Note: As of December 2000, FreeBSD 4.2 has been released. There has been no time to update the tutorials but it is not that different to what is described here. Just translate over the numbering system. It is recommended you use the latest FreeBSD distribution.

Disclaimer

Note: Because of variations in install, multiple toolsets, (never knowing whether a previous install might have affected the next one); some/all(?) of the following information might be wrong; and there are probably better methods for doing the following. Keep this in mind and feel free to think a bit before blindly following the instructions.

The following install leaves the system with no open scannable ports for maximum security. It is assumed that users will enable the servers they require at a later date. After installing Xwindows, use of port 6000 by X can be disabled by adding the flag '-nolisten tcp' to the X server command line.

Why bother with FreeBSD

As explained in other pages, FreeBSD makes for a very solid, secure high capacity server and can also be used with relative ease as a firewall computer. It of course can be used as a client system but Linux has the advantage here due to ready to use Binaries for Crystallographic applications being available.

Note that the one problems with installing Xwindows with FreeBSD is that you pretty much have to know your optimal XServer type prior to installation. Normally you only find this out during running Xconfigurator mid way during installation after which there is not easy way as part of the install to load the optimised server, so you may end up starting the install again. In this case, the optimal Xserver for a ATI Xpert@Work Video Card is a MACH64 based XServer.

Also refer: "Installing FreeBSD" at http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/install.html | http://www2.uk.freebsd.org/handbook/install.html
Also refer: "Kernel configuration" at http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/kernelconfig.html

• http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/kernelconfig-config.html | http://www2.uk.freebsd.org/handbook/kernelconfig-config.html
• http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/kernelconfig-trouble.html#KERNELCONFIG-NOBOOT | http://www2.uk.freebsd.org/handbook/kernelconfig-trouble.html#KERNELCONFIG-NOBOOT

• FreeBSD (Gig distribution on a single DVD - 9Gig): http://www.freebsd-services.com/

Backup your old stuff

The following method does the dual boot installation of FreeBSD and Win95 from scratch using an unpartitioned disk. It is possible to install FreeBSD on an existing Windows system without destroying the Windows area using FIPS or other similar non-destructive reformatting software (e.g., Partition Magic). However implementing that is possibly part of a "future" X hour hacking session; so we are doing "clean the disk - then install" method here.

"FIPS is a program for non-destructive splitting of harddisk partitions" - FIPs Webpage at: http://www.igd.fhg.de/~aschaefe/fips/

If new to UNIX/BSD/LINUX, Expect to Initially Waste a Lot of Time

Like Austen Powers(?), "It's UNIX Baby Yeahhhh!"
Also refer Unix-haters handbook - http://catalog.com/hopkins/unix-haters/handbook.html

Noting down the PC System Information

In this case:

• Viglan 300 MHZ Intel Pentium with 128 Meg RAM
• 3COMFast Etherlink XL 10/100 Mb TX Ethernet NIC (3C 905B-TX) on IRQ 9
• ATI Xpert@Work Video Card (ATI 3D RAGE PRO - DirectX) (MACH64 Drivers based for XFree86 Xwindows)
• iiyama 17" MT-9017T video monitor that can do (Frequency: 50/60Hz):
  • 1024x768 at 75Hz VESA; 60.02kHz HorizontalFrequency; 75.0kHz Vertical Frequency
  • 1280x1024 at 75Hz VESA; 79.98kHz HorizontalFrequency; 75.0kHz Vertical Frequency
• Generic Floppy Disk
• In board SYMBIOS Logic 875XSID (NCR53c8xx) (Hardcopy Manual: SYM8751SP) PCI Ultra SCSI Host adapter (no devices connected)
• SCSI Fujitsu Hard Disk drive with ~8 Gig IDE Hard-disk
• Yamaha OPL3-Sax Sound System
• Atapi CD-ROM: TEAC CD-532E

Deciding now on the partitions

The following PC is configured to have 3 operating systems, Windows, Linux and FreeBSD. In principle, if you set up a dual boot system, then a multiple boot system is a piece of cake. The main limitation being that for PCs, each hard-disk can only have 4 primary bootable partitions.

• 4 Gig for Win95
• 2 Gig for Linux
• 150 Meg for Linux Swap Area
• 2.4 Gig for FreeBSD (single BSD Slice)
• BSD partitioning (with the BSD Slice)
  • BSD has a very nifty autoconfig to create the paritions within the Slice but it has a habit of making some things a bit small (such as /var). While using links between file systems can help with this, setting decent sized, best to size these partitions in a decent way during installation. FreeBSD has a relatively friendly program for creating and sizing partitions. Suggested sizes to fill a 2 Gig area:
  • 40 meg for /
  • ~200 meg for SWAP
  • 100 meg for /var
  • 100 meg for /tmp
  • 1000 meg for /usr
  • rest (~1GIG) for /home (user/data space)

Obtain the Ranish Partition Manager for DOS and create a Win95 Boot disk

After mucking around with a few utilities, the freeware Ranish Partition Manager for DOS is a work of genius for managing partitions and boot managing. Menu driven, it is a breeze to create and delete partitions, multiple primary partitions, configure the MBR area. It easily will fit on a Windows/DOS boot floppy with the rest of your boot utilities.

• Ranish Partition Manager for DOS - http://www.users.intercom.com/~ranish/part/
• Ranish Partition Manager for DOS (Australian Mirror) - http://www4.au.freebsd.org/~ranish/part/
• Ranish Partition Manager for DOS (US Mirror) - http://www.ml.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~mranish/part/
• Ranish Partition Manager for DOS (US Mirror) - http://members.xoom.com/ranish/part/

• "The REAL Multi-boot": Tutorials on using shareware/freeware Ranish Partition boot manager and partition manager to get around the 4 Primary Partition limit with PC: http://members.tripod.it/Trombettworks/multi-boot.htm

• It should be noted that new boot and partition managers are being created all the time. The GPL'd XOSL is one worth checking out for Windows which allows 24 boot items (gets around the 4 Primary partition limit) - http://www.xosl.org/

Now before you consider deleting Windows, create a boot disk (format a: /u/s) and copy over the required utility software.

• Copy over the following to the floppy disk:
  • Ranish Partition Manager
  • format.com
  • fdisk.exe
  • edit.com
  • sys.com
  • xcopy.exe
  • xcopy32.exe
  • himem.sys
  • scandisk.exe
  • CD-ROM driver and MSCDEX.EXE
  • Anything else you fancy and that will fit.
• Configure the config.sys and autoexec.bat on the floppy so that it will enable the CD-ROM on bootup; plus himem.sys and any country specific drivers. Set MSCDEX to use D: drive for the CD-ROM. (We will be formatting the DOS partition of the hard-disk as C: drive.) In the case of this Toshiba Laptop:
  • a:\config.sys

    device=a:\himem.sys
    device=a:\toscdrom.sys

  • a:\config.sys

    a:\mcsdex\ /D: TOSCD001 /L:D /M:10

• Note: Having a loaded CD-ROM pointing to C: drive can possibly stuff up the partitioning process later on; though Ranish Partition Manager will probably warn you that something is going wrong. If in doubt, remove the CD-ROM booting from the config.sys and autoexec.bat.

Creating the FreeBSD Boot Images on Floppy Disk

Choose the closest FreeBSD mirrors via:

• http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/mirrors.html
• http://www2.uk.freebsd.org/handbook/mirrors.html
• http://www.itworks.com.au/~gavin/FBSDsites.php3

• e.g.,
• kern.flp - ftp://ftp2.uk.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/3.3-RELEASE/floppies/kern.flp
• mfsroot.flp - ftp://ftp2.uk.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/3.3-RELEASE/floppies/mfsroot.flp

• If on an academic site in the UK, also check out the HENSA/UK Mirror Service archive.
• ftp://ftp.mirror.ac.uk/sites/ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/3.3-RELEASE/
• Partial Mirror at CCP14 ("packages" not included): ftp://freebsd.ccp14.ac.uk/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/3.3-RELEASE/

Use fdimage.exe for DOS from the tools directory to write/burn the images onto floppy disks. Standard "copy" command will not work. Just type fdimage filename.flp a: for the kern.flp and mfsroot.flp.

• ftp://ftp.mirror.ac.uk/sites/ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/3.3-RELEASE/tools/
• At CCP14: ftp://freebsd.ccp14.ac.uk/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/3.3-RELEASE/tools/

Determine the Install Process/Method you are going to Use

You have a variety of options to install the FreeBSD. If you have good internet links, FTP based install is very convenient (otherwise buying/burning up a CD-ROM is a very good option). In this example, we will install from a FreeBSD FTP mirror. Another very easy and quick option for installing FreeBSD is off a local DOS partition.

One very nice feature about the FreeBSD install is that it has a canned list of regional FTP download sites. So there is no need to write down the FTP mirror you wish to use unless there is a non-listed one you wish to download from.

Also, if you wish to use a user specified mirror by putting in the address, the trick is to insert only up to "i386" in the address:

e.g., ftp://ftp2.uk.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/ or
ftp://ftp.mirror.ac.uk/sites/ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/ or
ftp://freebsd.ccp14.ac.uk/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/

However, for multiple, routine installation, the CD-ROM is good use - but you still need the install/boot images on floppy disk. Creating a CD-ROM is a good and not too difficult option if you have a CDR/CD-Writer. The trick is working out what the root area has to be for the CD-ROM.

Creating a FreeBSD CD-ROM from downloaded files of FTP

• Directories under: ftp://ftp2.uk.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/3.3-RELEASE/
• Thus will appear as root directories on the CD-ROM
  • /XF86333
  • /bin
  • /catpages
  • /compat1x
  • /compat20
  • /compat21
  • /compat22
  • /dict
  • /doc
  • /floppies
  • /games
  • /info
  • /manpages
  • /packages
  • /ports
  • /proflibs
  • /tools

It is not possible to install all the packages area onto the CD-ROM due to lack of space. In the FreeBSD install manager, you can change the source of the install for packages missing from the CD.

Whatever you do, if you use the internet, choose the closest mirror. If you are isolated from the internet, or have slow links, CD-ROM or Hard-disk based install are obvious things to choose from. As mentioned above, FreeBSD can be installed from a local DOS partition.

Booting from Your DOS/Windows Floppy Boot Disk, Deleting Existing Partitions and Editing Master Boot Manager (MBR) Options

• Delete the existing partitions.
• Highlight the MBR (Master Boot Record) and:
  • Set the MBR Executable to "Boot Manager"
  • Boot Interface type to "Compact"
  • Check for Viruses "No" (otherwise you may not be allowed to save to the MBR)
  • Boot prompt timeout = "6" is nice?
  • Default Boot Choice of "Prompt User"
• Save (F2), then out of habit from using DOS, reboot to the floppy again. This may or may not be optional.

Booting from Your DOS/Windows Floppy Boot Disk and Creating Partitions

Boot from your DOS/Windows Floppy Boot Disk and run the menu driven Ranish Partition Manager.

• (If you want a nice graphical boot manager, select Text 25x80 under the MBR config, then add a "small" "Boot Manager" Partition (4 Meg) as the first Primary partition using the INS key (which gives a menu list of the possible file systems that can be added)) and set this as the Bootable Partition . Then, taking into account the above, continue on with the following.
• In the first "Primary" Partition, create a 4 Gig Windows FAT-32 Partition (when promped, save but DO NOT format as results may not be predictable. We use the Windows format.com program later.)
  Set this as your default Boot area using the B key. (Don't be too worried at this point if Ranish is unhappy about not letting it format the partition and says the DOS/Windows Boot Sector does not have valid information. Once it is formatted using the format.com program, it should have valid information).
• In the second primary partition, you may wish to create a 2 Gig Linux Parition
• In the third primary partition, creating a Linux Swap Parition (150 Meg)
• (This leaves empty space ready for the FreeBSD slice/partition)
• Save (F2) and (again) reboot the computer to the floppy again (possibly optional though I find DOS/Windows format.com is happier after the reboot).

Formatting the C: Drive - Windows FAT-32

• From the floppy disk, type format c: /s and when prompted: Y - you want to proceed. (/s puts the boot files on the hard-disk)
• Give it a volume name of DOS
• If you want to, you can now install Win95; but I would wait until after getting BSD happily installed in case some partition nuances (didn't allocate enough space to an important partition) come to haunt you.
• Take the floppy disk out of the disk drive (to check the boot manager is happy).
• Reboot the PC and you should be given a prompt of HD/1. If you have a Compact boot manager menu, entering 1 should take you into a command line based Win95/DOS prompt. You can install more elaborate boot manager menus described in this text (Text 25x80 menu system on startup) if you want to but I was in a "minimalist" mood on this particular occassion. But now the Text 25x80 menu system is my favourite.

FreeBSD X-Window user FTP based Install

• Making sure the network is connected and you have all the relevant information specified above, insert the FreeBSD boot/install (kern.flp) floppy disk and reboot.

• FreeBSD will hopefully start booting up, detect the keyboard, floppy drive and hard-disk; then start loading the boostrap loader. It will then prompt for the MFS Root floopy

• Insert the MFS root flppy and press enter. FreeBSD will crunch away then boot up into the Kernel Configuration Menu.

• Enter "Start kernal configuration in full-screen visual mode". FreeBSD will probably tell you via the Kernel configuration screen that you have lots of conflicts. Do not worry at this point. Press the [ENTER] key on Storage to expand it up.
  The first thing you may notice is that it does not have a specific driver for the SCSI device on this particular PC. In practise, you can delete all these drivers and FreeBSD will detect the card.

  You will also notice that the CD-ROM driver for this particular type of CD-ROM is not present. Just delete them all and it will detect the one that is present. (How did I know this? - Trial and Error Installations!)

  Press the [DEL] key to delete the SCSI drivers and CDROM drivers. You will note Only keep the "Floppy disk controller" and the IDE/ESDI/MFM disk controller drivers.

  Now go down to the Network drivers area, and press [ENTER] to expand. You do not see the 3COM driver in this list and may feel the desire to panic. This is not necessary at this point. Delete all the CARDS using the [DEL] key as FreeBSD will automatically detect this type of 3COM card. (Again how did I know this? - Lots of Trial and Error Installations!)

• Now Q to quit and confirm to save. It may take a while to detect what devices are on the hard-disk controllers. Be patient, all is well! At this point, ignore any errors that go drifting by the screen and do not cause a kernal panic (i.e., can't map network card ports). (In the spirit of "Toy Story", by installing FreeBSD, you have been "chosen" to go through the cosmic portal on your journey to Nivarna. Yes I do know that particular "Toy" got eaten by a dog in the movie and it is not unlikely that by using UNIX, analogous things could occur.)

• You should now be at a colourfull (4 colour) /stand/sysinstall Main Menu. Do not be intimidated at this point. FreeBSD has an excellent (though finicky (in a friendly sort of way) in some places) install manager that can also be called after installation of the operation system if you want to add or fix things up.

• Select NOVICE "Begin a Novice Installation (for beginners). This option asks the questions that needs to be asked. FreeBSD install will give a message that you are about to enter FDISK. Do not be worried at this point and continue.

• The FreeBSD fdisk program is one of the more friendlier varieties. If you wish to delete a partition, just highlight it and press the [DEL] key. Assuming you are a free area for the FreeBSD FDISK partition, highlight this unused partition and type C to create a FreeBSD Slice (FDISK partition) with this is area. If FreeBSD cannot use the entire area, it could be a BIOS limitation in action. You have the option of specifying the number of Megabytes for this area or can go with the default - which is the entire unused area. When prompted, confirm that you wish to have a type 165 FreeBSD partition. Then select Q to quit the creation Slice/Partition area.
  (you can use the A command to have FreeBSD use the entire disk if you wish to have FreeBSD as the exclusive operating system on this disk).

  You will next be prompted where you wish to put a boot manager. As we are using Ranish Partition manager, select NONE (by down-arrow to NONE, then press [SPACE-BAR] (selecting the NONE option) then [ENTER] to continue on.

• Now FreeBSD gives you a message that it will now want to Create FreeBSD partitions inside the FreeBSD-FDISK paritition you just created. Press [ENTER] to continue on to the "FreeBSD Disklabel Editor".

• FreeBSD has a mega wonderful feature that will do "Auto Defaults for All". However, later on you may find these defaults were not that crash hot for you. The following is based on doing crystallographic and web-serving work using FreeBSD but you may have to custom size the Partitions for your particular applications - and you may only find out the best partition spaces to use the hard way.

• When it the FreeBSD Disklabel Editor, select A to do an Auto Partition. On this 2 Gig partition is tends to give the following:
  • 40 meg for /
  • 261 meg for SWAP
  • 20 meg for /var
  • 2526 meg for /usr

• Generally, to be able to compile up things like Platon; have space for applications and data, the following was found to be good.
  • 40 meg for /
  • ~200 meg for SWAP
  • 100 meg for /var
  • 100 meg for /tmp
  • 1000 meg for /usr
  • 1000 meg for /home

• To make this a happening thing, highlight the /var and D delete this. Then highlight the /usr partition and D delete this. Do not panic at this point! As mentioned above, the FreeBSD FDISK and Label Editor is quite civilised and easy to use.

• Creating a new 100 Meg /var partition:
  • To add new partitions, you have to highlight the top Disk Definition line then use the C Create command and create (in this case) a 100Meg /var partition. (The M at the end of the number means Meg). Thus when prompted, type 100M and press [ENTER]. When prompted for the partition type, select FS "A file system" and OK. Then when prompted for a mount point, type /var and [OK]. Done!
• Creating a new 100 Meg /tmp partition:
  • To add new partitions, you have to highlight the top Disk Definition line then use the C Create command and create (in this case) a 100Meg /tmp partition. (The M at the end of the number means Meg). Thus when prompted, type 100M and press [ENTER]. When prompted for the partition type, select FS "A file system" and OK. Then when prompted for a mount point, type /tmp and [OK]. Done!
• Creating a new 1000 Meg /usr partition (where the programs such as apache and platon get compiled into):
  • To add new partitions, you have to highlight the top Disk Definition line then use the C Create command and create (in this case) a 1000Meg /usr partition. (The M at the end of the number means Meg). Thus when prompted, type 1000M and press [ENTER]. When prompted for the partition type, select FS "A file system" and OK. Then when prompted for a mount point, type /usr and [OK]. Done!
• Creating a new ~1000 Meg /home partition (user and web data):
  • To add new partitions, you have to highlight the top Disk Definition line then use the C Create command and create (in this case) an ~1000Meg /home partition. (The M at the end of the number means Meg). Thus when prompted, type the remaining space (in this case) 1446M and press [ENTER]. When prompted for the partition type, select FS "A file system" and OK. Then when prompted for a mount point, type /home and [OK]. Done!
• Select Q to finish on the partitioning.

• This should then lead to the Choose Distributions screen where "canned" distribution sets can be selected. In this case, we will do a X User (binaries and X Window System) install that can serve as a base for a Web, Internet and File Server but also allows you to run X to do graphical multi-window administrative work on the BSD box. Thus go to the X User using the arrow keys, press [SPACE KEY] to select then [ENTER] to proceed.

• At this point, FreeBSD may ask you if you wish to install DES cryptographic software, but state that you should not do this if outside the US. Just say no to this.

• At this point, FreeBSD may ask you if you wish to install the FreeBSD ports collection. If you are expecting to have to install various client software later on, it could be a good idea to say yes to this.

• You are now hopefully at the XFree86 Distribution Window. It is best to to into Basic, Server and Fonts menu options and confirm that you are getting what you want (you have to go into the Server option to get the optimised XFree86 Mach64 server (for this particular graphics card). If you enter Basic options, you may also want some of the documentation. Go into Server, and select the Ma64 (Mach64) card (using the [SPACE BAR] to select then go to the bottom and Exit this menu option. Go into the Fonts menu and you may like to select 100 DPI fonts and Speedo and Type Scalable Fonts. Then Exit this menu option.

• This should lead to Choose Installation Media. In this case, we are going to do a CD ROM install. Highlight CDROM and press [ENTER] to continue.

• User Confirmation Requested. FreeBSD will give a warning before uploading the files onto your PC. Assuming you have made backups of anything important on the computer, confirm and proceed. FreeBSD will then start formatting the FreeBSD partitions on the hard-disk (this may take a while - minutes not seconds); then start a HOLOGRPAHIC shell and start download the FreeBSD operating system files off the above defined FTP server with a progress meter showing what is going on. It will also install the PORTSoption. When finished it will then say it is remaking devices and a few other things, followed by a Congratulations messages. "Aloha dude". Press OK to continue.

• FreeBSD will now ask you various questions and you should answer appropriately depending on what you intend to do with the server.

• When prompted whether we should be installing any Ethernet or SLIP/PPP network devices select YES

• On the list of devices, the 3COM ethernet card should be visible. Highlight this and select it. (If it is not visible, then the card has either not been detector and/or some kernel configurations may be required for it to be correctly recognised)

• When prompted whether you want to try using DHCP configuration of the interface, in this case (static IP addresses) select NO

• Now when prompted for the network configuration, insert the network information. Use the [ENTER] button to accept the inputted information. If the network does not work, either the network(cable) is not working or you have put in the incorrect information and should double check everything.

• When prompted whether you wish to bring up the ethernet interface now, select Yes.
• FreeBSD will now ask you various questions and you should answer appropriately depending on what you intend to do with the server. In this case, we are going to close off all Internet services so we can set them up as we need them later.
  • When prompted if the computer will be an IP Gateway (firewall), select NO
  • When prompted if want an Anonymous FTP server on this PC, select NO
  • When prompted if want the PC configued as an NFS server, select NO
  • When prompted if want the PC configued as an NFS client (NFS Sucks - try Samba instead if you require LAN based file sharing), select NO
• When prompted whether you want to customise your console settings, select YES

• Now that you are in the System Console Configuration, you use the [SPACE KEY] to go into an menu option and [ENTER] to continue out of this option. This can be confusing if you are not used to this behaviour. for the UK, go into Font and select an English Font (again [SPACE KEY] to select the option, [ENTER] to accept the selections and get out). In Keymap, select U.K. CP850. In Save, I quite like the Deamon ASCII screen saver. Then [ENTER] to accept this and continue.

• You may as well set the time zone so select YES and set the timezone (Europe, UK).

• When prompted if you want to enable Linux binary compatibility, we will do YES as it may be a good idea for this type of "client" oriented system.

• If you have a mouse, you are prompted to configure and test the mouse driver at this point.

• You will now be prompted there you wish to configure the X server at this time. Select Yes to do this.

• When prompted for the XFree86 configuration tool, select the XF86Setup - Fully Graphical XFree86 configuration tool

• FreeBSD will give a message that the mouse is running. FreeBSD may give a warning if some READMEs are not installed. Though continue on regardless.

• FreeBSD will then prompt that it will be trying to switch the graphics mode. Select OK to continue. A graphics screen with mouse curser should come up (and may stay around for a while) which will hopefully then lead into the graphical XFree86 setup screen.
  • Click on the mouse option. (you will get a message that you can Dismiss). And optimise your options and mouse type.
  • Click on Keyboard. As this is the UK, select a United Kingdom Keyboard.
  • Click on Card, then scroll down and select your card type. On this system, it is an "ATI Xpert@Work" card.
  • Click on Monitor. You may have to read the specification of the monitor to answer this. For this particual IIYAMA monitor, "Multifrequency tat can do 1280x1024 @74 Hz" will work.
  • Click on Modeselection. The mode I am going for is 1280x1024 with 16bpp colour. You may find that if you select a mode that the card cannot handle, it may crash the system when XFree86 tries to go into that mode.
  • You have finished setting up this system so Click on DONE
  • You will then be promped to start up the Xserver to test it. Agree to this. FreeBSD will then attempt to start the server. After hopefully succeeding and you are happy with this, select on Save the configuration and exit option.
  • When prompted whether to create an "X" link to the Mach64 Server, select Yes. FreeBSD should then confirm that the link was created successfully.

• FreeBSD will then prompt you which X desktop environment you would like. KDE is my preference. Select this and FreeBSD will attempt to load KDE. If FreeBSD fails to find these packages, you can change the media type and load them later on.

• FreeBSD will now prompt you if you want to install any Packages. In a non-Minimal install, you probably would, and this gives a nice interface for installing a range of programs including web-browsers, etc. Thus select YES and you may want to install some web-browser/grabbers such as netscape, lynx and snarf. Be wary that depending on the origin and version of the CD-ROM kit you have, some programs (in this case lynx and snarf) may not be available on the CD-ROM. The way around this is when connected to the internet, point the Media install to an FTP site and get an updated list of packages. You can to this further on when prompted whether you want to browse the general configuration options.

• It is a good idea to add a non-root user account. If you wish this user to be compatible with accounts on other network systems, make sure you match the UID and GIDs. (you may have to add this group in first)

• YOU should now be prompted to insert the "Root" adminstrator's password. Use a secure non-dictionary word with numbers in it. At least 8 characters.

• You are now prompted to go to the general configuration to see if there is anything else you would like to install. You can do this if you want as it can be useful to see what is available. (this program can be run at any time (/stand/sysinstall) when you are working on the system - so don't be afraid if you exit this - you can easily get back in to do more configuration).

  For instance, you can use 4 Media - Change the installation media type to select a new Media if you are lacking files (FTP or CD-ROM being the most obvious). Thus if a package such as KDE failed to load, you could then go to the Configure XFree86 Desktop and add this in. (if FreeBSD says it cannot connect to the FTP server, try another ftp server. If you again have a problem, continue, then on restart, use /stand/sysinstall to get the desktop running)

  Once happy browsing around, go to the bottom menu EXIT option and press OK. You should now be back in the main /stand/sysinstall menu. Highlight Exit Install and press [ENTER] to accept this to reboot the system. FreeBSD is now installed. FreeBSD will prompt you to remove any floppy disks (such as the install disk).

• The PC will now reboot. In the boot manager, select FreeBSD as there is some minor configuration that could be worth doing to get rid of un-used services and by default not having any scannable ports on this machine.

• The standard BSD literature suggests you do not do the following in the following way. There is probably a good reason for the above advice, one is given, but the following seems to get the job done effectively.

• Log in as root and go into the /etc/defaults directory.

• Edit the /etc/defaults/rc.conf directory (vi is the default editor available with UNIX. (If you do not like this editor, install a decent easy to use editor like pico or joe which is available via the FreeBSD distribution). In theory, you should be doing all of this in the /etc/rc.conf file but it can be quicker to do it in the /etc/defaults/rc.conf file. Make the following changes to the /etc/defaults/rc.conf file:
  • Set "inetd_enable" to NO. (this will stop all the inetd based services that are normally enabled in /etc/inetd.conf)
  • Set "rpc_statd_enable" to NO
  • Set "portmap_enable" to NO
  • Set "sendmail_enable" to NO
  • Set "check_quotas" to NO

• There is no doubt a command to reinitiase all of the above but the wimps/DOS Centric way is to do a reboot. So to enable these changes, type reboot to restart FreeBSD. On reboot, it is recommended to do a scan from another computer with a program such as nmap. Nmap should find no open ports.

  Prior to doing this config, a scan would show

  Port    State       Protocol  Service
  21      open        tcp        ftp             
  23      open        tcp        telnet          
  25      open        tcp        smtp            
  79      open        tcp        finger          
  111     open        tcp        sunrpc          
  513     open        tcp        login           
  514     open        tcp        shell

• Edit the /etc/aliases file and put your E-mail address as the alias for root. FreeBSD does a regular routine security check on itself and this will get you the results rather than it hanging around in the local root mail box.

• If we start X, by default, this will put port 6000 into listen mode which we now want to close off. Do a which startx to find out where the "startx" program exists for starting Xwindows. (it will most likely say something like /usr/X11R6/bin/startx). Edit the /usr/X11R6/bin/startx file and under both "clientargs" and "serverargs" put -nolisten tcp. (DONE!)

• Under FreeBSD, KDE has an annoying option of the Backspace key doing a ^H and not backspacing. The [DEL] key is backspace. To fix this up, do startx to run XWindows, bring up a terminal session in KDE. Go into Options, Terminal; then under option "The backspace key will send to", choose Delete(^?). Then do Options, Save Options.

• Under KDE you can customise things such as screen saver and mouse focus via the menus. To change the mouse focus when going over windows; via the menu do, Settings, Windows, Properties and under focus policy choose, Focus follows mouse to have it work like a traditional X terminal.

  You can click right mouse button on the background to bring up options to set the KDE screen saver, etc. PYRO is quite a good screen saver option.

• To be able to log in remotely and do secure copying to the FreeBSD machine, install SecureShell of which information is given below.

• "Aloha dude! You have successfully installed FreeBSD"

Things to do Now that Basic FreeBSD has been Installed

• Get and compile the excellent snarf program for being able to quickly get programs via FTP and HTTP via a command line -
  http://www.xach.com/snarf/
  ftp://ftp.mint.net/pub/snarf/snarf-latest.tar.gz
  One of the advantages for UNIX is that it can work on a command line. Useful when you have limited memory or are remotely logging in. Snarf can be a lifesaver to quickly pull over install files off the internet, saving you loading up a GUI netscape.

• Compile/Install Secure Shell (SSH) and disable superfluous inetd.conf based deamons - telnetd, logind, rshd - which should not be running as inetd was disabled in the installation.

• Go to the http://www.freebsd.org/security/ area and apply any relevant security patches. (http://www2.uk.freebsd.org/security/)

• Do a man ipconfig and browse through options you can to do tweak the network settings.

• If you did not disable INETD and the PORTMAPPER:
• Disable unnecessary deamons in the portmapper, inetd.conf (pretty much everything you don't need; ftpd, telnetd, fingerd, etc)
  This means edit the /etc/inetd.conf file and remove everything you don't like the look of. If you have installed SecureShell, you can pretty much REM out everything.
  Then type killall -HUP inetd to restart inetd deamon.

Date: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 10:32:08 +0100
From: Richard Smith [rsmith@trltech.co.uk]
Reply-To: richard@jezebel.demon.co.uk

Ben Cuthbert wrote:
> 
> Does anyone know
> what is the command that lets you connect
> to the MS-dos partition of you HDD from FreeBSD
> 
> ------ FreeBSD UK User's Group  -  Mailing List ------
> http://listserver.uk.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-users

Any of the following:

1) mount -t msdos /dev/... /mntpt

2) mount_msdos /dev/... /mntpt

3) place an msdos filesystem record into /etc/fstab and get it
automounted at boot time.

4) as 3) but manually mount using: mount /mntpt

Richard.