Welcome to the DesktopBSD Handbook. This is the documentation that evolves with the DesktopBSD Operating System itself, and is designed to assist a beginner user through the basic setup and configuration of DesktopBSD.

The scope of this documentation is to provide a base level of assistance with the core steps of installing and configuring DesktopBSD. It is intended to compliment existing resources such as the rest of the DesktopBSD wiki, The FreeBSD Handbook, the DesktopBSD Forums and so on.

At the end of this Handbook, further help and learning resources material are offered for the reader to seek help and extend their skills.

The documentation in this Handbook follows the following conventions:

• commands, variables, directories and files appear in italic text
• commands and text strings that you type appear in bold text
• placeholders in syntax descriptions appear in italic bold text. This indicates that you should replace the italicised text with the actual filename, parameter or other element it represents

In the realm of computers there is hardware and applications. But to get these two interacting we need an Operating System. An Operating System (OS) is the glue that binds it all together and allows a computer to work. And just like there are different types and brands of glue, there are many different types and brands of OS. Perhaps you've heard of some of them, like Microsoft's Windows, Apple's Mac OS-X or any of the multiple Linux distributions.

DesktopBSD is one such Operating System, powered at its heart by the time-tested and proven FreeBSD, and presenting the user with the powerful and highly configurable KDE User Interface, along with best-of-breed Open Source applications and DesktopBSD's own tools.

Out of the box, DesktopBSD is a stable, powerful and secure system that is easy to install, configure and utilise from the moment you insert your installation media. Coupled with the massive software library that is FreeBSD's PORTS, and the Linux binary compatability layer, DesktopBSD enables its users to enjoy real freedom - the freedom of choice.

Let's say you're tired of all the viruses and malware infecting your Windows machines, or you can't configure OS-X just how you like it but want the same under-the-hood power, or maybe you're looking to extend your skills with an Open Source OS.

Whatever the reason, you cannot discount FreeBSD. FreeBSD is a true UNIX derivative, whereas Linux is only “UNIX-like.” With decades of ongoing development that probably won't ever stop, FreeBSD has proven staying power and a solid track history of reliability.

Unfortunately, FreeBSD is a very complex beast to get up and configured, especially for desktop use. This is where DesktopBSD comes in, by preconfiguring FreeBSD with the KDE desktop environment, you're saved a lot of effort and can just get on with what you want to do.

No malware, no unexplained crashes and blue screens, no locking you in to one configuration, the question becomes - why not?

DesktopBSD is based in central Europe, but has community members around the globe submitting 24/7.

DesktopBSD was born in Linz, Austria in 2004 by Peter Hofer with the initial release in mid-2005.

You can obtain DesktopBSD using a BitTorrent client such as uTorrent. You can also obtain it using Metalink, or via plain old FTP. Select your version of choice on the Download Page, your preferred install media (CD/DVD) and click on Download. You can also optionally select Only Display Link to allow you to copy and paste a link into your BitTorrent client or Download Manager.

It's optional but recommended to verify the MD5 checksum of your downloaded file before you burn it to disc.

As Windows does not come with MD5 functionality built in, we must first download and install an application that will handle this. We recommend DigestIT. Once installed, right click on the ISO file that you have downloaded and choose digestIT > Verify MD5 Hash. Copy and Paste in the appropriate MD5 checksum number from the DesktopBSD download page, and if the checksums match, you will see: “Digest matches. Verification succeeded.”

In your terminal of choice, type md5sum isoname.iso. If that does not work (likely if you're on a BSD system), you could also try md5 isoname.iso

E.g
[rawiri@loki /usr/home/rawiri/Downloads]$ md5 DesktopBSD-1.6RC3-i386-CD.iso
MD5 (DesktopBSD-1.6RC3-i386-CD.iso) = 1bcb16c3d930fb24138045765c897bd2

If you are using WindowsXP and you're burning the CD ISO of DesktopBSD, you can use ISORecorder to burn the ISO to disc simply and quickly. You can also use ISORecorder to burn the DVD ISO of DesktopBSD from within Windows Vista.

Alternatively, you can use the excellent and free CDBurnerXP Pro. Install and run it, selecting Click Here To… Create a new Data-CD/RW, Data-DVD/RW…, then click on the File Menu and select Write Disc from ISO File… Browse to the location of the ISO file, double click on it and then click on the Write Disc button.

For users using the KDE interface, using K3B, click on Tools > Burn CD Image… or Burn DVD ISO Image… depending on which .iso file you have obtained. Navigate to where you saved the .iso file and click on Start. That should be it!

For users of GNOME, you can use GNOMEBaker. Open the Actions Menu and select Burn CD Image or Burn DVD Image (depending on which ISO you have). Locate your ISO file, click OK and then Start. After a few minutes, GNOMEBaker will present you with a freshly burnt disc!

Refer to the Generic FreeBSD Notes. Also check out the hardware compatibility lists for 32bit systems and amd64 systems for complete lists of hardware that will work straight away.

If you're not sure what hardware you've got, you can run the DesktopBSD Live System Environment straight off the CD/DVD and both test your hardware compatibility and obtain a hardware report. More information on this is touched on later on in this handbook.

For users of wireless network adapters, we recommend that you ensure your wireless client hardware is based on an Atheros chipset. MadWIFI maintains a list of compatible hardware and many people also have success with ralink based hardware. If you're unsure, simply try the Live Environment as discussed later in this handbook. You'll be able to see from within the desktop whether or not your hardware is supported.

DesktopBSD also provides FreeBSD's 'Project Evil' NDISulator (NDIS Emulator) which tricks Windows drivers into thinking they're running on a Windows system. While not perfect, this should get most proprietary only hardware running.

If DesktopBSD doesn't support your wireless hardware straight away, you can refer to the FreeBSD Handbook sections 11.8.1.1 and 29.3 for other methods to get your wireless network hardware installed and configured.

Users migrating from Windows will need to clean up their profiles before backing them up. Click on Start > Run, type in cleanmgr and press enter. The built in disc cleanup utility will appear, select all options except compress old files and let it run. Once it's done, your profiles should be rid of most temporary files and will be ready to be transferred.

To transfer any email, we recommend that if you're not using Thunderbird that you install it and import your email into it. This will convert any email from a proprietary format like Microsoft's .pst into a format that you can use with virtually every other email client. Unfortunately, due to the way that the importing functionality works on Thunderbird, this step must be done on Windows - you cannot export to .pst and import into Thunderbird within Linux or BSD.

Users of Linux should be able to back up their profile directories to a DVD, external disk drive or network share, install DesktopBSD, create themselves an account with a password and copy the contents of their Linux profile straight back in.

Non-profile data can be migrated in the same manner - backed up externally and then reimported, or alternatively it can be left on another partition. DesktopBSD will support most filesystems that Linux can, but sticking to FAT, NTFS or EXT will provide the easiest transition.

Before you can boot and install DesktopBSD, you will need to set up your PC to boot from a CD/DVD. This can be done in your computer's BIOS, and it differs from PC to PC. Typically, however, you enter your BIOS just after turning the computer on by pressing either Delete, F1 or F10 on your keyboard. Once in the BIOS, you'll need to navigate through and change the boot order to have your CD/DVD drive to boot before the first hard drive. Refer to your system documentation or motherboard manual for more information on where to find these options.

When booting, you will see a string of messages output similarly to this

You will then be presented with the DesktopBSD boot menu. In most instances, the default option is fine. The other options are there for troubleshooting and advanced users.

Choose Installation and click on OK to skip the Live Environment and go straight to installing/upgrading/repairing DesktopBSD. Otherwise, if you'd like to preview DesktopBSD or boot into the Live Environment for other purposes i.e troubleshooting, select Live System and then click on OK

In this example, there are two hard drives installed. We will install DesktopBSD on the first drive designated as “master”.

The default bootloader selection at the top will allow you to install a bootloader to the Master Boot Record ( MBR ) that will have listings for the other operating system choices on your machine.

Use the middle option as shown below if DesktopBSD is your only operating system.

On this machine, a seperate GRUB bootloader is existing on an ext2 partition number 2. We will not install a bootloader to the MBR, but will use the chainloader method to boot DesktopBSD.

If the autodetected geometry does not match the information from your BIOS, select “No” and enter the correct values. In this example, the geometry was correct, and we continue with the autodetected values.

We have previously created a 23 GB partition on the hard drive. Click “Install into selected partition”.

If you made a mistake or change your mind, click “Undo all changes” and make the necessary corrections.

A final warning before the selected partition is formatted and the installation starts.

The system will now reboot and you can do the final setup of adding additional language support, setting passwords, and creating users.

If you have an existing version of DesktopBSD you can simply upgrade your OS using the Upgrade feature of the DesktopBSD installer.

The procedure for upgrading is the same as “Repair” option. See the “Repairing DesktopBSD” section below.

If your DesktopBSD system becomes unbootable for whatever reason, you can insert the installation CD/DVD and use the Live Environment to do any troubleshooting and attempt to fix the issue. If however the problem can not be diagnosed or the damage is too great, you can simply do a repair install.

The repair is just like an Upgrade in that it will overwrite all of your system files, removing any applications you may have downloaded and setting you right back to a fresh default DesktopBSD system. All the data in the ”/home” partition will be left alone - i.e your profiles and passwords are not touched in any way. It is still recommended that you back up any important data before doing the repair. After the repair is complete, your PC will boot back into DesktopBSD and you'll be able to login to your profile with its settings intact.

To invoke the repair, run the DesktopBSD installer and select the option for Upgrade/Repair, then simply follow the wizard.

There are currently three main desktop environments for Linux / BSD systems:

1. XFCE
2. Gnome
3. KDE

KDE is probably the most developed and easily configurable and flexible of the three, and is the most similar to the Windows environment that most people are used to.

The DesktopBSD Tools such as the Tray mounter, etc. are built for the KDE desktop environment. It is possible to use a different environment, but some of the DesktopBSD customized functions will not be available.

For a more in depth document on the basics of KDE, refer to the wikipedia entry for a historical overview, and also theKDE Quickstart Guide. To learn about the more advanced functionality of KDE, refer to the KDE Userguide.

You can also use the “Help” entry in the main Kmenu, and navigate to the “KDE User Manual” as shown below.

The screenshots below are for DesktopBSD 1.6 RC3

To open the KMenu, click on the red DesktopBSD icon in the bottom left corner of the desktop.

The KMenu is a listing of system programs and utilities organized into logical groups, and can be customized later to suit your preferences.

This is a quick way to navigate to different locations on your system.

Here you can find ways to tweak most aspects of your system's behaviour.

These are a few small KDE programs for performing simple desktop tasks such as note-taking.

This section includes terminal programs for command line work, a process monitor, a system information center, and the DesktopBSD package manager for installing software.

Here we find more configuration tools like menu editors and desktop setting wizards.

In DesktopBSD 1.6 RC3, due to single-CD space limitations, only a calendar application is included. In the final release, you can expect to see programs like KWord, or OpenOffice installed for word processing, spreadsheets, databases, etc.

Included here are a selection of audio and video players, recorders, CD burners, etc.

This section includes programs for browsing the internet, IRC chat, email, BitTorrent downloading, and instant messenging.

Here we find image viewers, photo managers, paint programs, PDF file viewers, etc. In DesktopBSD 1.6 RC3, due to single-CD space limitations, larger programs like the GIMP were not included. Expect to see these in the 1.6 final DVD release.

Also included in this release are a number of simple games.

The true power of any UNIX-like Operating System lies at the Command Line Interface (CLI), and DesktopBSD is no different. Where the KDE desktop environment and the DesktopBSD tools can do most of everything you'll ever need, there will be times where using the CLI is simply faster or necessary.

To learn more about the CLI, DesktopBSD uses a CLI 'Shell' called BASH. You can read about Bash by entering man bash at the command line, or you can learn about it online at the wikipedia entry for a historical overview, and also the Bash reference manual. FreeBSD-World also has an excellent article on 25 must-know commands

In KDE, there is often more than one way of performing any action. For example, to open the Konsole shell, you can right-click anywhere on the desktop image to open the “Run” dialog.

To open “Konsole”, simply type it into the dialog box as shown, then click “Run”.

Another way to get to the “Run” dialog is to hold down “Alt” and “F2” on your keyboard.

The third way is to navigate using the “Kmenu” at the bottom left corner of your desktop as shown below.

A fourth way is to navigate using the “Kmenu” at the bottom left corner of your desktop as shown below.

To make it easier to get to “Konsole” in the future, you can create a desktop link icon by right-clicking the menu item and selecting “Add item to desktop” as shown below.

The “Konsole” icon has now been added to the desktop. To open Konsole, double-left click on the icon, or right-click the icon and choose “Open”

In this example, we will use the Konsole shell to open the configuration file /etc/fstab. This is a system file, so we will need “superuser” privileges in order to open and edit it.

At the prompt, type in “su” as shown below, and hit “Enter”.

We are being asked for the superuser or “root” password. Enter it now and hit the “Enter” key.

The shell prompt has now changed to indicate that we are running with superuser privileges. In this case, the prompt is “root”, but on your system it will be whatever you selected at installation time.

We will use the “Easy Editor” ( ee ) program to open the file, so type in the command as shown below.

The program Easy Editor now opens the file /etc/fstab and can be navigated using the up and down arrow keys.

Once we are finished editing the file, use the “Escape” key and the down arrow key to navigate to “File operations” and hit “Enter”. You can also use the “C” key to select “File operations”.

Navigate to “Save file” and “Enter”.

Use the “Escape” key again to bring up the main menu.

Navigate to “Leave editor” and “Enter”

We are now back to the shell superuser prompt. Type in “Exit” and hit “Enter”

This brings us back to the regular user prompt. Type in “Exit” and hit “Enter”. This will close the Konsole shell and return us back to the Desktop.

You should never connect to the internet without a firewall. But which firewall method is appropriate for you?

If you are connected to a standard Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) router, such as a Linksys WRT54, we recommend you enable and configure the firewall on that. A border firewall that does Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) and Network Address Translation (NAT) should provide a satisfactory level of protection from inbound attacks for most people. Please refer to your router's manual for more information on how to configure this.

Alternatively, if you require a higher level of security, have advanced gateway needs, or if you have a number of computers on an internal network to protect, we recommend you investigate the excellent BSD based firewall appliances m0n0wall and pfsense.

If however you have a standalone desktop/laptop that connects directly to the internet, do not despair. DesktopBSD includes the OpenBSD packet filter (PF) by default, and so by nature is ready to be a secure desktop operating system with only a small amount of configuration. We recommend at this stage that you read Dru Lavigne's excellent firewall howto. If you'd prefer to use FreeBSD's IPFW capability, you can also check out QTFW.

While it is true that the majority of viruses are targetted for Windows, that does not mean that a user of any other system, be it Linux, BSD, Mac OSX or otherwise should rest on their laurels. Security Through Obscurity can only go so far.

With this in mind, if you'd like Antivirus capability on your DesktopBSD system, we recommend that you install ClamAV and ClamTK from PORTS using the Package Manager.

You can also browse through PORTS/Security to see if you can find alternative Antivirus tools that you'd prefer to use, such as F-Prot.

Before we discuss secure passwords, let's first discuss one of the core theories of authentication security.

So with a combination of the above three, without any overlap - you wouldn't combine biometrics with more biometrics for example - you can attain a higher level of authentication security. And like a three legged stool - one leg is useless without the rest.

There are a number of different methods to generate secure passwords by yourself. If you simply want some generated for you, you can use an online tool like mytsoftware.com's PassGen, or Passkool.

There are two schools of thought around password requirements and restrictions

1. That there be strict password requirements e.g character limits, non-alpha numeric characters and that the passwords be changed regularly i.e short password lifetimes
2. That the users either generate or are issued one secure password with a long password lifetime that they use until such time as they want or need to change their password

This topic is highly debateable and outside the scope of this handbook, however, the UNIX password mentality tends away from short password lifetimes, arguing that regular password changes result in degradation of password security e.g Users will tend to iterate: password1, password2, password3

Instead UNIX tends towards setting one good solid password once with a long password lifetime. But the decision is up to you, if you want to use one method or the other, that's your choice! On any UNIX or UNIX-like system though, you should exercise extreme care with the password on your root account.

Some facts though:

• A password selected by a user is typically a dictionary word with a number e.g Password1 and as such will only have on average 18-20bits of entropy
• A randomly generated password of the same length will have on average around 53bits of entropy
• Entropy increases with the use of non-alphanumeric characters and mixing upper and lower case, as well as with the password length

One of the easiest ways to generate a password is to think of a phrase and use that to generate a password. As the phrase itself is easily remembered, you'll be able to easily input a secure password.

• Example Input: The Rain In Spain Falls Mainly On The Plain
• Example Acronym Output: TRISFMOTP
• Example Acronym Output w/ standard entropy: Tr15fM0tP

By applying two simple rules: Case switching and swapping vowels and consonants for numerical characters, we've created a relatively secure password. To take it one step further, simply add a non alphanumeric character or two.

• Example Acronym Output w/ non-alpha entropy: _Tr15fM0tP!

You should only turn a phrase into an acronym when using a phrase of eight or more words - eight words with entropy plus a couple of non-alphanumeric characters will yield a generally secure 10-character password. If you are using a smaller phrase, simply truncate the string of words and then apply entropy e.g Felix The Cat = _F3l1xTh3c4t! In fact, it's better this way as you get longer passwords, which increases the entropy level.

• Example Full Output: TheRainInSpainFallsMainlyOnThePlain
• Example Full Output w/ non-alpha entropy: Th3R4inIn$p41nF4llSM41nly0nTh3Pl41n+
  • The entropy gain of this password is under 20bits, but you should still mix up your characters to get any entropy gain you can, as well as protection from 'over the shoulder' and 'Post-It note' attacks. _TheRainInSpainFallsMainlyOnThePlain% is technically as strong, if not stronger, for example.

All you have to remember is your phrase, in this example “The Rain In Spain Falls Mainly On The Plain,” and the password itself will just fall into place at your fingertips. Try it!

Another method that is similar to passphrases is the Mixed Words method. Simply take two words and mash them together, swapping in the letters like a zipper.

• Example Input: This Word
• Example Output: TWhoirsd
• Example Output w/ standard entropy: TwH01rSd
• Example Output w/ non-alpha entropy: !TwH01r$d_

This example password attains mixed results in password strength tests, but that's because it's quite short. Mix together two long words however and you'll increase the security.

• Example Input: Marilyn Munroe
• Example Output: MMaurnirloyen
• Example Output w/ non-alpha entropy: $MM4uRn1rl0y3n%

When you first create or receive a secure password, it might be initially quite difficult to remember. Conventional wisdom holds that you should never, ever, write down a password, especially not on a Post-It Note. However, if you take into account the above three-tier security methodology, it's not hard to secure a password that you've written down. Here's how:

1. Take your secure password, we'll use _Tr15fM0tP! in this example
2. Select a method of obfuscation and mix the two together. As an example, we'll mix in a sequential series of numbers
   • _Tr15fM0tP! + 1234567890 becomes _1T2r31455f6M708t9P0!
3. Write down the obfuscated password e.g _1T2r31455f6M708t9P0!

That's it! Your password has been obfuscated. Anyone passing by your desk will find the password as useless as the used Post-It note it's written on. As they have neither your username or your obfuscation algorithm/method, they lack the Something You Are and Something You Know. Basically, you're adding a layer of Something You Know to Something You Should Know

For even more obfuscation security - put the Post-It note in your wallet or purse. This action turns the Post-It note into both Something You Know and Something You Have. When you get to your workstation, try to input your password, and if you fail simply look into your wallet/purse, decipher the obfuscation and input your password. It will typically take a couple of days for you to memorise your secure password, and then you can choose to either keep the Post-It note or throw it away.

Once you've got a secure password, you might be tempted to use it elsewhere e.g when you sign up for an online service, webmail etc. You should try to avoid this behaviour and instead try creating 3-4 secure passwords, obfuscating them and using the wallet/purse trick (try the back of a business card as a place to write them), and then grouping scenarios per password. As an example

• One secure password of a longer length (15+ characters) with a high entropy rate for use on your most important encrypted data and your root account
• One secure password of a secure length (10-20 or more characters) with a good entropy rate for normal desktop use - you can use this at home and work
• One secure password as above for online services where important personal information is stored e.g online shopping services
• One secure password of standard length (8 characters) with a reasonable entropy rate for use for any other services where you can afford to be lax with password security

A number of tools exist online that will measure the security of your passwords against a predefined set of requirements and algorithms. You can use these to test your password strength, but remember that they all test differently and will reflect different results somewhere around the line of reality.

• Microsoft's Password Checker rated _Tr15fM0tP! as Strong
• SecurityStat's Password Checker rated _Tr15fM0tP! as just right
• Rumkin.com's Password Checker rated _Tr15fM0tP! as reasonable
  • This checker also rates the obfuscated password _1T2r31455f6M708t9P0! as Strong, with 67.4bits of entropy
  • This checker rated the full Rain In Spain example Th3R4inIn$p41nF4llSM41nly0nTh3Pl41n+ as Very Strong with 129.9 bits of entropy

Software in DesktopBSD is called a package, and can be downloaded from a central repository as a ready-to-install “package”, or the package can be built on your computer by compiling the program source code using the “Ports” system.

The DesktopBSD Package Manager is a graphical tool to simplify the installation, upgrading, and removal of software packages ( applications, or programs ) on your system. It also makes it easier to check what packages are installed, and new ones that are available.

Software usually requires other collections of files, or libraries, for the main program to operate. This system uses shared libraries to reduce the number of program files required to run all of the applications installed on your computer. The package manager keeps track of these “dependancies” between packages to ensure that the versions are correct, and that all required packages get installed when required.

* For example:

1. Package “A” requires library “C” to run on the system.
2. Package “B” requires library “C” to run on the system also.

The Package Manager will install Packages “A” and “B”, and a single shared library “C”

These functions can also be done from the command line for those users with more experience.

We will start this introduction to the DesktopBSD package manager by double left-clicking on the “Software” icon on the default desktop.

Enter your administrator or “root” password at the prompt.

The introduction to the Package Manager. Click on the image for a larger version.

The introduction to the Package List

The Portsnap first-time run dialog. Click on “Yes” to start.

The program “Portsnap” fetches an updated list of packages from the DesktopBSD server.

Portsnap download is now complete.

It is recommended that you have the system do a security check for potential problems with the installed programs.

After reviewing the security list, click “Close”.

This brings up the main package manager screen.

We will first update the list of packages to find all new versions and security updates as shown. Click on”Update list” at the top left-hand tab.

Before installing, upgrading or removing any ports or packages, it is recommended that you run the following command as the “superuser” (su) at a “Konsole” shell terminal as shown below:

su
pkgdb -uF

And exit.

This will correct any inconsistencies or conflicts in the software package database.

The “Settings” section determines how the manager fetches and installs packages.

The default is “Binary packages only”. This will work for most applications. Packages are designed to work well on most systems, and install much faster than compiling source code. Installing from source code will take longer, but will optimize the application for your individual hardware.

Packages may also be a version or more older than compiling from source.

If a package cannot be found by the Package Manager, then use the second entry “Binary packages whenever possible” as shown below.

For example, binary redistribution of patented software such as MP3 encoding is not allowed, so you have to switch to “Binary packages whenever possible”.

The default method of fetching packages is Portsnap, which uses HTTP protocol and is considered more secure and faster than CVSup.

All the notification pop-up functions are selected by default

*need more info*

The “Advanced” tab contains settings that can be useful, but require a good understanding about how the package manager functions.

The “Binary package repository” field allows you to specify a different source for downloading software packages for your system. Change only if you are an advanced user, and know the implications.

By default, DesktopBSD will fetch packages from theDesktopBSD build server, which provides more up to date package versions than the FreeBSD site. It is recommended that your packages be built from the same download source to avoid package version conflicts.

The next field is “Always upgrade the packages required by the specified packages as well”. This will automatically upgrade all dependancies of the package currently being installed or upgraded, although this is often not required, and can slow down the upgrade process. It is safe to select this option if you need it.

The next field is “Always upgrade the packages depending on the specified packages as well” As with the field above, it is not necessary, but safe to use if you wish.

The next option is “Force processing of further packages even if prerequisite packages have failed to upgrade” This option can cause the installation of incompatible packages that will produce failure of some programs to run properly. Use extreme caution with this. It is recommended only for advanced users.

The last two fields allow you to specify options that are used when building ports from source only. They will not apply to binary package installation. One of the advantages of using ports is the ability to fine-tune the creation of the software for the existing software and for particular system needs.

Clicking on the security tab will generate an updated list of known or suspected security problems in the entire FreeBSD ports system.

In the bottom left corner, the package manager tells me that the last security check on this system was done 9 days ago. To find any security problems in your installed software, click “Check now”.

This scans the programs installed on your system and recommends upgrading or deinstalling problem items.

In this case, there are two packages that have known problems: “png” and “xfs”. We will highlight and copy the name of the package “xfs” and paste it into a search box for more information.

In the bottom left corner, we see that the package “x11-fonts/xfs” has a more recent package that we can upgrade to.

In the bottom right corner, click on “Upgrade”

This prompts us to read the upgrade notes for any possible issues involved in the upgrade process. Click “Yes”.

Enter “xfs” in the search box and hit “Enter”. This will open the file ”/usr/ports/Updating”.

In this case, there are no problems expected in the upgrade.

We are now prompted to start the upgrade. Click “Yes”.

The upgrade manager starts, and tells us it has successfully found and downloaded the package from the repository.

The installation is complete. Note that there is a warning that one of the dependent packages “xproto” also requires upgrading. We upgraded this package with the default setting, which did not automatically upgrade this dependant package.

By selecting “Always upgrade the packages required by the specified packages as well” in the “Binaries and source” tab, the dependant package would have been upgraded also. This setting is not always necessary, and can slow down upgrades needlessly.

In this case, we will need to also upgrade “xproto” manually.

To install a new package, for example a simple game called “agame”, first click the icon to the left of “Install software”

Then browse down to the “games” section of the package list.

Select “agame”. You can also type in the name of the package at the top of the pane.

Click on “Install” at the bottom right of the main pane and “agame” will appear at the top of the right-hand pane.

Click on “Start” at the bottom of the right-hand pane.

In this case, the package manager looks for a package, but is unable to find it from the download site.

Because I have selected “Binary packages whenever possible”, the package manager will now install this program by compiling source code instead.

The program installation is now completed.

KDE now prompts us to add this program to the menu.

On DesktopBSD, there are two common ways to add software to your system: ports and packages. These are described on the FreeBSD ports page and the FreeBSD Handbook

Both ports and packages can be installed using the DesktopBSD Package Manager, or you can choose to do the installation manually using a shell command line. See this page for more detailed information The Ports System

From the FreeBSD ports page:

Copyright 1994-2006 The FreeBSD Project. All rights reserved.

“The FreeBSD Ports and Packages Collection offers a simple way for users and administrators to install applications. There are currently 17687 ports available.

Each ``port'' contains any patches necessary to make the original application source code compile and run on FreeBSD. Installing an application is as simple as downloading the port, unpacking it and typing “make” in the port directory. However, the most convenient (and common) method is to download the framework for the entire list of ports by installing the entire ports hierarchy at FreeBSD installation time, and then have thousands of applications right at your fingertips.

Each port's Makefile automatically fetches the application source code, either from a local disk, CD-ROM or via ftp, unpacks it on your system, applies the patches, and compiles. If all went well, a simple “make install” command will install the application and register it with the package system.

For most ports, a precompiled “package” also exists, saving the user the work of having to compile anything at all. Each port contains a link to its corresponding package and you may either simply download that file and then run the “pkg_add” command on it or you can simply grab the link location and hand it straight to pkg_add since it is capable of accepting FTP URLs as well as filenames.

For any given application, the FreeBSD package for that application is a single file which you must download. The package contains pre-compiled copies of all the commands for the application, as well as any configuration files or documentation. A downloaded package file can be manipulated with FreeBSD package management commands, such as “pkg_add”(1), “pkg_delete”(1), “pkg_info”(1), and so on. Installing a new application can be carried out with a single command.”

First we will look at the ports system.

The ports system is a collection of files that allows your computer to compile each program that you wish to install from source code, customized to run most efficiently on your hardware. Because this customizing, or “compiling” is quite complex, it will take longer to do than installing a package. The end result is generally a faster program that is the most up-to-date version available.

When you first install DesktopBSD and open the Package Manager, you will be prompted to create a package list. This will download all of the files required to build the ”/usr/ports” directory on your machine.

As an example, let us look at the directory /usr/ports/www. These are programs for the World Wide Web such as browsers.

We will look for the “Firefox” directory.

In this directory are all the files required to fetch the source code and build the web browser “Firefox”.

Let us look at these files that make up the ports system.

The first folder we see is the “Files” folder. This contains various updating patch files for Firefox to allow it to run on DesktopBSD.

After that we see the “distinfo” file. This contains the Firefox version number and file size. It also contains two types of file checksum information: the MD5 format, and SHA256 format. These checksums verify that the source code file download has not been changed or corrupted.

The next file on the list is the “Makefile” that contains the commands for building Firefox.

After that we see the file “pkg-descr”. This tells us a brief description of what the Firefox application is, and a link to the Firefox developers website.

Next we see the file “pkg-message”. This is a security update file that tells us of any current issues with the application.

When using the DesktopBSD Package Manager, if you select “Always build from source”, any item you choose to install will always be built from source code only, and will be compiled on your machine in the same way as using the command line

— submitted by tippekanu 2007/10/20 03:53

The DesktopBSD Mounter is designed to simplify the mounting, and unmounting of hard-drive partitions, CDs and DVDs, USB devices, and Floppy disks.

Drives can also be set up for mounting and unmounting by configuring the ”/etc/fstab” file and using short commands at the terminal. See the section ” Automatically mounting drives with fstab” below.

In BSD systems, “mounting” is done to prepare to access data on a drive, and “unmounting” disengages the drives file system to prevent any possible data corruption.

The mounter can be found in the bottom right corner of the desktop just to the left of the clock.

To open the mounter, click on the mounter icon

Some of the supported file system types are Windows FAT and NTFS, Linux ext2 and ext3, and FreeBSD UFS.

You will see a list of devices with color coding. In this example, the yellow UFS 23 GB partition is the DesktopBSD system on a 74 GB Harddrive #1, and below it in green are the currently mounted slices.

Below these is Hardrive #2 with a 29 GB NTFS Windows XP partition. To open this partition, left-click on the NTFS entry in the menu. In this case, a warning dialog will open. Writing to NTFS file systems is not fully supported yet. Click “OK”.

When you open the mounter again, you will see that the NTFS partition is now green, indicating it was successfully mounted and ready to access. You can also click the “Refresh All” button at any time to update the list of mounted devices.

Now select “Mounted Devices” at the bottom of the menu. You will see a Konqueror file manager window open with the NTFS partition shown mounted in the /media directory.

Double left-click on the NTFS icon to explore the folder, or right-click as shown to open a dialog with more options. The Windows files can now be accessed.

Opening the mounter and selecting a 7 MB Linux ext2 partition has now added it to the Konqueror file manager window also.

When you are finished using the mounted devices, they must be unmounted to prevent any possible file corruption. In this case, I left-click the green, mounted NTFS icon in the mounter, but get an error message telling me that I have not finished using the files on the NTFS partition. I must first close the Konqueror window, and perform the unmount action again.

The system now confirms that the Windows partition has been successfully unmounted.

USB drives will be automatically detected and a message will open at the top left corner of the desktop.

For example, when a USB drive is plugged in, you will see this:

A new “Storage Device” entry will now appear in the list similar to the entry for the hard-drive. Selecting the new entry will be mount the USB drive. For a FAT format device it will be displayed as “FAT”, followed by its capacity in megabytes.

A pop-up confirmation dialog box will appear, and the “FAT” entry will now have the green mounted icon in front of it. Clicking on “Mounted Devices” will again open the Konqueror file manager window to access the files on the drive.

You will need to open a text editor as the “superuser” and edit the file /etc/devfs.conf.

su
ee /etc/devfs.conf

Now add two new lines to the bottom of the file as shown below. Make sure there are no spaces between the two new lines and the existing entries.

own      fd0       wheel:mount
perm     fd0       0660

Restart your system for the new permissions to be installed.

Now when you click on the “Floppy” entry in the traymounter, you will see a pop-up mount confirmation box open, and a green “mounted” icon will appear below the floppy icon in the list. Use “Mounted Devices” to access files.

Using the CD, DVD entry in the Traymounter, a mount confirmation message will appear at the taskbar. You will also notice a green “mounted” icon below the CD symbol. Use “Mounted Devices” to access files.

You do not need to mount music or video CDs or DVDs using the Traymounter. Use the configuration settings in your media player to designate the device name ( usually “acd0” ), and the CD or DVD will be opened automatically.

The /etc/fstab file is used to define the characteristics of devices such as floppy drives, CD-ROM drives, USB drives, and other hard-drive partitions. It enables DesktopBSD to automatically access ( mount ) these devices when the system starts up. If the device is physically available on startup, like a hard-drive partition, then it will be mounted without any further user action needed.

Removeable media will require manually mounting with a short command, as described below, or using the DesktopBSD Traymounter described in the section above.

This simplifies the process of opening files on these other devices.

The /etc/fstab file can be edited with the program Easy Editor (ee) or other editor like Kate. From the start menu at the bottom left of your desktop, select “System” > “Konsole” to open up the Konsole terminal program.

su
ee /etc/fstab

If you are sharing a hard drive with a Windows XP installation, for example, your fstab entry would look something like this:

/dev/ad0s1     /windows     ntfs     ro       0        0

The device number (/dev/xxxxx) will depend on your disk layout. In the example Windows XP is installed on hard drive #1 in the first partition. Note that FreeBSD numbering systems are different from Linux in that they start numbering disks from “0” instead of “1”.

Because this is a non-removable device, it will be mounted on startup. The Windows files will all be available and can be accessed with a file manager like Konqueror. You do not need to manually mount or unmount, or use the Traymounter in this case.

For example, the normal process of manually mounting a DOS-formatted floppy disk on a directory, or mount point, called /floppy would look like this:

mkdir /floppy
mount_msdosfs /dev/fd0 /floppy

This creates the mount point /floppy, and then tells the system to mount an msdos type file system with the device name “fd0”.

Now, if we create an entry in /etc/fstab that looks like this:

/dev/fd0     /floppy     msdos      rw,noauto       0        0

then our command to mount this floppy drive will simply be:

mount /floppy

A new “mounted floppy” icon will appear on the desktop, and files can be accessed by navigating to the ”/floppy” directory.

The entry rw,noauto means that the drive will be mounted with both read and write capabilities, and is not actually mounted on startup, as there will probably not be a disk in the drive.

Similarly, a CD-ROM could be mounted like this:

mkdir /cdrom
mount_cd9660 /dev/acd0c /cdrom

Our entry in /etc/fstab would look like this:

/dev/acd0    /cdrom      cd9660       ro,noauto      0        0

with a mount command of:

mount /cdrom

The files can be accessed by navigating to the ”/cdrom” directory.

Manually mounting a DOS-formatted USB drive:

mkdir /usb
mount_msdosfs /dev/da0s1 /usb

Our entry in /etc/fstab would look like this:

/dev/da0s1      /usb         msdos      rw,noauto    0       0

with a mount command of

mount /usb

The files can be accessed by navigating to the ”/usb” directory.

Devices that are manually mounted must also be unmounted when you are finished working with your files.

Make sure the files on the device are closed, and change your current working directory from the device you want to unmount.

For example, to change directory to the root directory and unmount your usb drive from the example above:

cd /
umount /usb

In this wiki, I will describe how to install an Epson CX-5400 Multi-function Inkjet printer on 1.6 Final using the Common Unix Printing System CUPS.

An introduction to the CUPS system can be found atWikipedia and the CUPS home page

If you are using an existing printer, I recommend you check the Open Printing printer database to see how well your printer is supported.

If you are looking to buy a new printer, the Open Printing site has recommended printers here

In DesktopBSD 1.6 Final, the required printer packages are already installed. The only setup required is to add your printer and allowed users in the CUPS printer tab. This allows printing from documents and PDF files.

Please jump to the “Web Browser Setup Interface” section below.

If you do have a problem, check the following steps below in “Add Packages” and “Configuration” sections.

First, open the DesktopBSD Package Manager and update your package list using the package manager “Update list” feature.

Then, under Packages / Settings select “Binary Packages whenever possible” This allows the package manager to build from ports if a package is not available.

Now install the following packages from the /print packages section:

- cups-base
- cups-pstoraster
- ghostscript-gpl
- gutenprint
- gutenprint-base
- gutenprint-cups
- gutenprint-ijs
- libijs

Next set up some system configuration files. You will be using the Easy Editor (ee) program started from the command line in the shell “Konsole”.

From the Kmenu at the bottom left corner of your desktop, navigate to “System” > “Konsole”.

At the shell “Konsole” prompt, edit the file /etc/devfs.rules. After “su”, you will be asked for the system root password.

su
ee /etc/devfs.rules

and add the following lines. An easy way to do this is to highlight the text on this page, copy, and paste it into the file.

# Printers
add path lpt[0-9]* mode 0660 group cups 
add path ulpt[0-9]* mode 0660 group cups 
add path unlpt[0-9]* mode 0660 group cups

In /var/log/messages you should find lines similar to these:

Oct 3 17:37:30 root kernel: ulpt0: EPSON USB MFP, rev 1.10/1.00, addr 2, iclass 255/255 Oct 3 17:37:30 root kernel: ulpt0: using bi-directional mode

Using the device name, (“ulpt0” in my case), add the following to /etc/devfs.conf:

su
ee /etc/devfs.conf

Add the following:

own     ulpt0   root:cups
perm    ulpt0   0660

Next, open /etc/group and look near the bottom for group “cups”

su
ee /etc/group

Add to /etc/group:

cups:*:193:root,<your_user_name>

Close all your programs and restart DesktopBSD with the printer left on.

Finally, in your favorite web browser (ie. Firefox, Konqueror), type in “localhost:631” to open the CUPS setup interface.

If prompted for your user name and password, use “root” and the root password.

Select “Add printer”, fill in the information fields, click “Continue”

In Device, I selected “USB Printer #1”, then “Continue” The system will now take a short time to load the printer list for the next step.

In “Make”, I selected “Epson”, then “Continue” The system will now take a short time to load the printer drivers for the next step.

In “Model”, I selected “Epson Stylus CX5400 - CUPS+Gutenprint v5.1.3 (en), then “Add Printer”

You will now be in the Printer tab and can set allowed users.

Click the “Set Allowed Users” button, and add root and other users seperated by a comma as shown.

You can click the “Set as Default” button to make this the default printer.

I then selected the “Printer” tab, clicked the “Print test page”, and successfully printed a test page.

Clicking the “Set print options” button allows you to select paper sizes and other printer options.

— updated by tippekanu 2008/1/19 15:26

It's fairly simple, if you know how to do it. At first you have to install Xsane, this is a frontend to the widely known Sane project. If you are willing to buy new scanner hardware, have a look at the Sane database, if not, you will certainly regret it

install graphics/xsane, according to those instructions:

Installing Software

If you are ready, you have to give users some permissions or root only can use the scanner hardware.

Edit or create the file rc.local

#su
#ee /etc/rc.local

and add the following lines,

devfs ruleset 100
devfs rule add path ugen* mode 0666
devfs rule add path uscanner* mode 0666
devfs rule applyset

You can read more about it via,

man devfs

I saw this functional solution, after struggling with the devices, at CrashMail.

This will set the permissions for ugen and uscanner for users in the system. After a restart, you can start and use Xsane as user too. You see ugen and uscanner above, most scanner hardware will be detected as ugen, but this is no problem because if sane knows them, it's okay. The proper detection would be as uscanner, so I added both of them, just in case. By the way, this works with Webcam with DesktopBSD and digital cameras too (ugen).

You can find help in this order

1. The DesktopBSD Wiki
   • Hints, Tips & Howtos
2. The DesktopBSD Forum
3. The FreeBSD Newbies resources
4. The FreeBSD Handbook
5. The other FreeBSD Support Channels
6. Google (or your search engine of choice)
7. The DesktopBSD Bug and Feature Tracker
8. The PC-BSD KnowledgeBase may have some useful information

If you've been bitten by the BSD bug and want to learn more, there's plenty of Useful information on the DesktopBSD wiki. We recommend that you consider picking up at least these two books as well

• Sam's Teach Yourself UNIX in Ten Minutes for a broad strokes overview of UNIX methodology
• Sam's FreeBSD 6 Unleashed for a thorough book for learning the ins and outs of FreeBSD - the Operating System powering DesktopBSD.

Everybody who wants to contribute to DesktopBSD is welcome! You can contribute in many ways:

People with C++ skills who are familiar with Qt programming or willing to learn Qt are always welcome. Knowledge of KDE APIs would be great, but isn't required.

For further information about DesktopBSD code documentation, build instructions, development tasks, code conventions etc. please see the DesktopBSD development wiki.

If you are interested in translating DesktopBSD into your language, please contact Daniel Hilbert for details. If there is already a translation sub-project for your language, talk to the contributors working on it.

A list of all supported languages can be found here: DesktopBSD: list of supported languages.

If you are willing to help us, please subscribe to http://desktopbsd.net/mailman/listinfo/ and let us know what you are willing to do. We will generate an wiki account for you and provide you with help, the necessary files etc. The translation howto can be found here: Translating DesktopBSD.

If you have solved a complicated problem, you can help users coming across the same problem by documenting your solution. Examples are getting a Linux-only program to work or installing a DesktopBSD-based MySQL-Apache-PHP server.

Of course, pointers to mistakes in current documentation are always welcome. You should use our bug tracker for that. Please also provide a suggestion for improvement if possible.

If you want to join the Documentation team, please Daniel Hilbert for details on where you can help. Please subscribe to our Mailing List: http://desktopbsd.net/mailman/listinfo/

Please use our Trac issue tracker to request features and report problems. You can also post a message in the DesktopBSD forums for discussion with users and developers (please include the bug ID in your forums post).

Help us extending our network of mirrors by setting up a mirror to improve download times and reduce congestion. Instructions on how to set up a mirror can be found here.

If you have artistic skills, you can help the DesktopBSD project by creating or improving artwork, e.g. by designing desktop wallpapers or brochures or by improving the look of our website, Wiki, forums or tracker. Please have a look at the material from our artwork collection.

The easiest way to help DesktopBSD is by telling others about it. Distribute DesktopBSD CDs to your friends and colleagues, give talks at your local Linux and BSD user groups, help newcomers to install DesktopBSD and help users in the forums with their problems.