On the Net with OpenBSD

Dirk Pilat - 2002.06.06

Hello, my fellow geeky friends!

Sorry for not coming back to you earlier, but I was deeply hidden inside the vast scary dungeon they call Unix. Not the real Unix, of course, but it's friendlier, more secure cousin, OpenBSD. Although it is far easier to install than other *nix dialects, it still wants to be handled in a similar fashion, and so I had to learn how to tackle ugly monsters like ssh, sftp, $PATH (doh) and the dreaded pipeline symbol | .

Thanks to OpenBSD's superb recognition of third party hardware, I have now finally been able to hook Stinker to the Internet. He's browsing along quite happily thanks to the amazing Lynx, and every day I learn a wee bit more about the intricacies of console-based computer use.

Of course, I could install XWindows (or Xfree86, as it is called in the free-Unix world), but that would just make things a bit more colourful and clutter my hard drive with heaps of software I don't necessarily want. So far only about 200 MB of my drive is used by OpenBSD, and I am not keen to fill it up with any unnecessary stuff, as its final destination is to be a firewall and router for my iBook anyway.

During the last two weeks, while I was sitting cursing and cussing in front of Stinker, with my trusty iBook used as an online manual, I was able to get help via IRC from the guys on the Speedtouch channel on openprojects.net, who never tired in giving me hints and clues and sometimes even fully fledged lectures. An especially warmhearted mention should be given to Guygr3k and Tech-, who were never too tired to answer my horribly boring questions.

So the first part has been achieved. The next step will be to get you, the audience, onto Stinker (of course, just as a Web server). I am sure this will be achievable in a matter of days, so bear with me.

<back to the original article>

Dirk Pilat recently moved from London to the South Island of New Zealand. He's learning *nix.

Recent Low End BSD articles

• Off the Net and back on again, 06.14. Stinker loses his connection to the Internet - and gets it back again.
• On the Net with OpenBSD, 06.06. Stinker is finally connected to the Internet and able to browse.
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Low End BSD articles copyright 2002 by Dirk Pilat.  Low End PC (LEPC) launched September 2001. The entire LEPC site copyright ©2001-2003 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. Copyright of individual articles resides with the author. All rights reserved.
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