FreeBSD 5.1-Release Available
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Cool…
I hope Nvidia will release a good driver for this soon.
Also support for my saa7134 tv card would be nice
FreeBSD is really worth checking out. Very nice.
Downloaded 5.0 not to long ago and was impressed. Now this out. Hooray!
I dled 5.0 and it stuck on the boot process same with 4.7…dunno whats wrong it boots perfectly on my old pc which must remain windows XP unfoortunately…
If both versions of FreeBSD failed, it just means that this hardware of yours is not compatible with FreeBSD for some reason. Could be anything, try to see where the installation hangs out and you might be able to fix it via changing some hardware, or even easier, changing some options in the BIOS.
I had the same problem luzerlinux. My problem was that FreeBSD didn’t autoload a driver for my Promise IDE controller and my HD and boot CDROM were running off of it. I switched those to my motherboard IDE bus and what was on that to the card. Installed fine now. I think I had BeOS 5 install issues that were from the same thing.
I love FreeBSD. It is constantly being updated. It is extremely stable. It supports thousands of packages. It has a very nice/easy package installation. The only OS that can even be mentioned in the same sentence with FreeBSD is Debian, but Debian is extremely outdated and has an overly difficult install routine.
Gentoo shares a lot with FreeBSD but unfortunately I found it to be very unstable (it even crashed during installation while I was just editing a etxt file). But if you hardware is supported by FreeBSD, it will likely be supported better.
when is 5.2 coming out. I am waiting until this comes out to update my 4.8 box.
Debian is NOT “extremely outdated”, not when your running unstable which is, in fact, very up to date, and is about as stable as other distros.
I may switch yet!!!
If you are interested in trying FreeBSD 5.1 and are unsure whether you want to try it over FreeBSD 4.x, see the Early Adopter’s Guide for FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE: http://www.freebsd.org/releases/5.1R/early-adopter.html
Debian is NOT “extremely outdated”, not when your running unstable which is, in fact, very up to date, and is about as stable as other distros.
Actually, it’s a dinosuari Linux distro, which it’s outdated. It’s why Ximian don’t support Debian, because it’s outdated.
I have never found Debian to be worth the effort required to setup a decent desktop system. Perhaps as a server it has several merits.
The problem is that the installation routine is ridiculously overcomplicated. And then, upon installation you have tremendous amounts of updates to do in order to do anything useful with it.
This is assuming you can even get it to run on your hardware. The Linux 2.2.x kernel that it ships with is pretty much unusable on recent hardware.
I will admit that I have never used Debian for an extensive period of time, and what experience I do have with it, I was fighting to get it installed and configured to my liking, so let’s just say it left a bad taste in my mouth.
To be quite honest, I really have no idea, other than for idealogical reasons, why someone would prefer Debian to FreeBSD. The software installation mechanism is just as easy, if not easier, and you get the benefits of compiling from source without the instabilities of Gentoo.
Just my pair of pennies,
-bytes256
Yummy!!!<p>Time to tie up the DSL line FTPing the ISOs…
Obviously, since FreeBSD’s former lead developpers all joined Gentoo ..
The LiveCD (for installation) never crashed once here…
I would like to try FreeBSD as a desktop OS, but they need better support for recent hardware. Perhaps the STABLE release (5.2?) will be better.
What are you running that 5.1 doesn’t support?
My experience with FreeBSD hardware support has been pretty good so far. I would say it compares quite well to Linux in hardware support, of course my machines are pretty vanilla, being a couple of Dell’s, a Packard Hell, a Gateway, a Compaq, and an Acer. The only thing it doesn’t support well are WinModems, but Linux has issues there as well.
Don’t count on nvidia drivers until 5.x has a stable tree. I’m not trying it until after 5.2 either. The stable tree has been doing me right for 5 years now.
The thing is, FreeBSD tends only to support the proven and stable hardware. They (unlike the linux community) don’t immediately jump on the bandwagon once a new bit of (sometimes useless .. bluetooth anyone?) is released.
I for one am very satisfied with both FreeBSD as Gentoo. Both perform very well and are extremely stable. However, Gentoo isn’t stable and secure enough to my taste just yet. It does make a bloody fine desktop machine. Then again, so does FreeBSD, I love the simplicity and speed of WindowMaker.
You should upgrade your 4.8 to 4.9 when it is released. 5.x is still the “new technology” release, and will remain so until it is at least as stable and proven as 4.x.
My only beef about FreeBSD is that you have to disable PnP on older hardware (i.e. network cards) in order to use them.
I’m amazed at the number of people running off to download ISOs. I presume that you don’t have existing 5.0 boxes? If you do, read the Freebsd handbook about updating, and install cvsup. This is the thing about FreeBSD that makes is ideal: on my stable server box, I’ve installed FreeBSD 3 times in the last 4 years: once for 3.2, once for 4.2, and once for 5.0. Just update source and build world when security fixes come out, and it magicly works. Something Gentoo hasn’t worked out yet (my last emerge world on Gentoo broke gphoto2 and kde’s camera:// extension, along with various other little problems; the one before that broke KDE so badly I had to reinstall the whole machine).
Ref:
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/cutting-e…
(note you have to edit RELENG_5_0 to RELENG_5_1 in /usr/share/examples/cvsup/standard-supfile to upgrade)
Onboard LAN, scanner, digital camera, video card… My soundcard is not in the HCL, but I suppose it’s supported by the godly PCM module, hehe. I’m sure the -STABLE release will be better though. At worst, I’ll try it on an older machine.
Well, I cannot go into the BIOS on this PC…Compaq seams to have blocked that?? all I get on boot is the compaq flash screen and no matter what i press I cannot get into BIOS setup….. and the installs stick on the little spinning /….it spins reall really slow and i finally just turn off my PC…
It’s about time FreeBSD packaged some SBLive (emu10k) drivers with the install CD…
kudos!
Installer is fine… but it’d be great to see a graphical one… it might help bolster additional userbase and windows/linux converts….
…not that there’s anything wrong w/ linux =)~
The thing is, FreeBSD tends only to support the proven and stable hardware. They (unlike the linux community) don’t immediately jump on the bandwagon once a new bit of (sometimes useless .. bluetooth anyone?) is released.
There is one problem with that though. People with brand new systems (lets say a new chipset or something with some integrated NIC) won’t be able to install FreeBSD. Heck, they can’t do in in Linux either.
Just that drivers for Windows are slapped together by the manufacturers themselves (well some of them, atleast)
currently updating source code via cvsup now @ home. Just wish i had let my desktop in freebsd so i could have the new kernel/world built for my work laptop by the time i get home.
been using 5.0 (work laptop and home desktop) since it was released and i’ve only had 1 problem, acpi issues with a dell laptop. Apart from that it’s been as stable as any other os, i’ve used.
It’s a little slow sometimes but that’s expected since i still have all the debugging options turned on in my config
Cool people get their software via torrents
Go to http://f.scarywater.net/ or http://glow.rh.rit.edu/ to get your FreeBSD 5.1 ISO and help those poor mirrors better serve people 🙂
Which is faster? The 4.xx series or the 5.xx series?Does it
maintain binary compatibility with previous versions? I’ ll
never upgrade if it is slower.
I don’t think it matters if it shows what to press to get into the bios setup. I think it will work if you press the right key anyway. Out of memory I think f10 is the right key for many compaqs, if that doesn’t work try the delete key.
If you can’t get through with any of those you should probably try the rest of the f<insert number> keys and the escape key.
For all of you bitching about Debian, try Libranet. You’ll be amazed
Well,I installed an upgraded BIOS and I am now able to get to BIOS Setup…I found out FreeBSD hates my CD-Burner and won’t boot very quickly from it…but if I switch the boot order to my DVD drive it boots just fine…but, I think my FreeBSD 5.0 disks are messed up… they won’t install ports and it never asks for the second disk…which I thouht was strange as I selected to install All…. maybe I have to download new disks or something…pfff
Debian is extremely outdated. Both the unstable and testing branches are not officially supported. When Debian says they are officially supported, then I will think about using them. Otherwise, using these branches is equivalent to using beta software in the enterprise.
>Debian is NOT “extremely outdated”
Every time I try to install FreebBSD 5.x, I get an error about an incorrect disk geometry and that I should enter the right one. I do that and it doesn’t work. Changing the way my BIOS sees the disk (CHS,LBA,etc) does’t work. Anybody have any input?
Never played with BSD.
What is the difference between Linux and BSD from the technical view (no emotions!)?
They are both Unix Style OS…
When I start to play with BSD(as desktop OS ) what should I choose: FreeBSD or NetBSD? (OpenBSD is for servers right?)
Will it work on newer Sony Laptops?
Thanks for your answers, but please no emotions, only facts…
Don’t want to start a religious war here!
PS: I work with Windows (80%) and Linux (20%).
It’s a matter of taste, really. The only way of finding out what alternative suits your specific needs and hardware is to test them all on your computer.
If you like to use *nix as your personal desktop and you have less than 10 GB of free HD space you should notice, however, that binary packages require less disk space and Linux distros tend to be better when it comes to binary packages availability.
But if you have lots of HD space and RAM available, FreeBSD might be your choice. (Having lots of RAM means that updating big packages, such as OpenOffice, in BSDs don’t necessarily take days to compile.)
“it’s about time FreeBSD packaged some SBLive (emu10k) drivers with the install CD… ”
It does and has for awhile. Use the pcm module or compile it into the kernel with “device pcm”.
“Every time I try to install FreebBSD 5.x, I get an error about an incorrect disk geometry and that I should enter the right one. I do that and it doesn’t work. Changing the way my BIOS sees the disk (CHS,LBA,etc) does’t work. Anybody have any input?”
I had a similar problem. In my case, changing the CD-ROM from being the primary slave to the secondary master worked around the problem.
Take a look at Morphix. Morphix is based on Knoppix without the bloat. I have found it to be a very modern OS, but unlike Libranet, its a free download. Anyone not willing to support Debian needs to take a second look, but fron the Knoppix, Libranet, Morphix point of view.
Oh, and installation to a hard drive for me was as simple as kicking it in gear and letting it go. All my hardware worked at the end. Your mileage may vary. My system was built for use with Linux so.
Chris
One – the ports. Good collection and easy to use
Two – pkgadd -r xmms (I think that’s it iirc) – easiest download and install ever.
Three – You can make the nVidia drivers work for Hardware GL.
If you are comparing BSD to a Red Hat, Mandrake or Suse, then Linux is much easier to install and coexists with Windows on a laptop. If you are familiar with the underpinnings of a unix type system then FreeBSD is pretty easy to setup for a desktop. There are still issues with java, Flash and others on FreeBSD that are not as simple as downloading a rpm file and double clicking but you can find people to help you.
You don’t have to install everything from source either. You can type: “pkg_add -r OpenOffice” at the prompt which will grab the package and all dependancies and install them on your system.
I personally run FreeBSD (samb, NFS server), OpenBSD (firewall) Windows (gaming), Linux (Developing) and Mac OSX (Doing real work on a great laptop). They each have their strengths and weaknesses but any one of them could be good at all of them if I were an expert at just one of them and had the right tools.
One thing to remember is there is only one FreeBSD and when you need documentation you can read the handbook. Linux is really only a kernel with tons and tons of programs and everybody and their grandma has put a distrobution together.
Cheers
just open up /boot/defaults/loader.conf and edit it. Scroll down to snd_emu10k1 and change the N to a Y, reboot, and voila your sound card will work. btw, remember to disable PnP in the BIOS or otherwise the card won’t be picked up by FreeBSD.
See, there IS no need to recompile the kernel.
“I had a similar problem. In my case, changing the CD-ROM from being the primary slave to the secondary master worked around the problem.”
that’s how I’m setup now
I think “OpenOffice” is one of the very few things you can’t type after “pkg_add -r…”.
And once again there is nothing to do but wait. I’ll never buy ATI or Nvidia again until they start providing necessary info for people to write drivers….
Uh? Like what? I own three Nvidia video cards and they all work perfect with FreeBSD 4.8-STABLE and 5.1-CURRENT (two). I installed the driver from x11/nvidia-driver, as long you disable the debug in kernel for the stability. I can play tuxracer, use glxgears and etc without a problem.
http://freebsd.kde.org/memoriam/alane.php
I have just finished downloading the FreeBSD 5.1 isos. Now that I have the latest and greatest, I wonder what to do with the old ones (4.6.2,…, 5.0). So, Eugenia, here is my suggestion for a poll that would keep OSnews readers busy when there is nothing to report :
What happens to your old CDs when a new version of your favorite OS is released ?
a) You throw them away
b) You keep them in case the new release is too unstable
c) You collect them (like stamps)
d) You use them as coasters
e) You give them to a friend or relative
f) You give them to a charity (to be sent to poor countries)
g) You never perform CD installations
h) You always use other people CDs
Ouchie… GPF right out of the gate, on a machine that ran 4.8 perfectly. Didn’t even get to the install menu. Sticking with 4.8 for now =]
Hello,
I’ve heard some rather ludicrous and incredible statements about Gentoo’s instability. I beg to differ. Fortunately, none of these persons have pointed out how and why they Gentoo is any less stable than FreeBSD is. I know colleagues who use Gentoo on their production servers without any problems. Gentoo avails you the opportunity to use its *stable* as well as *unstable* ports. The choice is yours. Of all the distros I know, it has the most up to date packages I know. It arguably has the best package management system of all the *nices variants, yes including FreeBSD.
And yes, I use FreeBSD and Gentoo,but my hardware just happens to be more cooperative on Gentoo. *rollseyes* When I build my next box I’ll be migrating totally to Gentoo. Yes, I doubt FBSD will be supporting those new hardwares anytime soon. *sighs*
i) You use CD-RWs when making burning ISOs since you know that a new version will be coming up soon and don’t want to deal with a large pile of old CDs.
I think “OpenOffice” is one of the very few things you can’t type after “pkg_add -r…”.
Sorry mac.
That’s what I did. And it is flawless. It would’ve taken days to compile OO.org on my Duron 650, that package was perfect!
or just use source updating or use a couple of floppies to upgrade the system. FreeBSD is insanely easy to install. Sysinstall is one the best tools, I’ve used IMO. Cleanly laid out and very very very very simple.
The power to serve. Problem solved.
Having just tried out Gentoo myself due to hardware requirements, I’ve found it to be quite stable as well. It does have ‘stable’ and ‘unstable’ ports, which is a nice improvement as you’ve mentioned. Although I wouldn’t yet trust it on a server. This has nothing to do with it’s apperent stability though. Rather, I’d like it to have more of a track record first. This is partly why FBSD 5.1 is not yet declared a stable release.
I think a factor in people calling Gentoo unstable is all those who use really aggressive optimazation flags. Often these flags can introduce errors into programs leading to general system instability.
I’m sticking to FBSD for my server needs for the forseeable future.
On a side note though, for any FBSD fan, Gentoo is probably the Linux distribution you will like most out of all the Linux dists. Gentoo is even setup with a wheel group, just like BSD. It’s fairly well designed and doesn’t use the SysV rc system of Linux, but rather a BSD like rc system (althought I have some misgivings about it, mind you I also haven’t given it a thorough look yet either). I found the documentation to be MUCH better than any other linux distribution, but not quite as good as the BSDs.
On another side note, on one of my FBSD 5.0 desktops I find that my X cursor is ‘sticky’. When the processor picks up the cursor doesn’t respond for a few seconds. It’s definately not the mouse itself (USB optical). Has anyone else experienced a similar problem? I recall someone on OSnews once mentioned something like this. I’m hoping 5.1 resolves the issue as it’s fairly annoying. Oddly enough, the scroll wheel seems to still work when the cursor gets stuck, so X doesn’t seem to be freezing.
think “OpenOffice” is one of the very few things you can’t type after “pkg_add -r…”.
Sorry mac.
That’s what I did. And it is flawless. It would’ve taken days to compile OO.org on my Duron 650, that package was perfect!
__________
Sorry, no offence meant by my comment. I only meant that a pkg_add -r for OOo won’t fetch it automatically. Or maybe it did? Let me know! And was it 1.03 or 1.1Beta? I can’t get 1.1 to work on either FreeBSD 4. or 5. Some weird ‘splash screen’ error. I’m sure it’s something I’m doing wrong….:)
Just tried the new SCHED_ULE scheduler and CPU usage dropped a couple of percent from its previous usage while watching TV through my WinTV card. XFree86 seems to use less CPU now. Make -j6 buildworld ran nicely reaching a load average peak of about 7 and the TV frames only skipped a tiny bit. You need an SMP system to take best advantage of SCHED_ULE.
I just gave FreeBSD a try with 5.0. I hadn’t used a *NIX since my student engineering days over ten years ago, but I think I’m going to stick with it. I thoroughly enjoy learning something new and using an OS that, IMHO, is so stable and secure, but I digress. I downloaded both the Disk 1 and Disk 2 ISOs, but Disk 2 appears to be a live FS. Is this the case? Do you need both ISOs? Thanks for the help.
You only need the first ISO or mini ISO to install (or two floppy discs and an Internet connection). The second ISO is a Fix-it disc and I think it has CVS files on it.
An FTP install isn’t that bad with the 512k DSL I have, with KDE it takes about one or two hours. It would probably take about four hours to download the ISO from a good mirror in contrast.
Cheers
Hi guys. I just installed 5.1 on my x86 whitout any probs at all. Then i tried to install lynx from the ports and seg faulted right in my face! I thought oh wtf I’ll just deal with that later and went on to install fluxbox and recived another segfault… If would have read the “wearly adopters guide” i would probably have stumbled over this:
A number of ports and packages do not build or do not run correctly under FreeBSD 5.0, whereas they did under FreeBSD 4-STABLE. Generally these problems are caused by compiler toolchain changes or cleanups of header files.
so i guess it was expected..
Anyway, my main reason for installing 5.1 was to get firewire/hfs support so that i can use my iPod with it. Does anyone know about the state of firewire/hfs??? And in such case – is it available in the 4-series as well
regards /jens
Slow ADSL upload at:
http://www.huynh.org/photos/freebsd/freebsd51.png
or Fast Yahoo site:
http://photos.yahoo.com/[email protected]
Hi again.
Yesterday evening i tried to get java installed from the ports collection. First i tried the jdk14 version but it failed miserably so i went to try the jdk13 one which failed with an internal error: segmentation fault
This is horrible, i left gentoo due to stability reasons (a constantly hanging X server (gentoo stable)) but this is just far worse!!! Maybe i should try 4.8…..
Maybe you should test your memory, looks like it’s failing. Random unexplainable segfaults usually indicate bad memory chip.