Danny Amor's Online Library/Danny Amor's Online Library - Volume 1.iso/html/faqs/faq/386bsd-faq/part2

Text File | 1995-07-25 | 47.4 KB | 1,235 lines

Subject: [comp.os.386bsd] BNR/2 derived BSD for PCs FAQ (Part 2 of 10)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.announce,comp.answers,news.answers
From: [e-mail] (Dave Burgess)
Date: 13 Nov 1994 10:41:34 -0600

Posted-By: auto-faq 3.1.1.2
Archive-name: 386bsd-faq/part2

Section 1. (General Network Information)
General information

    This section of the FAQ is about the electronic support network
    that exists for 386bsd and its off-spring.

1.0    What is 386BSD? (Taken from the original INSTALL.NOTES by the
    Jolitz's, specifically Lynne)

    Welcome to 386BSD Release 0.1, the second edition of the 386BSD
    operating system created by William and Lynne Jolitz.  Like its
    predecessor, 386BSD Release 0.0, Release 0.1 comprises an entire
    and complete UNIX-like operating system for the 80386/80486-based
    AT Personal Computer.

    386BSD Release 0.1 is an enhanced version of the original release
    done by William F. Jolitz, the developer of 386BSD.  386BSD
    Release 0.0 was based on the Networking Software, Release 2 from
    the University of California at Berkeley EECS Department, and
    included much of the 386BSD work done earlier by Bill and
    contributed by us to the University. The latest release, 386BSD
    Release 0.1, contains new work by the developer and many new items
    which have been freely contributed by other software developers
    for incorporation into 386BSD (see the file CONTRIB.LIST).  These
    contributions have increased the functionality and made it more
    robust.  As a courtesy to the developer and the many people who
    have generously contributed these software enhancements, we request
    that users abide by and properly maintain all attributions,
    copyrights, and copylefts contained within this release.

     386BSD is intended to foster new research and development in
     operating systems and networking technology by providing this base
     technology in a broadly accessible manner.  As such, like its
     predecessor, 386BSD Release 0.1 is freely redistributable and
     modifiable.

1.0.1    What are these other Free BSD systems?

    For reasons best left to private E-Mail, there have been two
    different 'product lines' that have been established for
    development of BSD systems.  They are NetBSD and FreeBSD.  Both,
    individually, have virtually deprecated the original 386bsd.
    The "raison d'etre" for each is different and each has a different
    set of goals.  The purpose for FreeBSD is to develop a stable
    working environment for [3-9]86 systems.  The emphasis has been
    on upgrading utility programs and incorporating changes that make
    the system more stable.

    NetBSD, on the other hand, is a development effort whose main
    thrust is on mulitple platform support and staying more current
    with BSD 4.4.  In other words, NetBSD is more 'horizontal' and
    FreeBSD is more 'vertical'.

    Both systems are excellent choices for the casual user or people
    who are interested in studying the internals of an operating
    system.  While the products are nearly commercial quality, they
    are both maintained by volunteers.


1.0.2    I just downloaded all of 386bsd version 0.1 and I can't get
    [some feature] to work?  Do you have any suggestions?

    Yes.  Get either FreeBSD or NetBSD.

    The original 386BSD software was kind of buggy when it was put
    up for anonymous FTP in 1992.  It has been modified significantly
    since then, and now exists in two different forms.  There are people
    who will argue that the original 386BSD was completely unusable,
    but that is generally an overstatement.

    Over 100 patches were applied to the original system, with hundreds
    more waiting in the wings.  It became just too much trouble to
    constantly have to patch the system to get it to work.  This
    'patched' version of 386bsd became FreeBSD.  Around the same
    time, a second group split off from the original 386bsd tree
    and became NetBSD.  For the primary differences, see above.

    Getting one of these two systems will provide you with a more
    complete system, with newer utilities, and many bugs already
    fixed.


1.1    Feature summary

    Among the many features of these systems:

    *    Floppy disk based Installation

    *    Hard drive partitioning for use with MS-DOS partitions

    *    Compressed, multivolume CPIO dump format binary/source/other
         distribution sets on MS-DOS floppies.  The cpio is based
         on the GNU cpio, and is completely free of encumbering USL
         software.

    *    387 support or emulation.

    *    SCSI support.

    *    (SCSI and most Mitsumi) CD-ROM support.

    *    NFS, TCP/IP and full networking.

    *    MS-DOS file system access (in newer *BSD systems).

    *    PPP and SLIP protocol support.

    *    System upgrades through Carnegie Mellon University's 'sup'
         utility.

    *    Shared Library Support (in the newer version of both
         NetBSD and FreeBSD.

    *    Both systems are based exclusively on Berkeley's BSD 4.4
         Lite tape, instead of the encumbered 4.3 Net2 tape.
         Hence, both systems are free of USL code and are freely
         redistributable.


1.2    The future of 386BSD.

    { This section is included for historical purposes only.  Most
    of the information in here is either wildly out of date or just
    plain wrong.  For example, the FreeBSD statements in here imply
    that it is nothing more than 386bsd in a new coat of paint.
    Nothing could be further from the truth.  I decided to include
    it mostly to show how far we have come... dbb }

    Forecasting the future is always a tricky business.  There is work
    underway to implement version 0.2 of 386bsd.  In addition, many
    people are involved in a project to put together a 386bsd version
    (FreeBSD) which will be a complete distribution set including all
    relevant patches and updates to new versions of many of the
    software packages that are currently available.  It is available
    by anonymous FTP from FreeBSD.cdrom.com

    In addition, NetBSD (a direct descendent of 386bsd) is available
    for anonymous FTP from sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu.  The purposes of
    these two apparent competitors appear to be at odds, but in
    fact are very similar.  NetBSD has taken a 'stable, production
    quality, free OS' as one of its primary goals, where 386bsd
    pursues the high ideal of the ultimate OS research platform.
    There is considerable cross pollination of the two.  The frequent
    debates on style and concept that appear in comp.os.386bsd.*
    are testimony to that point.  NetBSD and FreeBSD are still both
    very viable operating system alternatives, with differing goals.

    To see the Future of 386bsd as seen by Bill and Lynne Jolitz, I
    suggest you read the INSTALL.NOTES that come with 386bsd.


1.3    386BSD software projects in progress

    The list of software projects in progress is just too volatile
    to go into a static document like the FAQ.  Suffice it to say,
    if there is something you want to do using 386bsd; ask first to
    see what has been done.

    Folks that are interested in software projects for NetBSD
    should contact [e-mail] and
    let that mailing list know the same information.

    Folks interested in software projects for FreeBSD should contact
    the [e-mail] mailing list and talk to
    them.


1.3.1    Contacting software authors

    Whenever you are working on a port of a software package, it is
    always a good idea to contact the original author and offer
    whatever changes you needed to make in order to port the software.
    That way, subsequent releases of the package may include changes
    that allow all users of 386bsd the advantage of reusing your work
    over and over.

    Also, once you have ported a package to *BSD, you might want to
    contact the respective *BSD teams to let them know you've completed
    it and where it may be located.

    For FreeBSD, contact:

        <[e-mail]>

    For NetBSD, contact:

        <[e-mail].>

    If the port was a simple recompile of the source and install, a
    note to one of the newsgroups telling the story could be considered
    appropriate as well.

    In keeping with that, if you find a 'bug' in 386bsd, or NetBSD,
    or FreeBSD, or find a problem that causes you some headaches and
    find a solution, you should contact the author of the particular
    driver/module/program and let them know.  In addition, you could
    also post the problem and/or fix to "comp.os.386bsd.bugs".

    Both NetBSD and FreeBSD have implemented 'bugfiler', so if you
    are connected to the net, you can use that to send out your
    bug.  See the documentation that comes with your system to find
    out more.


1.4    Minimum hardware configuration recommended

    There has been considerable debate about what the REAL minimum
    configuration for 386bsd is.  Some would claim that it is the
    smallest computer that an installation will succeed on.  Others
    claim that it is the smallest usable computer (based on RAM and
    speed constraints) and others would claim that it should be
    based on using 'X'-windows.

    For specific hardware, see Section 8 (still in development).

    The smallest installable platform is an 80386, using an MGA card,
    with at least 2Meg of RAM and a 20 Megabyte hard disk.  While not
    all SCSI cards (especially EISA) are supported, a great many are
    either in the base distribution or through patches.  Thanks to
    the new shared library code in FreeBSD and NetBSD, a 20Meg
    installation should be easier now (in spite of the more advanced
    functionality) than it ever was before.

    A comfortable installation which includes source and binary
    distributions, as well as other utilities will work in about
    100Meg of hard drive.

    'X' requires at least a Hercules MGA; for masochists only, from
    what I understand.

    See section 8 for more details.


1.5    Where to get the source and binaries
1.5.1    Forms available (floppy, FTP, CD-ROM)

    386bsd is available in just about every format known to man, with
    the possible exception of stone tablets and papyrus.


1.5.1.1 Where can I get the distribution on floppy or tape?

    Many people will copy files onto diskettes or tapes if you
    coordinate it with them ahead of time.  In addition, many
    companies offer 386bsd on various types of media for money.
    Austin Code Works and others (usually advertisers in PC
    magazines) offer the base 0.1 "official" distribution for a fee.

    Note that there are virtually no restrictions on distributing
    the 386bsd distributions.  Basically, wherever you can find it,
    you can get it.  This goes for FreeBSD and NetBSD as well.


1.5.1.2 Where can I get the distribution via FTP?

    If you are looking for the original 386bsd version 0.1, the
    files you should look for specifically when using FTP are
    directories called srcdist, bindist, and etcdist.  These
    directories will hold the files for each of the distributions.
    Once you have received the files via FTP, you can either load
    them directly onto your system and then un archive them using
    'extract' or one of the other methods suggested in Section 2 of
    the FAQ, in the section about installing with 'real partitioning'.

    The list of sites that have 386BSD is covered in section 1.8 below.
    This list is produced automatically by using a utility called
    'archie' and is updated for every new version of the FAQ.  If you
    try to access a site from this list and find that they either
    don't have FTP enabled, or don't have 386bsd loaded any more,
    a polite letter to the admin of the system asking them to
    update their 'archie' entries is good manners.


1.5.1.3 Where can I get the distribution on CD ROM?

    Infomagic sells a UNIX CD-ROM that has 386BSD.  Their FAX number
    is 609-683-5502.

    Profit Press has 386BSD dated 7/21/92 on their "Mega Win OS/2"
    CD-ROM.  This is in the format of BINDIST, ETCDIST, SRCDIST and
    BOOTABLE.

        Profit Press
        2956 N. Campbell Ave
        Tucson, Arizona 85719
        [phone]
        Their order line is 1-800-843-7990

    Look for their advertisements in the back pages of Computer
    Shopper.  The Mega series is $29.00 each or $69.00 for all three
    plus a fourth "Demo Disk".

    In all likelihood, the version 386bsd that is available on CD-ROM
    will be the 0.1 version, without any patches.  Keep this in mind
    when ordering, since the first thing most people want to do is
    bring the system up to the current patch level.  If you do not want
    the original 0.1 version, be sure to ask where the distribution
    came from and which version of *BSD it is.

    For our European users, I have included these notes from Julian
    Stacey ([e-mail]) and Christian Seyb ([e-mail])
    concerning locations and methods for getting 386bsd in Europe on
    both CD-ROM and floppies.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    The following CDROM is available for DM 98,-- (app. $60) and contains
    the following software:

    - Linux SLS V1.03, Kernel 0.99.11 and utilities for Linux
    - 386BSD version 0.1 including patch-kit 0.2.4
    - NetBSD version 0.8
    - Utilities for 386BSD and NetBSD
    - The Berkely Second Networking Distribution
    - GNU software (gcc 2.4.5, emacs 19.17, gmake 3.68, etc)
    - X11R5 up to patch 25 and lots of Contributed Software
    - TeX version 3.14
    - The Internet RFCs up to RFC1493
    - News, mail and mailbox software and many utilities for Unix


    To: CDROM Versand
        Helga Seyb
        Fuchsweg 86
                                              Tel: [phone]
        85598 Baldham                         Fax: [phone]
        Germany                           Bbs/Fax: [phone]

    (Ed. Note:  This appears to be an advertisement, but the price is right
    and appears to be reasonable.  Christian and Helga may have the same
    last name by coincidence :-)  If you want more ordering information,
    please feel free to give Helga a call.)
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In Munich Germany:
    Buy the monthly "c't magazin fuer computer technik" (Price 8.5 DM)
    (~1.7 = $1) & look in back pages, I saw:

    Mail Order:
        JF Lehmanns Buchhandlung, fuer EDV,
        Zuelpicher Str 182, D-50937 Koeln, Germany
        Free catalogue for X, Linux, 386bsd, 1.
        Confusing advert seems to offer X11R5 + GNU + 386BSD
        on CD Rom "InfoMagic Vol2 No2" for Price: 149 DM.
        Tel. [phone] (always busy, claims to be free,
            so don't know if [phone] viable)
        Fax: [phone]
        Shops in Berlin, Koeln, Regensburg, Ulm.

    (Editorial Notes:  DM149 is about $75-$90 US (or a little more)
    and 0130 numbers are Toll Free in Germany only.)

    Mail Order:
        Computer Solutions Software GmbH
        Postfach 1180, D-85561 Grafing (Muenchen), Germany
        Tel [phone]
        Fax [phone]
        23 * 3.5" 1.4M flops @ Price: DM199
        Order No:/Best Nr: 5099
        Shop:
            Columbus Datentechnik,
            Theresienstr 63, D-80333 Muenchen, Germany
            Tel [phone]

    Lynne wrote a short follow-up, letting us know that these
    companies do not send them any money.

    This announcement in from Jordan Hubbard:

    On the morning of 30 December, 1993, and after many many delays,
    the first official release of FreeBSD 1.0 began shipping on CDROM.

    This CD is being sold through Walnut Creek CDROM, our ongoing
    sponsors in the FreeBSD project, and without whom we would have had
    a substantially more difficult (if not impossible) time producing it.


    While I will _always_ encourage obtaining FreeBSD through "free"
    channels (the Internet, friends, suspicious individuals in dark
    alleys), and given that none of us will make any money from CD
    sales, or ever have from FreeBSD in general given that WC's
    sponsorship is confined to the loan of centralized development
    hardware and network access, I still hope that some of you will
    find the CD distribution medium convenient enough to order a
    FreeBSD CD from Walnut Creek, thus indirectly supporting our
    future development work.

    If this marriage between commercial and free software interests
    proves to be mututally beneficial (which still remains to be seen,
    from Walnut Creek's point of view), it is my hope that it may serve
    as a model for similar future endeavors.  It is an unfortunate fact
    that developing free software at this scale costs money, even with
    the developers donating their time and efforts, and financing some
    of it through the sale of convenient distribution media is one of
    the least venal ways I know of going about it.

    This CD contains a full FreeBSD 1.0.2 source & binary release, the
    sources and binaries for XFree86 2.0, and numerous sources from the
    FreeBSD "ports collection".  Where space permitted, sources were
    provided in both "packed" and "unpacked" forms for easy access both
    as an on-line resource and as a source for compressed downloads in BBS
    or release-construction situations.  The CD is fully ISO9660 compatable
    and has been mastered using RockRidge extensions for long filenames on
    systems that support it (like FreeBSD! :-).

    It is, of course, possible to install the system off the CD from
    scratch, given some basic willingness to read a little documentation
    and a few blank floppy disks.  [ Ed Note.  You would be surprised the
    number of people that do not see this paragraph...DBB]

    For the sake of convenience, I append the ordering information
    distilled from FreeBSD's /usr/src/RELNOTES.FreeBSD below.

    Ordering information:

        Walnut Creek CDROM
        4041 Pike Lane, Suite D
        Concord CA  94520
        1-800-786-9907, [phone], [phone] (fax)

    Or via the internet from [e-mail].  A current catalog can
    be obtained via ftp from ftp.cdrom.com:/cdrom/catalog.

    Cost is $39.95.  Shipping (per order, not per disc if ordering
    multiple disks) is $5 in the US, Canada, or Mexico and $10.00
    overseas.  They accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and
    ship COD within the United States.  California residents please
    add 8.25% sales tax.

    In addition, John Cargille publishes a CD-ROM which caters
    primarily to the NetBSD crowd.  It is called BSDisc and it is
    also available by mail.  While that may seem like terrific news,
    it is unfortunately all the information I have right now.  Once
    he sees his name in the FAQ, maybe he'll put together some real
    ordering instructions ;-)

    [e-mail] (Roman Yanovsky  [e-mail]) sent in this
    note.  I have editted it down some, but left in the bulk of the
    stuff in case you need more information:

    Subject: Linux Slackware and FreeBSD CD-ROM with X-windows etc.

    Trans-Ameritech presents "The best Linux plus FreeBSD CDROM ever"

    [ Linux stuff deleted ]

    * For hacker's reference an uncompressed FreeBSD source tree is
    provided.

    * On the BSD side there is a full source and binary distribution
    of the "final" FreeBSD 1.0

    * If you have questions or problems Trans-Ameritech provides free
    support via e-mail within 24 hours.

    * We ship the same day as we get the order.

    The new CDROM is available for $30 plus shipping/handling. If you
    are a current customer, it is only $20.  New releases will be
    available every 3 month. Subscription is available.

        Trans-Ameritech Enterprises, Inc.
        2342A Walsh Ave.
        Santa Clara, CA 95051

        Tel. [phone]
        FAX: [phone]

    This information is offered with no warranties, guarantees,
    franchise offers, or recommendations.

1.6    Electronic Information Groups for 386BSD

1.6.1    Usenet newsgroups

    General BSD questions can be posted to comp.1.bsd.  Bear
    in mind, however; that your questions to this group should
    really be about BSD in general, not a specific implementation
    detail of *BSD.

    Listed below are the Usenet newsgroups that were developed to
    support 386bsd and its descendents.  This means that you should
    ask your questions in one of these newsgroups or on one of the
    many mailing lists that are available for specific features of
    said systems.

    comp.os.386bsd.announce (Moderated)
        Announcements relating to the 386bsd operating system.
        Posts should be mailed to "[e-mail]".
        This is also the place that improtant news about the past
        and future of 386bsd, FreeBSD, and NetBSD will be placed.

    comp.os.386bsd.apps
        Applications which run under 386bsd.  Not all sites will
        carry comp.os.386bsd.apps, since it kind of 'showed up'.

    comp.os.386bsd.bugs
        Bugs and fixes for the 386bsd OS and its clients.

    comp.os.386bsd.development
        Working on 386bsd internals.

    comp.os.386bsd.misc
        General aspects of 386bsd not covered by other groups.

    comp.os.386bsd.questions
        General questions about 386bsd.


1.6.2    Newsgroup archives.

    These sites maintain a historical record of the traffic in the Usenet
    Newsgroups indicated.  There are others, but I haven't gotten their
    names yet.

Host Name            IP address     Location        Newsgroups archived
-------------------- -------------- --------------  ----------------
minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au 131.236.20.70  Australia       comp.1.bsd
src.doc.ic.ac.uk     146.169.2.1    London, UK      comp.os.386bsd.*


1.6.3    386bsd Derived mailing lists.

    There are at least two mailing lists for 386bsd.  Both are for
    discussions of the patchkit and patches.  Last I heard, neither
    of them is particularly active any more.  They are:

    [e-mail]:
        This list is primarily for discussion of the patchkit and other
        patch procedure discussions.
    [e-mail]:
        This list is for patch submissions.

    NOTE: The patchkit is discussed in detail in Section 2 of the FAQ.
    Also, the patchkit has been effectively deprecated.  Sending to
    these lists may or may not get you the kind of info you are looking
    for.

    In addition to the pure 386bsd lists mentioned above, there are
    mailing lists available for FreeBSD and NetBSD.  Information about
    the NetBSD lists and how to use majordomo (the list handler) is
    available by mailing to [e-mail].

    There are three mailing lists for FreeBSD and they are:

    FreeBSD-hackers: for hackers
    FreeBSD-questions: misc questions
    FreeBSD-bugs: bug reports

    Send to [e-mail] to be added
    to the hackers list, and *-questions-request@freefall... to be
    added to the questions list.


1.6.4    Other electronic resources.

    There are many bulletin boards throughout the world that have
    386bsd software and information available.   Also, there are
    CompuServe and other on-line services that have 386bsd
    discussions.  It is even rumored that Bill and Lynne have been
    active on Compuserve talking about 386BSD Version 1.0 (or 0.2,
    or whatever it is going to be).


1.6.5    System Updates.

    There are at least two different ways of getting the updates
    for the current source tree for both FreeBSD and NetBSD.  The
    first is the traditional FTP method, and the other is using a
    utility called 'sup'.  This program keeps a log of the source
    modules that have been updated and sends out only those files
    that have been changed.  Included below are some sample
    instructions from John Brezak <[e-mail]> on how to
    run sup for NetBSD.  The sup procedures for FreeBSD are similar
    and are available via ftp from freefall.cdrom.com in the
    ~/ftp/pub/sup directory.  This directory contains the sup
    program, a man page, a sample sup-file and full instructions
    for maintaining your sources via 'sup.


    Instructions for installing NetBSD sources and releases using SUP
    -----------------------------------------------------------------
                    1.3 1993/11/3

    SUP is a network installation package written by CMU used to
    distribute software. For more details on SUP refer to the man
    pages.

    Sup works by reading a configuration file (supfile) and using
    this information to determine what "collections" of files will
    be loaded from the collection repository.  Here is an example
    of a supfile to load the NetBSD current release.

    [ Notes: lines have been broken for readability; do NOT use '\'
    in supfiles and the information here is an EXAMPLE.  This ain't
    a cooking school, folks.  Also, the information in these lines
    has changed for each of the distributions.  Read the
    documentation that comes with your software carefully for the
    lastest information. ]

    src release=current host=sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu hostbase=/b/anon_ftp         base=/usr prefix=/usr backup

    ksrc release=current host=sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu hostbase=/b/anon_ftp         base=/usr prefix=/usr backup

    security release=current host=sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu         hostbase=/b/anon_ftp base=/usr prefix=/usr backup

    gamessrc release=current host=sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu         hostbase=/b/anon_ftp base=/usr prefix=/usr backup

    regress release=current host=sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu         hostbase=/b/anon_ftp base=/usr prefix=/usr backup

    #othersrc release=current host=sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu         hostbase=/b/anon_ftp base=/usr prefix=/usr backup


    This supfile will load the "current" collections for "src",
    "ksrc", "security", "gamessrc", and "regress" in the /usr
    directory on the local machine.  The "othersrc" collection will
    not be loaded because it is commented out.

    The supfile line is made up of keywords that describe the
    collection's location on the sup server and where and how it
    will be loaded on the local host.

        release - the release of the collection to load.
            host    - the 'host' where the SUP repository resides.
            NetBSD uses sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu .
            hostbase- the pathname on the host to the base of the
                collection.  The hostbase for NetBSD is "/b/anon_ftp".
        base    - where you want to install it locally.
        prefix    - used to locate the "sup" directory to write sup's
            info about updates. Usually the same as base.

    This supfile can also set some options. The "old" option tells sup
    to check all files for changes, not just those that are newer than
    the last sup update. Normally sup will overwrite local files with the
    changed file from the repository. If the sup collection specifies
    that an existing file should be renamed to a backup, the "backup"
    option in the supfile activates this. The "delete" option tells
    sup to delete any files locally that are no longer in the
    collection - be careful with this one.  The "keep" option will
    cause sup to NOT update files that have been changes locally.
    The "compress" option will use gzip to compress the files before
    transfer and gunzip them on the receiving end. This option can be
    used to cut down on the number of transmitted bytes.

    You may want to set 'base' and 'prefix' to something other than /usr
    if you want to preserve your existing src tree.

    The sup repository on sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu currently offers these
    collections.

        src, ksrc, security
            The sources for NetBSD

        othersrc
            The current sources for contributed parts of
            NetBSD.  This contains the sources for sup.

        regress
            The current sources for the NetBSD regression test
            suite.

    If you only want the kernel sources for a specific port there are
    some sub packages that you can use instead of the "ksrc" one. If
    you are using the sub packages, be sure to also sup the
    "ksrc-common" package.

            ksrc-common
                    Kernel sources common to all ports.

            ksrc-1, ksrc-sparc, ksrc-hp300, ksrc-amiga, ksrc-mac,
            ksrc-pc532, ksrc-pmax, ksrc-sun3
                    Kernel sources for a particular port.


    The security package is not to be sup'ed by sites outside of the
    U. S., read the "README.export-control" file for details.

    Each collection can have multiple releases (as specified by the
    "release" keyword).

    IMPORTANT!!
    Be aware that the current release is simply a snapshot of the
    daily state of NetBSD development and is not guaranteed to
    build (or even work) - use at your own risk !

    Stable releases of NetBSD are available via SUP.  Instructions
    are included with the release announcement.

    Before running sup, be sure that your /etc/services contains
    these entries.

    supfilesrv      871/tcp         # for SUP
    supfiledbg      1127/tcp

    To try sup without really updating anything use the '-f' flag.
    The '-v' flag means verbose and can be used to see what sup is
    doing.

        sup -fv supfile

    The sup binary, sup man page and sample supfiles can be ftp'ed
    from sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu:~ftp/pub/sup .  Comments should be
    directed to "[e-mail]".

    A mailing list exists for users of the NetBSD "current"
    release.  To join, mail to '[e-mail]'
    with a mail body of "info".  The reply will describe the mailing
    lists for NetBSD.  The you will want to subscribe to the
    "current-users" mailing list.  We will use this list to announce
    any special changes made to the "current" tree.


1.7    Documentation available

    This entire section pertains as much to NetBSD and FreeBSD as
    it does to 386BSD.  Simply 'sed 's/386bsd/Your System/g' below.

    There are two types of documentation for 386bsd.  First is the
    set that covers the operation and theory used in BSD-Unix.
    These sources are often excellent for background and understanding
    of the current implementation of 386bsd.  Second is the set of
    manuals written specifically for 386bsd.  Most of these are books
    and magazine articles written by Bill and Lynne Jolitz.


1.7.1    BSD manuals

    The full set of BSD documentation is available via anonymous FTP
    from ocf.berkeley.edu in /pub/Library/Computer/doc4.3.  To print
    this documentation on 386bsd systems, replace the ditroff
    references in the Makefile with 'groff -e -t -msU {SRC} >out.ps'
    to generate PostScript format files.  Use different options to
    make the output conform to other print styles.

    The etc distribution also comes with a documentation directory
    /usr/share/doc which has nearly 3Meg of documentation about *BSD.

    In addition, on-line manuals are available in the binary
    distribution set.  It contains specific information on the use
    of UNIX utilities and commands.  Type "man man" for information
    on the online manual.


1.7.2    BSD books

    There is an excellent set of works recommended by Bill and Lynne
    in the original 386bsd INSTALL.NOTES.  In addition, several other
    books have been recommended by Andrew Moore and others.

    For learning how to work in the Unix environment, the standard text
    is "The Unix Programming Environment,"  by Kernighan and Pike.

    For Unix Administration, the best is "Unix System Administration
    Handbook," by Nemeth, Snyder and Seebass.

    For systems level programming (i.e., systems calls), I recommend
    "Advanced Unix Programming," by Marc Rochkind.  Unfortunately it is
    out-dated and oriented towards System V.

    A new book "Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment," by W.
    Richard Stevens is very    up-to-date, and an excellent reference,
    especially for dealing with POSIX standards issues.

    For network programming, "Unix Network Programming," by W. Richard
    Stevens is highly regarded.

    The 4.3BSD Unix Manuals contain loads of invaluable tutorials and
    historical papers in addition to hard copies of on-line documentation.
    The six volume set is available from Usenix for $60.00 (email:
    [e-mail])

    I could go on, but let me mention just two more - if you have a full
    386BSD installation, you may want to learn the bash shell (in
    /usr/othersrc/public).  This is an extension of the Bourne shell (sh)
    with features from both the C shell (Csh) and the Korn shell (Ksh).
    The Korn shell is described in "The Kornshell," by Korn (of course).

    Second, I recommend you look at "The AWK Programming Language," by
    Aho, Weinberger and Kernighan.  This is a very nice prototyping
    language - powerful and easy to use.

    Another excellent reference book for 386bsd is "The Design and
    Implementation of the 4.3BSD UNIX Operating system" by  Samuel J.
    Leffler, Marshall Kirk McKusick, Michael J. Karels, John S.
    Quarterman, 1989, Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-06196-1.  While this
    book is out of date in many sections, it is purported to be an
    excellent source of historical information, if nothing else.
    Chris Demetriou recommends the sections on the treatment of
    file systems, caching and the networking layer.  The sections in
    this books which do not apply to 386bsd include the VM section,
    bootstrapping, and autoconfig.

    Here is a list from Hellmuth Michaelis (duplicative as it may seem
    to have all of these lists) for more information on *BSD:

    UNIX AND UNIX DEVICE DRIVERS
    ----------------------------

    Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. "UNIX Programmer's Manual, Seventh
        Edition, Volume 2". Revised and Expanded Version.
        Holt, Rinehart and Winston 1983


    George Pajari, "Writing Unix Device Drivers"
        Addison Wesley 1992


    Janet I. Egan and Thomas J. Teixeira, "Writing a UNIX Device Driver"
        John Wiley & Sons 1988


    Janet I. Egan and Thomas J. Teixeira, "Writing a UNIX Device Driver"
        Second Edition. John Wiley & Sons 1992


    Leffler, McKusick, Karels, Quarterman, "The Design and Implementation
        of the 4.3BSD UNIX Operating System"
        Addison Wesley 1988, corrected Reprint 1989


    Leffler, McKusick, "The Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD UNIX
        Operating System, Answer Book"
        Addison Wesley 1991


    Maurice J. Bach, "The Design of the UNIX Operating System"
        Prentice-Hall 1986


    Sun Microsystems Inc., "Writing Device Drivers"
        Part No. 800-3851-10, Revision A of 27 March 1990


    Hewlett-Packard Company, "HP-UX Driver Development Guide",
        Part No. 98577-90013, First Edition 07/91


    W. Richard Stevens, "Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment",
        Addison Wesley 1992


    Phillip M. Adams, Clovis L. Tondo, "Writing Unix Device Drivers in C",
        Prentice Hall 1993


    Peter Kettle, Steve Statler, "Writing Device Drivers for SCO UNIX,
        A Practical Approach", Addison Wesley 1993

    In addition, there are many other books which, for one reason or
    another, have not made it into this brief list.  Rest assured that
    this is not intended to be an exhaustive list by any means.


1.7.3    The Jolitz Book

    Bill and Lynne Jolitz are writing a book about 386bsd.  It will
    be announced once it is ready.  A tentative date of late 1992
    was once offered, but since it is now 1994 and no book has
    been announced, we can assume that it will be later than the
    original estimate.


1.7.4    Dr. Dobbs' journal

    For users who wish to understand the internals of the BNR/2 BSD
    family of Operating Systems originally developed and/or ported by
    William F. Jolitz from 1989 to the present, the most immediate
    and available reference is the feature series entitled
    "Porting UNIX to the 386: A Practical Approach", appearing in Dr.
    Dobbs' Journal, USA (January 1991 to July 1992) and UNIX and iX
    Magazines, Germany (June 1991 to present). For inquiries on the
    article series (including reprints),  contact the magazines for
    information.

    "Porting UNIX to the 386: A Practical Approach" (feature series)
    by Jolitz and Jolitz

     1/91: DDJ        "Designing a Software Specification"
     2/91: DDJ        "Three Initial PC Utilities"
     3/91: DDJ        "The Standalone System"
     4/91: DDJ        "Copyright, Copyleft, and Competitive Advantage"
     4/91: DDJ        "Language Tools Cross-Support"
     5/91: DDJ        "The Initial Root Filesystem"
     6/91: DDJ        "Research and the Commercial Sector: Where Does
                BSD Fit In?"
     7/91: DDJ        "A Stripped-Down Kernel"
     8/91: DDJ        "The Basic Kernel"
     9/91: DDJ        "Multiprogramming and Multiprocessing, Part I"
    10/91: DDJ        "Multiprogramming and Multiprocessing, Part II"
    11/91: DDJ        "Device Autoconfiguration"
     2/92: DDJ        "UNIX Device Drivers, Part I"
     3/92: DDJ        "UNIX Device Drivers, Part II"
     4/92: DDJ        "UNIX Device Drivers, Part III"
     5/92: DDJ        "Missing Pieces, Part I"
     6/92: DDJ        "Missing Pieces, Part II"
     7/92: DDJ        "The Final Step: Running Light with 386BSD"

    You can contact M&T Books (DDJ) for reprints if you can't get them from
    your technical library:

    1-800-356-2002 (inside CA)
    1-800-444-4881 (better In NA Backorder number)
    1-415-358-9500 (international)

     6/91: UNIX Magazin    "Portierung von BSD-UNIX auf den 80386. Heimlich
                Liebe."
     7/91: UNIX Magazin    "Steighilfe."
     8/91: UNIX Magazin    "Systemverwaltung durch Tabellen"
     9/91: UNIX Magazin    "Sicher bewegen auf fremdem Terrain"
    10/91: UNIX Magazin    "Damit die Fehlersuche nicht zum Hurdenspringen
                wird"
    11/91: UNIX Magazin    "Alles in eine Schublade"
    12/91: UNIX Magazin    "Feuer und Wasser"
     1/92: UNIX Magazin    "Rekursives Speicher-Mapping"
     2/92: UNIX Magazin    "Tanz auf dem Eis"
     3/92: UNIX Magazin    "Aus Hanschen wird Hans"
     4/92: UNIX Magazin    "Das Geheimnis des Multiprogramming"
     5/92: UNIX Magazin    "Zeitmanagement scheibenweise"
     6/92: UNIX Magazin    "Magie des Kernels"
     7/92: UNIX Magazin    "Erkenne Dich Selbst"
     9/92: UNIX Magazin    "Niemand is eine Insel"
    10/92: UNIX Magazin    "Treiberlatein"
    12/92: UNIX Magazin    "Einlandung erforderlich"
     1/93: iX Magazin    "Wir unterbrechen das Programm"
     2/93: iX Magazin    "Liste gut, alles gut"
     3/93: iX Magazin    "Blick ins Allerheiligste"
     4/93: iX Magazin    "Von Bl"ocken, Ringen und Zeichen"

    NOTE: The series in UNIX Magazin was moved to IX Magazin in 1/93.
    The article in the April issue was the last one in the series.

    In addition, other major articles which discuss 386BSD in detail:

     8/92: UNIX Magazin "Interview mit Bill Jolitz. Das passiert mit
         386BSD" by Jurgen Fey
     8/92: DDJ "Very High-Speed Networking" by W.F. Jolitz
    12/92: DDJ "Inside the ISO-9660 Filesystem Format" by Jolitz and
        Jolitz

    Reprints of the first 19 parts on the UNIX Magazin series are available
    from:

    iX Redaktion
    Stichwort: 386BSD-Serie
    Verlag Heinz Heise GmbH & Co KG
    Helstorfer Str. 7
    D-30625 Hannover, Germany

    Some of the parts are without code listings due to the unclear
    status of the BSD releases stemming from the Net/2 release.  Dr.
    Dobbs is reported out of back issues of the articles listed above.
    You best bet may be to try your local public or school library.

1.7.5    Documentation that comes with most of the distributions.

    In the standard set for both NetBSD and FreeBSD there is a directory
    called '/usr/share/doc'.  Here is a 'du' listing.

        128    /usr/share/doc/ps1/06.sysman
        98    /usr/share/doc/ps1/07.ipctut
        116    /usr/share/doc/ps1/08.ipc
        16    /usr/share/doc/ps1/13.rcs
        37    /usr/share/doc/ps1/14.sccs
        420    /usr/share/doc/ps1
        123    /usr/share/doc/smm/02.config
        14    /usr/share/doc/smm/04.quotas
        78    /usr/share/doc/smm/05.fsck
        42    /usr/share/doc/smm/06.lpd
        92    /usr/share/doc/smm/07.sendmailop
        14    /usr/share/doc/smm/08.timedop
        99    /usr/share/doc/smm/10.newsop
        83    /usr/share/doc/smm/11.named
        77    /usr/share/doc/smm/14.fastfs
        128    /usr/share/doc/smm/15.net
        41    /usr/share/doc/smm/16.sendmail
        21    /usr/share/doc/smm/20.termdesc
        17    /usr/share/doc/smm/22.timed
        851    /usr/share/doc/smm
        144    /usr/share/doc/usd/04.csh
        97    /usr/share/doc/usd/07.Mail
        66    /usr/share/doc/usd/09.newsread
        68    /usr/share/doc/usd/10.etiq
        67    /usr/share/doc/usd/14.edit
        107    /usr/share/doc/usd/15.vi
        61    /usr/share/doc/usd/16.ex
        13    /usr/share/doc/usd/21.msdiffs
        45    /usr/share/doc/usd/22.memacros
        43    /usr/share/doc/usd/23.meref
        26    /usr/share/doc/usd/33.rogue
        25    /usr/share/doc/usd/34.trek
        798    /usr/share/doc/usd
        2077    /usr/share/doc

    For those of you that don't read 'du -k' listings, this means that
    there is 'around' 2 MEGABYTES of documentation in the 'doc'
    directory.  In addition, there are a few man pages.

        2312    /usr/share/man/cat1
        397    /usr/share/man/cat2
        1    /usr/share/man/cat2a
        855    /usr/share/man/cat3
        1    /usr/share/man/cat3f
        607    /usr/share/man/cat4
        368    /usr/share/man/cat5
        166    /usr/share/man/cat6
        169    /usr/share/man/cat7
        749    /usr/share/man/cat8

    Something on the order of another 4 Megabytes of manual pages.
    That's what, about 6 MILLION CHARACTERS of documentation.

    I have received mail from several sources saying that my
    approximation of the amount of system documentation is way too
    low (by a factor of at least 50%).  Given the fact that even by
    my meager estimation there is already more information here
    than most people can be bothered to read, whether there is 6
    Meg or 60 Meg seems like overkill.

    Now, does anyone REALLY want to whine about there being no
    documentation included with the system?


1.7.6    Other FAQ's on the net that are relevant

    There is now a FAQ set up specifically for FreeBSD.  In addition
    to answering the many specific questions that folks have about
    FreeBSD, it is also a good source for information on NetBSD and
    whatever the 386BSD {0.2,1.0,95} project is going to look like.
    In spite of all of the shouting and chest beating that you hear
    from time to time, the systems are still very close.

    There are many FAQs that can be used in conjunction with 386bsd.
    These include the FAQs for all of the GNU software, the different
    shells that are available, the programming languages that are
    available, and many more.  In addition, many programs have their
    own FAQ which should be referenced whenever that package is being
    added.  Good examples of the latter are the FAQs for elm, C-News,
    and innd.

    The observant reader will notice that there are very few 'X'
    questions in this FAQ.  The XFree86 FAQ is posted regularly to
    comp.os.386bsd.*.  There is no good reason to include any 'X'
    questions in this FAQ, with the exception of the most basic
    'Where can I get the 'X' FAQ'.

    Most FAQs are available by anonymous FTP from rtfm.mit.edu and
    via Usenet News in news.answers and/or comp.answers.  This FAQ
    is no exception (I hope).


1.8    FTP sites for 386BSD

    A standard tool on Internet connected hosts for finding files is
    'archie'.  Searching the archie archive for either "386BSD"  or
    "386bsd" yields the following list.   For UUCP sites, FTP-Mail
    is available from gatekeeper.dec.com.  The list below was created
    with an 'archie -l' on 12 Nov 1994 searching for 386BSD.

    For those folks that have access to telnet, but not FTP, you can use
    archie by using telnet and connecting to 132.206.2.3.  Log in as
    'archie' and use the 'prog' command to find programs of interest.
    The list below is included primarily for those folks that have only
    uucp, and will need to get their software though UUCP and other
    channels.


1.8.1    FTP Site List

    This list is automatically generated every time the FAQ is
    produced.  Please do not request that your host be added to
    this list.  If your host is represented in an 'archie' list,
    it will be reflected here.  Several other sites are included
    in Section 1.8.4 below.

    Host                    Directory


    The code may soon also to be available, or perhaps is already
    available, from both CompuServe and BIX.

1.8.2    Official distribution sites

    According to Lynne Jolitz, there is no such thing as an 'official'
    386bsd site.  The closest we had was 'agate.berkeley.edu' which is
    now closed.  Because of the USL/UCB agreement, 386bsd is no
    longer freely redistributable, since it was based on Net/2 and
    Net/2 was encumbered.

    FreeBSD's 'home' is FreeBSD.cdrom.com (the home disk of Walnut
    Creek).  The portions of FreeBSD (versions less than 2.0) that
    were encumbered are distributed with the tolerance of
    AT&T/USL/Novell/whoever owns the source for SysV this week.  All
    FreeBSD versions (with version number >= 2.0) are based solely
    on the freely redistributable BSD 4.4 sources.

    NetBSD's 'home' is now ftp.NetBSD.Org.  All versions of
    NetBSD since 0.9 have replaced the kernel code from the 4.3
    distribution with the source from the 4.4 distribution.  The
    only code still in NetBSD from the 4.3 distribution is some user
    program code that was uncontested in the USL/UCB agreement.


1.8.3    Reference sites

    For a brief period, ref.tfs.com was available for use as a
    reference system.  This system was used as the test-bed for
    many programs that were ported to 386bsd by many authors.
    Unfortunately, ref.tfs.com has been disabled as a reference
    system. The site is now a update by mail (CTM) system and is
    providing a mail only service for developers who do not have
    access to anything more than electronic mail.  For more
    information, contact [e-mail] for the standard
    CTM package.

    There is a site in Germany that is acting as a reference site
    for FreeBSD.  The name is "g386bsd.first.gmd.de", also known as
    "bsd386.first.gmd.de". Sorry, no anonymous ftp yet. But there is
    a "guest" login with the password "guest".

    But the most important reason why I had installed the machine on
    the network was for all these people who don't have enough space
    to compile their own kernel or their own packages.   They can do
    it on this machine.  ATS ( [e-mail] or [e-mail] )


1.8.4    Unofficial archive sites that have neat stuff!

    There are many sites that have things which have either been ported
    to 386bsd or are available to the world.  Use archie to find these
    sites, or read comp.os.386bsd.* for more information.

    Listed here because they don't have access to 'archie' yet...
    g386bsd.first.gmd.de -or- bsd386.first.gmd.de:
        Sources for 386bsd0.1 and the later patchkits.
        Source for NetBSD0.8 and the newer snapshots.

        Xfree is installed binary as version 1.3.

    Ported software are:
        tcsh6.03.00
        emacs19-15
        gcc-2.4.5
        top3-1
        perl4.0.36
        elvis1.7
        bison-1.21
        rn and nn.

     In addition, ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de has a lot of neat
     software and Wolfram Schneider ([e-mail]) has
     'ported' the FAQ into LaTeX.  It is available in
     pub/386BSD/FAQ/tex in both PostScript and DVI formats.


1.8.5     X for 386BSD 0.1 Ported Software List

    This is a list of non-core X window system application that
    have been ported to 386BSD 0.1.  The ftp server and directory
    name are listed above and each file or directory name is
    followed by a short description.  Feel free to send corrections,
    additions or suggestions to [e-mail].

    nova.cc.purdue.edu:/pub/386bsd/submissions

    Xdtm-2.5.386bsd        X desk top manager
    idraw-bin.tar.Z        C++ GUI class library + WYSIWYG document &
                graphics editors.
    img1.3.386bsd.tar.Z    see above
    mpeg_play.Z        animated raster image viewer
    small_X11r5.tZ        a minimal subset of the core distribution
    vogl.tar.Z        a library that emulatates Silicon Graphics
                GL calls
    xview3            sun's GUI development tool kit

sunvis.rtpnc.epa.gov:/pub/386bsd/incoming:

    Dirt.tar.Z        GUI development tool kit
    XBSD8514-0.1.Z        8514 X server port
    XS3-0.3-exp.Z        S3 X server port
    acm.tar.Z        aerial combat mission/flight simulator
    chess-vort-movie.tar.Z    ?
    epoch.Z            enhanced emacs for X
    jpeg.tar.Z        jpeg viewer
    libXaw3d.a.Z        3D widget library
    mpeg-1.2.tar.Z        animated raster image viewer
    ups-2.45.bin.tar.Z    C source level debugger with slick GUI
    vort-movie.tar.Z    ?
    xantfarm.tar.Z        screen saver with ants?
    xbench.tar.Z        X server performance measurement tool
    xpipeman.tar.Z        game: connect pipes to keep a liquid within
    xxgdb.tar.Z        GUI for GNU source level debugger

1.8.6    Motif for the *BSD family. (Infomercial to follow)

    While I don't normally include commercials in the FAQ, I will
    this time.  Motif is an interesting product that will help the
    development of the free Unices.  It can also serve as a
    benchmark for other commercial organizations to consider
    supporting us by producing versions of their products that will work
    on these systems.

    Sequoia International, Inc. (305-783-4915/305-783-4935 (FAX))
    sells a complete Motif 1.2.3 Runtime and Development package
    for FreeBSD, NetBSD, BSD/386, Linux, and Coherent.  It is
    available for $149.95 and includes the following:
       * The Motif Window Manager (mwm)
       * Shared Library (libXm)  [operating system dependent]
       * Static Libraries (libXm, libMrm, libUil)
       * Header and Include Files
       * Complete On-Line Manual Pages
       * Source code to OSF/Motif Demo programs
       * Complete OSF/Motif Users Guide

    Send mail to [e-mail] or contact them at the address below:

    Sequoia International, Inc.
    600 West Hillsboro Blvd, Suite 300
    Deerfield Beach, FL 33441
    Phone: [phone] / FAX: [phone] / Email: [e-mail]


--
TSgt Dave Burgess           | Dave Burgess
NCOIC, USSTRATCOM/J6844     | *BSD FAQ Maintainer
Offutt AFB, NE              | [e-mail] or [e-mail]...