from Arch to FreeBSD

Kirby

Kirby

Hello!

i was thinking on explaining the why etc of me wanting to switch to FreeBSD but i don't think it's that important other than just finding the solution for music production

well, i've been using Arch for about a year now but i don't have any reasons to keep using it really, i use KDE and Waveform13 DAW, all i want is my games to work alongside being able to produce music and having hardware support for my audio interface, midi etc
i have a really vague idea on how FreeBSD handles stuff so if you have any useful links, feel free to comment them, i'm doing my research about it in the meantime but i hope there's any music producers that can guide me
arch was my first linux distro as a windows user so i guess i like challenges and learning:)
so what should i know?
 
Kirby said:
Hello!

i was thinking on explaining the why etc of me wanting to switch to FreeBSD but i don't think it's that important other than just finding the solution for music production

well, i've been using Arch for about a year now but i don't have any reasons to keep using it really, i use KDE and Waveform13 DAW, all i want is my games to work alongside being able to produce music and having hardware support for my audio interface, midi etc
i have a really vague idea on how FreeBSD handles stuff so if you have any useful links, feel free to comment them, i'm doing my research about it in the meantime but i hope there's any music producers that can guide me
arch was my first linux distro as a windows user so i guess i like challenges and learning:)
so what should i know?
Click to expand...
Just keep in mind that most open source programs are made with Linux in mind, as consequence some ports take longer to arrive in BSDland or it doesn't come at all because are incompatible with BSD's or because nobody was interested in porting so far.
 
Kirby said:
arch was my first linux distro as a windows user so i guess i like challenges and learning
Click to expand...
As I understand it arch is on a continuous rolling release scheme, that's not the case for FreeBSD. FreeBSD has a different support model compared to other *NIX-es, most notably Linux distro's. What may not be immediately evident from the FreeBSD Handbook and often comes as unexpected for those that are new to FreeBSD, is the relation and difference between -RELEASE, -STABLE and -CURRENT; have a look at the thread LTS support and version clarifications; relevant updated status: FreeBSD Versions
 
In general you can only expect USB class compliant audio interfaces to work.

Does your DAW have a Linux version or do you use a Windows binary in Wine?
 
Kirby said:
games [...] produce music [...] hardware support [...] what should i know
Click to expand...
Some random bits of info you might find useful:

  • Wine games should work as they do on Linux. Our Wine port is pretty up to date. Though DXVK and Vulkan stuff may be missing.
  • Steam games will generally work with some fiddling and via the Linux compat layer. But I don't know if its worth it. Perhaps keep a separate Windows gaming machine?
  • General hardware support on FreeBSD is pretty good. Though for audio devices your options are a little more limited. That said, Linux isn't great either, so perhaps you can share your specific hardware?
  • We do have PulseAudio which uses OSS as a backend (rather than ALSA). So software that uses pulse should work similarly.
 
Last edited:
BaronBS said:
Just keep in mind that most open source programs are made with Linux in mind, as consequence some ports take longer to arrive in BSDland or it doesn't come at all because are incompatible with BSD's or because nobody was interested in porting so far.
Click to expand...
and what about the linux compatibility? is it there yet, realistically?
 
Erichans said:
As I understand it arch is on a continuous rolling release scheme, that's not the case for FreeBSD. FreeBSD has a different support model compared to other *NIX-es, most notably Linux distro's. What may not be immediately evident from the FreeBSD Handbook and often comes as unexpected for those that are new to FreeBSD, is the relation and difference between -RELEASE, -STABLE and -CURRENT; have a look at the thread LTS support and version clarifications; relevant updated status: FreeBSD Versions
Click to expand...
yeah that's what i don't really like about arch, i mean it's cool but i just want a stable system
 
cracauer@ said:
In general you can only expect USB class compliant audio interfaces to work.

Does your DAW have a Linux version or do you use a Windows binary in Wine?
Click to expand...
yeah i use waveform 13 at the moment and it's just available for debian but there is a converted package in the AUR so that's about it, it works just fine
i'm willing to learn any other if there's any available for FreeBSD
 
kpedersen said:
Some random bits of info you might find useful:

  • Wine games should work as they do on Linux. Our Wine port is pretty up to date. Though DXVK and Vulkan stuff may be missing.
  • Steam games will generally work with some fiddling and via the Linux compat layer. But I don't know if its worth it. Perhaps keep a separate Windows gaming machine?
  • General hardware support on FreeBSD is pretty good. Though for audio devices your options are a little more limited. That said, Linux isn't great either, so perhaps you can share your specific hardware?
  • We do have PulseAudio which uses OSS as a backend (rather than ALSA). So software that uses pulse should work similarly.
Click to expand...
i don't use windows, just linux
and supposedly my Minifuse 1 and arturia midi keyboard are USB class compliant, they work just fine on Linux, i would love to check FreeBSD bare metal if i had an extra machine or an extra SSD, but i don't :(
What about Pipewire/jack? i had a really bad experience with pulseaudio/alsa and i don't know if its a hardware issue/incompatibility or if it's just broken/buggy in general
 
Unfortunately You won't find what you need on FreeBSD, at least not without many hacks, nerves, etc. Search for a LTS GNU/Linux distribution if you think Arch is not that stable, but: Arch Linux is as stable as the user make it.
 
bsdcode said:
No problem, winetricks dxvk works on FreeBSD ;) Used it myself with emulators/wine and Dragon's Dogma and Witcher 3.
Click to expand...
Good to see that the userland is in place. Though aren't we a little limited to what GPUs support Vulkan on FreeBSD? I tend to focus entirely on OpenGL these days, so don't always keep up. Did NVIDIA's blob start supporting it? Did Malavon's modest plea save us all?
 
I'm going to mention, even though it's not in your original post, that FreeBSD wireless support is not yet up to Linux's. I mention this because you might consider it something basic, that you don't even ask about. There are workarounds, such as wifibox which works for a lot of people, though I wasn't able to get it working on my Thinkpad, but the speed of wireless connections is usually much slower than Linux speeds. On the other hand, it's fine for watching youtube or other videos, you won't notice a problem, but if transferring large files from another machine it might be an issue. I'm not a gamer so I don't know if it would affect that at all.
 
Kirby said:
and what about the linux compatibility? is it there yet, realistically?
Click to expand...
The quality of the compatibility layer depend a lot in what port are you trying to run, and how well you configure it.

scottro said:
hat FreeBSD wireless support is not yet up to Linux's
Click to expand...
Very much this, It is faster than OpenBSD, but it is not as fast as linux. I don't know why, but in my exp, when it is cable connected I found that FreeBSD is faster compared to Linux.

Also, it is good to remember that with some CPU's suspend/hibernation and resume don't work properly.
 
Kirby said:
and supposedly my Minifuse 1 and arturia midi keyboard are USB class compliant, they work just fine on Linux, i would love to check FreeBSD bare metal if i had an extra machine or an extra SSD, but i don't :(
Click to expand...

If you have a spare USB stick, you can test the FreeBSD waters with a live system like NomadBSD. That should give you an idea what parts of your hardware are supported, including the Minifuse.

Kirby said:
What about Pipewire/jack? i had a really bad experience with pulseaudio/alsa and i don't know if its a hardware issue/incompatibility or if it's just broken/buggy in general
Click to expand...

Pipewire isn't there yet, it's missing a native sound backend for FreeBSD. Jack should be in good shape, and if you need low latency for live effects there will be some improvements coming in the next months.

Ardour would be a full-featured traditional DAW for recording and mixing, while Qtractor is a good choice for sample based composition. They don't come with sound libraries if you'd expect that, and I don't think you can run the plugins bundled with Waveform. You'll find some open source lv2 plugin bundles in the packages.
 
Davinci Resolve installed in a Freebsd Jail

Covers getting Cuda to work in the Jail

forums.freebsd.org

Davinci Resolve installed in Freebsd Jail

Davinci Resolve installed on Ubuntu in a Freebsd Jail Davinci Resolve in a Ubuntu Freebsd Jail https://github.com/NapoleonWils0n/davinci-resolve-freebsd-jail Nvidia and Cuda working in the jail Davinci Resolve displayed with a Xwayland rootless window on Wayland or an X11 window on X11...
forums.freebsd.org forums.freebsd.org

github.com

GitHub - NapoleonWils0n/davinci-resolve-freebsd-jail: Davinci Resolve install on Freebsd using an Ubuntu Jail

Davinci Resolve install on Freebsd using an Ubuntu Jail - NapoleonWils0n/davinci-resolve-freebsd-jail
github.com github.com

You have to install the exact same Nvidia driver in the Jail as on the Freebsd host
by downloading the driver and manually installing it

There are few other things to set up which i cover in the video and github page

I also installed openai-whisper in the Jail as well which worked fine

github.com

cerberus/openai-whisper/whisper-ubuntu.org at master · NapoleonWils0n/cerberus

cerberus code library. Contribute to NapoleonWils0n/cerberus development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com
 
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