# Not Going So Well



## softwhere (Mar 23, 2011)

I studied all I could locate on the installation process primarily the handbook. I concluded I should be able to install Amd64 version on my I7 processor (as long as Intel 64 arch is the same as IntelÂ® EM64T).

I followed the instructions, downloaded the memstick iso file and wrote to memory stick.

During bootup, there are some errors and warnings, but I'm not able to view them. I tried hitting the scroll lock but nothing happened. How does it work?

The bootstrap loader says ##86. Should have I seen Amd64 or something to that extent?

It also limits my RAM to 3.2 gig. I have 12g and was expecting to use all with Amd64.

I was able to get to menu's, go through them, create slice (all of 1-1T drive) and created 1 partition (no swap) as I was going to use instructions http://blogs.freebsdish.org/pjd/2010/08/06/from-sysinstall-to-zfs-only-configuration/ to convert all drives (4) to ZFS.

Any help would be appreciated.


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## wblock@ (Mar 23, 2011)

After pressing Scroll Lock, use Page Up and Page Down or the arrow keys to move up and down.

3.2G is consistent with i386.  What is the filename of the memstick image you downloaded?


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## softwhere (Mar 23, 2011)

FreeBSD-8.2-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img

I was able to load and get to a system prompt using the default partition scheme (previously tried to create only one file system partition). Is there a way to find out if it's using all the memory?


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## softwhere (Mar 23, 2011)

scroll lock - page up and down worked to view dmesg output


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## wblock@ (Mar 23, 2011)

dmesg(8) will show what memory is found and how much is actually available.


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## softwhere (Mar 23, 2011)

Still looking for memory stats, but I did find FreeBSD(Amd64) (Hostname).... in there. Must be OK?


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## wblock@ (Mar 23, 2011)

softwhere said:
			
		

> Still looking for memory stats,



Should be right near the start on a freshly-booted machine.  That would be with
`% dmesg | less`
The scrollback buffer is limited in size.



> but I did find FreeBSD(Amd64) (Hostname).... in there. Must be OK?



Well, it's a good news/bad news sort of thing.  Yes, it's good that you have the right version.  But why isn't it picking up the rest of the RAM?

Have you checked BIOS settings and maybe tried a 64-bit livecd of some type to see if the memory is really there?


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## DutchDaemon (Mar 23, 2011)

[cmd=]dmesg -a | grep -E '^(real|avail)'[/cmd]
[cmd=]uname -m[/cmd]

Or what ^^ said.


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## softwhere (Mar 23, 2011)

It registers all the memory!

I have a few warnings/problems:


```
APCI Warning:Incorrect Checksum

Microsoft Wheelmouse Wheelmouse on usbus2 (inappropriate ioctl for device) 

Screen saver (rain_saver) does not support M_VGA_CG320
```

Do you think I have a good chance of being able to set up a FreeBSD, Ruby on Rails, MSql, Apache server in a day or 2 or do you think I'm over my head? I seem to read about a lot of oh by the ways when I start configuring the software. I'm comfortable with command lines as I date all the way back to CPM (go figure), but new to UNIX syntax.

The ports and packages part of the setup didn't resemble the handbook. All I saw for everything was doc files.

Thanks in advance.


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## softwhere (Mar 23, 2011)

...forgot ZFS in the mix


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## UNIXgod (Mar 23, 2011)

softwhere said:
			
		

> Do you think I have a good chance of being able to set up a FreeBSD, Ruby on Rails, MSql, Apache server in a day or 2 or do you think I'm over my head? I seem to read about a lot of oh by the ways when I start configuring the software. I'm comfortable with command lines as I date all the way back to CPM (go figure), but new to UNIX syntax.



Might take some practice and getting used to the system first. I would be able to set up a server running the software you mentioned in less than half a day. If you are under a real deadline ask for an extension and take it once step at a time.


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## zspider (Mar 23, 2011)

Yeah, I know what you mean. I had to set up a lamp server for a midterm exam. I got some parts of it installed but then found VirtualBox had a serious problem. I did not find out for some days after how to fix it which was solved by recompiling the kernel modules for VirtualBox. Don't give up on FreeBSD, the system has never failed me. If something goes wrong with RELEASE it's usually because of something I did or didn't do.


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## wblock@ (Mar 23, 2011)

softwhere said:
			
		

> It registers all the memory!



Where did the 3.2G number come from?



> ```
> APCI Warning:Incorrect Checksum
> 
> Microsoft Wheelmouse Wheelmouse on usbus2 (inappropriate ioctl for device)
> ...



The first can be ignored, the second is possibly an error in /etc/rc.conf, the third is telling you it wants a mode you don't have.  A server doesn't need a screen saver anyway, DPMS will/should turn the monitor off anyway.  And the best way is to just leave the monitor off or disconnected unless it's needed.  Which, thanks to ssh, is rarely.



> Do you think I have a good chance of being able to set up a FreeBSD, Ruby on Rails, MSql, Apache server in a day or 2 or do you think I'm over my head? I seem to read about a lot of oh by the ways when I start configuring the software. I'm comfortable with command lines as I date all the way back to CPM (go figure), but new to UNIX syntax.



That's an impossible question to answer.  Each of those has a learning curve.  Someone familiar with all of them could certainly have it installed and running in a couple of days.  If it was all from scratch, there'd still be a period of tuning and adjustment.  If you have to learn how to configure each of those wildly different applications and have no experience with them, then no, two days is probably not enough to learn how to properly configure it.  There's also the matter of what the server will do.  A test system in a lab is different than something that will be running a web site available to the net at large.



> The ports and packages part of the setup didn't resemble the handbook. All I saw for everything was doc files.



It's very difficult to tell what you are saying there.  Maybe you mean you're following some unspecified cookbook procedure, but it's hard to tell.


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## softwhere (Mar 23, 2011)

> Where did the 3.2G number come from?



Booting from memory stick the first few lines came up with it in it along with drive detection (c: and so on).





> The first can be ignored, the second is possibly an error in /etc/rc.conf, the third is telling you it wants a mode you don't have.  A server doesn't need a screen saver anyway, DPMS will/should turn the monitor off anyway.  And the best way is to just leave the monitor off or disconnected unless it's needed.  Which, thanks to ssh, is rarely.



Makes sense, thanks.





> That's an impossible question to answer.  Each of those has a learning curve.  Someone familiar with all of them could certainly have it installed and running in a couple of days.  If it was all from scratch, there'd still be a period of tuning and adjustment.  If you have to learn how to configure each of those wildly different applications and have no experience with them, then no, two days is probably not enough to learn how to properly configure it.  There's also the matter of what the server will do.  A test system in a lab is different than something that will be running a web site available to the net at large.



It's a test system. I've changed my plans and will spend time on learning the language syntax before proceeding.





> It's very difficult to tell what you are saying there.  Maybe you mean you're following some unspecified cookbook procedure, but it's hard to tell.



Most of the installation was a breeze. Just a few quirky things where I was expecting more of an intuitive (notated) response from selections. Examples: 1) when I selected the S for system on a slice, it put A (active) on it and 2) when I selected All of the ports and packages I was expecting to see something similar to the illustration in the handbook. It's just that I don't know how it all works together, yet. Do it once and the next time is a breeze! Probably didn't help when I was following some blog instructions on how to set up ZFS with a minimal sysinstall http://blogs.freebsdish.org/pjd/2010/08/06/from-sysinstall-to-zfs-only-configuration/. After setting up only 1 partition (file system) I received a warning about no swap partition but concluded I had plenty of RAM. Install proceeded and finished but reboot hung at a black screen with just a cursor.  

I enjoy working with FreeBSD and will spend the time to understand how it works.


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## UNIXgod (Mar 23, 2011)

softwhere said:
			
		

> It's a test system. I've changed my plans and will spend time on learning the language syntax before proceeding.



If your referring to learning ruby or rails syntax note that rails comes with it's own server for development. The default db is sqlite3 which is easier to use just for getting started and you can switch to mysql or postgres later. So if you just wanted to get started with making your web software this may ease the learning curve as you wont have to set up *sql and apache services early on.

Also since you are new I recommend looking into a tool called rvm over ports for building a decent sandbox for multiple ruby versions and implementations and use of gemsets. Though you will need to install curl, bash and git with subversion support from the ports to use it. 

If you where referring to basic UNIX command line usage I always suggest The UNIX Programming Environment (Kernighan, Pike) as it teaches you the shell and environment from the beginning. 

Also ruby implements the shell concepts very well as to make both paradigms relate. In essence most of what you carry over from posix shell command syntax and scripting is also relevant and compatible knowledge in ruby's object system hierarchy.


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