This is the basic setup of a minimal install

Fresh choose minimal install only, should be a few hundred megs on df -h
I created a user in the install GUI with group wheel, else create one via command line

1. login as root
2. pkg_add -r pkg_search
3. pkg_add -r bash
4. pkg_add -r sudo
5. DONT install vim unless you want about 200mb installed, lots of extra dependencies
6. portsnap fetch
7. portsnap extract (which extracts and buils the /usr/ports tree)
   1. Search port whereas xxx or cd /usr/ports; make search name=xxx or cd /usr/ports; make search key=xxx
   2. Install from port (ports are source code, will compile) cd /usr/ports/yyy/xxx; make; make install; make clean
   3. You can use portupgrade or portmanager to manage/upgrade your ports (must install either of those with pkg_add -r xxx)
      1. I prefer portupgrade, so use that one
      2. Show ports in need of upgrade pkg_version -v
      3. Update all ports system portupgrade -varRPP carefull the PP forces packages instead of ports, this is good, ports would compile and take forever
      4. See http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/ports-using.html
8. chsh (set to /usr/local/bin/bash), note root is normally /bin/csh which users are /bin/sh
9. edit /usr/local/etc/sudoers and uncomment wheel (I used the NOPASSWD one)
10. portsnap fetch update
11. freebsd-update fetch
12. freebsd-update install

Simple, small personal customizations
pkg_add -r nano vim wget curl nmap

Remember all custom stuff is in /usr/local/ (so /usr/local/etc...) Remember sysinstall is the graphical install you can still access, use as a GUI package manager

The FTP install of freeBSD is just the minimal install (so no xorg). The burned CD is very small, 130MB or so.
Durning installation, you select the source of the install as an FTP site, blah blah...

HD Space just after install

Entire / drive (I combined all /usr /tmp ... into just one /) it's 1.3gigs
But this comes with xorg and all the ports tree (/usr/ports)

Startx works with JWM as default

When logged in as a normal user (in my case the user is 'bsd') I cannot use su. The workaround is to add the user 'bsd' into \
the 'wheel' group

# pw user mod bsd -G wheel

NOTE that there is also a etc folder in /usr/local/etc
The sudoers file is in /usr/local/etc, not /etc here in freeBSD
So edit that with your

bsd     ALL=(ALL) ALL

Mounting NFS shares in /etc/fstab is a bit different than linux, linux does a nfs auto,auto 0 0 but freeBSD does

qserver:/media/local/disk0 /media/qserver/disk0    nfs    rw    0    0

NOTE: I setup a new user called 'bsd' and freeBSD defaulted it's shell type to 'sh'. But the root user is defaulted \
to 'csh', the c shell. You can see which shell is your default by 'cat /etc/passwd'.

To Change Users Default Shell
This command will open up your default text editor with user information, you can change your shell here

chsh

You can see which shells you have install on your system by

cat /etc/shells

I change my prompt in my /root/.cshrc and /home/bsd/.cshrc to

#mReschke Prompt
if ($?prompt) then
        # An interactive shell -- set some stuff up
    set prompt = '%n@%m:%/$ '
        set filec
        set history = 1000
        set savehist = 1000
        set mail = (/var/mail/$USER)
        if ( $?tcsh ) then
                bindkey "^W" backward-delete-word
                bindkey -k up history-search-backward
                bindkey -k down history-search-forward
        endif
endif

I also add some aliases, please see my My etc-profile for more, up-to-date information on my personal profile settings.

Very different from linux.

To find a list of all supported hardware and their kernel module driver names see
http://www.freebsd.org/releases/7.1R/hardware.html
or search for it. I used pciconf to find my laptops Acer Labs M5451 sound card, then used this site \
and search for M5451 which says driver 'snd_t4dwave'. I kldload the module, then try 'mp3blaster music.mp3', works great.

Various Methods and programs

cat /var/run/dmesg.boot (but only shows hardware that was detected and setup, not hw thats not setup)
pciconf -lv (just like linux lspci)
usbdevs -v (like lsusb)
atacontrol list (for ata devices)
dmidecode (for bios information)
kldload (like modprobe)
kldunload (to unload a module)
kldstat -v (shows all loaded kernel modules, like lsmod)

To add a module into the kernel manually

kldload modulename

To load a kernel module at load edit the /boot/loader.conf with something like this

snd_emu10k1_load="YES"

http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/677/vim-on-freebsd-does-not-react-on-arrow-keys-correctly-and-other-vi-like-behaviour

~/.vimrc

"mReschke custom
set tabstop=4
set ts=4
set sw=4
"set expandtab
set nowrap
syntax enable
set autoindent
set foldmethod=manual
let php_folding = 1
set ignorecase
set nu! "Line Numbers
set guioptions+=b "Bottom Scroll Bar for gVim
set mouse=a

"Makes FreeBSD VIM arrow keys act like linux (move arrow keys while in insert mode)
set nocompatible
set autoindent
set smartindent
set tabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
set showmatch
set guioptions-=T
set vb t_vb=
set ruler
set nohls
set incsearch
set virtualedit=all
set bs=2