from:"Polytropon"

On Sat, 14 Jan 2012 08:45:20 +0100, Bernt Hansson wrote:
 Hello list!
 
   7.3-RELEASE FreeBSD 7.3-RELEASE #0: Sun Mar 21 06:15:01 UTC 2010 
 r...@walker.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  i386
 
 Whenever a program tries to make a directory on this slice it
 gets this error

It's a partition, not a slice. Partitions carry
file systems, slices carry partitions. :-)



 mkdir: spool/text/test: Too many links

So the problem seems to be related to directories, not
to any files (inodes) per se.



 This is the slice
 
 /dev/ad4s4d202G 37G149G20%/news/spool/text

The partition; ad4s4 would be the slice. :-)



 One can create a file without problems just not directories.
 
 Checked sysctl but don't know what to look for. A boot in the right end 
 would be helpful.

I would suggest to find out the reason, therefore
a short search though the src/ subtree reveals that
this message provided by mkdir is:

#if defined (EMLINK)
  ENTRY(EMLINK, EMLINK, Too many links),
#endif

As the mkdir program uses the mkdir() call, we find
man 2 mkdir with the error description for EMLINK:

The new directory cannot be created because
the parent directory contains too many
subdirectories.

How many subdirectories are there?

Could you, for example, try removing one and then
creating a new one (assumption: success), followed
by another try to create one (assumption: fail)?



Detail:

The mkdir() function can be found (for UFS2) in the
file /usr/src/sys/gnu/fs/ext2fs/ext2_vnops.c at
line  (sources of 8.2-STABLE i386 here). If
you examine what mkdir() does, you'll see that
the too many links is true when LINK_MAX is
exceeded. Per /usr/src/sys/gnu/fs/ext2fs/ext2_fs.h
we can determine that

#define EXT2_LINK_MAX   32000

is defined. Can you check if 32000 is the amount
of directories created?


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Re: access(FULLPATH, xxx);

On Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:00:12 -0600 (CST), Robert Bonomi wrote:
 To repeat some advice from one of my Computer Science professors, many years
 ago, whenever I asked 'how does it work' questions: Try it and find out.

I bet my professor can beat up your professor. :-)

Mine used to say several times: Trial and error is NOT
a programming concept!

However, your suggestion of creating a simple test case,
together with consulting the documentation, is a fully
valid approach to discover what format path should be
in the int access(const char *path, int mode); function.
Luckily, we _have_ that kind of documentation in FreeBSD
where the answer is just man 2 access away. Other
operating systems (or excuses thereof) do not offer
this simple and still helpful thing.



 You see, the *ONLY* thing that matters is 'what the machine does'.  And,
 a trivial test case will give an _authoritative_ answer.   Anything that
 anybody says about 'how it works' is merely an *opinion*, and they could
 be wrong.  The test case will, however, ALWAYS give you the 'hard truth'
 about how it works in your environment.

Especially when interpreting the content of the manual
is debatable (as it is at least for me in this specific
case), a simple test would reveal the truth of what
will actually happen.




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Re: disk problem(s)

On Sat, 14 Jan 2012 09:22:36 +0100, Polytropon wrote:
 The mkdir() function can be found (for UFS2) in the
 file /usr/src/sys/gnu/fs/ext2fs/ext2_vnops.c at
 line  (sources of 8.2-STABLE i386 here). If
 you examine what mkdir() does, you'll see that
 the too many links is true when LINK_MAX is
 exceeded. Per /usr/src/sys/gnu/fs/ext2fs/ext2_fs.h
 we can determine that
 
   #define EXT2_LINK_MAX   32000
 
 is defined. Can you check if 32000 is the amount
 of directories created?

Shit, what have I done... of course the files
mentioned here do correspond to ext2 (Linux stuff),
and _not_ to UFS2.

The answer is in /usr/src/sys/sys/syslimits.h where
we find the following definition:

#define LINK_MAX 32767 /* max file link count */

Can you check _that_ number against the amount of
directories created?

By the way, in cases like this it's helpful if you
provide the _command_ that you tried and the current
directory from _where_ you've tried it.

Also see /usr/src/sys/ufs/ufs/ufs_vnops.c, lines 1748
and onward, to see the UFS mkdir() system call acting
with

if ((nlink_t)dp-i_nlink = LINK_MAX) {
error = EMLINK;
goto out;
}

when the LINK_MAX limit is reached.



Sorry for the confusion.


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Re: disk problem(s)

On Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:12:48 +0100, Bernt Hansson wrote:
 2012-01-14 09:22, Polytropon skrev:
  How many subdirectories are there?
 
 ls | wc -l
 32765

Seems that you have reached LINK_MAX of 32767
(according to /usr/src/sys/sys/syslimits.h).
The difference of 2, I assume, is one for .
and one for .. hidden entries.



  Could you, for example, try removing one and then
  creating a new one (assumption: success), followed
  by another try to create one (assumption: fail)?
 
 
 That is a nono
 
 I'll have to pop in another disk.

As the voice from the GPS navigation system tends
to say: You have reached your destination. :-)

Re-arranging the content of the disk could be an
option, but if you're using that disk as some kind
of WORM medium (e. g. backup disk), I understand
the nono.



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Re: access(FULLPATH, xxx);

 within a fixed environment. The result will
be a valid source of conclusion.

Now back to trial  error: what if I use
brackets instead?

void *foo(int blah, void *meow[])(int ouch);

Hmmm... :-)



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Re: dot snap folder

2012-01-15 Thread Polytropon

On Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:40:20 -0800, Jim Pazarena wrote:
 Is it permissible to delete the dot snap folder which is created
 in a filesystem?

First of all, it's called a directory, not a folder. :-)

The .snap directory in a partition's root directory is
used by the program dump to store a snapshot of a live
(i. e. possibly changing) file system prior to dumping
it (i. e. it dumps the snapshot).

See man dump, the -L option:

This option is to notify dump that it is dumping a live file sys-
tem.  To obtain a consistent dump image, dump takes a snapshot of
the file system in the .snap directory in the root of the file
system being dumped and then does a dump of the snapshot.  The
snapshot is unlinked as soon as the dump starts, and is thus
removed when the dump is complete.  This option is ignored for
unmounted or read-only file systems.  If the .snap directory does
not exist in the root of the file system being dumped, a warning
will be issued and the dump will revert to the standard behavior.
This problem can be corrected by creating a .snap directory in
the root of the file system to be dumped; its owner should be
``root'', its group should be ``operator'', and its mode should
be ``0770''.

***

So unless you're currently running a dump -L session,
you can delete that directory. Maybe you need to be
member of operator or be root in order to do it
due to access permissions described above.


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Re: access(FULLPATH, xxx);

2012-01-15 Thread Polytropon

On Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:03:52 +1000, Da Rock wrote:
 On 01/14/12 22:06, Polytropon wrote:
  On Sat, 14 Jan 2012 20:37:14 +1000, Da Rock wrote:
  On 01/14/12 19:54, Robert Bonomi wrote:
 From owner-freebsd-questi...@freebsd.org  Sat Jan 14 02:32:15 2012
  Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2012 09:28:21 +0100
  From: Polytroponfree...@edvax.de
  To: Robert Bonomibon...@mail.r-bonomi.com
  Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
  Subject: Re: access(FULLPATH, xxx);

  On Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:00:12 -0600 (CST), Robert Bonomi wrote:
  To repeat some advice from one of my Computer Science professors, many 
  years
  ago, whenever I asked 'how does it work' questions: Try it and find 
  out.
  I bet my professor can beat up your professor. :-)

  Mine used to say several times: Trial and error is NOT
  a programming concept!
  As far as writing applications goes, that is _somewhat_ correct.

  However, 'trial and error' is _not_ the same thing as 'try it and find 
  out'.
  See the entire subject area of 'benchmarking'.

  And,  the only way to definitively establish if an alternate approach is
  'better' -- i.e. 'faster', or 'smaller', or 'more efficient', etc. -- *IS*
  to run a trial.

  Your professor undoubtedly would not of approved when I wrote bubble-sort
  code that _out-performed_ any other sorting technique -- up to the limits
  of memory.  Or when I re-wrote an application that used binary searches
  of records, with a new version that used a brute-force linear search.  I
  thought I could 'do it better/faster' than the existing code, but the only
  way to definitively find out was to 'try it'.  And the 'trial' proved
  out -- the replacement code was 'merely' somewhat over 100 times faster.
  *grin*
  Ha! Love it... :D
  Mee too - except that I didn't want to show that
  typical attitude. In fact, I tried to make a
  (kinf of humourical) statement about a habit that
  I could observe at many students when I was at
  university.

  Background:

  When you write source code, you can make errors.
  Compiler shows errors. Some students started
  with trial  error to just silence the compiler.
  One form was that all functional parts of the
  program were enclosed in /* and */ (it was a
  C class) - no errors, but no action. A different
  approach was to arbitrarily (!) change the source
  code, something like that:

  void *foo(int blah, void *meow())(int ouch);

  Hmmm... gives me segfaults. Maybe something's
  wrong with the pointers?

  void *foo(int blah, void **meow())(int ouch);

  Not much better, segfaults too. How about that?

  void *foo(int blah, void meow())(int *ouch);

  Well... also not better. I've heared about parentheses,
  maybe those can help?

  void *foo(int blah), void *meow)(int ouch);

  Shit, doesn't even compile anymore! Uhm... _what_ did
  I change? Oh wait, I know:

  void *foo(int blah, (void *)meow())(int ouch);

  Just produces garbage, then segfaults... what could I
  change next?

  I think you get the idea.

  Other students could not understand that even if a
  program compiles without any errors, there _may_ be
  the possibility that it doesn't do what they intended
  it to do. They seemed to believe in some kind of
  magical semantic compiler:

  int x, y, sum;
  x = 100;
  y = 250;
  sum = a - b;

  They expected the compiler to notice what's wrong here
  if you consider the _meaning_ of the identifiers. It's
  not that obvious if you use x, y, and z. :-)

  As far as 'doing it once' for the purpose of answering a 'how does it 
  work'
  question -- where one has _not_ read the documentation, *OR* the existing
  documentation is _not_clear_, then simple experimentation -- to get *the*
  authoritative answer -- is entirly justified.

  When I got the 'try it and find out' advice, I was asking questions about
  situations where the language _specification_ was unclear -- there were
  two 'reasonable interpretations' of what the language inthe speciication
  said, and I just wanted to  know which one was the proper interpretation.

  Now, given that the language in the specification _was_ abiguous and both
  interpretations were reasonsble, different compiler builders could have
  implemented differently, and 'try it and find out' was _necessary_ to
  establish what that particular implementation did.grin
  There appears to be 2 schools of thought on this subject: a classic case
  of the old vs the new, in this case punchcards/slow compilers vs
  gcc/all-in-one compile, link and goof todays tech. I saw a similar
  conversation about 5 years ago on the linux lists... :)
  I didn't want to complain about using a test case,
  with determined variables (relative path vs. absolute
  path) to see if the interpretation of man 2 access
  was matching the actual inner workings of the function
  in use. In fact, I would even judge this the _preferred_
  method to be sure.

  In the light of this conversation and given todays

Re: dot snap folder

2012-01-16 Thread Polytropon

On Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:32:11 -0600, ajtiM wrote:
 On Sunday 15 January 2012 23:54:52 Chip Camden wrote:
  Quoth Polytropon on Monday, 16 January 2012:
   On Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:40:20 -0800, Jim Pazarena wrote:
Is it permissible to delete the dot snap folder which is created
in a filesystem?
   
   First of all, it's called a directory, not a folder. :-)
  
  After all, it doesn't fold (for that you need a little Haskell or OCaml).
 
 ...and the answer if is it permissible to delete .snap directory is?? Thank 
 you.

The answer has been provided two times, none of them is
quoted above or below. :-)

I may repeat: It is permissible _unless_ you are running
the dump program on a live partition using the -L option.

As the question has been answered, it's fully valid to
suggest the use of the proper timmy, erm terminology,
with colon-minus-close-paren appended. :-)



 There is also .config directory which is made by QT or something of KDE 4 
 which is possible to delete but it is recreated each time after kde 4 started.

It seems to be permissible, as its absence doesn't seem
to have any significant effect. As it has been explained
in the quote from man dump regarding the -L option
(again, not quoted here), in case .snap/ is required,
it will be created.


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Re: dot snap folder

2012-01-16 Thread Polytropon

On Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:21:27 +, RW wrote:
 On Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:59:59 +0100
 Polytropon wrote:
 
  On Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:32:11 -0600, ajtiM wrote:
   On Sunday 15 January 2012 23:54:52 Chip Camden wrote:
Quoth Polytropon on Monday, 16 January 2012:
 On Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:40:20 -0800, Jim Pazarena wrote:
  Is it permissible to delete the dot snap folder which is
  created in a filesystem?
 
 First of all, it's called a directory, not a folder. :-)

After all, it doesn't fold (for that you need a little Haskell or
OCaml).
   
   ...and the answer if is it permissible to delete .snap directory
   is?? Thank you.
  
  The answer has been provided two times, none of them is
  quoted above or below. :-)
  
  I may repeat: It is permissible _unless_ you are running
  the dump program on a live partition using the -L option.
  
  As the question has been answered, 
 
 I'm not sure it has. AFAIK it's also used by background fsck.

That information could be obtained by conclusion and
by experience. I had the experience that it might
interfere with a regular fsck (not the background one)
if present. Only at a background run you'd have the
opportunity to remove .snap, whereas during a normal
fsck run (typically at startup) you cannot do this
(without interrupting fsck).

Anyway, you're right: fsck_ffs's source code mentiones
the .snap directory. It's line 320 and later. The comment
at line 283 suggests that fsck will _create_ that
directory if required, just like dump -L would do.
Line numbers for /usr/src/sbin/fsck_ffs/main.c OS
version 8.2-STABLE here, may differ for others.

So there may be an extension of my summary:

It is permissible _unless_ you are running the dump
program on a live partition using the -L option -or-
you are currently running (background) fsck.


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Re: Extract photo from digital camera that is not USB mass storage device

2012-01-19 Thread Polytropon

On Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:27:38 +0100, David Demelier wrote:
 Hello,
 
 I've bought a new digital camera Canon IXUS 220, it works well (but 
 nothing to do with FreeBSD). But I've been very sad when I saw that I 
 can't set it to mass storage device
 
 The device can only be used as PTP device I guess, that's why I don't 
 have any da* device when I connect it.
 
 ugen7.2: Canon Inc. at usbus7
 
 What can I do to copy photo without extracting the SD card each time, 
 does gphoto (or something similar) support this kind of generic device?

If the camera supports PTP, use a gphoto2 (CLI program)
or a GUI tool that uses it (e. g. Gtkam for Gnome,
Digikam for KDE).

You'll find them in the ports collection.

Also check the menu of the camera if it can be switched
between PTP mode and DA mode. I have a Canon S3 IS myself
and it can do both modes, but I prefer extracting the
memory card and using it with the internal reader of the
computer instead of messing with the USB cable. :-)

In the past, I had a camera that worked very well with
gphoto2. It did identify to the system as ugen (USB
generic), no further messages appeared.

See man gphoto2 on how to scan for devices and how to
copy (and maybe delete) pictures from the camera. You
can also automate this process (using devd) or use a
GUI solution for it. I've been using Gtkam in the past
for the task of selectively dealing with pictures.


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Re: libjawt.so and libz.so.5

2012-01-20 Thread Polytropon

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:21:38 -0600, ajtiM wrote:
 The other one is with Opera-11-60: /usr/local/lib/opera/liboperagtk2.so 
 misses 
 libz.so.5
 
 I have on the system ;ibz.so.6

I think you need to reinstall Opera so it will be linked
against the current version libz.so.6. Maybe you have
left out an important step when upgrading from v8 to v9.
See /usr/src/Makefile's comment header:

[...]
 7.  `make installworld'
 8.  `make delete-old'
 9.  `mergemaster'(you may wish to use -i, along with -U or -F).
10.  `reboot'
11.  `make delete-old-libs' (in case no 3rd party program uses them anymore)

Steps 8 and 11 are important here.

In case you've not removed the libs from v8, Opera still
seems to link against them even though the version does
not match anymore.

Make sure you have performed the upgrading steps properly
before rebuilding Opera. This is important when rebuilding
installed applications after system upgrade (unless you
have installed the compat8x-i386-x.y.* port and _not_
installed any further applications).


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Re: freebsd-update and src.txz

2012-01-20 Thread Polytropon

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:24:53 +0100, Dick Hoogendijk wrote:
 Is it true that freebsd-update does not update the souce files from 
 8.2-R to 9.0-RELEASE?

I think also updating src/ is the default behaviour.
See man freebsd-update.conf, setting Components:

The parameters following this keyword are the
components or sub-components of FreeBSD which
will be updated.  The components are ``src''
(source code), ``world'' (non-kernel binaries),
and ``kernel''; the sub-components are the indi-
vidual distribution sets generated as part of
the release process (e.g., ``src/base'',
``src/sys'', ``world/base'', ``world/catpages'',
``kernel/smp'').  Note that prior to
FreeBSD 6.1, the ``kernel'' component was dis-
tributed as part of ``world/base''.

The file /etc/freebsd-update.conf contains this line:

Components src world kernel

So sources should be updated.



 And if not what is the best way to get the src.txz 
 installed on an updated system?

If Internet connection is available, I prefer using
CVS for that particular task (the make update method),
as it's easy to specify a certain release. However, you
need some basic files in /usr/src to perform this task.
If the system has been installed without the sources,
it's easier to get the source archive file from CD or
DVD, or download it from an official FTP mirror.

The 9.0/i386 sources are here:
ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/9.0-RELEASE/src.txz

Example:

# cd /tmp
# ftp 
ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/9.0-RELEASE/src.txz
# tar -xz -C / -f src.txz

After getting the RELEASE sources and installing them,
for LATER use you could create or modify /etc/make.conf
to contain those lines:

SUP=/usr/bin/csup
SUP_UPDATE= /usr/bin/csup
SUPFLAGS=   -L 2
SUPHOST=cvsup.freebsd.org
SUPFILE=/etc/sup/stable.sup
#PORTSSUPFILE=  /etc/sup/ports.sup  # optional
#DOCSUPFILE=/etc/sup/doc.sup# optional
#DOC_LANG=  en_US.ISO8859-1 de_DE.ISO8859-1 # change

You can use the same mechanism to update your ports
tree and the documentation for the languages you select.
The file name for getting the exact RELEASE sources
could be /etc/sup/release.sup, containing the RELEASE
instead of the STABLE tag shown in the next example.

Then create directory /etc/sup and file /etc/sup/release.sup:

*default host=cvsup.freebsd.org
*default base=/var/db
*default prefix=/usr
*default release=cvs tag=RELENG_9
*default delete use-rel-suffix
*default compress
src-all

This one will keep you on 9-STABLE. You can specify any
other version you need (even _older_ versions if you want
to downgrade) by using the tag= parameter.

RELENG_9_0_0_RELEASE- 9.0-RELEASE
RELENG_9_0  - 9.0-pX (security patches)
RELENG_9- 9-STABLE

The different tags are explained here:
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/cvs-tags.html

Then the simple thing you need to do is:

# cd /usr/src
# make update

That's a versatile and easy approach. With the example
above, you should get the sources of 9.0-RELEASE properly.



 I do have the disc1 iso. Is src.txz 
 installed under /usr/src or /usr/src/sys?

I think it will be obvious place, which is /usr/src,
as usr/src/ is hardcoded in the path prefix of the
archive file, so extraction beginning in / should
do the correct thing.



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Re: kernel generic options

2012-01-22 Thread Polytropon

On Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:36:29 -0600, ajtiM wrote:
 O.K. I will rebuild a kernel but my question is why is not options for 
 FreeBSD 
 8 as default, please?

All the kernel functions present in v8 are also present
in v9, so there is no need to a compatibility option
inside the kernel. The compat-8x _port_ delivers the
compatibility for libraries (versions and their calls)
that have changed from v8 to v9.




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Re: How to Research Availability of Print Drivers

2012-01-25 Thread Polytropon

On Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:39:37 -0500, robert perry wrote:
 In the past, I remember visiting certain websites that provided 
 links to drivers but have forgotten the address.  Could someone refresh my 
 memory or provide an address that could help?

Maybe you're thinking about linuxprinting.org which provides
PPD device descriptions that can be incorporated in CUPS which
has become the de-facto standard for printing?


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Re: Unable to upgrade packages on FreeBSD

2012-01-30 Thread Polytropon

On Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:04:56 -0500, David Jackson wrote:
 I wish to use binary packages and I specifically do not want to compile
 anything, it tends to take far too long to compile programs and would
 rather install some packages and have it all work right away.

That's often true, especially when you're low on resources
(CPU speed, disk, RAM).



 Binary
 packages are a big time saver and are more efficient.

More efficient? Depends. In regards of installation, they're
often faster. In regards of spped during operation... well,
depends. :-)

The binary packages are compiled from the ports sources with
the maintainer's default options. Those options might not
perform optimal on _every_ imaginable system. That's why
compiling from source can make programs run faster when
certain optimizations (e. g. specific CFLAGS, selection
of CPU at compile time) are applied. Also functionality
may increase as the default options may leave something
out.

A common example is mplayer: When compiled, it can have
much more functionality and can even work wonders on old
systems. The binary package doesn't give you that.

Other things to keep in mind are language settings. One
example is OpenOffice which needs to have the language
setting at compile time, especially if you're not using
the english language.

Finally, there may be licensing restrictions that forbid
the distribution in binary form, or even the distribution
through the FreeBSD system. Traditional Java may be seen
as an example.



 It should be easy for
 FreeBSD to make it easy to install the most recent versions of all binary
 packages, its beyond belief they cannot pull off such a simple ans straight
 forward, and basic part of any OS.

Again, it depends. The options maintainers define as the
default are typically okay for the build clusters that
process them - they create the binary packages from the
ports tree. At some occassions, options and dependencies
can take into account things that are already installed,
e. g. foo uses bar if bar is installed, but if it's
not installed, it fetches and installs baz instead.

Just imagine how many packages you would need to map all
possible combinations of dependencies present, options set
and languages available, and _then_ come up with a naming
scheme for the packages. :-)

I know it is _partially_ possible, or _has been_ in the
past. My famous example here is pkg_add -r de-openoffice
to get a full installation of OpenOffice that would work
(fully functional) and even bring a dictionary. With the
newer versions, this easy approach isn't possible anymore.

Just consider X: With or without HAL? With which drivers?
A package plus updates for every possible combination?



 The reason that FreeBSD has a smaller user base is because it has a
 dysfunctional package system and it is hard to upgrade package to the most
 recent version, making FreeBSD more difficult to use/

I do not agree with this statement. The user base of FreeBSD
consists of a major amount of people who do not use the
binary packages, as it seems, because ports work well for
them.

Of course I do not negate the value of the availability of
precompiled packages. In fact, I did use them a lot, but now
that I have sufficient power at home, I feel more comfortable
with building from source. However, I do like the concept of
doing pkg_add -r something that will install the program
itself and the dependencies if needed, especially for things
that do not need any further tuning.



 But doing a workable package system is not difficult, it something that
 FreeBSD should be easily able to make it easy to have a way to upgrade
 packages to most recent versions out of box anbd in an error free and
 reliable way.

I have named some examples that show how difficult it can get.
That is only for installation. If you consider updating, things
may get a bit more complicated.



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Re: Unable to upgrade packages on FreeBSD

2012-01-30 Thread Polytropon

On Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:40:50 -0500, David Jackson wrote:
 On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 5:49 PM, Polytropon free...@edvax.de wrote:
 
  On Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:04:56 -0500, David Jackson wrote:
   I wish to use binary packages and I specifically do not want to compile
   anything, it tends to take far too long to compile programs and would
   rather install some packages and have it all work right away.
 
  That's often true, especially when you're low on resources
  (CPU speed, disk, RAM).
 
 
 
   Binary
   packages are a big time saver and are more efficient.
 
  More efficient? Depends. In regards of installation, they're
  often faster. In regards of spped during operation... well,
  depends. :-)
 
  The binary packages are compiled from the ports sources with
  the maintainer's default options. Those options might not
  perform optimal on _every_ imaginable system. That's why
  compiling from source can make programs run faster when
  certain optimizations (e. g. specific CFLAGS, selection
  of CPU at compile time) are applied. Also functionality
  may increase as the default options may leave something
  out.
 
  A common example is mplayer: When compiled, it can have
  much more functionality and can even work wonders on old
  systems. The binary package doesn't give you that.
 
 That is true. Well, unless is a problem with cross CPU compatability, all
 available options should be compiled in by default. Mplayer (or it was some
 video players) has a huge number of display targets for instance, they can
 be runtime selected so support for all of them can be compiled in  my
 default and the user can then select which one to use at runtime. I have
 used video player where you can choose between OpenGL, plain X11, Xvideo,
 and many other display options and I actually liked having these kinds of
 runtime choices.

It's not just the output drivers, it's also the codecs.
There's a sheer plethora of them, and there are basically
three kinds of users:

a) I only install the codecs where I have the corresponding
   files to play; I don't want any other codecs.

b) I want all the codecs, so no matter what file I get, I can
   play it without further installation.

c) I'm frightened because I live in a country where playing
   MP3 is forbidden by law, so I better not install anything
   that could make my elected government suspicious and send
   me a federal trojan. :-)

Okay, two kinds of users.

In addition to the codecs, there's another thing that mplayer
can be selected upon compile time: if to include mencoder.
Further stuff includes gmplayer and gmencoder and the skins
for those programs.

Regarding CPU feature use, it seems that WITHOUT_RUNTIME_CPUDETECTION
(or what the option was called like) in combination with
over-optimized CFLAGS and CPUTYPE create a faster binary,
especially on older systems.



 A package for these programs can be provided and if a user needs a compile
 time option they can then spot compile them as needed.

The default options (which the maintainer chooses) do not
meet any of the two kinds of users mentioned above. In
fact, I would call the default mplayer partially optimal
because it's not the full thing and also not the minimal
thing.



  Other things to keep in mind are language settings. One
  example is OpenOffice which needs to have the language
  setting at compile time, especially if you're not using
  the english language.
 
 
 You could compile a version of that for each language and I think thats
 what Ubuntu does, or, just compile maybe top 1 or 2 most commonly used
 language version and then other versions could be user compiled.

There are, I think... at least 10 languages available, and
combine this with Gnome, KDE and CUPS support OFF or ON,
and you have 10*2*2*2 = 80 packages, and still no scheme
to name them. :-)



  Finally, there may be licensing restrictions that forbid
  the distribution in binary form, or even the distribution
  through the FreeBSD system. Traditional Java may be seen
  as an example.
 
 
 This is rare, but it happens. Most programs dont have this problem. a few
 programs must be compiled like this, it is a lot easier to compile that
 handful of programs for me than it is to compile the entire system.

I fully agree. If I remember correctly, mpg123 has been such
a program, but compiling that is nothing compared to KDE. And
with the shrinking importance of Java... :-)



   It should be easy for
   FreeBSD to make it easy to install the most recent versions of all binary
   packages, its beyond belief they cannot pull off such a simple ans
  straight
   forward, and basic part of any OS.
 
  Again, it depends. The options maintainers define as the
  default are typically okay for the build clusters that
  process them - they create the binary packages from the
  ports tree. At some occassions, options and dependencies
  can take into account things that are already installed,
  e. g. foo uses bar if bar is installed, but if it's

Re: MFC 7840W under CUPS

2012-02-11 Thread Polytropon

On Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:21:59 +0100, Ouyang Xueyu wrote:
 Hello,
 
 I have Freebsd 8.2 and CUPS installed and try to print on my Brother 
 MFC 7840W printer. The printer is accessible by a static IP address, is 
 configured in CUPS but everytime I only get blank pages when I'm trying 
 to print.
 
 Does anybody know a solution for this behaviour?

The technical specification of the printer at


http://www.brother-usa.com/mfc/modeldetail.aspx?PRODUCTID=MFC7840W#.TzbkwOsS-Jo

indicates that it does understand PCL. Just for testing,
you could try to _not_ use CUPS and send PCL to the printer
directly, either by the system's spooling mechanism (which
seems to be considered depricated now as the big desktop
environments and some stand-alonge applications consider
CUPS the only printing interface, which they seem to hardcode
into the programs) or by the direct way, using its network
connection (which is a good thing, better than USB in my
opinion).

Really - if the specifications say the printer can do PCL
and has some kind of PS, why should it be complicated to get
that excellent capabilities working with CUPS?

Here is a simple test that you can use:

First print something from an application (web browser,
text processing program, image manipulator etc.), but send
the output to a file. Most print dialogs offer a print to
file choice. Save the result to /tmp/print.ps - I'll use
this name for demonstration, you can use any other name.

Then verify what you've printed to be a PostScript file.

% file /tmp/print.ps
/tmp/print.ps: PostScript document text conforming DSC level 3.

You can verify the content to be printed using any PS viewer,
e. g. gv or gs, or whatever comes with your desktop environment.



If it is a valid PS file, you can do two things:



a) Test if the printer's BR-Script3 is PS-compatible:

% nc 192.168.123.456 9100  /tmp/print.ps

Let's assume that 192.168.123.456 is the IP of the printer. :-)

Let's also assume that port 9100 is the port where the printer
accepts jobs. Some printers use different ports for their
different personalities. See the documentation which port
to use. If unsure, leave it blank.



b) Test if the printer does understand PCL.

Same assumptions apply.

% printf \033k2G | nc 192.168.123.456 9100
% gs -q -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -dPARANOIDSAFER -dSAFER \
-sDEVICE=ljet4 -sPAPERSIZE=a4 -r600x600 \
-sOutputFile=- /tmp/print.ps | nc 192.168.123.456 9100

You can see that this test specifies a ljet4 printer driver.
This refers to the HP Laserjet 4 and 4000 families, but it does
produce PCL, so it should be fine.



Report back if this works (i. e. _which_ of them, and if not,
with which unexpected results). If it does work, my suggestion
would be to dump CUPS and use the system's default mechanism
with a man made printer filter. It's very easy. Easier than
dealing with the CUPS blackbox in my opinion...



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Re: MFC 7840W under CUPS

On Sun, 12 Feb 2012 10:00:38 -0500, Jerry wrote:
 It appears that ps is no-longer the format of choice but is being
 replaced by PDF, a format that is natively supported by many printers.

Jerry, I wanted to point out that PS still seems to be the
format that _applications_ use as output format for printing.
Even though especially office applications (such as Abiword
or LibreOffice) have a built-in PDF file generator, the printing
output that is sent to the printing subsystem (lpr, CUPS, whatever)
is in PS format and gets converted to what the printer needs
by the proper printer filter (driver).

The print to file output method typically creates PS, at
least on UNIX, Linux, MacOS X and other operating system
families.

If printers would natively support PDF data instead of unknown
arbitrary commands to move the printing head - things would be
MUCH LESS complicated on the OS's side. Data just needs to be
generated in PDF natively, or converted from PS to PDF (simple
task) by the printer filter, and then just sent to a specific
network address (just as netcat could do). That would nearly
eliminate the need for printer drivers I think. The only thing
that comes to my mind is... how does it handle duplexing and
other printer-HARDWARE specific things? Can they also be coded
in a PDF file?

Really, I like the approach of having PDF as a universal printer
language (even though it's not 100% safe from a security point
of view, but that doesn't matter on the home consumer market
anyway). It would remove any need complicated things like (in
my opinion) the CUPS configuration. You just need to enter the
IP of the printer - done; and it doesn't even matter of this
is a wired or wireless connection! Maybe even lowest-end USB
devices can accept a PDF data stream...

Think about that:

% netcat 192.168.123.456  /tmp/printing.pdf

or even

% cat /tmp/inkpee.pdf  /dev/ulpt0

to make the printer start printing...

With standardized PDF instructions, there would be no need
for artificial OS barriers. PDF is known. No need to port any
drivers, to create wrappers or jump though hoops.

Note that the system's DEFAULT printing facility (the printer
spooler) would be a perfect means to plug in. Printer filters
could be easily implemented, i. e. only _one_ filter needs to
be present: one that converts an application's PS to PDF and
the send it to the printer's local port or IP address. All the
parts needed for that task are already present (and have been
for many years).

Would be interesting to see how this develops. Thanks for sharing
that info, sounds really good.



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Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
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Re: how can i offload a 600m file without graphic tools?

On Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:32:07 -0800, Gary Kline wrote:
 
 w can i move a file from my home filesystem to my one disc drive
 without using a GUI?  i don't have a graphic interface on my FBSD
 system and want to save a 600MB file to my cdrom?
 
 thanks for tips on what i have Long forgotten!

I hope I can interpret your question correctly: You need to
burn a 600 MB file to a disc (typically a CD, but could be a
DVD too)?

That's quite easy: CDs typically use the ISO-9660 file system
which mkisofs (from ports) creates, and a program like cdrecord
or cdrdao can burn it to the media. For a DVD, growisofs will
do that part.

Step 1:

% mkisofs -r -J -o bigfile.iso bigfile

where bigfile is the file you want to store. The flags -r and
-J make sure the file system will also be properly interpreted
on non-standard systems; -o specifies the output file.

Step 2:

% cdrecord dev=0,0,0 speed=10 -v -eject -tao -data bigfile.iso

In order to know _what_ device to record to, run

% camcontrol devlist

Make sure you have proper permissions to access the files in /dev
that are needed. If not, use sudo prefix or do the required parts
using su.

In the camcontrol devlist output, available drives will be
listed. Bus, taget and LUN will form the trinity address that
will then be used in the dev= parameter.

After successful burning,

% rm bigfile.iso

as it's not needed anymore.

You can also use a piping mechanism from mkisofs to cdrecord, but I
didn't want to make it that complicated. :-)

In case you need to burn a DVD because the file gets bigger than
650..700 MB, only one step is needed:

% growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/dvd -r -J bigfile

In this case, /dev/dvd is a symlink to /dev/cd0 (see camcontrol
devlist output again, but look for the associated SCSI devices).

If you already have the ISO file, use

% growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/dvd=bigfile.iso

to record it to DVD.



Note that there are other ways to store data on CDs and DVDs
which are intendedly less compatible by omitting the ISO 9660
file system. :-)







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Re: MFC 7840W under CUPS

On Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:33:33 +1000, Da Rock wrote:
 PDF is not exactly PS, but it does use a subset of the instructions.

That's correct, but both formats share essential parts of
functionality. Conversion between them is relatively easy.



 The other thing you will notice is that its mostly on MFC's, so I 
 believe they're using the PS chipset to encode a scanned doc to PDF; I'm 
 not sure it works the other way around, and I may even be wrong about 
 what they're doing but I think it is very suspect.

Yes, PDF output of scanned documents (even multi-page ones)
seems to be standard today (which is mostly a welcome solution
for storing and re-printing scanned documents).



 A PS chipset is only an interpreter - it cannot normally encode PS, only 
 read a PS stream and rasterise it. But they may have extended it in only 
 this case. As for printing PDF, maybe... time will only tell.

I held a short lecture about PS many years ago. If I remember
my own words correctly, the PS circuit in a printer is a
little processor complex that processes the PS programming
language to do rasterization (from vector data or embedded
pixel objects), it could do calculations, some transformations
(like rotation), some other functions (like repeating the
output n times, use or not use the duplexer etc. depending
on the printer's hardware). If this facility could be used
to generate data and send it back through the network interface,
or keep it in local storage so network access can pick it
up (e. g. by FTP, NFS, CIFS/SMB), things would be easy as
those mechanisms can be kept internally in the printer without
requiring arbitrary drivers to make things work.



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Re: Maildir Format

On Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:06:01 -0800, Bill Campbell wrote:
 Mutt would be my choice.  I have been using it for over a decade,
 and it handles Maildir as well as other common mailbox formats.

Also pine should be able to handle it (even though it could
be called overcomplex in relation to /usr/bin/mail).

By the way, the suggestion of redirecting the system's mail
output to a specific user account or external mail account
removes the choice for a program for local use. So the user's
default MUA (even if it's a web based solution) could be used.



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Re: One or Four?

Four? There should be five! :-)

Read on to find out why.



On Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:05:23 -0800, Robison, Dave wrote:
 We'd like a show of hands to see if folks prefer the old style default 
 with 4 partitions and swap, or the newer iteration with 1 partition and 
 swap.

In my case, preference depends on use. When I'm unable to
predict how partition occupation will develop, going with
one / partition is a good approach. It can also be useful
for cases like home desktops.

Other cases, like dedicated servers or systems that use
more than one physical disk (e. g. one system disk, one
home disk) the approach of using more than one partition
is welcome.

I'd like to mention that using different partitions for
a logical separation of mechanisms and functionalities
can be a _big_ help in worst case (which you'll hopefully
never will encounter, but be prepared). For example, if
you have file system trouble with the /home partition,
you can bring the system up in a limited state (SUM),
make the partition ro and get the data. You can then
boot the system into the normal state (MUM) with using
the copy you made, leaving the original /home partition
unmounted and untouched. In case of data recovery and
forensic analysis this can be your chance to get your
data back.



 We realize that one can use bsdinstall to create as many partitions as 
 one wants. However, the new default is for one partition and swap. We 
 want to know if people would prefer the older style default with four 
 partitions and swap when selecting Guided Partitioning and Use Entire 
 Disk.

Well, to be honest, I never liked the old style default
with /home being part of /usr. As I mentioned before, _my_
default style for separated partitions include:

/
swap
/tmp
/var
/usr
/home

In special cases, add /opt or /scratch as separate partitions
with intendedly limited sizes.

You can see that all user data is kept independently from
the rest of the system. It can easily be switched over to
a separate home disk if needed.

What's the reason for this? Limited partitions are often
considered a problem, but they can be a system's life saver.
Just imagine you have all functional parts of the system in
one big / tree, let's also say /tmp is writable for users
(and it's not a memory file system); now a maliciously acting
user or program could fill /tmp with lots of data, occupying
the full disk. Soon, /var/log cannot be written anymore, and
also other processes that need to write something may get
into trouble. If /tmp is a separate partition, only /tmp can
get out of disk space, with /var being fully untouched.

Also keep in mind that some tools like to operate on partition
level, such as dump (and restore). System tools like quota can
also be used on a partition level. As I mentioned before, being
able to mount a partition read-only can be helpful sometimes,
same goes for other mount options, such as noexec or noatime.
When dealing with this low level stuff is neccessary (e. g. on
embedded systems or systems that are low on resources where you
need to squeeze every bit of performance by fine tuning), having
individual partitions can be a big help.



 Let the majority decide which layout is preferred for the default.

Why not add a selection to the installer, something like
this:

Partition scheme


[ ] all in one + swap
Create one partition containing all subtrees
plus one swap partition.

[ ] separate partitioning + swap
Create /, /var, /tmp and /usr (including home)
partitions plus one swap partition.

[ ] user-defined
Make your own partitioning selection manually.

Of course, the default SIZES for second choice should be
reasonable.


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Re: One or Four?

On Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:11:52 -0800, Devin Teske wrote:

  -Original Message-
  From: owner-freebsd-questi...@freebsd.org [mailto:owner-freebsd-
  questi...@freebsd.org] On Behalf Of Jerry McAllister
  Sent: Friday, February 17, 2012 2:53 PM
  To: Polytropon
  Cc: david.robi...@fisglobal.com; freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
  Subject: Re: One or Four?

Let the majority decide which layout is preferred for the default.

   Why not add a selection to the installer, something like
   this:

 Partition scheme

 [ ] all in one + swap
 Create one partition containing all subtrees
 plus one swap partition.

 [ ] separate partitioning + swap
 Create /, /var, /tmp and /usr (including home)
 partitions plus one swap partition.

 [ ] user-defined
 Make your own partitioning selection manually.

   Of course, the default SIZES for second choice should be
   reasonable.

  Yes.  Yes.   This is the way to go.

Let me change the caption of the second choice to this:

[ ] traditionally separated partitioning + swap

Because it's the installer's tradition to put /home into /usr.

 I'd agree, but I'd like to envision a modular approach where multiple schemes
 can be maintained.

 E.g. a menu containing...

 Scheme 1: / + swap + /tmp
 Scheme 2: / + swap + /tmp + /var
 Scheme 3: / + swap + /tmp + /var + /usr
 Scheme 4: / + swap + /tmp + /var + /usr + /home

I'm missing scheme 5 with /opt. :-)

According to combinatoric possibilities, / + swap + /tmp + /usr
is also missing. It would be no good idea (in my opinion) to
present the user a list of _all_ possible combinations just in
case he would like to have one of them. My idea to use three
options (minimal, traditional, user-defined) would be fully
sufficient, as all those who have no idea what they do would
use the first choice, those who intendedly want the traditional
approach would use the second choice, and all those not wanting
one of those would be clever enough to deal with manually
defining their own scheme.

 I'm actually thinking that not having a separate /tmp is:

 a. A security issue

 /tmp is by-default out-of-the-box world-writable (perms 1777). Making this
 world-writable bucket part of / seems silly both for Desktops and Servers
 alike.

Fully agree. I pointed out why this can be dangerous. Having
/tmp in memory is good (and secure!) if it's possible (note:
enough RAM needed), but not an option on systems low on RAM.

This kind of possible fine tuning partition-wise (soft updates,
journaling, quota, dump, ro, noexec, noatime etc.) doesn't
typically take place on average desktops, but there may be
cases where you need to do that.

 b. A nuisance

 As Da Rock points out, ... recovering your system from a
 file-system-full-event when using single-/ is just as difficult regardless 
 of
 Desktop versus Server. Having /tmp alleviates the difficulty.

I don't think the separation desktop vs. server serves well
here. It's not about what kind of machine (or form factor) is
used, but the actual _employment_ of the machine, the intended
way of using it is. Note that there are also mixed forms, e. g.
a home desktop that provides some server functionalities. That's
why I think making a selection for partitioning schemes should
take SCHEMES into mind, not server or desktop.

 c. A performance issue

 I'm surprised nobody has pointed out the physical performance limitations of
 rotating disks with respect to physical location of partitions on the spindle.
 Granted, seek times are light years beyond what they used to be, but 
 allocating
 smaller swap and tmp partitions close to the center of the spindle is a
 performance-enhancing setup just as much as it is for protecting against
 file-system-full problems (security events included).

As I said, sometimes you need to squeeze every bit of performance
out of a machine. Fiddling with the location of certain functional
pieces of the OS _on the disk_ can be a big help here.

 I'd argue that there should never be a single-/ unless you are prepared to
 deal with a truly 100%-full filesystem problem (especially considering that
 Desktop users whom select the default-everything are often not skilled enough 
 to
 deal with that situation). If someone truly wants a single / and nothing 
 else,
 there's manual partitioning (which should prove pretty easy in the event that
 you're only creating one partition and nothing else).

Yes, that's also possible, but I think having it as a option
to be checked is what especially novice users would want. They
would select the first (default) choice anyway without reading,
so it might be a chance to learn. :-)

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Re: /usr/home vs /home

2012-02-18 Thread Polytropon

On Sat, 18 Feb 2012 13:16:39 +1000, Da Rock wrote:
 On 02/18/12 12:16, Daniel Staal wrote:
  --As of February 17, 2012 11:46:23 PM +0100, Polytropon is alleged to 
  have said:
 
  Well, to be honest, I never liked the old style default
  with /home being part of /usr. As I mentioned before, _my_
  default style for separated partitions include:
 
  /
  swap
  /tmp
  /var
  /usr
  /home
 
  In special cases, add /opt or /scratch as separate partitions
  with intendedly limited sizes.
 
  You can see that all user data is kept independently from
  the rest of the system. It can easily be switched over to
  a separate home disk if needed.
 
  --As for the rest, it is mine.
 
  I'm in agreement with you on that I like to have /home be a separate 
  partition, and not under /usr.  (Of course, my current zfs system has 
  40 partitions...)  Partly though I recognize that I like it because 
  that's what I'm used to, and how I learned to set it up originally.  
  (My first unix experience was with OpenBSD, over 10 years ago now.)
 
  I've never seen anything listing the main reasons for having /home 
  under /usr though.  I figure there must be a decent reason why.  Would 
  anyone care to enlighten me?  What are the perceived advantages?  
  (Particularly if you then make a symlink to /home.)
 I always thought /usr was like user partition :)

There are two major definitions:

/usr = Unix system resources

/usr = user and system binaries

FreeBSD's explaination can be obtained from man hier, where
contains the majority of user utilities and applications is
provided.

Some UNIX systems, in particular IRIX, if I remember correctly,
also placed the home subtree into the /usr partition, even
though they called it /usr/people...

FreeBSD's reason for making /home@ - /usr/home is a traditional
thing too, I think. As you said, balancing or estimating disk
sizes can be tricky, so /home and /usr made a deal to reduce
the guessing from 2 to 1. :-)

Historical background needed.



 But seriously, for the pedantic yes, but for a desktop user (at least) 
 having home on /usr partition makes sense - balances space and 
 functionality; plus a lack of nodes on the disk for partitions? Limit 
 was 8 I think.

I think h is the last letter, with b reserved for swap and c
reserved for the whole partition (the traditional partitioning
scheme ad0[a-h], I'm not looking at GPT ad0p[0-9*] right now).



 But now with /usr/home if you want to install from ports 
 it can take a few gig, but that can be wasted because you're not always 
 installing from ports, so might as well share space with the home 
 directories and balance that way.

You could, on the other hand, move ports stuff into /home if
there's more space available. You need more space for building
(downloading sources, extraction, compiling etc.) than for the
result that's going to be installed into /usr/local.





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Re: /usr/home vs /home (was: Re: One or Four?)

2012-02-18 Thread Polytropon

On Sat, 18 Feb 2012 00:05:49 -0600 (CST), Lars Eighner wrote:
 It seems to me that partition and mount point are being confused to a
 degree.  There is no reason what is mounted at /usr/home cannot be a
 separate partition as well as if it were mounted at root. 

I thought of this fact as such an obvious thing that I
didn't bother even mentioning it. :-)

Of course, /usr/home can be a separate partition (even on
a separate disk), just like /usr/ports or /usr/obj or even
/usr/local could be. I've also seen systems having several
subtrees in /export, each one being on an individual partition,
some of them even on an own disk.



 There are some
 good reasons for the user directories (and perhaps some other data) to be on
 a separate partition - mostly the reasons relate to ease of back up and
 migration whether planned or emergency.  Arguments about where to mount that
 partition are not so practical, being more in the philosophic and historical
 realm. Pick one, recognize not everyone will be on the same page and put
 appropriate links in.

I'd still be interested in why this particular location has
been chosen. The typical access path for home directories
is /home (that's why the symlink), and as long as this
top level entry points to the proper data (no matter where
they are located), it should be fine.



 There may have been a historic reason, but now it is philosophical - trying
 to keep the system and userland distinction clear.  But there are many flaws
 in the attempted separation. /var for example is the default location for
 many logs, both system and user, the spools (remember news?), and databases.
 You really cannot drop /usr into a different system and have an operational
 result.

Correct. Also see the difference in usage interpretation for
/tmp (not guaranteed to be present after reboot) and /var/tmp
(should be present in the same state after reboot).

The separation of concepts FreeBSD is famous for basically is
the OS (primarily /, /etc, /(s)bin, /usr/(s)bin) that provides
the minimal functionality to bring up the operating system even
in worst case, where only the root partition needs to be mounted,
which can be done in read-only mode, to finally reach the single-
user mode, and 3rd party applications (everything in /usr/local).
However, both system and 3rd party programs access things in /var
or /tmp. Not having actual _user_ data in between can be a benefit
especially when something goes wrong.



 (I put the home directories, the www directory, databases and spools all on
 the same physical partition which I mount arbitrarily at /usr/local/data. It
 isn't exactly plug-n-play, but in tests and emergencies is has proved
 practical to drop the partition into several linices with a high level of
 functionally  - depending on application versioning being close to in sync.)

And I assume you still have /home pointing to the correct location
on that new path?


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Re: /usr/home vs /home

2012-02-18 Thread Polytropon

On Sat, 18 Feb 2012 20:44:13 +1000, Da Rock wrote:
 BTW I was intending to put across the concept of /usr being user related 
 - anything a user may need or use; as opposed to / for the system 
 related stuff that keeps it running. Maybe I wasn't as clear as I had 
 thought... :)

There's lots of philosophy, tradition and vanished differentiation
in this field. The manpage man hier provides a good explaination
for the layout chosen for FreeBSD. However, there are questions
that may arise:

What kind of programs? Those called by users, by the system, or
by other programs (see libexec)?

What's the difference between /bin and /sbin, same for /usr/bin
and /usr/sbin? Could they maybe be merged when their functionality
is similar and they reside on the same partition (file system)
anyway?

The /etc directory - editable text configuration :-) - historically
also contained binaries like /etc/mount or /etc/GETTY. Depending
on its location, one can assume that it controls OS things only.
Wrong. In many cases, /etc/rc.conf also contains settings for
enabling services installed by ports. Even though FreeBSD can
use /etc/rc.conf.local (has been known in OpenBSD for non-OS
setup stuff), most things are found in the system-wide file.
But the corresponding start scripts are in /usr/local/etc/rc.d.
Why no /usr/local/etc/rc.conf? But as rc.conf is just a file to
associate variables with names, there's no problem if they are
defined, but not used (e. g. in a limited system state after
encountering a problem)...

Luckily, most software installed from ports keeps its settings
out of /etc and uses /usr/local/etc instead. Having _known_
locations for settings makes it easy to back them up.

How about X on desktops? /etc/X11 is the common location for
config files (if used), but per deduction, they should be in
/usr/local/etc/X11 as X is a port, not a part of the OS. What
about the configuration of xdm? Why isn't it stored in some
/usr/local/etc subtree, but instead /usr/local/lib/X11/xdm/
is used?

This short list is just to mention the loads of philosophy
hidden within the system. :-)



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Re: Hardware compatibility

2012-02-20 Thread Polytropon

On Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:35:43 +0100, Riccardo Garzelli wrote:
 I was thinking of purchasing a new laptop and I wanted to go for FreeBSD
 OS. Unfortunately I'm no brainer in Unix so I'd like to find a PC that can
 run FreeBSD 9.0 out of the box.
 Could you either tell me which hardware are suitable or a link to a
 compatibility list?

Check the hardware compatibility list to find out which
devices are compatible to FreeBSD, also see the release
notes regarding version 9.0 of the OS.

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/faq/hardware.html

http://www.freebsd.org/releases/9.0R/hardware.html

It's also a good idea to prepare a FreeBSD CD or DVD (or
USB stick) that you can launch a FreeBSD system from (e. g.
live file system with some diagnostic tools, to see if the
hardware is supported). Ask if you can boot the system
you're interested in buying with that test media, it shouldn't
be a problem. You could also _ask_ for how the FreeBSD support
is, but don't expect any useful answers from an average
salesperson. :-)

Does it run FreeBSD?  -  Yes, you can click on the Internet
with it, it's very shiny and comes with a wireless cable. =^_^=


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Re: CUPS 1.5.2 not working, like to test 1.4.x, how?

2012-02-20 Thread Polytropon

On Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:46:52 +0100, Christopher J. Ruwe wrote:
 Is there any documentation available on how to retrieve old ports from
 the cvs-attic? I just don't know how, so that I could test my assumption
 that CUPS 1.4.x should be working for my setup.

There's a port to do so: portdowngrade. You can use
it to obtain older versions of a port. 

(I've been using it successfully to downgrade xzgv
to a working version.)




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Re: /usr/home vs /home

2012-02-21 Thread Polytropon

On Mon, 20 Feb 2012 22:53:10 -0800, Doug Hardie wrote:
 The RK05 had one removable platter in a plastic housing. 

Please compare the images of the drive and the media.
Does it look similar?



Removable platters types EC 5269 in plastic cartridge:

http://www.robotrontechnik.de/index.htm?/html/komponenten/datentraeger.htm#wechselplatte



Drive ISOT 1370 with one fixed platter and one removable platter:

http://www.robotrontechnik.de/index.htm?/html/zubehoer/wechselplatten.htm#isot1370



Drive CM 5400 with removable platter only:

http://www.robotrontechnik.de/index.htm?/html/zubehoer/wechselplatten.htm#cm5400



(Historical note: K1600 series minicomputers are basically PDPs.)



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Re: Hardware compatibility

2012-02-21 Thread Polytropon

On Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:45:05 +1000, Da Rock wrote:
 To the OP, check the pages Polytropon has linked here, but the chances 
 of getting exactly that are nil to impossible. I've run about 6 or more 
 laptops now without too much trouble. The biggest problems were 
 wireless, but that was the bad old days... most support is there now 
 thanks to Adrianns work.

Today's problems seem to be suspend/resume/hibernate (all
the variations of it's not switched on, but also not
switched off entirely) and some specific sorts of wireless
devices.



 Having a live disk is not likely to help for several reasons:
 1. there aren't really the tools to see if something will actually work 
 in a production environment (unless pc-bsd have a disc I don't know 
 about). For instance, wifi maybe recognised but not actually work and 
 error like crazy only once you start to use it.

The main idea of using such a system is to most precisely
determine the _present_ hardware to allow further investigations
(e. g. web searches and mailing list questions). The OS from
disc or stick can help to identify the hardware. If you're
running a live file system from a USB stick, you can do
things like:

# dmesg
# pciconf -lv
# usbconfig
# sysctl -a

If you start the system by boot -v (verbose logging), dmesg
will contain some more lines than usual. If you have a USB
stick, you can easily save the output of those commands to
persistent files.

If you have X in the mix, you can also check the support for
the display and obtain other information that might be important
later on (especially GPU info):

# glxinfo
# xvinfo

Log files worth saving are in /var/log, as well as Xorg.0.log
for X-related things.

If you prepare some programs, you can also do some testing,
e. g. multimedia, gaming, 3D support, networking and so on.



 2. The BIOS will get in your way - see recent thread regarding samsung 
 laptop not installing. I don't think the salespeople will let you play 
 with that either.

Depends. If you're interested in buying one of the more
expensive ones, they will offer you a test ride which
includes that you have a look at the CMOS setup (which is
something very typical for you as an IT professional).

You can say: The BIOS is defective, it doesn't allow me
to boot a standard OS. Let's see... for 100$ less, I would
still do you a favour and buy it. :-)



 If you do this *and* get it to boot, you want to get a copy of pciconf 
 -lv which will give you the best idea on whats what. You may be able to 
 use a linux live disk (if you can get it to boot) to accomplish this better.

USB sticks seem to be the best solution as they can allow
you to store files (as the results of your investigation).





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Re: Installation troubles

2012-02-22 Thread Polytropon

On Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:04:12 +0100, herbert langhans wrote:
 Now my question: can I take the harddisk out, install FreeBSD 9 over
 another laptop (with the X31-harddisk inside) and put the installed
 harddrive back to the X31? Is there anything else besides the rc.d-stuff
 what will/will not get installed if I use the 'wrong' computer?

I've done this with a very old laptop (where I did install
its 2.5 disk using an adapter in a normal PC). After
that, booting performed normally. I've also used a 5.4-p12
PATA disk on a system that previously ran 7-STABLE during
a data recovery session - it also booted fine, except X
didn't come up (xorg.conf had hardcoded S3, system had
an ATI card). But the OS never did anything strange.

The only issue I say _may_ be boot loading device names
(e. g. if the disk will be ad0 in the run-laptop, but
ad4 in the install-laptop); using GPT partitioning or
labels should avoid this problem.

FreeBSD is totally agnostic of this is not the system
I've been installed to. Hardware detection will take
place when you boot it, _not_ when you install it.

After you have installed the OS, see if it properly boots
(or if scanning the USB ports causes a kernel lock again).
Do any further installs  (ports / packages) from the new
laptop.

It's also worth mentioning that you need to have the
capability to run the same architecture (i386 or amd64)
on both machines, and use the proper install image
(e. g. don't try to install amd64 version of the OS
on a system that doesn't run it). :-)



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Installing Samsung CLX-2160 color laser printer on USB using CUPS

I have a problem installing a Samsung CLX-2160 color
laser printer using CUPS. In the http://localhost:631
web-based configuration, none of the methods that are
supposed to be used for installing a printer works.

The Add Printer button leads to this:



Add Printer
---
 Local Printers:
Discovered Network Printers:
 Other Network Printers: o Internet Printing Protocol (http) 
 o Internet Printing Protocol (ipp) 
 o LPD/LPR Host or Printer 
 o AppSocket/HP JetDirect
 [ Continue ]

No local printers can be selected (even though the
printer is connected, switched on and woken up).



And Find New Printers shows this:



Available Printers
--
No printers found.



Excellent auto detection. :-)



The corresponding device for the printer is this:

ulpt0: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. CLX-216x Series,
class 0/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 2 on usbus4
ulpt0: using bi-directional mode

ugen4.2: CLX-216x Series Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
at usbus4, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=ON

crw-rw  1 root  cups0, 142 Feb 25 21:42 /dev/ulpt0

I have installed all packages I can imagine:

cups-1.4.6
cups-base-1.4.6_6
cups-client-1.4.6
cups-image-1.4.6
cups-pstoraster-8.15.4_6
gutenprint-cups-5.2.4_2
foo2zjs-20110609
foomatic-db-20090530_2
foomatic-db-engine-4.0.7,2
gutenprint-foomatic-5.2.4_2
foo2zjs-20110609

I also have the CLX-216xsplc.ppd PPD file available
which I think I'd like to hand over to CUPS somewhere.

ALTERNATIVE: If someone could explain how it's easier
to make a lpr filter (for the system's printer service),
I'd also appreciate this.

I've already tried this:

# foo2xqx-wrapper cupstest.ps  cupstest.xqx
# cat cupstest.xqx  /dev/ulpt0

It causes the LED of the printer to blink, but nothing is
printed, even though the printer startes to make sounds
(involving the print mechanism, but not the sheet feeder).

If I use

# foo2qpdl-wrapper cupstest.ps  cupstest.xqx
# cat cupstest.xqx  /dev/ulpt0

the CUPS test page is printed, but not in color (only b/w).
After looking into the manpage,

# foo2qpdl-wrapper -p 2 -c cupstest.ps  cupstest.xqx
# cat cupstest.xqx  /dev/ulpt0

makes the printer print properly.

Okay, it works.

How am I supposed to use a PPD file with CUPS when no
local printer is shown?

I need CUPS (or at least my programs seem to think
that), how should it be done?

Okay, I could make a simple printer filter. I could then
integrate that with /etc/printcap (as I do with my PCL
HP Laserjet 4000d). I think it should be possible to code
that similar to a parallel printer (with ulpt instead
of lpt device specification for the lp= parameter...

What am I doing wrong? :-)




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Re: Installing Samsung CLX-2160 color laser printer on USB using CUPS

On Sat, 25 Feb 2012 15:26:29 -0600, Antonio Olivares wrote:
 Hope this can help:
 
 http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=27666
 
 There are many things that could be interfering?

Done as explained in the thread. Even

# cp /usr/local/share/examples/cups/ulpt-cupsd.conf /usr/local/etc/devd

has been done.



 - Create /etc/devfs.rules with the following, which sets the
 permissions and associates print devices with the cups group:
 
 [system=10]
 add path 'unlpt*' mode 0660 group cups
 add path 'ulpt*' mode 0660 group cups
 add path 'lpt*' mode 0660 group cups

Checked and already present. I think I should not have
to fiddle with the ugen* devices?

Note: The scanner is currently not interesting to me,
but sane-find-scanners reports it:

found USB scanner (vendor=0x04e8
[Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.],
product=0x3425 [CLX-216x Series])
at libusb:/dev/usb:/dev/ugen4.2

The printer should be on a similar address, but it does
already pop up as ulpt device which should be good. :-)

An additional

ulpt0: output error

message appear in the system log after the device is
recognized (plugged in).

I also made a comparable set of settings in /etc/devfs.conf
if the printer is detected at boot time.

own ulpt0   root:cups
permulpt0   0666
own unlpt0  root:cups
permunlpt0  0666

That should be fine.


 - Add root and other users to cups group in /etc/group

Done.



 - Enable CUPS and the above rules at startup by adding these lines to
 /etc/rc.conf:
 
 cupsd_enable=YES
 devfs_system_ruleset=system

Also already done. I'm already running CUPS to address the
HP Laerjet 4000d via LAN (what a waste, I know).



 Then hopefully the printer shows up in cups http://localhost:631 :)

No auto-detection, no local printers to be configured. :-(



 If none of this works, you may try adding the apsfilter port and use
 it to configure the printer?  But see if the above helps.

I've been using apsfilter in the past happily as it could
even to things like

% lpr sometext.txt

but CUPS truncates the output as soon as an Umlaut or Eszett
appears. Great multilingual tool. :-)

As I said, I have (note the quotes) to use CUPS because
many programs say so. For example, Opera doesn't play with
system's lpr anymore, Gimp has hardcoded stuff in it, and
I believe many programs will follow this road...

Anyway, I will surely dump CUPS as it doesn't work for me.
Brings no benefit, even the simplest things (adding a
printer by specifying port and type) is _impossible_).
I'll begin to write a lpr printer filter instead. That
has been proven to work (see initial message). :-)



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Re: Installing Samsung CLX-2160 color laser printer on USB using CUPS

On Sat, 25 Feb 2012 16:55:36 -0500, Jerry wrote:
 On Sat, 25 Feb 2012 22:14:33 +0100
 Polytropon articulated:
 
  I have a problem installing a Samsung CLX-2160 color
  laser printer using CUPS. In the http://localhost:631
  web-based configuration, none of the methods that are
  supposed to be used for installing a printer works.
 
 USB sucks on FreeBSD.

In regards to some devices - yes, I fully agree.



 Sorry, I don't care who gets pissed off about
 that remark.

I don't. It's not the first time I get annoyed by USB. :-)



 Apparently, your printer only supports USB.

Sadly yes, it's the no-letter variant (no N for networked
or W for wireless). CUPS seems to be unable to detect that
printer even though it is connected (as I could print to it
without CUPS successfully). However, CUPS always seemed to
have some trouble with connected _local_ printers, I remember
that it was impossible to install a locally connected parallel
printer (needed for specific forms), and it was also impossible
to install a printer that's _currently_ not connected (even
though I knew all its paramters).



 If you have
 just purchased it, I might recommend returning it and getting one that
 is wireless ready.

No such deal, I got this printer as payment (others would
say, for free), just purchased new toner cartridges, and the
press button and make a color copy function works quite
well. As I've mostly used this printer as a dull copier,
I thought I could _easily_ (in CUPS's terminology!) use it
as a printer. Ha ha. :-)

I _never_ would buy a USB printer, and I would also never
buy something that doesn't talk PS (or at least PCL).



 Believe me, you will appreciate the flexibility that
 offers.

Regular wired networking printer would have been fine too.
I use my HP Laserjet 4000 duplex that way - works like a
charm, out of the box, no fiddling with annoying details.
However, that HP is _office_ equipment, while the Samsung
is for living room use. :-)


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Re: Installing Samsung CLX-2160 color laser printer on USB using CUPS

On Sat, 25 Feb 2012 23:07:36 +0100, C. P. Ghost wrote:
 On Sat, Feb 25, 2012 at 10:14 PM, Polytropon free...@edvax.de wrote:
  I have a problem installing a Samsung CLX-2160 color
  laser printer using CUPS. In the http://localhost:631
  web-based configuration, none of the methods that are
  supposed to be used for installing a printer works.
 
 (... snip ...)
 
  What am I doing wrong? :-)
 
 Have you heeded *all* the advices here?
   /usr/ports/print/cups-base/pkg-message
 
 Permissions are usually the culprit when CUPS doesn't work.

Done (even with the variation of 0660 vs. 0770 as suggested
in that file):

[system=10]
add path 'unlpt*' mode 0660 group cups
add path 'ulpt*' mode 0660 group cups
add path 'lpt*' mode 0660 group cups
add path 'usb/4.2.*' mode 0660 group cups
add path 'usb*' mode 0770 group cups

Same result == no result. :-)



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Re: Installing Samsung CLX-2160 color laser printer on USB using CUPS

2012-02-26 Thread Polytropon

On Sun, 26 Feb 2012 02:42:08 +0100, Jerome Herman wrote:
 You did nothing wrong, on the contrary. You now have a prefectly working 
 printer. You just need to tell cups it exists.
 Since
 
   # foo2qpdl-wrapper -p 2 -c cupstest.ps  cupstest.xqx
   # cat cupstest.xqx  /dev/ulpt0
 
 works, you should be able to create a new printer using a direct device.
 So go on as if you wanted to create a network printer, choose 
 HPJetDirect (for example) when asked about the connection. Then when you 
 have to input the uri remove the socket:// and type usb:///dev/ulpt0. 
 (Yes triple / before dev)
 The you can process as usual for name, options and PPD.
 If it doesn't work try parallel:///dev/ulpt0

Interesting approach. Fully unimaginable from the CUPS
guide to things (i. e. how normal users _assume_ things
should be done!), but interesting. I'll try that.

The option to enter such kind of data (parallel:// and
usb:// isn't mentioned):



Add Printer
---

Connection: _

Examples:

http://hostname:631/ipp/
http://hostname:631/ipp/port1

ipp://hostname/ipp/
ipp://hostname/ipp/port1

lpd://hostname/queue

socket://hostname
socket://hostname:9100

See Network Printers for the correct URI to use with your print

[ Continue ]

See? Nothing for parallel or USB to enter manually.



It's like going to a car salesman, buying a car, but before
driving home from his yard, quickly exchanging the car you
bought for the car you initially wanted. :-)



 Normally one should work.

Today, I tried to add the printer again. Unlike yesterday,
it got detected! (Note: System shut down during night.)
It also accepts print jobs, but they are stuck somewhere.

% lpq -PSamsung_CLX-216x_Series
Samsung_CLX-216x_Series is ready
RankOwner   Job File(s)Total Size
1st poly202 Unbenannt1 7563264 bytes

This is from an OpenOffice session. The printer doesn't
print anything. No action.



 Basically in cups choosing network connection allows you to input any 
 URI  you want, including file and raw (now defunct I think - it was 
 mainly for debug anyway).

Why haven't the CUPS people thought of a kind of know what
you want mode where you can simply enter what you think is
correct, no matter if any auto-detection magic did work (or
not)?



 I never tried this specific printer, but this trick worked well on a few 
 HP and Canon.



 Tell us how it went.

I tried both of your suggestions for specifying the connection
and chose the PPD file for the printer CLX-216xsplc.ppd (size
12208 bytes). Jobs get queued, printer is ready, but no
action on the printer.

However, when I issue a command like this:

% foo2qpdl-wrapper -p 2 -c /tmp/testpage.ps  /dev/ulpt0
pcache: unable to open '/home/poly/.ghostscript/cache/gs_cache'
pcache: unable to open '/home/poly/.ghostscript/cache/gs_cache'
pcache: unable to open '/home/poly/.ghostscript/cache/gs_cache'
pcache: unable to open '/home/poly/.ghostscript/cache/gs_cache'

The printer works. The result is _very_ dark. But hey, it's
stupid commodity hardware, and RGB and CMY are a little bit
different, and nothing of the cheap crap is calibrated. :-)

In the system log, I get those:

ugen1.5: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. at usbus1
ulpt0: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. CLX-216x Series,
class 0/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 5 on usbus1
ulpt0: using bi-directional mode
ulpt0: output error
ulpt0: output error
ulpt0: output error
ulpt0: output error

Unlike yesterday, the printer now is on ugen1.5. I'll have to play
with the permissions a bit, maybe that's the reason why nothing
can be printed, even though the changes I made for device permissions
should cover all imaginable cases - all devices /dev/usb/* now
are root:cups with crwxrwx--- permissions, the /dev/u(n)lpt0
devices are also root:cups with crw-rw permissions.

Really, I _need_ to dump CUPS relapse to _standard_ system tools
that seem to be easily capable of what the web-driven autodetected
elastic-legged program magic of CUPS can't. :-)




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Re: Installing Samsung CLX-2160 color laser printer on USB using CUPS

2012-02-26 Thread Polytropon

On Sun, 26 Feb 2012 10:08:52 +1000, Da Rock wrote:
 I don't know that I can add anything to the cups discussion here, but I 
 understand you'd rather use lpr anyway. You are aware that the printer 
 will only speak splix the samsung universal driver language? So any 
 config would have to be based on that.

The foo2qpdl-wrapper program seems to support that fine.



 Once you have that working maybe you can manually add the printer in 
 cups using lpd.

Maybe? For sure! It's quite easy to do it (make entry in
/etc/printcap, create spool directories, write printer
filter one-liner foo2qpdl-wrapper -p 2 -c which is the
essential part). I just hope printing will be possible
from applications (Opera, OpenOffice and Gimp are the
primary candidates) afterwards. You know, many modern
programs _expect_ CUPS to be present, some have hardcoded
calls to CUPS programs, some seem to even _not_ output
PS (which should be standard), but instead PCL or whatnot.



 JIC you haven't considered this yet... HIH :)

Considered - yes, but I thought I would be able to avoid
it and use the modern CUPS toolkit for something simple
like printing. :-)



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Re: Installing Samsung CLX-2160 color laser printer on USB using CUPS

2012-02-27 Thread Polytropon

On Sun, 26 Feb 2012 22:29:12 +0100, Jerome Herman wrote:
 Not at all, the web admin for adding a printer is basically an html 
 version of lpadmin. It is just easier with the web site.

Easier as in: It leaves _essential_ options aside so that
you can't perform some of the tasks. :-)



 OK this means the ppd does not handle everything. Might get a little 
 complicated.

When I use the foo2qpdl-wrapper which I assume does use
the same PPD file, it works as intended.



 They did, then they got bought by Apple...

I should make myself more familiar with the command line
tool. Still I hope I won't need CUPS anytime soon. :-)



 No, please don't blame CUPS, it is earnestly trying to cope with 
 everything thrown at him (stupid printers, gnome DBus autoconfig, Apple 
 Mac OSX and so on), and it is doing a fairly good job at it.

I know that printing currently isn't as easy as I (with
my simple mind) assume. I've been using CUPS in the _past_
without major trouble, and even impossible things (like
using parallel dotmatrix printers) were easily configurable
even through the web interface. Seems that some parts got
disimproved to please a certain audience...



 I for one 
 do not want to go back to the time where one had to learn 2 lines long 
 LPD command just to print in color, double side, with an ICM profile.

I have several printers for varying _how_ to print. However,
I like the idea of selecting duplex / no duplex in the
printing dialog (which I currently do by selecting a different
virtual printer: Laserjet = b/w two-sided, Laserjet-nodup =
b/w single-sided, Samsung = color single-sided).



 Getting back to your problem. Apparently you are using an old version of 
 foo2qpdl, you may want to grab it from the web site directly and compile 
 it by hand (One of the very rare case where using the default 
 package/port is not a good idea at all)
 You can find the howto here : http://foo2qpdl.rkkda.com/
 You will need to download and link the ICM profile to have acceptable 
 print quality.  The latest PPD is 24 874 bytes in size.

I will try that. I have installed the packages

foo2zjs-20110609
foomatic-db-20090530_2
foomatic-db-engine-4.0.7,2
gutenprint-foomatic-5.2.4_2

where foo2qpdl and foo2qpdl-wrapper come from.

I'm happy that I now have the fallback method of stopping
CUPS, starting lpd, and using -PSamsung in order to use the
color printer (not often required, it's my _first_ one, I've
never needed one, really).

Using a Linksys Wireless-G WPS54GU2 print server (WLAN, LAN,
USB, parallel) - following Jerry's suggestion - I'll try tp
get rid of the USB cable at the next step. Wireless printing
isn't urgently needed (as I'm happily wired here), but real
networking is much better than this local fiddling with USB
(so I can print to the color printer from all of my systems
when it's _real_ networked, just as the HP Laserjet 4000d
which even runs its own lpd server).



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Re: FreeBsd Beginner

On Tue, 28 Feb 2012 11:13:41 +0530, shanib.k.k wrote:
 As am entirely fresh to FreeBSD i would like to know more about 
 how can configure or install it.

The basic documentation on how to install and configure
the system can be found in The FreeBSD Handbook and the
FAQ available from the main web site of the project.

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/faq/

Also PC-BSD is worth checking out. If you come from a
Windows background and have experiences with Ubuntu
Linux, this should look and feel familiar.

http://www.pcbsd.org/

But as a developer, you should not have _any_ problems
getting started with a pure FreeBSD installation that
will then fit your requirements (e. g. a development
environment workstation, a test server, or a mixed
form of both).



 Am using Windows OS in my personal system.How  can i install FreeBSD in 
 my local system and do a try before configuring in main server directly...

You can use the typical means of virtualization that are
possible inside a Windows installation. Emulate a full
PC and install the system to it.

For easily trying out a configured system I recommend
having a look at VirtualBSD.

http://www.virtualbsd.info/

It can easily be used without installation in a VirtualBox
environment which should even be possible in Windows.




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Re: Simple question about pkg_add ...

On Wed, 29 Feb 2012 01:52:13 +1030, David Walker wrote:
 Hey.
 
 I believe I have a pcmcia card that requires upgt firmware.
 From upgt(4) ...
 
  This driver requires the upgtfw firmware to be installed before it will
  work.  The firmware files are not publicly available.  A package of the
  firmware which can be installed via pkg_add(1) is available:
 
  http://weongyo.org/project/upgt/upgt-firmware-2.13.1.0.tar.gz
 
 pkg_add http://weongyo.org/project/upgt/upgt-firmware-2.13.1.0.tar.gz
 Fetching http://weongyo.org/project/upgt/upgt-firmware-2.13.1.0.tar.gz... 
 Done.
 pkg_add: unable to open table of contents file '+CONTENTS' - not a package?

Did you have a look at what's inside the .tar.gz file?
A directory upgt-firmware-2.13.1.0 with the following
files: Makefile, distinfo, pkg-descr, and pkg-plist.

Obviously, that's not a binary package for pkg_add use.
It's a port.

Extract the file and use it with the port infrastructure
(i. e. make install).

Seems that the instruction in man 4 upgt is just missing
the proper terminology...



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Re: fixating USB Storage

On Tue, 28 Feb 2012 07:41:29 -0800, bsali...@gmail.com wrote:
 The real issue is that the USB boot device sits at da16 and if any of
 the da members below da16 drops, the usb boot device becomes da15 at
 next boot. The loader.conf still looks at da6 for root device and that
 is not present.
 
 How to solve this issue?

Label the drives and use labels instead of device names.

Get some inspiration from Warren's excellent article here:
http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/disksetup.html


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Re: Simple question about pkg_add ...

On Wed, 29 Feb 2012 12:41:46 +1030, David Walker wrote:
 Hi Polytropon.
 
 I did have a look inside and I did pkg_add -v which gives enough
 information combined with my meagre knowledge to guess that it had
 something to do with source.

A port (as you can find it inside the archive) is a recipe
for dealing with sources, e. g. where to obtain then, how
to compile, where to install to and so on. The ports collection
of the FreeBSD OS is used to deal with handling software
based on sources: configure, patch, build, install, deinstall,
upgrade and similar tasks.

See man ports for a better explaination.



 I'm so unfamiliar with pkg_add I'm not sure if that is normal.

The pkg_add utility installs programs from binary packages.
Those packages are created by compiling a port - typically
with its default options. Those packages are built for the
FreeBSD ports collection and made available by the FreeBSD
team. External packages, created outside the world of
FreeBSD ports, are possible.

See man pkg_add for details.



 I'm very new here.
 Certainly it's not in a suitable format for pkg_add to deal with.

Correct. A pkg_add package typically contains compiled stuff,
i. e. binaries, and a packaging list for installation and
later removal. Additional tasks can also be scripted.



 I guess pkg_add is the preferred option for firmware installation.

It's used to install programs (or libraries) to the FreeBSD
system. The use with firmware is also possible. Basically,
ports (from source) and packages (precompiled binaries) have
the same purpose: Get things installed.

If the maintainer would compile the port (that he provided
for download) and give the proper URL of the result in the
manpage, pkg_add would work as intended.



 I'll contact the maintainer.

That would be a good idea as the description you quoted from
the manpage is technically not correct.

Option 1: Provide a pkg_add-able package.

Option 2: Provide instructions on how to deal with the port.



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Re: fixating USB Storage

2012-02-29 Thread Polytropon

On Wed, 29 Feb 2012 07:55:35 -0700 (MST), Warren Block wrote:
 I really need to do a combined article that covers all the 
 different types of labels.  It's on the list.

Please be so kind and also mention ufsid labels
(unique file system id) in that article.

Why?

Any partitions with ufsid labels can be mounted
 in this way, eliminating the need to create permanent
 labels for them manually, while still enjoying the
 benefits of device-name independent mounting.

... even though they are not normal words in a typical
reader's mind. :-)

They can be found explained in The FreeBSD Handbook at 20.7.1:
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/geom-glabel.html
(bottom of the page)




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Re: THe number of cdrom in /dev

2012-03-01 Thread Polytropon

On Thu, 1 Mar 2012 15:52:46 -0800 (PST), Me Me wrote:
 My system's been down for a while - anyway I wanted to add
 data from a cd, but the prompt reads can't have more than
 32 cd devices or drives.

Which program does show this message? Please explain what
you've done in order to get that text.

How many _actual_ CD drives does your system have? Just to
make sure this isn't the problem... :-)



 I couldn't figure it out  tried alot. So now I'd like to take
 some of the devices out of the directory. However, I rm and
 they mostly return.

FreeBSD's current /dev directory is a dynamical thing. It
gets populated automatically under the control of devfs
(at boot time) and devd (at run time) which control several
actions that can be taken.



 I'm careful to keep those I see in the ref 4.2 book but do
 I have to change permissions or file types or should I use
 mv to another directory so I don't lose them permenetly?

Which OS version are you currently using?



 anyway if you've got an advisory or a fix for this and your
 not to annoyed please send it.

Just provide a bit more information so your problem can
be diagnosed. At the moment, I'm just guessing. :-)






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Re: port to package amd64 to i386

2012-03-05 Thread Polytropon

On Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:42:58 +0100, Bernt Hansson wrote:
 Thank you for the pointer. I do find it a bit overkill to setup jails 
 and such, just to build a few ports.

The problem here is that a specific build environment
is required.



 I was thinking more along the line of;
 
 cd /usr/ports/random port
 
 make it for i386 even if we are building it on amd64, ooh by the way 
 build it as a package, and all dependencies as packages as well

Again, a problem is that packages can only be generated
if the port has been installed, which is the make package
task typically following make install, resulting in the
desired package in the /usr/ports/packages/ subtree. See
man ports regarding the package target. I think that
_could_ be overridden by specifying a different, temporary
$PREFIX to install to, but I haven't tested this approach.

For the dependencies, I think there was a setting to be
included in /etc/make.conf... MAKE_DEPENDS=PACKAGE? Something
like this will cause all dependencies to be built and
archived as a package.



 Oh man, man ports. But I do not find the flag 
 -build-for-another-system-cpu-whatever

Some settings can be transferred to the make environment,
usually /etc/make.conf is used.



 Can the ports system be (ab)used in that way?

I don't think it is that easy. :-(


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Re: Still having trouble with package upgrades

2012-03-07 Thread Polytropon

David, allow me to add a few thoughts:

On Wed, 7 Mar 2012 11:28:47 -0500, David Jackson wrote:
 As for compile options, the solution is simple, compile in all feature
 options and the most commonly used settings into the binary packages, for
 the standard i386 CPU.

I think this can develop into a major problem in certain
countries where listening to MP3 is illegal. :-)

However, when considerations of law enter the field, the
problem becomes obvious: There are situations, depending
on local national law or software licnsing, when it is
not possible to include certain functionality by default.

You know, I'd _love_ to pkg_add -r mplayer to get mplayer
and mencoder with _all_ the codecs so it can play everything.
Sadly, that is not the default situation. You can also
encounter similar barriers with Linux when you install
a distribution, and many things work out of the box, but
as soon as you cross a certain line (i. e. you want to
access specific media formats), you need to add something
to your installation. That shouldn't be neccessary, and
it is not neccessary from a technical point of view, but
legal objections seem to demand it it's artificially made
impossible...



 If people want customisations then they can build
 the software for themselves.

That's what they'll do anyway. :-)

Especially on systems low on resources, compiling from
source is _the_ way to squeeze every required (!) bit
of performance out of code. Even if compiling may require
some time (due to optimization flags), the result can
be really usable.



 When a new kernel is released, there is no reason to reinstall all of the
 packages on the system at the same time. Since the kernel and userland
 packages have different development cycles, there is no reason why there
 has to be synchronization of the upgrading.

It sometimes is neccessary, for example if kernel interfaces
have changed. There is some means of compatibility provided by
the compat_ ports. But if you start upgrading things, libraries
can break, and the system may become unstable (in terms of not
being able of running certain programs anymore). Just see how
kernel and world are out of sync errors can even cause the
system to stop booting. Degrading the inner workings of the OS
to just another package can cause trouble. Simple updates
as they are often performed on Linux systems can render the
whole installation totally unusable because something minor
went wrong. :-)



 An OS that requires a user to reinstall
 everything just to upgrade the kernel is not user friendly.

Why do consider a user being supposed to mess with kernels?
This question can show that I'm already too old: Programs
are for users, kernels are for sysadmins. Sysadmins do stuff
properly, even if they shoot their foot in order to learn
an important lesson. :-)

As I said before: Updating the kernel _may_ cause many dependency
programs (the userland and often the installed 3rd party
applications) to become target of updating in order to keep
their functionality. New kernel interfaces, changes in ABI
or API, new libraries, as well as obsoleted things may be
a valid (!) reason.





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Re: Still having trouble with package upgrades

2012-03-07 Thread Polytropon

On Wed, 7 Mar 2012 12:42:52 -0500, David Jackson wrote:
 On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 11:58 AM, Polytropon free...@edvax.de wrote:
 
  David, allow me to add a few thoughts:
 
  On Wed, 7 Mar 2012 11:28:47 -0500, David Jackson wrote:
   As for compile options, the solution is simple, compile in all feature
   options and the most commonly used settings into the binary packages, for
   the standard i386 CPU.
 
  I think this can develop into a major problem in certain
  countries where listening to MP3 is illegal. :-)
 
 
 You are talking about the codec.

Mostly, yes, but also about what to include: For example,
the mplayer port can build mplayer _and_ mencoder. For a
GUI version, there's gmplayer and gmencoder. A universal
package would contain them all.



 What Ubuntu seems to do is distribute these codecs as a seperate nonfree
 addon package which are then loaded by applications at run time. You see,
 options do not necessarily have to be compiled into programs, they can be
 loaded at libraries and then loaded by programs at run time if they are
 available.

I know this approach, it's effective within the Linux eco-
system and the special view at free vs. nonfree. However,
delegating installation and updating tasks from system
tools to individual applications looks... hmmm... looks
very old-fashioned and wrong to me. Just imagine 100
installed applications would not start, instead inter-
actively annoying you that there may be updates available,
and you should install them now, and reboot? That kind
of exaggeration is an example of how to to it totally wrong.

Loading things at runtime is something different than
permanently installing things to the system. A web page
loads a Javascript source file at runtime, but do you
want it to automatically install a web server to your
system? :-)



   If people want customisations then they can build
   the software for themselves.
 
  That's what they'll do anyway. :-)
 
 
 No, usually they do not. Few people except for hard core geeks want to mess
 around with compile options. most will use runtime configuration through a
 GUI which is faster.

Well, I'm not a hard core geek, but I have to make things
running on limited resources. For example, what if you need
to turn a 300 MHz P2 into a usable workstation? There's no
other way than dealing with /etc/make.conf and looking at
port options.

Those who intend to customize things usually are familiar
with the options that are presented, even though theose
options might look like logorrhea to others. Most option
screens are full of words (of dependencies or features)
that do not make any sense (and there's no way to conclude
what they do except doing a web search). For those who
tweak, they are no obstacle, but for newcomers they may
really be annoying: Do I need KLOMPATSH and SHLORTZ
support? And if I do, what do I need them for? :-)



   When a new kernel is released, there is no reason to reinstall all of the
   packages on the system at the same time. Since the kernel and userland
   packages have different development cycles, there is no reason why there
   has to be synchronization of the upgrading.
 
  It sometimes is neccessary, for example if kernel interfaces
  have changed. There is some means of compatibility provided by
  the compat_ ports. But if you start upgrading things, libraries
  can break, and the system may become unstable (in terms of not
  being able of running certain programs anymore). Just see how
  kernel and world are out of sync errors can even cause the
  system to stop booting. Degrading the inner workings of the OS
  to just another package can cause trouble. Simple updates
  as they are often performed on Linux systems can render the
  whole installation totally unusable because something minor
  went wrong. :-)
 
 
 
 A well designed system will provide backwards compatability through various
 strategies and this does not necessarily need to affect internal software
 design as the backwards compatability can also be provided by compatability
 layers and glue code.

Please do not underestimate the complexity of an operating
system. It is not a simple brick of chocolate. It's very
complicated, end even easy things like backwards compatibility
and universal interfaces need a lot of complexity behind
the scenes. The more versions to skip, the more work is
needed to keep it running. Just have a look at today's (!)
common mainframe operating systems that still allow you to
address a card punch in your program. :-)



   An OS that requires a user to reinstall
   everything just to upgrade the kernel is not user friendly.
 
  Why do consider a user being supposed to mess with kernels?
  This question can show that I'm already too old: Programs
  are for users, kernels are for sysadmins. Sysadmins do stuff
  properly, even if they shoot their foot in order to learn
  an important lesson. :-)
 
 
 Users have to upgrade the kernel, with a well designed OS this is a process
 that does

Re: Still having trouble with package upgrades

2012-03-07 Thread Polytropon

On Wed, 7 Mar 2012 22:04:35 -0500, David Jackson wrote:
 On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 6:51 PM, Polytropon free...@edvax.de wrote:
 
  On Wed, 7 Mar 2012 12:05:37 -0500, David Jackson wrote:
Many of your issues are non-issues, as your suggestions were
implemented in some form long ago.  For example, updated applications
are compiled and available online.  You can use pkg_add -r to
install the newest binary package that is available, or you can update
your an installed application by updating the ports and using
portupgrade, which has options to control whether you compile updates
from source or install binary packages.
   
   
  
  
   pkg-add -r does not seem to be an upgrade all packages sort of feature
  I
   am looking for. I have tried pkg-upgrade, portmaster, and portupgrade,
  all
   of these do not work.
 
  The portupgrade -PP command should be fine, if your ports
  tree is up to date.
 
 
 
 portupgrade -PP did not work for me, it gave me error messages about failed
 downloads.

Have you been able to perform the download manually?
This is _not_ for actual use, but for diagnostics!
Is the URI accessed by portupgrade properly constructed?
Typically it's a FTP URI that you can check using the
system's standard FTP tool (or web browser, if you want).

I had similar trouble years ago when portupgrade wasn't
considered mature enough, but today there should be a
good reason for a failing download. :-)



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Re: Suggestion

2012-03-09 Thread Polytropon

On Fri, 9 Mar 2012 01:56:25 -0300, Bruno Comerci wrote:
 Instead of wasting your time and man power, why wont you
 join to the ReactOS project?

Because I like to _act_, instead to just RE-act.
REact to some old-fashioned and spoiled concepts
and incompatible infrastructures without any future...



 It would be more beneficial to the internet community [...]

You _know_ that the inner bowels of the Internet run
UNIX, _not_ Windows, right?



 [...] and
 to the users around the world who wants a free OS with
 similar looking and functions than Windows, [...]

Just install the Redmond-inspired themes for KDE or Gnome,
install wine, and I assume for 99% of imaginable cases you
have a solution, if it _has_ to be some Windows stuff.
If not, learn something new - which is the _real_ benefit
than hanging around with short-term knowledge as it is
common in MICROS~1 land -, and use a free alternative.
Better security, more features, less money.



 [...] if you just throw away your FreeBSD 

Throw away something that just works? Who could be that
heavily distracted from reality?



 [...] and join forces with the ReactOS team to accelerate
 their process.

Nothing to say against that passage, but resources in
FreeBSD development are limited. They are better invested
in bringing FreeBSD into its future - because it _has_ a
future (unlike legacy operating systems that seem to be
intended to primarily run commercial software that has
been expensive when bought, but that won't run on
current MICROS~1 technology).



 Actually there isnt any single free OS that can be fully
 trusted, [...]

OpenBSD? :-)

Really: Only operating systems that are available as source
code have the chance to be trusted. The more people perform
audits and actually look at the source code, the better it
is.



 [...] but ReactOS seems to be that one that we all are wating for.

At least _I_ am not waiting for it (which proves your allquantified
we all as false by one counterexample -- simple logic).
I would - under no circumstances - trade a stable and
powerful OS that runs a plethora of applications and
utilizes modern technology for something that tries to
be like Windows, even if it's better in terms of
source availability, but worse as it's repeating all
the things that MICROS~1 has done wrong.



 Common world's citizen who dont have money to pay Windows [...]

To be honest, I would even pay money for FreeBSD if it
was a commercial OS, because it really does what I need.
Luckily, it can be obtained and used for free, unlike
Windows which you can't even try out without contamining
your hard disk.



 [...] and dont trust Linux and any other Unix-based OS.

Why is that? Do you believe that imitating MICROS~1
technology is generally better? Or what is the reason?
I'd be interested in learning more.

For further trust, an OpenBSD psychotherapy is highly
advised. ... I also run OpenBSD, so don't bash me for
this comment. :-)



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Re: Suggestion

2012-03-11 Thread Polytropon

On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 11:23:54 +0700, Erich Dollansky wrote:
 On Sunday 11 March 2012 10:53:26 Chad Perrin wrote:
  On Sat, Mar 10, 2012 at 11:31:33PM +0700, Erich Dollansky wrote:
   FAT rules!
  
  Uh . . . what?
 
 It is on every phone, every camera, every toaster ...

Sorry, you must be wrong. I tried to FORMAT.EXE my toaster
but it didn't work. It turned into a bread slicer instead.
Maybe the toaster is too old and requires paper tape... :-)



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Re: Mounting a samba share on boot?

2012-03-11 Thread Polytropon

On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 20:20:15 +0400, Льоша Лоїк wrote:
{ nothing }

Even though you wrote nothing, I assume that the subject
Mounting a samba share on boot? contains your question.

Answer:

You can put the required line in /etc/fstab, and provide
access details (workgroup, user, password and such stuff)
in /etc/nsmb.conf.

See the manpages for fstab, nsmb.conf and mount_smbfs for
details.

If you encounter problems with networking _not_ being up
when the mount is performed, see the late option described
in man mount. This option is often used for network-mounted
file systems.




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Re: oops, now: bsd question: how to record a tv stream?

2012-03-11 Thread Polytropon

On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 13:28:19 -0700, Gary Kline wrote:
 here us a FBSD qauestion how can i capture any tv stream---or
 radio stream for later replay?

I've been using a BrookTree (Haupauge WinTV) PCI card for
capturing from TV which worked very good using the standard
programs mplayer and mencoder.

For capturing TV programs, there may be some service like
the Online TV Recoder which I occassionally use. Maybe this
works also for radio programs?

Additionally, there may be an option to download some kind
of media streams. There are tools for that available.



 or is that illegal, too?

Yes, it is. It's also illegal to listen to MP3 in the US. :-)




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Re: Can't install WindowMaker

On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:42:24 +0100, Sabine Baer wrote:
 On Sun, Mar 11, 2012 at 05:27:14PM +, jb wrote:
  Sabine Baer baerks at t-online.de writes:
  
   ...
  
  After your ports updates, do not forget to test integrity of ports:
  # portmaster --check-depends
  # portmaster --check-port-dbdir
 
 Wow, lots of garbage.
 
  and retry the compilation again.
 
 No success.

Did you have the chance to try to compile it using
only ports infrastructure? E. g. making sure the
ports tree is up to date, and then

# cd /usr/ports/x11-wm/windowmaker/
# make install

to start with a clean (!) build? Just to be sure, you
could remove any possibly offending distfiles/ archives
and work/ subtrees.

If this has worked, you can run the portmaster checks
again, but if I understood you correctly, getting WindowMaker
(not sure about the current correct spelling!) installed
and running is your top priority.




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Re: Editor With NO Shell Access?

On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:40:10 -0400, Steve Bertrand wrote:
 You can force a user directly into an editor so they have no shell 
 access. For example, if the user has '/bin/csh' as their login shell, 
 adding:
 
 exec /usr/local/bin/vim
 
 into their ~/.cshrc file will force them directly into vim. When they 
 exit vim, they are immediately logged off.

Just an idea about extending this idea: What if the shell
field for that user does not contain a shell, but the name
of the editor instead? I assume it has to be noted in
/etc/shells to work, but a passwd entry like

bob:*:1234:1234:Two-loop-Bob:/home/bob:/usr/local/bin/joe

could work (haven't tested that). A list of the files can
be obtained when opening a file ^KE and pressing the Tab key.
It would be worth testing if shell escapes like !command
will work in this constellation...




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Re: Editor With NO Shell Access?

On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 15:19:51 -0700, Edward M. wrote:
 On 03/12/2012 03:10 PM, Polytropon wrote:
  /etc/shells to work, but a passwd entry like
 
  bob:*:1234:1234:Two-loop-Bob:/home/bob:/usr/local/bin/joe
 
 
I think this would not  let the user to login,etc

I'm not sure... I assume logging in is handled by /usr/bin/login,
and control is then (i. e. after successful login) transferred
to the login shell, which is the program specified in the
shell field (see man 5 passwd) of /etc/passwd. How is
login supposed to know if the program specified in this
field is actually a dialog shell?

From man 1 login I read that many shells have a built-in
login command, but /usr/bin/login is the system's default
binary for this purpose if the shell (quotes deserved if
it is an editor as shown in my assumption) has no capability
of performing a login.



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Re: Editor With NO Shell Access?

On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:34:18 -0700, Edward M. wrote:
 On 03/12/2012 03:47 PM, Edward M. wrote:
  On 03/12/2012 03:23 PM, Polytropon wrote:
  On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 15:19:51 -0700, Edward M. wrote:
  On 03/12/2012 03:10 PM, Polytropon wrote:
  /etc/shells to work, but a passwd entry like
 
  bob:*:1234:1234:Two-loop-Bob:/home/bob:/usr/local/bin/joe
 
  I think this would not  let the user to login,etc
  I'm not sure... I assume logging in is handled by /usr/bin/login,
  and control is then (i. e. after successful login) transferred
  to the login shell, which is the program specified in the
  shell field (see man 5 passwd) of /etc/passwd. How is
  login supposed to know if the program specified in this
  field is actually a dialog shell?
 
   From man 1 login I read that many shells have a built-in
  login command, but /usr/bin/login is the system's default
  binary for this purpose if the shell (quotes deserved if
  it is an editor as shown in my assumption) has no capability
  of performing a login.
 
 
 
 Now i gotta try this out.   Off to
 hosed my system.
   Does not work. Could not login, it shows Couldn't open *-joerc.

Very strange message. I know there's a .joerc in ~ (for the
user) and a global /usr/local/etc/joe/rjoerc (for system-wide
use).

I also get this message:

Couldn't open '*-joerc'

Maybe this is because joe isn't a shell and doesn't set some
required variables, such as $PATH or $HOME, and joe cannot
find its rc files...

The reason is what I see in /usr/ports/editors/joe/work/joe-3.7/main.c
line 353 and above.





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Re: /usr/lib32 question

On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 23:49:50 -0700, Waitman Gobble wrote:
 Hi,
 
 
 I have four files in /usr/lib32  - libc.so.7, libcrypt.so.5, librt.so.1,
 libthr.so.3 that are 444 root. Seems like i am unable to change permissions
 or remove... any idea why? or really, how to delete those files. it's an
 amd64 machine.

I'm on i386 here, so I can't check, but:

See if the files have additional flags set, especially
the system immutable flag (schg):

# ls -lo /usr/lib32

If neccessary, use:

# chflags noschg /usr/lib32/*

and continue trying to change permissions or remove the
files in that directory.



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Re: lost+found dir placement

On Tue, 13 Mar 2012 07:58:09 + (UTC), jb wrote:
 Hi,
 
 Each fs should have its own lost+found directory.
 It is used by fsck for placing recovered corrupted fs files in there.

Correct.



 This implies the dir must have already existed (it may not be mounted ad hoc
 e.g. at boot time, during fs recovery).

No. This implication does not exist.

If I read /usr/src/sbin/fsck_ffs/dir.c correctly, the
lost+found/ directory will be created by fsck if it is
required and _not_ present. It will do so on a inode
based method (instead of utilizing a file system oriented
call to make a directory). This is a requirement because
(as you correctly mentioned) the partition checked will
not be writable (or even be mounted), so mkdir() and
related fs functions cannot be used.

Also see an evidence for that idea in man fsck_ffs.



 In FreeBSD 9, I found lost+found dir under /mnt.
 This is incorrect - /mnt is defined under all standards (Filesystem Hierarchy 
 Standard, Unix directory structure) as contains filesystem mount points.

According to man hier (mandatory for interpreting the
file system hierarchy on FreeBSD) this your assumption
sounds correct: /mnt is explained to be an empty directory
commonly used by system administrators as a temporary mount
point, so having a lost+found/ directory in there doesn't
seem to have any purpose and looks wrong.



 So, lost+found dir should exist under root dir as /lost+found.

Correct. It will be assigned to the results of possible
recoveries of lost data of the / partition correctly.



 Any comments before I file a PR request ?

If this directory has been created by the installation
process, I think you should. Maybe you verify the issue
on the freebsd-fs@ list?



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Re: oops, now: bsd question: how to record a tv stream?

On Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:02:24 -0700, Gary Kline wrote:
   if it means buying a card, then, nope.  i  assumed that the
   bits were streaming thu my cable to firefox and that thedre
   was some program that could collecte these data and stash
   them in, say , /tmp.  i'm using linux as a desktop, and FBSD
   as my server.  

There are download helper plugins available for Firefox
that allow you to capture streaming content to a file.



   maybed i'll find where pbs has these films stashed ... or
   maybe they were only for pledge week  

Regular file downloads are something you'll hardly find
on the modern web. But that doesn't mean you cannot
turn streams into files. After all, the data _is_ trans-
ferred to your computer. It's just a question to use the
proper program. :-)





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Re: oops, now: bsd question: how to record a tv stream?

On Tue, 13 Mar 2012 19:19:46 -0700, Gary Kline wrote:
   i have heard about the 848 or whatever cards for years.
   should i have my sister's technician add one?  i understood
   everything but your last paragraph.  please do send me the
   linksoffline i f you think it wise to spare the
   bandwidth.

Just to make a note: This is the card I'm using. The model
name is Haupauge WinTV and the tuner chip is Brooktree 878.
It is well supported by FreeBSD (and has been for many years).
A problem may be that it is a PCI card.

The programs mplayer and mencoder can be used to address the
tuner and video-in functions of that card, as well as displaying
and storing the received content. You need a HF line to the
card (or an antenna maybe), except you provide the video feed
from a satelite receiver via video-in. In that case, you also
need to provide the audio signal from the receiver to your
sound card's line-in. With mencoder, both sources can be
combined and the result can be stored as a video file in
any format and container you want.

This is the card:

bktr0@pci0:0:9:0:   class=0x04 card=0x13eb0070
chip=0x036e109e rev=0x11 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Conexant (Was: Brooktree Corp)'
device = 'Bt878/Fusion 878A Mediastream Controller'
class  = multimedia
subclass   = video

The card provides HF-in both for TV and radio, video-in,
audio-out and... not sure what it is. :-)

You need the kernel modules loaded per

bktr_load=YES

in /boot/loader.conf, and the card will work out of the box.
No need to manually and interactively install a driver. :-)

The player command is something like

% mplayer tv://1 -vo x11 -ao sdl -tv driver=bsdbt848:device=/dev/bktr0

and similarly mencoder can be used (-ovc and -oac need to be
adjusted accordingly) to encode to a file.

I'm not sure how to handle TV (antenna) input as I've always
been using a raw video feed (from VTR or camera). However, there's
documentation that may help:

http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/tv-input.html

It also contains an example to record to file, which will
implement the software video tape recoder functionality.



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Re: Making Music / Video folders on FreeBSD visible on HD TV

2012-03-14 Thread Polytropon

On Wed, 14 Mar 2012 07:32:44 -0400, Carmel wrote:
On Wed, 14 Mar 2012 11:45:36 +0100
Polytropon articulated:

//* OFFLIST

As you carried this on-list again, allow me to reply
in public. I do not appreciate your lack of humour
(see explaination at the end).

On Wed, 14 Mar 2012 06:39:08 -0400, Carmel wrote:
Obviously Microsoft anticipated user needs quite
successfully. I have several friends who have integrated their TVs
with their home PC quite successfully and painlessly.

This has changed with the upcoming version of their Windows.
Check out this video and have a good laugh.

http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-pick/a-real-user-proves-windows-8-fails-on-the-desktop-20120312/

;-)

Ah yes, your basic FUD rubbish. Win8 has not even been released. Many
of the features are still in a state of flux.

Your basic FUD rubbish. Specific features have been
confirmed to be in the final release. The absence
of the well-known interaction starting point is
one of them.

While I like some of Windows 8's concepts especially
for the mobile market, transitioning them 1:1 to the
desktop _and its users_ will cause trouble, as you
can see in the video.

Complaining about
something in an unreleased version of Windows is like complaining that
FreeBSD-10 is a failure because (you fill in the blank). When it is
released, then proper comparisons can be made.

We will see.

The main effect of failure will be when problems
start hitting the support queues. Re-learning things
has never been a great strength in Windows land,
but maybe a radical change in usage paradigm isn't
that bad. Also architectural changes (e. g. abandoning
decades of legacy) are welcome by supporters and also
by programmers.

As I said, we will see.

BTW, I read on another blog by a typical MS Hater that he hated the
new interface because the mouse was no longer usable in the system. It
turns out the genius was not aware of how to enable or disable the
mouse.

That's really stupid.

Do not confuse me with a MICROS~1 hater. You would be
surprised by the truth.

And yes, the idiot is a charter member of slashdot. Go
figure ...

I don't consume that kind of web content, sorry.

In addition, I really do not appreciate your trolling.

You missed reading and interpreting the ;-) appended.
Better luck next time.

Re: satisfying package dependencies from installation DVD when building a port -- HOW?

2012-03-14 Thread Polytropon

On Wed, 14 Mar 2012 17:11:55 +0100, IMAP List Administration wrote:
 Hello,
 
 I've just installed 9.0-RELEASE (amd64) in a KVM/Qemo VM on debian linux, 
 which
 is extremely painful because of the abysmal I/O performance, and would like to
 build the virtio-kmod. After unpacking src.txz (xz -c
 /cd/usr/freebsd-dist/src.txz | tar xf -) I did the following:
 
 # cd /usr/ports/emulators/virtio-kmo
 # make clean install
 
 at this point I saw port names such as perl, tcl, neon, sqlite, etc fly past. 

You can use the command

# make missing

to get a list of which dependencies need to be installed.
See man 7 ports for other targets that might be useful.



 Apparently the ports system satisfies dependencies from the ports tree by 
 default.

Correct. Dependencies are resolved and installed (usually
by compiling them from source, installing and registering
them), then the initial build is returned to.



 Since I have not updated anything, it seems reasonable, and much less painful 
 to
 satisfy the dependencies using the packages on the installation DVD, which is
 mounted on /cd.

If the default options of the dependency ports are fine for
you, this should be no problem.



 I tried setting PKG_PATH to /cd/packages and to /cd/packages/All, but 
 when I
 simply try to test using, for example, pkg_add perl pkg_add simply says 
 can't
 stat package file.

Change CWD to the location of the packages (on CD) and
try again. According to man pkg_add:

If the packages are not found in the current
working directory, pkg_add will search them in
each directory named by PKG_PATH.

If there's still an error, can you provide the command
you entered plus the output? Maybe adding -v helps to
give some more information.



 I'm guessing it would be pointless to try to use a (remote) URL in 
 PACKAGEROOT,
 as the -r flag *must* be give in order for pkg_add to honor the setting, and
 god knows how the ports system calls pkg_add, if at all.

The ports do not use pkg_add.

However, using a tool like portmaster or portinstall can
help you using binary packages (options -P and -PP).

If you use pkg_add -r, some more magic will be applied
to form the proper URI for fetching the packages (e. g.
architecture and OS version may be considered).



 I had a long look in the docs, but this stuff doesn't *seem* to be documented 
 :(

I don't remember any particular documentation regarding
this procedure. The pkg_add command should automatically
install dependencies (option -i to prevent).



 Is it possible to get the ports system to satisfy dependencies using the
 packages from the installation DVD?  If so, how?

I think that's possible; I hope you got some inspiration.



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Re: oops, now: bsd question: how to record a tv stream?

2012-03-14 Thread Polytropon

On Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:30:08 -0700, Gary Kline wrote:
 On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 02:58:30PM +1000, Da Rock wrote:
  Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 14:58:30 +1000
  From: Da Rock freebsd-questi...@herveybayaustralia.com.au
  Subject: Re: oops, now: bsd question: how to record a tv stream?
  To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org

  On 03/14/12 13:09, Polytropon wrote:
  On Tue, 13 Mar 2012 19:19:46 -0700, Gary Kline wrote:
i have heard about the 848 or whatever cards for years.
should i have my sister's technician add one?  i understood
everything but your last paragraph.  please do send me the
linksoffline i f you think it wise to spare the
bandwidth.
  Just to make a note: This is the card I'm using. The model
  name is Haupauge WinTV and the tuner chip is Brooktree 878.
  It is well supported by FreeBSD (and has been for many years).
  A problem may be that it is a PCI card.

  The programs mplayer and mencoder can be used to address the
  tuner and video-in functions of that card, as well as displaying
  and storing the received content. You need a HF line to the
  card (or an antenna maybe), except you provide the video feed
  from a satelite receiver via video-in. In that case, you also
  need to provide the audio signal from the receiver to your
  sound card's line-in. With mencoder, both sources can be
  combined and the result can be stored as a video file in
  any format and container you want.

  This is the card:

  bktr0@pci0:0:9:0:   class=0x04 card=0x13eb0070
   chip=0x036e109e rev=0x11 hdr=0x00
   vendor = 'Conexant (Was: Brooktree Corp)'
   device = 'Bt878/Fusion 878A Mediastream Controller'
   class  = multimedia
   subclass   = video

  The card provides HF-in both for TV and radio, video-in,
  audio-out and... not sure what it is. :-)

  You need the kernel modules loaded per

 bktr_load=YES

  in /boot/loader.conf, and the card will work out of the box.
  No need to manually and interactively install a driver. :-)

  The player command is something like

 % mplayer tv://1 -vo x11 -ao sdl -tv driver=bsdbt848:device=/dev/bktr0

  and similarly mencoder can be used (-ovc and -oac need to be
  adjusted accordingly) to encode to a file.

  I'm not sure how to handle TV (antenna) input as I've always
  been using a raw video feed (from VTR or camera). However, there's
  documentation that may help:

 http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/tv-input.html

  It also contains an example to record to file, which will
  implement the software video tape recoder functionality.
  Brooktrees would be nice - if you could find them. Given the move to
  DVB is nearly over, there aren't many analog cards available - or
  need for them.

  The new cards use incompatible chipsets (learnt the hard way),
  including analog and especially DVB; you have to use the cx88 port
  to use them. Or if you come across a different chipset ensure the
  card is USB based and use webcamd.

  Following all that, FBSD works beautifully as a HTPC.

   GAAWK! This is far, far out of my comfort zone thst i wsill
   just skip it for now.  i have my feed from my local telco,
   not an antenna

The BrookTree TV tuner component doesn't make a big difference
here. Both the antenna and the cable will deliver a frequency
conglomerate of the available TV programs which the tuner chip
can select from.

If you require a specific cable receiver with video-out, you can
send its signal to the card's video-on (and the audio-out of the
receiver to your computer's sound card's line-in), skipping the
part where the TV card has to select a TV program. Both methods
work fine.

   thanks for all the datapoints, guys, but i can vedry well
   live without the card.

In that case, try to find a web presence that allows you to down-
load or to stream (and in conclusion, to download) the TV programs.
This makes you independent of airing time (which probably is a
good thing).

Maybe there's also a service like OnlineTVRecorder.com (Your
personal multichannel tv recorder) available for you, providing
downloads for the programs you want in AVI or OTRKEY format.

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Re: Moved drives ...

2012-03-15 Thread Polytropon

On Fri, 16 Mar 2012 02:13:40 +1030, David Walker wrote:
 I've read boot(8) to some degree and tried interrupting boot and so on.
 At some point I get a ...
 mountroot
 ... prompt which I guess is what you refer to.
 I'm not sure how to influence this - there seems to be no keyboard
 control at any rate ...

I think you need a regular keyboard here (AT or PS/2),
unless your BIOS offers a USB keyboard legacy support.



 I've decided to re-install FreeBSD rather than try to learn about this - lazy.

You could have used UFSIDs (unique file system identifiers)
as described in the handbook - it's an alternative to using
GPT labels (currently looks problematic) or UFS labels (should
work).

20.7 Labeling Disk Devices
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/geom-glabel.html

(bottom of page)



 During install, although FreeBSD correctly recognizes all the drives
 and allows me to select one as a target and use whole, when it gets
 to slicing up the drive and presents the list of all drives, it
 incorrectly shows the first drive (the Windows drive) as having UFS
 partitions and so on - that drive is a single NTFS slice ...
 Needless to say there's no way I'm proceeding with install.

Maybe misinterpretation of some remains of GPT partitioning?



 So I leave the cabling order (which is what I originally changed
 prompting me to email the list) but unplug the Windows drive and
 install FreeBSD.
 Reboot and ... same situation.
 Sort of expected.

Have you considered performing a manual installation per
shell commands? It's not that difficult and allows you to
walk around problems that may reside inside the installer.

In worst case, make sure to remove all remains of a
previous partitioning (clean install).



   If you'd've
  used labels (either glabel or tunefs -L) you'd not have to change
  your /etc/fstab at all.
 
 I'd have no problem with that ... except it's not given as an option
 during install as far as I can see.

Is is _indirectly_ given: Start a shell, mount the drive
and edit the file manually. :-)




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Re: Can't install WindowMaker

2012-03-15 Thread Polytropon

On Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:24:41 +0100, Sabine Baer wrote:
 On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 10:57:47PM +0100, Polytropon wrote:
  
  [...]
 
  Did you have the chance to try to compile it using
  only ports infrastructure? E. g. making sure the
  ports tree is up to date, and then
  
  # cd /usr/ports/x11-wm/windowmaker/
  # make install
 
 I did this several times.

Do you have any non-standard settings in /etc/make.conf
that might be a reason here? Overriding CFLAGS or -O
something or maybe a wrong CPUTYPE?

I'm just asking to also check this obvious stuff as I
did shoot my own foot with something like that. :-)



  to start with a clean (!) build? Just to be sure, you
  could remove any possibly offending distfiles/ archives
  and work/ subtrees.
 
 I do not undestand exactly, what You mean. I did a cvsup -g -L 2
 ports-supfile several times, I went to all /usr/ports/x11*/dirctories
 and made a 'make clean' for al the ports therein, but nothing helped.

That should have eliminated any remains of work/ directories.
The removal of distfiles/ would cause the make process, started
in a clean build environment, to also fetch a new source tarball.
After you have successfully brought up your ports tree to the
latest version, also the latest source of WindowMaker should
be obtained.



  If this has worked, you can run the portmaster checks
  again, but if I understood you correctly, getting WindowMaker
  (not sure about the current correct spelling!) installed
  and running is your top priority.
  
 At the very moment, yes. But I found pekwm (other wm than windoemaker
 compile without problems), it seems to be not bad either.
 But this damn windowmaker should compile too, aus Prinzip!

Of course it should. I've been able to successfully install
version 0.92.0_10 on August 22nd 2011, so it should be possible
to reproduce that. :-)



 But there is much mor im Eimer than windomaker only.
 But I can't find the highest port of all X-related. I deinstalled
 xorg and searched for remaining ports in /var/db/pkg seeming related
 to X or GUI stuff, an reinstalled x11/xorg (without HAL, which brings
 a failure too).

If you don't actually _use_ HAL, there is no reason to compile
it in. Experience teaches that it brings more trouble than
benefit. In ultra-worst case, you could reinstall everything
(i. e. cleaning /usr/local and restoring it from the mtree
file, cleaning /var/db/pkg also), starting with a list of
your actually used programs and let them pull in all the
dependencies, e. g.

# cd /usr/ports/x11-wm/windowmaker/
# make config-recursive
# make install

That would maybe be less elegant than using a port management
tool, but it should work.



 Since long times, I often run into troubles when
 installing something gnome-related. I do not use gnome, but some
 applications need some gnome stuff. 

I'm running some Gnome/Gtk+ related applications here (as well
as some from KDE land), but the installation has been done in
summer last year. I can hardly imagine that there is a significant
loss of just works in recent ports...



 Well, at the very moment I need some advice for cleaning my system
 free of all GUI so that I can begin from zero with that.

To really make sure there is nothing offending on the system,
make sure you check /etc/make.conf, then remove /usr/local and
restore the directory structures using /etc/mtree/BSD.local.dist,
also make sure /var/db/pkg is clean. That resembles the state of
the OS right after a fresh install. Also delete /usr/ports and
use portsnap to obtain a new ports tree. Use csup (as in your
example above) to update to the latest version. Then start
installing using the port infrastructure (to limit the possibilities
what can go wrong - without a port management tool) as in my
example.



 I decided to follow the rcipe at the end of mman portmaster and made
 all new. I didn't install all the ports that were installed, just what
 I really need - fetchmail, mutt-lite, vim-lite, slrn, lynx, inadyn,
 screen, mgetty+sendfax, and x11/xorg and opera.  All compiled fine.

Correct approach. This makes sure you won't accidentally
install a port that you won't need just because somehow it
has been on the system. :-)

This is a starting point where you could try to install
WindowMaker from. As I see from the list, X is there, but
no big things that could make the WindowMaker build break.
Check out man script to save a copy of the messages from
the building process (good way to check error messages in
case it failed).




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Re: Dualboot with Windows 7

On Sun, 18 Mar 2012 23:05:58 +0100, David Demelier wrote:
 Hello,
 
 I try to create a dualboot with Windows 7, I set up partitions like that :
 
 ada0s1 - NTFS (windows recovery)
 ada0s2 - NTFS (windows main partition)
 ada0s3 - BSD
   ada0s3a - freebsd-swap (3G)
   ada0s3b - freebsd-ufs / (remaining space from drive)

Erm... according to traditional partitioning, isn't
the 'a' partition reserved for booting, 'b' for swap?
I see you have installed everything into one / partition
which technically is no problem and should work, but
it's not on the boot partition.



 And then I let the installer complete the step, because FreeBSD didn't 
 let you (since 9.0) choose between the boot manager nothing was 
 installed and the boot directly goes to Windows 7.

You need to install all the required stages for booting.
If I understand the process correctly, the slice 's3' needs
code to branch to the boot partition (which is supposed
to be the 'a' partition), and the boot selector needs to
be accessed from the beginning of the disk - you said
you're using EasyBCD for this which is okay.



 I installed EasyBCD to add a new entry to FreeBSD on the third 
 partition, but when I choose the FreeBSD entry nothing happens, only the 
 _ character blinking.

I assume missing boot characteristics as described above.
Please review your installation process and maybe re-do it.
In worst case, drop to command line for using the traditional
toolset to apply the proper slicing and partitioning.
According to man fdisk and man bsdlabel, you should be
able to write the required boot characteristics to allow
the correct boot process.



 Thus I tried bsdlabel -B ada0s3 from the FreeBSD iso shell but it didn't 
 solve. What can I do to boot FreeBSD now?

As this part is done, I suppose incorrect partitioning.

2.6.5 Creating Partitions Using Disklabel
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install-steps.html

Refer to table 2-2: Partition Layout for First Disk.

Boot manager and MBR handling are also covered in this chapter.



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Re: Can't install WindowMaker

On Mon, 19 Mar 2012 07:51:04 +0100, Sabine Baer wrote:
 On Sat, Mar 17, 2012 at 07:07:33PM +0100, lokada...@gmx.de wrote:
 
 [...]
  I see that you have a german mailadress, so i will write in germany.
 
 Dann kann ich ja auch mal auf Deutsch antworten, ich hoffe, man sieht
 uns das nach.
 
  Guck mal nach, ob du unter /etc/ eine Datei mit dem Namen
  portsnap.conf hast.
 
 Ja, habe ich, habe ich aber bisher noch nie benutzt, ich nehme immer
 cvsup -g ports-supfile (mit host=cvsup.freebsd.org). Das dauert zwar
 ewig, aber ist doch gleichermassen aktuell, oder? 

Nein, es ist oftmals noch aktueller (more current). :-)

Explaination: The portsnap provides a snapshot of the ports
tree. It's _not_ updated as fast as what you can get via
differentials using csup (which can change a file within
half an hour). When many file changes are scheduled, portsnap
is faster, and it's especially useful to download a complete
ports tree. For being bleeding-edge current, csup is the
better method, especially if you update your ports tree
regularly.


  Wenn du eine Flatrate hast, kannst du vielleicht auch mal dein
  ganzes System auf 9.0 aktualisieren (freebsd-update ist für die
  Standardinstallation ohne Kompilierung ganz gut).  
 
 Ich habe bisher davon abgesehen, 7.n zu verlassen, weil ich aus dem
 Augenwinkel gesehen habe, dass bei Versionen 7.n die Einstellungen
 fuer die seriellen Schnittstellen veraendert werden muessen, und da
 hatte ich keine Lust zu. Dass die funktionieren, ist fuer mich aber
 absolut unabdingbar, ich habe naemlich ein echtes Terminal daran
 haengen

You should note that 7.4 is a legacy release which is rather
old, but I can understand the urge _not_ to fiddle with things
that just work (and especially if it's something _that_ special
like a _real_ serial terminal).



  Einige Probleme treten auf, wenn die Libarys auf dem System zu alt
  sind, aber in den Ports aktuelle benötigt werden.
 
 Vielleicht ist das bei windowmaker tatsaechlich so. Ich habe noch mal
 alles 'runtergeschmissen, ein make clean in ?usr/ports gemacht, alle
 distfiles 'rausgeschmissen und /usr/local/* komplett geloescht. Und
 auf einmal konnte ich Ports installieren, die zuvor alle Fehler
 erbracht haben - ImageMagick, dia, gimp, /lang/lua (fuer nmap).

Ist manchmal echt das beste. Hier zeigt sich mal wieder, daß
die Trennung von OS und Programmen sehr sinnvoll sein kann!



 Ich habe es ohne 'sophisticated tools', nur mit cd
 /usr/ports/*/$ANWENDUNG, make config und make install clean gemacht,
 es hat lange gedauert, aber war erfolgreich.

See man 7 ports, the target make config-recursive to get
rid of build interruptions due to forced interactivity.



 Nur der windowmaker weigert sich nach wie vor zu kompilieren. Da ich
 aller 'rausgeschmissen habe, weiss ich auch nicht mehr, ob ich zuvor
 eine aeltere Version installiert hatte.

Im Zweifelsfall installier Dir mal portdowngrade und zieh
eine ältere Version von WindowMaker, vielleicht compiliert
die ja?

Ich halte es in solchen Fällen oft für sinnvoll, nach der
Komplettreinigung und dem mtree-Lauf mit _dem_ Port zu
beginnen, den man eigentlich haben will. Alle Dependencies,
die der braucht, sollten automatisch gezogen werden, so hat
man eine minimale (kontrollierte) Umgebung, in der möglichst
wenig Stolpersteine liegen sollten.



 Ich bedanke mich jedenfalls bei Dir und 'Polýtropon' fuer die Hilfe,
 sie hat mir wirklich geholfen, wenn ich auch immer noch keinen
 windowmaker wieder habe.

On my voluminous voyage through window manager and desktop
environemnts, I've always come back to WindowMaker. As I
said, installing it on v8 hasn't been a problem, but when
I did use it on v7 (with the sources being current at _that_
time) it also worked. Maybe the current sources are really
too new, and a portdowngrade could work?

At least the port is not maked _not_ to build on v7, so it
basically _should_ work.

So, nun haben wir hier schönes Sprech-Mischmasch, mashed
language so to say... :-)



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Re: Dualboot with Windows 7

On Mon, 19 Mar 2012 08:29:22 +0100, David Demelier wrote:
 On 19/03/2012 07:28, Polytropon wrote:
  On Sun, 18 Mar 2012 23:05:58 +0100, David Demelier wrote:
  Hello,
 
  I try to create a dualboot with Windows 7, I set up partitions like that :
 
  ada0s1 -  NTFS (windows recovery)
  ada0s2 -  NTFS (windows main partition)
  ada0s3 -  BSD
 ada0s3a -  freebsd-swap (3G)
 ada0s3b -  freebsd-ufs / (remaining space from drive)
 
  Erm... according to traditional partitioning, isn't
  the 'a' partition reserved for booting, 'b' for swap?
  I see you have installed everything into one / partition
  which technically is no problem and should work, but
  it's not on the boot partition.
 
 
 
 You're right, but I made a mistake while writing, my a partition is / 
 and b is swap.

Okay.



  And then I let the installer complete the step, because FreeBSD didn't
  let you (since 9.0) choose between the boot manager nothing was
  installed and the boot directly goes to Windows 7.
 
  You need to install all the required stages for booting.
  If I understand the process correctly, the slice 's3' needs
  code to branch to the boot partition (which is supposed
  to be the 'a' partition), and the boot selector needs to
  be accessed from the beginning of the disk - you said
  you're using EasyBCD for this which is okay.
 
 
 
 I followed the part 13.3.2 from 
 http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/boot-blocks.html
 
 I think this should be enough, isn't it? it says bsdlabel -B will 
 replace the boot1 and boot2 stage so all of them are installed.

Looks correct.



 Now the question is how to branch the a partition as the boot partition ?

No need. As soon as the branching from ada0-start - ada0s3
has been processed, the 'a' partition ada0s3a will be accessed
as it is the boot partition. It will then continue stage 1 and 2
and finally access the loader, which will load the kernel.

In 13.3.2 it is explained as follows:

They [Stage One, /boot/boot1, and Stage Two, /boot/boot2]
are located outside file systems, in the first track of
the boot slice, starting with the first sector. This is
where boot0, or any other boot manager, expects to find
a program to run which will continue the boot process.
The number of sectors used is easily determined from the
size of /boot/boot.

In your case, the boot slice (for FreeBSD) is ada0s3 where the
boot manager EasyBCD will branch to.

Getting just a cursor (as you described) makes it hard to
identify where the process hangs. If EasyBCD is the last
thing you see, I assume the FreeBSD boot process isn't even
initiated. Every part of it (MBR boot manager, boot0, boot1,
boot2 and loader) would issue some kind of text when accessed.


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Re: dbus, epiphany, rekonq

On Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:21:29 +, Anton Shterenlikht wrote:
 I can't lauch www/epiphany or www/rekonq
 on ia64 -current, due to some dbus issue:
 
 TZAV ps ax|grep dbus
  1435  -  Is   0:00.02 /usr/local/bin/dbus-daemon --fork --print-pid 5 
 --print-address 7 --sess
  1434  2- I0:00.01 dbus-launch 
 --autolaunch=fb0372ea595109904f5a068e0180 --binary-synta
 41284  5  RL+  0:00.00 grep dbus
 
 TZAV epiphany
 
 ** (epiphany:41285): WARNING **: Unable to connect to session bus: Failed to 
 connect to socket /tmp/dbus-dyUjnhLBwE: No such file or directory
 
 TZAV rekonq 
 unnamed app(41291): KUniqueApplication: Cannot find the D-Bus session server: 
  Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-dyUjnhLBwE: No such file or 
 directory 
 
 unnamed app(41290): KUniqueApplication: Pipe closed unexpectedly. 
 
 TZAV ps ax | grep dbus
  1435  -  Is   0:00.02 /usr/local/bin/dbus-daemon --fork --print-pid 5 
 --print-address 7 --sess
  1434  2- I0:00.01 dbus-launch 
 --autolaunch=fb0372ea595109904f5a068e0180 --binary-synta
 41294  5  RL+  0:00.00 grep dbus
 
 What am I doing wrong?

Have you checked the presence of the /tmp/dbus-dyUjnhLBwE socket?



 I understand dbus is a required part of
 a modern browser, it is no longer an option, right?

What?! I don't think that this is an acceptable opinion. :-)

Both browsers you mentioned are part of KDE or Gnome.
THOSE heavily rely on DBUS, that's right, and due to
the transition of dependencies, _their_ web browsers
also do.

For example, I'm not running DBUS here, but I run modern
web browsers. I just don't run _those_ two. :-)

So did you properly build your KDE and Gnome components
with DBUS enabled, and all of their configurable dependencies
also with DBUS enabled? It _may_ be that the use of DBUS
is not among the default building options for one of the
nested dependencies, and that one might be _the one_ that
now shoots your foot. :-)

Your ps listing indicates that you are running DBUS, so
that shouldn't be the problem. Missing DBUS support in one
of the required components _could_ be.




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Re: Convert mp3 to audio CD

On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 23:10:16 -0400, Steve Bertrand wrote:
 I know this is a backwards request, as I haven't had to go from mp3 to 
 audio CD format in at least 10 years, but I do now.
 
 What is available to do so?

This script, ugly as hell, but works. :-)

You need to install madplay or mpg123, as well as sox.
If you also want to convert Ogg/Vorbis files, you need
ogg123 (vorbis-tools). And of course you need a cd
burning program such as cdrdao or cdrecord. See the
examples for calling them at the end of the script.







#!/bin/sh

echo === MP3 + OGG/Vorbis - Audio CD Converter 
===
echo -n MP3 decoders found:
DECODER=0
which mpg123  /dev/null 21
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
DECODER=2
echo -n  mpg123
fi
which madplay  /dev/null 21
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
DECODER=1
echo -n  madplay
fi
if [ $DECODER -eq 0 ]; then
echo none, aborting.
exit 1
fi
echo -n , using 
if [ $DECODER -eq 1 ]; then
echo madplay.
else
echo -n mpg123
which madplay  /dev/null 21
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
echo  and sox.
else
echo , but sox is not available, exiting.
exit 1
fi
fi
echo -n OGG/Vorbis decoders found:
which ogg123  /dev/null 21
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
echo  ogg123.
else
echo none, aborting.
exit 1
fi

TOCFILE=audiocd.toc
echo CD_DA  $TOCFILE

FILELIST=`ls *.[mo][pg][3g]`
if [ $FILELIST =  ]; then
echo No files (*.mp3 and/or *.ogg) found, aborting.
exit 1
fi

for FILE in *.[mo][pg][3g]; do
echo -n $FILE - 
echo $FILE | grep/dev/null 21
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
echo filename contains spaces, cannot proceed.
exit 1
fi
TYPE=
echo $FILE | grep .mp3  /dev/null 21
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
TYPE=mp3
fi
echo $FILE | grep .ogg  /dev/null 21
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
TYPE=ogg
fi
if [ $TYPE = ogg ]; then
ogg123 -q -d raw -f $FILE.raw $FILE
sox -r 44100 -c 2 -w -s $FILE.raw $FILE.cdr
rm $FILE.raw
elif [ $TYPE = mp3 ]; then
case $DECODER in
1)
madplay -q -o cdda:$FILE.cdr $FILE
;;
2)
mpg123 -sq $FILE  $FILE.raw
sox -r 44100 -c 2 -w -s $FILE.raw $FILE.cdr
rm $FILE.raw
;;
esac
elif [ $TYPE =  ]; then
echo file type unknown, aborting.
exit 1
fi
echo $FILE.cdr
echo TRACK AUDIO COPY AUDIOFILE \$FILE.cdr\ 0  $TOCFILE
done
echo Your recording command could be:
echo  # cdrecord -eject -v -dao -audio *.cdr
echo  # cdrdao write --eject audiocd.toc
echo After finished, don't forget to delete converter garbage:
echo  # rm *.cdr audiocd.toc
echo 
==
exit 0




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Re: dbus, epiphany, rekonq

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 09:29:09 +, Anton Shterenlikht wrote:
 On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 04:12:50AM +0100, Bernt Hansson wrote:
  You do have this in /etc/rc.conf
  
  dbus_enable=YES
 
 I didn't think it was necessary, as firefox3
 launches dbus-daemon on startup. But I'll give
 it a go.

I think those are mandatory when running X + { KDE | Gnome }.
Maybe it's even required for running KDE or Gnome applications
without the whole desktop environment? Maybe the dependencies
are that deep that they affect the libraries used...

Always check for

hald_enable=YES
dbus_enable=YES

in your /etc/rc.conf.

See:
http://www.freebsd.org/gnome/docs/halfaq.html


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Re: Convert mp3 to audio CD

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 07:07:40 -0400, Rod Person wrote:
 On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 23:10:16 -0400
 Steve Bertrand steve.bertr...@gmail.com wrote:
 
  I know this is a backwards request, as I haven't had to go from mp3
  to audio CD format in at least 10 years, but I do now.
  
  What is available to do so?
  
 
 Basically the same as other, but just using lame to convert a directory
 full of mp3s
 
 
 #!/bin/sh
 
 for a in *
 do
   OUTF=`echo $a | sed s/\.mp3/.wav/g`
   lame --decode -q 0 $a $OUTF
 done

Just note that those *.wav files will have to be in the
correct format (44.1 kHz two-channel 16 bit) and maybe
require byte order reversal as well as stripping the
WAV headers to record them as a music CD. It seems that
some recording programs already contain this step. Refer
to audio CD specifications for why pure WAV files don't
make an audio CD.




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Re: Convert mp3 to audio CD

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 07:25:11 -0400, Rod Person wrote:
 On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:16:24 +0100
 Polytropon free...@edvax.de wrote:
 
  On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 07:07:40 -0400, Rod Person wrote:
   On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 23:10:16 -0400
   Steve Bertrand steve.bertr...@gmail.com wrote:
   
I know this is a backwards request, as I haven't had to go from
mp3 to audio CD format in at least 10 years, but I do now.

What is available to do so?

   
   Basically the same as other, but just using lame to convert a
   directory full of mp3s
   
   
   #!/bin/sh
   
   for a in *
   do
 OUTF=`echo $a | sed s/\.mp3/.wav/g`
 lame --decode -q 0 $a $OUTF
   done
  
  Just note that those *.wav files will have to be in the
  correct format (44.1 kHz two-channel 16 bit) and maybe
  require byte order reversal as well as stripping the
  WAV headers to record them as a music CD. It seems that
  some recording programs already contain this step. Refer
  to audio CD specifications for why pure WAV files don't
  make an audio CD.
  
 
 I've used this for years and never had an issues, but to accomplish
 removing the header you would use the -t option along with --decode for
 lame and -x does a bit swap, but not sure if that is the same byte order
 reversal.

Yes, I think that's the correct approach. My old script,
written when I was new to FreeBSD (at v4.0), uses the
unelegant sox -r 44100 -c 2 -w -s $FILE.raw $FILE.cdr
to convert to the proper CD audio format which could
also be used by burncd (deprecated?), but also by cdrdao
and cdrecord with no additional conversion parameters.

Thanks for the hint about lame --decode!



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Re: about change file mode

2012-03-22 Thread Polytropon

On Thu, 22 Mar 2012 11:44:18 +0100, Xavier FreeBSD questions wrote:
 Hi tot all,
 
 Why don't change the files mode ?
 
 casa# mount -t msdosfs /dev/da0s1 /mnt/JetFlash\ Transcend\ 1GB/

The answer is right in your first command: You're using
a MSDOS file system. That particular file system doesn't
know about rwx attributes. That's why files have +x by
default. You can not remove the x attribute from them
because they actually don't have one.

However, you can mask that false-positive attribute
by using the -m option. See man mount_msdosfs for
details. You can also use it in your /etc/fstab's
options field to make it a default.



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Re: Off-Topic: Computing for the Blind

2012-03-25 Thread Polytropon

further investigations.




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Re: Off-Topic: Computing for the Blind

2012-03-26 Thread Polytropon

On Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:21:08 -0500, Martin McCormick wrote:
   The easiest and most economical interface for computer
 users who are blind is spoken speach.

That's correct. However, unlike a Braille readout which
gives tactile information (through the reader's hands),
synthetic voice cannot easily accomodate to the reader's
habits and reading speed. Scanning text is not possible
as the generated voiced text is played in linear time,
which means you cannot easily skip forward and backward,
re-read a certain passage, and you basically do not come
down to the letter level, you only have a word level.
While this has benefits in unconcentrated reading (e. g.
reading an article or literature, it can be problematic
with scientific or technical text where a (healthy) reader
would let his eyes jump within the text stream.



   One can learn to type and touch-typing was tought in
 schools for the blind for scores of years before computers ever
 even came on the scene.

I also learned typewriting (mandatory!) in school, and
believe it or not, it comes handy every time I have to
deal with a computer. :-)



 We pounded on typewriters and our
 poor suffering typing teachers were the feedback mechanisms that
 told us how we were doing. So, a person who is blind needs to
 know how to type.

A good keyboard can help here. Keep in mind that a keyboard,
being a means of input, provides tactile feedback as output.
So without any visual confirmation you can detect when you
made a typing error, activating a motor program to correct
it on the fly.

At this point, I typically recommend using an IBM Model M
keyboard. But the Sun USB Type 7 is also good, as it provides
programmable keys for volume control, application interaction
and Braille readout control. (I use those keys primarily for
dealing with the window manager - no need to use the eyes!)



   None of these screen readers are perfect, but most
 computer users who are blind end up being reasonably happy with
 one of them.

Especially in combination with web browsers, they are prone
to fail. Where there's no text (as content) in a web page,
there's nothing to read to the user. The use of the HTML
tags alt= and longdesc= is a long forgotten art, and when
Flash enters the scene to replace few lines of HTML (as
for links or simple text), there's no easy way to determine
_what_ currently is on the screen.



   There are also Braille displays which some people use
 but they are extremely costly.

Sadly, that is correct. In my opinion this is because they
are a niche market. When purchasing one, you have to pay
attention to if it can capture normal text screen content.
How is it attached to the computer? Does it require proprietary
drivers? How long can it be used before an OS revision breaks
the drivers?

Those Braille readouts can be placed infront of the keyboard,
the primary means of input. Reading and writing isn't far
away from each other (finger travelling distance).

Classic Braille readouts didn't seem to require any driver.
I've seen such devices in the past. A slider on the side
simply defined the row of text which was then displayed on
the readout - one out of 25. I think it was plugged into
the VGA chain (PC - readout - screen), but I'm not that
familiar with this technology; I've seen it on a DOS PC.
However, as FreeBSD's default screen mode is 80x25 text
mode, it should be possible to use such a device. Maybe
it's possible to get a used one for cheap...



   I mentioned the speech recognition systems. Many of
 those actually present problems for those who are blind because
 you need to train them on your speech and the feedback is
 graphical so a good old keyboard is still the best input device.

Speech recognition requires training. Both the user and the
system have to learn from each other. But you have a learning
curve everywhere, be it typing, talking, or reading from a
Braille output.




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Re: Vivaldi Tablet

2012-03-27 Thread Polytropon

On Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:21:45 -0700, Gary Kline wrote:
   how about the eee-701s?  they are no mo' but used to have a
   70% of full size keyboard.  my eee-900A had All the std
   keys.  do we really need the F[n] keys?
 
 
   anyway, if not a  tiny kybd, maybe a small one.  

Maybe I can suggest the Happy Hacking keyboard here?
It's small in size and popular amnong hackers. It does
not have PF keys (those can be emulated by Fn+number,
comparable to Alt+number on early 3270's). Its dimensions
are about 11 x 4.5 x 1.5 at less than 1.5Lb weight.

However, this is an external (USB2) keyboard.



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Re: Off-Topic: Computing for the Blind

2012-03-27 Thread Polytropon

On Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:21:04 -0500, Martin McCormick wrote:
   By the way, math done by any method other than Braille
 is darn next to useless. Equations in Braille can be formatted
 very much like they are in print and there is a whole Braille
 system for reading and writing math.

Interesting, I didn't know that. However, LaTeX allows
writing (and typesetting) math on a pure text basis
which may be interesting to authors who are unable to
access a GUI-driven formula editor. Of course there is
another learning courve here. But nothing does prohibit
a blind scientist to write his stuff himself, read it
himself; things as $\bar{x}=\frac{\sum_{i=1}^{n}({x_i})}{n}$
can be quite easily be used if you have learned few
relatively simple things: typing on the keyboard,
using a powerful editor, the LaTeX language, and
maybe Braille. This way, an author can concentrate
on content, while the tools step into the background
and let him just do his stuff.



 After all, it's unix which means one can expect
 certain behaviors regarding standard devices.

As long as the devices play nice... :-)


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Re: Vivaldi Tablet

2012-03-27 Thread Polytropon

On Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:48:34 -0600, Chad Perrin wrote:
 On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 02:37:49AM +0200, Polytropon wrote:
  On Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:21:45 -0700, Gary Kline wrote:
 how about the eee-701s?  they are no mo' but used to have a
 70% of full size keyboard.  my eee-900A had All the std
 keys.  do we really need the F[n] keys?
   
   
 anyway, if not a  tiny kybd, maybe a small one.  
  
  Maybe I can suggest the Happy Hacking keyboard here?
  It's small in size and popular amnong hackers. It does
  not have PF keys (those can be emulated by Fn+number,
  comparable to Alt+number on early 3270's). Its dimensions
  are about 11 x 4.5 x 1.5 at less than 1.5Lb weight.
  
  However, this is an external (USB2) keyboard.
 
 I was thinking of mentioning the Happy Hacking keyboard, but I see you
 beat me to it.  I have not used one for more than a few minutes once,
 though.  Does the Fn+number work with Ctrl+Alt+Fnumber combination to
 move around between TTY consoles?

As far as I remember, it does. I don't have a HHK here to check.
From what I know, the keyboard generates the proper codes
internally, so Fn+number is equivalent to PF number in
any regards, and therefore any combination with Ctrl and/or
Alt should also work as expected. To the computer, it should
be no difference from a real keyboard.



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Re: Vivaldi Tablet

2012-03-29 Thread Polytropon

On Wed, 28 Mar 2012 16:24:51 -0700, Gary Kline wrote:
   i dont have a clue what a chording keybd is;

This kind of keyboard uses key combination of its FEWER keys
to generate characters (or even syllables or words). The
name chorded is used synonymously with instruments like
the guitar where you use one hand to hold down certain
strings in a defined manner, and then it plays a chord
like A major or D minor.

There's an initial article about it on WP:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorded_keyboard

This kind of keyboard is typically used by court recorders
in the US. They are trained to record whole conversations
in real time directly onto paper. By bressing three, four
or more keys at a time, a specific output is generated by
the device. It's often called stenotype, because it's like
typing in stenography, emphasizing that's a phonetic code
in the foreground.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenotype

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Stenkeys.gif

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cf/Steno-example.gif

Also typewriters for blind persons use this approach. The
model Erika Picht Portable (paper format DIN A5 I think)
is  still well known to me. There's also a regular (DIN A4)
model, produced by Schreibmaschinenwerke Dresden (type-
writer works Dresden), part of the combinate robotron.
Those machines are _stiill_ produced in Dresden.

http://www.aph.org/museum/images/braillewriters/30.jpg

http://petitmuseedubraille.free.fr/_machines-braille/images/_m15a.jpg

http://www.gfai-sachsen.de/images/Erika-Picht_MultiTech-E511_800.jpg

Input devices with comparable key layouts are also available
for the PC, but instead of stenotype, they generate regular
characters.



   i v much like this vivaldi 7 tablet, just as-is.  i wonder
   if a future 7inch model could have more memory Along with a
   slide-in kybd.  slide out and work: edit, use ffox,
   konsole or xterms, then slide back in place. this tablet
   could replace the ipad, nook, asus.  

Interesting thought. Maybe it wouldn't target home commodity
users in the first place, but a sliding keyboard could be
a benefit for professional users who want to do more than
just watching movies on such a thing. It would also help
to bring the concept of separating input and output to the
device in a physical manner (because it might be useful
in certain conditions when your fingers aren't located
at places where you are supposed to read something), and
STILL keeping the regular touch interface (no real separation)
available, intact and unbroken.



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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-03-30 Thread Polytropon

On Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:38:36 +0200, Karel Miklav wrote:
 Could you please recommend me a home printer that works nicely with FreeBSD?
 
 HP inkjets aren't that bad, FreeBSD drivers are allright, but I'd like 
 to shift towards some kind of PostScript laser. Xerox Phaser 6500 looks 
 nice, but I can not economically justify my appetite. Is there a cheaper 
 alternative or maybe PostScript printers aren't that good idea anyway, heh?

Allow me to mention some things that are worth investing in.

1. Network connection.
Don't bother with USB stuff. Buy a printer that offers Ethernet
and maybe also WLAN, this will save you many trouble, and you
are free to put the printer wherever you want.

2. Standard language.
Postscript and PCL. Make sure the printer understands at least
one of them. PCL is very common among HP printers. Regarding
drivers - you don't need them. PS is the default output format
for printing from every application. Printer filter collections
such as apsfilter or CUPS tend to support non-PS printers very
well, and it's quite easy to write your own printer filter (may
even be a one-liner) using ghostscript. There's nothing wrong
with PS because (as I said) you don't need any drivers, but the
data transfer may need some time, and the processing speed
depends on how fast and how good (!) the PS interpreter in the
printer is. In my experience (with the printers I'm going to
mention at the end of this message) PCL is faster.

3. Laser printer.
Don't believe that inkpee printers are genereally cheaper. They
are not. The only excuse for using them is that you need photo
quality color prints (requiring the proper paper, too).

4. Additional functionalities.
Before buying something, ask yourself what you need. Does it
need to have a scanner? Does the scanner part support FreeBSD?
Is there a way to scan to local storage (e. g. USB stick)
in the printer? Does it need a sheet feeder for scan input?
Does it need to scan photo positive/negative films? Does it
need to fax?

I have had good luck with my army of laser printers here.
HP Laserjet II, 4, 4000 duplex, as well as a Samsung color
laserprinter CLX-2160. All this stuff works out of the box.
I don't have any need for inkpee. Photos can be printed at
much better quality at my local drugstore, if I need that.
The printer filters are gs one-liners I wrote myself, because
I speak PCL to the laser printer, and some splix gibberish
using foo2qpdl to the (sadly USB connected) color printer.




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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-03-30 Thread Polytropon

On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:12:07 -0400, Matt Emmerton wrote:
 Toner really doesn't go bad, and good laser printers are built to last.  My
 first laser printer was an HP LaserJet 5P that my local bank branch was
 throwing away in 2003. It ran on its existing toner cartridge for 5 or 6
 years under light use - maybe 500 pages per year.

Ha, that's nothing!

I _still_ have a fully functional HP Laserjet 4. I got it
in a heavily used state in 1996, and I've never treated it
in a polite way: always quite heavy use. The printer is
still working today, after more than 15 years. It has
been on pause for some years, and right after plugging
it in again, it produced regular quality results. Just
try _that_ with typical home consumer inkpee stuff. :-)

I can't tell you how many pages the printer has done in
its life. The page counter must have encountered an overrun
and now says some 4 digit number which doesn't increase
anymore. So now I can sell it as only few pages printed,
like new... :-)

If durability is interesting, buying a laser printer will
be the right choice. Today's inkpee printers seem to be
the same price as a full ink cartridge refill (or even
lower), creating cheaper devices on one hand (good), but
creating more electronic waste at the other hand (bad).
So if you want to reduce garbage, get a printer that will
serve you for a long time.

When I was at university, there was a student, a rich one
as one could assume: When he had emptied a printer, he
bought a new one, dropping the old one into the garbage
can. He even bought a new printer when he failed to plug
in the one he just bought, and he also bought a new one
when he didn't get the drivers installed of another new
printer. He threw away two (maybe more?) fully functional
printers.

You see, money can compensate stupidity. His educational
result? He got a degree in computer science. :-)



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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-03-31 Thread Polytropon

On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 21:17:52 +1000, Da Rock wrote:
 Watch the older type fusers though- they can develop 'flat spots' on the 
 rollers. The newer printers use a ceramic type fuser which has fast 
 warm-up and no flat spot troubles.

But it's still possible to get replacement parts for older
office printers. I said _office_ printers, even used ones
that you can pick up for few dollars or a bottle of beer.
Spare parts aren't expensive, and in many cases, you can
install them yourself. The funny thing: Even for 10 years
old printers (and even older ones), they are available.

Try _that_ with a home consumer inkpee printer! :-)



 Also keep the dust low on _any_ printer and it will last longer and 
 perform better. Dusty paper can cause major issues (both printing and 
 mechanical) as well.

Sometimes rubber parts tend to harden. There are a few
tricks to make them soft again, but the typical solution
is to replace them for few dollars. Note that this isn't
something you'll notice in 2 - 5 years of use. You often
need 10 or more years to find fail and trouble in a good
printer. Good printer == office printer, as I said befire. :-)

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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-04-01 Thread Polytropon

On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 21:20:41 +0200, Lino Miklav wrote:
 On 31.03.2012 00:16, Peter A. Giessel wrote:
  It doesn't surprise me that Gutenprint doesn't have a setting
  specifically for the 6500 because Xerox provides one:
 
 Uf, I have this idea to only use LPD and filters.

That should be no problem. If I read the specifications
for the Xerox Phaser 6280V DN correctly, it supports both
PS and PCL.

Here's an example for a PCL printer filter:

#!/bin/sh
printf \033k2G || exit 2
gs -q -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -dPARANOIDSAFER -dSAFER -sPAPERSIZE=a4 
-r600x600 \
-sDEVICE=ljet4 -sOutputFile=- -  exit 0
exit 2

The ljet4 produces PCL, it can also be used to access
features like duplexer (add -dDuplex=true). It basically
does the same as the apsfilter filter, except that the
apsfilter one has support for pretty printing and
direct command line printing, so

% lpr foo.c

or

% lpr bar.png

can be issued directly, no need to create a PS stream
by another application.

You can easily add that filter to /etc/printcap's if= setting,
add rm= with the IP or hostname of the printer, prepare the
spool and it should work.



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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-04-01 Thread Polytropon

On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:01:43 -0700, per...@pluto.rain.com wrote:
I personally don't trust wireless, because it's well nigh impossible
to truly secure it.

In that case, one should also pay attention to secure the
printer. Wait - secure the printer? What am I talking about?

Firmware attacks!

Yes - malware has already reached printers. As they contain
all typical parts of a computer and are equipped with net-
working capabilities, they can cause trouble in networks
the same way as what hujacked Windows PCs typically do.
They can be turned into networked allies, carrying out
the attackers orders within networks.

Those who are interested may find some information here:

Exclusive: Millions of printers open to devastating hack attack, researchers say
http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/29/9076395-exclusive-millions-of-printers-open-to-devastating-hack-attack-researchers-say

ShmooCon 2011: Printers Gone Wild!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZgLX60U3sY#t=3m40s

ShmooCon 2011: Printer to PWND: Leveraging Multifunction Printers During
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPhisPLwm2A

Printer malware: print a malicious document, expose your whole LAN
http://boingboing.net/2011/12/30/printer-malware-print-a-malic.html

Print Me If You Dare
Firmware Modification Attacks and the Rise of Printer Malware
http://events.ccc.de/congress/2011/Fahrplan/events/4780.en.html

HP firmware to 'mitigate' LaserJet vulnerability
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57347817-83/hp-firmware-to-mitigate-laserjet-vulnerability/

It seems that printers can be infected via specific network
traffic or closed-source malicious drivers (that nobody
can examine content-wise) that will find their way to the
device. Depending on your local legislation, that can develop
into dangerous (and expensive) directions...

2. Standard language.
Postscript and PCL. Make sure the printer understands at least
one of them.

or, alternatively, PDF (which some of the newer printers are reputed
to take directly, rather than requiring the host to convert it to PS
or PCL).

Jerry mentioned this, and I think it's a feature worth demanding
when buying a new printer. Still if PDF input is not possible,
PCL or PS should be looked for. All those considerations make
sure you can use the printer with _any_ OS you like, and due
to this fact it will be usable even after the target OS will
be out of support (and follow-up drivers won't be provided).

Re: shutdown -p doesn't power-off USB

2012-04-01 Thread Polytropon

On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 17:38:11 +0200, Jens Schweikhardt wrote:
 I'm running 9-STABLE/amd64 and for a few months now, whenever I shut
 down with shutdown -p now, the USB devices still have power. This is
 most visible on the USB keyboard, where *all* LEDs are turned on and
 stay on.

That's not a bug, it's a feature. :-) Many mainboards allow
switching-on per keyboard. There's typically a toggle in
the board's CMOS setup. Maybe there's also an option to
turn USB power completely off. However, USB powered on
seems to be the default as soon as the machine's power
supply is on line.



 The MB is an ASUS P5Q3 Deluxe.

Also check its documentation, maybe USB power is mentioned?



 Any help appreciated in telling me how to turn off USB power with shutdown.

I don't think this is any option in the OS. You should check
this per hardware.



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Re: Printer recommendation please

2012-04-02 Thread Polytropon

On Mon, 2 Apr 2012 07:33:03 -0400, Jerry wrote:
Obviously you are not aware of the latest trend towards the movement to
standardize PDF as the standard print format. I would recommend you
start by reading the documentation located at:
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting
and continue on from there.

Seconded, good introductional read.

Addition:

PDF as Standard Print Job Format
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting/pdfasstandardprintjobformat

While there might be some rational for your security concerns on a
business network in regards to wireless networks, they are not really
relevant on a home networks. The simple ease of use that a wireless
network gives a user on a home network far outweigh any pseudo claims of
espionage.

I think you're underestimating the threat coming from hijacked
home consumer networks. Of course, business networks are more
interesting, as they might contain data one could sell (personnel
data, inventions, business figures, pricing, internal products
calculations and so on), but home networks seem to be more
easily to crack. The typical point of attack is a Windows PC
in such a network, and the result is a machine controlled by
a criminal, acting as a spam server, as part of a botnet, as
a participant in illegal file sharing or as a storage point
for child pornography. The user itself often doesn't recognize
any of those activities.

In today's Internet, more than 90% of the traffic generated
in email is spam. What do you think they come from?

Now let's assume printers are easily exploitable because
manufacturers are careless when implementing the PDF printing
standard, or they leave extensions active that can be
abused. While average Windows users are more and more
aware of caring about viruses, trojans, malware and other
attacks for their _own_ security, such considerations
about a printer aren't wide spread. But it's only a
printer, it can't do anything!

What I want to say: Printers _are_ and _will be_ attack
vectors that need attention. If the manufacturers provide
a good basis, that would be great. For example, if a PDF
file contained malicious code, the printer accepts it,
prints it, but doesn't do anything more, it would be a
safe procedure. But as PDF is _known_ to be unsafe in
regards that it _can_ contain stuff to attack a computer,
the conclusion is that (depending on what manufacturers
actually implement) it might do so to a printer too.
The danger of PDF is comparable to the danger of Office
files (typically macros as hooks for malicious code).
Now add some auto-opening functionality to a MUA, and
you're done.

Summary: PDF as a printing standard is very welcome, as
long as it takes the chance to be a secure thing.

Furthermore, there are means of encrypting print data. I
leave the mastery of that matter up to the student.

That's interesting, I'll investigate on that further.

Re: modem

On Tue, 3 Apr 2012 09:39:38 +0700, Erich Dollansky wrote:
 Hi,
 
 On Tuesday 03 April 2012 06:49:55 tim smith wrote:
  
  My us robotics serial modem worked without issue on previous freebsd 
  versions. With 9, user ppp term, I get /dev/cuau0/ device failed to open
  
  Suggestions?
  
 what does 
 
 ls /dev
 
 say?
 
 Is the modem at least seen by FreeBSD?

Erm... seen by FreeBSD? I have never noticed something
like that. The OS sees the _serial port_ devices and assigns
a device in /dev, but the modem itself does not cause any further
action.

I've been using an Elsa Microlink serial modem in the past.
By the time the serial subsystem in FreeBSD changed, I didn't
use it anymore, but I assume /dev/cuau0, /dev/cuau0.init and
/dev/cuau0.lock should be present when the serial port is
configured correctly. See man 4 sio for details.

A ppp session protocol would also be interesting for
diagnosis purposes.


-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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Re: Printer recommendation please

 the firmware have the latest manufacturer
patches? Is there a password in the administration interface?
What traffic is running across the printer? While many sysadmins
(even in MICROS~1 environments) are aware of checking and
cleaning (and reinstalling) the Windows PCs frequently,
the things hidden in the printer are often left out. So
right after cleaning the PCs, the network could be re-initialized
by an attacker who lives inside the printer.

After all, I think social engineering based attacks will become
much more popular than addressing printers. I do _not_ say to
keep ignorant and carry on, but there are higher threats than
the PDF-capable laser printer in room 101. :-)



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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Re: Printer recommendation please

On Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:22:24 -0700, per...@pluto.rain.com wrote:
Jerry je...@seibercom.net wrote:

Obviously you are not aware of the latest trend towards the
movement to standardize PDF as the standard print format. I would
recommend you start by reading the documentation located at:
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting
and continue on from there.

That page seems to be concerned with using PDF, rather than PS, as
a common intermediate print language in CUPS. I see nothing there
relevant to sending PDF directly to a printer.

See this page:

http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting/pdfasstandardprintjobformat

It discusses (quite short, I admit) programs outputting PDF
instead of PS when generating printing data. Handing that
data over to the printer does not involve any conversion
or intermediate formats anymore.

The functionality of CUPS would then be reduced to what
the system's default printer spooler does (and did since
the 1970's): Read data from a program and send it to the
printer. Only the format of data has changed: pure text,
text with control characters, PS, PCL, PDF. It starts at
the application front.

While there might be some rational for your security concerns on
a business network in regards to wireless networks, they are not
really relevant on a home networks. The simple ease of use that a
wireless network gives a user on a home network far outweigh any
pseudo claims of espionage.

Following that line of reasoning to its logical conclusion would
lead one to believe that home networks have no need of any malware
protection, e.g. anti-virus. Any ISP which has had to deal with
incidents precipitated by customers' infected machines -- including
but likely not limited to DDoS and spambots -- would likely disagree.

Home networks and carelessly treated corporate networks
make the majority of what causes trouble on the Internet.
Don't notice == doesn't exist. :-)

I maintain that an attacker can more easily trick a less-than-
paranoid user into sending a malware print file to a PDF-accepting
printer than to a non-PDF-accepting printer, simply because PDF
is such a commonly used distribution format.

In regards of the web being a main source of attacks, few
lines of Javascript would allow to automatically access the
printer and send it some PDF data, drive-by attacks made
simple.

If someone prints a
malware PDF file that they have downloaded, and the process of
printing it does not require that it be transformed in any way (such
as conversion to PS) before being sent to the printer, their only
protection from disaster is whatever validation may be built into
the printer itself. (Keep in mind that what started the malware
discussion was Poly's link to a report stating that some printers
do not sufficiently validate an update firmware job.)

That's why I _hope_ printer manufacturers will take care
about that topic. As far as it's _possible_ to validate
PDF data that _might_ be a threat, it should be done, and
in worst case, malicious portions of the data should be
ignored.

Granted the identical exposure exists for a PS printer if the
downloaded malware file is identified as a PS file, however the
risk is much less in practice because distribution of PS files
is sufficiently uncommon that most unsophisticated users would
have no idea what to do with one if they were to come across it.

Furthermore, PS files would - on most cases - undergo another
conversion, for example to PCL. A PS interpreter would have to
be exploited to carry malicious code from PS to PCL (if the
PCL language allows the same kind of hostile manipulation as
the PS language would). In this case, FOSS is a good shield.
Code that gets many reviews by the _public_ is less prone to
contain backdoors (phrase incorrectly used) that would allow
such mis-interpretation.

Re: current pids per tty