Author Topic: Openbsd 3.8 Current First Impressions  (Read 3127 times)

obscurite

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Openbsd 3.8 Current First Impressions
« on: September 04, 2005, 11:45:10 pm »
I started my OpenBSD install on Saturday afternoon. Following the INSTALL.zaurus document was smooth sailing. I ran into my first problem when I answered 'yes' to the question "Do you want to use the entire disk for OpenBSD?" I changed my mind and aborted the install, not being give the choice to go backwards.

Not realizing I could just re-launch the installer via ./install. I ended up rebooting, hoping to get back into the Sharp environment. No such luck - I was stuck at the boot> prompt cycling endlessly. Finally after a few hours of crying, and posting a desperate plea for help on oesf, I decided to try the manual zboot/insmod process in the INSTALL.zaurus which worked beautifully. I went all the way through an install finally (after messing up and having to do the rescue a few times) but then when I halted and rebooted... stuch at boot> again!!! Argh indeed.

Thanks to barryg, I tried resetting (b+d process) with the wifi CF card out. It worked! You guys are the best.

So, I now have a full OpenBSD install running and I've started installing software from ports.

Some comments based on my initial impression:

PROS:
* The ports system is far superior to hunting down ipk files
* sshd by default is very helpful for doing postinstall stuff
* fvwm is quick and functional
* man pages are indeed useful
* /usr/games is a lot of fun

CONS:
* Battery life seems to be much less than my former c860 w/ cacko (3 hrs vs 5+ hrs)
  - this can probably be improved once I figure out some power saving settings
* If the system is reset (as if battery + power was removed for a minute), and I boot with a CF card inserted, I can't boot.
  - this has been blamed on the linux boot process. don't know if it's fixable
* No cross compiler? I'm not looking forward to building large packages
* Looks like I need to learn how to mirror packages and set them up to build overnight the way barryg does (thanks for the info)
* xterm doesn't have flexible font scaling (go from 6pt micro 170 columns to 16 point lcd 79 columns with a few button presses)
* Bluetooth stack probably not available any time in the immediate future

PLANS:
* build some useful applications, especially fluxbox and eterm
* dual boot cacko or pdaXrom from 1gb SD card

Thanks again.

-Daniel
C3100, 5500, former C860 owner

barryg

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Openbsd 3.8 Current First Impressions
« Reply #1 on: September 05, 2005, 01:00:57 am »
Good Day!


<SNIP>


Quote
CONS:
- this can probably be improved once I figure out some power saving
settings
Enable apmd, my setup[0].

Quote
* If the system is reset (as if battery + power was removed for a
minute), and I boot with a CF card inserted, I can't boot.
Yap, also a problem with USB periphs. Reboot and all should be ok.

Quote
- this has been blamed on the linux boot process. don't know if it's
  fixable
Definately for CF cards and MicroDrives, for other peripherals don't
quote me, hehehe.

Quote
* No cross compiler? I'm not looking forward to building large
packages
* Looks like I need to learn how to mirror packages and set them up to
build overnight the way barryg does (thanks for the info)
Instructions here[1] and here[2].  At home, I mount ports and build dirs
through USB, at the office, I NFS mount them.
Quote
* xterm doesn't have flexible font scaling (go from 6pt micro 170
columns to 16 point lcd 79 columns with a few button presses)
There are many terminal emulators that are featurefull on the ports
tree, I use the in tree xterm as it has been audited by the OpenBSD devs
security wise and does priviledge dropping.

Quote
* Bluetooth stack probably not available any time in the immediate
future
There is a dev on this, though I think it is of low priority now.

Quote
PLANS:
* build some useful applications, especially fluxbox and eterm
There is a blackbox package on the snapshots dir[3].

Quote
* dual boot cacko or pdaXrom from 1gb SD card
No, triple boot! Sharp Linux on NAND flash, OpenBSD on MicroDrive, and/
{Cacko|pdaXrom} on SD. ;)

Quote
Thanks again.

-Daniel



Mabuhay! barryg

[0]
http://web.kssp.upd.edu.ph/barryg/zaurus/l...l#Configuration

[1]
http://web.kssp.upd.edu.ph/barryg/zaurus/log.html#building

[2]
http://web.kssp.upd.edu.ph/barryg/zaurus/o...ortsandPackages

[3]
ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/packages/arm/

--
Barry Dexter A. Gonzaga, bofh