Support
Mailing lists
Mailing lists are the primary support channel for FreeBSD
users, with numerous mailing lists covering different topic
areas. When in doubt about what list to post a question to,
post to freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG.
To get an up to the minute view of the mailing lists available
or to subscribe to a mailing list, use FreeBSD.org's Mailman web
interface. All mailman lists are available in a digest
format and have threaded archives available. See the individual
list's web page for details.
You can search or
browse the
mailing list archives at www.FreeBSD.org.
Several non-English mailing lists are also available:
If you create other FreeBSD mailing lists, let us know about them.
Newsgroups
There are a few FreeBSD specific newsgroups,
along with numerous other newsgroups on topics of interest to
FreeBSD users, though the mailing lists remain the most
reliable way to get in touch with the FreeBSD developers. For
miscellaneous FreeBSD discussion, see comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc.
For important announcements, see comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.announce.
The
BSD Usenet News Searcher have archives of all BSD-related
Usenet newsgroups from June 1992 onwards.
IRC
While #freebsd channels exist on various IRC networks, the
FreeBSD project does not control them or endorse IRC as a
support medium. You may be ignored, insulted, or kicked out if
you ask questions on any channel in IRC, though you may have
slightly better luck in channels named #freebsdhelp where such
exist. If you want to try these or any other channels on IRC,
it is nonetheless at your own risk and any complaints about
conduct on those channels should not be directed to the FreeBSD
project. See also the FAQ
entry for more information.
Web Resources
-
Our web pages remain one of the best sources of
information, and are also mirrored at many sites around the
world. Try connecting to www.yourcountry.FreeBSD.org
(e.g. www.de.FreeBSD.org
for Germany or www.au.FreeBSD.org
for Australia), or select a mirror from the list below. The
same naming convention is also used for FTP
servers.
-
For information on recent FreeBSD progress and releases,
see the Newsflash
page.
Current FreeBSD problem reports are tracked using the GNATS
database.
A FreeBSD problem report (PR) is not necessarily a bug with
FreeBSD itself. In some cases it may be reporting a mistake in
the documentation (which could be a simple typo). In other
cases it may be a 'wishlist' item that the submitter would like
to see incorporated in to FreeBSD. In many cases a PR contains
a port which has been prepared for inclusion in the FreeBSD Ports and Packages
collection.
Problem reports start 'open', and are closed as the issue
they report is resolved. In addition, each PR is assigned a
unique tracking ID to ensure that it is not lost. Many FreeBSD
changes include the tracking ID of the PR that prompted the
change.
Problem reports may also be submitted to the development
team using the send-pr(1) command on
a FreeBSD system, or by sending an email message to freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.ORG.
Please note that send-pr is
preferred since messages sent to the mailing list are
not tracked as official problem reports, and may get
lost in the noise!
Before submitting a problem report, you might find it useful
to read the Writing
FreeBSD Problem Reports article. This article describes
when you should submit a problem report, what you are expected
to include in one, and what the best way to submit your problem
report is. Some useful background information is also contained
in the Problem
Report Handling Guidelines article.
CVS
(the Concurrent Version System) is the tool we use for keeping
our sources under control. Every change (with accompanying log
message explaining its purpose) from FreeBSD 2.0 to the present
is stored here. It can be easily viewed from the web interface
mentioned below. To obtain a complete copy of the FreeBSD CVS
repository or any of the development branches inside it, you
may choose any one of following options:
-
cvsup if you are looking for on-demand, low overhead
access using a custom utility (written in Modula-3 no
less).
-
anoncvs if you are looking for on-demand access that has
higher overhead than cvsup (in terms of wall time and bytes
transferred) but is easier to use for checking out small
pieces of the tree and requires nothing more than the cvs
tools already bundled with FreeBSD.
- CTM
if you are looking for very low overhead, batch-mode access
(basically, patches through email).
- The web
interface if you are looking to simply browse the
repository in search of a specific change or file
revision.
- Finally, if you have got bandwidth to burn or you prefer
/ are forced to use FTP, you can simply mirror the CVS
repository from
ftp.FreeBSD.org.
Mirrors of the CVS Repository cgi script are available in Germany, Japan, Portugal,
San Marino, Spain, USA/California and
Ukraine.
User Groups
FreeBSD's widespread popularity has spawned a number of user
groups around the world. If you know of a FreeBSD user group
not listed here, let us
know about it.
Australia
Europe
- Aachen, Germany The Aachener BSD
Stammtisch is meeting infrequently to discuss BSD and related
matters over a glass of beer. Meetings are coordinated
through our mailing
list.
- Austria The BSD User Group Austria
(BUGAT) is a german-language oriented user group. Visit
our server for more
information.
- Berlin, Germany BSD Berlin is a new
formed BSD user group in Berlin, Germany. There are no
regular meetings yet, please contact Danny Koenig for more
information.
- Denmark BSD-DK. The Danish BSD user
group. Promotion and support of BSD derived Operating Systems
in Denmark. Mailing lists, lectures and workshops. Send mail
subscription requests to bsd-dk-request@bsd-dk.dk.
- Duisburg, Germany The Cosmo-Project is a
user group with a difference. Instead of just meeting, they
actively develop projects such as robots. Most users use
FreeBSD, but it is not a specifically FreeBSD-related
group.
- France The French FreeBSD UG.
Please follow the link for details.
- Frankfurt, Germany FrankfurtBSD is
a user group for the Rhein-Main area. We are currently
looking for new members. As soon as we have grown larger, we
would like to meet monthly and maintain minor projects.
- Hamburg, Germany The BSDHH (BSD
User Group Hamburg) meets on the first Wednesday of the month
at 7.00pm in the Chinese restaurant Lotosblüte,
Löwenstraße 22 in Hamburg-Eppendorf. Most members are FreeBSD
users, although users of all BSD flavors are welcome.
- Ireland The BUGI (BSD User Group
Ireland) is currently a rather grandiose term for a mailing
list and super-minimal web page. All BSD users and
enthusiasts are welcome.
- Italia The GUFI (Gruppo Utenti FreeBSD
Italia) is an "italian powered" FreeBSD User Group. It is
intended to help Italian FreeBSD users to find support and
articles on/about FreeBSD in the Italian language. Please
follow this link to know
more about us.
- Köln (Cologne), Germany The CBUG (Cologne BSD Usergroup)
caters to BSD users in the Köln area. At the moment, there
are no regular meetings. Please check the website for
news.
- Lublin, Poland The Lublin BSD Users
Group. Please follow the link for details.
- Lund, Sweden The Lund Linux User Group
(LFUG) has nearly 50 members and covers FreeBSD and Solaris
in addition to Linux. To join, contact Omar Dedovic
- Manchester, UK The Manchester BSD
Users Group meets reasonably often in the Lass O'Gowrie,
on Charles Street, Manchester. Contact Sam Smith for more
information.
- Mannheim, Germany The UUGRN eV (Unix Users Group
Rhein-Neckar eV) provides a regional forum for users of all
Unix flavors, with a stress on Linux and BSD. Meetings are
held on the second Thursday of each month at the
"Hafenschenke" in Mannheim and the fourth Wednesday of each
month at the "Vater Rhein" in Heidelberg.
- München (Munich), Germany The BIM (Berkeley In Munich) group
caters for users of BSD-based systems in Oberbayern.
- The Netherlands. The Dutch FreeBSD User Group
(NLFUG) has had its first meeting on oct 2, 1999. On this
day 30 years before that, the second IMP was installed in
Doug Englebart's lab at SRI. This, as you all know, was the
start of something that grew to be the Internet (thanks to
Edwin Kremer for bringing this under our attention).
- Norway The Norwegian BSD User Group
(NOBUG) is a usergroup for BSD users and enthusiasts in
Norway. Meetings are currently held in Oslo and Bergen. Visit
our website for more information. There is also a UNIX User
Group (NUUG) with more
regular meetings, sometimes even with a BSD subject.
- Amadora, Portugal The Portuguese
*BSD Users Group is a user group for Portuguese
users of BSD operating systems. Contact Rui Pereira ptbsd@yahoo.com for more
information.
- Regensburg, Germany The Unix and Linux User
Group is a general Unix users group for anyone
in Regensburg (Bavaria, Germany). We meet on every first
Monday of the month in the Pub ``Filmbühne'' in Regensburg.
Visit the web site or send a message to m.suess@2use.org.
- Romania The ROFUG (Romanian FreeBSD Users
Group/Free Unix Group) is a user group for the Romanian users
of FreeBSD and open-source in general, promoting and
supporting FreeBSD and open source usage. To join the mailing
lists, send an email to listar@rofug.ro with
subscribe rofug and/or subscribe
rofug-announce in the body of the message.
- Sweden The BSD Users
Sweden (BUS) maintains a mailing list. To join, send mail
to majordomo@stacken.kth.se
with subscribe bus in the message.
- Ukraine The Ukrainian FreeBSD User
Group (UAFUG) is Russian/Ukrainian languages oriented
user group for the Ukrainian users of BSD-derivatives,
promoting and supporting BSD flavours and open source usage.
The UAFUG has had its first meeting on 2 June 2002 and meets
every 2-3 weeks. We also provide an open forum for all
BSD-related things in the Russian and Ukrainian languages
(though we can read/write in English as well). To join the
mailing list send a message to majordomo@FreeBSDDiary.org.ua
with
subscribe freebsd in the body of the
message. Check the link above for more
information.
- United Kingdom The FreeBSD UKUG (FreeBSD
UK User's Group) exists for the benefit of FreeBSD users in
the United Kingdom. Please follow the link for details.
- Yugoslavia The Yugoslavia BSD Users Group
provides an open forum for all things BSD-related in the
Serbian language. To join the mailing list, send an email to
majordomo@bsd.org.yu
with subscribe bsdyu in the body of the
message.
North America
- Ames, Iowa The Ames Free-Unix
Group aims to promote the use of Free Unix. We
meet on the campus of Iowa State University once a month and
hold a presentation with an open question and answer session
afterwards. You can join our mailing list by sending a blank
email to aafugit-subscribe@aafugit.org.
- Berkeley, CA The Berkeley Unix User
Group is a general Unix users group for anyone
in the San Francisco Bay Area. We meet on a weekly basis in
downtown Berkeley. Visit the web site or send a message to buug-request@weak.org
with subscribe in the body.
- Chicago IL The Chicago FreeBSD Users Group
(ChiFUG).
- The Connecticut Free Unix user's Group
(CFUG) is devoted to free Unix, but has resources for almost
all Unixen. Their area of operation is Connecticut and
Western Massachusetts. More information can be found at http://www.cfug.org.
- The Houston TX Houston FreeBSD Users Group
was formed March 1999. Our goal is to promote and educate
Houston area computer users on FreeBSD Unix. We meet on the
third Saturday of the month. The group operates a mailing
list at http://www.houfug.org/mailman/listinfo/hou-freebsd
Visit our website at http://www.houfug.org for
more information.
- Indianapolis IN Free Unix for Indianapolis
is a non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging the use
of Free Unix variants in and around Indianapolis.
Essentially, we are a bunch of geeks who share a common
passion: Unix. Visit the web site or send a message to info@fufin.org for
additional information.
- Kansas KULUA (Kansas Unix & Linux
Users Association) is a Free Unix user group based in
Lawrence, Kansas, but with users throughout eastern Kansas
and western Missouri. We have about 120 members and meet
biweekly. Visit the web site or email kulua@kulua.org for more
information.
- Kansas Wichita Area FreeBSD Users
Group (WAFUG) is a free users group provided to anyone in
the Wichita area for support with FreeBSD and other Unix and
Unix-like operating systems. We meet twice a month, usually
in a restaraunt where you can smoke or drink if you like.
Please send us Email for
more information or to find out how to get free shell
account, www or ftp space on our system.
- Los Angeles CA The Yahoo
Club group is a foundation for a Los Angeles based BSD
user group.
- Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN TCBUG: The Twin Cities BSD
User Group meets once a month to discuss issues important to
the BSD community. The website carries our major
announcements, while you are encouraged to join the mailing
list tcbug@tcbug.org to
keep up with general group discussion. Look at the site, join
the mailing list, come to a meeting. We look forward to
learning from you and with you about BSD UNIX.
- New Mexico The NMLUG in Albuquerque
meets once a month and supports both BSD and Linux users. To
join the mailing list, send a message to majordomo@swcp.com with
subscribe nmlug in the body.
- New Orleans LA The New Orleans *BSD User
Group meets twice a month. Contact Konrad Rzeszutek for
more details. A web page will be posted soon.
- New York NY D'Artagnan's
FreeBSD Users Group.
- Northern Arizona Yavapai Free Unix Users
Group is now forming for *BSD/Linux, etc., users in Northern
Arizona. Please contact Russell Carter ( rcarter@consys.com) for
details.
- Orlando, FL BUGO (BSD Users Group of
Orlando) is a group based in Orlando, FL that aims to bring a
friendly forum to all Unix users in the central
Florida area, and hopefully beyond. See the BUGO web page for further
details.
- Phoenix AZ The Phoenix BSD Users group
is fully open for business. Anyone from the Phoenix area
please feel free to join in http://bsd.phoenix.az.us.
- Portland, OR The Portland (Oregon)
FreeBSD Users group meets on the third Thursday of each
month. Mail Rick
Hamell.
- The Reno
NV RUUG (Reno Unix Users Group) meets monthly in
Reno Nevada and discusses the use of FreeBSD and Linux.
Contact Eric Blood or
Todd Crenshaw
for more information.
- Research Triangle, NC The Triangle Area BSD Users
Group is a users group for BSD users in the
Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina, including the
surrounding metropolitan areas of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel
Hill. People interested in this group may subscribe to the
mailing list by sending a message to majordomo@tribug.org
with subscribe tribug-members in the body.
- Rhode Island The Rhode Island Free Unix
Group supports every form of Unix that can be obtained
freely. They can be contacted at: http://users.tmok.com/~rifug
or by e-mail at: rifug@entropy.tmok.com
- St. Louis, MO The St. Louis BSD User Group
(STLBSD) has just formed on July 20, 2000 to promote BSD
operating systems in the St. Louis area. We have strong ties
to the 10 year old St. Louis Unix Users Group (SLUUG) and expect to be a
positive force within our community. Our membership is open
to anyone interested in learning more about BSD, several
mailing lists are available through our website.
- San Diego, California San Diego BSD
Users Group for users of FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD. The
meeting is first Thursday of every month at Boll Weevil off
Clairemont Mesa Blvd., near the intersection with Ruffin
Road. More information can be found here
- North San Francisco Bay Area The BABUG (Bay Area BSD Users
Group) has monthly meetings, alternating between San
Francisco and Berkeley. Those interested in attending should
visit the web site or send mail to the BABUG Web
Master
- Silicon Valley, CA The SVBUG (Silicon Valley BSD User
Group), a forum for BSD and BSD embedded
systems, meets on the First Thursday of the month. Meetings
are held at the Carl's Jr. on First Street and Trimble Road
in San Jose, California. For details on event or what is
going on visit the website or send a message to webmaster@svbug.com.
- Southern Illinois *BSD Group The Southern Illinois *BSD
Group is a meeting place for BSD users to experiment with
networks and provide help with installs. Emphasis is on
FreeBSD and its KDE and Gnome desktops.
- East Texas The Unix Users of Deep East Texas is
dedicated to all things Unix. This group is open to users of
all flavors of Unix. We meet on the last Saturday of the
month at the Angelina County Court House. See the web page
for details, or send email to admin@uudet.org.
- The Tampa Florida users group is now
being formed. Interested parties can join the mailing list by
sending mail to bsd-tug-request@bangheadhere.org
with subscribe in the body.
- Greater Toronto Area, Ontario: The GTABUG usergroup welcomes
all BSD users. Monthly meetings give attendees a chance to
share ideas, discussion, and information. Installathons and
other events help preach the good news of BSD to the
community. Come drop by for a meeting!
- Tucson AZ TFUG: Tucson Free Unix Group,
Arizona.
- Utah SLLUG-BUG is a BSD
Unix User Group affiliated with the Salt Lake Linux User
Group (SLLUG). We meet in concert with SLLUG, since the BSD
and Linux communities have so much in common. We meet on the
third Wednesday of each month, check the web page for
details.
- Vancouver, BC The VanBUG (Vancouver BSD Users
Group) is a group of volunteers who are passionate about
FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD. Their current goal is to raise
awareness and also provide local assistance as much as we
can.
- Washington DC (DC Metropolitan Area)
FreeBSD User Group. Please contact Richard Cramer, Sytex
Access Ltd. at 703-425-2515, or preferred, email at rcramer@sytex.net to be
put on a member distribution list.
- Wichita, Kansas: A new FreeBSD users
group has been created in Wichita, Ks. We are fairly new and
working on our site, but we wanted to get it up as soon as we
had it available. We do not currently meet. Visit our site http://wafug.dynip.com or
E-mail the group organizer (ben177@yahoo.com) for more
information!
- Windsor, Ontario The Windsor Unix Users
Group (Windsor, Ontario, Canada) covers BSD, Solaris, SCO,
and others. This is not specifically a FreeBSD user group,
but we do already have members running FreeBSD. The group
operates a mailing list (wuug-list@unixpower.org). More
information can be found at http://www.wuug.org/.
- Wisconsin FreeBSD-Milwaukee
Wisconsin meets occasionally and has a mailing list: freebsd-mke-l@ns.sol.net.
send mail to freebsd-mke-l-request@ns.sol.net
to subscribe.
Rest of the world
- China The China FreeBSD User Group (CNFUG) was formed May 2003.
It publishes the CNFUG Journal (A FreeBSD Technical Journal
in Simplified Chinese) monthly. In addition, we offer a BSD
UNIX Support Forum, IRC and several mailing lists in
Chinese.
- Colombia Visit http://www.bsdcolombia.org
for the FreeBSD User Group Colombia.
- Ibaraki, Japan The Daibou East *BSD
Users Group (DEBUG) is
now forming for *BSD users in Tsukuba area.
- Indonesia The Jogja FreeBSD Users' Group
is based in Yogyakarta City, Indonesia. Send email to 22961476@students.ukdw.ac.id
for more information.
- Israel The Israeli BSD Users Group is an
effort to promote the use of *BSD throughout the country, and
to act as a center of information for all BSD users. It is
currently run by FreeBSD users, but all users of BSD variants
are welcome aboard. We have a mailing list, hosted at bsd-il@osem.co.il. To
subscribe, simply send mail to majordomo@osem.co.il,
with the line "subscribe bsd-il" as the message body.
- Kansai, Japan The Kansai *BSD User's
Group, K*BUG (sorry for
Japanese only), was established on November 13, 1999. It is
expected to promote communication of any of the BSD variants'
users. Some of its activities are to hold friendly parties of
the members, and to hold seminars covering wide variety of
topics. Please mail here ( kbug-admin@kbug.gr.jp
).
- Malaysia The MyBSD Malaysia Project is
a Kuala Lumpur based usergroup for BSD users and open-source
in general, promoting and supporting FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD
and open source usage. We meet once a month, usually at
Universiti Malaya or Restaurant Bahadur Shah. One of our
projects is to develop a Unix
file manager. Visit our website or contact info@MyBSD.org.my for
more information.
- Malaysia/2 The BSD Malaysia web pages
aim to be a central site for users of *BSD UNIX variants
(including FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD). BSD support forums,
technical BSD-related articles, and recent news items are
published online. Both English and Malaysian can be used as
the language on this site.
- Mexico FreeBSD Mexico is a
spanish oriented user group not only for people in Mexico but
also in other spanish speaking countries. Please contact Alejandro Acosta for
more information.
- New Zealand The New Zealand FreeBSD
User's group is located in Wellington. No meetings have
been scheduled yet.
- Niigata, Japan The Echigo BSD Users
Group (EBUG) is the users
group for BSD users around Echigo (aka Niigata). For more
information on our events and mailing lists, please check the
EBUG web site.
- Brazil The FUG-BR (Brazilian FreeBSD
User Group) is a Portuguese language oriented user group
intended to help Brazilian FreeBSD users to find support and
articles on and about FreeBSD in the Portuguese language. We
keeps some projects such as the "FreeBSD
LiveCD". Currently the group has 600 members and our
maillist has an average traffic of 80 messages per day. To
join FUG-BR mailing list, visit http://www2.fugspbr.org/mailman/listinfo/fugspbr.
In addition to the mainstream development path of FreeBSD, a
number of developer groups are working on the cutting edge to
expand FreeBSD's range of applications in new directions.
Security resources available to FreeBSD users: PGP Key for
Security Officers, advisories, patches and mailing lists.
Whether you are just starting out with FreeBSD, or need to
complete a large project, a consultant or two might be your
answer.
General UNIX® Information
The X Window System
- The XFree86 Project
provides users of a variety of Intel based Unix systems,
including FreeBSD, with an excellent X Window system.
- The
NVIDIA®/FreeBSD FAQ provides a collection of
frequently asked questions and tips regarding the NVIDIA®
FreeBSD graphics drivers.
- The WINE project is
working to provide the ability to run Microsoft Windows®
software on Intel based Unix systems such as FreeBSD, NetBSD
and Linux.
Hardware
Related Operating System Projects
- NetBSD is
another free 4.4BSD-Lite based operating system which runs on
several different architectures.
- OpenBSD
is another 4.4BSD derivative.
- Linux is
another free Unix-like system.
- Lites
is a 4.4 BSD Lite based server and emulation library that
provides free Unix functionality to a Mach based system.
- The GNU
HURD project is another effort to develop a free
Unix-like operating system.
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reserved.
Last modified: 2003/08/11 18:25:37