Exploring FreeBSD

For the past few days, I’ve been running FreeBSD on VirtualBox to try and see if it can be a viable replacement for a desktop OS. So far, it’s been mostly smooth with a few bumps here and there.

Installation

I used FreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-i386-dvd1.iso which can be downloaded from here. The installer was pretty straightforward except when I got to the last part, I kept getting an Abort error.

It turns out that in the Errata section, the first bullet point states:

FreeBSD/i386 10.0-RELEASE running as a guest operating system on VirtualBox can have a problem with disk I/O access.

I needed to follow the instructions provided to get FreeBSD installed.

To disable it, choose Escape to loader prompt in the boot menu and enter the following lines from loader(8) prompt, after an OK:

set vfs.unmapped_buf_allowed=0
boot

Note that the following line has to be added to /boot/loader.conf after a boot. It disables unmapped I/O at every boot:

vfs.unmapped_buf_allowed=0

For more info, check this question I posted on StackExchange.

After installation, I boot into a command line environment where I am able to log-in to FreeBSD.

Software Management

As a long time Linux user, I am used to package management. I am happy to find out that FreeBSD comes with not just one way to manage your software, but 2: via binary packages and via Ports.

Binary packages can be installed using the command line with the pkg command. I’m sure most Linux users will feel at home with installing binary packages. The Ports Collection consists of software that need to be compiled from source and then installed. But FreeBSD really makes it easy to do so; just go to the directory of the Port you want to install and type the command make install clean.

More info about installing applications can be found here.

Setting up the GUI

Since the base installation of FreeBSD doesn’t come with a graphical user interface (environment), I had to install one. It all starts with the installation of the display server Xorg or X11.

For the desktop GUI I decided to go with Gnome2, the very first desktop environment I used when I gave Ubuntu a go way back in 2006.

There’s also KDE and XFCE so choose which tickles your fancy. There are a whole lot more in the Ports Collection but I didn’t want to compile a desktop environment because I wanted to get up and running as quickly as possible with FreeBSD.

The FreeBSD Handbook has a great writeup for getting the X Window System set up.

VirtualBox Guest Additions

I don’t know if the VirtualBox Guest Additions ISO comes with a way to install the guest drivers for FreeBSD. I found this wiki entry for installing Guest Additions for FreeBSD guests which I followed (and it worked). I suggest you do the same if you have FreeBSD as a guest in VirtualBox.

Note that I needed to change the /etc/X11/xorg.conf manually for the vboxvideo_drv and vboxmouse_drv sections to get a decent resolution and have mouse integration on.

Conclusion

That’s how far I’ve come for now. I plan to spend more time using FreeBSD. So far I like what I’m experiencing. If you’ve installed and used vanilla Arch Linux before then the feeling is somewhat similar with installing and using FreeBSD. You take control on how to shape your system.

The pkg command in FreeBSD is similar to that of pacman for Arch; the Ports Collection in FreeBSD is similar to that of AUR for Arch. The FreeBSD Handbook has served me well so far, just like Arch’s Wiki has. Really, if you’re using Arch Linux, then FreeBSD will be comfortable for you.

Of course, there are some things I still haven’t wrapped my head around, most specifically the naming of devices.

The experience is mostly positive for now and I’m happy that I got FreeBSD working as I expect it to. But the thing is, this is running in a virtual environment and I don’t know if it will also work when installed on real hardware most especially the networking side of things. I’m still waiting for my old laptop to be back from repairs so till then, I will be testing in VirtualBox.

UPDATE (2014-09-28):

I couldn't get FreeBSD up and running with X11 on my repaired ThinkPad T60. So I guess it will stay in VirtualBox on my desktop PC until I find a machine to run it on.

END UPDATE

Thanks for reading and happy Unixing.

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Trusty Tahr experience

Guest starring OS X 10.9.3 Mavericks

I’ve finally spent some time with the latest Ubuntu release, 14.04 LTS codenamed Trusty Tahr, and this here is a transcript of my experience with it. As mentioned before this paragraph, I have decided to guest star OS X 10.9.3 Mavericks because I’ve been using it for the past couple of months and I felt it would be interesting to compare and contrast them.

If you are looking forward to some OS X bashing, then I’m sorry to disappoint you because I don’t subscribe to that kind of shit. As an avid follower of technological tools, I feel it is really moronic to bash on a platform. Use what you feel is best for you, then move on. But I digress…

Let’s begin!

Making Arch Linux Simple With Antergos

Antergos caught my attention because it claims to be the easiest and fastest way to get an Arch Linux machine up and running. So I gave it a try and right now, it's my main OS (because I did something stupid and my Fedora install b0rked...and just as I was beginning to like Fedora...). I don't consider this a review per se, but here's my experience with Antergos since I installed it last Feb 20, 2014.

Fedora 20 Heisenbug Experience

Updated Jan 21 2014

I haven’t touched Fedora for a long time. Perhaps the last version I cared to try out was Fedora 16. Using it again has showed me why it's been that long — adding 3rd party repos was a bit cumbersome for me, coming from mostly an Ubuntu and Debian background.

For the last quarter of 2013, I was hell bent on using only Debian and its derivatives (except Ubuntu and its derivatives) as my main OS. The last I had installed was a rolling release based on Debian Sid, Semplice 5.1. Unfortunately, I only used it for a day because my mind kept nagging me that if I were to "roll", Arch Linux is the way to do it.

I succumbed and installed Arch Linux. I was using it for close to 15 days, too, until I broke my system attempting to dual-boot with, wait for it, Fedora 20! I didn’t want to go through installing Arch from scratch again so I decided to go with Fedora 20. And here we are.

Knoppix 7.2 Experience

In my search for a viable distro to use as my main OS that's either vanilla Debian or Debian-based (and not Ubuntu-based), I stumbled on Knoppix. I know that I've heard of this distro before but never really checked it out for reasons unknown. But this distro usually gets mentioned in online forums where the question is about PC troubleshooting. Most suggest the use of Knoppix for times when the main OS doesn't boot or is infested with viruses, etc.

I decided to give it a go. Besides, it's always useful to have a bootable Linux distro in case my main OS does decide to falter.

elementary OS 0.2 Luna Experience

elementary OS 0.2 Luna announced the stable release on Aug 11, 2013. I heard about this Linux distribution (distro) when happened upon InfinitelyGalactic's Pear OS 7 review on YouTube and read the video description. So I downloaded the beta 2 ISO image for elementary OS 0.2 Luna and fired it up on VirtualBox. I played around with it a bit but dismissed it, saying too bad it's still in beta...it would have been a great main OS replacement for me (well, sort of). But since a stable version is out, then I immediately backed-up all my data and installed it on my desktop computer.