>>> "Chris H." 02/13/08 1:25 PM >>>
> > Surprisingly I grokked most of your cheatsheet and looked at a few=20
> > man pages to figure out most of the rest. Haven't tried it all yet. =
I=20
> > was wondering about the "mount -u /". Is it really necessary to =
mount=20
> > the root partition prior to mounting all of them in the next step?
>=20
> Absolutely. Think about it for a momment. Given that EVERYTHING
> (save swap) is mounted off of root ( / ). So it becomes quite
> impossible to mount /usr/ if / hasn't already been mounted. In
> other words; if / hasn't been mounted it doesn't exist for usr/
> to mount from it.

For some reason I was thinking that they were still separate, regardless =
of their hierarchical relationship. Well, might as well just do them both =
since it doesn't hurt. After all, what's a few keystrokes?

> >
> > I don't really understand the "swapon -a". When is it necessary and=20
> > when is it not?
>=20
> As a rule, it is already available after boot. So executing swapon -a
> is often considered overkill. /But/ absolutely no harm will come of
> doing it, and it /may/ be necessary. So this just insures you have
> an "event free" journey.
>=20
> >
> > Also, UPDATING has "adjkerntz -i" just before "mergemaster -p". I=20
> > looked at the man page for adjkerntz and am still uncertain if I =
need=20
> > to do this. I run an ntpd client, if that makes any difference.
>=20
> Again, just a precaution. Think "safe", or "event free".


Yeah, I like to think I balance a fearless attitude with caution quite =
well. Being fearless allows one to make mistakes and thus potentially =
learn more than if not making them, but when it's obvious that safety can =
save you a lot of grief, that is the path to take in that instance.

> >
> > I think the documentation is an excellent reference for people who=20
> > already, moderately know FreeBSD. I am not even a true newbie as I=20
> > have a CS degree and have been a Linux admin for 2 years. Even so I=20
> > often have a hard time with the complexity of FreeBSD. I recognize=20
> > the value of understanding the fine-grain "nuts and bolts" of a=20
> > system, but even so I wonder if FreeBSD over-complicates some things?
>=20
> This is the "UNIX way". It breaks everything into small bits of
> useful stuff. There-by providing the "nuts & bolts" to build, or
> accomplish almost /anything/ with little, or no effort. Linux kind
> of "missed the boat" on this one. But even Linus T. indicates that
> Linux is not UNIX. I'd have to say, it's more a "feels like UNIX"
> than anything else.

I agree with the "accomplish almost/anything" fully, but from *my* =
experience I respectfully, but strongly disagree with the "with little, or =
no effort" part. But that is likely because I don't know Unix even a tenth =
as well as you do. I guess it's just particularly hard for me in this =
case to see benefit; it takes only one command and a lot less time to =
patch my SuSE systems, for example. But again, it all boils down to =
perspective, I guess. Make sense?

> to a new user. One must remember, after all, that it is a /server/
> and perhaps, not best suited to an average "desktop" user. But, if
> given the time, will become your best friend - /really/.

I never run any GUI on my servers.

> Best wishes to you.
>=20
> --Chris H.

Thanks, I am genuinely having a LOT of fun dinking around with FreeBSD on =
my test server! Linux was definitely a good warm up. And it's nice to be =
able to tinker under the hood on all my Mac's. (Have 2 @ work and 1 @ =
home)
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