running ircd on freebsd

[yawstick]

Its very possible that my box may be the problem and including some info
just in case. I'm not a power user by any means and this box is primarily
for educational and entertainment purposes. I had apache php mysql
phpwebsite installed and was experimenting with the gnome and kde desktops.
I recompiled the kernel to include sound support. I did not know but had
been some core dumps in the root directory and the compile complained about
being out of disk space. It did appear to complete and I think I recompiled
the kernel after getting rid of the core dumps.
It definitely broke some of the desktop stuff but the webserver etc seemed
to still work fine so have not rebuilt yet.

I added ircd via package add from /stand/sysinstall and it does not seem to
want to run. It says its starting but if you look at ps -aux its not there.
Added ircd-hybrid via make from the ports. It appears to start at boot time
and reports a pid but ps -aux shows its not there either.

one oddity trying to invoke ircd from the command line with -t -x options
doesn't seem to work

Freebie $ ircd -t -x 5
ircd: DEBUGMODE must be defined for -x y
Freebie $

have tried several variations of specifying level for -x without success

Freebie $ /usr/local/bin/ircd
ircd: version hybrid-7.0
ircd: pid 330
ircd: running in background mode from /usr/local
Freebie $ irc
opening stream socket: Protocol not supported
Freebie $

I suppose I should add that I'm running on a cable modem behind a linksys
router, no fire wall but can route port requests to unix box. Should this
work and should the IP address be the internal one or the external one.

thanks for your help may just need to bite the bullet and rebuild the box

Paul