9.1. | Where are the system start-up configuration files? | ||||||||
The primary configuration file is
For example, if you wish to start named(8), the included DNS server, all you need to do is: # echo 'named_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf To start up local services, place shell scripts in the
| |||||||||
9.2. | How do I add a user easily? | ||||||||
Use the adduser(8) command, or the pw(8) command for more complicated situations. To remove the user, use the rmuser(8) command or, if necessary, pw(8). | |||||||||
9.3. | Why do I keep getting messages like root: not
found after editing
| ||||||||
This is normally caused by editing the system crontab
( # crontab /etc/crontab This is not the correct way to do things. The system crontab has a different format to the per-user crontabs which crontab(1) updates (the crontab(5) manual page explains the differences in more detail). If this is what you did, the extra crontab is simply a
copy of # crontab -r Next time, when you edit
If you want something to be run once per day, week, or
month, it is probably better to add shell scripts
The actual reason for the error is that the system
crontab has an extra field, specifying which user to run the
command as. In the default system crontab provided with
FreeBSD, this is | |||||||||
9.4. | Why do I get the error, you are not in the
correct group to su root when I try to
| ||||||||
This is a security feature. To
To allow someone to # pw groupmod wheel -m The above example will add user
| |||||||||
9.5. | I made a mistake in | ||||||||
Restart the system using If you intend to use a full screen editor such as
vi(1) or emacs(1), you may also need to run
Once you have performed these steps, you can edit
| |||||||||
9.6. | Why am I having trouble setting up my printer? | ||||||||
See the Handbook entry on printing. It should cover most of your problem. Some printers require a host-based driver to do any kind
of printing. These so-called “WinPrinters” are
not natively supported by FreeBSD. If your printer does not
work in DOS or Windows®, it is probably a WinPrinter. Your
only hope of getting one of these to work is to check if the
| |||||||||
9.7. | How can I correct the keyboard mappings for my system? | ||||||||
Please see the Handbook section on using localization, specifically the section on console setup. | |||||||||
9.8. | Why can I not get user quotas to work properly? | ||||||||
| |||||||||
9.9. | Does FreeBSD support System V IPC primitives? | ||||||||
Yes, FreeBSD supports System V-style IPC, including shared
memory, messages and semaphores, in the
options SYSVSHM # enable shared memory
options SYSVSEM # enable for semaphores
options SYSVMSG # enable for messaging Recompile and install your kernel. | |||||||||
9.10. | What other mail-server software can I use instead of sendmail? | ||||||||
The sendmail server is the default mail-server software for FreeBSD, but you can easily replace it with one of the other MTA (for instance, an MTA installed from the ports). There are various alternative MTAs in the ports tree
already, with Diversity is nice, and the fact that you have many different mail-servers to chose from is considered a good thing; therefore try to avoid asking questions like “Is sendmail better than qmail?” in the mailing lists. If you do feel like asking, first check the mailing list archives. The advantages and disadvantages of each and every one of the available MTAs have already been discussed a few times. | |||||||||
9.11. | I have forgotten the | ||||||||
Do not panic! Restart the system, type
Note:If you are still prompted to give the
Note:If you cannot mount your root partition from Single User mode, it is possible that the partitions are encrypted and it is impossible to mount them without the access keys. Your chances depend on the chosen implementation. For more information see the section about encrypted disks in the FreeBSD Handbook. | |||||||||
9.12. | How do I keep Control+Alt+Delete from rebooting the system? | ||||||||
If you are using syscons(4) (the default console driver) build and install a new kernel with the line in the configuration file: options SC_DISABLE_REBOOT This can also be done by setting the following sysctl(8) which does not require a reboot or kernel recompile: # sysctl hw.syscons.kbd_reboot=0 Note:The above two methods are exclusive: The sysctl(8)
does not exist if you compile your kernel with the
| |||||||||
9.13. | How do I reformat DOS text files to UNIX® ones? | ||||||||
Use this perl(1) command: % perl -i.bak -npe 's/\r\n/\n/g' where Alternatively you can use the tr(1) command: % tr -d '\r' <
Yet another way to reformat DOS text files is to use the
| |||||||||
9.14. | How do I kill processes by name? | ||||||||
Use pkill(1). | |||||||||
9.15. | How do I re-read | ||||||||
Go into single user mode and then back to multi user mode. On the console do: # shutdown now
(Note: without -r or -h)
# return
# exit | |||||||||
9.16. | I tried to update my system to the latest
-STABLE, but got
-BETA | ||||||||
Short answer: it is just a name. RC stands for “Release Candidate”. It signifies that a release is imminent. In FreeBSD, -PRERELEASE is typically synonymous with the code freeze before a release. (For some releases, the -BETA label was used in the same way as -PRERELEASE.) Long answer: FreeBSD derives its releases from one of two places. Major, dot-zero, releases, such as 9.0-RELEASE are branched from the head of the development stream, commonly referred to as -CURRENT. Minor releases, such as 6.3-RELEASE or 5.2-RELEASE, have been snapshots of the active -STABLE branch. Starting with 4.3-RELEASE, each release also now has its own branch which can be tracked by people requiring an extremely conservative rate of development (typically only security advisories). When a release is about to be made, the branch from which it will be derived from has to undergo a certain process. Part of this process is a code freeze. When a code freeze is initiated, the name of the branch is changed to reflect that it is about to become a release. For example, if the branch used to be called 6.2-STABLE, its name will be changed to 6.3-PRERELEASE to signify the code freeze and signify that extra pre-release testing should be happening. Bug fixes can still be committed to be part of the release. When the source code is in shape for the release the name will be changed to 6.3-RC to signify that a release is about to be made from it. Once in the RC stage, only the most critical bugs found can be fixed. Once the release (6.3-RELEASE in this example) and release branch have been made, the branch will be renamed to 6.3-STABLE. For more information on version numbers and the various Subversion branches, refer to the Release Engineering article. | |||||||||
9.17. | I tried to install a new kernel, and the chflags(1) failed. How do I get around this? | ||||||||
Short answer: You are probably at security level greater than 0. Reboot directly to Single User mode to install the kernel. Long answer: FreeBSD disallows changing system flags at security levels greater than 0. You can check your security level with the command: # sysctl kern.securelevel You cannot lower the security level; you have to boot to
Single Mode to install the kernel, or change the security
level in | |||||||||
9.18. | I cannot change the time on my system by more than one second! How do I get around this? | ||||||||
Short answer: You are probably at security level greater than 1. Reboot directly to Single User mode to change the date. Long answer: FreeBSD disallows changing the time by more that one second at security levels greater than 1. You can check your security level with the command: # sysctl kern.securelevel You cannot lower the security level; you have to boot to
Single User mode to change the date, or change the security
level in | |||||||||
9.19. | Why is | ||||||||
No, there is no memory leak, and it is not using
256 MB of memory. For convenience,
rpc.statd(8) maps its status file (resident on
| |||||||||
9.20. | Why can I not unset the | ||||||||
You are running at an elevated (i.e., greater than 0) securelevel. Lower the securelevel and try again. For more information, see the FAQ entry on securelevel and the init(8) manual page. | |||||||||
9.21. | Why does SSH authentication
through | ||||||||
The reason why
| |||||||||
9.22. | What is | ||||||||
| |||||||||
9.23. | What do the various memory states displayed by
| ||||||||
Pages are most often written to disk (sort of a VM sync) when they are in the inactive state, but active pages can also be synced. This depends upon the CPU tracking of the modified bit being available, and in certain situations there can be an advantage for a block of VM pages to be synced, whether they are active or inactive. In most common cases, it is best to think of the inactive queue to be a queue of relatively unused pages that might or might not be in the process of being written to disk. Cached pages are already synced, not mapped, but available for immediate process use with their old association or with a new association. Free pages are available at interrupt level, but cached or free pages can be used at process state for reuse. Cache pages are not adequately locked to be available at interrupt level. There are some other flags (e.g., busy flag or busy count) that might modify some of the described rules. | |||||||||
9.24. | How much free memory is available? | ||||||||
There are a couple of kinds of “free memory”. One kind is the amount of memory immediately available without paging anything else out. That is approximately the size of cache queue + size of free queue (with a derating factor, depending upon system tuning). Another kind of “free memory” is the total amount of VM space. That can be complex, but is dependent upon the amount of swap space and memory. Other kinds of “free memory” descriptions are also possible, but it is relatively useless to define these, but rather it is important to make sure that the paging rate is kept low, and to avoid running out of swap space. | |||||||||
9.25. | What is | ||||||||
Although it is not recommended to delete this directory, to
do so you will need to unset the | |||||||||
9.26. | I just changed
| ||||||||
To see what newsyslog(8) will do use the following: % newsyslog -nrvv | |||||||||
9.27. | My time is wrong, how can I change the timezone? | ||||||||
Use tzsetup(8). |
This, and other documents, can be downloaded from http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/doc/
For questions about FreeBSD, read the
documentation before
contacting <questions@FreeBSD.org>.
For questions about this documentation, e-mail <doc@FreeBSD.org>.