f7d 1998.03.12, Warsaw, Poland PicoBSD 0.31 (DIALUP flavor) ---------------------------- What is PicoBSD? ---------------- It's a one floppy version of FreeBSD (please see http://www.freebsd.org), configured mainly for dialup access. It can be used as a means to read your mail remotely, or to log in somewhere and do the work there. What are minimal requirements? ------------------------------ * 386SX CPU or better (this release contains also FPU emulator) * 8MB RAM - the more the better. If you have an HDD, you can make a swap partition or swap file (using vnode driver and vnconfig). Then you probably will be able to run with ca. 4MB only. But RAM is cheap... * Modem sitting on COM1-COM4 (default is to use COM2), if you want to have a PPP connection. * Network card: compatible with NE2000, or PCI cards with DEC chipsets or 3C509 series (ed, ep and de drivers). There is also driver for Intel EtherExpress PCI card (fxp). How to make a dialup connection? -------------------------------- I recommend running /stand/dialup script, which will additionally configure the PPP to allow you to automatically connect to your provider, and will make the ppp to run in background. However, if you like to do it yourself, or the script doesn't work properly in your case (let me know this!), here are the steps you should take: 1. Go to /etc/ppp directory and edit file ppp.conf (using ee editor). You should check at least the port number of your modem (it's configured on cuaa1==COM2 by default). 2. After you're happy with it, start 'ppp' program. Enter the terminal mode ('term') - you are now directly connected to your modem, so you can normally dial the number using AT commands (e.g. atdt555666777), and log in to communictaion server. You should see something like this: (comm server prompt) login: abial (comm server prompt) Password: ******** Then either the comm server automatically switches to PPP, or you should issue a command to tell it to do so (e.g. 'go ppp', 'PPP' or other). When PPP is started, you should see something like: ppp on pico> Packet mode PPP on pico> Notice the uppercase PPP - it means that the protocol is up, and now you're connected. Congratulations. :-) 3. Your console is blocked now, but you can use other virtual consoles available under Alt-Fn. What is different from previous verison? ---------------------------------------- There is a fundamental change in design: the binaries are no longer compressed, which tremendously decreases memory requirements and increases the number of simultaneous processes. This resluted also in more space on the floppy, and consequently in more installed programs. This version allows you to permanently change kernel parameters in userconfig - they are saved to /kernel.config on startup floppy. The floppy is almost read-only: after initial setup it's unmounted and you can remove it from the drive. If you want to save your changed configuration in /etc, use 'update' script - it automatically mounts the startup floppy and updates the /etc on it. I added short help files - I couldn't include original manpages because they were too big... Also, if you are bored, you can talk to /stand/chuck. :-)) I think this version is more thought out than the previous - it contains only these programs which are either essential to run the system, or essential to the main purpose, i.e. to provide a dialup or ethernet access in hostile environment, while still being useful for fiddling with local resources. Where to get additional info? ----------------------------- There is official page of this project at: http://www.freebsd.org/~abial You can find some informations there - not too much yet, to be sure... ;-) I'll put there also new versions of PicoBSD and bugfixes. I'll be glad hearing from you about your experiences with PicoBSD. Thanks. Have fun! Andrzej Bialecki Dinesh Nair 0