Read this post at your own risk.
Talk about learning curve...
Yes, I read the manual. Read FAQs. Didn't understand a damned word anything was, let alone where to find definitions to things. I have the attention span of a squirrel. About four years ago I started using Ubuntu as just a way of fulfilling a curiosity, and part out of looking for *ahem* alternative operating systems. I had problems using the command line. I was a clicker in World of Warcraft for a few months, anyway. Things got better, I promise. Eventually learning about FreeBSD and the whole philosophy behind the free software movement, watching endless YouTube videos, went back to college and learned math stuff. (I'm American, and it is "M-A-T-H" you heathens).
TLDR: "Instructions unclear: Smoked weed and learned to program in CPython." (Obligatory: https://xkcd.com/353/ )
That's not a joke though. About a year and a half ago that is exactly what happened. I'm a disabled vet and would rather do that, than take pills. (It is legal in my state, before you xyz about it one way or the other). Before I hurt my back really bad (it was already bad), the promising prospects of being a carpenter and electrician were in hand. Not so much now. But, I have a bit of experience and background with electricity, which helped me become extremely interested in a more academic approach to computers. Previously, I had only viewed computers and their operation an arcane art, and beyond my comprehension.
It was. Life is hard. I didn't have a computer as a kid. First gaming system was an Atari 1600 dad picked up at the flea market. Came with a bunch of games. Was probably stolen. Later, got an upgrade: Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was 100% legit. Pressing buttons was my thing. I could press buttons really good.
Anyway, I read the documentation to Python. After about a week of straight reading (and smoking), programmed a text-based "dungeon" game from just all the CPython 3.6 built-ins. I think it was 3.6. Not sure. No pip or fancy 3rd party things though.
Did you know that the calculation for the "power factor" of electricity is the same calculation as the Pythagorean theorem? This is what originally piqued my interest in how computers operate. I want to know all the things. Eventually learning about resistors, capacitors and transistors. Stuff.
Currently learning about LLVM and LLVMlite for Python. PyPy is a thing. Read about Pyglets and OpenGL and OpenGLES. Can read binary and hex fairly well, because math. Not sure what its use for is, aside from feeding machine code directly into the cpu somehow. Probably seen a video about it at some time in the distant past. Don't remember.
Narrowing it down to the point though, sparing __all__ the details:
Been reading about the various flavors of BSD-inspired platforms. Thought FreeBSD would be a great start point, if nothing else, as a way of learning about more systems in general.
Short term goals:
Have a FreeBSD install USB. It seems to work on this laptop, but I didn't commit to anything. Didn't even try booting into the live environment.
Too scary to attempt alone, yet. I DID, however, read this page:
https://wiki.freebsd.org/Laptops
And I am fascinated with the idea of possibly helping/contributing by getting it to run on laptops with a production date of anything from 2013 to the current day. Will be acquiring a newer laptop soonish, and I can then safely mess around with this one. Mostly because I'm not comfortable without some kind of backup device, as this is currently my only personal cpu. Can't even run Civ IV, V or VI tho. Disappoint.
Speaking of: Tried installing on an older system (desktop setup) using an AMD Phenom II x4 995. Got as far as getting to some kind of command prompt after entering password and stuff, setting up the user/groups and such, but couldn't get it connect to the internet. Older outdated hardware that required I manually edit something in some configuration file with vi or whatever. DID NOT HAPPEN LOL. That was about a year ago, so gave up trying to do that again, for now.
Mid-term goals:
Get FreeBSD installed on this CPU (a Dell laptop) eventually.
Finish programming an "access tracker" application written in CPy3.7 for a real-world job, as a hobby.
Not getting paid, don't want to get paid. Want to contribute. Will be open source, as soon as it isn't crappy. Too embarrassed to post it.
Long-term goals:
Write a desktop environment with possibly PyPy or some Python-variant, maybe even a real video game. With graphics. Thinking of learning more about OpenGL. Still noob.
To the point:
Can you help me achieve my short term goal of installing FreeBSD on __this__ laptop?
More importantly, from the wiki previously linked to:
I think I can handle that. But, is there anything else I should be doing? Other special commands? Not a whole lot on tutorials concerning installing FreeBSD on laptops that aren't even listed on any website when searching several different search engines, non of which shall be named.
Thank you for your time. Please excuse my ignorance. Reading the forum guidelines resulted in this post. Just going cross-eyed trying to read documentation. A little shove in the right direction is appreciated.
Talk about learning curve...
Yes, I read the manual. Read FAQs. Didn't understand a damned word anything was, let alone where to find definitions to things. I have the attention span of a squirrel. About four years ago I started using Ubuntu as just a way of fulfilling a curiosity, and part out of looking for *ahem* alternative operating systems. I had problems using the command line. I was a clicker in World of Warcraft for a few months, anyway. Things got better, I promise. Eventually learning about FreeBSD and the whole philosophy behind the free software movement, watching endless YouTube videos, went back to college and learned math stuff. (I'm American, and it is "M-A-T-H" you heathens).
TLDR: "Instructions unclear: Smoked weed and learned to program in CPython." (Obligatory: https://xkcd.com/353/ )
That's not a joke though. About a year and a half ago that is exactly what happened. I'm a disabled vet and would rather do that, than take pills. (It is legal in my state, before you xyz about it one way or the other). Before I hurt my back really bad (it was already bad), the promising prospects of being a carpenter and electrician were in hand. Not so much now. But, I have a bit of experience and background with electricity, which helped me become extremely interested in a more academic approach to computers. Previously, I had only viewed computers and their operation an arcane art, and beyond my comprehension.
It was. Life is hard. I didn't have a computer as a kid. First gaming system was an Atari 1600 dad picked up at the flea market. Came with a bunch of games. Was probably stolen. Later, got an upgrade: Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was 100% legit. Pressing buttons was my thing. I could press buttons really good.
Anyway, I read the documentation to Python. After about a week of straight reading (and smoking), programmed a text-based "dungeon" game from just all the CPython 3.6 built-ins. I think it was 3.6. Not sure. No pip or fancy 3rd party things though.
Did you know that the calculation for the "power factor" of electricity is the same calculation as the Pythagorean theorem? This is what originally piqued my interest in how computers operate. I want to know all the things. Eventually learning about resistors, capacitors and transistors. Stuff.
Currently learning about LLVM and LLVMlite for Python. PyPy is a thing. Read about Pyglets and OpenGL and OpenGLES. Can read binary and hex fairly well, because math. Not sure what its use for is, aside from feeding machine code directly into the cpu somehow. Probably seen a video about it at some time in the distant past. Don't remember.
Narrowing it down to the point though, sparing __all__ the details:
Been reading about the various flavors of BSD-inspired platforms. Thought FreeBSD would be a great start point, if nothing else, as a way of learning about more systems in general.
Short term goals:
Have a FreeBSD install USB. It seems to work on this laptop, but I didn't commit to anything. Didn't even try booting into the live environment.
Too scary to attempt alone, yet. I DID, however, read this page:
https://wiki.freebsd.org/Laptops
And I am fascinated with the idea of possibly helping/contributing by getting it to run on laptops with a production date of anything from 2013 to the current day. Will be acquiring a newer laptop soonish, and I can then safely mess around with this one. Mostly because I'm not comfortable without some kind of backup device, as this is currently my only personal cpu. Can't even run Civ IV, V or VI tho. Disappoint.
Speaking of: Tried installing on an older system (desktop setup) using an AMD Phenom II x4 995. Got as far as getting to some kind of command prompt after entering password and stuff, setting up the user/groups and such, but couldn't get it connect to the internet. Older outdated hardware that required I manually edit something in some configuration file with vi or whatever. DID NOT HAPPEN LOL. That was about a year ago, so gave up trying to do that again, for now.
Mid-term goals:
Get FreeBSD installed on this CPU (a Dell laptop) eventually.
Finish programming an "access tracker" application written in CPy3.7 for a real-world job, as a hobby.
Not getting paid, don't want to get paid. Want to contribute. Will be open source, as soon as it isn't crappy. Too embarrassed to post it.
Long-term goals:
Write a desktop environment with possibly PyPy or some Python-variant, maybe even a real video game. With graphics. Thinking of learning more about OpenGL. Still noob.
To the point:
Can you help me achieve my short term goal of installing FreeBSD on __this__ laptop?
More importantly, from the wiki previously linked to:
Code:
# mount -u -o rw /
# dmesg > /dmesg.out.txt
# pciconf -lv > /pciconf.out.txt
# devinfo -v > /devinfo.out.txt
# acpidump -dt > /acpidump.out.txt
# mount -u -o ro / ; sync
# zzz
I think I can handle that. But, is there anything else I should be doing? Other special commands? Not a whole lot on tutorials concerning installing FreeBSD on laptops that aren't even listed on any website when searching several different search engines, non of which shall be named.
Thank you for your time. Please excuse my ignorance. Reading the forum guidelines resulted in this post. Just going cross-eyed trying to read documentation. A little shove in the right direction is appreciated.