View Single Post
Old 13th July 2014
ibara ibara is offline
OpenBSD language porter
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 783
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by cravuhaw2C View Post
i. Surf the internet.
ii. Email.
iii. Type letters and documents on a Microsoft Word-compatible but free and open-source word processing software.
OK, great. That's what I was looking for. There's really no way to know if you're looking for a desktop or a server otherwise, and that changes everything.

For i. - all the major browsers are included in the OpenBSD package repository. To install packages, all you have to do is type:
Code:
# pkg_add packagename
or, if you've given your user appropriate sudo rights:
Code:
$ sudo pkg_add packagename
So you have your Firefox and your Chromium. There are other webkit-based browsers if you find chromium too big for your tastes.

ii. - You have your Thunderbirds, mutts, and other email clients. Pick the one you use and pkg_add it.

iii. - LibreOffice is in ports. As is Abiword, Gnumeric, etc. So you can pkg_add the ones you want. LibreOffice has the advantage of being a full suite.

Quote:
Originally Posted by cravuhaw2C View Post
(a) change/update the software sources/repositories. On Debian, I would change/update the repositories using sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
There is nothing analogous to this on OpenBSD. We have a single package repository, and OpenBSD already knows how to use it. At most, you would need to set PKG_PATH in your .profile, like this:
Code:
PKG_PATH=<mirrorname>/pub/OpenBSD/5.5/packages/`machine -a`/
Where <mirrorname> is whichever mirror you choose from the official list:
http://www.openbsd.org/ftp.html#http
Most people choose whichever is geographically closest to them.

Quote:
Originally Posted by cravuhaw2C View Post
(b) the packages that are considered essential. On a minimal install of Debian OS, one would sudo apt-get install the following essentials:

xorg
You already have this: OpenBSD installs X by default.

Quote:
Originally Posted by cravuhaw2C View Post
gnome-core (or lxde-core/xfce/openbox)
We don't have anything analogous to gnome-core. There is gnome,
Code:
$ sudo pkg_add gnome
same with xfce
Code:
$ sudo pkg_add xfce4
or openbox
Code:
$ sudo pkg_add openbox
There are a lot more window managers; whichever one you like we probably have. Notably, we don't have lxde, MATE, or TDE.

Quote:
Originally Posted by cravuhaw2C View Post
synaptic
Already installed with X (it is part of X). I have the following line in my .xinitrc file to get my touchpad to click on tap. You may or may not need this:
Code:
xinput --set-prop 7 "Synaptics Tap Action" 0 0 0 0 1 3
Quote:
Originally Posted by cravuhaw2C View Post
gedit
Code:
 $ sudo pkg_add gedit
(Noticing a pattern yet?)
You'll get gedit "for free" if you install gnome.

Quote:
Originally Posted by cravuhaw2C View Post
gdebi (which will also install nautilus)
I'd never heard of gdebi, so I googled it. It appears to be a GUI package for Debian .deb files. There is no port of that on OpenBSD, notably because it wouldn't do anything. We don't use .deb files, we have our own package tools.

Nautilus would be:
Code:
 $ sudo pkg_add nautilus
Like gedit, you get this "for free" when installing gnome. ("For free" is shorthand for "this is a dependency of the other thing so if you install the other thing the package manager will automatically install this to fulfill dependencies.)
The OpenBSD package tools are really smart, and handle all dependencies for you. You tell it what you want, and it does the magic to make it happen and usable.

Quote:
Originally Posted by cravuhaw2C View Post
network-manager
There aren't any good GUI-based network managers for OpenBSD yet. OpenBSD does its wifi much differently than Linux (things like WPA2 are actually in the kernel in OpenBSD) so those tools don't really know how to handle it. You could write a shell script to make this easier on you; but that only works if you have a list of the wifi access points you connect to and their passwords. Otherwise, you'll be using ifconfig(8) like the rest of us. It's not more difficult, just different.

Quote:
Originally Posted by cravuhaw2C View Post
What essential packages do I have to install for OpenBSD?
NONE! OpenBSD by default install is a fully functional OS with X already available. Just add onto it whatever programs you want.

Quote:
Originally Posted by cravuhaw2C View Post
(b) chroot/chmod some system files to prevent them from being tampered with.

What system files on an OpenBSD OS should I chroot/chmod?
None. That would be dangerous. Any OS that requires you to do such a thing doesn't care about you or your security.
Reply With Quote