Anyone Using FreeBSD on PP? Need Help

[ahmedwaqas92]

Hey guys,

So I was wondering whether anyone of you guys might be using FreeBSD? I am in a bit of struggle trying to configure the network settings of BSD 10.3 running on VirtualBox.

Apparently whenever I try to run

pkg update

for any package i.e. it gives me an error stating:

repository FreeBSD has no meta file, using default settings pkg:

I've done 5 fresh installs over and over again using VirtualBox but this problem isn't really going away tbh - I have read numerous guides online and tried each and every one of them and I've gone through the handbook a dozen times - NOTHING SEEMS TO BE WORKING

neither binary pkg management tool is working nor is portsnap - However, what's funny is that the DHCP settings configure absolutely correctly upon installation and while still on the installation panel I can download the BSD documentation without fail.

Only once I reboot after a successful installation is the point from where everything just falls apart I wanted to post this question at linuxquestions but I thought why not give it a try here......

Also please not that I am using VirtualBox with a Host PC consisting of Windows 7 Home Premium. The network settings I have selected for the Host is NAT, is this correct ??

Please Help - I am getting absolutely frustrated with this problem at the moment.

 

[WebGuru]

Try editing /etc/resolv.conf and use:

nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4

(Google public nameservers)

 

[ahmedwaqas92]

Try editing /etc/resolv.conf and use:

nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4

(Google public nameservers)

WEEEEEBBBBBBBBBGUUUUUURRUUUUUUUU !!!!

Gelll Pappi is you'rs my friend


What the Heck was wrong here ??? Can you be kind enough to tell me how in heaven's name this worked ??? Couldn't find this solution anywhere - Not even at BSD forum/Linuxquestion/handbook or man pages !!!!

Man you're awesome

 

[WebGuru]

WEEEEEBBBBBBBBBGUUUUUURRUUUUUUUU !!!!

Gelll Pappi is you'rs my friend


What the Heck was wrong here ??? Can you be kind enough to tell me how in heaven's name this worked ??? Couldn't find this solution anywhere - Not even at BSD forum/Linuxquestion/handbook or man pages !!!!

Man you're awesome

I am glad this solution worked for you thanks for your words

Actually this happens when hostname isn't resolving and the issue is mostly because dns isn't working that result in a failure when trying to connect to update server (using pkg/yum/apt-get etc) so that's why you need to update/add the nameservers to fix the issue. I used this fix for different linux distros (centos/debian etc) in past.

 

[ahmedwaqas92]

I am glad this solution worked for you thanks for your words

Actually this happens when hostname isn't resolving and the issue is mostly because dns isn't working that result in a failure when trying to connect to update server (using pkg/yum/apt-get etc) so that's why you need to update/add the nameservers to fix the issue. I used this fix for different linux distros (centos/debian etc) in past.

After Almost 2 weeks of sleepless nights I have successfully installed a desktop environment onto FreeBSD.

I am running Gnome as my desktop (much to my dismay ), but I really don't know if this is good idea however I am trying to give this a go. The other option was KDE but the download package was almost 1 gig with 4.4 gig of extracted files. This amount coupled with 2.6 gig of source files really would cramp me for space since I have only 16 gig available on my VirtualBox hard disk

The real problem was that I wanted to install Xfce previously (as I had earlier, almost 6 years ago worked a bit on Xbuntu) so I am somewhat familiar with the interface. Unfortunately for the past 2 weeks I was trying to configure this to work correctly but every time it would fail

I read word by word instructions on the handbook / man pages/ different blogs but every time whenever I would try to run:

echo "exec /usr/local/bin/startxfce4 --with-ck-launch" > ~/.xinitrc
startx

it would give me a long list of configuration errors related to my monitor, Intel graphics and mouse pointers. Also the fact that Xfce does not come with a default login manager is another headache in itself. Plus hald_enable would never load from /etc/rc.conf for some messed up reason ,

During bootstrapping I could clearly see that hald service would echo an error "permission denied" along with dbus which would totally fail to load the desktop environment. Then I went to linuxforumsorg and stackoverflow to read up on this and found out that in 10.3 we do not need to run hald ???? - What in the World... (This step was included in the handbook)

Anyways now since I've managed to get a desktop environment running using Xorg and Gnome, these are my questions....

Question 1) During one of the tutorials I was reading on installation and configuring BSD someone pointed out that it is always a good habit to encrypt the swap file using Geli..... I was able to manage this bit i.e. getting the swap file enable with

vi /etc/fstab

but my question is why are we encrypting the swap file anyways ?? From what I've hear UNIX is quite secure from a networking point of view, but is this some sort of a loophole ?? Any advise on the matter would be much appreciated.

Question 2) I remember that in Xfce desktop environment (back when I was running Xubuntu) there was a sort of package manager interface from where I could browse for relevant software (more like basic software) like Firefox, Chrome, Libre, Open Office..... In Gnome I cannot locate this feature....Is it that I have to compile every package by:

make install cleam

OR

pkg install [package name]

???? Or is there some why I can get a Package manager GUI by compiling something !!


Note: The entire purpose of this entire exercise is to run Scilab and Python with R modules so I can test a few algorithms that I have written for the calculation of performance metrics based on historical data......
[MENTION=133397]WebGuru[/MENTION] need your assistance on the matter bro......No hurries, respond whenever you have the time to follow up with me......

Regards
Waqas

 

[namak]

Why are you trying to use a GUI with FreeBSD? Thats like trying to cross a desert on a bicycle, when 4x4 vehicles are available. If you are starting out, why not try a more graphical distro such as Mint or Ubuntu? Scilab, R and Python are all available on most, if not all distros. I fail to see the need of using FreeBSD specifically if you are not familiar with *nix and dont really intend to learn the ins and outs of the OS.

 

[ahmedwaqas92]

Why are you trying to use a GUI with FreeBSD? Thats like trying to cross a desert on a bicycle, when 4x4 vehicles are available. If you are starting out, why not try a more graphical distro such as Mint or Ubuntu? Scilab, R and Python are all available on most, if not all distros. I fail to see the need of using FreeBSD specifically if you are not familiar with *nix and dont really intend to learn the ins and outs of the OS.

I clearly understand what you're trying to suggest however there are a few problems and limitations that forced me to choose FreeBSD.

Problem 1) I've tried numerous distros for Linux even went as far as trying out Gentoo and Lubuntu but the problem is that even using virtual box(which is considered much lighter than VM ware) my system goes into absolute freeze mode and becomes extremely non responsive at times. I have no idea why this keeps on happening and for what reason???

I have 6 GIG DDR3 ram on an Intel Inspiron N510 and I have free space up to 300 GB - THIS SHOULD NOT BE A PROBLEM BUT UNFORTUNATELY IT IS FOR ME - for no reason whatsoever

With FreeBSD it works quite well and there is almost 50% less lag as compared to any Linux distribution. I might need to add here that before I loaded the Desktop environment I had zero lag........Does this mean my computer can't handle a virtual PC simulation ??

Problem 2) This is not really a problem but a hindrance of sorts; at my work place (I am an ERP data Analysit btw,) we have client workstations that use a GUI based environment loaded on workstations with a backend server for FreeBSD.

On these terminals we are running custom build Python and R packages for calculations and data schematics, I don't really know how but the administrators have made a GUI with point and click facilities so we never really go into the terminal and that only happens when we need to add a user or something.....

I would try to run a similar analysis package with the current BSD version I am trying to load and master on my Virtual Box - which is seems quite hard right now.

In simple terms I am trying to simulate my work environment.

Problem 3) and this is basically a con that someone pulled over me - A friend of mine told me FreeBSD has the best and biggest documentation and user community online
- What a lie

 

[Stewie]

What do you want to use it for? I have heard about it a lot and want to give it a shot. But from my research I believe ubuntu server (CLI) to be more flexible and their user and support community is actually much more active and much larger

 

[WebGuru]

After Almost 2 weeks of sleepless nights I have successfully installed a desktop environment onto FreeBSD.

I am running Gnome as my desktop (much to my dismay ), but I really don't know if this is good idea however I am trying to give this a go. The other option was KDE but the download package was almost 1 gig with 4.4 gig of extracted files. This amount coupled with 2.6 gig of source files really would cramp me for space since I have only 16 gig available on my VirtualBox hard disk

The real problem was that I wanted to install Xfce previously (as I had earlier, almost 6 years ago worked a bit on Xbuntu) so I am somewhat familiar with the interface. Unfortunately for the past 2 weeks I was trying to configure this to work correctly but every time it would fail

I read word by word instructions on the handbook / man pages/ different blogs but every time whenever I would try to run:

echo "exec /usr/local/bin/startxfce4 --with-ck-launch" > ~/.xinitrc
startx

it would give me a long list of configuration errors related to my monitor, Intel graphics and mouse pointers. Also the fact that Xfce does not come with a default login manager is another headache in itself. Plus hald_enable would never load from /etc/rc.conf for some messed up reason ,

During bootstrapping I could clearly see that hald service would echo an error "permission denied" along with dbus which would totally fail to load the desktop environment. Then I went to linuxforumsorg and stackoverflow to read up on this and found out that in 10.3 we do not need to run hald ???? - What in the World... (This step was included in the handbook)

Anyways now since I've managed to get a desktop environment running using Xorg and Gnome, these are my questions....

Question 1) During one of the tutorials I was reading on installation and configuring BSD someone pointed out that it is always a good habit to encrypt the swap file using Geli..... I was able to manage this bit i.e. getting the swap file enable with

vi /etc/fstab

but my question is why are we encrypting the swap file anyways ?? From what I've hear UNIX is quite secure from a networking point of view, but is this some sort of a loophole ?? Any advise on the matter would be much appreciated.

Question 2) I remember that in Xfce desktop environment (back when I was running Xubuntu) there was a sort of package manager interface from where I could browse for relevant software (more like basic software) like Firefox, Chrome, Libre, Open Office..... In Gnome I cannot locate this feature....Is it that I have to compile every package by:

make install cleam

OR

pkg install [package name]

???? Or is there some why I can get a Package manager GUI by compiling something !!


Note: The entire purpose of this entire exercise is to run Scilab and Python with R modules so I can test a few algorithms that I have written for the calculation of performance metrics based on historical data......
[MENTION=133397]WebGuru[/MENTION] need your assistance on the matter bro......No hurries, respond whenever you have the time to follow up with me......

Regards
Waqas

Hi Waqas sorry for the delay in reply. Actually we encrypt swap because it isn't a physical memory so there is a chance of sensitive data like passwords being written on the disk.

Now coming back to your question about how to install basic software on GNOME actually there is an application/package manager in GNOME to add remove search softwares like firefox etc and i am attaching a screenshot to give you an idea where it's located.

I use both GNOME and KDE on different servers running CentOS but i prefer KDE with XRDP. XRDP is really fun you can login and use your Linux based OS directly through Windows Remote Desktop over internet.

 

[WebGuru]

What do you want to use it for? I have heard about it a lot and want to give it a shot. But from my research I believe ubuntu server (CLI) to be more flexible and their user and support community is actually much more active and much larger

True when it comes to bigger support community and easy guides/fixes Ubuntu is far better.

 

[Eagle_Eye]

All you need is a terminal window!!

 

[namak]

I clearly understand what you're trying to suggest however there are a few problems and limitations that forced me to choose FreeBSD.

Problem 1) I've tried numerous distros for Linux even went as far as trying out Gentoo and Lubuntu but the problem is that even using virtual box(which is considered much lighter than VM ware) my system goes into absolute freeze mode and becomes extremely non responsive at times. I have no idea why this keeps on happening and for what reason???

I have 6 GIG DDR3 ram on an Intel Inspiron N510 and I have free space up to 300 GB - THIS SHOULD NOT BE A PROBLEM BUT UNFORTUNATELY IT IS FOR ME - for no reason whatsoever

With FreeBSD it works quite well and there is almost 50% less lag as compared to any Linux distribution. I might need to add here that before I loaded the Desktop environment I had zero lag........Does this mean my computer can't handle a virtual PC simulation ??

Problem 2) This is not really a problem but a hindrance of sorts; at my work place (I am an ERP data Analysit btw,) we have client workstations that use a GUI based environment loaded on workstations with a backend server for FreeBSD.

On these terminals we are running custom build Python and R packages for calculations and data schematics, I don't really know how but the administrators have made a GUI with point and click facilities so we never really go into the terminal and that only happens when we need to add a user or something.....

I would try to run a similar analysis package with the current BSD version I am trying to load and master on my Virtual Box - which is seems quite hard right now.

In simple terms I am trying to simulate my work environment.

Problem 3) and this is basically a con that someone pulled over me - A friend of mine told me FreeBSD has the best and biggest documentation and user community online
- What a lie

So really you should be asking your friend who conned you for technical support

The real issue that you have is that your machine freezes on anything that is somewhat graphics heavy. I cant seem to find any computer with an Intel Inspiron N510 processor.... there is the Atom D510, or there is the Dell Laptop Inspiron N5110 that comes with a core i5/i7 depending upon the configuration you purchased. If the machine that you have is using Intel Inegrated graphics, then, depending on the graphics chipset, you will encounter problems with anything graphical in a VM guest. More details on the CPU/Graphics would help in determining the root cause of the slowness.

Im not sure if the GNOME port for FreeSBD has the GNOME package manager ported, but you could look for it as per WebGuru's screenshot. Alternatively, you could consult the technical staff at your workplace to see what they use(although I suspect they would use command line, as anyone who willingly installs FreeBSD doesnt do it for the GUI). Otherwise, if its not possible to troubleshoot the slowness issue, my recommendation would be to master the command line tools of FreeBSD simply because the more graphical apps you add, the worse the performance will be. Also, once you get the hang of it, it will be extremely easy.

 

[WebGuru]

[MENTION=136079]ahmedwaqas92[/MENTION] any progress? I hope my last post helped you

 

[ahmedwaqas92]

[MENTION=136079]ahmedwaqas92[/MENTION] any progress? I hope my last post helped you

Sorry about the delay in response bro, yours and other posters helped a lot..... Actually work has been really really hectic these day Anyways I've found out some interesting things working on FreeBSD.....

1) FreeBSD does not have any GUI Package Manager - There were some packages that were development mode previously but I couldn't find any ports or pkg to install that would give me a manager interface... So I read pkg and ports manuals thoroughly again and I have somewhat become used to installing from xterminal and command line

2)As I mentioned previously I have Alhamdulliah successfully installed the Desktop environment in my PC using xorg desktop environment and Gnome3 interface. It's very similar to my previous Linux experience and very different to KDE interface that you showed me previously for CentOS..... Quick Question (Is CentOS a linux distro or is it a UNIX like system??)

Here are some screenshots........





Kinda looks like a Mobile/Android Interface doesn't it ??? This is the best I could do, Once I got the Desktop running I went deleted packages for the games that came with Gnome

The OS seems to be running now and I have got a hang of how to install and uninstall using terminal......

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Things I want to know now

1) I've installed python but I need a GUI based IDLE/Shell/Editor.....At the moment the only options that are coming out from my initial research are Vi and Nano which seems problematic for me since I can't seem to figure out how to move files from one directory to another using even the root command. It saves in /usr/ports/editors/nano no matter how much I try

2) Why can't root use the internet ?? Is this some sort of a restriction ??

3) Why can't wheel group (the administrator) move files that I create in one directory to another ??? Do I need some special permission to do this using Desktop ?? Will it effect anything

4) Python files in windows based system need an extension .py in FreeBSD what is the extension ?? Do they even need an extension or do I just write /usr/local/ python3.4 [filename]

Lets take it from here now bro..........

 

[Eagle_Eye]

[MENTION=136079]ahmedwaqas92[/MENTION]

You have made your life needlessly hard. From my understanding you need to run python and R.

Open a terminal/command line

1. Check your path, /usr/local will be in it
2. Download as normal user unix python version you need(python is version specific and not backwardly compatible, was few years ago when I was using it more heavily) and also the R version you want.
3. Become root and move these packages into /usr/local. If they are precompiled binaries, move them to /use/local/bin. If installing from source then unpack the packages, and read the installation files provided within the respective directories, they will give you step by step instruction. Sounds hard but it's not, usually within 4 or 5 commands you are done. Also, it will put the binaries automatically to directory visible in users path.... like /usr/local/bin or /usr/bin.
4. Use .py for python just to be on safe side. Though it should read the first line of the script to see what and where to invoke it from.
5. You can install any package that you this way, xemacs or gedit not available? Just install an editor you like as done above. I use vi, I am just old school and use to it.
6. Don't be overly reliant on gui, unix wasn't meant to be this way There are many ways to do things on Linux, find a solution and go with it, sort out an elegant solution later.
7. Are you going to use R interactively? Have you tried RStudio? Mostly I use it in batch mode from command line.

 

[namak]

2)As I mentioned previously I have Alhamdulliah successfully installed the Desktop environment in my PC using xorg desktop environment and Gnome3 interface. It's very similar to my previous Linux experience and very different to KDE interface that you showed me previously for CentOS..... Quick Question (Is CentOS a linux distro or is it a UNIX like system??)

Linux distro.

Things I want to know now

1) I've installed python but I need a GUI based IDLE/Shell/Editor.....At the moment the only options that are coming out from my initial research are Vi and Nano which seems problematic for me since I can't seem to figure out how to move files from one directory to another using even the root command. It saves in /usr/ports/editors/nano no matter how much I try

For vi, when saving a file, you can do :
:w <path>/filename

For nano, when saving a file, you can do Ctrl+O or Ctrl+X, and then when it asks for filename, you can type:
<path>/filename

If you are having problems moving files, it is most likely due to file/directory permissions. Here is an article explaining file/dir permissions:

https://www.tutorialspoint.com/unix/unix-file-permission.htm

Your user must have sufficient permissions to save to a particular directory or copy a file to a particular directory. For moving, you need to have write access to the destination directory as well as the source directory as you will be deleting from source and writing to the destination

2) Why can't root use the internet ?? Is this some sort of a restriction ??

Security. You can download something that can compromise a system if the downloaded file has root ownership.

3) Why can't wheel group (the administrator) move files that I create in one directory to another ??? Do I need some special permission to do this using Desktop ?? Will it effect anything

It is probably a permissions issue at the destination location. You might not have write access to the directory. See article above.

4) Python files in windows based system need an extension .py in FreeBSD what is the extension ?? Do they even need an extension or do I just write /usr/local/ python3.4 [filename]

Lets take it from here now bro..........

You do not technically need an extension, but it is good practice to have one for multiple reasons(e.g. editors can load language specific extensions, other programs can easily identify as a python file, easier to organize, etc etc)

 

[WebGuru]

[MENTION=3224]ahmed[/MENTION]waqas i think namak and Eagle_Eye already answered all your questions...

and CentOS a linux distro and actually it is the most popular linux distro for web servers specially if you want to be a host offering cPanel/WHM thn CentOS is a must.