Subject: Re: Some new user questions
To: None <nunezp@cc.tacom.army.mil>
From: Allen Briggs <briggs@puma.bevd.blacksburg.va.us>
List: macbsd-general
Date: 06/21/1995 08:10:49
> (1) When I try to use the current WORMHOLE or GENERIC kernels from Steve
> Allen, the system won't boot.  It gets to (on both) ...
>     ... grf0 at nubus0
> and freezes

That's a hint to not use it.

> I'm happy with what I'm running now, but I can't seem to get ps to work well.
> I've got it to where I can grap the pid (which is all I REALLY need, but the 
> name of the process has all kinds of ^M^M's in it.

That's a danger of using the most recent stuff.  1.0 should work fine on
the SE/30 w/ the old X dist.  The next version of the OS should, too.
Things are under development (read, "the most recent pieces that are
available don't entirely work seamlessly together").  I plan to make a
new snapshot sometime in the next couple of weeks.  With that, ps, w,
etc. should be working--so should the kernel...  ;-)

> (2) I cannot figure out how to logon as su.  I have no problem as root, but
> I'd rather use su.  

Have you added your login ID to the wheel entry in /etc/group?

> (3) I thought I read in the install instructions that there were
> two FORTRAN compilers.  Not that I'm that interested in FORTRAN, but
> I can't seem to find the compilers.

They aren't in the std. distribution.  GNU fortran's on the GNU sites
(note that you'll need a new version of gcc (not the newest, yet, but
2.6.3) to get that to work.  f2c is around everywhere--or at least, in
a lot of places...

> (4) Anyone know if Motif is offered for MacBSD.  The main reason I'd like
> to use Unix at home is to practice programming in C and creating X 
> applications.  Xt is fine, but it seems that Motif is the way to go.

I don't think it is.  When I can afford to get enough disk space and to
do this, I might pay my employer for the rights to compile it "at work"
and get a copy of it on my machine at home.  If a couple of people want
it, we might be able to sell a few copies of it, too.  Look around,
though, for sun3 binaries for SunOS or NetBSD, or NetBSD/Amiga, or
NetBSD/hp300 binaries--we should be compatible with any of those.

> (3) The FIRST time I type startx or xinit I get ...
> 
>     Fatal Server Error;
>     Can't run X server with no screens!
>     X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown)

This is a bug that I haven't had time to track down.  Dt will work
similarly, except that it won't fail...  It will think it's working,
but won't draw anything.

> (4) On a (probably) releated note, any recommendations on a sys admin
> book for a guy who knows a little about alot but alot about nothing.
> I mean, I can program a little in C and read code and I've written a
> handful of shell scripts, but I've only been working in the Unix 
> environment for less than a year.

Look at the *BSD FAQ by Dave Burgess--available on rtfm and other sites
around the net.

Cheerios,
-allen

-- 
Allen Briggs - end killing - allen.briggs@bev.net ** MacBSD == NetBSD/mac68k **