Recently in Anonym.OS Category

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.

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 ...)