This grew from a previous
SimpleDesktop thread that built a lightweight Desktop Environment (DE) in OpenBSD. The older project relied on manually edited configuration scripts and menus. This iteration produces a fast, lightweight stacking desktop with a resting memory footprint around 320mb. When a user adds an application that has a freedesktop compliant *.desktop entry, it will automatically be added to the menu.
The primary goal is to provide a lightweight infrastructure that will not utilize resources that are better allocated to your actual task. The base OpenBSD install has a proactive approach to security and code correctness. If there is an OpenBSD application in the base install, for example xterm and the ksh shell, it is used instead of installing urxvt/bash. FreeDesktop compliant start scripts and *desktop file have been added to ~/Scripts and ~/.local.
Another project goal is to utilize the lightest application that will provide the needed functionality. An example is playing audio files/streams which should not consume 50% of your cpu while you're simultaneously preforming another task.
music/ncmpc was chosen to manage the music player daemon as it is lightweight and resource efficient. NCMPC/MPD used less than 2% of my old i386 cpu. The second "recommended apps" was chosen using the preceeding criteria. For common tasks, a subsequent
post goes into details.
The last goal is to provide enough documentation during the install process to expose new OpenBSD users to package management and system management.
These instructions have been validated for version 7.6. The initial pkg_add installation remains a 2 step process; the first applications are core and cannot be altered without significant reconfiguration. The second set of recommended applications have been updated for gtk3+/gtk4+ and python3.
Users have the option to replace any of the recommended apps with packages listed
here. For example; If you prefer a graphical mpd client, in the install list, replace ncmpc with say
audio/sonata. If you remove an ncurses app, you will need to either delete or hide (NoDisplay=true) the ~/.local/share/applications desktop entry.
The project is always looking to improve and will look at any suggestions, scripts and applications. To keep this thread semi-organized, please respond in the
BareGUI Development thread.
Changes for 7.6
mail/claws-mail replaced the alpine client. Claws-mail has it own addressbook so abook was removed.
x11/pcmanfm replaced midnight commander as the file manager
The above applications are gtk3+.
graphics/gimp has two options; version 2.10 which is gtk2+ and version 2.99 which is gtk3+. Version 2.99 is in testing but works well with python 3.
Changes for 7.5
None so far.
Changes for 7.4
Corrected ~/Scripts/mc_start.sh for UTF-8. Tested in a new full install.
This should also generate BareGUI for OpenBSD 7.3 and Current.
Update: There is an OpenBox bug that results in a crash when an application running in full screen mode exits:
x11/openbox broken with 7.4 upgrade
A patch is in the works:
OpenBox patch
openbox-3.6.1p12 committed to current and backported to 7.4Release.
Changes for 7.3
All applications are updated for gtk3 and Python3
sysutils/tray-app was replaced with a yad script to control audio volume. The port maintainer is caught up in the Ukrainian conflict and was unable to update to gtk3. The
x11/yad script is gtk3 based and interfaces with OpenBSD own sndio audio server.
multimedia/mpv replaced the old gtk2 gnome-player.
x11/jgmenu updated to 4.4.1. Jgmenu no longer relies on menu-cache which was also removed. Changed gtk theme for Arc and provided instructions to install an openbox Arc theme These instructions can be used to install any openbox theme at
Box-look.
Sylpeed was removed, as it still relies on gtk2, and replaced with
mail/alpine.
mail/abook was added and pre-configured to work with alpine.
mail/abook can import and export multiple addressbook formats including; vcard, ldif, csv, pine and palmcsv. Alpine itself is a currently maintained evolution of pine which was widely
provided to college students. Once setup, archive a copy of the pinerc configuration file and you will be able to run on just about every platform (Mac, Windows, RHEL, Debian etc). Alpines configuration will depend on your email provider and helpful resources are in post #6 in this thread.
Abook and Alpine configuration files were moved from ~/.abook and ~/.pinerc to ~/.config/abook ~/.config/alpine/pinerc respectively. All configuration files are now in ~/.config which should make backup easier.
There are 2 versions of GIMP and the user will have the option to select either the older gtk2/python2 version or the still in testing gtk3/python3 version. I've been using the newer version although there are still some minor issues.
The basic layout is similar to Mac OS/X interface. A bottom, one-click launcher for commonly used applications. A full menu is accessed by right-clicking on a blank area of the desktop or hitting the "Menu" key.
The following "hot" key combinations are setup. C=ctrl, A=alt, Up=up arrow, Down=down arrow
- C-A-b: starts Firefox-esr
- C-A-e: starts alpine
- C-A-t:: starts xterm
- C-Up: Audio volume up 7%
- C-Down: Audio volume down 7%
- C-m: Audio mute toggle
- Alt-tab To select any window in the Stack
Even though the ability to customize the DE has been simplified, users still need to be familiar with the OpenBSD
FAQ,
man pages,
package management and text editing. A Base OpenBSD install provides
vi, mg, ed and xedit.
This project essentially chooses web browsers, email clients and office suites using criteria described later. All chosen apps are tested prior to release. After adding the additional packages, the DE is functionally the same as the older SimpleDesktop project.
To get started, click the link to download. Extract the following tarball and the README should take you the rest of the way.
BareGUI76.tar.gz
If you are working from a new OpenBSD install, without a browser, this base ftp command should download:
Code:
ftp -o BareGUI76.tar.gz https://daemonforums.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=1220&d=1731088789
If you find this to be time saving and useful, consider supporting the OpenBSD project.
OpenBSD Donations
Link for review:
Czech review
Above Link Translated