FreeBSD Installathon

[Alastair D'Silva]

I'm happy to host an Installathon at my place (in Monash) this Sunday if
people are interested in having a tinker with FreeBSD.

I've got a few spare monitors, and plenty of keyboards & mice, so you'll
only need your boxen & power boards, depending on how many want to come
(folding tables & chairs wouldn't go astray either).

I'm thinking of the following outline, but feel free to make suggestions.
I'd like to try and avoid showing how to configure specific software (eg.
Squid, Samba, Apache, etc).

Before you ask, yes, I know 5.0-RELEASE is an early adopters release, but
I figure is better to learn something that will be current in a few months
time, than something that will be obsolete.

Prereqs will be:
Some *nix knowledge (I don't want to have to teach you how to use a shell)
A P2 or better system - If you're planning on dual booting, backup your
existing data and have enough space for your FreeBSD install available.
You could probably get away with 2GB, but 4GB or more would be more
comfortable (esp if you want to play with X).
A supported video card if you want to use X.
LET ME KNOW IF YOU NEED AN SMP OR HYPERTHREADING KERNEL

o Setup HW
o Install FreeBSD 5.0-RELEASE from CD or FTP (for those without CD drives)
o Use CVSUP to update source and ports
o A look at make.conf, rc.conf and periodic.conf
o Recompiling FreeBSD from scatch (here's one I prepared earlier . . .)
o Configuring & recompiling the kernel (we won't recompile the kernel
though as it can take ages to build all the modules)
o Using ports to install software
o Configuring the firewall
o Using portupgrade to update software on your system

The following is optional and needed only if you plan on using the machine
in a desktop environment

o Installing X & DRI
o Installing Gnome/KDE


Any takers?

-- 
Alastair D'Silva      mob: 0413 485 733
Networking Consultant
New Millennium Networking