Pretty and functional FreeBSD desktop for design freaks

FreeBSD is the best (server) operating system and it has everything linux has for desktop use besides (laptop) device drivers. The FreeBSD user/dev community is much smaller than Linux's so not all device drivers are arriving for FreeBSD and the others are arriving slowly - usually 1-2 years is needed. So if you want the FreeBSD laptop experience you better start with an older and supported laptop or go with a desktop machine.

So why choose FreeBSD over Linux?

one kernel one distro - no fragmentation
extremely well architected, clean design
logical command line tools (pkg install vs pacman -Qs, pkg info vs dpkg -s, pkg search vs pacman -Ss)
no systemd and pulse audio
no random malfunctions, surprises after rolling updates

Why not choose FreeBSD over Linux?

no drivers for your laptop
you need Spotify, Netflix or Steam

Installing

We will install the latest CURRENT ( = dev branch or nightly build ) which is 13.0-CURRENT to have the latest drivers.

Download the latest memstick image from here : https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/snapshots/ISO-IMAGES/13.0/

Burn it to a flash drive with your favorite tool and boot up your machine with it.

1 Select install
2 Select default keyboard
3 Choose host name
4 At Optional System Components select ports tree and system source tree, they can be useful when you want to recompile the kernel for some reason or if an utility is non-BSD licensed and not present in pkg repository.
4 Partition your drive - Auto UFS is the best for laptops but feel free to go with other, let the installer create the partitions
5 Select root password
6 Select network - if there is no driver for your wifi hardware then no wireless will appear in the list. Let the installer auto config DHCP and everything
7 Select your region
8 Select time and date
9 Select services at boot : ntpd powerd and dumpdev
10 No hardening options
11 Add a separate user for yourself besides root
12 Reboot

Cool, the base system is ready. Now we have to install the needed tools and drivers.

Basic Setup

Login with the root user

Check internet connection first : ping freebsd.org
If it's not working you have to figure out why the wifi interface is down - dmesg, sysctl, etc, google bravely!

pkg and sudo

Install sudo first:

pkg install sudo

It will offer you to install pkg first, say yes. After installing pkg, say yes for sudo install.

Now we have to add your separate user to the sudoers file to make things comfortable. Type :

visudo

Go down/page down to the bottom, go to the end of the line, press i to enter edit mode, press enter to go to newline, type

youruser ALL=(ALL)

Press escape, type :wq to save it. If you want to quit without saveing press esc anytime and type :q!

Now your user is in the sudoers file. Type exit to log out as root and login as your user.

default shell : zsh

Let's install zsh because it can figure out your thoughts.

sudo pkg install zsh

Now we need to change the default shell to it :

chsh -s zsh

Cool, now log out with your user and log in, zsh will ask for default settings, generate a config with the default settings.

window manager: sway

sudo pkg install sway swaylock swayidle dmenu alacritty slurp grim

sway is the wayland based window manager
swaylock is the screen lock utility for sway
swayidle is the idle lock utility for sway
dmenu is the default launcher for sway
alacritty is the default wayland based terminal for sway
slurp is the default screenshot utility for sway
grim is the default screen region shot utility for sway

For sway to run XDG_RUNTIME_DIR has to be set, let's add it to .zshrc

vi .zshrc

Go to the end of file, go into edit mode with i and type

export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/tmp

Press escape and type :wq to save and exit.

Logout and login again.

video drivers

After login, type

sway

If it shows up you have video drivers/the default driver works for you. If not you have to tell FreeBSD to load it at startup. The video drivers for FreeBSD are called drm-kmod, drm-current-kmod, drm-devel-kmod. Since we are on the CURRENT branch we have to use drm-current-kmod

sudo pkg install drm-current-kmod

Now depending on your GPU manufacturer you have to load the corresponding kernel mode settings. I have an intel UHD so I will go with i915kms. Adding new lines to /etc/rc.conf is done with an editor or with the sysrc tool, we will use the latter.

sudo sysrc kld_list += "i915kms"

Cool, now reboot by typing

sudo reboot

If the screen remained black after reboot, then you installed or selected the wrong driver. Don't panic, reboot in single user mode, it starts up with the bios vesa driver, you can safely login and remove the driver from /etc/rc.conf and then you can reboot and login in the normal way.

After login check if driver is loaded :

dmesg | grep drm

If it's loaded then great, start up sway.

sway

You should see a beautiful blue background. To open a terminal press WIN+ENTER. To open the launcher menu press WIN+d and start typing anything. To kill a window press WIN + SHIFT + q. To switch between workspaces press WIN+numbers, to move a window to an other workspace press WIN+SHIFT+arrows

Cool but why doesn't the touchpad working?!?!?

touchpad

It you have no touchpad you have to install the latest iichd drivers.

sudo pkg install iichd

And the let's load them at startup :

sudo sysrc ig4_load="YES"
sudo sysrc iicbus_load="YES"
sudo sysrc iichid_load="YES"
sudo sysrc kld_list+="ig4 iichid"

Reboot, login and touchpad should work.

webcam

To make the webcam work webcamd has to be installed and started, usb unit.addr has to be set ( the example should work for 99 percent of the machines ) and you have to add your user to webcamd group

sudo pkg install webcamd
sudo sysrc kld_list+="cuse"
sudo sysrc webcamd_enable="YES"
sudo sysrc webcamd_0_flags="-d 0.2 - I 0 -v 0"
sudo groupmod webcamd -m youruser

Reboot, login and webcam should work. Let's test it on the web!

chromium, firefox

sudo pkg install chromium
sudo pkg install firefox

Start up chromium and go to a webcam tester page, does it work?

set default sway config

Copy default config. Let's check where is the default config :

pkg info -l sway

It's under /usr/local/etc/sway/config.sample. Let's copy it to ~/.config/sway/

mkdir -p ~/.config/sway
cp /usr/local/etc/sway/config.sample ~/.config/sway/

Don't forget that by pressing TAB in the terminal it completes the path or lists possible subfolders if you are uncertain.

make sway autostart at terminal 0

vi .zshrc

At the bottom add

if [[ -z $DISPLAY ]] && [[ $(tty) = /dev/ttyv0 ]]; then
 exec sway
fi

Now after reboot and login sway will start automagically.

turn off dedicated GPU ( if exists )

Install and load acpi_call on startup

sudo pkg install acpi_call
sudo sysrc kld_list+= "acpi_call'

Download this script :

https://github.com/milgra/tutorials/blob/master/freebsd-dotfiles/Scripts/turn_off_gpu.sh

Edit .zshrc, execute it before exec sway

 sudo ~/Scripts/turn_off_gpu.sh

note : since sudo is happening in the background, you have to add the script to the sudoers file with NOPASSWD

stop keyboard beeping

sudo sysrc allscreen_kbdflags="-b quiet.off"

mount linux filesystems

sudo sysrc kld_list+="ext2fs"

auto mount connected drives

sysrc autofs_enable="YES"

sudo vi /etc/auto_master

Uncomment media line.

install rxvt for a non-cpu-demanding terminal experience

sudo pkg install x11/rxvt-unicode

install terminus-font for coolness*

sudo pkg install terminus-font

make sway status bar show system information

Download this script :

https://github.com/milgra/tutorials/blob/master/freebsd-dotfiles/Scripts/swaybar.sh

Add it to ~/.config/sway/config

...
bar {
    ...
    status_command while ~/Scripts/swaybar.sh; do sleep 5; done
...

lock/sleep on shortcut

Download this script :

https://github.com/milgra/tutorials/blob/master/freebsd-dotfiles/Scripts/swaylock.sh

Add shortcut to ~/.config/sway/config

bindsym $mod+p exec ~/Scripts/swaylock.sh

start up desktop apps automatically on given workspaces after sway start

Download this script :

https://github.com/milgra/tutorials/blob/master/freebsd-dotfiles/Scripts/swaystart.sh

Add exec to ~/.config/sway/config

exec ~/Scripts/swaystart.sh

increase and decrease screen brightness on WIN + brightness control keys

Download this script :

https://github.com/milgra/tutorials/blob/master/freebsd-dotfiles/Scripts/dec_brightness.sh https://github.com/milgra/tutorials/blob/master/freebsd-dotfiles/Scripts/inc_brightness.sh

Add shortcuts to ~/.config/sway/config

bindsym $mod+F5 exec ~/Scripts/dec_brightness.sh
bindsym $mod+F6 exec ~/Scripts/inc_brightness.sh

mute, increase and decrease audio volume on WIN + volume control keys

Add shortcuts to ~/.config/sway/config

bindsym $mod+F1 exec mixer vol 0
bindsym $mod+F2 exec mixer vol -10
bindsym $mod+F3 exec mixer vol +10

language switching on keyboard shortcut

Add definition to ~/.config/sway/config

input * {
    xkb_layout "us,hu"
    xkb_variant ",101_qwerty_dot_nodead"
    xkb_options "grp:alt_space_toggle"
    repeat_rate 40
    repeat_delay 250
}

touchpad natural scroll and double finger tap

get your touchpad id with

swaymsg -t get_inputs

with your id add this to sway config

input "1739:52575:MSFT0001:00_06CB:CD5F_TouchPad" {
    dwt enabled
    tap enabled
    natural_scroll enabled
    middle_emulation enabled
    drag disabled
}

setup sway font and colors

Download my sway config and use the font/color configs from it.

https://github.com/milgra/tutorials/blob/master/freebsd-dotfiles/.config/sway

setup zsh plugins and colors

Install zsh autosuggest and syntax highlighting, downoad zsh-history-substring and copy to usr/local/share

sudo pkg install zsh-autosuggestions
sudo pkg install zsh-syntax-highlighting

Download my .zshrc and use it

https://github.com/milgra/tutorials/blob/master/freebsd-dotfiles/.zshrc

enable site-specific browsing in firefox to be able to open sites as desktop apps

Go to about:config url in firefox, search for ssb and enable it, then open firefox with -ssb parameter. If you use chromium then use --app switch/

other office and media tools

sudo pkg install libreoffice gimp vlc virtualbox-ose

select wifi network

sudo pkg install wifimgr
wifimgr

using skype from firefox

Add "User Agent Switcher" plugin to Firefox.
Go to web.skype.com
Select Windows/Edge in the user agent switcher. Roll!

download youtube video

sudo pkg install youtube-dl

for managing partitions

sudo sade

for unicode chars in terminal

edit ~/.login_conf

me:\
	:charset=UTF-8:\
	:lang=en_US.UTF-8:

android connection

sudo pkg install fusefs-jmtpfs    

/boot/loader.conf :
fuse_load="YES"

/etc/sysctl.conf
vfs.usermount=1

/etc/rc.conf
kld_list="fusefs"

sudo jmtpfs -o allow_other /mnt

enable mic in firefox

about:config
media.cubeb.backend                             oss

things to be done

make numlock work
make resume work

Provide feedback

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Pretty and functional FreeBSD desktop for design freaks

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Pretty and functional FreeBSD desktop for design freaks