No More Beeping

*NIX Quick Tip

Beep, beep, beep,
If your like me and don't like auditory reminders, you can turning off the beeping quickly and easily:

X Windows
If you want to disable beeps in X11 (X Windows), you can turn them off with the command:
# xset b off
*Note: you will need to login as root or use sudo.

csh and tcsh
You can disable csh and tcsh shell terminal beep if you put `set nobeep' (no quotes) in your ~/.cshrc file.

This options will work on most *nix systems (using csh/tcsh or X windows), including Ubuntu, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD, however I tested this solution using FreeBSD.

Protecting Your Terminal

BSD Quick Tip
When ssh across my systems I often need to step away from the keyboard for a few minutes. This can pose a massive security threat to the system, therefore I think it's important to lock the terminal, this way I don't need to log in/out, nor leave the system insecure.

In all of the BSD's you can use a built-in utility called lock(8). When you use:$ lockwithout any options you will be asked to enter a key twice. Then your terminal will be locked for 15 mins, after that time it will become available again.

Options:
To keep your terminal locked until you return, (no 15 minute timeout), use:$ lock -n
To use your normal user password instead of a key you enter use:$ lock -p
Personally I like to use these options all of the time, therefore I add an alias so I only have to type lock.
To Alias `lock -np` to `lock` in csh or tcsh:$ edit ~/.cshrcadd:alias lock lock -np
To Alias lock -np to lock in sh:$ edit ~/.shrcadd:alias lock='lock -np'

Humanise the output of FreeBSD's root mail

FreeBSD Quick Tip
The output of the root mail, daily run: disk status is in bytes, which is not quick and easy to read. To humanise this output and to show you the inodes being used do the following:
# vi /etc/periodic/daily/400.status-disks
change:df $daily_status_disks_df_flags && rc=1 || rc=3todf -hi $daily_status_disks_df_flags && rc=1 || rc=3

FreeBSD Tip: Fixing a Sendmail Error After Removing IPv6

When I'm rebuilding my kernel in FreeBSD I comment out the INET6 option.#options INET6 # IPv6 communications protocolsI don't run anything using the IPv6 protocol so I feel it's a waste of time having it there. However this causes an error in sendmail, that you will see in your /var/log/messages file, and your root mail for example:Oct 16 01:45:12 MyKernalName sendmail[5216]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(root): /etc/mail/sendmail.cf: line 279: Unknown address family inet6 in Family=optionand in your /var/log/debug.log file you will often see:Oct 16 01:45:12 MyKernalName kernel: drop session, too many entries
There is a really easy solution to this problem, first open the sendmail.cf file for editing, (I'm using vi, but you can use your preferred editor for this operation):# vi /etc/mail/sendmail.cfNow navigate to line #No 279 and comment it out, to look like this:#O DaemonPortOptions=Name=IPv6, Family=inet6, Modifiers=OOnce you have saved your file you'll need to reboot or restart the sendmail process so that it re-reads its config file, and your problem will be solved.

Creating a FAMP server

What is a FAMP server?
A FAMP server is a FreeBSD web server containing the following applications:
FAMP = FreeBSD + Apache + MySQL + Perl/PHP

Requirments

1. You will need a basic install of FreeBSD, for more information on how to install FreeBSD please see: Installing FreeBSD
2. You will need a copy of the ports, for more information please see: Using the Ports Collection.

Installing apache
I like using apache 1.3, I find it secure and stable, so I'll install it here. If you wish to use apache 2+ please see: httpd.apache.org.
# cd /usr/ports/www/apache13 && make install && make clean
# echo 'apache_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

Installing PHP
This is the way I install PHP and needed PHP modules.
# cd /usr/ports/lang/php5 && make config
# cd /usr/ports/lang/php5 && make install && make clean
# cd /usr/ports/lang/php5-extensions && make install && make clean
If you are unsure which modules you will need check the system requirements of each application you will be using on the web-server (e.g. wordpress or mediawiki).

Installing MySQL
I will install MySQL 5.0 if you would like information on other MySQL versions please see: MySQL Home Page
# cd /usr/ports/databases/mysql50-server && make install && make clean
# echo 'mysql_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

Installing Perl DBI and DBD support
Many programs which run using both Apache and MySQL will require the following Perl modules:
# cd /usr/ports/databases/p5-DBI && make install && make clean
# cd /usr/ports/databases/p5-DBD-mysql50 && make install && make clean

Configuration
It is important to add the web servers IP address to its hosts file. This suppresses errors from Apache and MySQL.
# edit /etc/hosts
adding:
192.168.0.252 Hostname.domainname.tld Hostname

Configuring Apache
Before editing any file on my system I like to make a backup of it.
# cp /usr/local/etc/apache/httpd.conf /usr/local/etc/apache/httpd.conf.orig
# edit /usr/local/etc/apache/httpd.conf

In httpd.conf you will need to change the following:
*Note: These options may not suit your needs for more information please see: FreeBSD Handbook - Apache HTTP Server, or httpd.apache.org
#If your web server is inside a jail it is important to change the Listen address:
# from:
#Listen 12.34.56.78:80
# to (Changing 192.168.0.252 to the IP address of the web server):
Listen 192.168.0.252:80

# Change the email address of the ServerAdmin (You)
ServerAdmin you@your.address

# Change the ServerName option,
# *Note: if you don't have a fully qualified domain name
# please change this to the servers IP address
# From:
#ServerName www.example.com
# To:
ServerName 192.168.0.252

# Add a DirectoryIndex option:
DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm index.php3 index.php4

# In the AddType section add the following for PHP:
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .htm .html
AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps
I like to do a diff on the original httpd.conf file and my changes, so that later I can see what I changed, especially if problems arise:
# diff --suppress-common-lines /usr/local/etc/apache/httpd.conf.orig /usr/local/etc/apache/httpd.conf > /root/.apache.conf-diff

Configuring php:
# cp /usr/local/etc/php.ini-recommended /usr/local/etc/php.ini
To Test php5
# echo "<?php phpinfo() ?>" > /usr/local/www/data-dist/phptest.html

Configuring MySQL:
# cp /usr/local/share/mysql/my-medium.cnf /etc/my.cnf
Start MySQL to add root passwords:
# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/mysql-server.sh start
# /usr/local/bin/mysqladmin -u root -h Hostname.domainname.tld password 'YourPassword'
# /usr/local/bin/mysqladmin -u root password 'YourPassword'

Now you need to reboot your web-server to startup all of your new services.

Testing your new Web Server
Once your server is up and running go to the web servers address either on the server (if it has a browser) or on your desktop box.

E.g. Open your browser and type the IP address of your server: http://192.168.0.252/

To test your php install type the following into your browser (changing 192.168.0.252 to the IP address of the server):
http://192.168.0.252/phptest.html

If you have problems check your firewall rules, if that doesn't help check your logs, and see if they shed some light on the problem.
Have Fun!!!

FreeBSD Tip: beastie boot menu

After installing FreeBSD 5.5 I like to change the beastie in the boot menu to colour instead of white. I think this adds a nice touch to the boot, plus it is really easy to do.

To add a splash of colour to beastie type the following:
# echo 'loader_color="YES"' >> /boot/loader.conf

By default the delay, before autobooting is 10 seconds. You can change this by adding the following:
# echo 'autoboot_delay="n"' >> /boot/loader.conf
Where "n" is the number of seconds before autobooting.

Note: you can set the autoboot to -1; if you don't want user to be allowed to interrupt autoboot process and escape to the loader prompt.

If you don't like the beastie menu you can disable it like this:
# echo 'beastie_disable="YES"' >> /boot/loader.conf

Have fun :)

Virtualization using VirtualBox

For the past couple of days I have been playing around with VirtualBox.

VirtualBox is a family of powerful x86 virtualization products for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).
VirtualBox

For more information please see: About VirtualBox.

VirtualBox 1.4.0 was realised on June 5, 2007 for Windows and Linux. It now contains support for 64bit Linux Hosts, as well as better networking and storage solutions, (for full details please see: Changelog.)

I have tried a earlier version of VirtualBox, but had limited success installing it. The new version installed perfectly.
I used Automatix in Ubuntu 7.04 ("Feisty Fawn") to install it. Yet there are many other binary versions, including a beta version for OS X, (Intel Macs only). For downloads please see: VirtualBox Downloads.

So far I'm very impressed with VirtualBox. In my opinion it's the best virtualization software I have tried to date. I've found it professional, and easy to use. I feel like the programmers have really thought about how to make this a good product from a user standpoint. Also it is OpenSource, what a wonderful bonus.

There are a number of problems, (to be expected with a new piece of software). Yet each time I have gone to write a bug report; the problem has either been fixed and is available in SVN (subversion) or it's currently being fixed. That impressed me.

Unfortunately there is a problem running OpenBSD, and NetBSD as vm's (virtual machines). Yet the issue has been solved in SVN.

I'm running a FreeBSD vm and it is beautiful. I thought I might have trouble as the machine I'm running it on only has 512MB of RAM, however it's been wonderful. I wouldn't recommend any less than 512MB though. When I close VirtualBox it cleans out the RAM amazingly well.

I will write more about it, when I can install some more virtual machines to play with. I'm intrigued to see if DragonflyBSD, and Slackware will work in it.

If you would like information on installing and using VirtualBox please see:

• End-user documentation
• VirtualBox HOWTOs and tutorials
• Frequently Asked Questions for end users
• Status: Guest OSes
• Using VirtualBox to run Ubuntu and any other operating system

You can download VirtualBox here: Downloading VirtualBox.

EDIT: As pointed out by one of my readers VirtualBox is actually released under two licences (dual licensing). There are two versions:
The Open Source Edition (OSE) is released under the GNU General Public License V2 and:
The full VirtualBox package, which is free of charge for personal use or evaluation purposes is released under the Personal Use and Evaluation License.
For more information please see: VirtualBox Licensing FAQ.

I need a break from Windows

I need a break from windows. It is driving me up the wall. It is not that it is bad, or misbehaving. In fact it has been quite good stability wise. I was quite enjoying working with it at first . I'm just over windows.
I was so glad the day I first left it. I felt that it was such a milestone in my understanding.

I remember when I first started learning DOS commands. I was so excited, it was such an amazing experience. After about 3-4 days I said to my partner this is so cool, there should be an entire operating system that you can control like this. He laughed...

A couple of days later I had my first experiences of a command line only system: FreeBSD. I loved it, I've never turned back. My understanding and knowledge has grown so much since then. It helps when you have an open operating system. In the BSD's and Linux's you can learn how everything works by read, writing and running the code. You can add to or change the code and most software is free.

At the moment I'm just frustrated because I don't like not knowing what my system it is doing. I can't just bring a command line up and check everything out. Opening webpages, downloading, and all other internet based tasks are slow. Things are constantly happening on the system, yet when I look into it windows reports that it is doing nothing :).

Plus my main whine is that everything is about money and locking you in. Any problem you can think of can be solved by buying this program or plug-in/add-on or whatever. I am so over it.

Back to BSD

Well I am back in FreeBSD. It has taken me a while to build everything from source, using the FreeBSD ports system, yet I am happy and it feels like I'm home. It will take me a while to get everything back to normal, I've only ever ran FreeBSD 6.2 as a server not a Desktop, so it should be interesting to view the changes.

I have been really busy while my desktop has been installing. I rebuilt my VMware server because I wasn't happy with it's configuration, which went really well. I'm so happy with the results! (I wish I'd done it sooner) I have cleaned my house, plus I have been out and about traveling around in the car.

It has been strange not being able to sit down at my computer and simply login and do my things. I haven't even got my rss reader, and all my admin tools up and going yet. Hopefully I should have time over the weekend to finish setting it all up.
I am going to make myself an install disk this time :)
Well thats it for me today, have a good one :)

Solaris: not the desktop for me.

I know I said I was going to give Solaris a week, however I'm not sure if I can stick to that. I like many things about Solaris 10, and I want to run it in a virtual machine, and learn more about it. Solaris makes a brilliant server. Yet it is not the right Desktop environment for me.

I was very impressed with the Java desktop, it looks and feels very nice, however, it is not complete, there are lots of little bugs, especially in interface design.
I like that there is only 1 of most types of programs (e.g. one text editor, one web browser).
Yet adding and changing the software is a pain. I don't mind dependency nightmares on a server, yet on a desktop it can become unbearable.
The sun documentation is very detailed yet it is very difficult to find a quick answer, in fact I don't think I have found one easy answer, even to the smallest problem.
The biggest disappointment for me was the console program. I love having a good console to work in, and I thought that a UNIX system would have one, yet I don't like Solaris console at all.
With a bit of effort I can probably get it to a standard where it is OK, but thats how Solaris made me feel on many levels, that I had to do ALL the work to make it usable, with nearly no tools.

I haven't had the hardware issues that so many others have. My sound card worked fine, and my cheap network card worked. In fact apart from one network card all my other hardware worked. I haven't been able to get DVD play back. Yet flash and Java, and other applications which can cause so many problems in Open source solutions worked out of the box.
I have given the system a fair go as my main desktop. I certainly don't think that I have given it a fair go at being a Java development environment or a server, so this is how I will set it up.

This experience has certainly opened my eyes. I really want to learn more about Solaris, yet I'll run it in a virtual machine and play with solaris it's self. Instead of trying to make myself a desktop environment. I also am very keen to look into OpenSolaris now. I think that I will sign up for the DVD.

I'm very fussy about my workstation, it has to be just right. I am thinking about going back to FreeBSD. I nearly always seem to meander back that way when it comes to Desktops. I think it's because FreeBSD is where I started, I left windows for FreeBSD. I nearly drowned in my first couple of weeks, yet I made it through and now I know the system like the back of my hand. It feels like home :)

VMware Workstation, 6.0 Beta

I have been having a look at VMware Workstation, 6.0 Beta, for about a week now. After reading: Desktop Virtualization with VMware Player and Workstation, I decided that I would give it a try. I have used VMware server many times, but not Workstation.
I have been quite impressed with it. There are many very good features. Unfortunately the FreeBSD 6-Branch doesn't preform well as a guest. Yet OpenBSD runs very well as a guest, and so do many linux, and Windows operating systems.
Figure 1. The image is of OpenBSD running as a guest OS, in VMware Workstation 6 Beta.

Features
There are many features in workstation which I really like, and are very functional. Some of the new features in this release are:

• Full support for Ubuntu 6.10 as both a guest and a host. I have tested Ubuntu 6.10 as both and it preforms very well. I was impressed.
• There is multiple Monitor support, in which you can specify how guests see the monitors.
• There is now support for the VIX API (formerly known as the Programming API), the API allows the writing of scripts and programs to automate virtual machines.
• New IDE plug-ins, to Visual Studio (Windows) or Eclipse (Windows or Linux).
• You can now run Virtual machines in the background, with Workstation closed. I really loved this feature, very handy.
• If the guest installed supports VMware tools, then there are many features involving file transfer, and peripherals. However I was mainly testing server operation.
• There is increased RAM support.
• USB 2.0 Support, this works really well! I was so happy to see there there was finally 2.0 support, well done!
• There is also support for many new guest and host operating systems, including Solaris 10 Update 3, Windows Vista, and Novel Netware 6.5 SP5, as well as many Linux OS's.

For more information on new features please see: VMware Workstation 6.0 Beta Release Notes.

Performance
I was really impressed with Workstation as a whole. It was very stable running under Ubuntu, both 6.06 and 6.10 as hosts. Most of the features that I tried worked just fine, except I could not get VNC connections to guest Operating systems to work. As I mentioned before it bothers me that FreeBSD doesn't work, but what can you do? I Love that you can create teams, I had a four computer OpenBSD cluster running inside a team, and it worked so nicely. I enjoyed playing with these features. It is a pity that the server addition doesn't have teams. I also loved being able to clone a virtual machine.

Overall Look and Feel
I always find the VMware GUI's easy to use, and simple to find my way around. The general look and feel is very comfortable. Some more complicated features are a little confusing at first but after using them you get the idea. A good knowledge of networking comes in hand with some of the more advance setups. Overall I have certainly enjoyed my experience in Workstation Beta 6.

Conclusion.
I have enjoyed working with Workstation, and I certainly think that it is worth a look if you are a developer of any sort. Or if you would like to try Virtualization on the desktop. I have to say one thing that I will certainly give VMware over some over forms of Virtualization I have tried and that is it is simple to use. Plus I really love VMware's Virtual Appliances; which are: "pre-built, pre-configured and ready-to-run software application packaged with the operating system inside a virtual machine." They are very useful, and I really appreciate the work which has been put into many of them.

FreeSBIE 2.0

FreeSBIE 2.0 was released on Monday 15th January. So I downloaded it to have a look. What is FreeSBIE? From the Developers;

"FreeSBIE is a LiveCD based on the FreeBSD Operating system, or even easier, a FreeBSD-based operating system that works directly from a CD, without touching your hard drive. We also develop a simple to use and easily extendable toolkit used for the creation of the CD. This toolkit can also be used to make embedded images a-la miniBSD or nanoBSD."

I loved working with FreeSBIE 1.1 I have used it many times, and handed it out to lots of people to try.
Unfortunately I haven't had the best luck with FreeSBIE 2.0. It didn't run well in VMware, the problems are known "FreeBSD VMware" issues, so I'm not blaming FreeSBIE developers for that.
However I didn't have much fun just running it from my normal workstation either. It took ages and ages to boot (over 3Min's). Once it had I started x, many programs where not working properly, and things looked a little unfinished (if you know what I mean). I was quite disappointed. Anyway I am hoping that it was just my hardware.
If anyone else gets a chance to try it, I would love to know what you think.

FreeBSD 6.2

I have been playing with FreeBSD 6.2. I loaded it into a virtual machine, only a minimal install, with required sets, man pages, src all and the ports. The images are screen shots of my first boot:

I've mostly been exploring the OpenBSM tools. This is how I enabled Security event auditing;

# cp /sys/i386/conf/GENERIC /sys/i386/conf/GOKU
# vi /sys/i386/conf/GOKU
added:
option AUDIT
Then built my new kernel:
# cd /usr/src
# make buildkernel KERNCONF=GOKU
# male installkernel KERNCONF=GOKU
# reboot

Then I went through the following man pages: auditreduce(1), praudit(1), auditpipe(4), audit.log(5), audit_class(5), audit_control(5), audit_event(5), audit_user(5), audit_warn(5), audit(8), auditd(8)

After playing around with the tools for a while, I made a small jail, and tested the stability and securelevels. Securelevels are easy in 6.2; you just add the -s option to specify a jail's securelevel.
Then I played around with some of the new command options. The traceroute(8) has a number of new options, which are really useful. I like that freebsd-update(8) is now part of the base system. It saves me installing it every time.

I haven't yet installed the ports and played with any contributed software, as FreeBSD 6.2 is playing up in VMware badly (As you can see by the date in the second image, above). So I am going to install it on another hard drive. I would like to build a desktop on it again. Over all I like FreeBSD 6.2, I can't wait to play with it some more. I am glad that a lot of the 6.1 bugs have been fixed. I hope to have more fun with it again soon.

FreeBSD 6.2 RELEASED

FreeBSD 6.2 has just been released. According to the release announcement, FreeBSD 6.2 not only offers many bug fixes, and stability improvements, it also contains new features and performance improvements. I am certainly looking forward to installing this new release in the 6-STABLE branch. Hopefully I should have it downloaded by morning :).

Features of note:

• Security Event Auditing, can now be enabled in the kernel using the AUDIT kernel option; audit(4)
• FreeBSD on the Xbox; FreeBSD can now run on the Xbox, for more information please see: FreeBSD on the Xbox
• Improvements to a number of network interface drivers.
• IPFW(4) improvements, including packet tagging
• The linsysfs(5) pseudo-filesystem driver has been added.
• A number of OpenBSM tools have been added
• The freebsd-update(8) has been added. This tool manages binary updates to the FreeBSD base system.
• You can now specify a jail's securelevel: jail(8)

Software Updates:

• GNOME has been updated from 2.12.3 to 2.16.1
• KDE has been updated from 3.5.1 to 3.5.4
• BIND has been updated from 9.3.1 to 9.3.3.
• GCC has been updated from 3.4.4 to 3.4.6.
• IPFilter has been updated from 4.1.8 to 4.1.13.
• less has been updated from v381 to v394.
• libpcap has been updated from 0.9.1 to 0.9.4.
• lukemftpd has been updated from a snapshot from NetBSD as of 9 August 2004 to a snapshot from NetBSD as of 31 August 2006.
• netcat has been updated from the version in a 4 February 2005 OpenBSD snapshot to the version included in OpenBSD 3.9.
• OpenSSH has been updated from 4.2p1 to 4.5p1.
• sendmail has been updated from 8.13.6 to 8.13.8.
• tcpdump has been updated from 3.9.1 to 3.9.4.

Getting FreeBSD 6.2:

• BitTorrent
• FTP: main site, See here for: FTP mirrors
• You can purchase FreeBSD 6.2 CD's from:FreeBSD Mall, and Daemonnews

I will write a review tomorrow once I have downloaded, installed and looked around the system. I am so excited I have been waiting for this release for a while.

Back to Ubuntu

I am back to Ubuntu for a while. I have some work to do, and I need to focus. I had trouble finding gnome tools for OpenBSD, and I am thinking of going back to FreeBSD as my desktop.
I used to have FreeBSD a while back, it was a wonderful desktop, then I started having troubles after updating to 6.1 so I decided to try something different for a while. I think I will enjoy going back to it though. I would just be better off making my own system from a FreeBSD base, that way I'll have everything I want when I want it. It should be fun.

But first I need to finish my firewall. I wrote my notes, diagrams and configurations for my network today. Now I just need to write my firewall & NAT rules, and then install everything, including the proxies, overall it shouldn't take to long. If I get off my but and do it. I have been a little preoccupied lately. I need to get my head back in to it.

At the moment I am sitting and reading the pf users guide, which is a really excellent reference.
If anyone knows of any good links they are willing to share please let me know :) Thank you. Have a good one.

Setting up the Sound card in FreeBSD

Setting up the sound card in FreeBSD
System:

• This howto is for FreeBSD and FreeBSD based systems.

Prerequisites:

• root access to the system
• A text editor (I will use vi for this tutorial)

As FreeBSD is a server operating system things like sound are not configured to work out of the box. Yet getting sound working is a very simple task once you know how.

Step one:
Firstly you need to find out what driver you need to use with your sound card, (If you already know this you can move onto Step two). This step is not as scary as it sounds.

First try to load the snd_driver module, This module loads all of the most common sound device drivers at once:
# kldload snd_driver

You can now easily see which driver to use, by using the following command:
# cat /dev/sndstat
FreeBSD Audio Driver (newpcm)
Installed devices:
pcm0: at io 0xd800, 0xdc80 irq 5 bufsz 16384
kld snd_ich (1p/2r/0v channels duplex default)

The output will vary depending on your system. Yet from the above output we can see that snd_ich is the driver needed.

*Note if you did not get a response you can do a couple of other things:

1. You could look at the FreeBSD 6.1 Hardware Notes, or the FreeBSD 5.5 Hardware notes to find out if your card is supported.
2. Investigate the use of another sound system e.g. OSS (Open Sound System).

If anyone has any other suggestions please let me know.

Step two:
Now that we know which sound driver to use you can load that exact sound driver every time you boot by adding it to your /boot/loader.conf file. You do this by adding a line like this:
snd_YourDriverName_load="YES"
an example using the above driver would be:
# vi /boot/loader.conf
add:
snd_ich_load="YES"

For more information please see: FreeBSD Handbook - Setting up sound and snd(4) man page.

TrueBSD review

I heard yesterday of a new FreeBSD based Operating system called TrueBSD, after having a look around the website I decided to download the iso and have a look.
I was really impressed with this little system, especially as it was the first stable release. TrueBSD is a LiveCD OS, based on FreeBSD. There are many handy applications on it, and a very nicely configured xfce4 window manager (although there are others available). The system felt light and easy to use. There was no effort involved in having a play around. Especially after reading the TrueBSD Handbook.

When you first boot the system you will see the familiar FreeBSD styled boot menu, and boot messages. After logging in with the username root and a blank password you end up with a lovely green prompt, and instructions on where to find the handbook, and a configure command.
From reading the Handbook before downloading the system I knew that by using the following commands I could quickly configure and run the X-server, which is where I wanted to have a look around;

# /sysutils/xconf
# startx

I was introduced to a lovely xfce4 system, with a really professional look. I was Really impressed with the fact that the screen resolution preferences were open, ready for me to use. I loved being able to adjust this setting without having to spend 10 Minutes searching for it's location, all the while squinting my eyes at the screen.

After having a look at a few of the applications available I wanted to use an Internet based tool, only to discover that I didn't have Internet access. I decided to give the `trueconf' tool a spin. So I opened a terminal and typed in:

# /sysutils/trueconf

an easy to understand and use menu opened and I chose my selection from it, and it configured my network perfectly.

I was shocked at some of the applications, as they seemed to big to run from a CD yet I had no problems at all. In fact everything that I opened ran very smoothly and quickly, especially considering that this is a LiveCD.

You can also run TrueBSD from a hard-disk there is the option to install the system. I like this it means that if I wanted a FreeBSD based system running on my system with heaps of preconfigured software than it would not be a hassle.

I was a little disappointed that there was more than one of some types of programs, I very much live by the philosophy; 'one piece of software for one job'. Yet I understand that often this can keep many more people happy.

Overall though this is a friendly and easy to use system, I liked it and will most certainly keeping my eye on this project. If you would like to have a look around TrueBSD I would suggest having a quick read of the TrueBSD Handbook (It is only short) and then downloading and trying TrueBSD for yourself.
Have Fun!