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Q. Can I share my home partition between GNU/Linux and GNU/kFreeBSD? === Basic questions ===
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A. Yes, but you must use ext2fs. ufs (either 1 or 2) are not supported in any version of Linux (the kernel). When creating the filesystem, pass "-O none" to mke2fs for best results. '''Q. What does the 'k' in "kFreeBSD" stand for?'''

A. It's an abbreviation. It stands for "kernel of". Hence "kFreeBSD" means "kernel of FreeBSD", and "GNU/kFreeBSD" means "GNU with kernel of FreeBSD".

'''Q. What is the point of Debian GNU/kFreeBSD?'''

A. This answer has its own wiki page, see: ["Debian GNU/kFreeBSD why"]

'''Q. Is kFreeBSD 6.x supported?'''

A. Yes, although it isn't well tested yet. You can upgrade your kernel to 6.x once you installed your Debian GNU/kFreeBSD, with apt-get install kfreebsd-image-6-whatever.

'''Q. Can I run Debian GNU/kFreeBSD in a chroot under FreeBSD?'''

A. Yes, but it won't work perfectly unless you apply some kernel patches. You can get them from the Debian kfreebsd-6 source package, but it is up to you to find out and decide which ones you need. We recommend to use a Debian kernel for running Debian GNU/kFreeBSD userland. In case something fails, you're on your own.

'''Q. Can I share a swap partition between GNU/Linux and GNU/kFreeBSD?'''

A. Yes, but it's not recommended. See http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Linux+FreeBSD-3.html for details on how to proceed. Also note that Linux tends to save suspend-to-disk data to the swap partition, which makes sharing swap less attractive.


'''Q. Can I share my home partition between GNU/Linux and GNU/kFreeBSD?'''

A. Yes, but you must use ext2fs. When creating the filesystem, pass "-O none" to mke2fs for best results.

For ufs (either 1 or 2) are only supported readonly by Linux. Write support is highly experimental and is likely to cause panics.
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There are patches for reiserfs (see #335019) and xfs (#335020) support around, but we haven't integrated them in our kernels yet. For reiserfs, readonly support has been added to kfreebsd 6.x (see #335019).

For xfs, readonly support has been added to kfreebsd 7.x (see #335020 for details). Write support is also planned.


'''Q. What's the status of amd64 support?'''

A. It is usable, although not as mature as the ia32 one. You're welcome to try it out, and help is appreciated in debugging and cleaning it up. Also, if you can host a shell server and/or donate hardware for that purpose please let us know.

'''Q. apt-get complains that it can't verify binaries. I installed gnupg but the errors persist.'''

A. You probably don't have the gnuab archive key imported. Try:
  ''gpg --keyserver subkeys.pgp.net --recv CD02E583 && gpg --export CD02E583 | sudo apt-key add -''

  Note, however, that pure "Architecture: all" packages still can't be verified because of the hack apt uses to get them from official archive.

'''Q. I just installed Debian GNU/kFreeBSD. Is there anything I can do to help making it more popular?'''

A. Yes! You can install/enable popularity-contest (see http://popcon.debian.org/) to increase our user count. Also you can register yourself as Debian GNU/kFreeBSD user in http://buildd.net/cgi/archvote.phtml. And of course, you can tell all your friends about it :P.

'''Q. Firefox (or my favourite Gecko-based browser) just hangs!'''

A. This is a known problem. Although we haven't found the cause, we suspect the problem is in libnspr. Other browsers like Konqueror, Dillo, links2, etc work just fine.

'''Q. Wireless?'''

A. Yes, but we don't have the tools to scan for networks yet. If you know the ssid beforehand, the following stanza in /etc/network/interfaces should work:
     auto ${if}
     iface ${if} inet dhcp
          pre-up ifconfig ${if} ssid ${my_ssid}

=== Development questions ===

'''Q. Where can I check buildd logs for a particular package on kfreebsd-i386?'''

A. http://unstable.buildd.net/index-kfreebsd-i386.html and http://experimental.ftbfs.de/


'''Q. I'm a Debian maintainer. Is there any machine running GNU/kFreeBSD I can have access to?'''

A. Yes, see http://io.debian.net/

Basic questions

Q. What does the 'k' in "kFreeBSD" stand for?

A. It's an abbreviation. It stands for "kernel of". Hence "kFreeBSD" means "kernel of FreeBSD", and "GNU/kFreeBSD" means "GNU with kernel of FreeBSD".

Q. What is the point of Debian GNU/kFreeBSD?

A. This answer has its own wiki page, see: ["Debian GNU/kFreeBSD why"]

Q. Is kFreeBSD 6.x supported?

A. Yes, although it isn't well tested yet. You can upgrade your kernel to 6.x once you installed your Debian GNU/kFreeBSD, with apt-get install kfreebsd-image-6-whatever.

Q. Can I run Debian GNU/kFreeBSD in a chroot under FreeBSD?

A. Yes, but it won't work perfectly unless you apply some kernel patches. You can get them from the Debian kfreebsd-6 source package, but it is up to you to find out and decide which ones you need. We recommend to use a Debian kernel for running Debian GNU/kFreeBSD userland. In case something fails, you're on your own.

Q. Can I share a swap partition between GNU/Linux and GNU/kFreeBSD?

A. Yes, but it's not recommended. See http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Linux+FreeBSD-3.html for details on how to proceed. Also note that Linux tends to save suspend-to-disk data to the swap partition, which makes sharing swap less attractive.

Q. Can I share my home partition between GNU/Linux and GNU/kFreeBSD?

A. Yes, but you must use ext2fs. When creating the filesystem, pass "-O none" to mke2fs for best results.

For ufs (either 1 or 2) are only supported readonly by Linux. Write support is highly experimental and is likely to cause panics.

For ext3fs, kFreeBSD can only access it in readonly mode.

For reiserfs, readonly support has been added to kfreebsd 6.x (see #335019).

For xfs, readonly support has been added to kfreebsd 7.x (see #335020 for details). Write support is also planned.

Q. What's the status of amd64 support?

A. It is usable, although not as mature as the ia32 one. You're welcome to try it out, and help is appreciated in debugging and cleaning it up. Also, if you can host a shell server and/or donate hardware for that purpose please let us know.

Q. apt-get complains that it can't verify binaries. I installed gnupg but the errors persist.

A. You probably don't have the gnuab archive key imported. Try:

  • gpg --keyserver subkeys.pgp.net --recv CD02E583 && gpg --export CD02E583 | sudo apt-key add - Note, however, that pure "Architecture: all" packages still can't be verified because of the hack apt uses to get them from official archive.

Q. I just installed Debian GNU/kFreeBSD. Is there anything I can do to help making it more popular?

A. Yes! You can install/enable popularity-contest (see http://popcon.debian.org/) to increase our user count. Also you can register yourself as Debian GNU/kFreeBSD user in http://buildd.net/cgi/archvote.phtml. And of course, you can tell all your friends about it :P.

Q. Firefox (or my favourite Gecko-based browser) just hangs!

A. This is a known problem. Although we haven't found the cause, we suspect the problem is in libnspr. Other browsers like Konqueror, Dillo, links2, etc work just fine.

Q. Wireless?

A. Yes, but we don't have the tools to scan for networks yet. If you know the ssid beforehand, the following stanza in /etc/network/interfaces should work:

  • auto ${if} iface ${if} inet dhcp
    • pre-up ifconfig ${if} ssid ${my_ssid}

Development questions

Q. Where can I check buildd logs for a particular package on kfreebsd-i386?

A. http://unstable.buildd.net/index-kfreebsd-i386.html and http://experimental.ftbfs.de/

Q. I'm a Debian maintainer. Is there any machine running GNU/kFreeBSD I can have access to?

A. Yes, see http://io.debian.net/