Barry McCormick

My List of Favorite Software for FreeBSD Desktop

Tue, 08 Apr 2025 21:42:27 -0700

Below is a list of my favorite desktop software to install on FreeBSD. The list is in no particular order other than as I thought of them and look at my rofi menu to see what was installed.

Terminator Terminal Emulator
Strawberry Music Player
Signal Desktop
Telegram Desktop
Hexchat IRC client
PulseAudio System Tray
Prism Launcher
Firefox
Chromium
Thunderbird Mail Client
Xfburn
Cheese
Gnu Image Manipulation Program (GIMP)
Libre Office Suite
VLC
Ultimaker Cura
Gnome Screenshot
OBS Studio
Tiger VNC
FreeCAD
Vim
VS Code
grip

Below is my thoughts on each of the pieces of software I listed above. Obviously they are all open source free software or I wouldn't use them. Don't mind paying for software at a company and if I was using it in production, or development. But for my home computer system I use all opensource software.

Terminator Terminal Emulator
Everyone that uses Linux or FreeBSD needs a good terminal emulator. There are a ton out there but someone, and I have no idea who, showed me Terminator, or I read it on some blog or article. Either way, I am totally addicted to Terminator as my terminal emulator. What makes it good? The ability to split your window into multiple terminals all withen the same panel. As it sits now I have two terminals open right now, the one I am typing with vim this article, the other one has my hugo running building the website so I can get immediate feedback on how this looks. Once you get used to splitting the window into different terminals, there is no way I can go back and not use it.
Strawberry Music Player
Anyone who knows me knows I am a music junkie. I have well over a 1000 cds of music and all of them are ripped onto my computer in flac format. I have used lots of music players over the years, Exaile, Rhythmbox, XMMS, etc. My current favorite is a branch of the Clementine Music Player called Strawberry. It is a modern looking player with radio stations, and all the features you would expect, it's own equalizer, ability to make smart playlists, etc. Even on FreeBSD on my i3 desktop it has a tray icon of a little strawberry that you can hover over it and it will tell you the currently playing song. There are a ton of music players out there, some just terminal programs like mp123, flac123, etc. Give Strawberry a try you might like it.
Signal Desktop
I use Signal to communicate with several people over a secure channel. Nothing really of any importance being said, but I use signal on my phone and communicate with several people with it. I find the desktop app version for FreeBSD to be great so I can type with a keyboard without touching my phone. Quick and easy.
Telegram Desktop
We use Telegram for BastilleBSD so I use this to keep up with the channel and any requests or bugs people report there.
Hexchat IRC Client
OK, so I am a dinosaur. I am good with that. I still use IRC a lot. Great platform for tech support on open source products. I started my IRC usage on windows with mIRC YEARS ago. Hexchat is the latest version of xchat and has all the features you want in an irc client. And it is available on every platform out there including the mac and on windows. Obviously, on all linux distros also.
PulseAudio System Tray
As I said above, I am a music junkie. I run a Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 on my desktop to drive a pair of studio monitors with a bass unit. If you look at all the audio devices my laptop shows to FreeBSD, it is kind of ridiculous. The built in speakers of the laptop with the headphone out. My Scarlett which has two microphone jacks on it, plus 4 outputs. My Thinkpad docking station has an audio device in it. My camera has a microphone in it. My laptop has a microphone in it. ETC. So, if you plug or unplug something, or change programs sometimes the output or input device gets changed. Stepping in to fix this problem is the PulseAudio system tray. A little system tray that allows you to on the fly change the output or input to any application. Handy when you are trying to do conference calls on zoom or teams or whatever. I find it a must have for my setup.
Prism Launcher
Who says you can't game on FreeBSD??? Not me. Prism Launcher allows you to play minecraft on FreeBSD. It allows you to have multiple clients set up, multiple versions of minecraft etc. So you can set up one icon for every server you play that has the right mods on it. Allows me to play minecraft with my kids on our heavily modded server I run for us to play on.
Firefox
You need a browser and Firefox is one of the two I always install. As things change sometimes I have found that some things only work well in one browser. I usually use Firefox as my go to browser and only use others if there is an issue.
Chromium
Not a huge fan of Google as a company, but the Chromium branch of the Chrome Browser helps when something won't authenticate or work right in Firefox. Between Chromium and Firefox I have yet to find something that one or the other won't work with correctly. For example, had a job interview the other day and Teams would not work in firefox and allow the camera to work. Moved over to Chromium and it worked flawlessly.
Thunderbird Mail Client
A mail client is a must. I find Thunderbird the most useful. It allows me to have multiple email addresses open in their own inbox and I can keep up with emails from all the email addresses I use. I know it sounds weird, but I have 4 email addresses that I monitor. A good mail client in an absolute have to have for me.
Xfburn
Xfburn is not fancy, not the coolest fanciest interface, not the flashiest, but I find it a tank. It simply works well. Burns images to cd/dvd flawlessly. Not as useful as it once was, but occasionally I want something on a CD or DVD to install to a system that doesn't like thumb drives.
Cheese
Cheese is simply a camera app that allows you to use your webcam to snap a picture. Clean and simple. No real explanation needed.
Gnu Image Manipulation Program (Gimp)
Gimp is the pinacle of picture editing software in the open source world. It has features that rival the stuff from Adobe. I can use maybe 2% of its features. But when I need to crop or edit a pic that is my go to.
LibreOffice Suite
Everyone needs an office suite with a text editor, spreadsheet, presentation app, and all the other bells an whistles that come in all office suites. LibreOffice fits the bill and if you install all of it you get draw and other programs that make it a full featured package.
VLC
VLC is a video player. It will play most video formats.
Ultimaker Cura
If you have a 3d printer then Cura from Ultimaker allows you to slice your models and create the files from cad drawings to send to your 3d printer. Cura works well on FreeBSD where some of the others will not work right.
Gnome Screenshot
Gnome Screenshot simply allows you to either take a shot of your entire screen, an area or one application. Great for capturing pictures for howtos or blogs like this.
OBS Studio
OBS Studio is a full featured podcasting/recording studio package. Allows you to capture cameras, app windows, anything you can think of it can do. I use it for podcasting and for creating video how tos.
TigerVNC
If you need to connect to a vm or server using VNC, then TigerVNC is an excellent choice on FreeBSD.
FreeCAD
If you need to edit or create cad files and need a full featured CAD package, then FreeCAD is the way to go on FreeBSD or Linux.
Vim
I have blogged enough about Vim (see other posts) but it is a necessity to upgrade the default vi that comes with FreeBSD to Vim.
VS Code
Microsoft's Visual Studio Code is not just for Windows anymore. They released the souce code and made it an open source product/project now. It has been ported to FreeBSD along with every other O/S out there.
grip
Another music junkie item is grip. It rips cds into either flac or mp3 or ogg depending on your personal tastes. Rips the entire cd and allows you to set up the naming convention for your files to be any way you want so you end up with an organized folder set of your music.

So as you see there is a long list of software that I view as necessities for my desktop. Hopefully in all of this you find one that you like and add to your personal list of applications. Happy computing.

Using Bastille Jail as Mailserver

Sat, 29 Mar 2025 00:30:49 -0700

There once was a boy and he had a raspberry pi...... oh wait... I had a raspberry pi 3 laying around unused. So I decided to run all my websites and a mail server on it. That may sound crazy but the pi has more computing power than some of the servers we used in the late 90s to do the same thing. Mail and websites do not take a top of the line server to function. This is about the mail server portion of this. I blogged about the website setup with jails in another post.

Setting up a mail server is not as easy as it sounds. There are a lot of moving parts to get to work. The guy who wrote Sendmail, the original mail program, said email is not simple. He was pretty spot on. BUT, it is an easily attainable task to do. The steps are:

install FreeBSD
install Postfix
configure your domain
set up your dns records for your domain
test receiving email
configure outgoing mail
send a test email out

I am not going to go through installing FreeBSD. I assume if you are looking to set up a mail server you are well past the point of me holding your hand to install FreeBSD. Besides, there are tons of excellent guides out there on installing FreeBSD. The second step is to install Postfix with the following command as root:

 
	# pkg install -y portmaster acme.sh postfix dovecot dovecot-pigeonhole \
  	mariadb106-server mariadb106-client nginx php82 php82-extensions \
  	rspamd redis roundcube-php82 postfixadmin-php82 clamav cmake-core \
  	devel/bison devel/gettext-tools devel/libtextstyle devel/gmake devel/m4 \
  	print/texinfo converters/p5-Text-Unidecode devel/p5-Locale-libintl \
  	misc/help2man devel/p5-Locale-gettext textproc/p5-Unicode-EastAsianWidth \
  	devel/ninja devel/pkgconf databases/db18 devel/autoconf \
  	devel/autoconf-switch devel/automake devel/re2c textproc/py-docutils \
  	devel/py-setuptools@py311 graphics/php82-gd graphics/jpeg-turbo \
  	devel/nasm graphics/png graphics/tiff archivers/libdeflate \
 	graphics/jbigkit graphics/webp graphics/giflib print/freetype2 \
  	archivers/brotli x11-fonts/fontconfig devel/gperf devel/meson \
  	devel/py-build@py311 devel/py-flit-core@py311 devel/py-installer@py311 \
  	devel/py-packaging@py311 devel/py-pyproject-hooks@py311 \
  	textproc/py-tomli@py311 devel/py-wheel@py311 textproc/php82-pspell \
 	textproc/aspell ports-mgmt/portconfig textproc/clucene devel/bsddialog

Once this is done I would suggest you go to www.purplehat.org and follow his guide to the LETTER. Do not do as I did and use certbot instead of the acme scripts as it will cause problems with cert permissions. Once you have done this you need to move on to configuring your dns. I bought my domains from GoDaddy.com, not an ad for them, that is just who I used years ago and have never moved them anywhere else. I use their domain servers for my domains. Go to the following link to get a simple howto on doing dns:
configuring-dns-for-email-a-quck-beginners-guide
Once you have completed all these steps log into your roundcube email and go to gmail or whereever else you have an email account and email yourself on your new account. That should send you an email. That is the easy part. Now on to sending email out from your domain.

If you are on a business account or an Internet provider that will allow you to send out email on port 25, your email is easy. If you are on a service like TDS that blocks email servers from sending email to minimize spam, you got more work to do. I am still hunting for the perfect solution for this. I am testing a couple of providers to find a free solution. More to come once I find a solution.

Using Bastille and Jails as Websites

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 08:38:36 -0700

If you run multiple websites, then running each one in a jail is an easy way to isolate the configs and the websites from each other. Other than running a proxy server, which we will show you how to set up, there is little to no complicated setups. First you need a FreeBSD server set up. Once the FreeBSD server is running then you need to install bastille to manage your jails. Below is the steps to install and configure bastille:

YubiKey on FreeBSD

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 12:50:37 -0700

Yubikeys are used for 2 factor authentication. But you probably already knew that if you are bothering to read this post. They can be quite handy and get you away from the authenticator app on your phone. Let us cut to the chase on these devices on FreeBSD. First we need to install some packages to get things working then enable some services. First install the following packages:

yubikey-manager
yubikey-personalization-gui
yubioath-desktop
pcsc-lite
pcsc-tools

Next we need to enable the pcsc service to allow the system to talk to the yubikey. Add the following lines to your /etc/rc.conf file:

# yubikey driver
pcscd_enable="YES"

One weird thing with the yubikey on FreeBSD. If I run ykman list as my normal user I get:

$ykman list
WARNING: PC/SC not available. Smart card (CCID) protocols will not function.
ERROR: Unable to list devices for connection
YubiKey 5 NFC (5.4.3) [OTP+FIDO+CCID] Serial: 25330243

If I run the command as root I get:

#ykman list
YubiKey 5 NFC (5.4.3) [OTP+FIDO+CCID] Serial: 25330243

The way to fix this is to setup the devfs.conf file to allow any user to access the key. Now it weirdly still works without this step but who likes errors? No one. Add the following line to the bottom of your /etc/devfs.conf file:

perm /dev/usbhid1 0666

A good writeup of how to configure all the various services with your yubikey can be found at:
Yubikey setup on FreeBSD

Minecraft Server on FreeBSD

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 09:01:39 -0700

How to Run a Minecraft Server on FreeBSD

FreeBSD has always been a solid server platform. Minecraft server is nothing more than a Java application. Minecraft was written in Java. That is why Minecraft has been ported to so many platforms, such as Xbox, PC, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD, etc. Java runs on almost every platform out there, one of it's strong points.

One thing you have to ask yourself is do you want vanilla minecraft or a heavily modded one. I have a daughter who really wanted a heavily modded minecraft. She wanted the one from Forge called Plexiglass Mountain. It has 270 mods on it, so a lot of it is not stock minecraft. So I had to download the Forge Plexiglass Mountain server from Forge. You can download tons of different modded servers. All of them you download one jar file and that is what you will set up to run your server. Do your research to determine which one you want. BUT there are other things to consider. You can run multiple servers, or you can always change the server out if you decide you don't like it. None of this is permenant and can't be changed.

X Window Managers

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 15:11:56 -0800

All the Window Managers!!!!

There are almost too many window managers. As with all things holy, starting an arguement over what window manager is best is another discussion like politics or religion. Not going to go well.
The best window manager is one that works the way you think. For me, that is tiling window managers like i3wm or xmonad. For others it is KDE that is a lot more like how microsoft windows works. Then there are all kinds of variants out there. Some of the more prevelent ones are:

9wm
AfterStep
Awesome
Blackbox
Bspwm
Cinnamon
Compiz
CTWM
Desktop Window Manager
dwm
Enlightenment
evilwm
Fluxbox
FVWM
Gnome
i3
IceWM
Ion
JWM
Kwin (KDE)
Matchbox
Mate
Metacity
Openbox
PekWM
PlayWM
Qtile
Ragnar
Ratpoison
Sawfish
StumpWM
Sway
Twm
Window Maker
Wingo
Wmii
Worm
XFCE
Xfwm
Xmonad

And I am sure there are 20 or so others out there I didn't find in my searching. Why so many? Like all things geeky, every geek thinks they have a better way. I am going to talk about some of the main ones that have large user bases. If you find one you like you can always play with others with similar layouts. You can always have multiple window managers installed at the same time and choose the one you want when you boot. Now to the comparisons.

AfterStep

AfterStep is a nostalgic type window manager. Not outdated, and a viable desktop. But it was designed for the look and feel of the NeXtStep computer operating system. Their website is AfterStep Website

Wireless on FreeBSD 14.2

Tue, 18 Mar 2025 15:12:06 -0800

One of the biggest complaints people have with the BSD community is a lack of wireless drivers and the lack of a full featured wireless stack. Part of this has to do with manufacturers release drivers for Linux for their products, but very rarely do you ever see a *BSD driver. And, most hardware is not open source so the specs to write a driver can be hard to come by. But you can run wireless on a freebsd laptop. Here is the steps to get it to work and how I configured it on my Lenovo Thinkpad laptop.

Office Chairs

Tue, 12 Nov 2024 15:12:14 -0800

Office Chairs

We spend 12 or even more hours a day in our office chairs. Now, different medicial doctors say that our sedentary life is killing us. Sitting is killing us.

Well, at least do your back and hips a favor. If you work from home a 30 dollar IKEA or WalMart chair is completely insane. Spend the money to get a good comfortable chair that FITS YOUR BUTT. Go to office stores and test drive as many chairs as you can find. See what feels good. Once you pick a chair then we can talk upgrades.

Rofi

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 15:03:54 -0800

Rofi is a replacement for dmenu on i3 and other window managers. It allows you to have a visually more appealing launcher with more features than dmenu. Rofi has themes and a theme editor to allow you to alter the way it looks.

Installing rofi is very easy on any system.

FreeBSD
# package install rofi

Linux Systems
# apt install rofi
or
# dnf install rofi

One nice feature with rofi is when you install it you get the rofi-theme-selector. Once you run it you can choose from many different themes for rofi. I use Adapta, which is kind of a tan muted color scheme. There are 32 themes to choose from. One is bound to blend in with your color scheme on your desktop and tickle your fancy. Or you can go rouge and create your own. Below is a camera pic of my rofi. Could not get a pure screenshot of it as rofi disappears any time you hit another button or click anywhere. Same with the theme selector.

Office Desks

Sat, 18 Nov 2023 15:12:14 -0800

Desks

A desk is a weird thing to talk about. It is simply a huge wood or glass or metal surface on some legs to sit at and work. They are all the same…..WELL, not so fast!

It is said that sitting all day is bad on your health so all the rage is standing desks. They cost a bloody fortune if you go to an office supply. You can spend 400 dollars for a gadget to sit ON your desk to allow you to stand up to work. IMHO very ridiculous.

Office Space (not the show)

Sat, 18 Nov 2023 15:12:14 -0800

OfficeSpace · Barry McCormick

Office Space

When the pandemic hit and people unlike me who had never worked remotely were in for a shock and had issues adapting to working from home. A few simple rules to follow when setting up a home workspace whether you are hybrid or full time remote.

pick a dedicated room/space. Don’t think the dining room table is a good workspace. For lots of reasons.
Pick somewhere with a door you can close.
Train your kids to know that when you are in that work area you are off limits. This one is hard with little kids.
Don’t eat in the work area. Get out of the room and go to the dining room/kitchen to eat and take a break.
In other posts I talk about mice, keyboards, chairs, desks, etc.

3d printing

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 15:12:14 -0800

My experiences 3D Printing

A few years ago I became very interested in 3D printing. It was about the time that the cost of an entry level printer because very feasible. I bought myself an Ender3 whih is the small entry level one from Creality. Now you can pick this choice apart, list all the cons for it, etc. But, it was a very good first learning experience for me.

Conky on i3wm Desktop

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 15:12:14 -0800

Configure Conky and feh on i3 Desktop

As I have mentioned on other posts and and shown the pic of my desktop, there are a couple of programs I need to explain how to configure. One is the Conky setup, with the i3wm command list on the desktop transparently, and the second is the feh that i use to set up the wallpaper on the desktop.

Now I will be the first to admit, I am not a fanatic about wallpapers. Most time I have my apps covering the entire screen, so I don't see the wallpaper a lot. But, just to make my desktop look nice, and to give a background to the conky setup, I put a wallpaper on mine. The program I use do to this is called feh. It is a small program to manage wallpapers, and i3 will use it if it is installed. I have a pretty simple setup, in that I created a directory in my home folder named backgrounds. In that directory I put whatever file I want to be the background. If I don't want it to rotate through each picture in that directory with each reboot, I only put one file in there. If I put 20 files it would rotate through each picture changing with each boot. Below is the config line that you put in your profile to make this work, obviously after installing feh.

Containers

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 15:12:14 -0800

Containers are the bomb.

If you don't believe me look at how many jobs and tech articles on any job site or any geek/tech site. The number of jobs asking for Docker or Kubernetes(K8s) experience are un-ending. So first I want to talk about the history of "containers." Below is a list of the dates that the various containerization systems were released.

Timeline of the History of Containers

#################################################################################
**CHROOT** - In 1979 in the Version 7 of Unix chroot was invented. (chroot = root and their children) and worked by restricting access to a specified directory. It gave basically an isolated environment to run tasks.

Dual Booting Linux and FreeBSD

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 15:12:14 -0800

Dual Boot Linux and FreeBSD using UEFI Boot Mode

I personally need both Linux and FreeBSD to be available to me. Linux for things like Udemy.com for training, and FreeBSD for working on my orange pi zero setups. Leaves me in an intersting position. I don't really like running either in a vm on my laptop, prefer native. Don't need both running at the same time. So how did I solve this?

FreeBSD Desktop

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 15:12:14 -0800

FreeBSD Desktop Setup with Nvidia card

FreeBSD is not just for servers anymore. I have been running FreeBSD as a desktop for over 10 years. This article is about how to set up FreeBSD as a desktop. Assumption is that you have followed one of the many many how to install FreeBSD and have it installed and configured so you can log in as root.

Install packages
You have to install some packages in order to run xwindows on your machine. Here is the list of the packages that I install when I am doing this:
- xorg -- the base packages for running xorg. Needed by all window managers.
- vim -- update to vi that I can't live without
- i3 -- my window manager of choice (gnome, kde, mate, cinnamon, windowmaker, xmonad, dwm are some alternatives)
- lightdm -- my display manager of choice (gdm, xdm, slim, etc are alternatives)
- lightdm-gtk-greeter -- required for lightdm to work
- nvidia-server-470 -- The specific version driver for my card. If you don't get a login when the setup is done try other versions. My card will not run on the latest version, 525.
- nvidia-settings -- program to allow you to tweak resolutions and multiscreen layouts.
configure /boot/loader.conf
For the nvidia driver to run you have to put the following line in your /boot/loader.conf file:

nvidia-modeset_load="YES" once this is in reboot and once you reboot look with kldstatus and make sure nvidia is in the list.
configure /etc/rc.conf
Once the nvidia driver is loaded now we tell FBSD to turn on xwindows et al. Here are the minimum lines you need:

hald_enable="YES"
dbus_enable="YES"
lightdm_enable="YES"
linux_enable="YES"

Once this is fixed reboot your computer. You should see a graphical login for lightdm. If not try a different version of nvidia driver. If you get a blank screen with nothing, then lightdm-gtc-greeter is not installed. Hopefully this shows how quickly you can easily set up FBSD as a desktop.

FreeBSD Internet Resources

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 15:12:14 -0800

Various Resources for FreeBSD from around the Internet

#######################################################################################

Official FreeBSD website with tons of resources. Go here first!!!
https://freebsd.org

#######################################################################################

Official FreeBSD Docs obviously check here first!!!
https://docs.freebsd.org/

#######################################################################################

History of JAILS Interesting read on the history of FreeBSD jails.
http://phk.freebsd.dk/sagas/jailsbr

#######################################################################################

BastilleBSD is a project I have worked on. It is THE jail management system for FreeBSD designed by my good friend Christer Edwards.There are links on the website to our discord server, irc, etc. Please feel free to drop in if you need help with jails.
https://bastillebsd.org/

Home Fileserver

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 15:12:14 -0800

Orange Pi Zero based Home Fileserver

All of us have files to store. I wanted a server to share my music with everyone in the house, and a place to back up and store files. Now there are a ton of NAS devices out there you can buy. I wanted to build one that runs plain FreeBSD and had nothing else on it. I didn't, and don't, see why I need a gui to share files. So this is my setup for my house NAS server.

Equipment Needed

Single board computer -- had issues with usb to sata driver on raspberry pi of all models. I am using an orange pi zero for the brains of my fileserver. Paid about $8 for them used..

microSD card for the single board computer

laptop hard drives -- going low power and small, I bought a bunch of 500 GB laptop hard drives. I currently have 12 of them attached to my system via sata to usb adapter cables

usb to sata adapters -- obviously one for every drive. They are easy to find on Amazon, Banggood, NewEgg, etc for a couple of bucks each.

powered usb hub -- Orange Pi Zero has limited USB so you need a way to power all the drives and to allow all the drives to be attached. My solution was a powered usb hub that I bought on Amazon. Each port will do up to 2 amp so plenty of power to power the drives AND the pi. This eliminates all but ONE plugin to the wall.

Din Rails -- I opted to 3d print the brackets for all the drives and the orange pi. The ones I found on Thingiverse mount to din rails. I bought a pack of din rails and 3d printing the brackets. You do you on mounting. I wanted mine on the wall in my office..

Software setup

Put FreeBSD on the sdcard. With the Orange pi you write the arm freebsd image to the card, then go compile the correct Uboot for the SBC. There is instructions in each uboot directory in the ports to tell you what command to properly write the uboot to the card. Think of the Uboot as the bios or boot loader needed to get the device set up to run FreeBSD. Once this is done move on to the next step.

Connect up all the drives and the power except for the pi. Put the SD card in and the last step is power up the pi. Watch your switch lights to see when the pi is fully up on the network. Once this is done then go to your router and see what IP address your pi was given. You will need this to ssh into the device. If you are using a SBC that has hdmi output you can just go to the screen for it and find out the IP.

Assumming you got your IP ssh into the device. The default password will depend on the SBC you are using. root/root is a popular one, root/pi is another. Go online and find yours for your device. Once you have sshed into the device as root run a pkg update, then pkg upgrade. Right out the gate we want to make sure the device is up to date.

Now we need to format and setup up your drives. There are a ton of howtos on doing this online. I did all of mine with zfs and put it all in a software raid array with parity so I can lose 1 drive and not lose data. Below is a command that will show all drives attached to the system. Use that to make sure all your drives are seen and are functioning.

root@fileserver:/ # geom disk list

Once your drives are formatted and set up move to the next step.

set the following lines in your rc.conf file:

nfs_server_enable="YES"
nfs_server_flags="-u -t -n 4"
rpcbind_enable="YES"
mountd_flags="-r"
mountd_enable="YES"

i3status on i3wm

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 15:12:14 -0800

i3status for i3wm

i3wm is my window manager of choice. One part to an i3 ecosystem is the i3status. Basically it is a bar across the bottom giving lots of data about the system. Time, cpu temp, date, ip address, disk free amount, etc. Very useful and there at all times so easy to track system. This bar has a ton of configurable features. Here is the discussion of how mine is configured.

i3wm

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 15:12:14 -0800

Why do I like i3 Window Manager?

Starting a discussion of what window manager is best is like starting a holy war. Or a politics discussion, a religous discussion, or any other controversial topic. People for some reason feel that their favorite is the best no matter what and EVERYONE should use it. Which to me is not even remotely the case.

Every person works and thinks differently. If you read one of my other posts, I listed 39 different window managers. I have used a multitude of window managers over the years. Some in the early years were the main ones out there and I had no real idea of the options. Most distros of Linux or even BSD installed TWM by default, which is very bare bones. Some of them installed gnome or KDE. Back in the 90s when I first leaned Linux and BSD, we were all conditioned to three paradigms. The first of them was the Apple pardigm with their pretty GUI and all mouse driven with the bar across the bottom. The second, and oldest of them is the DOS paradigm. No gui, all command line, which I learned at first. The third and most common paradigm was the Microsoft Windows paradigm.

i3wm Configuration

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 15:12:14 -0800

Configure your i3wm to look good and work well

Now I will assume that you read my blogpost on why I like i3, or maybe not, but you want a way to configure i3 window manager to your tastes. This is about how I, over a couple of years, migrated my i3 setup to what I have today. I am very happy with this setup and I am running almost identical setups on both my work Linux Mint laptop and this laptop, my personal FreeBSD 13.1 laptop. Have the exact same shortcuts and keystrokes between every machine I have, all running i3, this makes it easy for me and I do not have to think about which machine I am on what what the correct keystrokes are. In my previous post I linked my cheatsheet for i3 and gave it to you in a download. Now let us talk about my design requirements for my desktop.,

IPv4 Write-Up

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 15:12:14 -0800

IPV4 Class from NOLUG circa 1999

December 30, 2022 One-minute read

Barry 'BC' McCormick • Scott Harney

networking • ipv4 • home-networking

Long ago in a galaxy far far away, there was a LUG.....

Back many years ago a good friend of mine, Scott Harney and I were members of the New Orleans Linux Users Group (NOLUG). It was the late 90s, back in the wild wild west of open source, the internet, etc. One thing back then was there was a lot of confusion and a lack of understanding about IP addressing.

Mechanical Keyboards

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 15:12:14 -0800

Keyboards

Keyboards are another simple thing to replace to make working at home, or even in the office much more enjoyable and help prevent carpal tunnel and other repetitive motion injuries.

Now, the damn 30 dollar Logitech junk is NOT what I am talking about getting. You are just as well off with the cheap keyboard that came with your computer. Now, Logitech has made bank selling these keyboards with rubber dome keys in them. 95% of the people in the world are happy with them. BUT, if you are like me and spend a significant portion of your day on the computer typing, you can do so much better and relieve the finger and wrist strain.

Micro$oft

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 15:12:14 -0800

Why I disike Micro$oft So Much

People often wonder and even make fun of me for my dislikes for several of the big giants in the tech industry. Oracle, Google/Meta, Facebook and not least Microsoft.

As I get older and more introspective about life, one thing is clear. I am still very much a militant when it comes to how the world works. I have come to understand one of the few ways a person can make a diffrence is with their pocketbook, or how they spend their money. There are social and political reasons I do not want my family spending money at Chic-fila or Hobby Lobby. I, at a very basic level, hate their view and stance against LGBTQ+ people.

NetBSD Part 1

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 15:12:14 -0800

NetBSD Part 1

So with all the years of FreeBSD and Linux would I play with NetBSD?? Pretty simple explanation. I have an OLD Cobalt Cube2 mips station that I want to revive for fun. No real valid reason OTHER than I want to say I did. The machine seems to NOT have a working OS on it anymore, so I have very few options when it comes to O/S to put on it. NetBSD being the only viable one I know. NetBSD has always had the motto "of course it will run NetBSD!" and they mean it. So here I am going to document my journey into NetBSD for the first real time of using it. Wish me luck!

Orange Pi Zero

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 15:12:14 -0800

Orange Pi Zero

I had the chance a while back to get my hands on some orange pi zeros and I am very enamoured with them. I currently have about 15 of them. They run FreeBSD perfectly, run Linux perfectly, and several other O/S. I got mine used for about $8 each. Now, they do not have an hdmi out, so ssh into the devices is the only way to manage them, but most servers that is what we do anyway. These are not for desktop/video applications. But for a server they rock. I am running a phone system, a file server, a plex server, a firewall, etc on them. Performance is at least as good as a pi3. Here are the specs:

Orange Pi Zero LTS SPECS
CPU	H3 Quad-core Cortex-A7 H.265/HEVC 1080P.
GPU	• Mali400MP2 GPU @600MHz • Supports OpenGL ES 2.0
Memory (SDRAM)	256MB/512MB DDR3 SDRAM(Share with GPU)(256MB version is Standard version)
Onboard Storage	TF card (Max. 32GB)/ 2MB Spi Flash
Onboard Network	10/100M Ethernet RJ45 POE is default off.
Onboard WiFi	XR819, IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
Audio Input	MIC(via 13 pins external board )
Video Outputs	AV OUT(via 13 pins external board)
Power Source	USB OTG can supply power
Low-level peripherals	• 26 Pins Header, • 13 Pins Header, with 2x USB, IR pin, AUDIO(MIC, AV)
LED	Power led & Status led
Supported OS	Android, Lubuntu, Debian, FreeBSD
Interface definition
Product size	48 mm × 46mm
Weight	26g

vi(m)

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 15:12:14 -0800

Why use Vim? That is OLD and uncool!!!

One thing that never changes in this industry is that change is ever constant. While things continue to change, there are some things that will never change. Now, you ask any younger developer what do you use to write code? You will get probably a few standard answers like VSCode, Atom, Sublime, etc. Mostly GUI based code editors. Now I am not here to bash those, I have used all kinds of them over the years. BUT, as a DevOps engineer, and a long time system administrator on *nix systems, those GUI tools are not available on a BSD or Linux machine after a fresh install of a server. There is no GUI at all on a Unix server. VI was created in the 70s at Bell Labs. It was included in the original Unix codebase, and is installed by default on every *nix based or like system I have ever touched. So knowing vim enough to survive the command line is almost a necessity. So lets dive into the history and why vi is a *nix staple.

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

About Barry 'bmac2' McCormick · Barry McCormick

About Barry 'bmac2' McCormick

Hillbillies and Moonshiners, OH MY Link to heading

I am of Scotch/Irish decent, specifically the Scotch-Irish that immigrated to the US, originally in the Pennsylvania area, then migrated south into the foothills of the Applacian Mountains. Mainly, most of my relatives are from Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama where I was raised. All the jokes aside, my family really is from a long line of moonshiners and bootleggers. My family is not known for being the most law abiding group. Those of you know know me I am SURE are shocked at that since I am such a quiet follow the rules person.

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Author: Barry 'BC' McCormick · Barry McCormick

Author: Barry 'BC' McCormick

August 13, 2023 Dual Boot Linux and FreeBSD using UEFI
August 9, 2023 Steam on Debian 12
January 21, 2023 Vi(m)
January 21, 2023 Microsoft
January 18, 2023 I3 Conky
January 18, 2023 i3wm configuration
January 14, 2023 3D printing
December 31, 2022 I3wm
December 30, 2022 Ipv4 Class from NOLUG circa 1999
December 30, 2022 Containers
December 30, 2022 FreeBSD Online Resoures
November 22, 2022 Bastillebsd

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Author: Scott Harney · Barry McCormick

Author: Scott Harney

December 30, 2022 Ipv4 Class from NOLUG circa 1999

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Contact · Barry McCormick

Contact

I can be contacted lots of ways. I am usually online at any time I am awake. I am a nerd, what can I say????

Follow me:

LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/barry-mccormick-a41a727/
github — https://github.com/bmac2
gitlab — https://gitlab.com/bmac2
discord — bmac2#9366 usually on Bastille server, pdx keyboard server, etc.

WebSites:

https://snarfingcode666.com – my personal website about all things nerdy
https://maildragon.com – my podcast website
https://rainmadedesigns.com – a website about some of our design projects and builds
https://rainmadekennels.com – my wife’s kennel website
https://remotesimplicity.com – my site about devops and remote work

Email Addresses: ** GMAIL ACCOUNTS

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Past Classes and Presentations

Over the last 40 years or so I have done a lot of teaching, and a lot of presentations/classes. I regret that I have not kept up with and have all the slides and videos of me teaching. I am scouring all of my storage sources to try to collect back up all that I can.

IPv4 Class circa 1999

One of the presentations I do have is from the New Orleans Linux Users Group (NOLUG) that a friend of mine and I put together a class on IPV4 addressing around 1999. There was no recording of the presentation, but I still have the copies of the write-up that Scott put in docbook form. Even though that class was almost 25 years ago at the time of this writing, Scott says that the files are still the most downloaded thing from all of his websites. Guess we did a decent job of putting together the class and the documents. Here is the links:

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Projects · Barry McCormick

keezer
industrial tables
refurbish radial arm saw
gazebo for back yard
Camper Van
beer brewing setup
Husky workbench for home office standing desk

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Barry McCormick Link to heading

BS/MS in Engineering Link to heading

LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barry-mccormick-a41a727/
EMAIL:barry.chris.mccormick@gmail.com
PHONE::+1 (801) 403-8625

Technology Leadership Profile Link to heading

Cloud & On-Prem Architectures | DevOps Leadership | Project Management | DevOps Automation | CI//CD Pipelines Link to heading

Senior DevOps leader with a large breath of past work experience, both small and large companies, and experience across several industries. Has designed multiple computer systems on multiple platforms. Some of these are in use today at the VA Hospital System. Has designed and built multiple companies CI/CD pipelines from scratch using Jenkins.

Barry McCormick

My List of Favorite Software for FreeBSD Desktop

Terminator Terminal Emulator

Strawberry Music Player

Signal Desktop

Telegram Desktop

Hexchat IRC Client

PulseAudio System Tray

Prism Launcher

Firefox

Chromium

Thunderbird Mail Client

Xfburn

Cheese

Gnu Image Manipulation Program (Gimp)

LibreOffice Suite

VLC

Ultimaker Cura

Gnome Screenshot

OBS Studio

TigerVNC

FreeCAD

Vim

VS Code

grip

Using Bastille Jail as Mailserver

Using Bastille and Jails as Websites

YubiKey on FreeBSD

Minecraft Server on FreeBSD

How to Run a Minecraft Server on FreeBSD

X Window Managers

All the Window Managers!!!!

AfterStep

Wireless on FreeBSD 14.2

Office Chairs

Office Chairs

Rofi

Office Desks

Desks

Office Space (not the show)

Office Space

3d printing

My experiences 3D Printing

Conky on i3wm Desktop

Configure Conky and feh on i3 Desktop

Containers

Containers are the bomb.

Timeline of the History of Containers

Dual Booting Linux and FreeBSD

Dual Boot Linux and FreeBSD using UEFI Boot Mode

FreeBSD Desktop

FreeBSD Desktop Setup with Nvidia card

FreeBSD Internet Resources

Various Resources for FreeBSD from around the Internet

Home Fileserver

Orange Pi Zero based Home Fileserver

i3status on i3wm

i3status for i3wm

i3wm

Why do I like i3 Window Manager?

i3wm Configuration

Configure your i3wm to look good and work well

IPv4 Write-Up

IPV4 Class from NOLUG circa 1999

Long ago in a galaxy far far away, there was a LUG.....

Mechanical Keyboards

Keyboards

Micro$oft

Why I disike Micro$oft So Much

NetBSD Part 1

NetBSD Part 1

Orange Pi Zero

Orange Pi Zero

Interface definition

vi(m)

Why use Vim? That is OLD and uncool!!!

About Barry 'bmac2' McCormick

Hillbillies and Moonshiners, OH MY Link to heading

Past Classes and Presentations

IPv4 Class circa 1999