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vermadenon Nvidia: No Backdoors. No Kill Switches. No Spyware

Its strange because NVIDIA officially supports FreeBSD and provides official binary driver for FreeBSD ... but for some reason known only to NVIDIA - it does not contain/support CUDA on FreeBSD.

vermadenon I prefer human-readable file formats

Me too.

Especially in ASCIIDOC/HTML/TXT/PDF files - for PDF files also a copy of ODF/ODT for editing where possible.

Then I can search for anything needed with grep(1) or pdfgrep(1) commands.

vermadenon Tribblix – The Retro Illumos Distribution

You can create ZFS pools that are more or less compatible with anything.

Details here:

- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2022/03/25/zfs-compatibility/

vermadenon Laptop Support and Usability (LSU): July 2025 Report

Funny because the only person they do not work for is you ... you seem to be very special.

vermadenon Laptop Support and Usability (LSU): July 2025 Report

Yep. The 's0ix' is bullshit. S3 suspend/resume worked just fine.

... but in the end of the day what more can You do?

I would say 'vote with your wallet' ... but that also does not work anymore.

Take a look at laptop keyboard layouts [1] ... does not matter if MNT, Framework, KDE, ThinkPad, ... whatever - does not matter - NO ONE make 7-row keyboards in laptops anymore ... we are fucked :[

[1] https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2022/02/07/epitaph-to-laptops...

vermadenon Laptop Support and Usability (LSU): July 2025 Report

I was talking about the ZFSBootMenu part - the encryption part is easy.

vermadenon Laptop Support and Usability (LSU): July 2025 Report

Thanks. Its basically ThinkPad T480 with just ThinkPad T25 Palm Rest and Keyboard ... the problem is that Lenovo only made 5000 of these ThinkPad T25 ... and now all the ANSI US keyboards are GONE.

I also have the original ThinkPad T25 ... but its I just passed 2 years time of searching for ANSI US keyboard for it ... they are just like ghosts.

vermadenon Laptop Support and Usability (LSU): July 2025 Report

When You make research how to make it for the first time - it can - if you want to check at least several different guides ... but that covers only the encryption part.

There is also the ZFSBootMenu part ...

If you have done this at least once - noted the commands, etc. - it will take shorter - but never shorter then FreeBSD 'Auto (ZFS)' option in the bsdinstall(8) installer where you just select the disk on which it needs to happen and hit [ENTER] key.

vermadenon Laptop Support and Usability (LSU): July 2025 Report

Thanks.

vermadenon Laptop Support and Usability (LSU): July 2025 Report

I have tried multiple Linux system and besides faster WiFi I never find what I look for on the Linux land - but thank You for suggestion.

Also - even if I would be forced to use Linux - I would probably setup it with ZFSBootMenu and Root on ZFS - I believe Fedora does not allow any of these?

vermadenon Laptop Support and Usability (LSU): July 2025 Report

Thanks.

vermadenon Laptop Support and Usability (LSU): July 2025 Report

All the details are here:

- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2024/10/29/operate-android-de...

vermadenon Laptop Support and Usability (LSU): July 2025 Report

Root on ZFS is not a problem.

While You can spend some hours installing Linux with ZFSBootMenu and LUKS encrypted Root on ZFS - there are ZERO Linux distributions that allow ZFS Boot Environments out of the box.

That is the reason 'why' Linux is not the first class ZFS citizen.

vermadenon Laptop Support and Usability (LSU): July 2025 Report

Earlier I used FreeBSD on ThinkPad W520 (because keyboard):

- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2022/04/14/freebsd-13-1-on-th...

.. and recently moved to FrankenPad T25 that is based on T480 (because keyboard):

- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2025/06/26/freebsd-14-3-on-fr...

I do everything on FreeBSD including work.

Some of the topics I covered:

- Unlock Laptop with Phone

- Conferencing and Meetings

- Netflix Signal Telegram

- Network Management with network.sh

- FreeBSD Power Management

- FreeBSD Suspend/Resume

- Oldschool Gaming on FreeBSD

- Minecraft Server in FreeBSD Jails Container

- Secure Containerized Browser

- Print on FreeBSD

- Scan on FreeBSD

- Sensible Firefox Setup

- Operate Android Device on FreeBSD

- FreeBSD Alongside Windows

To just name a few ... because I am slowly closing to 200 of these FreeBSD related articles.

    % ls ~/misc/verblog/POSTS | wc -l                   
         175

Regards, vermaden

vermadenon Laptop Support and Usability (LSU): July 2025 Report

If you just want a browser and notepad - then ANY system would do - even Android on X86 PC.

If you want a powerful development/work environment - and you do like what and how Linux provides here - use Linux - but as I was not satisfied with what/how Linux provided I looked somewhere else and I landed in FreeBSD.

Here are some of the reasons and conclusions I came to after using FreeBSD (and also Linux/AIX/HP-UX/Solaris in various jobs) for about 20 years.

Here:

- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2020/09/07/quare-freebsd/

vermadenon Ask HN: Have you ever regretted open-sourcing something?

Never.

vermadenon Nvidia: No Backdoors. No Kill Switches. No Spyware

No CUDA on FreeBSD.

No Open Source Drivers.

vermadenon Crucial FreeBSD Toolkit

I can relate to that.

Do not kill yourself with that W11 setup - if that will make You feel better - I keep W10 gaming rig for more modern games:

- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2023/07/30/amd-based-freebsd-...

... and when possible I play the oldschool ones I still love on FreeBSD:

- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2020/10/14/oldschool-gaming-o...

I also signed my son for some early programming lessons ... and yes - that also requires some W10/W11 setup :[

> Somewhere in my archives, I have a photo of the screen.

Please share when possible - would love to see that :)

I was too young to really work with even FreeBSD 4.x series - as I started in the 'late' 5.4 series.

Where do You live BTW? Europe? America? Asia?

vermadenon Crucial FreeBSD Toolkit

That is a comment that I did not expected - but its a very welcome one - kudos to You too mate.

23 years ... more then two decades ... crazy.

Here are the rest part of the story if You are interested:

- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2018/09/07/my-freebsd-story/

I wonder which path You took ... Linux? Windows? macOS? Something else?

Generally I liked FreeBSD that much that I focused entirely on it - and while I needed to work on AIX/Solaris/HP-UX and mostly Linux systems all those years - finally in 2022 I was able to get work that is mostly FreeBSD related ... partly thanks to that blog I started.

Kind regards,

vermaden

vermadenon FreeBSD Kernel Modules Pkg(8) Repositories

I also watch Sylve development and progress with curiosity :)

vermadenon FreeBSD Kernel Modules Pkg(8) Repositories

> It sounds corny to say but FreeBSD changed my life is a measurable way.

Mine too.

vermadenon FreeBSD Kernel Modules Pkg(8) Repositories

I often do not have enough luck to get to the HN front page so if You are interested in more such FreeBSD content - https://vermaden.wordpress.com/ - then its right here.

vermadenon FreeBSD Kernel Modules Pkg(8) Repositories

After TrueNAS CORE went dead and iXsystems focused on Linux based SCALE version the free and open source 'zVault' fork of TrueNAS CORE happened - https://zvault.io - its page here.

One of my buddies switched from TrueNAS SCALE to FreeBSD based zVault and is more then happy:

- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2024/04/20/truenas-core-versu...

He does not have really high expectations - besides having about 2TB of data he runs one Bhyve VM with Linux 'Home Assistant' and one FreeBSD Jail with 'Plex Media Server'.

vermadenon FreeBSD Kernel Modules Pkg(8) Repositories

I believe you already played with /usr/src/sys/amd64/conf/MINIMAL kernel?

vermadenon The X.Org Server just got forked (announcing XLibre)

I run out of mental capacity for the Wayland bullshit - I am really looking forward to this X11 fork!

vermadenon Linux Emulation in FreeBSD

Keep in mind that this is not EMULATION.

The Linux syscalls are just implemented into FreeBSD.

In 1998-1999 they literally used FreeBSD with Linux Abstraction Layer and run Linux apps on FreeBSD instead of using Linux natively because it was faster that way.

Relevant 'press release' here:

- https://www.freebsd.org/press/press-rel-1/

vermadenon 4chan was still running on a version of FreeBSD from 2019

Not from 2019 - from 2014.

FreeBSD 10.1 was released in 2014 and reached EoL in 2018.

I can compile FreeBSD 10.1 today and the displayed date by `uname` will be 2025 - that does not mean that code is from 2025 - only that it was compiled in 2025.

Hope that helps.

vermadenon FreeBSD Jails Security (Versus Podman)

> The first point seems just wrong.

I will modify that.

> No citations for the majority of it either.

To exactly what you need citations?

vermadenon Apple’s Darwin OS and XNU Kernel Deep Dive

I believe you have wrong view of how secure FreeBSD Jails are - definitely a lot more secure the rootless Podman for a start.

Isolation: With rootless Podman it seems to be on the same level as Jails - but only if You run Podman with SELinux or AppArmor enabled. Without SELinux/AppArmor the Jails offer better isolation. When you run Podman with SELinux/AppArmor and then you add MAC Framework (like mac_sebsd/mac_jail/mac_bsdextended/mac_portacl) the Jails are more isolated again.

Kernel Syscalls Surface: Even rootless Podman has 'full' syscall access unless blocked by seccomp (SELinux). Jails have restricted use of syscalls without any additional tools - and that can be also narrowed with MAC Framework on FreeBSD.

Firewall: You can not run firewall inside rootless Podman container. You can run entire network stack and any firewall like PF or IPFW independently from the host inside VNET Jail - which means more security.

TL;DR: FreeBSD Jails are generally more secure out-of-the-box compared to Podman containers and even more secure if you take the time to add additional layers of security.

> How battle-tested are FreeBSD Jails?

Jails are in production since 1999/2000 when they were introduced - so 25 years strong - very well battle tested.

Docker is with us since 2014 so that means about 10 years less - but we must compare to Podman ...

Rootless support for Podman first appeared late 2019 (1.6) so only less then 6 years to test.

That means Jails are the most battle tested of all of them.

Hope that helps.

Regards,

vermaden

vermadenon Minecraft Server in FreeBSD Jails Container

Thanks, when I read it know it really sounds like LLM :)

Say hello to vermadenGPT :]