vermaden

As FreeBSD UNIX user and sysadmin for about 20 years now - FreeBSD importing some systemd(1) fork is the LAST thing I want to see in the FreeBSD land.

In other words - to make it simple - get the fuck out of my lawn with that shit.

Here is my take on that topic:

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43594043

Since there is not native (or source code) for Minecraft Bedrock for FreeBSD you can run Bedrock Minecraft server on FreeBSD using Linux Jail - with Linux Binary Compatibility FreeBSD feature.

Details here:

- https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/minecraft-bedrock-edition...

> Can you provide proof? It feels like an empty statement.

Here:

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43594043

Sure - lets have a discussion about differences between security of FreeBSD Jails and Linux Podman containers.

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

I daily use FreeBSD on 2011 (14 years old now) legendary ThinkPad W520.

Details here:

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

Article is about FreeBSD 13.1 - but as time passed I followed all new versions and its at 14.2 now.

Config did not changed - still running strong.

> - [0] https://klarasystems.com/articles/

I personally wrote several of them :)

... and if someone looks for more reasons 'why' FreeBSD then here they are:

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

But it also have drawbacks :)

But being honest - you can install BASH that way:

# pkg install -y bash

Building Firefox on FreeBSD:

    # make -C /usr/ports/www/firefox build

Done :)

Just use Firefox:

- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2024/03/18/sensible-firefox-s...

Thank You :)

At least they sponsor some of the work:

Check all the 'Sponsored by: Apple Inc.' commit messages here:

https://freshbsd.org/?q=sponsored+by+apple+inc

Basically each FreeBSD MAJOR version - like 13.x or 14.x had 5 years lifetime/support (like LTS) - it was shortened to 4 years only recently.

Details:

- https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-announce/2024-Jul...

You are right - its Suspend to RAM - I wanted to reply fast ... which did not ended well.

I believe FreeBSD is usually treated as a 'server' operating system 'useless' on the desktop/laptop pattern usage.

The point is to show that FreeBSD is a general purpose operating system and also works great on the desktop/laptop scenario.

> Not sure if the embedded video is suspend to RAM or disk.

Its Suspend to Disk (S3).

> Also not sure why there wasn't a PW prompt upon resume, but I'm not a BSD person, just someone who is paranoid about PW prompts.

The purpose of this videos were to show only the suspend/resume process of FreeBSD system.

In my daily life I have two shortcuts related to this:

- [SUPER] + [L] - locks the system and leaves it running - and it requires to enter password

- [SUPER] + [CTRL] + [ALT] + [L] - locks the system AND PUTS IT INTO S3 SLEEP - and it requires to enter password if you wake it up

Hope that helps.

Regards,

vermaden

FreeBSD - from what I know - does not support Hibernation (S4) - it supports Suspend/Resume (S3) - as shown in video.

The difference:

Suspend/Resume (S3)

CPU is powered off. RAM maintains power and data. Very low power usage. Sometimes referred to as 'Save to RAM' or 'Standby'.

Hibernation (S4)

CPU is powered off. RAM is powered off. Data/RAM/files wrote to disk. Power is off. Sometimes referred to as 'Save to Disk'.

The purpose of this videos were to show only the suspend/resume process of FreeBSD system.

In my daily life I have two shortcuts related to this:

- [SUPER] + [L] - locks the system and leaves it running - and it requires to enter password

- [SUPER] + [CTRL] + [ALT] + [L] - locks the system AND PUTS IT INTO S3 SLEEP - and it requires to enter password if you wake it up

Hope that helps.

Regards,

vermaden

For the record - this FreeBSD installation from videos also uses Full Disk Encryption in the form of GELI under the ZFS - its really brain dead simple to setup - just use 'Auto (ZFS)' option in the FreeBSD bsdinstall(8) installer and set Encrypt Disks to YES - nothing else required.

Hi,

> It looks like this particular FreeBSD installation (we don't know if it's out of the box or customized, and haven't seen it side by side with another hardware setup) works very well.

All the settings I use are documented here - and its nothing special really - most people using FreeBSD on laptops use them:

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

- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2018/11/28/the-power-to-serve...

> Wonder if the results are the same if they closed the lid rather than remembering to press the button.

I often just close the lid and DO NOT want the laptop to go to sleep - that is why I do not use it - but it works the same with hw.acpi.lid_switch_state=S3 in /etc/sysctl.conf file - it does not matter for FreeBSD if zzz(8) commands triggers S3 state or something else.

> Also, I wonder why this doesn't trigger any authentication when starting back up. Anyone could snatch that laptop and still be logged in.

The purpose of this videos were to show only the suspend/resume process of FreeBSD system.

In my daily life I have two shortcuts related to this:

- [SUPER] + [L] - locks the system and leaves it running - and it requires to enter password

- [SUPER] + [CTRL] + [ALT] + [L] - locks the system AND PUTS IT INTO S3 SLEEP - and it requires to enter password if you wake it up

Hope that helps.

Regards,

vermaden

In terms of suspend/resume case I believe the experience is generally the same - it just works on FreeBSD.

In the background its Balatro game running on WINE64.

Rally game is Colin McRae Rally 2.0 on WINE32.

Top left is Sensible World of Soccer 96/97 game running on DOSBox.

Probably because I got used to it.

I had used 'desktop' in the past - like 1998-2008 - but later as I got laptop and needed to be more 'mobile' the laptop was more desired.

Then I 'spent' many years (2012-2022) on a couch with IKEA laptop stand - that worked too.

Lately when I have finally done a proper desk again - I added some 'desktop' for either FreeBSD package building with Poudriere or for some casual gaming as AMD Ryzen 1700 with 8C/16T and AMD Radeon 5700 does quite good job at it.

... and I do not use just 'any' laptops. I still use ThinkPad XY20 series from 2011 - they all have that great 7-row keyboard and are VERY usable.

As for the upgrades of the hardware - mine ThinkPad W520 can have TWO 2.5 disks at the same time and additional THIRD disk in mSATA port. I also have 4 RAM slots - populated at maximum 32 GB total ... and about a price? Its possible to get one for $200-$300 range.

Even if you want something more modern - like ThinkPad T495 with AMD Ryzen - I recently got one for $240 - along with 4 cores and 16 GB RAM. I also got ThinkPad T14 with 6C/12T AMD Ryzen also with 16 GB RAM for $260. These are not expensive toys ...

Do not confuse 'system' and 'data' sizes.

For this 16GB I was thinking the space only for FreeBSD base system and pkg(8) packages. Nothing more.

Some reasons here:

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

FreeBSD already uses GPU drivers from Linux and also starts to use Linux WiFi drivers.

FreeBSD upgrade and packaging will change a lot in 15.0.

Currently - up to 14.x - the freebsd-update(8) command is used for upgrades - and yes - it can require manual intervention - but one can also use it in unattended mode like that:

    # env PAGER=cat freebsd-update fetch
    # env PAGER=cat freebsd-update install

But the FreeBSD 15.x will use PKGBASE concept [1] and [2] and parts of the system will be 'just' pkg(8) packages and also maintained by pkg(8) - so FreeBSD Base System upgrades will be just pkg(8) commands - just like now with non system packages.

[1] https://wiki.freebsd.org/PkgBase

[2] https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2023/12/09/personal-freebsd-p...

Thanks.

I know - but I would like to see an option that 'forces' the use of Base System compiler instead of building/installing another one ...

Why have LLVM in FreeBSD Base System if I have to add additional LLVM by Ports or package?

    % pkg info|grep Clang 
    llvm15-15.0.7_10               LLVM and Clang

IMHO both Rust and LLVM should be OUT of Base System.