Struggling with the basics

[Gary Hendricks]

James O'Gorman wrote:
> Stephen Allen wrote:
>   
>> I would prefer to use FreeBSD rather than Linux - if nothing else, for
>> simplicity (different Linux flavours are just too different).  However,
>> I'm struggling to keep interested because I can't get the basics set up
>> correctly.
>>
>> All this... at the console itself:
>>
>> a) vi/vim doesn't display the info bar at the bottom of the screen
>> b) vi/vim doesn't seem to do syntax highlighting
>>     
>
> Are you using vi(1) from the base, or vim from ports/editors/vim?
> If you installed the vim port, you need to copy the default vimrc either
> into your homedir or into the global share location:
>
> # cp /usr/local/share/vim/vimXX/vimrc_example.vim /usr/local/share/vim/vimrc
>
> -or-
>
> % cp /usr/local/share/vim/vimXX/vimrc_example.vim ~/.vimrc
>
> (where XX is the vim version)
>
>   
>> c) bash doesn't seem to do color highlighting, eg. ls
>>     
>
> In your .bashrc, put:
>
> alias ls="ls -FG"
>
> (ls is a system command - /bin/ls - not a bash command)
>
>   
>> d) Shift+3 gives a hash+newline, instead of a pound symbol
>>     
>
> Edit /etc/login.conf and add these two lines to the default class:
>
>         :charset=ISO-8859-15:\
>         :lang=en_GB.ISO8859-15:\
>
> Then cap_mkdb /etc/login.conf
>
>   
>> e) Still can't type a euro symbol despite trying ISO-8859-15 from kbdmap
>> f) The 'Delete' key operates as the 'Backspace' key instead of normal
>> delete-right
>>     
>
> In the shell, vim, or generally? (Although saying that, I just noticed
> that using delete from putty just puts a ~. I tend to use Esc-D to
> backwards-delete words)
>
>   
>> I realise the answer is probably more to do with the configuration of
>> each package, but I don't get the same problems in Linux.  They all look
>> so simple, but they're playing havoc with my ability to work properly on
>> FreeBSD.
>>     
>
> Sometimes these things just take a bit of digging :-)
>   

I too moved from linux to FreeBSD some years ago. Over the years I have 
done these modifications as I found them.
(Nowadays they do seem second nature)

The FreeBSD manual is good, but I actually bought Absolute BSD - 
http://www.nostarch.com/frameset.php?startat=abs_bsd

It got me on the road quickly and in a language that was easy.