This is the 4th installment of a series of guides to configuring and installing PC-BSD. The past 3 parts can be found here. In this part of the guide they cover installing Amarok, Limewire, Azureus and Streamtuner.
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Member since:
2005-07-06
Sorry, this will be kinda flaimbate. Don't you think that these instructions for installing those very basic apps are too much hassle? I thought PCBSD had a purpose of being user friendly.
Anyway, I don't want to discourage developers, they are great peaple, but please first look at how MacosX, Beos and some linux distros.
I am quoting the basic thing: installing fonts here:
"Installing fonts
To install the fonts, download my script (fonts-build) and save it to your scripts directory.
Make it executable (open a terminal, cd scripts, chmod +x fonts-build) and execute it as root (su, enter root password and then ./fonts-build). This script will build the fonts and install them.
Next, copy the following lines (as root) to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/webfonts/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/artwiz-fonts/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/mozilla/"
Logout and login back to X and your fonts are ready to use. Open up the KDE control center as a regular user (K - Control Center), then expand "Appearance and Themes" and then click Fonts. You should now see your fonts, when you click Choose.
If you use Konqueror to browse, then open konqueror, click Settings - Configure Konqueror... and then click Appearance. You can choose your font and then click OK. Konqueror will then use that font as the standard browser font.
If you use Firefox to browse, the open Firefox, click Edit - Preferences, then click General and finally click Fonts & Colors. Adjust your fonts there and then click OK.
Now that we have gorgeous fonts, let us turn our attention to scanning and printing."
Sorry, but all these are too hard for PCBSD potencial users.
I tried PCBSD a week ago, and while installation was a breeze, desktop just does not feel right. All apps and dialogs appear after 2-3 seconds you launch them. Network connection seemed buggy and I kept loosing internet connection until I started already running network card from their utility. While it offers manual network connection settings I could not make another profile I created active and use it.
BSD people keep saying that they have a great handbook, but I could not find basic information on how to change my default gateway on it, google helped here too.
I could not even open zip files by default. Had to install zip, but again while it worked in terminal, ark still kept compaining.
But surely, there were things I liked, like system booting and shutting down very fast, and the simplicity of /etc folder.
I hope future realeases will be more "everything you need out of the box style" just like Mepis or other distros. Otherwise I see no newbies using PCBSD in near future...
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Member since:---
"BSD people keep saying that they have a great handbook, but I could not find basic information on how to change my default gateway on it, google helped here too."
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/network-r...
Pretty easy to find, really...from the contents, I looked under "Advanced Networking" and found this at the top.
Member since:
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Well it's a step in the right direction.And not a small one.Compared to native FreeBSD PC-BSD is very easy to operate when regarding the install of packages.
BSD people keep saying that they have a great handbook, but I could not find basic information on how to change my default gateway on it, google helped here too.
Well maybe you could write some doc's?:-)
I hope future realeases will be more "everything you need out of the box style" just like Mepis or other distros. Otherwise I see no newbies using PCBSD in near future...
I think it's all a matter of how you define newbie and the referential fit.I see PC-BSD as a attractive alternative for some linux distros.Maybe to as an addition for win people who are not afraid for new points of views and are willing (capable) to learn.
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striking a balance between, "everything you need out of the box" and "everything you might ever need including 10 different text editors and 5 web browsers"
ubuntu includes most things people will need, it takes up 2.2GB and includes lots of useless applications that I'll never use.
Fedora core is the same, 4 cds.
flexbiltiy always means a bit more complexity.1
Member since:2005-07-06
I tried Ubuntu, nice, easy install, reminded me of the old Redhat installer. Installed just fine. I get to the GDM login screen, I log in, and then it just sat at a blank desktop and never did anything. I had full control of my mouse, but other than that, notta. I couldn't even restart X.
If I booted it up to the fail-safe console, it worked fine. Unless, of course, I started up X. I'm gussing it was hanging on some driver or something, I don't know.
I've had a lot of bad luck lately as far as getting OSes to isntall on my system, even Zeta gives me problems (will only run in video-failsafe mode unless I isntall the Haiku nVidia driver, and that crashes, despite any settings changes the author said I should try, doesn't have support for nForce2 networking, and their are no drivers elsewhere either).
I think next time I upgrade the system, I'm going back to a VIA chipset.
Member since:---
"I tried Ubuntu, nice, easy install, reminded me of the old Redhat installer. Installed just fine. I get to the GDM login screen, I log in, and then it just sat at a blank desktop and never did anything."
Been there. It's a bug with esd, you should disable it in GConf via command line using gconftool-2. I don't remember the exact command, but as always, Google is your friend ;-) I would suggest searching with site:ubuntuforums.org first.
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:
2005-07-07
This guide is quite useful, especially now that the PC-BSD project is still in its infancy.
Of course, once the number of .pbi packages grows ( http://www.pcbsd.org/packages.php ), it won't be necessary to run install scripts that leverage the FreeBSD ports, like in the case of the installations explained.
Anyway, the scripts in this guide are also a way for a beginner to come in touch with FreeBSD ports. 
Even if the .pbi packages are the easiest way - and so, the most suitable to people not so interested in the "inner workings" - I think everyone who wants to become familiar with Unix will eventually start to use ports much more (PC-BSD is just a layer of user-friendliness; under the hood there's a complete FreeBSD operating system).
For that purpose the FreeBSD handbook would be, as usual, the best starting point
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ports.htm...
Member since:
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"BSD people keep saying that they have a great handbook, but I could not find basic information on how to change my default gateway on it, google helped here too."
Please check out Figure 2-32 in the FreeBSD Handbook, URL posted here (This would be in chapter 2):
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install-p...
It is about setting up you network connections in /stand/sysinstall. I guess you didn't make it up to chapter 2. You are trolling.
Member since:2005-07-06
I am trolling? When I need to change my default gateway, I would go and read the networks section in manual (http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/advanced-...) and NOT the installation as you linked to.
I already have a running system, now give me a way to configure it...
Member since:---
I am trolling? When I need to change my default gateway, I would go and read the networks section in manual (http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/advanced-.....) and NOT the installation as you linked to.
Funny, if you had actually gone to that link and clicked on, oh I dunno, the section titled "Gateways and Routes", you would've found the following:
"You can easily define the default route via the /etc/rc.conf file. In our example, on the Local2 machine, we added the following line in /etc/rc.conf:
defaultrouter="10.20.30.1"
It is also possible to do it directly from the command line with the route(8) command:
# route add default 10.20.30.1
For more information on manual manipulation of network routing tables, consult route(8) manual page."
Member since:
2005-07-28
"BSD people keep saying that they have a great handbook, but I could not find basic information on how to change my default gateway on it, google helped here too."
I'm a confirmed Slacker. I get to work with FreeBSD and its code siblings. I honestly like the PC-BSD project. It's been needed for a long time. If I had a spare unit at home I'd put PC-BSD on it.
For a project, in it's infancy, to come out as solid as it is. I'd love to see it when it matures.
I have advice for anyone wanting to learn it ... put your Mac away, get a real PC, and read the fine manual.
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I am trolling? When I need to change my default gateway, I would go and read the networks section in manual
Address of Ethernet-Card:
xxx.112.xx.33/255.255.x55.x28
Address of Default-Gateway:
xxx.112.xx.1/255.255.x55.x48
The following lines need to be added to /etc/rc.conf, where vr0 is the device name of my network card, of course this name varies depending on the card type:
static_routes="GwNet GwHost"
route_GwNet="add -net xxx.112.xx.0 -netmask 255.255.255.2xx -interface vr0"
route_GwHost="add -net 0.0.0.0 -netmask 0.0.0.0 -gateway xxx.112.xx.1"
Afterwards restart network or machine.
That's it :-)
Member since:
2005-07-06
Member since:
2005-07-18
Member since:2005-07-07
The requirements are the same as FreeBSD
http://www.freebsd.org/releases/5.4R/installation-i386.html#AEN37
You might also want to check the compatibility with your old laptop
http://gerda.univie.ac.at/freebsd-laptops/
Member since:2005-07-07
This might be more useful than the first link i posted, since it talks about the *recommended* minimum system requirements
http://www.pcbsd.org/?p=releasenotes
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Member since:
2005-07-06
I just installed pc-bsd on my ancient p2 300mhz celeron box (512 ram), and i have to say it is by no means a rocket ship, but it runs quite well, almost as fast as vector 5 SOHO, these are the only 2 distros i have tried that run kde at a useable speed on that box
(gentoo and arch probably would to but i haven't tried them)
Member since:
2005-07-18
Member since:2005-07-06
i know it does, it is just a test box, it's good for testing how efficient various os's and distros run.
everything runs well on my other pc's as they are quite fast, (although I have a 1.3ghz celeron that was given to me last week that I can use as an intermediate test box now) this box shows me how fast an os really is.
I have a Slackware partiton on that machine that never changes, I run Fluxbox on that.
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have you guys seen this yet?
funny as hell
http://www.bpninc.com/evideo/video_mac_hi.mov
