[ale] FreeBSD is Demonic

[mike at trausch.us]

On 01/12/2012 11:47 PM, George Allen wrote:
> So, for no good reason (I got sucked into it after running zfs-native
> on Ubuntu for a while),
> 
> I'm on day-3 of a FreeBSD install, and it's finally getting annoying.
> 
> So - the early stages were thus:
> 
> 1) I attempted to put the iso on my multi-boot thumbdrive with grub2.
> This could/should/might have worked, except apparently it only works
> with certain install images of FreeBSD 8, not 9. I got grub to load
> the iso and the FreeBSD boot-loader, but the boot loader couldn't find
> the kernel or the iso-loopbacked filesystem that grub should have
> provided it. I gave up and burnt a DVD.

I am pretty sure that this is still a "very new" feature in the BSD
media; the only (officially supported) method for most platforms is to
use a burned disc.

> 2) Setup ZFS root with all the sub-filesystems, raidz2, compression on
> appropriate filesystems, etc.
> http://www.aisecure.net/2011/11/28/root-zfs-freebsd9/ Works well, only
> changed things to use raidz2 - equivalent to Raid6. +1 zfs-on-root

I have yet to play with this yet... am looking forward to doing so. :)

> 3) The sysinstall "think slackware package installer interface, with
> the ease of use of dselect" wouldn't fetch packages. pkg_add -r <pkg>
> worked fine though, as well as /usr/ports, and I was soon getting
> additional packages installed.

What was the problem?  Have you checked to see if it has been reported?
 FreeBSD 9 is *brand* *spanking* *new* (and apparently in quite high
demand, since the FreeBSD Web site is down).  I wasn't aware that it was
released yesterday.  But I can tell you that the installer is a
brand-new one as well, so you might want to treat it with a tender touch
until FreeBSD 10.  :-)

> 4) Overall the documentation was good until I tried to install X and
> the nvidia drivers. I have a NVIDIA Quadro NVS 285 which runs great
> under linux. But it took no less than FIVE kernel rebuilds and a dozen
> tries at xorg.conf to get the vendor nvidia drivers which require
> linux emulation working.

Many things require Linux emulation, particularly when you're talking
about desktop things.  That said, certain proprietary server things
(such as Oracle, I have heard) require that Linux emulation be enabled,
because people are stupid and can't be bothered to release their source
code so that you can port it to the server system you'd really like to
use.  Anyway.

> I finally got flash working, but it won't go full-screen at all under
> opengl (all black, although it's more smooth in a window), and
> everything works under XRender, but in both cases it's much slower
> than in linux.

I can't get newer Flash to work in full-screen mode on Windows (though I
can on my Gentoo box!).  Never tried on FreeBSD.  I'd simply be pleased
that it worked there at all, since Adobe doesn't think FreeBSD even exists.

Anything that requires execution through the Linux emulation subsystem
is going to take a performance hit.  I don't know how much of a hit is
"normal", because I have actually never used to the Linux emulation
subsystem; most of the time I simply don't get to use FreeBSD because
too many things I work on "just assume" that Linux is "the only real
server software out there".  Stupid.

> I also noticed that glxgears will freeze for a split second when
> moving the mouse between monitors, which I never noticed before.

I'd like to know the cause of that... that sounds interesting.

> It's been a while, since I used slackware, since I dug around in /etc
> for *everything* but all is well except for figuring out how to get X
> to perform. I think that may kill my interest in about 48-hours, but I
> thought I'd give it a fair shot. I'd been upgrading a install of
> Ubuntu for several years and figured it was time for a clean install,
> and some distro experimentation in the mean time.

I would never recommend FreeBSD as a desktop to anyone but a die-hard
FreeBSD fanatic.

IMHO, its rightful place is on servers.  Many people think that it is
Linux' rightful place, too.  I don't care, either way; I can use both
systems just as well on a server.  However, I am seriously considering
requiring FreeBSD in my future deployments for no other reason than ZFS.
 :-)

	--- Mike

-- 
A man who reasons deliberately, manages it better after studying Logic
than he could before, if he is sincere about it and has common sense.
                                   --- Carveth Read, “Logic”

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