BSD 4.4 and IRCAM Workstation

Next month I'm buying a book on BSD 4.4 Lite the last BSD released by the University of California Berkeley research group and learning how to install a pure BSD 4.4 OS. Apple used BSD 4.4, NeXtStep (I have GNUStep) then Darwin (I do have my Darwin 8.0 release given to me by Apple). I'm doing all of this on an older Gateway tablet PC the GNU Step might not work we'll see. There is nextspace for Linux. As for as IRCAM I got my musical workstation from Stanford.maybe in 2020. The paper is here

MATE desktop environment and Slim

To install the MATE desktop environment and Slim so you can design your own Slim themes. Please no baby picture themes please. First "pkg delete" all of your old desktop environment packages and settings and then remove and unwanted dependencies with "pkg autoremove". The installation of a new desktop envirnoment is usually done after a clean install of FreeBSD. If some of the packages names change over time be sure to look them up on the freshports website.


Step 1:

 #pkg install xf86-video-ati mate-desktop mate xorg  

Step 2:

Add the following lines to /etc/rc.conf

 moused_enable="YES"  
 dbus_enable="YES"  
 hald_enable="YES"  

Step 3:

 #pkg install slim  

Step 4:

Add the following line to /etc/rc.conf

 slim_enable="YES"  

Step 5:

Create the following .xinitrc file in the user’s home directory and add the following line.

 exec mate-session  

Step 6:

You might have to configure slim by enabling the following line in your slim.conf file. Or if you are using bash enable it for bash.

 login_cmd   exec /bin/sh - ~/.xinitrc %session  

Reboot

Why FreeBSD?

Here is an IBM article on why I kept choosing FreeBSD. There are differences in the kernel. And there isn't as much support like Linux as there should be.

Cairo Dock and Plugins

The Cairo Dock and it's plugins need to be compiled from source. They are available in the ports at:

 /usr/ports/deskutils/cairo-dock  

and

 /usr/ports/deskutils/cairo-dock-plugins  

a simple "make install clean" for both will work. It may take about 30 mins or so depending on your machine. For the 3d effect select the 3d plane in the docks configuration settings. To tweak and remove the bottom toolbar use the "dconf editor". Finally add add the dock to your startup programs.

My very first FreeBSD Toolkit (no not from ebay)

Latest FreeBSD update

I noticed on the FreeBSD list someone asked about the latest security update for 10.3 RELEASE.
I've been a volunteer for FreeBSD for about 15 years now. And speaking from experience if the:

#freebsd-update fetch install 

doesn't work like it should. You might have to do a source update ans described in the latest security advisories here.You also might want to have these updates in a cron job  This is also in the handbook.