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OpenBSD 7.9

openbsd.org

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Re: OpenBSD 7.9

#151

Post by Gud »

mghackerlady wrote: post #20
canpan wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always wanted to get into bsd, especially openbsd. I like the idea of a more cohesive os. But I don't really know what to use it for to get started. My desktop runs linux with steam for games. My AI server needs rocm drivers so ubuntu-server. My vps runs debian, maybe that one, but there is no DO image for BSD. Open for ideas..

FreeBSD would work well for your purposes, it has a really good hypervisor and linux abi compatibility

I doubt it.

I am a diehard FreeBSD fan and I used it on my laptop for 20+ years, and dualbooted it for windows only for gaming.

I tried my best to get gaming going, even running Arch in a jail, but it's not great for gaming purposes. I was even virtualizing OpenBSD to use PCI passthrough for better wifi...

Today I am using Arch Linux instead of my dual boot setup. Is it perfect? Nope, but at least I can play Age of Empires 2.

I still use FreeBSD on my servers, obviously. FreeBSD is great, but on the desktop, and especially on the laptop, there are some warts.

Re: OpenBSD 7.9

#152

Post by Gud »

thesuitonym wrote: post #147
mghackerlady wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FreeBSD is mainly server focused. There's been work on the desktop recently, but it isn't what FreeBSD devs are paid to focus on. To be fair to the people paying them, it's a damn good server OS. Also, check out DragonflyBSD. It has a really nice filesystem and Dillon does good work

FreeBSD is focused on making a good, general purpose operating system. It just happens to be very good at being a server. It's also very good at being a desktop.

Subpar wifi performance compared to Linux(perhaps better now?) subpar bluetooth, etc, etc, hardly makes it a good desktop OS.

Passable yes, if you love it, but let's be realistic.

I love FreeBSD btw.

Re: OpenBSD 7.9

#153

Post by mxuribe »

Brian_K_White wrote: post #126
mxuribe wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, i knew there was some aspects of decendancy across the different BSDs. And, I mentioned NetBSD for embedded stuff...but really, i *think* its that NetBsd is simply installed on tons of different hardware....so not only embedded....i kinda remembered that about NetBSD. But, its the other BSDs - in particular FreeBSD vs OpenBSD - that i always forget the differences...but got it now. Thanks!

freebsd = utility openbsd = security netbsd = portability freebsd: performance, features, drivers, software compat - closest to linux in utility & usability though unlike linux in execution openbsd: safety for exposed services netbsd: portable across many cpu & hardware platforms - big-endian powerpc sun, hitachi sh3 jornada, etc, easiest to port to a new arch

Oh this is a wonderful and succinct summary; thanks!

Re: OpenBSD 7.9

#154

Post by mxuribe »

spauldo wrote: post #109
mxuribe wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried such Openbsd installations vs FreeBSD? I forget the differences between OpenBSD and FreeBSD, so forgive the naivety. (I think NetBSD is more for embedded stuff, and Ghost and Dragonfly are more for conventional desktop use-cases if i recall correctly.) I'm asking because i have not touched any BSD for over 2 decades...and I'm getting the itch to try some out...and was wondering if for server-type use c…

FreeBSD is a heavier, more capable system, suitable for large servers. It's got its own virtualization platform (bhyve), an LXC-ish container system (jails), native ZFS, dtrace, Linux emulation, and a bunch more. It makes for a decent workstation and has pretty decent hardware support. NetBSD is small and simple. It's a lot like an old-school UNIX. It makes a decent platform for small services. I run bind and dhcpd o…

Thank you, this helped alot!

Re: OpenBSD 7.9

#155

Post by hedora »

SoftTalker wrote: post #102
hedora wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been using it on an old PC Engines router (great hardware, by the way! I wish they were still around.) It ran for over 8 years without downtime, but I’ve had repeated problems in the last year or so. I used the default partitioning scheme, which makes /usr tiny, and /var huge, and since it is a router, did not install X11. At some point, they made x11 mandatory for auto updates. This is dumb, because all the upg…

Backup, do a fresh install with new partitions, restore. You have to do this every once in a while especially if your partition sizing is from nearly a decade ago. My one complaint about OpenBSD would probably be lack of resizable partitions. You can expand them, but only if you have free contiguous space and most of the time one partition starts where the prior one ends. It's rarely a problem in practice, as only /h…

My point is that you shouldn't have to do this!

I've already done this twice for this box. Its disk is half empty, and the used space is 75% compounding useless bloat:

- 50% of the used space are package sets I never asked for.

- The stuff I did ask for is somehow 2x larger than it needs to be, since they don't randomize binaries in place.

- If they'd actually follow their own filesystem hierarchy standards, and stop using /usr as a build target (very bad things will happen if a crash happens in the middle of that! Why are we making lots of small separate partitions again?!?) then I could just make /var big. Then I would not have to repartition yet again after they introduce /lib/lolz/3gib or whatever in 2027.

Alternatively, if they had a journalling filesystem or still supported soft updates, then I could have one big partition, which would solve it once and for all.

Anyway, I'd argue "take the lan offline, backup the router, repartition and restore" isn't a planned reasonable maintenance task for a router. The fact that its so obviously easily avoidable is really frustrating.

Alternatively, if they just had a "which sets to install?" config option for auto-update (like they do for the OS installer!) then I wouldn't have to do this.

Re: OpenBSD 7.9

#158

Post by accrual »

Guestmodinfo wrote: post #17
alex1138 wrote: post #4

BSDs are interesting projects. As I understand it there's a broad difference of them all doing things reasonably well but a) Free is general-purpose, b) Net is especially portable/many architecture and Open is security focused

I have used OpenBSD as a desktop for 7 years. Though my usage and the machine were minimal. But I thoroughly liked it. I want to go back to it. One good thing is that if your hardware has some problems or about to have problems then installing OpenBSD will make your computer kernel panic. So I use it as a diagnosing tool for my hardware

> So I use it as a diagnosing tool for my hardware

Same, it's particularly good for troubleshooting older hardware too since most bog standard x86 parts are well supported.

If I have a random ISA/PCI/AGP/PCIe card that OpenBSD can't see or properly initialize, it's probably an issue with the card.

Re: OpenBSD 7.9

#159

Post by upofadown »

The big news for some of us is that Exim has been dropped from ports. Here is a good article about transitioning from Exim to OpenSMTPD:

https://nxdomain.no/~peter/time_for_opensmtpd.html

I tried using OpenSMTPD a long time ago, shortly after it came out, but things were not stable enough. I guess it is time to give it another go...

Re: OpenBSD 7.9

#160

Post by reidrac »

nelsonic wrote: post #35
ykurtov wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? How long did it take?

How long did what take? Learning the essentials of OpenBSD, budget 4-6hours. Switching over servers from Ubuntu, an hour for the first one then 10mins each after that. You can copy config with your favourite tools; most have ports for OpenBSD already. If you want to learn more in-depth, read: Michael W. Lucas Absolute OpenBSD, 2nd Edition: Unix for the Practical Paranoid. Highly recommend it as teaches many fundament…

How many upgrades have you done so far? And how many kernel fixes?

Long time ago I maintained a couple of obsd servers, and the cost in time of upgrades and the (occasional) security fixes was substantial.

I still maintain a couple of servers, but if it wasn't because Debian makes it easier by automating most of it, I don't think I could do it.

Yet I miss my time with obsd. I'm very interested in your experience.

Edit: it was 3.6-STABLE. Things have changed since then.

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