FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE README
The FreeBSD Project
Copyright (c) 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 by The FreeBSD Documentation Project
$FreeBSD: src/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/readme/article.sgml,v 1.26
2003/05/06 20:01:07 bmah Exp $
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This document gives a brief introduction to FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE. It
includes some information on how to obtain FreeBSD, a listing of various
ways to contact the FreeBSD Project, and pointers to some other sources
of information.
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1 Introduction
This distribution is a release of FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE, the latest point
along the 5-CURRENT branch.
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1.1 About FreeBSD
FreeBSD is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for Intel, AMD, Cyrix
or NexGen ``x86'' based PC hardware (i386), NEC PC-9801/9821 series PCs
and compatibles (pc98), DEC/Compaq/HP Alpha computers (alpha), and
UltraSPARC machines (sparc64). Versions for the IA64 (ia64), PowerPC
(powerpc), and AMD ``Hammer'' (amd64) architectures are currently under
development as well. FreeBSD works with a wide variety of peripherals and
configurations and can be used for everything from software development to
games to Internet Service Provision.
This release of FreeBSD contains everything you need to run such a system,
including full source code for the kernel and all utilities in the base
distribution. With the source distribution installed, you can literally
recompile the entire system from scratch with one command, making it ideal
for students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it all
works.
A large collection of third-party ported software (the ``Ports
Collection'') is also provided to make it easy to obtain and install all
your favorite traditional UNIX(R) utilities for FreeBSD. Each ``port''
consists of a set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install a
piece of software, with a single command. Over 8,600 ports, from editors
to programming languages to graphical applications, make FreeBSD a
powerful and comprehensive operating environment that extends far beyond
what's provided by many commercial versions of UNIX(R). Most ports are
also available as pre-compiled ``packages'', which can be quickly
installed from the installation program.
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1.2 Target Audience
This release of FreeBSD is suitable for all users. It has undergone a
period of testing and quality assurance checking to ensure the highest
reliability and dependability.
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2 Obtaining FreeBSD
FreeBSD may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section focuses on
those ways that are primarily useful for obtaining a complete FreeBSD
distribution, rather than updating an existing installation.
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2.1 CDROM and DVD
FreeBSD -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD from several
publishers. This is frequently the most convenient way to obtain FreeBSD
for new installations, as it provides a convenient way to quickly
reinstall the system if necessary. Some distributions include some of the
optional, precompiled ``packages'' from the FreeBSD Ports Collection.
A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the project are listed in
the ``Obtaining FreeBSD'' appendix to the Handbook.
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2.2 FTP
You can use FTP to retrieve FreeBSD and any or all of its optional
packages from ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/, which is the official FreeBSD
release site, or any of its ``mirrors''.
Lists of locations that mirror FreeBSD can be found in the FTP Sites
section of the Handbook, or on the http://www.freebsdmirrors.org/ Web
pages. Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to download
the distribution is highly recommended.
Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact
<freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org> for more details on becoming an official
mirror site. You can also find useful information for mirror sites at the
Mirroring FreeBSD article.
Mirrors generally contain the floppy disk images necessary to begin an
installation, as well as the distribution files needed for the install
process itself. Many mirrors also contain the ISO images necessary to
create a CDROM of a FreeBSD release.
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3 Contacting the FreeBSD Project
3.1 Email and Mailing Lists
For any questions or general technical support issues, please send mail to
the FreeBSD general questions mailing list.
If you're tracking the 5-CURRENT development efforts, you must join the
FreeBSD-CURRENT mailing list, in order to keep abreast of recent
developments and changes that may affect the way you use and maintain the
system.
Being a largely-volunteer effort, the FreeBSD Project is always happy to
have extra hands willing to help--there are already far more desired
enhancements than there is time to implement them. To contact the
developers on technical matters, or with offers of help, please send mail
to the FreeBSD technical discussions mailing list.
Please note that these mailing lists can experience significant amounts of
traffic. If you have slow or expensive mail access, or are only interested
in keeping up with major FreeBSD events, you may find it preferable to
subscribe instead to the FreeBSD announcements mailing list.
All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone wishing to do so.
Visit the FreeBSD Mailman Info Page. This will give you more information
on joining the various lists, accessing archives, etc. There are a number
of mailing lists targeted at special interest groups not mentioned here;
more information can be obtained either from the Mailman pages or the
mailing lists section of the FreeBSD Web site.
Important: Do not send email to the lists asking to be subscribed. Use
the Mailman interface instead.
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3.2 Submitting Problem Reports
Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are always
valued--please do not hesitate to report any problems you may find. Bug
reports with attached fixes are of course even more welcome.
The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine with Internet
mail connectivity is to use the send-pr(1) command. ``Problem Reports''
(PRs) submitted in this way will be filed and their progress tracked; the
FreeBSD developers will do their best to respond to all reported bugs as
soon as possible. A list of all active PRs is available on the FreeBSD Web
site; this list is useful to see what potential problems other users have
encountered.
Note that send-pr(1) itself is a shell script that should be easy to move
even onto a non-FreeBSD system. Using this interface is highly preferred.
If, for some reason, you are unable to use send-pr(1) to submit a bug
report, you can try to send it to the FreeBSD problem reports mailing
list.
For more information, ``Writing FreeBSD Problem Reports'', available on
the FreeBSD Web site, has a number of helpful hints on writing and
submitting effective problem reports.
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4 Further Reading
There are many sources of information about FreeBSD; some are included
with this distribution, while others are available on-line or in print
versions.
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4.1 Release Documentation
A number of other files provide more specific information about this
release distribution. These files are provided in various formats. Most
distributions will include both ASCII text (.TXT) and HTML (.HTM)
renditions. Some distributions may also include other formats such as
PostScript (.PS) or Portable Document Format (.PDF).
* README.TXT: This file, which gives some general information about
FreeBSD as well as some cursory notes about obtaining a distribution.
* EARLY.TXT: A guide for early adopters of FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE. Highly
recommended reading for users new to FreeBSD 5-CURRENT and/or the 5.X
series of releases.
* RELNOTES.TXT: The release notes, showing what's new and different in
FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE compared to the previous release (FreeBSD
5.0-RELEASE).
* HARDWARE.TXT: The hardware compatibility list, showing devices with
which FreeBSD has been tested and is known to work.
* INSTALL.TXT: Installation instructions for installing FreeBSD from its
distribution media.
* ERRATA.TXT: Release errata. Late-breaking, post-release information
can be found in this file, which is principally applicable to releases
(as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult this file before
installing a release of FreeBSD, as it contains the latest information
on problems which have been found and fixed since the release was
created.
Note: Several of these documents (in particular, RELNOTES.TXT,
HARDWARE.TXT, and INSTALL.TXT) contain information that is specific to a
particular hardware architecture. For example, the alpha release notes
contain information not applicable to the i386, and vice versa. The
architecture for which each document applies will be listed in that
document's title.
On platforms that support sysinstall(8) (currently alpha, i386, ia64,
pc98, and sparc64), these documents are generally available via the
Documentation menu during installation. Once the system is installed, you
can revisit this menu by re-running the sysinstall(8) utility.
Note: It is extremely important to read the errata for any given release
before installing it, to learn about any ``late-breaking news'' or
post-release problems. The errata file accompanying each release (most
likely right next to this file) is already out of date by definition,
but other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be
consulted as the ``current errata'' for this release. These other copies
of the errata are located at http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/ (as well
as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this location).
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4.2 Manual Pages
As with almost all UNIX(R)-like operating systems, FreeBSD comes with a
set of on-line manual pages, accessed through the man(1) command or
through the hypertext manual pages gateway on the FreeBSD Web site. In
general, the manual pages provide information on the different commands
and APIs available to the FreeBSD user.
In some cases, manual pages are written to give information on particular
topics. Notable examples of such manual pages are tuning(7) (a guide to
performance tuning), security(7) (an introduction to FreeBSD security),
and style(9) (a style guide to kernel coding).
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4.3 Books and Articles
Two highly-useful collections of FreeBSD-related information, maintained
by the FreeBSD Project, are the FreeBSD Handbook and FreeBSD FAQ
(Frequently Asked Questions document). On-line versions of the Handbook
and FAQ are always available from the FreeBSD Documentation page or its
mirrors. If you install the doc distribution set, you can use a Web
browser to read the Handbook and FAQ locally.
A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by the FreeBSD
Project, cover more-specialized, FreeBSD-related topics. This material
spans a wide range of topics, from effective use of the mailing lists, to
dual-booting FreeBSD with other operating systems, to guidelines for new
committers. Like the Handbook and FAQ, these documents are available from
the FreeBSD Documentation Page or in the doc distribution set.
A listing of other books and documents about FreeBSD can be found in the
bibliography of the FreeBSD Handbook. Because of FreeBSD's strong UNIX(R)
heritage, many other articles and books written for UNIX(R) systems are
applicable as well, some of which are also listed in the bibliography.
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5 Acknowledgments
FreeBSD represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not thousands,
of individuals from around the world who have worked countless hours to
bring about this release. For a complete list of FreeBSD developers and
contributors, please see ``Contributors to FreeBSD'' on the FreeBSD Web
site or any of its mirrors.
Special thanks also go to the many thousands of FreeBSD users and testers
all over the world, without whom this release simply would not have been
possible.
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This file, and other release-related documents, can be downloaded from
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/.
For questions about FreeBSD, read the documentation before contacting
<questions@FreeBSD.org>.
All users of FreeBSD 5-CURRENT should subscribe to the <current@FreeBSD.org>
mailing list.
For questions about this documentation, e-mail <doc@FreeBSD.org>.