PC-BSD User Handbook

[Gerard]

With v1.4 coming out this Summer it's time to start working on the PC-BSD User Handbook.

(For those interested, Kris and Tim are/will be putting together the PC-BSD Developer Handbook)

With your help we've put together the Quick Guide for v1.3, but we need to go one step further as feedback from the forums indicated that the Quick Guide wasn't substantial enough.

If you want to help out, please email me (gerard at pcbsd dot org) or reply to this posting advising what you want to do.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction - [BY: Gerard van Essen]
- Welcome to PC-BSD
- What is PC-BSD & FreeBSD?
- How PC-BSD/FreeBSD differs from Windows, Linux, Mac OS X
- PC-BSD's cutting-edge features
- History of PC-BSD & Unix (incl timeline)
- Minimal install
- PC-BSD and Windows XP (differences & similarities, defrag, register, swap partition)

2 Pre-Installation [BY: Terrance Young]
- Minimum Hardware Requirements
- Hardware compatibility
- Hard Drive partitioning (Explain: partitions & slices)
- Getting PC-BSD (Download or Purchase)
- Check integrity of downloaded ISO
- Create installation CD

3 Installation and Booting [BYL TerryP]
I VMWare Player
II PC-BSD
- Step-by-step Installation Guide
- Dual booting (Boot Loaders: boot0, FreeBSD Loader, Grub, GAG)
- Installation troubleshooting (incl. fix MBR, LBA)
- Network configuration

4 Post-installation
- Changing screen resolution, refresh rate and DPI (X.org)
- Keyboard layouts, languages, timezone
- Update Ports Tree
- Download Source Code
- Upgrading PC-BSD

5 Exploring PC-BSD [BY: Terrance Young
- File system, Disk Trees, Mount Points, Directories & peripherals
- Desktop
- Menu
- Taskbar & virtual screens

6 Installing Applications [BY: Roberto Soriano
Installation, update and remove:
- PBIs (PBIdir.com)
- pkg_add, ports, KPorts/BMP

7 Using PC-BSD - [BY James Knight]
[1 or 2 paragraphs per section to describe what the package does, what the Windows equivalent is, and a screenshot]

A Office (Editors, KOffice, OpenOffice)

B Internet
- Codecs, Java, Flash
- CD/DVD Burning (K3b)
- Email (Kontact, Thunderbird)
- Web browsing (Konquoror, Firefox, Opera)
- File sharing (aMule, KTorrent)
- Website Editing (Quanta Plus)
- Instant Messaging (Kopete)
- IRC Chat (Xchat, Konversation)
- VoIP - KPhone, Skype

C Multimedia
- Burning CDs/DVDs (K3B)
- Media Player (Kaffeine, amaroK, KMplayer)
- Audio Player (Amarok)
- Graphics and Drawing (DigiKam, Krita, Inkscape)
- Scanning (Xsane)
- DTP (Scribus)

D Windows software
- WINE
- QEMU
- Win4BSD

E Gaming
- *Nix games
- Windows games (WINE)
- Cedega

F Console (Konsole, Bash)

8 Customise & Personalise PC-BSD [BY: Drache Flieger]
- Desktop Wallpaper
- Icon themes
- Splash Screen
- Style
- Taskbar
- Theme Manager
- Window Decoration
- Localization & Language
- Changing the fonts
- Karamba
- Screensavers
- Kicker Panel
- Editing the Menu
- Setting a theme

9 Hardware & Peripherals
- Keyboard Configuration
- Printers (CUPS, HPLIP, HPIJS) & Printing to PDF
- Scanners (SANE)
- Sound (KMix)
- ATI video drivers
- Nvidia video drivers
- Laptops

10 Networking
- Network Manager (LAN, PPPOE)
- Setting up WIFI (ndiswrapper)
- Setting up dial-up
- Bluetooth
- Remote Access
- Firewall
- SAMBA (using & configuring)
- VPN

11 User Administration

12 System Information

14 PC-BSD Services

15 Help & Support
- Forums
- Google
- IRC
- Mailing lists
- Paid Support

16 How you can support us
- Report bugs
- Get involved in development
- Help others on IRC/Forums
- Buy cool stuff
- Spread the word
- Hand out CDs
- Bittorrent seeding
- Donate Money

17 Useful Links

18 Advanced Section
- Adding Hardware
- Internet Connection Sharing (NAT)
- Securing and hardinging PC-BSD
- Securelevels
- Jails
- How to run Windows or Linux under PC-BSD (Qemu)
- How to compile a new kernal and update userland
- How set up RAID
- How to backup and restoring your system
- How to encrypt your data
- How to setup an FTP Server
- How to setup a webserver (PAMP)
- How to setup a mailserver
- How to setup a proxy server
- How to backup a Video DVD
- How to encrypt your emails

19 Definitions & Terminology

NB:
- This handbook does in no way want to replace the superb FBSD handbook as it will be more specific to PC-BSD, with references to relevant chapters in the FBSD Handbook for more technical backgound/instructions.

- Where applicable you can use parts of the Quick Guide and the FAQs database.

[dracheflieger]

That's quite a list Gerard. I'd be happy to help again but if we are shooting for a June release that's quite long list in a short time. Also keep in mind that we will really need to know what will be included in 1.4 as modular X is coming in a couple of weeks and how much different will it be (7.2 as compared to 6.9)...I guess maybe Kris needs to build some 1.4 betas so those of us interested in writing for it will be able to dl/install/inspect.

[Gerard]

That's quite a list Gerard. I'd be happy to help again but if we are shooting for a June release that's quite long list in a short time. Also keep in mind that we will really need to know what will be included in 1.4 as modular X is coming in a couple of weeks and how much different will it be (7.2 as compared to 6.9)...I guess maybe Kris needs to build some 1.4 betas so those of us interested in writing for it will be able to dl/install/inspect.

Yes, Drache, quite a long list, but if 30 people take 2 or 3 paragraphs, it can be done very quickly.... ;-)

[TerryP]

Well so far it looks like:

For 'Mr I'm to inpatient to read' go to the Quick Guide.

For joe user go to the 'User Handbook'

For any seious questions go to the "FreeBSD Handbook"

Most of the stuff I see in the list, is fixed by using software that comes with good documentation. And when End User has a question thats not anwsered with a tooltip. Press F1 for help :-)

The rest seems to be a more 'How to do on PC-BSD what you do on Windows without reading the FreeBSD handbook".

18 Advanced Section seems to mostly be _covered_ by the FreeBSD handbook. FreeBSD also ships with a few servers in the base system.

[TerryP]

I'll write an assigned segment but I have no interest in any in particular.

Tell me what you want and it will be written.

If Licenses allow -> a lot of copy and paste between FreeBSD and KDE Documenation can be used (or just cross link, most KDE apps likely have their Help Manuals online).

Contact:
BigBoss64[at]ippimail[dot]com
spidey01[at]sasclan[dot]org
tmprx79g[at]bellsouth[dot]net

AIM - MSN - GTalk

Take ya pick.

[Gerard]

Well so far it looks like:

For 'Mr I'm to inpatient to read' go to the Quick Guide.

For joe user go to the 'User Handbook'

For any seious questions go to the "FreeBSD Handbook".

The new handbook will replace the Quick Guide

18 Advanced Section seems to mostly be _covered_ by the FreeBSD handbook. FreeBSD also ships with a few servers in the base system.

We should maybe provide links to the best sources out there or to guides/howto's on the forums. We're getting too many repeat-questions on the forums.

[TerryP]

The only one(s) you can count on to stay up to date are in the FreeBSD handbook.


I guess the inpatient types will have to sit and read the User Handbook then :-) hehehe.

[Gerard]

The only one(s) you can count on to stay up to date are in the FreeBSD handbook.


I guess the inpatient types will have to sit and read the User Handbook then :-) hehehe.

To be honest, I find some step-by-step howtos/guides on the internet/our forums easier to understand/follow than the FBSD handbook. That's more (technical) background info. It won't tell you for instance how to set up and configure Squid (see Antik's guide here (http://forums.pcbsd.org/viewtopic.php?t=3618&highlight=squid))

[budious]

Section 18: How to compile a new kernal and update userland.

That would be most useful to know. Methods in /usr/src/UPDATING and the FreeBSD handbook seem to be quite different. Also, does PCBSD have it's own GENERIC kernel config that I should model my new kernel configuration from? Lastly, when I use sysinstall to fetch sources, it does not find 6.1-RELEASE-p11 as on 1.3.0.1 cd. I changed to retrieve 6.2-RELEASE but according to UPDATING it is dated as the original release and no patches applied to source or not? How do I get the kernel source patches and apply them to original release? I could not find a page on the freebsd site with enough details to clarify this %100 for me. These are the kind of questions that I would liked answered. Thanks :)

[marc]

Compiling kernel in PC-BSD is exactly the same as in FreeBSD 6.1. You can find original PC-BSD kernel config file in /PCBSD/conf/PCBSDv1.2.
Code:
# cvsup /root/standard-supfile
# cd /usr/src/sys/i386/conf
# mkdir /root/kernels
# cp /PCBSD/conf/PCBSDv1.2 /root/kernels/MYKERNEL
# ln -s /root/kernels/MYKERNEL

Edit your kernel conf as you like:

/etc/make.conf Code:
CPUTYPE=i686 #i486, i586, i586/mmx, i686, p2, p3, p4, athlon,athlon-xp, athlon64, opteron
RELEASETAG="RELENG_6_2"
SUP_UPDATE=yes
SUP=/usr/local/bin/cvsup
SUPFLAGS=-g -L 2
SUPHOST=cvsup.FreeBSD.org
SUPFILE=/usr/share/examples/cvsup/standard-supfile
PORTSSUPFILE=/usr/share/examples/cvsup/ports-supfile
#DOCSUPFILE=/usr/share/examples/cvsup/doc-supfile
KERNCONF=MYKERNEL

CPU optimization works only for ports not for kernel...

Change to the /usr/src directory. Code:
# cd /usr/src

Compile the kernel. Code:
# make buildkernel

Install the new kernel. Code:
# make installkernel

Code:
reboot


Author: Antik

I always use this method, described by Antik in his reply to my old post.

[TerryP]

Section 18: How to compile a new kernal and update userland.


The FreeBSD Source Code PBI I uploaded should have a very nice readme on doing this. It'd make a nice starting point.

I'll write it if asked.

[budious]

Mind posting it separately? I already have the source and don't need the whole .pbi

[TerryP]

Check your PM's.

[budious]

:D Thanks!

[mal.exe]

gvanessen. This look so promising. Once completed, it will help a lot for bringing people to use PC-BSD :D

[guptaxpn]

just curious, where is this guidebook? could someone link me? has it been worked on and/or finished?

[Gerard]

the handbook is still work-in-progress and isn't publicly available yet.

[Tigersharke]

I doubt that it took more than 2 years to develop or make publicly available, but the PC-BSD Handbook (http://wiki.pcbsd.org/index.php/PC-BSD_Users_Handbook) is available and currently being updated to reflect version 8.1. I would also strongly suggest that the sticky note be made current as well.

[Fatmice]

Hm...indeed. I'll add this to my to do list. Topic closed for now.