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Howto Install man pages if you must

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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  • D
    daplumber
    last edited by Mar 21, 2021, 1:58 AM

    These instructions are going to be vague deliberately.

    Man command and man pages are part of the standard FreeBSD base.txz package. You will have to download the matching file for the version of pfSense and FreeBSD you're running, in my case pfSense 2.5.0 and FreeBSD 12.2-RELEASE. DO NOT extract to the root directory, extract somewhere else, and you'll need about half a gigabyte of space in my case. you'd better do all this as root or various permissions will get borked.

    curl -JLO http://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/amd64/12.2-RELEASE/base.txz #<--- Remember to get the correct version
    #make a dir & untar the above somewhere with some space NOT ROOT
    cd my-base-dir-I-extracted-base.txz-to
    cd usr/bin # <--- Note RELATIVE PATH
    cp man apropos /usr/bin
    cd ../share
    cp -r man /usr/share

    If you're using an older version of pfSense and FreeBSD you may need to copy groff tbl troff and grotty to /usr/bin too, groff_font and tmac to /usr/share as well, along with gods alone knows what else I didn't think of, I didn't test it on any older versions.

    This assumes you're booting off an actual disk or SSD that acts like a disk. Things that are booting off SD cards, CF cards, USB Sticks, optical disks, yada, yada, are a whole 'nother ball game that's not in my skillset either. I'm also guessing that this will break your shiny new appliance's warranty? So maybe don't do it there.

    Note that when NetGate updates the FreeBSD version pfSense is using, you'll have to do this all over again unless they suddenly decide to make it an option in their customized base, and I wouldn't hold my breath. I guess I'm not their use case.

    You broke it, you bought it. Don't whine at me, don't whine at Netgate, don't whine at FreeBSD or anyone else. But at least this should save some time. It would be nice if the appropriate bits were a pfSense package, but that's "above my pay-grade".

    –--------
    This user has been carbon dated to the 8-bit era...

    D L J 4 Replies Last reply Feb 16, 2022, 2:14 AM Reply Quote 1
    • D
      daplumber @daplumber
      last edited by Feb 16, 2022, 2:14 AM

      @daplumber This works for Pfsense plus 22.01 and FreeBSD 12.3-STABLE too. Still can't be bothered to figure out how to rebuild whatis database, feel free to post here please?

      –--------
      This user has been carbon dated to the 8-bit era...

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • L
        lohphat @daplumber
        last edited by lohphat Aug 23, 2022, 12:20 AM Aug 22, 2022, 11:56 PM

        @daplumber said in Howto Install man pages if you must:

        curl -JLO http://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/amd64/12.2-RELEASE/base.txz

        Note the architectures should match as appropriate (e.g. arm64 instead of amd64):

        curl -JLO http://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/arm64/12.3-RELEASE/base.txz
        

        Also, when removing the temp area where the download and extraction took place, you can't delete some object because the have the "schg" flag set. You need to clear the flags on the handful of files before you can remove them.

        e.g.:

        chflags -R noschg *
        

        Your instructions worked of 22.05 on my SG-3100 even though I grabbed the arm64 tarball. Thanks! I now have local man pages working.

        SG-3100 24.11-RELEASE (arm) | Avahi (2.2_6) | ntopng (5.6.0_1) | openvpn-client-export (1.9.5) | pfBlockerNG-devel (3.2.1_20) | System_Patches (2.2.20_1)

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • J
          JKnott @daplumber
          last edited by Aug 23, 2022, 12:43 AM

          @daplumber

          I usually search google for "freebsd man <command>" for the commands where the Linux man pages aren't suitable (yes, there are some differences).

          PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
          i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel Gb Ethernet ports.
          UniFi AC-Lite access point

          I haven't lost my mind. It's around here...somewhere...

          L 1 Reply Last reply Aug 23, 2022, 6:01 AM Reply Quote 0
          • L
            lohphat @JKnott
            last edited by Aug 23, 2022, 6:01 AM

            @jknott I wonder if the added man pages will be wiped during a pfSense release. Does it nuke everything under /usr/share so that the man/ directory is removed, and the copied man and apropos binaries in /usr/bin ?

            SG-3100 24.11-RELEASE (arm) | Avahi (2.2_6) | ntopng (5.6.0_1) | openvpn-client-export (1.9.5) | pfBlockerNG-devel (3.2.1_20) | System_Patches (2.2.20_1)

            J D 2 Replies Last reply Aug 23, 2022, 1:52 PM Reply Quote 0
            • J
              JKnott @lohphat
              last edited by Aug 23, 2022, 1:52 PM

              @lohphat

              Can't say for certain, but I suspect it might.

              PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
              i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel Gb Ethernet ports.
              UniFi AC-Lite access point

              I haven't lost my mind. It's around here...somewhere...

              L 1 Reply Last reply Feb 17, 2023, 3:44 PM Reply Quote 0
              • D
                daplumber @lohphat
                last edited by Feb 17, 2023, 5:36 AM

                @lohphat Yes, yes it does nuke the manpages when FreeBSD gets updated.

                –--------
                This user has been carbon dated to the 8-bit era...

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • D
                  daplumber @daplumber
                  last edited by daplumber Feb 20, 2023, 5:44 AM Feb 17, 2023, 6:05 AM

                  @daplumber said in Install man pages if you must:

                  cp -r man /usr/share

                  That copy should probably be:
                  cp -l man* apropos whatis /usr/bin

                  and yes, you'll need to do the:

                  chflags -R noschg *

                  to remove the based you created, I forgot to include that.

                  Interestingly “makewhatis” worked for me after the above cp.

                  –--------
                  This user has been carbon dated to the 8-bit era...

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • L
                    lohphat @JKnott
                    last edited by Feb 17, 2023, 3:44 PM

                    @jknott Confirmed. Just updated 22.05 -> 23.01 and man pages nuked.

                    SG-3100 24.11-RELEASE (arm) | Avahi (2.2_6) | ntopng (5.6.0_1) | openvpn-client-export (1.9.5) | pfBlockerNG-devel (3.2.1_20) | System_Patches (2.2.20_1)

                    D 1 Reply Last reply Feb 20, 2023, 5:17 AM Reply Quote 0
                    • D
                      daplumber @lohphat
                      last edited by Feb 20, 2023, 5:17 AM

                      @lohphat Yup, any major update, and 22 -> 23 counts, will require the man pages to be reinstalled. Fir 23 you’ll also have to source the CURRENT base file instead of RELEASE to be consistent.

                      –--------
                      This user has been carbon dated to the 8-bit era...

                      L 1 Reply Last reply Feb 20, 2023, 5:23 AM Reply Quote 0
                      • L
                        lohphat @daplumber
                        last edited by lohphat Feb 20, 2023, 5:27 AM Feb 20, 2023, 5:23 AM

                        @daplumber I couldn't find the 14.0-CURRENT release file for arm64 at that FTP site only 13.1-RELEASE and BETA[1|2] directories were available.

                        http://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/arm64/

                        What concerns me is that pfSense 23.01 is running on FreeBSD 14.0-CURRENT which isn't set to RELEASE until July 2023. https://www.freebsd.org/releases/14.0R/schedule/

                        SG-3100 24.11-RELEASE (arm) | Avahi (2.2_6) | ntopng (5.6.0_1) | openvpn-client-export (1.9.5) | pfBlockerNG-devel (3.2.1_20) | System_Patches (2.2.20_1)

                        D 1 Reply Last reply Feb 20, 2023, 5:36 AM Reply Quote 0
                        • D
                          daplumber @lohphat
                          last edited by daplumber Feb 20, 2023, 5:37 AM Feb 20, 2023, 5:36 AM

                          @lohphat No matter opinions on the issue the base file you want for the man pages is in: http://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/snapshots/arm64/14.0-CURRENT/

                          I’m not developing pfSense, so I’m not really concerned about the decision. It doesn’t seem to be affecting reliability or stability so far. ¯\(ツ)/¯

                          Jinxed it, sigh. Just noticed my dnsbl service seems to keep crashing and getting watchdogged, so I’ll need to check into that… later.

                          –--------
                          This user has been carbon dated to the 8-bit era...

                          Dobby_D 1 Reply Last reply Feb 21, 2023, 6:54 AM Reply Quote 0
                          • Dobby_D
                            Dobby_ @daplumber
                            last edited by Feb 21, 2023, 6:54 AM

                            please don´t forget performing a proper "chmod"
                            after downloading files from outside.

                            FreeBSD chmod

                            #~. @Dobby

                            Turris Omnia - 4 Ports - 2 GB RAM / TurrisOS 7 Release (Btrfs)
                            PC Engines APU4D4 - 4 Ports - 4 GB RAM / pfSense CE 2.7.2 Release (ZFS)
                            PC Engines APU6B4 - 4 Ports - 4 GB RAM / pfSense+ (Plus) 24.03_1 Release (ZFS)

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