FreeBSD Release Engineering Team’s Scott Long has uploaded the 5.1 i386 Beta2 release of FreeBSD. He will be uploading the alpha release, work is under way to get a beta2 for sparc64 and pc98. Additionally, FreeBSD team’s Hiten Pandya has written a manual page for the Asynchronous Logging Queues (ALQ) for FreeBSD 5.x and is requesting your comments and reviews.
FreeBSD 5.1 Beta2 Now Available
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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BSD makes another move… soon we’ll see the 5 branch as stable… ehrm in a couple of months anyway.
These guys rock!
What is the most “polished” BSD distro? I’m thinking of setting up a BSD box and want to do it with style and grace.
[ ] FreeBSD
[ ] NetBSD
[ ] OpenBSD
[ ] Darwin
I think you mean for your desktop? Then the answer is FreeBSD. Supports more stuff than any other *BSD.
(unrelated)
Guys, why I feel XFree86 to be slow on FreeBSD and on Linux? My box is a pentium3/866 with 512MB ram and a GeForce2 MX/32mb card.
i tried several distros, with the nvidia drivers, but no better results! i keep seeing windows redrawing etc.
any idea how to make Xfree86 perform better?
Now if they could only get a native current JDK on FreeBSD…
Xfree86 shouldn’t be slow on your system. I am not sure what the issue could be, but you definately have the horse power to run it.
As far as the most polished goes, OSX, but FreeBSD is the most comprehensive ‘free’ *BSD. Lastly, I believe they are working on a native JDK; infact, I believe there is some kind of release in ports for FreeBSD.
Brett
” Lastly, I believe they are working on a native JDK; infact, I believe there is some kind of release in ports for FreeBSD. ”
They have been working on a native JDK for close to 2 years now. You can still build a native JDK, but you have to enable linux compatibility in the FreeBSD kernel to do it, as you need to use the Linux JDK to bootstrap the build process.
I am waiting for a “linux free” solution
Nothing against Linux, just if I have to enable Lnux support, I may as well just use Linux.
Check it:
http://www.freshports.org/java/jdk13/
Are you saying you still need Linux compatibility to use this particular port? I don’t know, so I am just curious….
Brett
Check it:
http://www.freshports.org/java/jdk13/
Are you saying you still need Linux compatibility to use this particular port? I don’t know, so I am just curious…
Ya, it’s right there in the front of your eyes.. 😉
required to build: devel/m4, archivers/zip, x11-toolkits/open-motif, java/linux-sun-jdk13, devel/gettext, devel/gmake
I prefer ideological purity, whether it be BSD or Linux. So I understand how you wouldn’t want to add linux compatibility just to install a JDK.
That would be like us linux zealots installing java through wine. Ewww.
But I think most of us have a lot of respect for *BSDs. They have always been very well designed, from what I hear. I wanna check out 5.x when I get a chance. Until then anyone want to comment on the new cool features? UFS2 has me drooling. Can’t wait to find something similar for linux.
🙂
I had been experimenting with FreeBSD 5.0, I think I’ll do a fresh install of 5.1 Beta 2 on my test machine this weekend…
Yes, I know I could simply use cvsup and buildworld, but I prefer a clean install for experimentation purposes.
Like the other folks, I too can’t wait until we have a stable 5.x release!
I’m running the stable release of 5.0 and it’s sucking something fierce. I don’t know what the fuck they did to the scheduler, but the 4.x series ran smoother on my old PPRO 200×2 v.s. 5.0 on a Xeon 933×2.
XMMS skips – ON A DUAL XEON FOR FUCKS SAKE!
There any release notes coming out for it?
Alpha Beta coming soon. Before long FreeBSD will be the Alpha and the Omega.
But I was waiting for an RC (Release Candidate), why the change in scheme?
To be clear about Java on FreeBSD, you need the Linux Java port to build the native FreeBSD one, but you can then make a native package so you can (re)install it without the need of the Linux version. The Linux port can be removed after building the native port.
Dunno what you’ve done to your box but 5.0-RELEASE-P7 is playing 256kbit MP3s over NFS just fine on my celeron 1.2G. It has no problem on my SMP machine either.
I’m a intermediate level Linux user. Should I try 4.8 instead of 5.x?
re: Java
you only need linux compatability mode to build/install the native port the 1st time. After that you can remove compat linux and the linux jdk and use native for everything else. It works perfectly with konqueror,jedit,mozilla,anyJ,ant…
What Should I try:
Depends on what you want to do, for something critical stick with 4.*, 5.* otherwise. I am currently tracking current (5.*) on my laptop and desktop and apart from the @#%$%# ACPI problem on the laptop i don’t have a problem.
I want a useable desktop running KDE 3.1 and the usual CD burning, DVD and video file viewing, and MP3 listening. I am quite willing to use 4.8 unless 5.x offers advantaes as well as stability. This is for my home desktop
Everything is simply superb except for the installation interface, be it CLI or gUi. It SUCKS!!!!!!!!!! ‘FREEBSD has simply the worst installation available anywhere on any OS since the beginning of operating systems.
So what do you want?
it takes 15 min: boot from cdrom select express install and after 15 min basic OS is running after reboot. Add 5 min for XFree config.
I dont know if there is any intention to make FBSD a desktop, this is linux goal. But if one is server admin, one should know what he/she is doing.
If you’re an intermediate Linux user, you can probably use either. I’m saying this from very limited experience, but a month or so ago I installed 5.0 – my first FreeBSD install. Much as this release has been slagged for it’s “not production readyness”, it’s been rock-stable, fast, and reliable for me. A few ports here and there didn’t work quite right (XMame, but this is not a crucial app for me).
Now again I can’t compare this to anything but my experiences with Linux, but I have 5.0 running KDE on a Pentium 2-400 with 192 MB of RAM, and it’s surprisingly fast and responsive. I’d expect a CPU with twice the power, and at least 256 MB of RAM to run as well as this is running. It is surprising; not sure why it runs so well on this old Compaq Deskpro, but it really flies and is completely usable as a desktop machine. I have it networked with my other Linux and Windows boxes, samba shares, NFS shares, and so forth, and everything is running smoothly. It’s been up and running now for 19 days without a reboot.
Sound support is middling, sometimes works perfectly, sometimes blasts me with noise, but it’s weird on-board stuff that doesn’t have a perfect match, kernel-module wise (I forget what I’m using, but it was something close, not exact).
From a Linux user’s perspective, the differences are completely navigable (I haven’t found any added complexity to FreeBSD; things are sometimes done differently, but not in any more complicated manner. Even compiling a kernel was completely trivial. Modify a text file, uncomment the modules you want, run the compile.)
The startup sequence, as I mentioned in an earlier post, is not something I was used to, so I read about it for a half hour or so and played around and figured it out.
Ports will probably be completely new to you unless you’re running something like Gentoo or Debian, but what a wonderful thing they are. If you’re used to running something like Mandrake, you’ll love it.
People complain about the installation process, but as I’m coming from Gentoo which has no installer, I found it pretty easy to use. As with Gentoo, it’s really important to read through the well-written, easy-to-follow and surprisingly complete FreeBSD handbook. I’d mentioned in my comments on the last BSD article here on OSNews that the installer reminded me of Debian’s, and someone responded that it was actually more like Slackware’s. Not flashy but user friendly enough. At least I thought so. I know that the installer is one of the things people complain about, and it could well be I just don’t have enough experience with it to hate it yet, but it was easy enough for me.
Oh, and I just received the newly released 4th edition of “The Complete FreeBSD,” by O’Reilly. I haven’t read through it all yet but it looks remarkably dense, and I can already recommend it just for its breadth if you’re serious about learning it. But no need to pick that up just yet; the online handbook will get you up and running in surprisingly little time. Just getting to a prompt is a 20 minute, half hour thing. If that.
If I were installing for the first time, based on my experiences with 5.0, I’d definitely grab the latest available version, beta or otherwise. I, too, was an intermediate Linux user before I gave it a spin. It looks really good, and is really responsive. I imagine this new beta will probably be even better.
Looks just like Linux, but there’s a screencap of FreeBSD 5.0 running KDE here if anyone’s interested in having a peek:
http://quag7.dynip.com:8063/public/screenshots/FreeBSD/2003-04-30-F…
No one make fun of the TOTO video dammit. We all have our vices. Okay fine maybe not as heinous as liking a TOTO song. I was vacillating between that and Asia’s “Heat of the Moment,” but I didn’t want to cause anyone bad flashbacks or exacerbate any Post 80s Stress Disorder they might still be suffering from.
Face it, I could be playing a Thompson Twins video and I’d still represent.
I should mention that this skipping happens at full load, but either way – I have the xmms process reniced to -20. It should not skip under any circumstances.
Don’t know if this relates to you, I’m running Gentoo Linux and configured XFree by hand. At first I wasn’t loading GLX and DRI with XFree. I then went ahead and uncommented the part in XFree86Config to load those 2 modules and I notice a big difference in KDE UI. Still sluggish under high load, but noticeably faster in moving windows while showing content and other such 2D drawing, prolly has more to do with DRI?
Ive always preferred FreeBSD over any Linux distro. To me its cleaner and much more consistent. As well as the mature code base. Linux is good but my personal preference will always be FreeBSD. Ive run a FreeBSD firewall for my home network for 2 years without trouble.
As for the FreeBSD installation program-well it doesnt have the glamour and pretty GUI of many of the Linux installs but its fast and does the job. My advice to anyone that finds it difficult is to install FreeBSD 4 or 5 times on a test machine. The install program will soon become familiar and youll wonder why you had any problems. Also follow the handbook carefully.
Its quite a good installation program-its just a bit daunting for newbies.
Administration of FreeBSD is very easy. Just get your favorite text editor,read the documentation,edit the neccessary files and your done. I really cant see why people are so afraid to edit config files these days-if its documented properly (which it is on FreeBSD) and clearly set out its easy as pie. The FreeBSD config files are much simplier than the mess of symbolic links and config files in a RedHat system.
To people whose BSD is slower than it should be:
You are probably using PIO mode for HDD transfer instead of UltraDMA. Refer to the handbook and faq for more information. (especially to the gentleman whose XMMS skips).
The same happens on Linux and Windows too, if HDD transfer mode is not set correctly.
The worst installer of all operating systems has got to be Debian’s. It is horrific. FreeBSD’s is light years ahead of it and it’s not that good.
Of course, that’s what Libranet is for–all the power of Debian and it doesn’t take you all day to install. It’s very easy to upgrade to sid with their latest version
Acording to:
http://java.sun.com/pr/2000/06/spotnews/sn000615.html
” Berkeley Software Design Inc. (BSDi) recently announced JavaTM 2 Platform, Standard Edition for BSD platforms, including BSDi Internet Server, BSD/OS, and FreeBSD. The free beta versions of the Java 2 Update for BSDi Internet Super Server 4.1 and BSD/OS 4.1 are available to BSDi customers for immediate download at http://www.bsdi.com/java. BSDi will also provide the Java 2 technology for FreeBSD. ”
This means Java runs nativelly on FreeBSD. Could someone explain this, I am very interesting.
Thanks.
BSDI went away!
It should be mentioned that you need the Linux jdk only while compling the port and you can safely remove it afterwards (as well as the linux compatibility)
It’s strange how people twist a feature like linux compatibility into a shamefull defect ! Besides build the jdk once on one machine, tar it, untar it to install it on the machine where you want it – that way you wouldn’t have to taint your pc whith linux.
I haven’t used a pure BDS OS before, although I’ve used MacOS X 10.2.6 at my dad’s work, which is based on the BSD operating system. Apple has done a great job at making A BDS OS very usable, and has raised the bar for the BSD distributions for ease of use. Once the BSD’s become as easy to install and use as OS X 10.x, there market takeup would be greatly improved.
NetBSD defintly goes as the most polished in my book.
Neat, clean, well documented, secure and without bloat.
“It’s strange how people twist a feature like linux compatibility into a shamefull defect!”
I don’t consider it to be a defect, more of an annoyance.
What really annoys me that an OS that technically existed before Linux still doesn’t get the support it needs from the Java community; Sun in particular.
Modern JDKs for Solaris, Windows, and Linux are available from Sun, but not for BSD – seems really odd.
What really annoys me that an OS that technically
existed before Linux still doesn’t get the support
it needs from the Java community; Sun in particular.
Sun used to support the heck out of BSD. Until Solaris 2 SunOS and Solaris 1 was based on BSD 4.1. Sun contributed a lot of nice things to BSD (and later SVR4) UNIX including NFS, sticky bit for directories, etc.
After Sun and AT&T did a merger through stock exchange Sun decided to change over to SVR4. All of the versions of their SVR4 sucked until Solaris 2.5.1.
Sun dropped BSD long ago because of their relationship with AT&T. Sun couldn’t care less about Linux other than it now being necessary in order to be buzzword compliant. As soon as the Linux fad evaporates Sun’s support for Linux will too.
As far as I have heard, FreeBSD seems to be quite a good system, so I would really like to test it.
However, my ide controller is not wholly supported or so, so I need to disable ata dma to make it work properly (that’s what someone from FreeBSD told me when I asked if it was a bug). Does anyone know how to do this? I guess something like hint.ata.dma.disabled=”1″ but I cannot find any documentation on this.
Go here and type in that question.
http://www.freebsd.org/search/search.html#mailinglists
You should get dozens of hits, most of which will at least point you in the right direction if they don’t outright answer the question. That link is good for just about any question you might have regarding FreeBSD, and sometimes for the others as well.
Good Luck!
vi /boot/loader.conf
hw.ata.ata_dma:”0″
I am really amazed at how stable 5.0-Current is. I was using Mandrake before, and that’s light years ahead of som *ahem* other operating systems which are currently being forced on millions every day. But FreeBSD is so stable that there’s nothing… it’s like pure bliss. I have been transferring to FBSD for a few months now.
Now I am going to have to try 5.1 beta and see how stable it is too. What tag do I use for CVSUP? 5_1_BETA or something?
quote:”What tag do I use for CVSUP? 5_1_BETA or something?”
Never heard about this one. Tag should be:
*default tag=. <-dot after “=” sign
if you want to test current (5.1 Beta2 as of yesterday)
Now I am going to have to try 5.1 beta and see how stable it is too. What tag do I use for CVSUP? 5_1_BETA or something?
Let’s bless to the FreeBSD’s handbook.. 😉
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/cvs-tags….