conf is blank by default. Does CPU_TYPE default to i386 in this
> case?
>
>   
Assuming you installed the 32bit version of FreeBSD, I guess so. Someone 
else may be able to give you a better answer on this one.
> I hope I'm not too confused and sound silly. TIA.
>   
Nope. You are just overwhelmed by information that has not yet settled 
in your CPU... er I mean mind :)
>
>
>        
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>   