Using DesktopBSD

Using DesktopBSD

If you have been hesitant to try FreeBSD because you heard the install was difficult or were afraid you would have problems configuring the GUI or sound or networking, now is a great time to take the plunge. Both PC-BSD and DesktopBSD provide you with a fully configured, ready to use system so you can be up and running in under half an hour. Both include features to help you install software and keep up to date. I recommend you try both to see which one you prefer for yourself. Since both provide FreeBSD under the hood, all of the documentation at the FreeBSD website as well as the many tutorials and howtos on the internet will apply to your desktop operating system.

DesktopBSD 1.0 is available for download as either a CD or DVD ISO. The DesktopBSD Release Notes describe the extras that are available in the DVD version. If you’re downloading the ISO, take a look at the DesktopBSD screenshots while you are waiting. They will give you a good idea of what to expect during the installation.

I find the installation routine to be very self-explanatory, even for beginners. For example, the DesktopBSD Bootloader screen explains when it is appropriate to pick each option.

If you only want to have DesktopBSD on your disk, choose “Use entire disk” in the Disk partitioning screen. If you wish to run multiple operating systems, you need to have some empty disk space available. Assuming this is the case, click the “New Partition” button to specify how much of the empty space to use. Once you have selected either the entire disk or created a new partition, highlight it with your mouse and click the “Install into selected partition” button. Once you confirm your choice, the installer will start copying files to the hard disk.

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Comment by Oliver Herold on July 19, 2006

FreeBSD isn’t difficult to install for Freaks like you an me, but not for average joe or the one without any computer experience.
So it’s a need and if someone thinks it’s some distro, don’t think so, it’s a pure FreeBSD, preconfigured to give a helping hand at the beginning - nothing more, nothing less, no false promises and no hype. Amen ;)

Sorry for the advertising, but people tend to threat BSD like Linux, hype, the hunt for the latest software and so on. BSD is still water, but still waters run deep ;)

Greetings

Oliver Herold

P.S. nice blog :-)

Comment by Oliver Herold on July 20, 2006

Dependency hell in FreeBSD? Okay something can always break, but it’s easy to repairm if it ever happens.
So maybe bad luck or “shit happens”, but in common this saying “worst dependency hell than Linux” is a no-brainer, sorry but maybe you should read http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ports.html - it’s very important. Or in short, http://desktopbsd.net/wiki/doku.php?id=doc:ports_system

Short:

-at first update the portstree and if you are doing this via cvsup, update the database too (people are of course in dependency hell, if they forget about it!)
-secondly, read /usr/ports/UPDATING; if you don’t do this, you will regret it
-thirdly, read the handbook again and again

Comment by Jerry Hatrick on December 29, 2006

Yes FreeBSD really does have worse dependency hell than Linux. Sometimes upgrading a single port will require you to manually pkg_deinstall and portupgrade and portinstall many different dependencies if FreeBSD do something such as, get rid of the openldap22-server port because it has no more upstream support and 80 other ports depend on it. Which depend on the client, on the server, etc and you end up with a circular reference. Using the -rR option with portupdate doesn’t work and all you can do is manually go in there and deinstall and reinstall the ports in the order until it finally works.

Sorry, but FreeBSD ports is awesome for being flexible and amazing when it works but a total c*** when it does not.