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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.
Mailing list archives
You can
search
or browse
the mailing list archives at
www.FreeBSD.org.
It is also possible to
browse
the mailing lists via Mailman webinterface.
Non-English Mailing lists
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 drop-down list on the
front page.
The FreeBSD web pages are translated into several
languages. Links to the translated versions of these web
pages can be found on the front
page.
Several other non-English resource exists:
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.
- Latvia To learn more about the BSD user group
Latvia, please visit our site
and our forums.
- 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.
- Switzerland The Swiss BSD User Group
(SwissBUG) caters for users of BSD-based systems in
Switzerland.
- 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.
- Pennsylvania The Western Pennsylvania Linux Users
Group (WPLUG) has a strong and growing community of BSD users that
it supports. See our home page (http://www.wplug.org) for information
on regular meetings and join the mailing lists.
- 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 The Portland FreeBSD
Users group.
- Reno NV The
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
- Seattle, WA The Seattle BSD Users
Group (SeaBUG) meets occasionally. View our website
for more details and for information on how to join our
mailing list.
- 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 The
Greater Utah BSD Users Group (GUBUG), formerly known as
SLLUG-BUG, and affiliated with the Salt Lake Linux Users
Group, is based in Salt Lake City, Utah. We welcome users
of FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, or even Unix or Linux.
- 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 (in Japanese),
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 with focus on security.
- Linux is
another free UNIX like system.
- Darwin
is the free system that forms the core of Apple's
Mac OS X 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.
- DragonFly
BSD is based on FreeBSD 4.X but has a different
set of development goals than FreeBSD 5.X.
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