freebsd

Well this is a nice surprise, #HaikuOS boots fast and even #WiFi and multi-finger touchpad scrolling work out of box on my #ThinkPad T470s. It is dual booting alongside #FreeBSD and #OpenBSD on the same hard disk. I can browser web sites fine. Only thing is sometimes touchpad becomes laggy and I have to plugin a mouse. It is very a fascinating system, I will keep it running for now and explore more about it.

#FOSS #Unix

Think I've sorted my conf files for using pkgbase now, They are as follows:

/usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/FreeBSD-base.conf

FreeBSD-base: {
url: "pkg+https://pkg.FreeBSD.org/${ABI}/base_release_${VERSION_MINOR}",
mirror_type: "srv",
signature_type: "fingerprints",
fingerprints: "/usr/share/keys/pkgbase-${VERSION_MAJOR}",
enabled: yes
}

/usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/FreeBSD.conf

FreeBSD-ports: {
url: "pkg+https://pkg.FreeBSD.org/${ABI}/latest",
mirror_type: "srv",
signature_type: "fingerprints",
fingerprints: "/usr/share/keys/pkg",
enabled: yes
}
FreeBSD-ports-kmods: {
url: "pkg+https://pkg.FreeBSD.org/${ABI}/kmods_latest_${VERSION_MINOR}",
mirror_type: "srv",
signature_type: "fingerprints",
fingerprints: "/usr/share/keys/pkg",
enabled: yes
}

Hopefully that's me sorted now.
#FreeBSD

Well after successfully converting to pkgbase on my #FreeBSD ThinkPad and slightly confusing myself with the config files, I think I can safely say it's wine 'o' clock and tonight I'm going with a Spanish red. 🍷

Noticed the terminal foot was still at 1.26.1 when 1.27.0 was out and dropped an email to the #FreeBSD dev not expecting a reply for a while. Then boom a nice reply and the port is updated to 1.27.0 !

Impressive!

#RunBSD

Question to those who use pkgbase in #FreeBSD .

Do you have to run doas pkg update -r FreeBSD-base or can you just run doas pkg upgrade -r FreeBSD-base like I do for ports as I only run doas pkg upgrade and it saves me typing out a similar length line that contains update ????

So this should really be added to the #FreeBSD Handbook then don't you think?

RE: https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@grahamperrin/116784954897006714

Something I have noticed since switching my #FreeBSD to pkgbase is that the output of fastfetch no longer shows the package numbers. I can't see what changes would have affected that but there it is.

Noticed that on my ThinkPad P14s AMD Gen 1 with #FreeBSD and ZFS as the filesystem that it would sometimes nearly use up all of the 16GB ram. So as I only have a 1TB NVME I decided to read up and found that really 1GB is sufficient for every 1TB of drive. So I set the maximum to 2GB and the minimum to 1Gb and hopefully this will be OK for my laptops desktop useage?

/boot/loader.conf

# Set Maximum for ZFS ARC
vfs.zfs.arc_max="2147483648"

# Set Minimum for ZFS ARC
vfs.zfs.arc_min="1073741824"

Meet #Starling, a lightweight #ActivityPub server for the #Fediverse, built with PHP and SQLite.

Run your own decentralized social platform on shared hosting or a tiny VPS WITHOUT Redis, PostgreSQL, or complex infrastructure.

What it makes so special to me? It looks awesome, comes with a great admin web interface and does not require a VPS instance where it can also be operated on a cheap shared hosting systems. By the given requirements, it also easily runs on a #RaspberryPI and all kind of systems, including #FreeBSD, #OpenBSD, #Illumos and more!

This all makes it perfect to everyone and even beginners to run their own instance. With relay support (e.g., fedi-relay.gyptazy.com) it even can consume and post content over non-directly connected instances in the #fediworld!

Kudos to the author of Starling: @df

More information:
GitHub project: https://github.com/dfaria-eu/Starling
My blog post: https://gyptazy.com/blog/starling-simple-fediverse-server/

#fedi #fediwall #opensource #decentralized #social #socialmedia #alternatives #mastodon

Interestingly, #FreeBSD comes with #nvi2 in base, while #OpenBSD and #NetBSD seem to be running #nvi 1:

FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE-p12~~~Version 2.2.2 (2025-10-08) The CSRG, University of California, Berkeley.

OpenBSD 7.3(7.9 is still running the same version)~~~Version 1.79 (10/23/96) The CSRG, University of California, Berkeley.

NetBSD 10.1~~~Version (1.81.6-2013-11-20nb4) The CSRG, University of California, Berkeley.

They all seem to have nvi2 available as packages, though, which #Debian, oddly, does not.

rld@Intrepid:~$ uname -srFreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE-p12rld@Intrepid:~$ pkg search nvi |grep '^nvi2'nvi2-2.2.2 Updated implementation of the ex/vi text editorrld@Intrepid:~$

#(searching openbsd online)rld@Intrepid:~$ searchall -o nvi |grep ^nvinvi-2.2.2 (list) with wide and files limited bynvi-2.2.2-iconv (list) with wide and files limited by

rldane@rosa.tilde.pink$ uname -srNetBSD 10.1rldane@rosa.tilde.pink$ pkgin search nvi |grep ^nvi |grep -v nvidianvi-1.81.6nb13 Berkeley nvi with additional featuresnvi-m17n-1.79.20040608nb11 Clone of vi/ex, with multilingual patchnvi2-2.2.0 Multibyte fork of the nvi editor for BSDrldane@rosa.tilde.pink$

~ $ head -1 /etc/os-release PRETTY_NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)"~ $ apt-cache search nvi |grep -E '^nvi2? 'nvi - 4.4BSD re-implementation of vi~ $

NextBSD in Oracle VirtualBox on Kubuntu 26.04.

1501000 kernel.

1501000 userland, 15.1-RELEASE.

NextBSD-amd64-20260621-043806.iso

― booted from the ISO, without installing to a virtual disk.

<https://nextbsd.org/>

Firefox 150.0,2 and TWM installed from FreeBSD's latest repo for 15 on AMD64.

#AI #NextBSD #FreeBSD #Firefox

FreeBSD major upgrade from 14.4-RELEASE-p6 to 15.1-RELEASE, with freebsd-update

100 minutes for the upgrade to userland:

<https://www.reddit.com/r/freebsd/comments/1u6xu2i/comment/osq1q3u/>

Has anyone else found the userland upgrade extraordinarily time-consuming for 14 to 15.1-RELEASE?

#FreeBSD #upgrade #update

The FreeBSD Project home page no longer has a link to FAQ.

The main Documentation menu includes <https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/fdp-primer/>, which very few people will want. The ninety-nine-page FreeBSD Documentation Project Primer for New Contributors can be found at the front page of the documentation portal.

Suggestion:

― remove the link to the primer from the Documentation menu at the home page

― add a link to FAQ, make it the second menu option (beneath the Documentation menu option).

<https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/faq/>

#FreeBSD #documentation #FAQ

cc @markmcb @thismarkp

Trying FreeBSD as a Linux user – Kenvexity – YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdUwCQttWKM&t=25s

I enjoyed this video. Very down-to-earth.

Some key points at <https://www.reddit.com/r/freebsd/comments/1ubn8mp/trying_freebsd_as_a_linux_user_kenvexity/>.

#FreeBSD #KDE #Plasma #Xorg #TWM #graphics #hardware #Firefox #Linuxulator #Steam

An AI audit of FreeBSD https://lobste.rs/s/kdninn #freebsd #security #vibecoding
https://blog.calif.io/p/an-ai-audit-of-freebsd

Secondary: "Tianve" - HP-250 G3
Kernel: 14.3-RELEASE-p8 amd64
Operating System: GhostBSD 25.02-R14.3p8
Desktop: LXQT 2.3.0
Windowmanager: XFWM4
Qt Version: 6.10.1
Graphics Platform: X11

https://bsd-hardware.info/?probe=77494a1526

#runbsd #freebsd #ghostbsd #unix #foss #lxqt #desktop #screenshot

What's the preferred CLI #YouTube video downloader on #FreeBSD these days?

There has to be something better than #ytdlp. The list of dependencies it wants to bring along now is an absolute joke, including two different versions of #llvm! Sorry, but no...

So #FreeBSD folk what are you doing if anything re the rsync issue? Are you staying or switching to openrsync?

Whilst I'm going old school with my #Freebsd laptop using ed(1) I've decided to try using less with source-highlight instead of using bat to see how I get on. I've always ignored less and really need to play about with it as I'm discovering that it's really rather good.

Shouts at past me for not investigating what was always right in front of me all along

Question for #FreeBSD folk that have the LESS variable set in .profile or .kshrc, Do you use LESS="-IRX" as I don't see certain icons displayed in files where as if I just use an alias as the LESS variable treats -r as -R as it is dangerous to use -r? But I find `alias less="less -IrX' displays the icons ( unicode ) . Can someone help explain why or what I should be doing to use less to view files instead of cat or bat ?

The man page section in question:

USE OF THE -r OPTION IS DANGEROUS AND IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
The -r option can be set on the command line or via the - command,
but to avoid unintentional use, it cannot be set in a LESS
environment variable. If -r appears in a LESS environment
variable, it is treated as if it were -R.

Nice, with a great help of https://www.programmingfonts.org/ (URL was found in the lost toot of one fedizen), I finally found the ideal font which I was searching a lot — a monospace Serif font, which looks like font from a book!

A Monaspace Xenon font and a Monaspace Radon font (the last is hand-writing like monospace font). Luckily, the support of Cyrillic symbols was added in the latest version of font, literally few weeks ago.

Finally, my desktop is closer to the mine ideal

#FreeBSD #AwesomeWM #Emacs #unixporn #fonts

Got bored and setup my vt(4) to use the Gruvbox theme on my #FreeBSD ThinkPad. Yes I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'm easily pleased! 🤣
This is what I put in my /boot/loader.conf:

# Terminal vt(4) Gruvbox colors
kern.vt.color.0.rgb="#000000"
kern.vt.color.1.rgb="#cc241d"
kern.vt.color.2.rgb="#98971a"
kern.vt.color.3.rgb="#d79921"
kern.vt.color.4.rgb="#458588"
kern.vt.color.5.rgb="#b16286"
kern.vt.color.6.rgb="#689d6a"
kern.vt.color.7.rgb="#a89984"
kern.vt.color.8.rgb="#928374"
kern.vt.color.9.rgb="#fb4934"
kern.vt.color.10.rgb="#b8bb26"
kern.vt.color.11.rgb="#fabd2f"
kern.vt.color.12.rgb="#83a598"
kern.vt.color.13.rgb="#d3869b"
kern.vt.color.14.rgb="#8ec07c"
kern.vt.color.15.rgb="#ebdbb2"

I created a new, a bit silly DNB song in tribute to Marshall Kirk's work in FreeBSD. Maybe I need to improve the lyrics, but I still like the melody.

https://interfacecraft.online/share/kirk-kirk-bsd/

Please boost, if you like it ☺️

#FreeBSD #Music #Suno

I managed to install FreeBSD on my main pc, with a caveat. I picked the 16-Current because it supports the Lan chip of my motherboard, that lacks in the 15-1 STABLE.
It is not ideal, but picking the Stable would had mean doing some moves between partitions for the drivers, and Freebsd is here for tests and isn't really an issue.
So here what is all about.
🧵

#bsd #freebsd #linux #pcgaming #retrogaming #FOSS

Anyone running #FreeBSD desktop in a #QEMU VM? I remembered I simply had to install xf86-video-qxl and use a #Xorg conf file like:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "qxl"
EndSection

it should work. But today when I was firing up a FreeBSD 15.1 VM the Xorg session instantly crashed with a segment fault and returned back to tty, changing the qxl driver to scfb worked flawlessly though. Am I missing something? 1/n

#RunBSD #BSD #Unix #FOSS