For People New to Both FreeBSD and UNIX®
Prev |  | Next

# 8 Next Steps

You should now have the tools you need to get around and edit files, so you can get everything up and running. There is a great deal of information in the FreeBSD handbook (which is probably on your hard drive) and FreeBSD's web site. A wide variety of packages and ports are on the CDROM as well as the web site. The handbook tells you more about how to use them (get the package if it exists, with `pkg_add /cdrom/packages/All/`packagename``, where `packagename` is the filename of the package). The CDROM has lists of the packages and ports with brief descriptions in `cdrom/packages/index`, `cdrom/packages/index.txt`, and `cdrom/ports/index`, with fuller descriptions in `/cdrom/ports/*/*/pkg/DESCR`, where the `*`s represent subdirectories of kinds of programs and program names respectively.

If you find the handbook too sophisticated (what with `lndir` and all) on installing ports from the CDROM, here is what usually works:

Find the port you want, say `kermit`. There will be a directory for it on the CDROM. Copy the subdirectory to `/usr/local` (a good place for software you add that should be available to all users) with:

    # cp -R /cdrom/ports/comm/kermit /usr/local

This should result in a `/usr/local/kermit` subdirectory that has all the files that the `kermit` subdirectory on the CDROM has.

Next, create the directory `/usr/ports/distfiles` if it does not already exist using `mkdir`. Now check `/cdrom/ports/distfiles` for a file with a name that indicates it is the port you want. Copy that file to `/usr/ports/distfiles`; in recent versions you can skip this step, as FreeBSD will do it for you. In the case of `kermit`, there is no distfile.

Then `cd` to the subdirectory of `/usr/local/kermit` that has the file `Makefile`. Type

    # make all install

During this process the port will FTP to get any compressed files it needs that it did not find on the CDROM or in `/usr/ports/distfiles`. If you do not have your network running yet and there was no file for the port in `/cdrom/ports/distfiles`, you will have to get the distfile using another machine and copy it to `/usr/ports/distfiles` from a floppy or your DOS partition. Read `Makefile` (with `cat` or `more` or `view`) to find out where to go (the master distribution site) to get the file and what its name is. Its name will be truncated when downloaded to DOS, and after you get it into `/usr/ports/distfiles` you will have to rename it (with the `mv` command) to its original name so it can be found. (Use binary file transfers!) Then go back to `/usr/local/kermit`, find the directory with `Makefile`, and type `make all install`.

The other thing that happens when installing ports or packages is that some other program is needed. If the installation stops with a message `can't find unzip` or whatever, you might need to install the package or port for unzip before you continue.

Once it is installed type `rehash` to make FreeBSD reread the files in the path so it knows what is there. (If you get a lot of `path not found` messages when you use `whereis` or `which`, you might want to make additions to the list of directories in the path statement in `.cshrc` in your home directory. The path statement in UNIX® does the same kind of work it does in DOS, except the current directory is not (by default) in the path for security reasons; if the command you want is in the directory you are in, you need to type `./` before the command to make it work; no space after the slash.)

You might want to get the most recent version of Netscape® from their FTP site. (Netscape requires the X Window System.) There is now a FreeBSD version, so look around carefully. Just use `gunzip `filename`` and `tar xvf `filename`` on it, move the binary to `/usr/local/bin` or some other place binaries are kept, `rehash`, and then put the following lines in `.cshrc` in each user's home directory or (easier) in `/etc/csh.cshrc`, the system-wide `csh` start-up file:

    setenv XKEYSYMDB /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XKeysymDB
    setenv XNLSPATH /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/nls

This assumes that the file `XKeysymDB` and the directory `nls` are in `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11`; if they are not, find them and put them there.

If you originally got Netscape as a port using the CDROM (or FTP), do not replace `/usr/local/bin/netscape` with the new netscape binary; this is just a shell script that sets up the environment variables for you. Instead rename the new binary to `netscape.bin` and replace the old binary, which is `/usr/local/netscape/netscape`.

Prev | Home | Next
Other Useful Commands |  | Your Working Environment