[Tfug] BSD install on via C3

[Marco Savo]

On Mon, Jul 20, 2009 at 7:59 PM, Bexley Hall <bexley401 at yahoo.com> wrote:

>
> Hi Marco,
>
> > I'm trying to install BSD on one GA-PCV2 board with via
> > C3 processor 800 Mhz.
>
> Not familiar with this product.  Is there a particular
> reason driving you to use it?  (just curious)


well, it's a mini-itx I bought it for 10$ on ebay, but seem good only as a
server (it's x86 architecture but slight different than intel)

>
>
> > I've used Unix before (Solaris, HP-UX, AIX) but I never
> > tried one free BSD version. So my questions are:
> >
> > 1. Which BSD distribution do you recommend for this board?
>
> I ran FreeBSD from v 0.9 through about 2.2.8 (IIRC)
> before jumping ship to NetBSD.  FreeBSD tends to be
> more "feature-oriented" whereas NetBSD aims for
> stability over a wide range of platforms (at the time
> I jumped ship, I think FBSD still only ran on x86).
>
> I'm currently running NBSD 5.0 on two hosts and have been
> pleased with its stability and performance (but, I tend
> to use my machines differently than most folks so YMMV)
>
> > 2. At start-up seem really slow, I've installed ubuntu
> > on an usb external HD and hangs when was reading the
> > hard-disk. With freeBSD on an usb stick was taking ages to
> > load the kernel.
>
> Can't you netboot?  Or, use a USB CDROM?  Or, are you planning
> on having no rotating media at all in your finished system?


I installed it on a usb HD (Ubuntu) and on usb stick (freeBSD) but in both
cases take ages to arrive to the login screen

>
>
> > 3. The X window with freeBSD starts with twm, it's that
> > the default? doesn't have anything.
>
> The BSD's differ from the Linux distros in that they
> concentrate on giving you a system to which you add whatever
> user interfaces you want, etc.  For example, if I want to run
> KDE, I install a KDE package (or build it from scratch).
> This allows most of the *BSD effort to concentrate on the
> operating system (kernel and basic services) itself and
> leave the "applications" out of the picture.  You can
> upgrade your applications (packages) without bothering to
> mess with the operating system itself -- the two aren't
> tightly coupled as they might be in some linux distros.
>
> E.g., most of the time I run under tvtwm as I don't need the
> bloat of a "desktop" when I am writing or debugging code...
>
> > I know that I can find many of these info on the oracle
> > (google) but since there is this list...
>
> HTH


I also tryied to install PC-BSD, but fails the installation (can't start
graphical installation), even though seem to boot faster than freeBSD
Well here seem you need to compile everything, I'm adding sudo. I guess the
kernel startup is slow because I should compile the kernel
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/kernelconfig-custom-kernel.html
I guess I'll try openBSD. Or/and buy a better mini-itx board.
-- 
'The Magic Is In the Movement'

Marco Savo
SW Engineer

882 East Glenn St.
Tucson, AZ 85719
+1 (520) 248-5681
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