OpenBSD 4.0 review

Valour · #1 11-01-2006, 01:34 AM

In an era when the next edition of Microsoft Windows is pushed back more than a year, and popular GNU/Linux distributions are almost expected to have their release dates delayed by weeks or months, it's nice to know that at least one operating system releases on schedule without all kinds of showstopping bugs and problems. OpenBSD 4.0 was released on November 1 with its usual mix of new hardware support and enhanced operating system features. Read on for the full report.

OpenBSD 4.0 review

J.F. · #2 11-01-2006, 11:58 AM

Wow, sounds pretty neat. I should try that on my laptop - it has eveyrthing else.

Valour · #3 11-01-2006, 11:59 AM

I run it on my laptop full time, and within the next several months I will probably be moving the server to OpenBSD as well. It's easier to manage and has less problems with updating than Gentoo does.

J.F. · #4 11-01-2006, 04:09 PM

Well, I use the linux on the lappy for AROS development. Maybe I can use OpenBSD instead. AROS already has FreeBSD hosted support, maybe OpenBSD could be added to the list as well. I'll look into that. The laptop isn't about everyday useage, it's a development platform aimed mostly at AROS. I pretty much experiment to my hearts content, running anything and everything on it.

Valour · #5 11-01-2006, 04:24 PM

OpenBSD has a compatibility layer for FreeBSD and Linux binaries, plus a dummy library package that fools binaries into thinking they're in a native FreeBSD or Linux environment, so if FreeBSD is supported, you should be able to get OpenBSD to work too. If the "Using OpenBSD 4.0" article isn't enough to get you going, I am right now working on The OpenBSD Crash Course for O'Reilly. I expect to have it finished by Monday, and published within a few weeks after that.

J.F. · #6 11-01-2006, 10:37 PM

I saw that on the FreeBSD and linux compatibility. I'll probably try running the FreeBSD hosted version after installing OpenBSD just to see how that works. I imagine it probably will work fine. The main thing it relies on is XWindows. Is that tough to set up in OpenBSD?

Valour · #7 11-02-2006, 12:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by J.F.

I saw that on the FreeBSD and linux compatibility. I'll probably try running the FreeBSD hosted version after installing OpenBSD just to see how that works. I imagine it probably will work fine. The main thing it relies on is XWindows. Is that tough to set up in OpenBSD?

Easier than it is on FreeBSD, I'd say. You can install X.org 6.9 during the installation process. Then all you have to do is configure it:

X -configure

And tweak the settings in /etc/X11/xorg.conf if necessary.

jnash2001 · #8 11-02-2006, 09:15 AM

I was interested in those scripts that you use to configure your wireless.
Could you share it?

jarij · #9 11-02-2006, 03:22 PM

Hi, I just installed openbsd 4.0 to my old laptop (dell c400), it works great, apm, wireless and everything, except keyboard encoding in ksh. I selected swedish encoding in installation, but it works only in csh, not in ksh? and only characters that doesn't work are a and o with "dots".

I tried changing keyboard encoding with wsconsctl, it doesnt't help. Anyone have a idea what to do?

Thanks,
Jari

Valour · #10 11-02-2006, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jarij

Hi, I just installed openbsd 4.0 to my old laptop (dell c400), it works great, apm, wireless and everything, except keyboard encoding in ksh. I selected swedish encoding in installation, but it works only in csh, not in ksh? and only characters that doesn't work are a and o with "dots" (

The CSH config file is ~/.cshrc, and the KSH config file is ~/.profile

I suspect that your keyboard changes were made to one file, but not the other. In general, system variables and settings are perfectly interchangeable between both files, so you should be able to copy over the config.

Another possibility is /etc/wsconsctl.conf -- check to see if your keyboard encoding is set there, and if it is, make sure it is not commented out with a #.