OpenBSD: Getting X right

Hardware configuration in OpenBSD is better than I thought it would be. My optimism largely stems from the fact that OpenBSD boots at all on this computer, which won’t even get you to a boot prompt in NetBSD, FreeBSD, any variety of Red Hat past version 3, PCLinuxOS … it’s a long list.

Another good thing about the way OpenBSD installs is that while it begins in a minimal configuration, you do have the choice of running with or without X. I chose to install everything, which included X and the Fvwm window manger. While the 15-inch CRT monitor and video chip I have on this converted Maxspeed Maxterm thin client (with VIA C3 Samuel processor) can do 16-bit color and 1024 x 768 resolution, X autoconfigured at 800 x 600.

I tried “forcing” 1024 x768 and 16-bit color, but it kept reverting to 800 x 600. I got the same resolution on the OliveBSD live CD based on OpenBSD. I didn’t necessarily need to see another version of OpenBSD, but since I had one — Anonym.OS — that autoconfigured at 1024 x 768 and looked great in Fluxbox, I loaded it and looked at the xorg.conf.

What it had that my OpenBSD install didn’t was specified values for HorizSync and VertRefresh.

I entered those values:

Section “Monitor”
Identifier “Monitor0”
VendorName “Monitor Vendor”
ModelName “Monitor Model”
HorizSync 31.5 – 48.5
VertRefresh 50.0 – 90.0
EndSection

Then I restarted X and had 1024 x 768 resolution.

But … after only a few minutes, X crashed. I could ctrl-alt-backspace out of it and start X again, but it kept happening.

I had already turned on “screen blanking” in the console, so I turned it off. Still X crashed.

Then I rebooted and loaded Puppy Linux 3.01. In Puppy, you generally have to choose your color depth and monitor resolution, and I did so, started the system and looked at xorg.conf.

The HorizSync values were the same, but the VertRefresh was different. I made the following modification to OpenBSD’s xorg.conf, and now X has been running continuously for over 12 hours:

Section “Monitor”
Identifier “Monitor0”
VendorName “Monitor Vendor”
ModelName “Monitor Model”
HorizSync 31.5 – 48.5
VertRefresh 56.0 – 72.0
EndSection

Again, it pays to know what your monitor and video card is capable of before you start hacking into xorg.conf. It’s always a good idea to copy the original and each configuration that’s in any way promising so you won’t lose it.

OpenBSD: Getting X right

Hardware configuration in OpenBSD is better than I thought it would be. My optimism largely stems from the fact that OpenBSD boots at all on this computer, which won’t even get you to a boot prompt in NetBSD, FreeBSD, any variety of Red Hat past version 3, PCLinuxOS … it’s a long list.

Another good thing about the way OpenBSD installs is that while it begins in a minimal configuration, you do have the choice of running with or without X. I chose to install everything, which included X and the Fvwm window manger. While the 15-inch CRT monitor and video chip I have on this converted Maxspeed Maxterm thin client (with VIA C3 Samuel processor) can do 16-bit color and 1024 x 768 resolution, X autoconfigured at 800 x 600.

I tried “forcing” 1024 x768 and 16-bit color, but it kept reverting to 800 x 600. I got the same resolution on the OliveBSD live CD based on OpenBSD. I didn’t necessarily need to see another version of OpenBSD, but since I had one — Anonym.OS — that autoconfigured at 1024 x 768 and looked great in Fluxbox, I loaded it and looked at the xorg.conf.

What it had that my OpenBSD install didn’t was specified values for HorizSync and VertRefresh.

I entered those values:

Section “Monitor”
Identifier “Monitor0”
VendorName “Monitor Vendor”
ModelName “Monitor Model”
HorizSync 31.5 – 48.5
VertRefresh 50.0 – 90.0
EndSection

Then I restarted X and had 1024 x 768 resolution.

But … after only a few minutes, X crashed. I could ctrl-alt-backspace out of it and start X again, but it kept happening.

I had already turned on “screen blanking” in the console, so I turned it off. Still X crashed.

Then I rebooted and loaded Puppy Linux 3.01. In Puppy, you generally have to choose your color depth and monitor resolution, and I did so, started the system and looked at xorg.conf.

The HorizSync values were the same, but the VertRefresh was different. I made the following modification to OpenBSD’s xorg.conf, and now X has been running continuously for over 12 hours:

Section “Monitor”
Identifier “Monitor0”
VendorName “Monitor Vendor”
ModelName “Monitor Model”
HorizSync 31.5 – 48.5
VertRefresh 56.0 – 72.0
EndSection

Again, it pays to know what your monitor and video card is capable of before you start hacking into xorg.conf. It’s always a good idea to copy the original and each configuration that’s in any way promising so you won’t lose it.

I install OpenBSD in anticipation of this weekend’s SCALE 6X show

I’ve tried OpenBSD before, and I always said I’d try it again.

In the interim, I was able to try OpenBSD in a desktop configuration with the OliveBSD live CD, and that made me want to try a hard-drive installation of OpenBSD, which not coincidentally is the only one of the three major BSD projects (which include NetBSD and FreeBSD) to boot on my test machine — a converted Maxspeed Maxterm thin client with a VIA C3 Samuel CPU.

First of all, OpenBSD has excellent online documentation, and since I have two computers right next to each other, I was able to use my Windows box to follow along as I installed OpenBSD on the converted thin client.

As was the case the last time I installed it, OpenBSD went on the box without a hitch. I created a user account, added it to the wheel group, which gave me sudo privileges, and I added the path to an FTP site for the precompiled packages to my .profile file. That enabled me to begin adding applications.

If you select all packages during the install OpenBSD begins its life on your computer with enough to get you going. You do get the X Window system along with the Fvwm window manager — which I’m going to stick with for at least awhile this time. You also get the Lynx text-only Web browser, and things like xterm and vi (of course).

This time, since I figured out how to set the path to my local FTP mirror, I was able to begin turning my OpenBSD box into a usable desktop system. As I might’ve said above, I’m trying to be way more methodical this time about how I proceed. So far, everything’s working perfectly.

I’ve added the following applications:

Dillo (lightweight X Web browser)
Geany (GUI text editor)
Firefox
Nano (console editor)
MC (Midnight Commander console file manager)
Rox (the ROX-filer GUI file manager)
Abiword (also added aspell, but Abiword and aspell aren’t working together as yet)
Xscreensaver (which tended to freeze X, so I removed it)

That’s all I’ve added for now.

What I’m going to do next:

— Attempt to configure X for my 1024 x 768 CRT monitor (Done 2/6/08 with help from the Anonym.OS live CD … and a little help from Puppy Linux after X began crashing)
— Add applications to the Fvwm menus (I think Fvwm uses the Twm configuration file, and I’ve already located it) (Still working on it … adding to the Twm configuration file didn’t work, and I can’t find the Fvwm configuration file)

A big part of this is the SCALE 6X convention this weekend in Los Angeles. All three of the major BSD projects will have booths at the show, and I wanted to have a successful BSD install under my belt, so to speak, before I hit the floor (literally and figuratively).

An aside: If I had a chance in hell of figuring out ACPI and my Gateway laptop’s CPU fan, I would’ve installed OpenBSD on it — and I still might do that on my older Compaq laptop — but for now I’m sticking with the desktop and wired Ethernet.

Another thing that prompted me to do the install was finding Jem Matzan’s Web page. There’s a whole lot of good stuff to read there on Linux and BSD, and Jem is the author of two PDF-only books, one on FreeBSD, the other on OpenBSD. I definitely plan to get the latter one.

Michael Lukas has a new FreeBSD book out, but his OpenBSD book is out of print, though it is available as a PDF, which I think I’m going to spring for. I’ve seen Lukas’ new FreeBSD book, and he’s both very good as a technician and as a writer. I highly recommend anything he’s written.

Another inspiration in this has been Denny White, a desktop OpenBSD user with a whole lot of knowledge — and a willingness to share it.

I’ve also learned that it’s relatively easy to create your own BSD live CD — something I just might do in the future.

But the main reason I wanted to install, configure and use OpenBSD was that it’s different — and fun.

And again, if you’re anywhere in Southern California, you are going to SCALE 6X, aren’t you?

Review: OliveBSD turns OpenBSD into very usable live CD

Image of OliveBSD from the project’s Web site.

The blogroll at Denny’s blog — Denny being committed to running OpenBSD as a full desktop operating system — continues to point me toward interesting spins on the various flavors of BSD. Since OpenBSD is the only one of the three major BSD systems (which include NetBSD and FreeBSD) to run on my VIA C3 Samuel-based test box, I wanted to try one of the projects to which Denny linked right away. I’ve spent quite a bit of time trying to run the three main BSD projects and their various offshoots — more trying than doing, actually, but I always want to try what’s new. And since I have not a prayer of managing my laptop’s noisy CPU fan in any BSD (I can do it in Linux), I pretty much want to use my converted Maxspeed Maxterm thin client. I have actually done a successful OpenBSD 4.2 install on this box in the recent past, but the idea of going from a minimal X install to a fully usable desktop was more than I felt I could do. I’m hopeful that O’Reilly’s recent PDF book on OpenBSD will be of help in this regard, but I’m loathe at the moment to part with the $9.95 for the book without a little a) proof that it will work or b) encouragement that OpenBSD is something I should pursue.

Anyhow, back to the matter at hand. OliveBSD — a live CD based on OpenBSD 3.8 — was created by France’s Gabriel Paderni in February 2006, and it seems that it has only had this one release. It does have a Distrowatch page, which confirms the 2/18/06 release date, and the only review of the project (I know BSD people hate using the word “distro” to refer to their systems, so I will substitute “project” throughout) was a “first looks” evaluation in Distrowatch on Feb. 20, 2006.

I’m happy to say that my experience with OliveBSD was much more positive than that of the Distrowatch reviewer. I downloaded the ISO, burned a CD on my XP box with ISO Recorder and then started booting the Maxspeed box. I got a few error messages about disk sectors (?), but the CD continued to boot. It tried to get an IP via DHCP, but since I have a static IP in the office, that was predictably unsuccessful. Before I forget to say it, it took a long time for the live CD to boot. But when it did, I had a working IceWM desktop, albeit at 640 x 480 resolution (this box and monitor can do 1024 x 768). I eventually tried to reconfigure X with the command xorgconfig at a prompt, but I didn’t get very far. I probably need to get the xorg.conf file from one of my “successful” Linux installs (or even OpenBSD, should I try it again) and work from there.

But I had X, so the next task was configuring my static IP. In OpenBSD, this was part of the installation, and it worked great then. Luckily there’s a script for it under the menu in OliveBSD. The script worked, I set my static IP, and I had networking. I started Firefox. It took awhile (just about every action results in the CD being accessed, but it’s nothing I didn’t expect). But Firefox did open — the home page is the French rendition of Google. That gave me a bit of a laugh, but I was able to open other pages in Firefox (version 1.0.6) with no trouble.

Another thing, which the Distrowatch review also noted. In OliveBSD, you are logged in as root. That’s a funny choice for a security-conscious project like OpenBSD, but it seems to work, so I won’t complain any more.

Generally, live CDs for BSD have fewer apps than their Linux counterparts — I don’t think they have the same compression (or any at all, but don’t quote me), but the application mix in OliveBSD is fairly good. As I already mentioned, the window manager is IceWM. The desktop isn’t as “snappy” as I wanted, but a lot of that was due to live CD issues. Since the hard drive connected to the machine is formatted for Linux, even if OliveBSD was able to access a BSD swap file, I don’t have one, so it was working entirely in RAM. And running top in a terminal, I learned that OliveBSD was only recognizing 143 MB of my 256 MB of RAM. That might have an effect on performance.

Back to the apps. Besides Firefox for Web browsing, there’s Thunderbird for mail, the GIMP for image processing, SciTE for text editing, Xmms for audio playback, Gaim for text messaging, ghostview and Xpdf, Axyftp, the Abs spreadsheet, the TightVNC viewer, CD-Rchive and a few more. There’s enough for me to get my work done, and that’s pretty much all I ask. Again, I really appreciate the Network Card Configuration script in the main menu — for those of us with static IPs, it’s nice to get a leg up in that regard, especially for those unfamiliar with OpenBSD (and if you’re running OliveBSD, chances are you are just dipping your toe in the BSD pond). I almost forgot to mention that OliveBSD uses one of my favorite file managers, the ROX-filer. ROX is quick, intuitive and powerful, and it’s a great fit for OliveBSD.

Like I said, the fact that OpenBSD runs at all on this box seems to be a minor miracle (and it raises my esteem for the project considerably). Ditto for OliveBSD, which I’d love to see updated (are you listening, Gabriel?).

Meanwhile, I just learned that Anonym.OS is also based on OpenBSD. Created by someone who goes by the name dr.kaos, Anonym.OS is designed to allow users to search the Internet with a higher degree of privacy than afforded by conventional systems.

I burned a CD of this back in February of last year, but I never even tried to boot it. That’s my next mission, which I have decided to accept. And yes, I am ready for the tape to destruct in five seconds … four, three, two, one … (cue Lalo Schifrin …)