How to build your own BSD distribution?

they need an X session. I found an interesting tool (at least to my "eyes") called Sikulix. It works by recognizing a precise portion of screen because it uses the OCR technology. So,in theory everything can be automated with the maximum precision. And it is very easy to create a script. There is no need to have programming skills.
 
Are you going to port this tool to FreeBSD? It could then be a dependency of the port that you could make that would include your useful scripts.
 
It works on FreeBSD almost out of the box. To work correctly it needs that some packages are installed before. The whole installation procedure can be also automated but this time with a simple bash script. What do u think ? Did u give a look at the tool ?
 
Sure,but when I used Linux I learnt how to write easy bash scripts,but they will not work if I will use sh,csh,zsh,fish and so on. So,it's not faster to install the bash tool from the ports and write scripts im bash because I already have some knowledge ?
 
ziomario said:
Sure,but when I used Linux I learnt how to write easy bash scripts,but they will not work if I will use sh,csh,zsh,fish and so on. So,it's not faster to install the bash tool from the ports and write scripts im bash because I already have some knowledge ?
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Well... this depends on your goal.
If your goal is to present something that the vast majority of FreeBSD users are able/willing to use/test/contribute, then shells/bash is going to be a blocker for some.
If your goal is to make something quickly without acquiring more/different knowledge, then I think your entire undertaking might not turn out the way you imagine.

I know several individuals which refuse to use/install shells/bash. I tend to include myself in that list.
Just look at the CVEs of bash...
In general, you want to use as many "native" / "base" tools as possible. There are plenty of shells. Bash is definitely one of the least commonly used one as far as I can tell.

This is of course just my opinion.

But please... This is really not the thread for this. Let's start a new/dedicated thread if you want to continue talking about this:
SirDice said:
Ehm, perhaps we should wait for the OP to return, OP hasn't been seen since they posted the question.
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ziomario said:
I know,but if I do something like this,I should say bye to money. Even if I was able to create a large collection of scripts,I suspect that it will be not easy to earn money from their selling.
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If you want money, then FreeBSD forums is not the place to look for money-making ideas. And while there are VC platforms out there, it's a pretty cutthroat world where personal safety and sanity is the collateral. It's a Catch-22, only you can resolve it for yourself. Money means no time for FreeBSD. FreeBSD means no time for money. It's that simple. Yeah, unpleasant to consider, but this whole planet revolves on far more daemonic choices than that. Suck it up and go for money instead of FreeBSD.
 
astyle said:
If you want money, then FreeBSD forums is not the place to look for money-making ideas. And while there are VC platforms out there, it's a pretty cutthroat world where personal safety and sanity is the collateral. It's a Catch-22, only you can resolve it for yourself. Money means no time for FreeBSD. FreeBSD means no time for money. It's that simple. Yeah, unpleasant to consider, but this whole planet revolves on far more daemonic choices than that. Suck it up and go for money instead of FreeBSD.
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Don't get me wrong. I don't want to make big money with FreeBSD. I just want only supplement my pension with a small amount of money. My aim is to survive,not to start a business.
 
ziomario said:
Don't get me wrong. I don't want to make big money with FreeBSD. I just want only supplement my pension with a small amount of money. My aim is to survive,not to start a business.
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Just remember, the aim of these forums is technical help, not money help.

You gotta first figure out what people are willing to pay for, and then figure out if there's a usable opportunity for you. Order matters. Make sure you don't have the playbook backwards, then it will work out.
 
CultBSD will return .... along with my channel , but i just wanted to have a more well done installer and use zfs by default cause some people might need it to learn more.
But moving to zfs would help cause you can load a compressed zfs on Ram and this is something good.
When i made of CultBSD i had barely a year on FreeBSD also it was something like fast-food project haven't invested much time and had my script for generating a complete desktop and a better pc back then so it took me zero time to make. What i wanted to say was that we need the coolest and most best-looking FreeBSD based project you can make (like garuda is for linux) so we can attract more users using Unix Porn etc :)
The second statement i wanted to make was that its stupid to load to Ram directories that the os will almost never attempt to write on while booting and using the live image so you can make a better Project more loaded with features and software and cool themes and icons.
Also this project doubled as a portable FreeBSD based Os that you could clone on a usb and take it with you so the installer was made for this so it won't cause any problems when the target disk was a usb stick or an external disk.

I stopped this project cause i didn't wanted to be something made fast and poorly and not have good quality scripts and applications.
Of course i will stick with Qt in the future too , cause i like Qt framework .

All these if i believe its something worth doing .


grahamperrin@ said:
Welcome to FreeBSD Forums.



Guides | FreeBSD Foundation includes an introduction; a Guide to FreeBSD Desktop Distributions.

Comparable to helloSystem: ravynOS – Finesse of macOS. Freedom of FreeBSD. I assume that Airyx became ravynOS.

Beyond the well-known distributions, discussions in FreeBSD include:
  • CultBSD by christhegeek
  • something by … I remember his face here, but can't remember his name at the moment.
In some of those spaces, you'll gain a sense of the diverse approaches to building a home/desktop distro that's based on FreeBSD.

Some of this 2021 topic might interest you, don't be dissuaded by negativity:

forums.freebsd.org

FreeBSD Kommunity Edition

Let's just brainstorm... What would you expect a "FreeBSD Kommunity Edition" to be/offer? What would you like it to be/offer? Is there demand for such a thing? Would you like to see a *BSD Kommunity Edition? What is missing or should be better in base FreeBSD / in the KDE ports? Add your...
forums.freebsd.org forums.freebsd.org
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ziomario said:
Don't get me wrong. I don't want to make big money with FreeBSD. I just want only supplement my pension with a small amount of money. My aim is to survive,not to start a business.
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If you want to make your own FreeBSD based project why won't you start by forking furybsd and modify its scripts ?
If you want to be able to make any amount of money you should go with linux the easiest would be to make an ubuntu based distro , arch linux has already every kind of distro.
But to start making money you need to work hard and also advertise your work on youtube making videos etc , on reddit twitter etc etc.
 
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instalis said:
Hello. I'm interested in building a BSD distribution. What tools are best to use? I have experience in compiling Linux distributions. :)
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Why? I'm not being rhetorical or anything. When embarking on a project such as this one must have a goal or set of goals in mind. What problem are you trying to solve? What is the goal of this exercise? The answer to this question will tell you whether a) maybe contributing to FreeBSD to make it better might be a better idea or b) whatever problem you're trying to solve could be solved in a less work intensive way.

If you don't have any background in building software, let alone in the FreeBSD build system, ports, etc., this would be a steep learning curve.
 
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zirias@ said:
After understanding all this, what exactly are you trying to achieve?
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long time freebsd user here. I started on 4.x many decades ago. I have used linux, mostly rhel & fedora. Most, if not all linux distros achieve confusion and userland being messed up in one way or another.

I often wish there was a "linux" distro that had sane freebsd like choices and user land. I come across these posts about yet another fork, and think this simple truth.

Read the handbook. Handbook & the freebsd documentation, which is stellar, explains things.

It would be better use of the time putting the handbook into a full 2 hour, bookmarked video.

I can say, There is zero need for another BSD, there is a need to make the handbook into an AI Help bot.
 
I understand the intellectual desire to compile FreeBSD from scratch to reduce the installed components to only those required.
For me, I have zero need for Sendmail.
However, since FreeBSD is a true and self-contained operating system, removing Sendmail from the compiled OS might lead to complications.

As a FreeBSD noob, the best I could do is figure out how to disable Sendmail, but leave its components still installed.
 
bgavin said:
As a FreeBSD noob, the best I could do is figure out how to disable Sendmail, but leave its components still installed.
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Time to learn about src.conf(5), make.conf(5) and build(7) ;)

Easy for me to say, I've been building FreeBSD from source for at least 25 years now. For a long time the only way to upgrade a system was by building from source. The process itself hasn't changed much, if at all, in those 25 years. Under the hood lots of things did change of course.
 
SirDice said:
Time to learn about src.conf(5), make.conf(5) and build(7) ;)

Easy for me to say, I've been building FreeBSD from source for at least 25 years now. For a long time the only way to upgrade a system was by building from source. The process itself hasn't changed much, if at all, in those 25 years. Under the hood lots of things did change of course.
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"Easy for me to say" : finally you recognized your skills. I still remember when you said that you weren't so skilled and also self-taught,so,I didn't have to worry if I didn't understand so many pages of manuals dense of technicalities. I mean you acted like one of us (us = low / medium skills FreeBSD users),but you aren't : you have 25 years of experience. Stop lying :p
 
Next June will be my 50th year in the computer business.
I don't expect any real difficulties with src.conf, etc... I just don't have a compelling need.

I'm simply delighted with FBSD for what it does, right out of the box.
My primary use is XigmaNAS on a big Xeon, 32gb ECC, RAIDZ-2 on six WD NAS disks.
 
drhowarddrfine said:
And we will soon hear the torrent of complaints about sendmail being gone in 14.0 for those who weren't paying attention.
I was paying attention but I'll get the ball rolling.
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It isn’t really gone, it’s just no longer default. If you are using sendmail as real MTA (and not just local delivery agent), switching back is really small part of configuration needed.
 
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