Solved [SOLVED]FreeBSD vs True OS Install from PCBSD DVD

I am planning to have another go at installing and setting up Freebsd FreeBSD (gave up and went to Ubuntu 12.04 server + Unity, etc for a while), but, having just downloaded the PC-BSD 9.1 DVD, I am just wondering if I should download the FreeBSD DVD and burn that also, just in case.

Essentially, I have 2 PCs, I'll be using:
  • AMD64x2 [Nvidia Geforce 6100] for FreeBSD 9.1 (currently running Ubuntu Server 12.04 + Unity)
  • AMD64x1 [128mb ATI integrated graphics] for PC-BSD (currently running XP Home)
What is the difference between installing FreeBSD 9.1 from:

  • FreeBSD DVD
  • PC-BSD DVD

With the latter, what is the difference between (other than what their handbook states), the vanilla FreeBSD Server Install and "True OS?"

I'm just checking ahead to know what my options are.

Thanks.
 
I did not keep the installation very long as the network card was being troublesome, but when I tried installing FreeBSD from the PC-BSD ISO it seemed to load a lot of modules. If I recall correctly, a base FreeBSD install ended with three modules loaded where PC-BSD loaded everything but the kitchen sink. Definitely some PC-BSD creative license going on there.

Their forums are quite helpful and should be able to provide more detail on hardware detection/module loading though.
 
PC-BSD loads a lot of modules for GELI , GEOM striping/RAID/etc. and ZFS boot support (amongst other things), from memory.
 
I'd like to install a base FreeBSD system from the PC-BSD ISO because it is very easy to set up zfs on root during installation. Doing the same thing with the FreeBSD ISO requires a few more steps. If you are not going to use zfs then don't bother using the PC-BSD ISO.

It seems that a default installation of FreeBSD from a PC-BSD ISO creates a /usr/pbi filesystem which shouldn't be there. I'm not sure if that is a bug or on purpose in order to allow installation of their PBI packages even in a vanilla FreeBSD system, but I guess you can remove that filesystem during installation. It would be interesting to see if this points to more changes under the hood, although their handbook says that is a vanilla FreeBSD installation.
 
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