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OpenBSD Desktop in about 30 Minutes

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OpenBSD Desktop in about 30 Minutes

#1
Finished install yields OpenBSD 6.0, Lumina DE, Firefox, mplayer

Install base system # https://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html

### As Root

# Increase resource limits vi /etc/login.conf:

:datasize-max=2048M:\

:datasize-cur=2048M:\

# Execute commands as root:

vi /etc/doas.conf:

permit nopass username_created_during_install

# Package mgmt: PKG_PATH and pkg.conf

# Edit .profile to add package path:

export PKG_PATH=http://ftp.OpenBSD.org/pub/OpenBSD/6.0/packages/amd64/

vi /etc/pkg.conf:

installpath = http://ftp.OpenBSD.org/pub/OpenBSD/6.0/packages/amd64/

# Improve disk performance

vi /etc/fstab:

Append ”softdep,noatime" to all entries with filesystem type ffs after rw

Ex: .... rw,softdep,noatime 1 1

# Get wireless working w/ or w/o WPA

# Determine wireless interface name (ex. iwn0) with ifconfig:

ifconfig -a

# Establish wireless w/ WPA, substituting own interface name:

ifconfig iwn0 nwid network_id wpakey password

dhclient iwn0

#Establish wireless w/o WPA, ex: guest network

ifconfig iwn0 nwid network_id -wpa

dhclient iwn0

# Make wireless perm:

vi /etc/hostname.iwn0

dhcp nwid network_id -wpa # Without WPA

dhcp nwid network_id wpakey password # With WPA

# Reboot

reboot

### As mortal user

# Install packages:

# Ex: pkg_add -v

# mplayer plays media, esp. YouTube in browser

doas pkg_add -v firefox lumina mplayer # Installs Firefox, Lumina DE, and mplayer

# Start xscreensaver daemon to use Windows-L xlock

# Activate tap-to-click for trackpad (skip if desktop computer)

# Configure Lumina DE to invoke with “startx” under own user

vi .xinitrc in own directory:

synclient TapButton1=1

syndaemon -i 1 -d

xscreensaver -no-splash &

exec Lumina-DE

Re: OpenBSD Desktop in about 30 Minutes

#5
post #4

Can somebody comment on how good/bad is the driver support in the BSD land? I'm interested specifically in wireless and graphics.

I tried using FreeBSD 11 and XFCE as my development platform.

Good: XFCE worked OOB with Intel graphics outputting displayport to a 2560 x 1080 display.

Bad: Video playback in VLC and FireFox was choppy.

Not sure if the AMD FirePro or AMD Quadro have better support than Intel graphics. I ended up switching back to Debian.

Re: OpenBSD Desktop in about 30 Minutes

#6
post #3

Any reason why you chose Lumina over many of the other ones? Just curious.

Not the author, but from the FAQ[0] it says Lumina was specifically designed for the needs of TrueOS (aka PC-BSD aka desktop FreeBSD), and "works very well for the BSD community at large." It also does not require a lot of the "typical" dependencies found with more Linux-oriented desktop environments (DBUS, policykit, systemd, etc), thus I imagine making it easier to build/install on OpenBSD.

[0] https://lumina-desktop.org/faq/

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