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Lumina Adds Luster to Linux Desktop

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Lumina Desktop Environment, developed by Ken Moore of TrueOS, has been making rounds in the BSD world and is now being recognized by Linux users alike. Read the article to see how Lumina can be ideal for your Linux workflow, due to its simplicity as a lightweight desktop environment.

luminaThe Lumina Desktop Environment desktop is a standout in the crowded field of Linux graphical user interface choices.

Lumina is a compact, lightweight, XDG-compliant graphical desktop environment developed from scratch. Its focus is on giving users a streamlined, efficient work environment with minimal system overhead.

Lumina was first developed for the BSD family of operating systems (such as FreeBSD and TrueOS). It is gaining interest among Linux users, having been introduced for a growing number of Linux distros.

I installed Fedora 24, Manjaro and PCLinuxOS on several test computers. I chose these popular Linux distros because they have add-on installations available from the Lumina project. This gave me an opportunity to take a first look at the Lumina desktop without applying an excessive amount of overhead.

Read the full story here: http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/84301.html

[How-To] Virtual Private Network with FreeBSD

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This guide by Virtualisation Works shows us how to get a VPN set up with FreeBSD. See the links below for both parts of the tutorial.

vpnWith inexpensive and agile cloud services, it is not unusual for a service to have multiple points of presence around the globe.  In each point of presence, there is usually a per-tenant private network for internal (and confidential) system communications.  One can go further and combine these internal networks together with virtual links. Here I explain the steps how this can be achieved with FreeBSD without relying extra networking services from the cloud vendors.

Virtual Private Network with FreeBSD (Part 1)

If you are following the guide in FreeBSD handbook, you must be frustrated because of the complicated configurations.  Those configurations are good in the sense it restricts the IPsec to particular IP pairs but they are also too tough for purpose of connecting just two routers.  In this example, I break these assumptions and go as minimal as possible so the readers can have a smoother learning curve.  I protect the private ports from unsolicited connections with the help of PF firewall instead of the IPsec configuration.

Virtual Private Network with FreeBSD (Part 2)

[How-To] ownCloud with RaspberryPi 3 and FreeNAS

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In this tutorial, user ro55mo of Level1Tech shows us how to get an ownCloud setup on Raspberry Pi 3, using a FreeNAS system as a data store. Follow the link below for the full set of instructions.

owncloudfreenasThis guide is intended for the installation of OwnCloud on a RaspberryPi 3 with a FreeNAS server as the storage backend.

I am aware this is rather backward as FreeNAS has an OwnCloud plug-in you can install but I wanted to see if it was possible.

Objective

The object is to have the RaspberryPi act as a web front end for the backend storage. Their are guides on doing this with external USB drives but a FreeNAS server with ZFS and RAID struck me as a more sensible storage solution.

The storage must be totally transparent to the user (me). I don’t want to have to rely on the “external” storage module that comes with OwnCloud as these all end up with seperate folders inside your view of OwnCloud. If this was the case and I forgot to upload something to the right folder I could exhaust the 16GG MicroSD card on the RaspberryPi very fast.

As stated elsewhere in the guide my FreeNAS box is not in its “final form” yet. But once it is and I have an offsite backup in place I will replace Dropbox and Google drive with this solution.

Full tutorial: https://forum.level1techs.com/t/guide-owncloud-with-raspberrypi-3-and-freenas/112919/7

BSDNow.TV Episode 180: Illuminating the desktop

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In this BSD Now episode, host Allan Jude interviews Ken Moore while is brother is out of town, regarding the latest of BSD desktop computing and Lumina Desktop Environment. Press play below to tune in:

BSD Now weekly content: http://www.bsdnow.tv/episodes/2017_02_08-illuminating_the_desktop

Jupiter Broadcasting show notes: http://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com/106756/illuminating-the-desktop-bsd-now-180/

Steam on TrueOS via playonbsd

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It looks like running Steam on TrueOS is becoming easier, as reported by Michael Larabel of Phoronix and Josh Smith of TrueOS. Steam can be run using playonbsd, which is based on Wine and can be downloaded from the AppCafe. Check out the link below for the full story and instructions.

steamonbsd

We’ve done a couple of tutorials in the past on using Steam and Wine with PC-BSD, but now with the addition of playonbsd to the AppCafe library, you have more options than ever before to game on your TrueOS system.  We’re going to have a look today at playonbsd, how it works with TrueOS, and what you can expect if you want to give it a try on your own system.  Let’s dive right in!

The first thing you’ll want to do is grab playonbsd from the AppCafe library.  Open up AppCafe and do a quick search.  It should come right up.  Click the download button on the right side to grab and install it on your local system.

Steam on TrueOS: https://www.trueos.org/blog/playonbsd-trueos-getting-steamy-ive-much-/wine

Phoronix: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=TrueOS-AppCafe-Steam

 

Convincing A Linux Guy To Use FreeBSD

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Host Bryan Lunduke invites George Neville-Neil, author and longtime FreeBSD advocate, to discuss FreeBSD. Neville-Neil tries to convince him on how FreeBSD is better than Linux. Click play below to tune in to the Lunduke Hour:

Like what I do? Want the audio podcast RSS feed version of this show?
https://www.patreon.com/bryanlunduke

My free e-books, DRM-free, under the Creative Commons license:
http://lunduke.com/book-store/

Original post: https://thechroniclesofrenard.blogspot.com/2017/02/convincing-linux-guy-to-use-freebsd.html

Bryan Lunduke’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkK9UDm_ZNrq_rIXCz3xCGA

[How-To] Minecraft with Java and Tmux on FreeBSD

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This tutorial by user Virtualisation Works will help you get a Minecraft server set up with Java and Tmux on FreeBSD. Follow the link below for the full set of instructions.

minecraftA virtual world cannot be complete without a virtual reality environment like Minecraft.  In this article, I quickly go through the steps setting a Minecraft server with FreeBSD. Specifically, I will be installing a Spigot Minecraft Server.  I like it very much because it comes with lots of performance optimisations.  I assume you prepared your environment with my customisation script or something similar.  The whole process will take less than one hour if you have a good internet connection.

Step 1: Installing Java, Tmux, Bash, and Friends

As usual, installing packages in FreeBSD is easy.  It is simply “pkg install”.  Yet, Java and Bash requires special file systems at “/dev/fd” and “/proc”.  The file “/etc/fstab” is therefore appended and two more file systems are defined.  The file systems are mounted before we proceed on the next step.

Full tutorial: https://virtualisationworks.wordpress.com/2017/02/02/minecraft-with-java-and-tmux-on-freebsd/

Galera Cluster Packages support for FreeBSD available from Codership

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Codership has announced Galera Cluster Packages support for FreeBSD. Galera Cluster Packages is an open-source database cluster for MySQL high availability, allowing for scaling out or scaling in when needed. You can try it out for FreeBSD by viewing a short tutorial at the link below.

galera_replication1Galera Cluster on FreeBSD

Galera Cluster for MySQL already runs on FreeBSD in large organizations that handle mission-critical and security-sensitive data. With Galera 3.20, we are now providing compilation fixes, ports scripts and binary packages for FreeBSD.

If you are a FreeBSD user, please give those scripts and packages a try! We welcome all feedback at info [&] galeracluster.com .

Binary Packages

You can find Galera Cluster binary packages for FreeBSD in our package repository.

Using the Galera Cluster Ports …

Galera Cluster Packages for FreeBSD – http://galeracluster.com/2017/01/galera-cluster-packages-and-support-for-freebsd-are-now-available-from-codership/

Updating FreeBSD 4.11 – Blast from the past by eerielinux

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User eerielinux posts about updating their FreeBSD 4.11 machine. The version was released in 2005 and was end-of-life’d in 2007. Nonetheless, this article documents an interesting journey of updating a near decade old system. Check out the links below to read this blog series spanned across four posts.

eerie319

Ah, weekend. And it’s a nice day, too: The sun shines on the snowy landscape! A perfect day to go out with the children – or to embark on a vastly different kind of adventure… Yes, you read that title right. This is not about four FreeBSD 11 machines. It’s about one FreeBSD 4.11 machine in 2017!

Legacy systems in general

Why even bother with FreeBSD 4.11 today? Well, most people would probably respect historical interest and in fact I was keen on tinkering with a legendary old 4.x release and see if you can have some fun with it (spoiler: Oh yes, you can!). But this would be a task for times when I have absolutely nothing else to do. So it’s fairly obvious that there’s another reason.

Updating FreeBSD 4.11 (1/4) – Blast from the past

This post is about the first part of updating this fresh 4.11 system to a state that’s a bit less catastrophic. Remember: FreeBSD 4.11 was released in 2005 – however the ABI of each release is carved in stone with a .0 release. Which means that the software in the base system is from 4.0 and thus we venture back into the last millenium: 1999!

Updating FreeBSD 4.11 (2/4) – Digging up old graves

This post will cover installing newer software.

Any bets?

So far we have a pkgsrc tree from mid 2007 and things seem to be working. However that’s pretty close to 4.11’s release in 2005 and thus not too amazing. Working with such an old system there are plenty of cases which mean “game over”.

Updating FreeBSD 4.11 (3/4) – Neophyte’s notorious necromancy

This post details some more updates until we reach the final state that’s possible with such an old system (without resorting to extreme means).

Planting a new tree

So far we’ve built some packages from 2013 and before. Using a current pkgsrc tree won’t work – the various pkgsrc tools that our system has are too old. It might not be too big a step but we can use a tree from the second half of 2014.

Updating FreeBSD 4.11 (4/4) – Reflecting radical resurrection