Moving from Linux to FreeBSD

So I've moved from Slackware to FreeBSD. What are some pitfalls to avoid, and common errors linux converts make? Also, any linux -> BSD cheatsheets would be appreciated, things like replacements for ls{blk|pci|vga}, etc. I know this information is available via search, but maybe this thread could be used to consolidate it, and I didn't see a BSD general or anything.

Initial thoughts after switching: Pros - It's better structured. A bunch of essential and commonly used stuff is built alongside the kernel; this all goes in /* and /usr/*. Everything else you install goes in /usr/local/*. This should let me avoid the ungodly mess I get with old linux installs where - Ports are amazing. They cover tons of packages, I haven't found something I use a lot there isn't a port for yet. Installed ports are treated like regular packages, so if it ends up in the main package tree and exceeds the installed port version then I think a pkg update/upgrade will use the packaged version. - Setting up an encrypted root install was smooth and easier than it was on Slackware. There I had to built the init image with all the modules needed to unlock the root. I had to do this every time I upgraded the kernel. I also could never figure out how to get USB support in the init disk, which was a problem since my laptop keyboard is kind of fuarrrked. On FreeBSD I just set up the EFI & encrypted partitions per a guide, then manually wrote the fstab and boot loader options to allow unlocking the drive. No hiccups at all - It seems ridiculously faster (maybe just because this is a new install). - The audio quality, latency, and configuration is miles ahead of linux. pulse is a well-managed dumpster fire and alsa requires arcane incantations to mix playback from two applications at once. Cons - I had weird graphical glitches when booting the install disk that made it impossible to use. My solution was to switch the boot mode in the bios from UEFI to UEFI w/ compatibility, but that symptom applies to a variety of problems so it took ages to figure that out - messages from the kernel appear on tty0. This is really a good feature as it's nice to see a response when you plug something in but it's an annoyance when you're trying to type your password in during boot and soykaf keeps popping up. That's it really. I'm sure I'll find more problems as I go but so far it's been amazingly smooth, even better than switching between linux distros.

I switched from Debian to FreeBSD a few months ago and I am not disappointed. My advices: Avoid using pkg(1) and /usr/ports at the same time Test software in disposable vms (vm-bhyve) Do not rush upgrades

I'm just considering giving FreeBSD a chance myself (switching from Debian). What filesystem other Lainons would suggest to use on a laptop with a 4GB RAM, i5-2540M processor and 256GB SSD? UFS or ZFS? I read mix opinions on the internet, some say that ZFS is a overkill for a personal computer and it really should be used for servers. Thay also sugest that ZFS could be slower then UFS on a low power hardware. Other on the other hand suggest that the benefits of ZFS are far greater then the cons. Who should I listen to? Any advice?

>>17458 I selected zfs for a 160gb ssd and no problems for now

>>17458 the main reason for using ZFS on a pc is lz4 compression.for saving a few GB, low power is fine, ZFS usage is more about RAM, and for that 4GB is farly more than enough

>>17445 For desktop usage I reccomend the stable branch, ot does not mean what it means on the linux world, is head but whitout debug an trying to not break pkgs. Also ports may be weeks out of date, when is trivial just do change version on Makefile, rm distfile and make makesum, >>17460 mistyped fairly

>>17444 This talk put me off FreeBSD to be honest. It's just 90s era security + bitchy back stabbing community. https://www.hooktube.com/watch?v=7kShjboN6ek Note that this is the fuarrrking KEYNOTE at a major BSD conference, not some random asshole at a local meetup or something.

>>17474 >It's just 90s era security + bitchy back stabbing community. What do you mean? I watched the video from the link and I don't know what are you talking about. Could you elaborate?

the main issues with the bsd's seems to be support of things. Like BSD isn't really made for the average person or even the average technical user to use. Colin Percival said in one of his talks that most of the bsd devs use macs as their daily drivers (and boy is mac bsd far removed from the other BSDs) and he acknowledged the weird graphical issues you're talking about. I feel like the conventions of BSD are really good, i loved ports too (there are plenty of similar linux tools), but I could never find a reason to stick with BSD over any other OS (unless for servers / embedded). Colin Percival and DarkEngine are the only people I know who use bsd in any sort of capacity. if you're very worried about a secure daily use system I would say something like hardened gentoo with libmusl would be much easier to adopt.

>>17497 >What do you mean? I watched the video from the link and I don't know what are you talking about. Could you elaborate? The whole talk is a butthurt rant on how all the security features other OS's have and FreeBSD were too incompetent/short sighted to implement are a waste of time anyway with an entire section dedicated to personally slagging off a developer from another BSD project. Incredibly unprofessional and should really make you think twice about FreeBSD if security is even a slight concern.

>>17544 >The whole talk is a butthurt rant on how all the security features other OS's have and FreeBSD were too incompetent/short sighted to implement Actually the talk is about what can be done to improve security and what should we try to do to improve the it in the future. He reminds people that everything even computer software have a exp. date. He calls developers of other BSD system to join forces when talking to big hardware companies like Intel to have a better leverage. >with an entire section dedicated to personally slagging off a developer from another BSD project. Do you mean that short remark about the check list? I would have to agree with the author of the talk, this is not really helpful in any way. If someone want to take there time to do it then thats fine, if on the someone states that there product is better then others becuse thay have this checklist it's there choice but it's not helpful in any way and it dosen't increase security in any way. And I think the author of the talk wanted to make that clear. If you mean some other section then you really should be more precise and try not to say only some general references. >Incredibly unprofessional and should really make you think twice about FreeBSD if security is even a slight concern. I don't see how the level of a presesntation (not saying it was bad, I found it interesting) from a person who is not on the core team of FreeBSD (he clearly states that at the begining) has anything to do with the level of security of the project. Mind you that he also adds that this is his personal opinion on the matter. I don't know do you have some grudge agains the author but poaple on open surce projects are not the same and very often have different goals and drives. If you can't accept the fact that someone working on a project has a different opinion then you that is your problem and not there.

>>17630 >computer software have a exp. date The most low effort approach to security possible. While everyone else is working on active exploit mitigations FreeBSD is still not doing anything beyond patching bugs as they get reported. 90s era security. >He calls developers of other BSD system to join forces when talking to big hardware companies Presumably without HardenedBSD and OpenBSD and Linux and everyone else he shat on during the talk? >Actually the talk is about what can be done to improve security I didn't see any actual plans for improving security here. Keeping your systems patched is what you should have been doing already and joining forced against hardware vendors would be more convincing if we wasn't stabbing fellow BSD people in the back in literally the next sentence. >Do you mean that short remark about the check list? I mean the slide after which is specifically targeting a person from another BSD project. That soykaf ain't against your precious code of conduct? >I would have to agree with the author of the talk, this is not really helpful in any way. Of course you would agree if FreeBSD has none of the boxes checked. Pretending that none of it matters is the only way to resolve your cognitive dissonance. >I don't see how the level of a presesntation ... has anything to do with the level of security of the project. Dude used to be on core and a FreeBSD security officer so it's not like his opinions never had any influence at all. More generally though you watch a talk about OS security you expect a presentation about existing features and upcoming developments. Not a deluded justification about why all the basic exploit mitigations you don't have don't matter anyway, some vague virtue signalling against hardware vendors and personal attacks on other open source developers.

>>17445 I don't use tty0. I started using it to read the console messages instead. If you want to use tty0, you can set the console to go to a real terminal over serial link. In my limited experience it is pretty normal for BSDs to keep their initial fast speed.

>>17444 you should actually be able to learn everything from the man pages and the documents on their website. They generally don't want to repeat themselves, and remove non-essential stuff. This is in stark contrast with both linux and gnu IMHO. This shows in the man pages, the commands, the ports and how they behave when they communicate. in the man pages, you shouldn't expect to get tutorials though, you are expected to know the domain of knowledge you are dealing with. starting point references are sometimes given in one of the linked man pages. I think you are also expected to search if something was answered or decided earlier. What BSDs doesn't seem to like is you telling them how they should run their projects. If you show signs of feeling entitled, things will probably not go well for you. You are welcome to learn and you will be given consistent material that doesn't change every weekend. You are also welcome to contribute as in solving your own problems and show it to others if they ask for help. But you should probably avoid the type of contributions that fall into the category of "telling them how to run their projects" or if the change is breaks the way things are done but is not tenfold better. If you ask something but is found to be lacking, eg. in respects mentioned, they will correct you like they would correct a computer program. This can hurt people's feelings but it is not mainly intended for that, they are trying to teach you they just do it like they would fix a program, by attempting to rewrite your parts they think are incorrect. At the same time they seem to want to force you to make a choice of either leaving (can't stand them) or staying (have what it takes to suck it up). If their community is not your thing you are expected to move on and leave them be. I didn't write this to scare you, it's just my observation. BSD community can be characterized by action (as measured in code that makes the BSD or its use more complete); they value the content and worth of the action above an emotional life that doesn't result in action.

>>17444 maybe I should have highlighted that you should just work through the material they give you, instead of relying on random third-party material. >>17444 https://www.unixguide.net/unixguide.shtml here is your cheetsheet

>>17661 I know that felt like a contradiction... because it probably is. I think this cheetsheet is useful, just don't live your life by it.

>>17444 usually you don't need ls* because dmesg prints a pretty good idea about your hardware that said lsblk is not on the cheatsheet and is approximately done via sysctl hw.disknames (plus disklabel and/or fdisk)

>>17444 > thread could be used to consolidate it, and I did https://archived.moe/g/thread/70219230 another try, might have interesting cases to read (it's on openbsd)

>>17444 one thing that happened to me is having no idea how to turn the wifi on. on linux I didn't like networkmanager and relied on wpa_supplicant and rfkill. turns out this was good to know for using freebsd, which is similar: https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/network-wireless.html (also I didn't notice that ifconfig was this integrated with wifi on linux) (it used to be done via netstart, but apparently not anymore): https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/what-is-the-difference-between-etc-rc-d-netif-and-etc-netstart.67651/

>>17661 >>17662 >>17663 >>17664 >>17665 One guy is really desperate to keep this thread alive

will manually changing version numbers in openbsd ports ruin my day?

>>17704 can't say, but if you try turns out pretty fast. I expecting bsd ports fresh with latest program. you just edit the patches you need. little bit work.