[font="Fixedsys"][ split off from http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=10370 due to sidetracking - Mod ][/font]
I posted a message earlier today describing my problems with FreeBSD 8.0. They were bad enough for me to stop using it, but not as bad as yours. I can understand your upset -- an OS that throws your files on the floor isn't worth much.
My personal suggestion would be to give OpenBSD a try. Theo de Raadt runs that project very conservatively, with very sound release-engineering principles. I've used it for almost a year and it is rock-solid. It is also easy to install and administer, because it's simple. No whizzy graphical installer, no fancy stuff re config files, daemon startup, etc. But the thing Just Works. My only reason for trying FreeBSD (again! I abandoned it once before because I found serious bugs that made it unusable for me. This will be the last time for me -- something about twice burned.) is that OpenBSD, a small project, has not yet come out with a production kernel without the giant lock. While it supports SMP hardware, the giant lock serializes access to the kernel. For some applications, this can reduce parallelism, compromising performance/scalability. I run OpenBSD on all my machines but one, the one where this might be an issue. I tried, and just abandoned, FreeBSD 8.0 on that machine. I've installed Arch Linux in its place. While Linux is not as carefully coordinated as OpenBSD and not as easy to administer, it has good SMP support and it does work.
/Don Allen
Seeker said:Now THAT DOES IT!
I swear a god, that this thread will have a grand impact on my decision, will I dump FreeBSD, most possibly for eternity! x(
When NOT properly shutdown (ie: sudden power loss, sys hangs due to bug in code, so I need to turn of power or reset), destruction that happens to DATA on hdd is out of normal comprehension!
Recent immense destruction that spilled my glass of patience:
Sys: FreeBSD 8-STABLE
At boot time: (it happens each 8th time approx. ), it hangs on ugenX.X line at usbusX, when it detects my Novatel Wireless mobile broadband 3g adapter OR ugenX.X line at usbusX, with some other device.
This hang NEVER happened on 7.X branch, so I suspect this has to do with 8.X's USB code rewrite.
Lastly, I've figured out, that I can avoid this hang, if I use hardware switch on my laptop, in order to physically turn of WLAN, bluetooth and 3G adapter.
So...
THIS caused, a massive loss, in /boot/kernel dir, of MANY *.ko AND *.ko.symbols files.
Also disappeared many /libexec/* files -> RESULT -> I can't run ALMOST any app installed from port!!!
Also disappeared many /bin/* files -> RESULT -> I can't rebuild world and kernel anymore! -> WHICH WAS PANACEA BEFORE!!
Now what?!
Now this situation NEVER happened on WinXP Pro SP3 - NEVER!
I can turn off power, reset, unplug the power cord and in WORST CASE I will ONLY loose data I've been working on ATM on WinXP!
I won't loose critical sys data/files that would render OS unbotable / unusable!
From my point of view, loss of data/files is HERESY!
And especially at this level/rate makes me dump ANY OS, at start immediately!
As any further usage attempts of that OS, forward on, is a complete waste of time, as in it's start/root, is faulty.
So anything you do, create is NULLED! x(
Now I simply wana comprehend this UNLOGIC sickness!
At boot time - data is being read and executed against critical sys files that are NEVER modified(read and execute are exactly perms of disappeared sys files). Nothing is being written to them!
So HOW CAN THEY BE ERRASED AT BOOT TIME FROM HDD!?!
Log files, are being written for examples. SO I would ubderstand if THEY are gone!
SOFT UPDATES - in case of a crash, files could be several seconds (even a minute!) behind updating the physical disk.
To me... the only logical explanation, is the most idiotic as well, for alpha and omega OS - THE FreeBSD. And is:
At boot time: critical sys files are pulled from HDD in memory, in a way that they are erased from HDD, before putting them in a memory, so if power outage happens, they don't exist in memory as well as on HDD anymore.
How else to explain such immense data loose?? :\
I posted a message earlier today describing my problems with FreeBSD 8.0. They were bad enough for me to stop using it, but not as bad as yours. I can understand your upset -- an OS that throws your files on the floor isn't worth much.
My personal suggestion would be to give OpenBSD a try. Theo de Raadt runs that project very conservatively, with very sound release-engineering principles. I've used it for almost a year and it is rock-solid. It is also easy to install and administer, because it's simple. No whizzy graphical installer, no fancy stuff re config files, daemon startup, etc. But the thing Just Works. My only reason for trying FreeBSD (again! I abandoned it once before because I found serious bugs that made it unusable for me. This will be the last time for me -- something about twice burned.) is that OpenBSD, a small project, has not yet come out with a production kernel without the giant lock. While it supports SMP hardware, the giant lock serializes access to the kernel. For some applications, this can reduce parallelism, compromising performance/scalability. I run OpenBSD on all my machines but one, the one where this might be an issue. I tried, and just abandoned, FreeBSD 8.0 on that machine. I've installed Arch Linux in its place. While Linux is not as carefully coordinated as OpenBSD and not as easy to administer, it has good SMP support and it does work.
/Don Allen