FreeBSD: Finally! I made a working FreeBSD 7 amd64 DVD! Here's how!

HAHAHA! Finally I got it! I made it woohoo! Ok I've successfully made a working FreeBSD 7.0 AMD64 DVD! But (there's a but..) not just using Nero, I used mkisofs to make an iso image, then burn it with Nero. Here's the important steps.

Step #1: Get the FreeBSD iso.
Fer this I downloaded all 4 isos. I downloaded all AMD64 version. You can get the isos here. Remember to get it from FreeBSD's mirror sites to ease off the load on FreeBSD's main ftp site. I downloaded:
7.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso
7.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc2.iso
7.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc3.iso
7.0-RELEASE-amd64-docs.iso

After I'm done downloading, I created a folder named FreeBSD in "c:\" so it'll look like c:\FreeBSD. Then I use 7-zip to extract all the isos into c:\FreeBSD starting from bottom up (x-docs.iso -> x-disc3.iso -> x-disc2.iso -> x-disc1.iso). Sure you can extract whichever combination you want but I just want to be sure. Then browse c:\FreeBSD\boot\ to see if there's a file call cdboot. We'll need that later. NOTE: If you found a folder named [BOOT] (not boot, you can safely delete that.

Now inside c:\FreeBSD, edit the file cdrom.inf. I use GVim Portable. You'll find something like:

CD_VERSION = 7.0-RELEASE
CD_VOLUME = 1

You can safely delete all the other line and JUST LEAVE the CD_VERSION = 7.0-RELEASE. Then save the file.

Now browse to c:\FreeBSD\packages\. I use GVim Portable and edit the file INDEX. This part is a bit tricky is you don't read carefully. Using your text editor "replace" function, delete all occurance of the words:

|1
|2
|3

To be sure, using your text editor's "search" function, find the word |1, |2 and |3 to see if there's any left. If there's none, good. We can continue.

Step #2: Get the cdrtool (we need mkisofs):
I downloaded all this tools stated below:

cdrtools-2.01-win32-bin.zip
dlls.zip
cygwin1.dll (version 1.5.25)

Then, using 7-zip, I extracted mkisofs.exe from cdrtools-2.01-win32-bin.zip into c:\WINDOWS folder. Then I extracted the file cygiconv2.dll and cygintl-8.dll from dlls.zip into c:\WINDOWS\system32. Finally I extracted cygwin1.dll into c:\WINDOWS\system32 folder.

Why can't I just extract the files to anywhere I wanted? Well, because I can use command prompt and run mkisofs from any folder I wanted. More on this below.

Step #3: Now the hard part begins. Well not so hard.
Now go open up the command prompt. You can use either "Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt" or "Start > Run" and type "cmd" then press Enter. Then type in:

cd c:\FreeBSD

to get into the FreeBSD folder. If you're using another folder name, go to that folder instead. Now we need to test out mkisofs. In the same command prompt, just type:

mkisofs

And you'll see something like:

mkisofs: Missing pathspec.
Usage: mkisofs [options] file...

If there's anything about missing cygwin1.dll, that means you didn't read the step #1. Ok now we know mkisofs is working. Let's roll. In the same command prompt, type this command:

mkisofs -o ../FreeBSD7.iso -R -J -V "FreeBSD7" -b boot/cdboot -no-emul-boot .

Remember to type it IN 1 (ONE) LINE. And yes the command ends with a "." (dot). See the -o ../FreeBSD7.iso? It means to create a file name FreeBSD7.iso in top folder, in this case c:\ root folder. Why? because I tried just -o FreeBSD7.iso and in the final iso, I see a file name, well guess what, FreeBSD7.iso in it. Drats. Now you can take a break while mkisofs is doing it's job. It'll take a while. Be sure to have enough hard disk space fer this sort of things but I tried this with only 3Gb empty space left. So fer most of us, it's nothing to worry about.

After a while, the job is done and the command prompt will display:

c:\FreeBSD>

again. So, congratulate yourself. Your iso is ready to be burn with any dvd burner program you have. In my case, Nero. Put in a blank DVD-R in your DVD-RW drive, and burn away the FreeBSD7.iso. Next. Boot and install FreeBSD. Enjoy it. You earn it friends.

Q: Why didn't you use growisofs? Well you're using mkisofs aren't you?
A: Because I don't know how. And heck I'm doing all this in XP x64.

Q: Why didn't you only use Nero to create the bootable dvd? Nero can do that.
A: Done it and the dvd can't boot the kernel. Read my previous post.

Q: Your mkisofs command is different from what I've read on the internet.
A: If you're talking about Dru's tutorial, I used her tutorial as a base, but I just can get her mkisofs command right on my pc. I guess her tutorial is just fer people using *BSD / linux. In my case, it's fer people using windows. Most importantly, this is fer me to remind meself on how I did it.

Q: Have you tested the FreeBSD dvd you've created?
A: Yes I have. I even tested using sysinstall to install some packages. Tested installing links and all the dependencies have no issue whatsoever. And installing from a dvd is great! The speed is awesome. Anyway, that's the only test I've done so far today, didn't do any full installation though but I'm sure it's fine. Just to add a note, I sacrifice 2 dvd-r before I made the final working FreeBSD 7.0 dvd. Quite a loss, in my current state but well worth the effort and knowledge.

Q: I need to know..
A: Go away!

Haha. Later then. Good luck!

p/s: I'm not done with OpenBSD though. I'll be back fer more testing. I MUST have a working OpenBSD installation up a running no matter what.

RDX200: FreeBSD 7.0 AMD64 installation is ok and running.

Latest news. FreeBSD 7.0 AMD64 installation went smoothly. It's been quite some time since I installed FreeBSD so it's like re-living the memories. I found out that I can't use my previous partition scheme because root folder "/" is not big enough. So I learnt something new here. Fer FreeBSD my partition scheme is:

/ = 500M
swap = 512M (Although automatically installation defaulted to more than 800M)
/tmp = 512M
/var = 1Gb
/usr = rest

Fer OpenBSD, I made root "/" with only 128M with no problem. I've adjusted the space so that fer next OpenBSD installation, the "/" will have 256M space. Just in case.

Installation was ok. I installed only the base system, just to test it out. I downloaded 4 iso (you got me right. 4!) and tried to make a bootable dvd using nero but failed miserably. I know there's tutorial out there on how to make FreeBSD dvds, but I can't find one using Nero. Only mkisofs. I can boot the dvd but it can't find the kernel to boot the installation. So it's a failure.

Back to the topic. After the installation, FreeBSD booted flawlessly. No problem whatsoever. So I guess there must be a hardware somewhere making trouble on my OpenBSD installation. My vote is on the faulty NIC. I'll try another OpenBSD shot later.

OpenBSD RDX200: Installed i386 but still no go. :(

I've installed OpenBSD 4.3 i386 in this pc. Installation went smooth. But still, I stumbled unto the same problem yet again. This mind boggling freeze is really something. Urrgghh! I'm really really eager to get OpenBSD running here. I'm thinking about some hardware stuff faileed here. Maybe my Ethernet card? I have 2 Marvel 1Gb Ethernet card here, both built-in but 1 have some bit or error, it doesn't detect any connection. The device seems to be ok in XP but a few weeks ago, it kept on "Connected" & "Unplugged"-ing fer no reason. So it's no longer usable. Anyway, it might not be relevant with the issue I'm currently having, but a bit of hope is better than nothing at all.

I'm currently downloading FreeBSD 7.0 AMD64. Just to test if this problem only affect OpenBSD or not. I heard that OpenBSD 4.4 will be out anytime soon. Maybe the RELEASE will be different than the snapshot I tried earlier? I'll be looking forward to that too. Later.

OpenBSD rdx200: Got the dmesg and emailed misc@. Now wait fer some solution.

I've emailed misc@ regarding the problem I currently have with 4.3 AMD64 installation. As it's my 1st post there, I'm a bit nervous. I kept thinking if my email is detailed enough or not, informative enough or not etc. Hopefully it'll be fine. I've also included the dmesg I got with the help of a friend from DaemonForums.org and OpenBSD's 4.3 i386 installation CD.

How I did it? OpenBSD FAQ 4.15 covered the proses. I prepared a msdos-formatted floppy and booted the pc using OpenBSD 4.3 i386 installation cd. Let the booting proses get through until you're presented with something like:

(I)nstall, (U)pgrade or (S)hell?

And choose (S)hell by pressing the "S" key and hitting "Enter" key. On the shell prompt, this is the command you'll need to get the dmesg like stated in FAQ 4.15:

# mount -t msdos /dev/fd0a /mnt
# dmesg >/mnt/dmesg.txt
# umount /mnt

Then reboot the pc. You can then read the dmesg.txt inside your floppy in windows. The file is *NIX formatted so it's quite hard to read as you'll see it like 1 long line of dmesg (if you're using NotePad). I opened it with the built-in text reader of Total Commander. So here's my dmesg.txt. Later then.

OpenBSD 4.3 (RAMDISK_CD) #645: Wed Mar 12 11:31:03 MDT 2008
deraadt@i386.openbsd.org:/usr/src/sys/arch/i386/compile/RAMDISK_CD
cpu0: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3500+ ("AuthenticAMD" 686-class, 512KB L2 cache) 2.20 GHz
cpu0: FPU,V86,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,CFLUSH,MMX,FXSR,SSE,SSE2
real mem = 1072197632 (1022MB)
avail mem = 1030582272 (982MB)
mainbus0 at root
bios0 at mainbus0: AT/286+ BIOS, date 12/23/05, BIOS32 rev. 0 @ 0xfaa60, SMBIOS rev. 2.3 @ 0xf0000 (47 entries)
bios0: vendor Phoenix Technologies, LTD version "6.00 PG" date 12/23/2005
apm0 at bios0: Power Management spec V1.2
acpi at bios0 function 0x0 not configured
pcibios0 at bios0: rev 3.0 @ 0xf0000/0xcf74
pcibios0: PCI IRQ Routing Table rev 1.0 @ 0xfce00/352 (20 entries)
pcibios0: bad IRQ table checksum
pcibios0: PCI BIOS has 21 Interrupt Routing table entries
pcibios0: PCI Exclusive IRQs: 3 5 10 11
pcibios0: no compatible PCI ICU found
pcibios0: Warning, unable to fix up PCI interrupt routing
pcibios0: PCI bus #3 is the last bus
bios0: ROM list: 0xc0000/0xee00 0xd0000/0x4000! 0xd4000/0x1000
cpu0 at mainbus0
pci0 at mainbus0 bus 0: configuration mode 1 (no bios)
pchb0 at pci0 dev 0 function 0 "ATI RS480 Host" rev 0x01
ppb0 at pci0 dev 2 function 0 "ATI RX480 PCIE" rev 0x00
pci1 at ppb0 bus 1
vga1 at pci1 dev 0 function 0 "ATI Radeon HD 2600" rev 0x00
wsdisplay0 at vga1 mux 1: console (80x25, vt100 emulation)
"ATI Radeon HD 2600 HD Audio" rev 0x00 at pci1 dev 0 function 1 not configured
ppb1 at pci0 dev 4 function 0 "ATI RS480 PCIE" rev 0x00
pci2 at ppb1 bus 2
mskc0 at pci2 dev 0 function 0 "Marvell Yukon 88E8053" rev 0x19, Yukon-2 EC rev. A2 (0x1): irq 3
msk0 at mskc0 port A: address 00:01:29:d3:79:27
eephy0 at msk0 phy 0: Marvell 88E1111 Gigabit PHY, rev. 2
pciide0 at pci0 dev 17 function 0 "ATI IXP400 SATA" rev 0x80: DMA
pciide0: using irq 11 for native-PCI interrupt
pciide1 at pci0 dev 18 function 0 "ATI IXP400 SATA" rev 0x80: DMA
pciide1: using irq 10 for native-PCI interrupt
ohci0 at pci0 dev 19 function 0 "ATI IXP400 USB" rev 0x80: irq 3, version 1.0, legacy support
ohci1 at pci0 dev 19 function 1 "ATI IXP400 USB" rev 0x80: irq 3, version 1.0, legacy support
ehci0 at pci0 dev 19 function 2 "ATI IXP400 USB2" rev 0x80: irq 3
ehci0: timed out waiting for BIOS
usb0 at ehci0: USB revision 2.0
uhub0 at usb0 "ATI EHCI root hub" rev 2.00/1.00 addr 1
"ATI IXP400 SMBus" rev 0x81 at pci0 dev 20 function 0 not configured
pciide2 at pci0 dev 20 function 1 "ATI IXP400 IDE" rev 0x80: DMA, channel 0 configured to compatibility, channel 1 configured to compatibility
wd0 at pciide2 channel 0 drive 0:
wd0: 16-sector PIO, LBA, 38166MB, 78165360 sectors
wd1 at pciide2 channel 0 drive 1:
wd1: 16-sector PIO, LBA, 19092MB, 39102336 sectors
wd0(pciide2:0:0): using PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2, Ultra-DMA mode 5
wd1(pciide2:0:1): using PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2, Ultra-DMA mode 5
atapiscsi0 at pciide2 channel 1 drive 1
scsibus0 at atapiscsi0: 2 targets
cd0 at scsibus0 targ 0 lun 0: SCSI0 5/cdrom removable
cd0(pciide2:1:1): using PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2, Ultra-DMA mode 2
"ATI IXP450 HD Audio" rev 0x01 at pci0 dev 20 function 2 not configured
pcib0 at pci0 dev 20 function 3 "ATI IXP400 ISA" rev 0x80
ppb2 at pci0 dev 20 function 4 "ATI IXP400 PCI" rev 0x80
pci3 at ppb2 bus 3
pciide3 at pci3 dev 8 function 0 "CMD Technology SiI3114 SATA" rev 0x02: DMA
pciide3: using irq 11 for native-PCI interrupt
"VIA VT6306 FireWire" rev 0x80 at pci3 dev 9 function 0 not configured
skc0 at pci3 dev 10 function 0 "Marvell Yukon 88E8001/8003/8010" rev 0x13, Yukon Lite (0x9): irq 5
sk0 at skc0 port A: address 00:01:29:d3:78:f5
eephy1 at sk0 phy 0: Marvell 88E1011 Gigabit PHY, rev. 5
pchb1 at pci0 dev 24 function 0 "AMD AMD64 HyperTransport" rev 0x00
pchb2 at pci0 dev 24 function 1 "AMD AMD64 Address Map" rev 0x00
pchb3 at pci0 dev 24 function 2 "AMD AMD64 DRAM Cfg" rev 0x00
pchb4 at pci0 dev 24 function 3 "AMD AMD64 Misc Cfg" rev 0x00
usb1 at ohci0: USB revision 1.0
uhub1 at usb1 "ATI OHCI root hub" rev 1.00/1.00 addr 1
usb2 at ohci1: USB revision 1.0
uhub2 at usb2 "ATI OHCI root hub" rev 1.00/1.00 addr 1
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
npx0 at isa0 port 0xf0/16: reported by CPUID; 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 ffcd netmask ffed ttymask ffef
rd0: fixed, 3800 blocks
uhidev0 at uhub1 port 1 configuration 1 interface 0 "vendor 0x15d9 USB Mouse" rev 1.10/1.00 addr 2
uhidev0: iclass 3/1
uhid at uhidev0 not configured
root on rd0a swap on rd0b dump on rd0b

OpenBSD RDX200: Trying to get the dmesg. Next, change to i386?

Ok. After searching fer answers, jggimi from DaemonForums.org suggested that I should use the i386 version of OpenBSD instead of AMD64 which I've installed.

I was also told that the i386 CD have support fer mounting msdos file system which the AMD64 version didn't have. So now I'm getting the i386's iso. I'll get the dmesg 1st, post it to misc@ first to see if there's any workaround and if there's none, I guess I'll have to settle with an i386 version of OpenBSD fer now. If that is so, it sure is not my lucky day. Hopefully there's something I can do to get this AMD64 version to work. Later on this soon.

Fer FAQ about sending dmesg, please refer to OpenBSD FAQ 4.9. Fer FAQ about getting dmesg to report installation problems, please go to OpenBSD FAQ 4.15 (Take note that the mount -t msdos.. command is referring to i386 CD. I tried it with my AMD64 cd without success.)

p/s: If you didn't know, DaemonForums.org is community-based forum geared towards *BSD user mainly (Although there's even section fer Mac OS X, Linux and even Windows). Many of the users are from the BSDForums.org, the legendary forum which is sadly now severely spam infested. Do visit DaemonForums.org and heck become a member!

OpenBSD: 4.3 AMD64 can't boot. Found something interesting.

After searching fer some answers / directions, I found out that OpenBSD Man Page is one of the place to go. After reading boot_config part of the man page, I go on and boot to 4.3 again. On the boot prompt I go and type "/bsd -c" to boot to User Kernel Config (UKC). It's something like this:

boot> /bsd -c
UKC>

Then I disabled the ehci by typing:

UKC> disable ehci
UKC> quit

After that 4.3 booted the kernel with ehci disabled. But then the booting problem got worst. My lcd went standby (the LED turned orange) and the HDD LED blinks rapidly. Hard reset AND hard boot didn't work. I had to turn the power off right from the power socket. So the culprit is not ehci (or maybe not JUST ehci?, I'm not sure right now.).

Take note that this UKC will retain the setting you changed per reboot. Means that when you rebooted, you need to change the UKC setting again or else it'll boot the default.

OpenBSD: 4.3 installed, but failed on booting.

Okay. Here's the news. I installed GAG 4.9 as a boot manager, and I've successfully installed OpenBSD 4.3 (AMD64). When the installation is done and the machine rebooted, OpenBSD kernel booted and while it's probing devices, I saw something like:

"ATI EHCI root hub"

And my monitor went blank then the pc restarted back to POST. Weird. I've tried rebooting a few times already but with no success. I've written a new thread on Daemon Forums and hope that somebody will point me to a right direction. Surely I'll google bout this matter later.

As this is my 1st time OpenBSD installation, I'll post a rough walkthrough later. OpenBSD installation is different from FreeBSD and I'm really excited!

DragonFlyBSD 2.0 is out! It's Hammer time!

Ok now head up to DragonFlyBSD and check their latest 2.0 release. Now there's something new to look upon. The DragonFlyBSD team has created a new filesystem named HAMMER (pdf file). From what I read, the filesystem is an innovative new filesystem fer DragonFlyBSD and the developer has stated that they're commited to make the new filesystem as widely accepted by other *BSD siblings and other OSes.

Go and check that out.

Info: Toshiba IPC5030B LCD information found.

Ok I found a page regarding the information on my Toshiba IPC5030B LCD monitor.

http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/peripheral/products/i5030b.htm

Yes the site is in Japanese so you need to translate the page using any online translation site. I translated the page using my K-Meleon web browser and the information on the LCD is very detailed. Hope this help anyone who's looking fer the same information. Later.

OpenBSD 4.3: New project, multiboot OpenBSD & XP x64.

Hola. It's been a long while aye. Ok here's the latest project, I'm currently planning to do a multiboot system of OpenBSD and WinXP x64.

Why not FreeBSD? I guess it's time fer me to experiment / try out the other *BSD sibling. I read a lot of user experience / review on OpenBSD and none is negative. People says it's stable and secure. Sure, the port tree maybe not as vast as FreeBSD but it'll be enough I guess. I'm also interested in their encryption.

As my PC is a AMD64 pc, I downloaded OpenBSD's AMD64 installation cd. I heard that OpenBSD never released a full installation cd before to encourage people to buy official CD / DVD but in 4.3, they made it available fer download. My rough hard disk space now is:

1) Western Digital Caviar WD400 40gb: 27gb XP x64, 12gb OpenBSD
2) Western Digital Protege WD200 20Gb: All ntfs

Currently I'm reading references on multibooting OpenBSD with XP. The 1st site I'm looking is http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html#Multibooting. There's also user experience multibooting OpenBSD with XP but reflecting OpenBSD 3.6: http://www.aleph0.com/computing/openbsd/dualboot/. By reading the links given, I notice that it's a bit different between FreeBSD and OpenBSD on multiboot installation. From a 1st time read, I think OpenBSD will be harder. But as I progress, I might prove meself wrong here. Both articles suggest using Windows's own NTLdr to manage booting to OpenBSD, and it's something I never done in FreeBSD before. So it's interesting.

There's also method using BootPart to look into but unfortunately, I already done fixing my hard disk space. So I have to skip this part. Unless BootPart method can be done without the need to create a small FAT partition. I'll post update on this when I found a way.

Ok, found out another Boot Manager of interest. GAG Boot Manager. It's stated that GAG will not need it's own partition and can be installed to the existing partition. Great. The screenshots is nice too. So I'm downloading it now.

Here's my AMD64 machine:

1. DFI LANParty UT RDX200 CF - DR
2. AMD AthlonÖ 64 3500+ (Winchester) s939
- Cooler Master X Dream K641 low profile CPU heatsink/fan
3. Kingston KVR400X64C3A/512 PC3200 DDR400 512Mb x2
4. GECUBE HD 2600Pro 16x PCIe 512Mb DDR2
5. Primary Master: Western Digital WD400 ATA 40Gb
6. Primary Slave: Western Digital WD200 ATA 20Gb
7. Secondary Master: Samsung WriteMaster DVD-RW ATA
8. Toshiba 15" IPC5030B LCD monitor
9. PS/2 keyboard
10. USB optical mouse

I'll do some researching to prepare fer this multi boot project. In the meantime, I would like to ask fer favor, if anyone have any info on my Toshiba IPC5030B LCD monitor. This Japan-spec LCD is hard to get any info on. Later.

RDX200: My new 64bit PC is nearly complete!

Ah. Just a few more items and my new PC will be complete! Currently this is what I have fer my new 64bit PC.

- AMD Athlon64 3500+ Winchester s939
- DFI LanParty UT RDX200 CF-DR
- 2x Kingston 512M KVR PC3200 DDR400
- GeCube Ati Radeon HD2600 Pro 512M PciE

I bought the processor and mobo as used. My boss gave me the twin DDR ram. The GPU is the only thing that's new in box. Yeah I bought a socket 939 pc. You might wonder why as AM2 stuff cost just around the same price. Well, #1: I like the number. #2: As I was starting on buying stuff fer my new pc, I saw the used DFI mobo up fer sale. What caught my attention was the Raid5 capability. Sure it's just SATA 1 but heck I wanted to own a Raid5 PC fer a long time now.

So the mobo was my 1st item fer my new 64Bit PC project. The processor came after that. The 67w TDP (Thermal Design Power) of the 3500+ is just what I needed. I'm not gonna OC my PC and I need it to be cool. The Winchester lack SSE3 instruction but at that time it was the only bargain I could get (less than RM140!). I bought both in the same month (December 2007) and it took me another month before I could buy the GeCube GPU. Luckily my boss upgraded all the PC in our office so there was a bunch of old DDR400 ram around. I wanted to buy 2 pieces from him but he gave me fer free instead.

Funny thing was I can only trust the seller bout all the used items I bought. I didn't manage to test the mobo and processor out because I didn't even have a CPU heatsink!. Not to mention that there's no built-in GPU came with this DFI. Used items have limited guarantee. 1 week mostly.

After I bought my GeCube GPU, early this month; I can't stand it anymore. I bought a no-name heatsink fer RM28 and I used my old 20Gb IDE Harddisk to test the stuff out. The 1st time I assembled the items and turn it on, the mobo lights but indicating error (4 LED lit up. It was supposed to turn off one by one to indicate the mobo startup status). I really thought that I wasted my hard earned money fer nothing there until I noticed that the power connector on the mobo is 24pin and my PSU have only 20pin connected to it. There's another 4pin coming out from the no-name PSU so I connect that one too. After that, I heard the startup beep and there was it, the RDX200 boot screen. Lovely.

So the stuff is all ok. Except fer the no-name CPU heatsink. It was so tight it bent my DFI mobo a bit. I googled around and read bout it happening mostly on intel's mobo. People said it's normal fer the mobo to bend a bit because of the tightness, but it broke my heart to see my mobo tortured like that. And btw, didn't read many of that happening on AMD side. So, after less than 2 weeks testing the new PC out, I disassembled the parts again. This month I'm buying a 250+Gb SATA harddisk AND a new heatsink. My preference is a lightweight heatsink, no more than 360g in weight. Such as:

- Thermalright XP-90 (360g w/0 fan) * Obviously many people gave positive reviews bout this one.
- Scythe Samurai Z Rev. B (355g)

I haven't finalised the heatsink yet. I might add other relevant findings later. I'm also eye-ing on Cooler Master Ammo 533 case. Looks good. I can't wait to try 64Bit FreeBSD! Later.

FreeBSD 6.3-RELEASE is out!

Yeah you heard it right. A new FreeBSD release is out. Head out to http://www.freebsd.org/releases/6.3R/announce.html to read more about it. Or you can go to http://www.freebsd.org.

I've been waiting fer this release. It's good to know that it's out. I'm sure 7-RELEASE will be out soon too. Can't wait fer my new PC to be built! Later.

Building new pc for 64bit FreeBSD.

Since my laptop died on me, not much has happened in my FreeBSD world. But now I'm building my new PC, a 64bits PC so I hope I can continue my FreeBSD exploration again soon.

I've been wanting to buy an AMD64 PC, but I only had the financial to do so recently. Currently I only have a few parts with me and I still need to buy a few more before my PC is complete. Currently I have:

DFI LANParty UT RDX200 CF DR motherboard
AMD64 3500+ socket 939 Winchester core

Why 939? Why not AM2? Well, I know AM2 is the standard now but I just like the number '939' :). I went fer DFI LANParty because they have 8 SATA! and 4 can be use with raid 5!. Anyway, this parts is all used, I bought it from lelong.com.my. Haven't tried it all but I believe that it's all working. Hopefully it is because if it's not, it's such a waste.

As you can see, I still have a few more parts to go before my PC is complete. I've been wanting to experience 64 bit FreeBSD fer so long now and hopefully it'll be soon. Later.

Links: Funny quotes about software licences.

Still no new thing about my G770i. Been a while since I last booted the 6.2-R. But hey, I was readin GPL Code Found In OpenBSD Wireless Driver (heck it's SlashDot..) when I stumbled on to this funny quotes about the difference between GPL, BSD and closed-sourced software license:

GPL: I buy everyone a round because the license of the bar says that everyone else will also buy a round when it is their turn.

BSD: I buy everyone a round because hell, I am just a nice guy and I want everyone to have a beer even if that means I will end up paying for all the beer being drunk.

Closed source company: Hell, I like you BSD, keep them coming.Eh, my round? I left my wallet at home, say BSD, how about a napeleon brandy mate?

BSD: Sure, we are all mates.

GPL: You are an idiot BSD. But hey, make mine a double.

Get it?

Here's the BSD group's commentary of the issue.

LoL. Somewhat true in my point. GPL is kind of forcing the free codes to remain free whereas BSD lets the codes to be free of any restriction. Well don't take it all from me. Heck I still don't understand the 'excitement' of flamewars. Just enjoy whatever OS you're using. And still, I LOVE BSD! Later

G770i: SCSI hard disk might be dead.

Great. Just great. I suspect the 1st SCSI hard disk of my G770i has died. Try rebooting but there's "Device Not Ready" error on the SCSI POST. Will look onto this later because I have to go fer a site visit now. Later Then

FreeOSZoo Project, all the "animals" in one place to see and play with.

This post is not *BSD specific. I just found this site through Wikipedia. Ever wanted to try out an OS without downloading / installing hundreds of Mb of files? You can, in the zoo. No I'm not joking. The place you can do that is http://www.oszoo.org. Yeah it's OS Zoo. Going to the main page of the site, I can't stop smiling seeing many of the known OSes logo and mascot displayed. You name it, Beastie (BSD mascot), Puffy (OpenBSD logo/mascot), Tux (Linux), Darwin (Apple MacOS) and more. Just like a zoo. From the main page:

"FreeOsZoo provides ready-to-run images of QEMU virtual computers, pre-installed with a Free Operating System and a set of popular free software."

Nice. You can also use the Free Live OS Zoo (FLOZ), running or testing an operating system without the need to install the said QEMU. The requirement is:

1024x768 screen resolution (Bah that leaves me out of the list.... Ah well..)
DSL or faster connection
Web browser with Java Plugin or JDK appletviewer

Ok enough from me. Go ahead and try those things out if you're interested. Who knows, you'll find the OS you've been looking fer in there. Later.

p/s: Yeah the topic is kinda cheesy, I've ran out of ideas.. :P

G770i: SMP kernel up and running.

Kernel rebuilding has been going well. Mind you I *kinda* sure my SMP is working, but I'm searching fer ways to verify it. Maybe some sort of program or script or something. I'm posting the output of /usr/sbin/mptable here fer my reference. Despite what's written in http://people.freebsd.org/~fsmp/SMP/getstarted.html, the only changes I have to make fer my custom kernel configuration file is:

# Enables Symmetrical Multi Processing
options SMP

I guess because the former website reflects more on FreeBSD 5x series, 6x configuration fer SMP has been simplified. Anyway, I'll try and find more useful website to aid my SMP testing. So more on that later. I'm also posting the SMP-enabled kernel configuration file here. Named SMP-G770IKERNEL (obviously I follow the handbook as close as I can, easier fer newbie like meself.). Later.

Update: I've also uploaded a new /var/run/dmesg.boot and you can download it on the [G770i Files] named 6.2-R - /var/run/dmesg.boot (SMP). Comparing the old dmesg.boot (obviously name 6.2-R - /var/run/dmesg.boot (old)..) and the new one, it shows that SMP is alive and kicking with the new custom kernel configuration. Hah!. Now to test up the SMP, doing some program installation or something.

G770i: Need to build SMP-enabled 6.2-R kernel (not enabled by default) & ready to samba.

Ok. After lurking the net fer something about setting up a FreeBSD file server, I read about something else. About my new custom kernel. I just know that SMP is not enabled by default in the 6.2-R installation or GENERIC kernel configuration file. So my custom kernel, which was modified from GENERIC didn't enabled SMP fer my G770i. A SMP-enabled (Symmetrical Multi Processing) kernel will allow my G770i (which have 2x 266Mhz intel PII processor) to use both of the processor installed. By reading http://people.freebsd.org/~fsmp/SMP/getstarted.html, I just know that there's a SMP-enabled GENERIC (named SMP-GENERIC) kernel configuration file in src/sys/i386/conf/. A few other good reads:

http://people.freebsd.org/~fsmp/SMP/SMP.html
http://www.freebsddiary.org/smp.php (A year 2000 post, might not be correct now but a good read.)

Google fer more if you're interested. I'll build a new kernel with SMP enabled in a while and I'll post the config file after that.

About getting to NAS. I know there's a simple solution, named FreeNAS. Sure I heard it's great fer turning your computer into a NAS server. But I'm not going that way. I want this G770i to be my workstation too. To do something, surf the net etc. Yes it'll be more to NAS but not total. But then I might just be dumb ;).

So after looking around a bit, I'll settle fer Samba. I know it'll make my head ache somehow. :). A few good links fer Samba related stuff:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/network-samba.html (aka the FreeBSD Handbook.)
http://www.samba.org
http://www.us-webmasters.com/FreeBSD/Install/Samba/ (reflecting FreeBSD 4.9, might still be useful.)

Do visit http://www.freenas.org is you're interested in knowing about FreeNAS. Later.

G770i: Display problem solved, config files uploaded.

Now I'm writing this blog using my 6.2-R. :D. Also, the problem with display has been solved. Seems like I can't use 24 bit color & do 1024x768 resolution here. Found out the correct refresh rate of this monitor (Samsung SyncMaster 450b). So in /etc/X11/xorg.conf, I put:

Section "Monitor"
    HorizSync 30.0 - 55.0
    VertRefresh 50.0 - 120.0
    Modeline "800x600" 56.30 800 832 896 1024 600 601 604 623 +hsync +vsync
    Option "DPMS"
EndSection

How to get the corrent modeline? Here's a good howto regarding configuring your monitor fer Xorg. Using xvidtune help alot too. Remember to su before using xvidtune. As mine can only use 800x600 resolution, the settings here might not be suitable fer you guys. Maybe you can use 1024x768 or even higher.

I've uploaded the G770IKERNEL (my kernel configuration file), rc.conf and xorg.conf. You can download it from the left panel of this blog. Ah. Y! Messenger is installed ;). Had to install linux-ymessenger instead of ymessenger because the latter have some sort of problem, can't get the file anywhere. Later.

G770i: kernel rebuilt, xorg.conf still need tweaking.

Kernel rebuilding is done. Found out that commenting (putting '#' in front) / deleting the:

device ural

in the # USB support section of my G770IKERNEL (my kernel configuration file) file makes the error disappear. I guess I deleted a line/device which are required by that device. Now the server is running a new kernel, and without any glitches whatsoever. So all are ok. The console are now in 800x600 VESA mode. Nice. As the options VESA and options SC_PIXEL_MODE is included in the kernel, I just need to add:

allscreens_flags="-g 100x37 VESA_800x600"

in /etc/rc.conf and the next boot will be a pleasure to the eyes.

I've installed mc, Midnight Commander, a Norton Commander clone. Useful file manager if you like FreeBSDing in the console. I have configured the X.org. there are a few ways to configure it.

In the console, type:

vampire# xorgcfg

and a fully graphical configurator will appear. You can also use:

vampire# xorgcfg -textmode

fer a ncurse mode of the configurator. Or you can manually change the needed parameters in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. I'm currently having no luck in configuring the monitor's refresh rate. Drats. Tried a few different refresh rate and still the screen isn't filling up the whole monitor in X. Didn't go extreme yet because I'm kinda scared the CRT will burn. Seriously. Somehow I feel that configuring LCDs is easier. Will update on this later. fluxbox is in too. How I missed looking at it. Still looks great. Until I'm finished with tweaking the monitor's refresh rate, my fluxbox will be bare minimum.

I should've written this blog here using my server, but because links and Blogger can't play nicely together, had to wait till I'm done installing firefox which I'm doing right now. Boot splash screen will be the next thing I'm thinking of doing. zsh shell might comes afterward.

I wonder when can I get to the NAS thingy... Later.

G770i: Kernel rebuilding in progress.

I'm currently rebuilding the kernel. The copy of GENERIC config file, now named G770IKERNEL was changed way too much I guess. The only addition I put was:

options VESA
options SC_PIXEL_MODE

But there has been many devices I've deleted from the config file. My 1st try on rebuilding came with an error and I'm trying fer the 2nd time, while I'm searching fer some sort of answer. If the error persist, I have no choice than to re-copy the GENERIC again and reevaluate the things I should / shouldn't delete.

I've installed screen & links, 2 of my favorite programs. I'll post the server's G770IKERNEL kernel configuration file in my homepage when I have a free time. Seems like the 6.2-R's GENERIC have less options than before. Hmmm. Later.

G770i: FreeBSD 6.2-R installed, now fer post-installations.

One thing to remember, next time I'm installing FreeBSD using ftp, make sure not to get greedy and picking lots of distributions.

Why? Because I've started installing 6.2-R a few minutes after my previous post and the installation was done this morning around 2. This is my 1st time doing a floppy - ftp installation so it's not all bad. Now I have a new experience.

The installation went fine. Can't find any Compat options now, I guess one of the new features of 6x. The options to configure X has also been removed from sysinstall. As always, I've chosen linux compatibility. X windows (X.org) is installed too but still unconfigured.

Ah. I fergot to tell about the purpose of this installation. This G770i will be primarily a NAS (Network Attached Storage) server. And it will be my main FreeBSD machine. So expect this server to change more like a workstation pc. Hardware upgrades I'm considering is:

1. PCI vga card, preferably a Matrox because the drivers fer FreeBSD is a lot.
2. PCI SCSI Raid card, thinking about a 3-channel Mylex card. Still Eyeing fer bargains.
3. Bigger SCSI hard disks, probably starting with 3 disks with Raid 5 then eventually filling the modules up. As this will be a NAS server, storage is a priority.
4. Filling the RAM to 512Mb.

Installation is done and 6.2-R booted without a glitch. No panic whatsoever. I'd post the hardware probe result but the server is still basically not configured in any way. So now I'm getting to the configurations, starting with building a new kernel. Later.

G770i: Downloading distributions, time fer a break. :D

Ahhhh.... Now the server is downloading the distributions I've previously selected. I'm using the main FreeBSD ftp site. The built-in ethernet card is AOK. Yeah I know I was supposed to use my own ftp server I've set up yesterday but then, we're connected to the net through broadband. Can't resist the feeling. Heh.

I'll post the walkthrough in my homepage when i'm done with the installation and 6.2 is installed and running. Later.

G770i: floppies ok and running sysinstall.

Miraculously, the floppies is ok now. Tried using all the *.flp images a few times and it's really ok. I even downloaded a 5.5-RELEASE images but now no need fer that, the 6.2-R is good to go.

The Boot floppy, Kernel floppy 1, 2 & 3 is all cool and I can boot the kernel now. A new problem appears. Seems like there's a panic after hardware probing. On the boot menu, I tried 1. Boot FreeBSD (default), 2. Boot FreeBSD with ACPI and both failed with a panic. The Safe mode option is ok though. So now I'm in slice to partition the hard disks. I will be using the same slice as my previous installation, you can find it at my homepage under the [FreeBSD & Me] > [FreeBSD 5.2.1 Installation] page.

The disk layout fer this server is a bit different. The layout I'm using now is:

disk 1
/ 128M
swap 130M
/tmp 256M
/usr (rest of the space)

disk 2
swap 130M
/var 256M
/disk2 (rest of the space)

Fer the distribution, using my own guide as a, uhm, guide; I've chosen:

base
kernels
dict
doc
info
man
src
- base
- rescue
- sys
ports
local
X.org
- all

I noticed that 6.2-R have a different distribution now. Wow. Now fer the real deal. The installation. More info later.

G770i: 6.2-R trial installation, the 2nd encounter.

I bought a box of shiny brand new diskettes. Time to retry the installation process. Currently, there's a bit of a problem. It's the elf32_loadimage error. And it seems that that problem is quite common, even coming from 6.0-R installation. The boot.flp is ok, but the time I put the kern1.flp, the error appears after it reads the floppy. I tried using fdimage from 2 different pc, using the kern1.flp from the ISO I have and a newly downloaded one but the problem is still there. Tried using different diskettes too. The error is like this:

[earlier message skipped]
FreeBSD/i386 bootstrap loader, Revision 1.1
(root@dessler.cse.buffalo.edu, Fri Jan 12 06:40:38 UTC 2007)
Loading boot/defaults/loader.conf
/kernel text=0x51a2e4 \
Inset disk labelled "Kernel floppy 1" and press any key...
zf_read: fill error

readin failed

elf32_loadimage: read failed
Unable to load a kernel!
\
[irrelevant message skipped]
can't load '/kernel'

Currently I'm reformatting a diskette before using fdimage, to see if the pre-formation of the new diskette is somehow making all this. Tried this and still the same problem persist. Looks like I need to google more on this. Will keep you updated as soon as I found something interesting. Later.

G770i: FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE trial installation started.

Ok. My buddy just sent me another PII 266Mhz processor, the 2 missing hot-swap module, 2 9.1Gb Maxtor SCSI hard disk and 2 pieces of 256Mb ECC Server RAM module. Tried booting the server and it's all ok. Looks like the missing hot-swap module was the culprit. So now the G770i is a dual-processor server. Tried the new RAM my buddy gave me but seems like it has a problem. From the document I have, I assume the current BIOS can only manage to have a maximum of 128Mb RAM per DIMM. But then both of the new RAMs might be kaput so I might be wrong. Will update on that later.

So my trial installation is already under progress. Not without any hiccup though. My FreeBSD CD is at my foster brother's house and I forgot to bring it back yesterday. So no installation from CD fer me today. Tried another alternative, installation from floppies but I only manage to get 2 darn floppy after hours of searching in this whole place. Bah! And only a single floppy is working. No CD, and just a single floppy. Yeah sure. What should I do?

I have a solution, in theory as per yet. I have a 6.2-RELEASE ISO (CD image) here in this current pc I'm using. So I use DAEMON tool, a cd emulator to load the ISO file and after a brief searching through google, I found Cerberus FTP Server which is free fer personal use. My solution? Make this current pc I'm writing this blog with as an FTP server to serve the FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE ISO through the LAN. Yeah, use the floppy to load the boot.flp, kern1.flp, kern2.flp & kern3.flp images into the G770i server and continue the installation using the FTP method. Brilliant huh? :D. Yeah well it's not proven yet.

I'll try to write a simple walkthrough later fer my homepage so keep on checking if you're interested. Gotta go back to the installation, I sense the only working floppy I have left is dying. ARGHH! Later.

Breaking News: The last floppy died horribly just now. Leaving yet another mess to remember. As we pay a last respect to the anonymous floppy, the memories will always remain with us. Urghhh I need another darn floppy...

Fujitsu teamSERVER G770i, my next FreeBSD machine :D

Now I have a new testbed. A friend gave me a server and that will be a new machine fer my FreeBSD need. It's an old server, said to still be in good working condition and by the look of it, it is. It's a Fujitsu teamSERVER G770i. The hard part is finding information about the server. Until now, I managed to get just a document about the server. And here's what I know about that server.

Brand: Fujitsu teamSERVER G770i.
Processor: 1x Intel PII 266Mhz / 512Kb L2, dual-processor capable, intel 440Fx chipset.
RAM: not sure but was told it's 128Mb ECC EDO installed.
Disks: 2x 4Gb Ultra-Wide SCSI, 8x hot-swapped hard-disk bay /w 6 hot-swap module installed (I'm waiting fer the other 2 modules), IDE CD-ROM, Floppy drive, HP SureStore Dat24 backup tape drive.
I/Os: 5x PCI, 2x ISA, 1Mb ATI 264VT on-board vga, Adaptec 7880 dual-channel Ultra-Wide SCSI, Intel PRO 100B compatible 10/100 NIC.

Hmm. Let's see. That's just about it. I'm still searching fer the manual or userguide or something. But because this system is quite old, it's a heck of a pain to find any useful information about it. There's more to know about this machine.

Currently I can't boot the server, probably because the 2 empty hot-swap bay. So no testing as per yet. Good news is my friend will hand me another 2 9.1Gb Ultra-Wide SCSI disk, the 2 missing hot-swap bay and another processor. Hah! Wondering why the heck would anyone give me anything? I'm not sure meself.

So until I can get enough information about the system, I guess we'll have to wait fer the installation. Later.

p/s: If somehow you have any sort of informations or download regarding this specific machine, do leave me a comment or something. It'll be great.

AsiaBSDCon @ Tokyo.

In case you didn't read the latest news. Posted on FreeBSD website and in the mailin list, the next AsiaBSDCon will take place in Tokyo Japan startin from the 8th of March till 11th March 2007. Taken from the site:

"AsiaBSDCon, the BSD conference for Asia, has posted its schedule of tutorials, papers and presentations for the conference, taking place in Tokyo from March 8th through 11th 2007. The complete schedule can be found here.

Registration will begin on or about the 12th of February."

So those who's interested and in the vicinity, make sure you register yourself. Later.

New layout.

Oh yeah. I changed the blog-o-mine to the new Blogger's template made available. Honestly, this one is my personal favorite. Hopes you'll like it too. Later!

Finally! Journaled File System for FreeBSD *soon, me hope*.

Now FreeBSD has version 6.x fer production purpose and 7 fer current. I missed quite a release nowadays. But 1 of the most important news I read today is:

*tada!* GJournal (This is a .pdf file, it'll may take quite some time to load this. Beware.). GJournal is a journal patch? (I'm not sure it's a patch, or extension or a new file system) currently fer UFS file system (more to come, so I read). What it'll do? It'll enabled journaling feature into FreeBSD file system. Yeah we're already goin to version 7 and journaled file system has only been written now.

http://blogs.freebsdish.org/pjd is the blog of the writer of GJournal. You might want to read this fer clearer informations.

So what's journaled file system? From a non techie explanation (like there'll be a techie explanation from me... :), it's like a real time backup of changes in files. Fer a simple example, you open up a text program and write a long blog. In the middle of your writing, the power went off. You didn't save any of your blog so after you restarted the pc, you find that your writings is:

a) completely lost
b) corrupted

Either way, fer a simple blog, it's not that harmful (unless your idea just went up in smoke and you're pullin your hairs in disbelieve..), but look at it in real-time operating system work. Hundreds of activities per second, all using files and many of the files is important system's file. Get the picture? We don't want system files to be corrupted in case of power failure or such do we? Sorry if my explanation isn't correct so better google fer some better and detail explanation about it.

FreeBSD have no journaled file system until now. Fer windows, they have NTFS. Not that FreeBSD is lack in somethin great though. The current file system is stable enough fer even big big corporation's need. Has ever been stable. So what's the fuss? Well, because journaled file system will make it much better. Securing the secured. Bestest of best.

Enough with that. Read this discussion in FreeBSD Mailing List fer the informations, where-to-gets and uhm, discussions about the said GJournal.

Will GJournal make it to FreeBSD 7? I sure hope so. In fact, I read that it'll be in 6-STABLE. Yeah that's what I'm talkin about. Later.

Fer further readings, here's what I think the useful links to consider.

http://ivoras.sharanet.org/freebsd/gjournal.html - The original GJournal. Now made obsolete by the new GJournal goodies.
http://wiki.freebsd.org/gjournal -Wiki about the old GJournal. Much better informations than mine (fer sure :). It's there fer historical purpose.
http://ivoras.sharanet.org/freebsd/freebsd7.html - Some informations about what's in store fer the next FreeBSD 7 release. Informative.
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/2006-August/064932.html - Discussion in FreeBSD Mailing List about GJournal new patch.
Google - It's THE search engine. So use it!

p/s: When you read other far more accurate explaination than mine, that information will automatically void mine. In english, you can't sue me :P.

BSD Guides: Doing Stuff With FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD & Mac OS X

Hah! It's been a very long rest fer me here aye? Heck, am still waitin fer a new machine to build my FreeBSD again. Kinda missed all the actions. Fer sure I missed writin stuff in here. Well, if I'm lucky, my next FreeBSD jots will be just as soon as I'm hopin it'll be. Which is, anytime soon. Well, it'll might as well be another lie but heck I'm tryin.

I couldn't really recall fer sure if I've posted this site in here. Feels like I never did. Lucky me I found this site while I was doin my habit, readin about BSD stuff. This site is a place fer contributors to post howtos, tips and so on about all the *BSD flavor.

http://www.bsdguides.org/

So if you're using any *BSD and have any howtos or tips you like to share, feel free to post it to the site. Me? Nah I'm too newbie to write to em. Would love to when my skills are much much better then this current state. Later.

p/s: I missed usin screen, Beastie and such. Bah! I need a new machine!

EFF: Sony BMG Litigation

I was browsin fer informations about BSD when I stumbled on this interestin topic. EFF: Sony BMG Litigation is a must read fer you music lovers out there. Why most of the big corporate are like this? Thankfully we still have Open Source OS.

FreeBSDWiki

Main Page - BSDWiki is a Wiki about FreeBSD which aims to;

"devoted primarily to common issues faced by new and veteran FreeBSD administrators. The goal is to create a common knowledge store which could also be referred to as "FreeBSD for the Impatient", in other words, a place where it is easy to delve straight into simple answers about common needs and problems".

Wiki itself is a "Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser.". Ok so basically it means that FreeBSDWiki is a place people (FreeBSD / *BSD users) can contribute their knowledge on anything FreeBSD like installation guides, FAQs (Frequently Asked Question), tips, histories and more. There's currently 17 chapters written and it covers wide variety of informations. Cool. Expect the infos to expand. Oh yeah you can contribute too. All you got to do is register and then follow the guideline stated on how to edit the wikis.

I personally hope the FreeBSDWiki will become one of the major source for FreeBSDer or non FreeBSD user to find infos on FreeBSD / *BSD, other than the official FreeBSD.org website of course :). Cool stuff. Oh yeah there's some issue about Wiki (because basically people can alter what you wrote and not everybody is nice and truthfull..) but then there's also people who'll make sure the informations contained is as accurate as possible. Later.

FreeBSD's own LOGO! Cool!

I guess you already know the differences between FreeBSD logo and the BSD mascot. Yeah FreeBSD has been usin Beastie on their website fer a very long time while OpenBSD have their own logo (envyish.. was.. I'm not too sure bout NetBSD though.). Even the new DragonflyBSD have their own logo! (actually Fred the DragonFly is their mascot too and I feel weird bout it. BSD but with another mascot? Huh? Ah well they're dragonfly anyway. Bah!). But now our prayers has been answered. We FreeBSD-ers now have our own logo to brag about. And the logo is very nice. Here's the link of the new logo FreeBSD logo design competition : result. I'm already droolin at the T-shirt design. Me want one!

Yeah I know it seems like I've abandoned this FreeBSD blog of mine but actually I'm not. As my D270S is the only source fer my computin need and the NIC is kaput, well, what's else is there to say? Thanks to a bad windows error I had to reinstall my XP and everybody knows that XP is a boot sector hog. *sigh*. I'm eyein fer an AMD64 laptop fer my FreeBSD and a desktop fer my windows. Then there'll be a minor changes fer this blog as I'll no longer focus on FreeBSD on D270S but FreeBSD on any machine I own instead. Wish me luck on that. Later then. Can't wait to grab FreeBSD 6!

FreeBSD has a new layout! Woot!

I don't know how long it has been but have you guys notice that FreeBSD is now on a new layout? Wow it's cool to see the new layout. Yeah I guess I'm the last person who noticed the changes.

Heck it's been a long time since I last log in to my 5.4-STABLE. 6.xx is out already and I don't think I'll be installin it in my laptop anytime soon. The burnt NIC kept me in dilemma. I'll savin fer a new laptop. Maybe an IBM after this. And it'll be fully fer FreeBSD only. That is when I bought a desktop fer my windows use. Later.

PcBSD - FreeBSD for desktop.

Yet another project derrived from FreeBSD OS. It's a FreeBSD based, uhm, project with an aim to make BSD more desktop-friendly. As written on the project's overview:

PC-BSD has as its goals to be an easy to install and use desktop OS, which is built on the FreeBSD operating system. To accomplish this, it currently has a graphical installation, which will enable even UNIX novices to easily install and get it running. It will also come with KDE pre-built, so that the desktop can be used immediately. Currently in development is a graphical software installation program, which will make installing pre-built software as easy as other popular operating systems.

I have a mixed feelin bout this. I'm happy because the potential of this project to make more desktop users migrate to the stable OS of BSD. On the other hand, I think it's somewhat a bit of a waste of resources. It's like seein the another fork of FreeBSD (eg: DragonflyBSD, not the same situation as this PcBSD project, I know.) where instead of concentratin on in tailorin FreeBSD fer whatever purpose they have in mind (desktop friendly etc.), they just break from it, make a new stuff out of it with a new style (independant package management etc.) and then what? We're goin to go the way linux is? Choices are good but too many of it (eg: the, *ehem*, gazillion of linux distros out there...) will surely (strictly in my personal opinion) make a mess. Anyway, this is just opinion. Fer me, my preference of an OS (desktop / server / whatever) is still the great FreeBSD. I don't need an "easier" BSD usin FreeBSD's technologies/stability to have fun with my desktop/laptop, FreeBSD is not that hard fer newbies nowadays (I am still a damn proud FreeBSD newbie) and if I wanted a tailored version of it, I'll tailor it to suit my need meself. Like I said, this is strictly my opinion and I know not many are with me on this.

I got nothin against DragonflyBSD, mind you. As far as I know, DragonflyBSD is doin great and that is good. But somehow it's sad to realise that most of the developers was FreeBSD developers and they breaks from it.

But hey, whatever the OS you're into, it's great as long as you're happy with it. That's what OS are fer anyway, makin sure you're havin fun with your computer(s). Later.

5-STABLE + Fluxbox screenshot uploaded!

Yeah you heard me right. Go to my homepage to see it! Now! (^_^)y. It's located in [FreeBSD & Me] > [Screenshot] section if you got lost.

X screensaver?

Okay, on the the screensaver. Now Fluxbox is a minimalist window manager. No GUI configuration stuff, no screensaver module built-in. So how? Get xlockmore which basically a screen lockin program but has tons of screensavers coded with it. Now this baby lock your current X session and display your choice of prebuilt screensaver module (matrix, GL stuff etc.). So to make this xlockmore program to act like a real screensaver (automatic lockin on specific time), I got meself xautolock. This xautolock do just what the name implies, it'll automatically lock your X session after the period of time you specified. After a brief visit to xlockmore homepage and readin the man xlock (xlockmore is a continuation of xlock, so although the port is called xlockmore, the program is xlock.) and man xautolock, I found out that I need to edit ~/.xinitrc.

===== ~/.xinitrc starts =====

--- Fluxbox specific stuff snipped ---

# Loadin xautolock to use xlockmore
xautolock -time 5 -corners 000- -cornersize 20 -locker "xlock -enablesaver -lock delay 60 -mode matrix" &

--- more Fluxbox specific stuff snipped ---

===== ~/.xinitrc end =====

Now I have to put the & sign at the back of the xautolock .. line because it'll keep xautolock waitin until X loads all the variables/commands in ~/.xinitrc (includin Fluxbox window manager and all the slit I have.). Yours maybe different so better google fer it. Now let me explain what the commands mean.

Ehem. The line above is the same as sayin that:

xautolock will function in 5 minutes if my mouse pointer is not around the 20pixels square on the bottom-right of my screen usin xlock that enables normal screen blankin and will only lock the screen 60 seconds after the matrix screensaver are displayed.

I know the words above is quite ridiculous so you better check out man xlock and man xautolock. I also added a menu in Fluxbox fer me to lock my X session on the fly. I just edit ~/.fluxbox/menu and add:

[exec] (Lock Screen) {xlock -enablesaver -mode matrix}

I guess my laptop's monitor support DPMS feature (EnergyStar saving) and I open /etc/X11/xorg.conf and added:

# *******************************
# Monitor section
# *******************************

Section "Monitor"

--- other variables snipped ---

Option "DPMS"

EndSection

It might work or I might be wrong. Anyway nothin bad has happened after I test out the xautolock and xlock though, so I might be on the right side (^_^).

I'm thinkin bout uploadin my latest configuration files (/etc/rc.conf, ~/.xinitrc etc.) to my homepage soon. Later then.

Enlightenment deinstalled.

Enlightenment had to go. I'm stickin to Fluxbox. Not that there's anythin bad with Enlightenment though. It's just that I don't want too many window manager here. To have the console and Fluxbox is enough. 10Gb of space ain't that big nowadays. If my FreeBSD can use this laptop's winmodem, my XP too will be gone. Anyway FreeBSD is as good as I ever experienced it years before. If you never tried it, you better. It's not that hostile fer desktop usage nowadays. In fact, FreeBSD maybe your choice of desktop OS once you tried it.

I'm cleanin up unused ports (which is the dependencies of Enlightenment that I have just deinstalled, I think there's quite a lot of it.) which scatters my Clevo M22ES's hard disk. I heard of a program that can show dependencies like a tree view. Ah, the program is pkg_tree.

I know, I know, I still haven't done anythin with sendmail. Sheesh. Later.

Enlightenment went garbled because of unresolved dependencies.

I've installed Enlightenment window manager and there's somethin weird happenin. Everytime I issue startx, Enlightenment seems like it has lost the themes (screen went garbish and got no theme). So after a lookin at enlightenment's dependencies list, I found out that this file is not yet installed:

libltdl-1.5.10

This file is located in /usr/ports/devel/libltdl15 and i install it. The next Enlightenment session later was lovely. Now the (default) theme is there and it look just gorgeous. If you stumbled into somethin similar like this with Enlightenment, you probably need to look at the dependencies file. I don't know if it's the port bug that make that specific file unresolved while installin, or I mess up the upgradin process before and made this happen.

Enlightenment is a lovely window manager and yet, Fluxbox got more votes from me because the sheer simplicity. Now I can change the darn Fluxbox background! I guess the missin dependency file above made the whole problem with changin wallpaper. The fluxbg port I installed couldn't work though. I had to issue the fbsetbg command manually. *sigh*.

vampire# fbsetbg -u ~/path_to/wallpaper.jpg

Oh yeah fbsetbg can now use Esetroot (wallpaper setter program, came bundled when installin Eterm), like I've said earlier, the missin dependency file is the culprit. No more dull background! Hurrah!

Upgradin to 5-STABLE completed. *phew....*

Fer almost 24hours, I've been upgradin my 5.3-R to 5-STABLE. The major problems are solved. Silly me I accidently left ports-devel line in my ports-supfile commented so I was stuck fer a few hours wonderin why the heck I keep gettin older version of some dependency files. FYI, I don't use ports-all because I'm excludin all the language-specific ports such as ports-arabian, ports-chinese etc. Anyway now it's ok and thank goodness the major part of the upgrade is completed.

I have to reconfigure Xorg because Fluxbox can't start. The usual xorgconfig script does the job well and I'm runnin fluxbox-devel (development version). Rounded window are just sexy. Got my Firefox crashes a few time when I'm changin the Fluxbox theme though.

Whoa! The CPU is really tolled! I'm currently installin fluxbg, program to change fluxbox's wallpaper and I don't know if this is makin my CPU processin like mad. I better check out on this later.

Use gnome_upgrade.sh to upgrade broken Gnome ports.

It's 12:30 in the afternoon and the portupgrade is yet to be completed. It seems that the new Gnome version cannot be simply upgraded usin portupgrade. /usr/ports/UPDATING file mentioned about this (and I was left confused fer quite a while figurin what happened to Gnome upgrade..). Here's the info on how to upgrade the new Gnome 2 correctly.

http://www.freebsd.org/gnome/docs/faq210.html

I have to use an upgrade script provided in that site, named gnome_upgrade.sh and currently, I'm usin it. Got a problem with not enough temporary space in /var/tmp so I added:

MC_TMPDIR="/usr/tmp"

in the script file and mkdir tmp (make directory name [tmp]) in /usr before the script can continue successfully. All my gnome related program are currently broken so this step is essential. I'm currently figurin out on how to answer the questionaires printed by that gnome_upgrade.sh script. Later on this.

It's FreeBSD 5-STABLE now!

Yup. That's right. I've just finished upgradin my (previously) 5.3-RELEASE to 5-STABLE.

Alsemo@vampire> uname -a
FreeBSD vampire.homeunix.org 5.4-STABLE FreeBSD 5.4-STABLE #0: Sat May 21 02:13:49 MYT 2005 root@vampire.homeunix.org:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/VAMKERNEL i386

Now it's portupgrade time (man portupgrade fer more info) so that all the ports I've installed in my FreeBSD will be updated to the latest version. There's an error with fluxbox when I'm tryin to do a portversion -v but after I issue pkgdb -F and type yes to the questionaire, portversion -v doesn't complain anymore. Fluxbox seems to be up-to-date though. Well I'm in console now so it'll be another few minutes or hours till all the ports and required dependencies are updated before I can test Fluxbox. Thank goodness I just installed a few important ports or else it might take far longer. Later.

Upgradin to 5.4-STABLE started.

Yup. Right now I'm upgradin my 5.3-R to 5-STABLE. Usin TaoSecurity: Keeping FreeBSD Up-To-Date and Freebsd Handbook: CVSUP as my references, I'm crossin my fingers now. My stable-supfile are pretty much the same as /usr/share/examples/cvsup/stable-supfile with the only difference is I'm usin cvsup.sg.FreeBSD.org as my CVSUP host. CVSUP is currently runnin so I better prepare on how to buildworld etc. Wish me luck then. Can't wait to ride on 5-STABLE! Later.

Graphic-enabled Links!

Hurrah! I finally found the solution to enable Links displayin graphic! Anyway currently I'm havin problem runnin graphic-enabled links from console. It seems like my generic VGA driver are capable of a few small resolution display, and usin my VESA driver keeps makin my FreeBSD displayin blank screen and freezes when I tried 800x600x256 mode (the only 800x600 mode fer my VESA driver). So everytime it freezes (I'm doin an intensive testin, so it freezes fer a gazillion times), the only way to escape is to hit [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Delete] (quick reboot). I'm guessin that ***x***x256 (256 bit color) is the culprit here. I got no problem with graphic-mode links runnin in X though because it uses Xorg instead of svgalib.

I already have links and I don't know if it's graphic-enabled. So, to be sure, I deinstalled it. Then I sued, and go to /usr/ports/www/links where the file hides. This time, instead of just make (or make install clean, whatever you prefer), I type this:

vampire# make -DWITH_SVGALIB

so that the links port I'm about to install will have graphic capabilities compiled in. Then I install it.

vampire# make install clean

Dependencies resolved, no error, so the installation went fine. Now, accordin to The FreeBSD Console - Living without X (one of my fav FreeBSD related website.), I have to edit /usr/local/etc/vga/libvga.config and test out different configuration to get my graphic-enabled links run smoothly in console. No sample given so I was left out to figure it by meself. I tried a few configuration like uncommentin VESA driver, altering the monitor refresh rate to:

HorizSync 31.5 37.9
VertRefresh 50 90

with no result I can consider truly successfull. Don't get me wrong, I can get links to display graphics in console but the resolution is small. The biggest resolution I can get is 640x480x16 which leaves a surroundin blank space on the display when run. There's another mode fer 640x480 resolution which is usin 256 bit color but like I've mentioned above, I think that color mode is the culprit which made my console freeze. If only there's a 800x600x16 mode. More on this later hopefully. Do a man svgalib fer more info on svgalib.

On to links in X. Now usin xorg, this baby flies! man links tells me that issuin links web.site.url will open a text-mode links and links -g web.site.url will open up a graphic-enabled links. So I edit ~/.fluxbox/menu and put:

[exec] (Links-X) {links -g}

so that everytime I click on Links-X in my Fluxbox menu, a blank graphic-enabled links will run. links runnin in graphic mode still retain the same operation method like the text-mode links (usin keyboard fer navigation etc) and the only difference is pictures! I must say the images displayed in graphic-mode links is cool.

Another thing to remember, I have to su before I could use links -g in console because program that want to access svgalib must have root permission. There's a few way instead of suing just to use graphic-mode links, but because I still have to make the 800x600 resolution fer links work first, so I'm not goin to bother with it yet.

I'm still havin problem with my background. *sigh*. Later then.

p/s: Did anybody say screenshot?

Why can't I change Fluxbox background? answered.

I think I know why I can't change my Fluxbox background. It seems that I don't have any program what can be use by fbsetbg module such as:

display
Esetroot
chbg

which is required because fbsetbg uses the mentioned program above to set the background wallpaper. Esetroot can be installed by installin eterm (another terminal fer X) but unfortunately, I can't install eterm because I got "File not found" error when usin port. Drats. I installed fluxbg, a program that can change Fluxbox background wallpaper usin GUI. But because of the problems I mentioned earlier in this post, I'm stuck with the dull blue background. *sigh*. Wan't to know more bout fbsetbg? Then go to this link.

The Gimp, Dockapps & GTKSee.

I'm currently waitin fer the Gimp port to install. It's takin quite a while. In the mean time, I'm searchin fer some usefull dockapps (program that can be put as an icon, slit thingy fer Fluxbox) and I found quite a few worthwhile items listed in FreeBSD Ports Collection. Here's a few I'm gettin:

wmmon (system load/performance monitor)
wmnd (application to monitor network stuff)
wmbsdbatt (battery status meter, dockable fer fluxbox)
wmmultipop (pop3 email checker supportin a multiple pop3 account)
genmenu (generating menu fer Fluxbox, Blackbox etc.)

I've successfully put XMMS to the slit (iconize it) and if I want the XMMS slit to start everytime I'm startin Fluxbox, I need to edit ~/.xinitrc. Here's my ~/.xinitrc (shamelessly taken from Fluxbox website:

############## ~/.xinitrc start #############
# Startin Fluxbox
fluxbox & wmpid=$!

# Dockapps fer Fluxbox slit
wmxmms &

# HANG POINT - Wait for windowmanager to exit
wait $wmpid
############## ~/.xinitrc stop #############

Ahh The Gimp is finally installed. And it's workin like a charm. Such a nice work. Now to see if my docked XMMS is functionin.

I installed GTKSee, an ACDSee clone to view images. Nice.

Next installation - Mozilla Thunderbird. Later.

Scroller works, Gimp & image viewer.

The touchpad now works like it should and the usb mouse scroller is workin too. If you would like to see how it's done then go ahead to my homepage and look at Run FreeBSD, Run link under the FreeBSD & Me section. My xorg.conf is located under /etc/X11/xorg.conf. I'm thinkin bout uploadin my current *.conf files of this 5.3-R.

Next, I'm thinkin of puttin Gimp. It's a graphic editor just like Adobe Photoshop. In the Open Source world, this program is the best. It also have plugin support and this program is really a professional tool without burnin a nickel.

I'm searchin fer a good image viewer program fer my FreeBSD. Somethin that works just like Brennig's Image Viewer (used to be SlowView before, a freeware then went to Brennig's which is also a freeware and now Image Commander which is commercial.). Current candidates:

GImage View

Gaim installed, preparin fer make world & mouse scroller.

Yup, now I've installed GAIM, the multiprotocol messenger fer *nix/linux. It's currently workin like a charm. Because I've installed Firefox web browser, the dependencies required fer Gaim installation are minimum. Got no glitches whatsoever while make-ing the port so it's good.

I'll probably start my upgrade process to 5.4 this Saturday/Sunday. I don't quite sure yet. But my FreeBSD will definitely be upgraded soon.

I'm currently findin the file needed fer Xorg so that I can use the scroller of my usb mouse. Somehow Xorg is different from XFree86. Later.

TaoSecurity: Keeping FreeBSD Up-To-Date

At last! A beneficial read that shed a beautiful light on how to keep my FreeBSD up-to-date without requirin me to be an uber or a rocket scientist. TaoSecurity: Keeping FreeBSD Up-To-Date is a great read indeed. It has many tips on how to keep your FreeBSD uptodate usin CVSup and plus many others!

TaoSecurity: Keeping FreeBSD Applications Up-To-Date is about keepin the applications in FreeBSD up-to-date. Ho boy what more can you ask? Rest assured that my FreeBSD will be 5.4-STABLE soon! Later.

MPlayer vs Software Patent

The MPlayer main website's front page has changed. Click this link => Free Software Multimedia Threatened by Software Patents. Yeah I mentioned somewhere in my website bout the software patent before (probably in my [Links & Disclaimer] section) and the final vote fer it is near. Wow. If the EU voted fer software patent, then we're much to be afraid of. Start makin your own fonts, your own OS (code it from scratch definitely) oh but write the codes with your own programmin language using your own compiler. Damn.

So I was lookin fer a program to play movies / VCD / Divx / mpg etc etc. I still go fer MPlayer.

XMMS runnin, How to add program in Fluxbox menu & Firefox outdated.

XMMS is workin like a charm. I can listen to my mp3s contained in /backup partition (the Fat32 e:\ drive in Windows).

I also found out on how to create your own menu fer Fluxbox in case your newly installed program is nowhere to be found in the menu list. Edit the ~/.fluxbox/menu file (~/ means that it's your home directory.) then look at it. It's basically simple. Fer example, I add XMMS in it.

[exec] (XMMS) {xmms}

then wallah! the menu is there when I do the left click. On the fly. man fluxbox fer more information. My Fluxbox background is still dull and I know I have to write some file somewhere to make it.

Firefox is runnin fine but I can't get any extension because mine is still 0.9.3 and the main firefox site don't allow me to get in the extension page. Gotta upgrade it somehow. Later on this.

I thought I missed somethin before and now I knew it. I fergot to configure my mouse scroller fer X. I better read my old blog to find it LOL!.

Firefox + XMMS installed, IPFilter rules changed & Fluxbox menu.

After a few tries, I gave up on installin Mozilla Firefox via ports. I used sysinstall to install it. There's quite a few of dependencies issue like unzip551 which printed "File Not Found, No Access" error when I type make. Usin sysinstall on the other hand got no problem whatsoever. Now I'm install XMMS, the multimedia player fer X which resemble WinAmp.

The IPFilter blockin ftp issue has been solved. I edit the /etc/ipf.rules file and edit/add:

pass out quick on tun0 proto tcp/udp from any to any port = 20 flags S keep state

fer outbound connection and edit/add:

pass in quick on tun0 proto tcp/udp from any to any port = 21 flags S keep state

fer inbound connection. Like before, my IPFilter ruleset might not be the safest/the best so it's best fer you to google fer the better ruleset. When I'm done editin the /etc/ipf.rules file, I issued:

vampire# ipf -F a

to flush the cached rules and reload the edited rules.

The XMMS is installed now. I use ports and it's AOK. I'm gonna try runnin it in X to see if it's really ok. Got no menu fer Firefox in my FluxBox though so I better check out fer it. Next stop: Gaim multiprotocol messenger fer X. Later then.

IPFilter blockin port install.

I found out somethin annoyin today. I'm tryin to install Mozilla Firefox when I noticed that I got No Route To Host error printed on the screen when my port are tryin to fetch the file(s) needed usin ftp. Got no problem whatsoever if the file is on http tho. So I'm gonna have to revise my IPFilter rules again and google fer some answers/tips/hints.

Like I've stated above, I'm tryin to install Mozilla Firefox (WWW Browser) and Thunderbird (Email suite). The Xorg is runnin nicely and my FluxBox don't have any problem yet. The resolution is 1024x768 in 24 bit colors so it's pretty although it's still plain. Wait till I got it themed. Later then. Got to solve this IPFilter problem.

Fluxbox runnin successfully!

Yeah I got fluxbox runnin now. Very minimalistic window manager. I was starin at it without blinkin fer a while because all I saw was a chrome blank screen and a bar below. I've also installed the sid pack (themes pack fer Fluxbox) and I'll test it later. Here's how installed FluxBox.

su to root. Go to /usr/ports directory. Search fer fluxbox.

vampire# cd /usr/ports
vampire# make search name=fluxbox

The search result will be printed on the screen so go fer fluxbox-0.1.14_2 port which is located in /usr/ports/x11-wm/fluxbox.

vampire# cd /usr/ports/x11-wm/fluxbox

Then it's the time to install it.

vampire# make
vampire# make install

If there's no error printed on the screen, congratulation! You now have FluxBox somewhere in your system. But wait, startx will not load your Fluxbox yet. Create/edit .xinitrc file located in your home directory.

vampire# cd ~/
vampire# edit .xinitrc

And write ' fluxbox ' in the .xinitrc file. Save and close it. Now you're good to go.
Enjoy your Fluxbox! Later.

Xorg + Fluxbox 0.1.14_2 installed.

I've installed Xorg from my 5.3-R CD and FluxBox got in usin port. It've been a long time since I brushed my finger with this FreeBSD so I've forgotten many tips. I better check out FluxBox site to get some important informations.

This is my 1st time configurin Xorg without any complication with the xorg.conf file. startx went smoothly without fatal error. This is nice. Later then.

Updatin to 5.4-R & Fluxbox window manager

BSDnews � Issue #3 � Painless FreeBSD System Updating is what I'm currently readin right now. Yeah I said that I want to update my 5.3-R to 5.4-R so this is why I'm readin it. CVSup is the way fer me and by the info written by the above mentioned site, it's pretty easy. So I'm off to update my FreeBSD box now.

After a major consideration, I've chosen FluxBox window manager fer my 5.4-R. A minimalistic approach to a *nix window manager, I think it's better suitin my need. I'll post the info on my project on buildin and runnin Fluxbox on my FreeBSD. Later.

FreeBSD 5.4 is out! & X Window Managers

Yup. The new stable release of FreeBSD is out. Version 5.4-REL. Mine is still 5.3-REL so I'm a version lagged. Still haven't done anythin with Sendmail etc because I was pretty busy with my real life things. Anyway I might be doin some CVSup to get my FreeBSD uptodate. Here's the 5.4 Release Note or you can visit FreeBSD main site fer more information.

The Sendmail task is still on but I dunno when I'll start it. I'm plannin to update my FreeBSD to 5.4 1st before anythin else. A simple desktop manager will follow. If you are doin a (free) shoppin fer X Window Manager, do visit XWinMan.org and browse the extensive list of window manager fer you X need.

ipmon log in /var/log/messages & /var/log/security ?!

Yes IPFilter is really loggin. But it's loggin in /var/log/messages and /var/log/security. I googled fer some answer and FreeBSD mailin list archive seems to have the same topic answered. Anyway accordin to the archive, I can change the line contained in /etc/rc.conf:

ipmon_flags="-Ds"

to

ipmon_flags="-D /var/log/ipfilter.log"

which change ipmon from usin syslogd fer loggin to directly writin /var/log/ipfilter.log. Hmm. There must be another way to use syslog and ipmon.

I took a glimpse of Sendmail configuration and yeow I'm gettin a headache already. Ah well, it's sooner or later. So, later then :P.

IPFilter rules for centericq user

I've solved the problem of my centericq can't log in to ICQ, YM! and MSN servers.

# Allow outbound access to ICQ, YM! & MSN
pass out quick on tun0 proto tcp from any to any port = 5190 flags S keep state
pass out quick on tun0 proto tcp from any to any port = 5050 flags S keep state
pass out quick on tun0 proto tcp from any to any port = 1863 flags S keep state

Make sure that tun0 is replace accordin to your outbound device. Keep in mind that I'm not an expert on IPFilter and my rules might be a loose security. As far as I've test it, centericq is workin fine now.

The /var/log/ipfilter.log file is still empty and I dunno if IPFilter is really loggin or not. Btw, I recompile my kernel with this option:

options       IPFILTER_LOG     # Option to make IPMon (IPFilter loggin) works correctly

Because it's stated that ipmon uses the option to work correctly. I'll search fer some answer bout IPFilter loggin later.

IPFilter is working.

Yup. I have to set IPFilter rules for tun0. And now, centericq is not workin. Haha! A good and bad news altogether. Good because I know that my IPFilter is workin and bad because I can't IM *sigh*. Strangely, IPFilter didn't log anythin. There must be somethin that skipped my sight somewhere. I'll google somethin fer help on this matter.

Next project: Mutt + vim + Sendmail + Fetchmail. Later.

IPFilter project started.

I've just finished (can't say this is the correct word as I'm still testin the firewall) settin up IPFilter with my 5.3-R. Usin my newbiest approach, I shamelessly took example from the FreeBSD Handbook which is the way to go fer me :). Why IPFilter? Because it's already in the base system. Not to mention that it's covered quite extensively in the Handbook. Oh yeah, my ipf.rules is the Handbook's near-exact copycat :D.

Got some interestin issue tho. The rule I set fer rl0 (my NIC) seems like not workin. I'm takin a wild guess that Streamyx & tun0 got somethin to do with this. What's the problem? Although I copy most of the Handbook's ipf.rules informations (I changed the dc0 in the handbook to rl0 to reflect my NIC), IPFilter log nothin. So like I've said, I guess I have to set the tun0 device usin the same rules just fer testin purpose. More on this later. I wanna reboot to test my IPFilter out. Later.

Understanding E-Mail @ ONLamp.com

Understanding Email is a live saver! If you're lost in tryin to get your console mail up (like me) then this is a great read. It'll shed some beautiful light on the mysterious issue of FreeBSD email.

Cone mail client

COnsole Newsreader and Emailer is a simple console based mail agent that can handle multiple mail accounts simultaneously. Support fer local maildirs, remote POP and IMAP plus experimental support of SMAP account. It has PGP and GnuPG support and built-in mail filter (mostly called milter). It has dedicated text editor to compose emails and all this is very tempting.

I'm still searchin fer somethin similar to Elmo mail agent. Right now I have a few candidates:

1. Elmo (Sadly discontinued)
2. Mutt (Very popular but requires settin of additional MTA and/or milter)
3. Cone (As tempting as Elmo. I need further reading on this.)

My 1st project will still be setting up firewall (either IP Filter, standard in FreeBSD or Packet Filter, also standard fer FreeBSD taken from OpenBSD) so it'll be soon. Later.

Elmo - The Electronic Mail Operator

Elmo - The Electronic Mail Operator is a ncurse based email program. I've been confused with the default FreeBSD way of handlin emails (Sendmail, Fetchmail, Mutt to send, receive and read/compose email which is a lot of work) and Elmo does look promisin. It's a swiss-knife of email program. It'll send, get, filter and compose email all by itself. I haven't download it yet but it's in my 1st list. Sadly, the program is discontinued just a few month ago (stated as closed on 6th January 2005) with the last stable release at version 1.2.0 and development version at 1.3.2. There's a possibility that someone somewhere will continue where it left off hopefully. Later.

Things I want to do.

Here's the list of things I wanna do fer my 5.3-R.

1. Set up firewall
2. Set up mail (send and receive email, periodic email checker)

That's it fer now, I'm kinda blurry right now. I think there's somethin else I want to add but I dunno what. Later.

Copyin files from 5.3 to ad0s5 (Fat32)

I've changed the mount value fer ad0s5 in my /etc/fstab from ro (Read-Only) to rw (Read-Write). When I try to copy my screenshot files from 5.3 to the /backup (ad0s5) slice, there's no problem whatsoever. Great. It's now safe to automount it with Read-Write value on every boot. Here's the line:

/dev/ad0s5       /backup     rw   0   0

I'm still searchin fer zgv's info. Later.

Screenshots uploaded

2 screenshots has been uploaded. It seems that my url redirection is havin some problem. Here's my direct link to my homepage.

http://home.graffiti.net/alsemo/

So please bookmark that in case my short url don't work. Here's my short url.

http://www.alsemo.isdangerous.com

Later. Enjoy the shots!

Sound works!

Shame. The Winamp's playlist can be loaded with mp3blaster but because the mp3(s) is listed from E:/mp3_dir (from XP's perspective) instead of /backup/mp3_dir, so the mp3s is basically not found. Ah. I tried playin a few songs and it sounds great. I'll take a screenshot (Yeah a new hobby) later and post it on my homepage. Still searchin fer infos on tweakin zgv. More on that hopefully.

Mount Fat32 & Sound not workin?

Yup. My bad. The correct slice was ad0s5. That's the place where all my backup files reside. I'll find out what ad0s2 holds later. This is the line fer /etc/fstab now:

/dev/ad0s5 /backup msdosfs ro 0 0

I better mount it as Read-Only (ro) first till I can be sure I won't cause any mess. Can't let meself ruin the files contained.

On the other hand, I try openin my mp3 playlist from the backup slice and mp3blaster seems to do a great job on that. But I can't play the mp3s yet. No output somethin. Hmm. I'll figure out somehow. I'm too sleepy now. Later then.

p/s: I notice my boot image looks sharper than image loaded with zgv. Hmm. There's must be some configuration that skipped my sight. More on this too, later. Nite!

Console screenshot taken

Ho boy. This is great. I've just taken some console screenshot usin vidcontrol. This is the packages that you'll need to take console screenshot.

scr2png
scr2txt

scr2png is essential and scr2txt is optional but I just want it to be installed too. After googlin fer some answers, I found out that man scr2png have the clearest information on usin vidcontrol to take console's screenshot. Here's what I do:

#1. Log into another tty (virtual console). Make sure you have the current tty displayin the information that you want to capture.
#2. issue this:

vampire# vidcontrol -p < /dev/ttyv0 | scr2png > screenshot_name.png

Make sure /dev/ttyv0 is replaced with the virtual console you're tryin to capture. Change screenshot_name.png to somethin that make more sense.
#3. The screenshot file will reside on your current workin directory so now try openin it with zgv.

vampire# zgv screenshot_name.png

If the image appears then it's ok. I got 2 console screenshot and I'll upload it to my homepage later. Fer more info:

man vidcontrol
man scr2png
man zgv

p/s: I assumed that your FreeBSD has been set up like mine. Eg. with VESA console and stuff. This is not a howto. It's just a reminder. Later

centericq test, can't mount ad0s2, accidently detached screen session & links www browser.

I've tried messagin via centericq and so far, my YM account is cool. A bit of guessin needed to play with it but so far, it's pretty user-friendly.

Still can't mount the darn Fat32 partition (ad0s2) and it seems that there's a few others who's havin the same difficulty. It's sometin bout bein an Extended DOS partition that's messin this up. More on that later.

I've accidently detached my screen while I'm havin a chat in centericq. And thank God the manual is pretty much complete (man screen) and this is what I do to attach the screen session back.

# screen -list

This is to list the screen session which is currently runnin.

# screen -r [ttyid].[name].[host]

This command is to attach the desired screen which was detached earlier. Fer more info just type man screen.

After a brief search through http://www.freebsd.org/ports, I found out that links 2 is the one residin at /usr/ports/www/links and the old links is in /usr/ports/www/links1. Phew, I got the file right afterall so no need fer me to deinstall it. I've tried out the image viewin capability of links (although you will need some other console-based image viewin program like zgv) and it turn out ok (although the pic is quite pixelated/not sharp). I'll write bout it later (I'm not comfortable bloggin at the office).

Later.

Links@Sourceforge.net

Links@Sourceforge.net is a site to watch fer links user (lynx-like text based web browser). I've installed links from the ports collection but I found out that there's another version of links (links 2 to be exact) which has the ability to view images in console. Ouch. I guess I have to deinstall the old links and install the other version. Later hopefully.

Ports are added.

I'm currently writin this in console, with screen console manager, using links and installin centericq usin port. Installin software usin port is easier than I perviously thought. Well, with my 5.3 is online then port installations is not a mess at all.

centericq is a console based multi messaging program which allows you to connect to Yahoo!, ICQ, Jabber, Gadu Gadu, AOL, MSN even LiveJournal and a few others I fergot. I've installed it and now is the time to test it out. I've done testing it and it works! Wow! Nice multi-protocol messaging program.

My console mp3 player is now mp3blaster which is also available in FreeBSD Ports Collection. Can't play any mp3s yet because my mp3s is in the E: partition (ad0s2) and I currently can't mount the partition. No problem with ad0s1 (XP partition) though so I'm sure somethin is wrong with my /etc/fstab.

1024x768 console resolution?

Yes I've blogged bout this site: The FreeBSD Console - Living without X. And now after I revisit the site again, it've been updated and whoa, he (the author) is usin 1024x768 resolution console! Ouch, I can't stop droolin. I want it too! There's somethin bout SVGAlib before playin with that resolution so I'll keep that in mind. If I can make this D270S console displayin 1024x768 resolution, I'll post the walkthrough. Later.

New 5.3-RELEASE installation

After a long while, I've just finish doin a fresh installation of 5.3-R on my D270S. If I recall correctly, this is my 4th installation exercise after I wrote bout FreeBSD here and in my homepage. My newest installation is very minimal with just a few package chosen and even without X. This is what I remember:

Base
CompatX-X
Doc
Man
/usr/src/sys

Why no X? I guess I just wanna learn and have fun playin with just a minimum FreeBSD installation. I guess I wanna let meself be more comfortable with console (command-line) environment.

Custom kernel has been compiled and by the looks of it, it's charmin. I used the last VAMKERNEL config file taken from my 5.2.1 installation (still have it in my homepage.) with some new 5.3-R specific addition like:

# Sound device fer my D270S
device sound
device "snd_ich"

I still havent test out the sound yet but it'll be soon.

VESA has been compiled into the custom kernel and it's workin like a charm.

PPPoE has been configured and it's workin. Still havent test out the auto dial (usin /etc/rc.conf) yet because I just boot to XP from 5.3-R just now (to write this blog :). I used my 5.2.1 ppp.conf as a reference.

Things that I want which is still incomplete:
1. Personalise the normal user (zsh shell, add into other groups etc.)
2. Edit /etc/fstab so that I can mount the NTFS and Fat32 partition from 5.3.
3. Make acd0 (CDRW Drive) and fd0 (Floppy Drive) user-rewritable.
4. Add some usefull package like screen, Midnight Commander, a console mp3 player + sound mixer and other I can think of.
5. Rewrite the Run FreeBSD, Run section in my homepage which I've been delayin fer quite a long time now. The new format is up in my head now.
6. Upload all the important 5.3-R configuration files to my homepage.

I just found out that links can be set to display color. While in links, press [Esc] and top bar with some options will be displayed. The settin is there somewhere but I can't recall the exact option(s). I'll write bout it later.

Amazingly, after I've done reinstallin 5.3 and when I log in XP, my XP starts to display BSoD with an error message sayin somethin bout wspdrvnt.sys (or somethin) havin a page fault bla bla bla. After I log in usin Safe Mode, I found out that Sygate Personal Firewall has gone wacko and after I reinstalled it, XP was ok. Hmm, weird.

How to view pictures or movie in console huh? I'll try to find out the answer later. I need to sleep..