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Old 24th October 2010
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Noobification Noobification is offline
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Unhappy OpenBSD Gnome/XFCE tools

Hello all...

(Assume I am a noob, because I am one!)

so... just this morning I've decided to install OpenBSD 4.7 on my oldest box, hopefully some time soon I'll have it up and running as a secure fileserver better than fedora.

so far I've managed to get X running and I've installed 2 desktops, Gnome and XFCE.. but the problem is..

I am missing a ton of (literally.. all those tools for network management I use in Fedora Linux) system administration tools (lol.. I've even had difficulties w/ free -m), and I don't even know the name (or the equivalent package/ports) in OpenBSD..

so.. can anyone please point me to the right direction? help is greatly appreciated, thanks! (I don't really wanna compile from source (too many packages to do!), I like pkg_add better (I use the Alberta, Canada ftp server))
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Old 24th October 2010
BSDfan666 BSDfan666 is offline
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The GUI configuration tools for networking and alike are often Linux specific, they are not part OpenBSD, to do what you want you need to become familiar with the included configuration utilities (..not graphical).

The ports maintainers for Gnome, KDE, XFCE do a lot of work to get these projects working on OpenBSD.
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Old 24th October 2010
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Noobification Noobification is offline
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Talking

Sorry.. I know that most Linux-based tools won't have a GUI. But I mean... In the gnome menu system, I am missing the entire administration option (not even the link for gnome-terminal(which I have))..

I mean, there's gotta be at least one or two GUI based tools for everyday things like user management and config editors.. (so I don't have to do things like useradd groupadd all the time)

I (think I can, but haven't tried using the actual APIs provided by the system(Just the language/GUI framework itself)) write simple apps for doing everyday tweaks, but I mean... There's gotta be some tool I can use to begin with (I've seen some other OpenBSD user's desktops... they somehow have (a few) administration tools)

Sorry If I sound kinda whiny... but yeah... I don't really wanna spend hours reading man pages for something I already know (I can, but I do need some working "batteries included" examples first)..
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Old 24th October 2010
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or I can somehow install the ports/packages then somehow link it up w/ gconf-editor ((into the admin menu)so at least I don't have to use the run dialog for something I use every other minute)
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Old 24th October 2010
ocicat ocicat is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Noobification View Post
...there's gotta be at least one or two GUI based tools for everyday things like user management and config editors..
You might benefit from a recent thread:

http://www.daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=5084
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Old 24th October 2010
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Thanks for the help (lol..) but that page was the first thing I've read (way before I installed OpenBSD)..

lol, I guess I'll have to read more and find out more myself. thanks thou
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Old 1st November 2010
passthejoe passthejoe is offline
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The BSDs in general contain very un-Linux-like utilities for things like networking, managing services and partitioning. It would be a monumental task to rewrite the Linux GUI utilities such as NetworkManager to work with any of the BSDs.

Not that, in some cases, it can't be done. There's an open call out there for someone to port NetworkManager to FreeBSD. I imagine that it would be easier in most of these cases to start from scratch and write a new application that was built from the ground up to handle the configuration of a given BSD.

One thing this lack of Linuxy tools does is "encourage" the BSD user to become very familiar with the text- (and console-) based utilities baked into a given project. In the case of OpenBSD you'll learn how its networking is extremely flexible, advanced and unlike what's in Linux.

It's not that hard to figure out. You have to be eager and willing to read the FAQ and the man pages. The difference is that man pages in OpenBSD are written to be read, not just as an afterthought. The man pages usually include multiple examples and will get you going quicker than you'd think. So read, re-read and know the FAQ. Spend time with the man pages.

I can say for sure that my knowledge not only of OpenBSD but of all Unix/Linux increased tremendously from running OpenBSD and FreeBSD on actual systems and setting up services, configuring networks and solving problems along the way.

Even though you can run many of the same applications in BSD and Linux, the differences in philosophy and direction can be rather startling.

If you really need more GUI support for configuration, right now PC-BSD (derived from FreeBSD) is your best option. It's a great way to get started in BSD if your console skills are lacking. But in OpenBSD and FreeBSD (these are the two projects I'm most familiar with), there is no shortage of information on how to install and maintain them.

All of this being said, the thing I miss the most in BSD isn't NetworkManager or Wicd. It's gParted. The ability to easily modify partitions after the fact is something I'd really like to have in BSD. If you follow the documentation, creating the disk layout in a BSD install is quite clear (though it helps to do a few practice installs along the way). However, these days I tend to use LVM in Linux, and gParted doesn't handle LVM, so I'm back in the console anyway.

And even though I understand the BSD philosophy of sticking close to the text files for configuration, it would be nice to have more GUI utilities for those who want them.

Last edited by passthejoe; 1st November 2010 at 06:12 PM.
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Old 23rd December 2010
girarde girarde is offline
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You might be pleasantly surprised at what you get from running 'apropos network'.
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