Figure 1.12: Setting the root password

Adding Users

You should do everything possible while signed on as a regular user, and only use the root account when you must change the system. That will happen frequently at first, but will grow less common as time passes. Before you can sign on as a regular user, though, you need to set one up for your use.

To add a regular user, select the User Management option in the Configuration menu. It will pop up a brief menu offering you a chance to add a new user, add a new group, or exit back to the Configuration menu. Choose "User", and you'll see the screen shown in Figure 1.13.

Figure 1.13: Adding a user

Your first selection in this screen should be the Login ID, or username. Your company might have a standard for usernames. I prefer to use first initial, middle initial, and last name (not using the middle initial creates a surprising number of conflicts).

The UID (user ID) is assigned by the system. If you're an experienced systems administrator you can alter this, but it's not recommended and there's generally not much point.

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The FreeBSD default is to have the user in a "Group" of the same name as the username; for example, the user "mwlucas" is automatically in the Group "mwlucas". If you know what you're doing, you can change this.

"Full name" is, simply enough, the user's name. Other system users can see this name, so you don't want to set it arbitrarily. I've seen new systems administrators get in trouble when they gave a customer a full name of, say, "Pain in the Tuckus."

The "Home directory" is where the user's files are kept. The default is generally fine.

"Member groups" is just a list of other system groups this account is part of. If you want this user to be able to use the root password and become root, add your user to the group "wheel" under the "Member groups" space. Administrators need to be in the wheel group, users don't. (Make sure your personal user account is in wheel!)

Finally, choose a shell for your new user. Older admins and greybeards−in−training frequently prefer /bin/sh. The examples in this book are written assuming your shell is /bin/tcsh, which is the modern BSD standard and much friendlier.

Select OK when you're done, and your user will be created.

Time Zone

Set your time zone by selecting the Time Zone option from the Configuration screen (shown in Figure 1.11). You'll be asked if the system clock is set to UTC; answer "No", and walk through the menus presented. You'll be asked to choose a continent, a country (as shown in Figure 1.14), and then a time zone.

Figure 1.14: Time selection by country

Mouse

If you have a mouse, it's easy to set it up now. If you have a dead−standard two−or three−button PS/2 mouse or trackball plugged in, just choose Mouse from the Configuration menu, and then choose Enable. You should see a mouse pointer on your screen, and it should wiggle when you move it.

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If your mouse isn't dead−standard, that's okay. By using the menu shown in Figure 1.15, you can change the port your mouse runs on and the type it is.

Figure 1.15: Mouse management

Once you have set the mouse type and port, choose Enable and you will get a pop−up menu asking you if the mouse is working. Wiggle your mouse, and enter "Yes" or "No" as appropriate (see Figure 1.16). If it doesn't work, your settings probably don't match your mouse. I've had more than one mouse surprise me by being something other than what I thought it was. To change your settings and try again choose "No".

Figure 1.16: Mouse test menu

Configuring Network Cards

If your machine has a network card, and you did a CD−ROM install, you probably want to configure your network card now. It'll save you trouble later. Be sure your card is plugged into the network, and then choose Networking from the Configuration menu, and then Interfaces from the Network Services menu shown in Figure 1.17.

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Figure 1.17: Network Services menu

You'll get a choice of network interfaces to configure. (If you're fairly new to computing, you might not have realized that your parallel port can be a network interface!) Look for an entry that includes Ethernet, and choose it. In Figure 1.18, we see an Ethernet card called fxp0.

Figure 1.18: Network interface information menu

You'll get a pop−up dialog box asking if you want to try IPv6 configuration of the interface. If you don't know what IPv6 is, don't choose it. A second popup will offer to try DHCP configuration of the interface. If you are on a network with DHCP, you can try it; otherwise, choose "No". You'll get a network interface configuration screen as shown in Figure 1.19.

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