Settings and Packages

After the network connection was configured, the FreeBSD post-installation program showed me the next message: 
User Confirmation Requested 
       Would you like to customize your system console settings?

                              [ Yes ]  No
I selected yes, then in the System Console Configuration menu I selected Configure the Screen Saver where I chose option 6 "BSD Daemon".

I exitted the System Console Configuration menu by selecting Exit This Menu then tabbing to [OK] and pressing enter.

The message that follows asks:


                      User Confirmation Requested 
          Would you like to set this machine's time zone now?

                            [ Yes ]   No

Choosing [Yes] the next message asked if "this machine's CMOS clock set to UTC?" Since I would know if I had done that, I answered [No].

The next three menus asked for Region, Country, and Time Zone followed by a message asking if the abbreviation for the Time Zone was OK. When all that was finished, I got the following message: 
User Confirmation Requested 
          Would you like to enable Linux binary compatibility?

                            [ Yes ]   No
It seems to me that enabling Linux binary compatibility could prove very useful so I selected [Yes].

The next message asked if "this system have a PS/2, serial, or bus mouse?" Since I use a USB wireless mouse I chose [No].

Installing Packages

Finally when all of the post-installation configuration is done, I got the message below: 
User Confirmation Requested
 The FreeBSD package collection is a collection of hundreds of
 ready-to-run applications, from text editors to games to WEB servers
 and more. Would you like to browse the collection now? 

                            [ Yes ]   No

I selected [Yes] because I had already burned disc2 of the iso's for FreeBSD 6.2. I put the FreeBSD package CD in the CD drive and then in the Package selection menu, I selected Firefox under WWW, and python 2.5 under Python. I also selected a2ps-letter-4.13.b, cupsbase and ghostscript-gnu-nox11 under print. Finally I tabbed to Install and pressed enter. After reviewing the selected packages in the Package Targets window I selected [OK] and pressed enter.

After some time, all of the packages were installed and then I read this message: 
User Confirmation Requested
 Would you like to add any initial user accounts to the system? Adding
 at least one account for yourself at this stage is suggested since
 working as the "root" user is dangerous (it is easy to do things which
 adversely affect the entire system). 

                            [ Yes ]   No
In the next window I selected Add a New User because it's not a good idea to log in to your system as "root" all the time. Root gives you control over the entire system therefore mistakes can be costly and using root access too much can give someone an opportunity to to gain uninvited root control of your computer.
I chose a login ID, and password for my user and assigned them to member group "wheel" so that the user can perform anything but strictly administrative tasks.

After leaving the the User and Group Management window, I got a message that I "must set the system manager's password." In other words, I need to set a password for root. I pressed enter for [OK] and got the follow prompts for the password:
New password:
Retype new password :

Next I read a message asking if I want to visit the general configuration menu again. I selected [No], and then chose Exit Install in the sysinstall Main Menu window. After confirming that I wanted to exit, the computer rebooted.

When the computer gets ready to boot I get the following menu:
1. DOS
2. DOS
3. FreBSD

The first choice is the Windows XP on the first partition. The second choice is the storage partition which is not bootable anyway. The third choice is the FreeBSD that I just installed. Whatever choice I make between 1 and 3 will be the default for the next boot.

When the computer has completely booted into FreeBSD, I can type my user name, press enter and then enter the password to log on. When I am done I type "shutdown -h now" to shutdown. If I need to configure the system I type "root" for the user name, and then enter the root password. To log off type "exit".