vermaden

Its all nice and small, etc. but its Apples to Oranges comparison.

On FreeBSD You have ZFS with ZFS Boot Environments - which gives GREAT flexibility and protection against all kind od updates, changes and even accidental files deletion in the system. Moving to 'oldschool' LVM and EXT4 is just a huge downgrade. Especially without any advanced features such as compression or snapshots or clones or ... all the other wonders from ZFS.

As from the busybox ... You can also use it on FreeBSD - its under 'sysutils/busybox' port ... and FreeBSD has 'kinda' itself busybox-like solution - its called FreeBSD Rescue System and its located at /rescue. It contains one executable file 17 MB in size (and ZFS lz4 makes that 11 MB) with hardlinks as commands - including all needed ZFS commands - which BusyBox obviously does not have.

    FreeBSD % % du -sm /rescue               
    11      /rescue
    
    FreeBSD % du -smA /rescue
    17      /rescue
    
    FreeBSD % ls /rescue
    [            dhclient          gbde        kldstat         mt            rmdir      umount
    bectl        dhclient-script   geom        kldunload       mv            route      unlink
    bsdlabel     disklabel         getfacl     ldconfig        nc            routed     unlzma
    bunzip2      dmesg             glabel      less            newfs         rrestore   unxz
    bzcat        dump              gpart       link            newfs_msdos   rtquery    unzstd
    bzip2        dumpfs            groups      ln              nextboot      rtsol      vi
    camcontrol   dumpon            gunzip      ls              nos-tun       savecore   whoami
    cat          echo              gzcat       lzcat           pgrep         sed        xz
    ccdconfig    ed                gzip        lzma            ping          setfacl    xzcat
    chflags      ex                halt        md5             ping6         sh         zcat
    chgrp        expr              head        mdconfig        pkill         shutdown   zdb
    chio         fastboot          hostname    mdmfs           poweroff      sleep      zfs
    chmod        fasthalt          id          mkdir           ps            stty       zpool
    chown        fdisk             ifconfig    mknod           pwd           swapon     zstd
    chroot       fetch             init        more            rcorder       sync       zstdcat
    clri         fsck              ipf         mount           rdump         sysctl     zstdmt
    cp           fsck_4.2bsd       iscsictl    mount_cd9660    realpath      tail
    csh          fsck_ffs          iscsid      mount_msdosfs   reboot        tar
    date         fsck_msdosfs      kenv        mount_nfs       red           tcsh
    dd           fsck_ufs          kill        mount_nullfs    rescue        tee
    devfs        fsdb              kldconfig   mount_udf       restore       test
    df           fsirand           kldload     mount_unionfs   rm            tunefs

The MUSL also limits some things - but that is topic for another discussion.

... and do not get me wrong - I like Alpine (same as Void or Gentoo or Devuan) - its just not the same thing.

... and its even possible to setup Alpine with root on ZFS - https://openzfs.github.io/openzfs-docs/Getting%20Started/Alp... - it will just take a quite large amount of work while on FreeBSD you just select 'Auto (ZFS)' installer option and hit enter.

Hope that helps.

Quote:

Heiko Wilke, Senior Product Manager at Beckhoff, notes that with Windows, Beckhoff used 1.5 gigabytes of memory in their devices for Windows installation alone. By comparison, Beckhoff’s smallest device has only 2 gigabytes of RAM.

Because FreeBSD doesn’t include processes that aren’t needed, Beckhoff can reduce its use to about 200 megabytes of RAM usage, according to Heiko Wilke, leaving much more room for additional programs on top of their operating system.

So that is 0.2 GB for FreeBSD while 1.5 GB for Windows.

I have read it – its exaggerated for my standards.

I use FreeBSD on laptops/desktop since 2005 and it mostly works.

Do some things do not work? Sure. Do all things work on Linux? Nope. Do all things work on Windows? Nope. Not to mention how many times Linux or Windows break to the point of reinstall.

From all the OSes I know – and they are a few – FreeBSD sucks the least – just pick the right hardware.

Which is even more strange as Windows CE is being targeted at usually low memory embedded hardware - should have even better memory efficiency.

Its has the same limitations every browser has on Windows/Linux/macOS.

Assuming You have the highest Netflix plan (that allows 4K) - there seems to be other limitations.

I am no Netflix expert - but for example this guide:

- https://www.howtogeek.com/658699/not-getting-netflix-in-4k-h...

Suggests that to watch content in 4K you will need Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 - along with 'correct' Intel CPU and/or modern enough supported NVIDIA GPU.

Actually its possible in several ways - but natively - this way:

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrWIVRLnG1w

Citing one of the sentences from here:

    I mean, do you care what operating system runs your microwave?

That is the neat part - if I have a choice - I do!

There are MANY NAS/storage solutions based on Linux and FreeNAS/TrueNAS CORE was the one I trusted because I knew that ZFS in FreeBSD was always a first class citizen - it was well integrated - along with ZFS Boot Environment support using beadm(8) or bectl(8) tool.

This is the solution I trust to keep my data safe - ZFS on FreeBSD - and it never disappointed me for almost two decades.

On the other hand - I do not have the same level of trust for ZFS on Linux - no to even mention BTRFS or other filesystems.

In the past I always recommended FreeNAS/TrueNAS CORE to my professional colleagues, family and friends as 'THE' solution for safe data storage along with other interesting features such as Bhyve VMs.

Now ... after seeing how iXsystems behaves - killing another of their 'products' based on FreeBSD (In the past they killed PC-BSD/TrueOS/Project Trident/... and maybe something else I do not remember now) I can not recommend any of their solutions as its just not 'stable' - they just lost my trust with these actions.

After TrueNAS CORE is gone and only Linux based TrueNAS SCALE exists - its just another NAS/storage solution based on Linux - nothing more - nothing less - no additional value added.

Hope that helps.

Citing one of the sentences from here:

- https://blocksandfiles.com/2024/04/08/ixsystems-no-one-is-ge...

> I mean, do you care what operating system runs your microwave?

That is the neat part - if I have a choice - I do!

There are MANY NAS/storage solutions based on Linux and FreeNAS/TrueNAS CORE was the one I trusted because I knew that ZFS in FreeBSD was always a first class citizen - it was well integrated - along with ZFS Boot Environment support using beadm(8) or bectl(8) tool.

This is the solution I trust to keep my data safe - ZFS on FreeBSD - and it never disappointed me for almost two decades.

On the other hand - I do not have the same level of trust for ZFS on Linux - no to even mention BTRFS or other filesystems.

In the past I always recommended FreeNAS/TrueNAS CORE to my professional colleagues, family and friends as 'THE' solution for safe data storage along with other interesting features such as Bhyve VMs.

Now ... after seeing how iXsystems behaves - killing another of their 'products' based on FreeBSD (In the past they killed PC-BSD/TrueOS/Project Trident/... and maybe something else I do not remember now) I can not recommend any of their solutions as its just not 'stable' - they just lost my trust with these actions.

After TrueNAS CORE is gone and only Linux based TrueNAS SCALE exists - its just another NAS/storage solution based on Linux - nothing more - nothing less - no additional value added.

Hope that helps.

Try FreeBSD - its available in both Ports and pkg(8) packages :)

    https://freshports.org/www/freenginx

For the record - its 'FreeBSD' not 'Free BSD' name.

Here are more details if interested:

- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2023/06/28/freebsd-jails-cont...

- https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/jails/

Hope that helps,

vermaden

I do not have such experiences with them - and I do not use them since yesterday - but much much longer :)

I have tried to use them in the past - but somehow I never really 'attached' to them - so I stopped using them - but yes, definitely, they can be useful.

To be honest - I am not really interested in Bluetooth in my car - I just wanted a solution that would play my MP3's with random order and nothing more.

The BLOW FM transmitter I use - besides having Bluetooth - also have a builtin microphone - so I may connect phone to it and even use it for loud phone talks ... but I really prefer current MP3's on USB and just play 'setup'.

... and I do not see any difference between CD quality or this FM transmitter quality ... but I am not an audiophile either - so maybe there will be some people that hear the difference. Having 40 years at my neck I will hear less and less frequencies so I believe that will not be a problem :)

Regards,

vermaden

This blog is my 3rd blog attempt.

Earlier two ones are here:

- http://strony.toya.net.pl/~vermaden/links.htm

- http://vermaden.blogspot.com/

This time I did not focused on the layout and things like that - I focused on the content - as now - after 6 years of 'doing' this - http://vermaden.wordpress.com/ - blog - the content is the thing that matters the most.

I also tried other free platforms - but WordPress got me by one important thing - it was the only one from the free ones that allowed REALLY WIDE area for the content of blog posts (with this free theme I use) - that was really important for me for all these commands outputs - so they will not be wrapped - or require scroll everytime.

I know WordPress is not the best platform - but its there and its free - I do not make money out of the things I post there - I just want to share what others may find useful. For that its more then enough for me.

I also do not understand what is wrong with Aliexpress - I regularly buy some things there and they are always the ones that are in the photos/descriptions and they are delivered to the place I live ...

Hope that helps.

Regards, vermaden

23 TiB ... I would use 4 disks for that - each 10 TB or 12 TB in size (depending what room You want).

In RAID5(3) + SPARE with ZFS that would be 'raidz' mode.

    % math 12000000000000000 / 1024 / 1024 / 1024 / 1024
    10913.93

    % math 10000000000000000 / 1024 / 1024 / 1024 / 1024
    9094.94

From 10 TB disks You would have 3 X 9 TiB which means 27 TiB of space available.

From 12 TB disks You would have 3 X 10.5 TiB which means 31.5 TiB of space available.

> 1. I don't need the files to be accessible online, in fact, I would prefer if they were not.

I would keep it on a local LAN w/o Internet access.

> 2. If anything is backed up to the cloud, I want pre-internet-encryption with keys that only I know and control.

Use rclone(1) with its encryption - You can clone these files to S3 in the cloud.

> 3. I want something simple, that could be recovered using a pragmatic approach and open source software in case of a disaster.

I use rsync(1) for forever-incremental backups and rclone(1) to backup some of that into encrypted S3.

My rsync(1) scripts are here (maybe You will find them useful):

- https://github.com/vermaden/scripts/blob/master/rsync-delete...

- https://github.com/vermaden/scripts/blob/master/rsync-delete...

- https://github.com/vermaden/scripts/blob/master/rsync-delete...

- https://github.com/vermaden/scripts/blob/master/rsync-delete...

- https://github.com/vermaden/scripts/blob/master/rsync-delete...

- https://github.com/vermaden/scripts/blob/master/rsync.sh

> 4. I'd like a system where I can easily test my recovery strategy.

Also with rsync(1) ... or anything else for plain dirs/files.

> 1. What local filesystem setup should I use? Number of drives? Local backup approach?

ZFS.

Details about ZFS pool settings here:

- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2023/04/10/silent-fanless-del...

> 2. If you've done this before, is there a strategy that you used for the actual aggregation of the data?

I am doing something similar for 5 TB data set. I have 4 data sets. I use 2.5 5 TB drives with ZFS and GELI encrypted.

    Main Source ==> Backup @ LAN (LOCAL)
             \ \
              \ > Backup @ Internet (SSH) (REMOTE)
               \
                \> Backup @ USB (OFFLINE)

> Are there any particularly convenient IDE to USB docks?

Many - check ALIEXPRESS.COM for tons of them.

> Any good software that you would recommend for locating duplicate files?

    % cargo install czkawka_gui czkawka_cli

You may also use ZFS deduplication for the datasets you KNOW have duplicated data. There is also new ZFS feature Block Cloning - You may want to look into that as well.

> 3. What remote backup software should I use?

I use rsync(1) and rclone(1). The rsync(1) for everything file/dir based. The rclone(1) to put encrypted backups into S3 containers.

Regards, vermaden

Today *Google Chrome* is just the new *Internet Explorer* ...

... and they ALL were (and still are) in production long time before Docker went viral.

The ARMv7 will be kept in 15.x version as supported while all other 32bit archs will not be TIER 1.

The ARMv7 will be dropped in 16.x.

To show here some time span ... FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE will be released in about 2 years from the release of FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE and after that FreeBSD 15.x will be supported for 5 years.

That means there is still 7 years of official FreeBSD support for 32bit ARMv7 devices.

IMHO its more then enough to move to something more relevant.

Actually its the other way around.

FreeBSD Jails are here since year 2000 - 24 years ago.

The Linux answer to FreeBSD Jails is Docker - from 2014 - and later Podman.

Hope that helps.

Regards, vermaden

If - for some reason - FreeBSD would not be available - I would be running NetBSD.

The things I miss in NetBSD (having them on FreeBSD) are:

- ZFS Boot Environments with beadm(8) command.

- Bhyve (I hope NVMM will get to similar level)

- Jails - not sure NetBSD will bring any containers into the 'game' ...

- Probably some other things that I missed because of not not running NetBSD daily.

I heard WINE is not a 1st class NetBSD citizen - so that helps a lot here.

IMHO (with my limited NetBSD experience) seems to look bright ... and I wish NetBSD and NetBSD community all the best.

I use UNIX desktop daily since 19 years and its great.

Details:

- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/freebsd-desktop/

We will see, hopefully it will deliver.

I also got this one - Eaton 3SM36 - https://eaton.com/gb/en-gb/skuPage.3SM36.specifications.html - seems like a 'right' tool for this job.

Regards.

That is true and I must sadly admit that I did not tested that ... after some more research I have found that ZMI QB826G 25000mAh powerbank has that 'ups' feature.

I have already ordered one and I will test with that one.

I also need to add some notice to the article that my first approach failed.

Regards, vermaden

Pity the heading/topic is not like that:

- The Case for Rust in the FreeBSD Base System

Most Linux folks are not aware of what 'base system' means - and that its related to FreeBSD.

About the Rust inclusion - I would include it - and would add these targets:

    # make buildworld (without Rust)
    # make rust (like Rush without 'buildworld')
    # make buildworldrust ('buildworld' + Rust)

Regards.

Good read.

Tried something similar in the past:

- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2019/04/03/silent-fanless-fre...

- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2023/04/10/silent-fanless-del...

Too little too 15 years too late.

One of the reasons I moved from Gentoo 15+ years ago to FreeBSD was that it was mandatory to compile everything while FreeBSD provided binary packages.

It may be not that important today - but it was a game changer with single CPU core and 1GB RAM.

Its just another Xorg/X11 feature that overrated Wayland does not have.

It works the same on FreeBSD and Illumos - its not limited to Linux in any way.

Below example from my http://vermaden.wordpress.com/freebsd-desktop setup.

- https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GChSlZHXIAEgT8T?format=jpg&name=...

- https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GChSlbFWUAA0x6G?format=jpg&name=...

Regards,

vermaden

When I was working on a company that ALL people were in one same office - it sometimes made a difference as I could just stand up from my desk and go to a coworker that I needed to do/fix some stuff.

When the same company started to grow - and had multiple offices across entire Poland - we started to communicate each other with IM/email/teleconferences/...

This is the part when staying in the office was pointless as I/we needed to use IM/email/teleconferences/... anyway - so it does not matter if You do it from home or from the office.

Many manager do not understand that.

I work daily from home and I am not going back to office because of waste of my time (and money). If - for some reason - current employer would try to force me to get back - I am out of company in minutes and getting other job in more mature employer.

My $0.02 on the topic.

Goodbye RHEL.

There are many reasons to use FreeBSD:

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