Re: Quimby Upgrade

[Arcady Genkin <antipode@thpoon.com>]

Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:

> Try finding a sendmail port or pkg.  It must be done from FreeBSD
> source directory.  At least last time I checked.

Yes, that's because it's part of base system.  It's still upgradable
by a simple "make install" in its source directory, AFAIK.  Who needs
sendmail anyways?  The following solves the sendmail problems forever:

,----[ /etc/rc.conf ]
| sendmail_enable="NO"
`----
,----[ /etc/make.conf ]
| NO_SENDMAIL=true
`----
Done!

> As a package manager; ports, packages and CVSup sucks.

As a user, I say that ports and CVSup rock.  The main advantage is
separation of applications from the OS distribution.  It doesn't
matter whether you run FreeBSD 3.4, 4.2, or 5.0, you still have the
same port for Apache, and if you want to upgrade, it's there.  With
any Linux distro you have to constantly upgrade your base system only
in order to stay current with vital software.  And in case of Debian
even this is infeasible, because their releases are so infrequent.
I'm absolutely fine with running the same distribution for over a
year, but *give me my new apache whith that annoying PDF bug fixed*!
;^)

> A full CVSup and build world is about the furthermost thing from `very
> good' as can be imagined.  Its an esoteric art form riddled with
> problems as can be seen on `FreeBSD-questions' constantly. With dozens
> of subjects like:
> 
> `Build world broke/stopped/aborted/flailed/stymied/jitterbugged/
> quit/careemed/disembowled/flopped/thrashed....please help'

I see those, too.  But strangely, this has always worked for me.  I've
been doing upgrades via "make world" even since FreeBSD 3.3, and it
worked *every* time.  Generally, it seems that at least FreeBSD
developers know what they are doing.  I've installed an OpenBSD server
two weeks ago.  Installed from the first try *with only one
installation diskette* and over the network.  I was very impressed.

As for Linux, I have to give credit to the 2.4 kernel for really fast
networking.  Finally I'm seeing 8M/s transfers on my workstation's
interface; something I've been enjoying on the FreeBSD server all
along.

However, WTF did they do with swapping in 2.4 kernels?  Is it only me,
or the swapping, like, totally sucks?  I brought my workstation to its
knees (had to hard reset, stopped responding) with a Matlab's
hilb(4000), once it started swapping.  The same happened to our
school's compute server which is a 2-way 1GHz PIII running 2.4.2 with
2GB of RAM.  It just died from two matlab processes. :-\  Not a
pleasant experience.  I know that I was mean with hilb(4000), but it
shouldn't die, or should it?
-- 
Arcady Genkin
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.