Re: Installation of FreeBSD 8.0-Current-2009-amd64-dvd

On Mon, May 11, 2009 at 4:10 PM, Tim Kientzle <kientzle_at_freebsd.org> wrote:

> Mehmet Erol Sanliturk wrote:
>
>>
>> I know that current snapshots should not be used in any production
>> purposes
>> .
>>
>> My intention was only to install it , run some programs , and if I get a
>> feeling that supplying an information to current developers may be useful
>> to
>> send an e-mail about my experiences .
>>
>> I  think such installation and test results would be useful to current
>> developers if I am not wrongly assumed that .
>>
>
> Feedback is always appreciated.
>
> If you'd like to work with -CURRENT, you should
> definitely learn how to use the FreeBSD "ports"
> system, which builds third-party software from
> source.  As I mentioned earlier, "packages" are not
> always available for -CURRENT.
>
> The FreeBSD -CURRENT snapshot DVDs are actually a pretty
> tough place to start.  They are automatically generated
> from whatever happens to be in SVN that day; as a result,
> they're mostly useful as a regular test of the release-building
> scripts and somewhat useful for testing the installer.  For
> testing the rest of the system, I suggest that you learn
> how to update the core system from source code.  There are
> quite a few articles and blog posts explaining how to do
> this.  It also helps to watch the freebsd-current mailing
> list so you know when things are relatively calm.
>
> Tim



Personally I would be very happy to be able to contribute to development of
FreeBSD as much as possible . Up to now I could not be able to establish a
working system as a network which is suitable for my needs , but I am
working toward this . Actually my expertise is not on operating systems but
I want to learn as much as possible .


My main ideas are as follows :

(1)
There is Tinderbox . Its messages are coming to me regularly .
A similar system my be established for the development of current FreeBSD .

As an example , I want to mention other operating systems : Debian : When an
update is available an icon is appearing and saying that an update is
available . When it is accepted the update is applied .  At present my
Debian 5.0.0 is up to date in that way .

In the following sentences 8.0 is used as having X.x Current for any Current
version .

Assume that we installed 8.0 Current and we want to participate in its
development . We are not sufficiently experts to manage details . A system
installed with our 8.0 Current may manage these issues .

When a part is modified and it requires a test , all of the participating
related systems may be notified by the automatic testing system . If we
accept by clicking okay  (or even automatically if we set it in that way
like Windows updates which my Windows XP Home is updated in that way ) the
new parts are downloaded and executed and a report is send back ( We know
that such executions my crash our computer , but we know that we are trying
to help to develop the FreeBSD and such crashes are possible and our 8.0
Current is NOT for a production use  ) .

FreeBSD developers by analyzing these reports may obtain a good profile of
effect about the new  modification and they will be able to test their works
on hardware platforms that they do not have at hand .

The only requirements will be that tests will not crash the complete
installations at to the points that the system will not be even able to boot
any more which it will not be able to send any message back about test
results .

As an example : In one of my Linux computer , to reclaim file space
yesterday I wanted to delete a package ( an un-used text editor ) , it
listed some other package names as related to be deleted ( without any
explanation about their requirements and their names actually meaningless )
, I clicked yes to delete , it completely deleted operating system parts
making the system completely unbootable , unable to rescue current contents
, unable to upgrade the system by repair . Actually such a case is a good
working clue to prevent such meaninless deletions paralyzing the operating
system completely .

Test result profiles may be distributed to users if they want to get such
messages .

Such a work may not be very difficult for the participating users because
setting a testing partition consuming a sufficiently minimal amount of hard
disk is easy in those days because
hard disks are large per drive or a dedicated hard drive around 160 GB is
around US $ 50 ( US dollars ) which I think many users would use such an
option .
In a multi-boot system , booting the 8.0 Current and applying tests and send
reports back may not be difficult for the participating users ( at least
they are willing to apply such steps ) .

The hardest problem is to have  such a testing environment . The present
model is difficult to
participate . It is very flexible , but requires much knowledge . To make it
a more structured
will reduce required amount of knowledge but will increase possible
participation and back contribution .

(2)
Solutions to such problems may be very interesting project works for
computing science students .

Writing specifications and requirements and then opening it to academic
environments may attract interest . I think one of the most important aspect
is copyright and license of such specifications . BSD-styled copyrights and
licenses will allow both instructors and students to work easily on such
problems .

In the wiki.freebsd.org ToDo page there are some problems to be worked on
them .
Opening a similar page in www. frebsd.org , and publishing more detailed
specifications and requirements would be much contributory to improve the
FreeBSD .

As an an example : In here yesterday ( 2009 , May , 11 ) I saw a very
interesting ToDo problem in wiki.freebsd.org about simulation of ( IBM , ...
) Cell BE processor . Porting its Linux sources to FreeBSD may be a very
attractive project for computing science students .
And seeing that result of their efforts are used in a production environment
is another source of please .


Thank you very much .


Mehmet Erol Sanliturk