Migrating to FreeBSD

Completely and utterly unrelated.

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Migrating to FreeBSD

Post by MattKingUSA »

After many years of being a Linux user I have decided to migrate to FreeBSD.

Fortunately I am still able to continue using the same software that I am used to having on Linux.

At the moment I am still in the process of learning the system but so far there are few things that differ.

The compat layers available also mean that I am able to run Linux software natively on the system.

Just wanted to announce on LM.

I'm not planning on going anywhere. Though I am not technically a Linux musician any longer I will still be utilizing the same software and technologies as everyone else.

-Matt

-Matt :D

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Re: Migrating to FreeBSD

Post by GMaq »

Hi!

Best of luck, keep us in the loop about how it's going and what works well!

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Re: Migrating to FreeBSD

Post by MattKingUSA »

Absolutely will do here in the off topic. I don't think it would be appropriate to have a FreeBSD section on the board. But I may post here on this thread on how things are going.

-Matt :D

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Re: Migrating to FreeBSD

Post by d.healey »

What was the reason you decided to switch?

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Re: Migrating to FreeBSD

Post by MattKingUSA »

I have many reasons but they're likely not valuable to state here on the forum.

The one big difference between a BSD and a Linux kernel based OS I have seen is the vastly superior hardware support that Linux offers users.

The move isn't much of a change honestly. I was running gnome Wayland on Fedora 37 with LVM BTRFS with two sold state drives. And now I have Z file system with raid and gnome Wayland. There are a few tools that are not available due system differences but there are few of them. The wifi tools differ as well as file system tools and I believe OpenBSD offers no support for Bluetooth. Those are some very big differences.

I will say that some reasons are technical and implementation methods. Some of the main reasons though are not technical in nature. They're more economic reasons and project direction as well as outside influence in the technology.

Considering that I am a supporter of GNU and free software I don't believe that BSD is any more of an issue than mainline Linux in regard to freedom respecting software.

But if for no other reason I am enjoying using FreeBSD and finding it challenging in some ways which has made computing a bit more exciting. It's akin to Linux back in the early 2000s in some ways and I am really enjoying it so far.

-Matt :D

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Re: Migrating to FreeBSD

Post by MattKingUSA »

So I am testing a lot of things. So far it's not much different than Linux. In fact I forget I'm on FreeBSD and just do things as usual in the terminal without thinking about it. Still tweaking the audio a bit and things seem to work as intended. I have run into some issues but I will come back to those after the release of FreeBSD 13.2 at the moment I am running a release candidate.

I am testing gaming as well and again games are working as expected. I have run into some xdg errors and will address those after installing the official release.

But as of right now I'm basically just running the same setup as usual just on FreeBSD. I've yet to run into any roadblocks.

-Matt :D

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Re: Migrating to FreeBSD

Post by Michael Willis »

If we're not careful with this conversation, @GMaq might go rogue and rebase AVLinux on to FreeBSD... And then where would we be? For starters, he would have to decide whether to change the name or to just let it be a big lie.

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Re: Migrating to FreeBSD

Post by MattKingUSA »

Michael Willis wrote: Fri Mar 31, 2023 4:14 pm

If we're not careful with this conversation, @GMaq might go rogue and rebase AVLinux on to FreeBSD... And then where would we be? For starters, he would have to decide whether to change the name or to just let it be a big lie.

lol that is hilarious. You know there is no widevine on BSD. That means BSD is actually more free software than Linux is. Woah! I can't imagine trying to port an entire Linux distro to a BSD base. That sounds like a very very long process.

EDIT: Not to mention, the hardware support is no where close to the support you find in Linux.

-Matt :D

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Re: Migrating to FreeBSD

Post by MattKingUSA »

I did want to mention the linuxulator which is a Linux compatibility tool. It allows a full install of Ubuntu and allows things like steam for Linux or brave and chrome etc. There is also a default Linux compat tool based on CentOS. And then these technologies can be combined with jails that can be mounted in fstab to allow using them like another system program. I am actually using linuxulator to run Linux steam client. The majority of proprietary things utilize the the support Linux offers. Which is kind of weird to move to FreeBSD only to run software through a Linux compatibility tool. Lol

-Matt :D

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Re: Migrating to FreeBSD

Post by MattKingUSA »

You know it may actually be interesting to see a bsd for music production. Enabling rt in the kernel is very simple. I could see that being something in the future. I am unable to do more testing for audio at the moment myself. But I plan to very soon. I'm actually getting to know the os on a small Celeron system I put together.

I have attached an image of the system

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BeeLink U59 - Celeron N5095 - 32GB DDR4 - 512GB m.2 sata - 240GB Sata 2.5" - rgb 60% keyboard mx browns - 3x sla batteries with charge indicator - 2x 8" ips 1024x768 displays using HDMI - cheap rgb dollar store modded speakers - steel series gaming mouse - steel Porter cable tiger saw case. Lol

I can say that audacity is flawless and is latest version with live effects. So that's kind of cool. Ardour is latest and Jack starts fine. I've recorded nothing with them yet but only playback. Lmms stopped launching after enabling rt for some reason. But I'll come back to those later. Lots of things to learn about still.

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-Matt :D

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Re: Migrating to FreeBSD

Post by GMaq »

Lol, That system is the bomb! Really cool!

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Re: Migrating to FreeBSD

Post by MattKingUSA »

GMaq wrote: Sat Apr 01, 2023 5:43 pm

Lol, That system is the bomb! Really cool!

Lol thanks! I actually used it to inflate tires on a riding lawn mower today. I used automotive connectors for the power output from the 3 SLA batteries in a series. And the power to the computer is regulated using automotive barrel connectors that regulate the power to 12V 5A. I have never used it for anything another than computing. But today it solved a tire pressure issue lol. The first time I've helped someone inflate a tire using a computer. To clarify, was using an automotive tire air compressor that requires a large automotive connector to function. I also have a CB radio that is wired to work on this machine.

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-Matt :D

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Re: Migrating to FreeBSD

Post by English Guy »

Interesting. The last time I looked at this BSD was not pro audio capable, especially in terms of low latency.

I will be very interested to know how this works out

Last edited by English Guy on Tue Apr 04, 2023 4:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Migrating to FreeBSD

Post by MattKingUSA »

English Guy wrote: Sun Apr 02, 2023 4:39 pm

Interesting. The last time I looked at this BSD was not pro audio capable, especially in terms of low latency.

I will be very interesting to know how this works out

I fully expect roadblocks and pitfalls during the process of setting up audio. I'm expecting it to be full of problems. With that said I am hopeful.

-Matt :D

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Re: Migrating to FreeBSD

Post by folderol »

FWIW Yoshimi is known to work on freeBSD :D

The Yoshimi guy {apparently now an 'elderly'}
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