This page is about my experience using FreeBSD.

Note: Since I have decided to stick with Linux for now, I will be gearing my FreeBSD usage towards GUI-centric experience.

Update20200428: I want to get back to FreeBSD (FuryBSD?) after I am done with my current project (may take a while, but I am certain of trying FreeBSD again). Just some notes: (1) try lumina desktop [BSD licensed, written for TrueOS], (2) port all my software to BSD :p, (3) try mingw32-gcc to cross-compile windows program

My installation notes…

Note: When using VirtualBox on a Linux host, make sure the virtual machine is NOT using Intel HD Audio! It creates an 'interrupt storm' (irq21 - whatever that is…) and makes the system unusable

The official way to do this is, of course, to get it from freebsd.org.

Latest: Installing FreeBSD-12.0-RELEASE-amd64 on VirtualBox

• fresh install using memstick image file
• install kernel and base only
• added my main user account to {wheel,operator} group
  • for desktop use, all users need to be in video or wheel
  • so normal users should be in video group
  • normal users should also be in operator group to be able to shutdown from mate desktop
• enable sshd, enable ntpdate(on-boot), disable sendmail

• use binary package management tool pkg
  • by default, even that is not installed…
• install x server

  pkg install -y xorg

• install desktop environment

  pkg install -y gnome3

• enable stuffs in /etc/rc.conf:

    hald_enable="YES"
    dbus_enable="YES"
    gdm_enable="YES"
    gnome_enable="YES"

• desktop environment requires procfs - insert into /etc/fstab:

    proc          /proc       procfs  rw  0  0

• enable sound in /boot/loader.conf:

    snd_driver_load="YES"

• enable switching virtual consoles during X session, edit /boot/loader.conf:

  kern.vty=vt

• reduce auto-boot delay, edit /boot/loader.conf:

  autoboot_delay="3"

• VBOX install virtualbox additions

  pkg install -y virtualbox-ose-additions

• VBOX enable virtualbox start script, edit /etc/rc.conf:

    vboxguest_enable="YES"
    vboxservice_enable="YES"

• VBOX disable host time synchronization, edit /etc/rc.conf:

    vboxservice_flags="--disable-timesync"

1. install useful stuffs
   • avahi & multicast dns

     pkg install -y avahi-app nss_mdns

   • enable avahi daemon in /etc/rc.conf:

       avahi_daemon_enable="YES"

   • modify the hosts: line in /etc/nsswitch.conf:

       hosts: files dns mdns

   • network manager

     pkg install -y networkmgr

   • configure doas - create /usr/local/etc/doas.conf:

       permit nopass keepenv :wheel cmd netcardmgr
       permit nopass keepenv :wheel cmd detect-nics
       permit nopass keepenv :wheel cmd detect-wifi
       permit nopass keepenv :wheel cmd ifconfig
       permit nopass keepenv :wheel cmd service
       permit nopass keepenv :wheel cmd wpa_supplicant

• development

  pkg install -y git geany

• console multitasking

  pkg install -y screen

• office & browser

  pkg install -y libreoffice firefox

• by default root shell is csh and user is sh - edit .shrc to get prettier prompt

    PS1="`whoami`@\H:\w\$ "

• (IF using slim) to enable x environment after slim login, create ~/.xinitrc for each user:

    exec /usr/local/bin/mate-session

Note DHCP client is dhclient - simply run dhclient <interface> when booting to console and using something like USB tethering.

Configure (wireless) network interface (in case was not done during installation)

• FreeBSD has network interface name - based on the driver name (e.g. sis, re)
  • to find this, use pciconf -lv
• for normal wired connection (e.g. re0), add to '/etc/rc.conf'

  ifconfig_re0="DHCP"

• for a wireless connection (e.g. ath0), add in

  wlan_ath0="wlan0"
    ifconfig_wlan0="DHCP"

• for a secured wireless connection (e.g. WPA protected), add in

  wlan_ath0="wlan0"
    ifconfig_wlan0="WPA SYNCDHCP"

  also, append '/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf'

    network={
        ssid="the_ssid"
        psk="the_psk"
    }

• not sure why but wlan0 was not auto-created?
  • from official handbook, do ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0
  • to start up and scan, do ifconfig wlan0 up scan
  • or just scan, do ifconfig wlan0 list scan

Driver for ASUS E5450 Graphics Card (based on Radeon 5450?)

• install driver

  pkg install -y xf86-video-ati

• to load on startup, edit /etc/rc.conf:

  kld_list="radeonkms"

For Intel Graphics (Asus H81M-K Motherboard)

• install driver

  pkg install -y xf86-video-intel

• to load on startup, edit /etc/rc.conf:

  kld_list="i915kms"

• install something? (for kernel?)

  pkg install -y drm-kmod

  • some older ones require drm-fake-kmod instead

Web Server (Apache)

• find apache package(s)

  pkg search apache2 | grep -e "^apache2"

• install apache package(s)

  pkg install -y php56 mod_php56 php56-mbstring php56-mcrypt php56-zlib php56-curl php56-gd php56-json

• to load on startup, edit /etc/rc.conf:

  apache24_enable="YES"

• default document path is /usr/local/www/apache24/data/

Server Script (PHP)

• find php package(s)

  pkg search php5 | grep -e "^php5"

• install php package(s)

  pkg install -y apache24

• configure /usr/local/etc/apache24/Includes/php.conf:

    <IfModule dir_module>
      DirectoryIndex index.php index.html
      <FilesMatch "\.php$">
        SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
      </FilesMatch>
      <FilesMatch "\.phps$">
        SetHandler application/x-httpd-php-source
      </FilesMatch>
    </IfModule>

• copy template configuration file # cp /usr/local/etc/php.ini-production /usr/local/etc/php.ini

Database (mysql/mariadb)

• install package(s)

  pkg install mariadb103-server mariadb103-client php56-mysqli

• to load on startup, edit /etc/rc.conf:

  mysql_enable="YES"

• by default, it listens to remote request at port 3306. to check:

  # lsof -i4 -i6
  # sockstat -4 -6

• to allow local access only, edit /etc/rc.conf:

  mysql_args="--bind-address=127.0.0.1"

• now, to make sure all is okay:

  # lsof -i4 -i6 | grep mysql
  # netstat -an | grep 3306
  # sockstat -4 -6 | grep 3306

Note: Need to test this…

• Get the desired packages on a FreeBSD machine with internet connection

    # mkdir /root/offline
    # pkg fetch -d -o /root/offline xorg mate slim firefox

  • -d for dependencies
  • -o specifies destination path for the fetched packages
• Copy those files to a portable USB drive
• On the target machine, copy everything to /var/cache/pkg
• Then, do a

    # pkg -U install xorg mate slim firefox git geany networkmgr

  • -U is the short form for –no-repo-update

I want to try to install to a USB thumb-drive… from my FreeBSD virtual machine (VirtualBox). I have a 16GB USB3 Kingston Data Traveller drive, and already installed FreeBSD 12 on a virtual machine.

To prepare the drive layout, checkout here. I'm going to prepare for UEFI boot on a GPT formatted disk.

- plug in usb drive

• find device name (i.e. /dev/???)
• usually da0 is the first usb drive?

- refer to this…

to be continued…

Find boot1.efi as place it in EFI System Partition. It will look for first partition with type freebsd-ufs (which can even be on another disk) and load loader.efi.

Maintaining the system…

For example, upgrading 10.1-RELEASE to 10.2-RELEASE

freebsd-update -r 10.2-RELEASE upgrade

Then run

freebsd-update install

To update within a release, do a

freebsd-update fetch

before running 'install'.

Hint hit 'q' when prompted

Install package

pkg install <pkg_name> [...]

Note: include '-y' to override prompts

Delete package

pkg delete <pkg_name> [...]

Update catalogue

pkg update

Upgrade software

pkg upgrade

List installed packages

pkg info

Remove all packages and start over

pkg delete --all --force

Clean all package cache

pkg clean

Remove orphaned package(s)?

pkg autoremove

If pkg installation quits due to size mismatch or something,

pkg clean
rm -rf /var/cache/pkg/*
pkg update -f

Will most probably need these at some point…

To get it,

portsnap fetch extract

To update,

portsnap fetch update

To manage, use portmaster

To build portmaster,

cd /usr/ports/ports-mgmt/portmaster/ && make install clean

To setup portmaster,

# cp /usr/local/etc/portmaster.rc.sample /usr/local/etc/portmaster.rc
# ee /usr/local/etc/portmaster.rc

To update all ports

portmaster -a

To search updates

portmaster -L | grep "New version available:"

To cleanup

portmaster --clean-distfiles{-all}

To remove port

portmaster -e target_port

To rebuild port

portmaster -r target_port

Dumping ground - from portmaster man page…

     Build a port locally but use packages for build dependencies, then	delete
     the build dependencies when finished:
	   portmaster --packages-build --delete-build-only fooport-1.23

     Update a system using only	packages that are available locally:
	   portmaster -PP --local-packagedir=<path> -a

     Update all	ports that need	updating:
	   portmaster -a

     Update all	ports that need	updating, and delete stale distfiles after the
     update is done:
	   1. portmaster -aD
	   2. portmaster --clean-distfiles

1. 'git log' output does not show colorized output
   • can see the escape sequence
   • so, as user, type

     git config --global core.pager "ls -r"

This is nice to have in /etc/fstab when device assignment may change (e.g. usb drive on different machine may be assigned differently)

For ufs,

# tunefs -L <label> /dev/da0p?

To check if assigned,

# ls /dev/ufs

For swap,

# glabel label <label> /dev/da0p?

To check if assigned,

# ls /dev/label

Then, /etc/fstab entry can be like,

/dev/label/<label>	none	swap	sw	0	0
/dev/ufs/<label>	/		ufs		rw	1	1

Show partition

# gpart show

Resize partition

# gpart resize -i 3 da0

Not really gpart stuff, but don't forget to grow FS to fit new size

# growfs /dev/da0p3

At the moment, full R/W access for Ext2, Journal-less for Ext3 and R/O for Ext4.

# kldload ext2fs
# mount -t ext2fs /dev/<slice> <mount-path>

Note: Generally, it seems that this is no longer an issue - some just did a normal install and have no problems at all. But, I want to put this here anyways.

Creating partitions (from: https://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/ssd.html)

# gpart create -s gpt ada0
# gpart add -t freebsd-boot -s 1m -a 4k -l ssdboot ada0
# gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptboot -i1 ada0

# gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -l ssdroot -b 1m -s 4g ada0
# gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -l ssdvarfs -a 1m -s 2g ada0
# gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -l ssdusrfs -a 1m ada0

# newfs -U -t /dev/gpt/ssdrootfs
# newfs -U -t /dev/gpt/ssdvarfs
# newfs -U -t /dev/gpt/ssdusrfs

create fstab (save as /tmp/bsdinstall_etc/fstab)

# Device	Mountpoint	FStype	Options	Dump	Pass#
/dev/gpt/ssdroot	/	ufs	rw	1	1
/dev/gpt/ssdvarfs	/var	ufs	rw	2	2
/dev/gpt/ssdusrfs	/usr	ufs	rw	2	2
tmpfs	/tmp	tmpfs	rw,mode=01777	0	0

• got FreeBSD13 arm64 aarch64 image
• write to microsd card
• boot issue
  • ok if boot from usb (note: starting pi4, usb boot is possible!)
  • need to update u-boot binary (look for that in forum)
• console display is not ok when using on tv (high res?)
  • edit config.txt and comment out hdmi_safe=1

going for dwm

• pkg install libX11 libXft libXinerama
• pkg install git

work in progress…