Search, search, work, then find site with exact solution

I frequently come across a frustrating scenario where I search, read, work, and struggle through how to do something and then find a site with the steps clearly laid out to do the thing I just struggled to figure out how to do. I find this happens most frequently to me in working to solve a problem with Microsoft software then finding an official Microsoft site with the solution. This is not a criticism against Microsoft but a comment on the availability of documentation (both at Microsoft's site and on the internet in general).

I found a site with instructions on loading sound drivers (https://www.dan.me.uk/blog/2010/09/26/freebsd-sound-card-driver/), installing a GUI (https://www.dan.me.uk/blog/2010/09/26/gnome-gui-freebsd-8/), and installing the Flash plugin (https://www.dan.me.uk/blog/2010/09/26/installing-flash-plugin-10-for-firefox-in-freebsd-8/) in FreeBSD at https://www.dan.me.uk/blog/ that could have saved me some work. Unfortunately, it's been a while since he's posted to his blog. I found my instructions from the FreeBSD Handbook (http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/), which, of course, got me to the same result.

FreeBSD 8.2 i386 X11, XFCE4, sound, Firefox3, and Flash on Samsung NC20

Last time I tried it, I was unable to get Flash Player working on FreeBSD 7.2. I was able to get it working on FreeBSD 8.2 on my Samsung NC20 using the ports system. I didn't try ports last time, but it wasn't as hard as I thought. First I installed X11 (xorg-7.5) and Xfce4. Then I installed Firefox 3.6 from packages and loaded sound.

I installed xorg-7.5 from packages from the FreeBSD 8.2 RELEASE i386 DVD:
mount -t cd9660 /dev/cd0 /cdrom
pkg_add /cdrom/packages/All/xorg-7.5.tbz

To configure xorg, I added hald_enabled="YES" and dbus_enabled="YES" to /etc/rc.conf. I restarted and ran Xorg -configure then edited xorg.conf.new to include my screen resolution (Modes 1280x800). To test, I ran X -config /root/xorg.conf.new -retro. Since this worked, I switched to tty1, back to tty0, pressed CTRL+C then copied /root/xorg.conf.new to /etc/X11/xorg.conf (cp xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf).

I couldn't find Xfce4 on the DVD, so I had to get it from the internet. I went with Xfce because I don't like KDE4 or Gnome 3 (I liked Gnome 2 and KDE 3). I might want to try LXDE instead of Xfce.
pkg_add -r xfce4

I restarted and ran startxfce4. I got the latest Firefox I could get from packages:

pkg_add -r firefox

I enabled sound in /boot/loader.conf by adding the line snd_hda_load="YES" then I got the flash plugin from ports (some steps may be out of order):

portsnap fetch
portsnap extract
(if I had ran portsnap extract before, I would have run portsnap update)
cd /usr/ports/www/nspluginwrapper
make
(then I added linux_enable="YES" to /boot/loader.conf, saved, and restarted)
cd /usr/ports/www/nspluginwrapper
make install
make clean
cd /usr/ports/www/linux-f10-flashplugin10
make
make install
make clean
mkdir /usr/local/lib/browser_plugins/
ln -s /usr/local/lib/npapi/linux-f10-flashplugin/libflashplayer.so /usr/local/lib/browser_plugins/
ln -sv /usr/local/lib/browser_plugins/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so /usr/local/lib/firefox3/plugins/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so
nspluginwrapper -v -a -i
(nspluginwrapper -v -a -i needs to be run by each user, according to the FreeBSD Handbook)

FreeBSD 8.2 i386 on Samsung NC20

I decided to look at FreeBSD again. I've read that FreeBSD is a powerful operating system behind some well known websites, appliances, and services, so I thought it would be useful to learn. Also, where better to learn a Unix-like operating system than one that traces back to Unix?

The Samsung NC20 is a VIA Nano-based netbook. Its platform is not as widespread as an Intel or AMD-based system, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised I ran into problems. I found I could not install FreeBSD 7.4, either as an AMD64 or i386. I could not install FreeBSD 8.2 AMD64 either. FreeBSD 8.2 i386 could be installed, but I had to disable ACPI at first, then alter /boot/loader.conf to include the line debug.acpi.disabled="sysresources".

Next up, I wanted a wireless connection. My wireless connection is WPA-PSK using TKIP encryption. Things changed since last I looked at FreeBSD. I needed to alter /etc/rc.conf to include:
hostname="FreeBSDNC20"
wlans_ath0="wlan0"
wlan_tkip_load="YES"
ifconfig_wlan0="WPA DHCP"

I had to add my wireless SSID and passphrase to /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf. Because my original wpa_supplicant.conf was empty, I ran the following two commands (the first to verify the output):
wpa_passphrase ssid ssid_passphrase
wpa_passphrase ssid ssid_passphrase > /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

After a restart, ifconfig reported an IP address. Success!

No Flash for FreeBSD, using Fedora

I could not figure out a way to get around the lack of availability of Adobe Flash for FreeBSD. Suggestions were to use Gnash, swfdec, or to use the Linux version of Adobe Flash Player with FreeBSD. I installed Gnash and swfdec but couldn't figure out how to plug them into Firefox, and I wasn't sure about using the Adobe Flash Player for Linux with FreeBSD. Adobe.com didn't want to help me to that, certainly.

I had tried Red Hat Linux before the time of Fedora Core. I tried Fedora Core 4 and 5 and even had Fedora Core 5 joined to the Active Directory domain at work using samba. I grabbed Fedora 11 and recently upgraded to Fedora 12. Adobe Flash Player installs from get.adobe.com/flashplayer onto Firefox easily. I use Firefox on Windows alternatingly with Internet Explorer, and I'm a fan.

I remember using BBSs, then CompuServe, AOL, and Prodigy, then Mosaic (I remember SPRY Mosaic), then Netscape. I was in public school at the time when Netscape was for charge, but you could get a free copy as a student.

To recover from that digression, I am now using Fedora 12.