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    1: **Contents**
    2: 
    3: [[!toc levels=2 ]]
    4: 
    5: # jdf's wiki page
    6: 
    7: Note: This is not what I'm really working on, it's just a place to gather some 
    8: notes I took about some topics.
    9: 
   10: ## Guide migration
   11: 
   12: I'm currently trying to migrate the NetBSD guide to the wiki. The relevant
   13: files are these ones:
   14: 
   15:  * chap-exinst
   16:  * inst-media
   17:  * inst
   18:  * net-intro
   19:  * net-practice
   20: 
   21: Already done:
   22: 
   23:  * audio
   24:  * bluetooth
   25:  * boot
   26:  * build
   27:  * carp
   28:  * ccd
   29:  * cgd
   30:  * cons
   31:  * dns
   32:  * edit
   33:  * index
   34:  * inetd
   35:  * intro
   36:  * fetch
   37:  * kernel
   38:  * linux
   39:  * lvm
   40:  * mail
   41:  * misc
   42:  * net-services
   43:  * pam
   44:  * print
   45:  * raidframe
   46:  * rmmedia
   47:  * rc
   48:  * tuning
   49:  * updating
   50:  * upgrading
   51:  * veriexec
   52:  * x
   53: 
   54: I started working on it in `guide/`, though the original proposal
   55: was to store it in `guide/netbsd`. However, whoever wants to change the
   56: directory can do so.
   57: 
   58: ## The new NetBSD guide
   59: 
   60: The NetBSD guide, as well as its contents, is outdated. Of course there's 
   61: current documentation as well in it, but many parts of it are outdated.
   62: The question is: What is the future of the NetBSD guide?
   63: 
   64: Should we continue having something ordered by *book chapters*? Or should we 
   65: make it completely unordered with many howtos inside a wiki, which is also 
   66: printable, but not in a useful order?
   67: 
   68: In my opinion, we should continue having a set of articles where the basic 
   69: subsystems of NetBSD are explained, but in the wiki. It shouldn't be too 
   70: difficult to create a book from that if you want to.
   71: From all these subsystems, imho, the following topics should be covered:
   72: 
   73: System basics:
   74: 
   75:  * Installation
   76:  * Security (CGD, PGP, veriexec, PAM)
   77:  * Disk handling (GPT, disklabel, MBR), creating filesystems, handling USB 
   78:    flashdrives, automounting, CDs
   79:  * RAIDs with raidframe
   80:  * LVM
   81:  * Audio setup
   82:  * Keeping a NetBSD installation up-to-date
   83:  * The rc system, as compared to systemd and SysV
   84:  * Editing with vi
   85:  * X setup, graphics drivers, console drivers
   86:  * Backups with dump/restore and other options
   87:  * Printing (with cups?)
   88: 
   89: Networking:
   90: 
   91:  * Basic network setup
   92:  * inetd setup
   93:  * Bluetooth
   94:  * DNS server setup and related issues
   95:  * Firewalling (describing *all* or linking guide of others)
   96: 
   97: Building NetBSD:
   98: 
   99:  * Building the system with `build.sh`
  100:  * Configuring the kernel
  101:  * Fetching sources, staying -current
  102: 
  103: Using extra packages:
  104: 
  105:  * Emulating Linux
  106:  * Using pkgsrc
  107:  * Using binary packages, using pkgin
  108:  * Installing a desktop environment
  109:  * Things to remember (e.g., no mplayer)
  110: 
  111: ## NetBSD flavoured
  112: 
  113: Currently, NetBSD is a very generic operating system, leaving almost all
  114: choices up to the user. While some consider this a strength, and it
  115: definitely is for people who know what they're doing, it's an obstacle for
  116: people who then have to setup *everything* by hand.
  117: 
  118: Creating a *NetBSD flavoured* distribution shouldn't be much work, and require 
  119: just minor sysinst modifications.
  120: It shouldn't be much work to just package distribution sets that already
  121: include a list of packages it installs and several preconfigured configuration
  122: files, maybe also some additional wrapper scripts.
  123: On the other hand, you could also add some package calls to sysinst and just 
  124: provide a list of packages you consider necessary.
  125: 
  126: My original attempt was to create a range of distributions for different 
  127: purposes, i.e. one for developers, one for graphic designers, one for servers, 
  128: etc. I don't know if this is the right way, esp. since some of the applications 
  129: are *very* specific. You cannot really provide a sane server default 
  130: installation except for some basic things like installing a vim, but that's all.
  131: My current idea is to provide just one, maybe named *NetBSD flavoured*, with at 
  132: least the following tools on board:
  133: 
  134:  * vim
  135:  * pkgin
  136:  * git
  137:  * fossil
  138:  * subversion
  139:  * some other important VCSes
  140:  * light-desktop (i.e., LXDE)
  141:  * screen (tmux is in base)
  142:  * some sane X terminal emulators
  143:  * a browser (Firefox?!)
  144:  * a mailer (Thunderbird? Claws-mail?)
  145:  * emacs (maybe too large?)
  146:  * perl
  147:  * python
  148:  * mplayer (when it's possible to pack it up)
  149:  * pdf viewer
  150:  * preconfigured bozohttpd running on localhost showing documentation
  151: 
  152: ## NetBSD documentation
  153: 
  154: In [this 
  155: post](http://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-docs/2012/09/20/msg000295.html)
  156: I shared some ideas about what to do with documentation. Though much of it 
  157: was proven not practical by the replies, I still have one idea: Unify 
  158: documentation of NetBSD, and provide it all on a NetBSD system.
  159: 
  160: The first step is to merge as much content as possible into the NetBSD wiki. 
  161: Currently, the NetBSD documentation is very diverse in its distribution form.
  162: 
  163: Then, the Google Code-In produced some nice results, including a CGI for a small 
  164: markdown wiki to browse the wiki (if it was offline), and maybe even a terminal 
  165: markdown browser.
  166: 
  167: Finally, ship these two in a pkgsrc package or even with base, and provide a 
  168: small script which regularly updates the documentation.
  169: 
  170: ## NetBSD website
  171: 
  172: Currently, the NetBSD website is written in HTML and Docbook and requires many 
  173: tools to be edited and committed. The final goal should be to have just a small 
  174: homepage with a bit important information, but all the essential technical 
  175: information should be in the wiki. There's also a separate page for this: 
  176: [[htdocs_migration]].
  177: 
  178: Though the plan is currently to migrate *all* contents to the wiki, I don't 
  179: think this is the way to go. A wiki just doesn't leave a good impression.
  180: 
  181: ## NetBSD community and marketing
  182: 
  183: Just some thoughts... I think NetBSD has a very bad way of making technical 
  184: ecisions which are counterproductive from a marketing point of view, or just are 
  185: not used for marketing purposes.
  186: 
  187: The world has changed; nowadays, there's a growing *hacker community* which 
  188: consists of many people with an age below 30. They're just not used to the 
  189: flexibility of the old tools Unix provides, and to the flexibility you have 
  190: with a modern Linux.
  191: 
  192: There are repeating questions why NetBSD doesn't use git as its primary VCS, but 
  193: rather CVS. CVS *is* indeed a very mighty tool, but many people don't know. They 
  194: like git more because they can explicitly `push` with it (and don't know about 
  195: hooks in CVS or Subversion).
  196: The same holds for many other decisions.
  197: 
  198: NetBSD has a very... oldish view of how a community should be organised. On the 
  199: one hand, there are the developers, which are coding the project, maintaining 
  200: the website, maintaining packages, maintaining documentation, organising events, 
  201: organising NetBSD itself... and on the other hand, there are the users. They're 
  202: rather consumers than contributors.
  203: 
  204: The few ones which want to contribute are doing so, and after some time becoming 
  205: developers with the right and possibility to do everything, but there's nothing
  206: in between. There's only few community involvement overall, though there are
  207: many topics which don't require a developer status.
  208: I think breaking with the old habits and providing more community involvement 
  209: and community support is the way to go, but except for starting with a 
  210: user-editable wiki, I don't have many ideas how to do so.
  211: 
  212: ## NetBSD current
  213: 
  214: The same problem exists imho with the release cycle. The standard release cycle 
  215: of NetBSD is too slow for many people who use it privately (just see how 
  216: wide-distributed Arch Linux got), and tracking current is a rather obscure thing 
  217: with compiling things on your own, etc. ...
  218: And it's not well-documented. There *are* changes, but who knows them? Which was 
  219: the current version where tmux was imported? Etc.
  220: 
  221: Tracking these changes more centrally, and providing a nice way to install and 
  222: track a current installation would be a great benefit for NetBSD.