Those of you who have used GhostBSD please share your experience

mikethe1wheelnut said:
Call it a matter of perspective...Given that ghostBSD seems to be the ubuntu of bsd.
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And this is the downside of such things. Trying to appeal to a mass audience draws in a mass audience of every day users and I'm not sure that's a good thing. You don't see the Mack truck people trying to appeal to the soccer mom in order to sell more Mack trucks. I don't see many base RedHat distros trying to appeal to them either. And despite all of Linux' attempts, they still can't hold a candle to Windows installations.

I know I didn't come to FreeBSD for its desktop capabilities. I came for its technical excellence. The day I start seeing clippy on a FreeBSD install is the last day I use FreeBSD.
 
BaronBS said:
IMHO the only thing GhostBSD is missing right now is root on encrypted disk during install. Great FreeBSD distro.
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GhostBSD uses ZFS Boot Environments but it does not allow 'direct' install on GELI encryption.

There is easy workaround:

- Install FreeBSD 14.0-STABLE with ZFS on GELI.
- Install GhostBSD 24.01.1 (Based on FreeBSD 14.0-STABLE) in VM (Bhyve/Virtualbox/...).
- ZFS send GhostBSD BE to FreeBSD machine.
- Activate copied GhostBSD BE.
- Reboot in that GhostBSD BE.

Hope that helps.
 
vermaden said:
…

- Install FreeBSD 14.0-STABLE with ZFS on GELI.
- Install GhostBSD 24.01.1 (Based on FreeBSD 14.0-STABLE) in VM (Bhyve/Virtualbox/...).
…
Click to expand...

Alternatively, install 14.0-RELEASE then use pkg to install GhostBSD essentials.

Tips and Tricks – I'll post something at the weekend at a later date (more focused on pkgbase at the moment).
 
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grahamperrin said:
View attachment 12845

Magic!


Hint: it's not magic, but do, please, proceed with caution; this is probably frowned upon.

Precaution: create, activate then boot a new boot environment.

Then create /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/FreeBSD.conf with this content:

Code: 
FreeBSD {
    url = "pkg+http://pkg.FreeBSD.org/${ABI}/latest";
    mirror_type = "srv";
    signature_type = "fingerprints";
    fingerprints = "/usr/share/keys/pkg";
    enabled = true;
    priority = 3;
}

I chose 3. YMMV.

Generally:
  • make sane use of boot environments before any installation or upgrade that will draw from the FreeBSD repository
  • if you do encounter difficulty, don't forget that you have a non-standard combination of repos
  • I should not expect help for this combination in GhostBSD Forums.
Click to expand...
Because of the ugly aesthetics and the little software for the diversification of the professional use of the system, I don't like GhostBSD.
 
It was OK for me in a VM. But the other day, my system had a kernel panic, so I thought I'd use a GhostBSD install to check what was on the drive and other drives. It wouldn't startx on a system with an NVidia GEForce 1030, which I think is a fairly common card. But, to introduce people to FreeBSD, perhaps Linux users who want to branch out, in many cases, it might be a nice introduction. (I can picture drhowarddrfine getting annoyed, but I think we disagree on this--the really silly ones who don't want to learn anything, won't become fixtures on these forums, IMHO)
 
It happened while using the live CD. It was an older version 23.10. As I said, I was trying to rescue files, and was able to do so later, with a FreeBSD install USB, but maybe this weekend, I'll try with the latest version, if I have a chance. (No promises though, it may be a busy weekend.)
 
I'm just going to add one more thing for web searchers who come across this thread. Upon booting the installer, I get a GUI desktop, but it doesn't show other drives on the system, and doesn't see (though I didn't reseach too deeply) to be used as a live CD as opposed to an installer.
 
I booted from the installer, then imported the pool that I normally use for GhostBSD.

scottro said:
… it doesn't show other drives on the system,
Click to expand...

It does show what's mounted.

scottro said:
as a live CD as opposed to an installer.
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Applications such as Firefox are preinstalled, and functional.

1709982436712.png
 
Ah, ok, I should have mounted the other drives, I was just doing a quick check. However, in contrast, a LinuxMint live CD shows all other drives on the system. Not that either way is necessarily better, just that something more Mintlike was what I was expecting.
 
scottro said:
… a LinuxMint live CD shows all other drives …
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Do you mean, non-mounted volumes with the option to mount?

I'd expect GhostBSD to do the same.

I do have a USB flash drive with an msdosfs volume, but (for reasons that are off-topic) I could not present the physical device to the virtual machine pictured above.

Code: 
% lsblk /dev/da3
DEVICE         MAJ:MIN SIZE TYPE                                    LABEL MOUNT
da3              1:24  3.7G GPT                                         - -
  <FREE>         -:-    47K -                                           - -
  da3p1          1:25  3.7G ms-basic-data        gpt/Basic data partition -
  <FREE>         -:-   1.5M -                                           - -
% sudo fstyp /dev/da3p1
grahamperrin's password:
msdosfs
%
 
Yes, I didn't mount the drives, but they showed as available. (Maybe automounted? I'm not a MInt expert.)

As you say, we should keep on topic, and at this point, I would just say it might be a nice introduction to FreeBSD for the less experienced.
 
I installed it just to see the customizations. To me it's a customized version of FreeBSD and not a distro like say, Ubuntu vs. Debian.
 
That seems accurate to me. I think that might be their aim, not to make a new form of FreeBSD, but to make an easy for the inexperienced to use version of FreeBSD. (That's just my opinion).
 
<https://wiki.ghostbsd.org/index.php/FAQ#What_is_the_goal_of_the_GhostBSD_Project.3F> is the goal as it was in 2014:

The goal of the GhostBSD Project is to combine the ease of use of a set of GTK desktops with security and flexibility of the underlying FreeBSD mechanisms. GhostBSD is a great tool to learn FreeBSD and start one’s adventure in the BSD world. GhostBSD may be used for any purpose and without strings attached.
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Also (historical): <https://wiki.ghostbsd.org/index.php/GhostBSD_Users_Handbook#GhostBSD_Project_Goals>

The goal at <https://www.ghostbsd.org/about>:

BSD is generally considered beyond the average computer user's knowledge. We try to simplify FreeBSD to lower the entry level of using FreeBSD on a desktop or laptop. We provide all the benefits of the FreeBSD operating system benefits combined with our in-house GUI tool.
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– I should treat that as definitive.
 
Hi,
I am very new to the BSD world and not frankly an IT specialist nor a programmer/software engineer.
Coming from the Windows world and to a lesser extent user-friendly popular Linux distros, used to simple graphic installers and tuning tolls, installing and running FreeBSD on my drivers would be out of my range and frustrating. I see GhostBSD as an elegant and simple entry point to this new environment. It is very simple to install, it works great and you get FreeBSD under the hood. Once installed, you may forget it and run your applications. In this case, there is nothing special about it and you could very well stick to Windows, Linux or MacOS. However, you can also tweak it and even brake it. I prefer the latter. There is nothing better than break something to discover how it works, learn from your errors, and try to fix it. Once passed this stage, a major question arises. Why should you stick to FreeBSD? In my case, it is the eager to learn how an OS works and interacts with all applications and the freedom to tailor your system to your needs besides more philosophical aspects (community, BSD licence, UNIX)

Do not get me wrong, GhostBSD is fine and may be used for productivity out of the box. It is a stable and mature distribution with MATE or Xfce DE based on the stable branch of FreeBSD with proper config files but it lacks this appeal to go further.

Rob
 
For me Ghostbsd is Linux's Fedora for people who want to "install" a Unix-BSD without knowing anything. Very simple indeed, everything is "ready", without knowing anything of the BSD Unix world.
FreeBSD gave me full satisfaction with a desktop kde5 and openbox, (thanks sir Vermadeen), you have a lot of guide by reading your site. I use FreeBSD as Desktop and also Linux Gentoo. Philosophically, there are many similarities in the approach.
Sorry for my English
 
FreeRobert said:
Hi,
I am very new to the BSD world and not frankly an IT specialist nor a programmer/software engineer.
Coming from the Windows world and to a lesser extent user-friendly popular Linux distros, used to simple graphic installers and tuning tolls, installing and running FreeBSD on my drivers would be out of my range and frustrating. I see GhostBSD as an elegant and simple entry point to this new environment. It is very simple to install, it works great and you get FreeBSD under the hood. Once installed, you may forget it and run your applications. In this case, there is nothing special about it and you could very well stick to Windows, Linux or MacOS. However, you can also tweak it and even brake it. I prefer the latter. There is nothing better than break something to discover how it works, learn from your errors, and try to fix it. Once passed this stage, a major question arises. Why should you stick to FreeBSD? In my case, it is the eager to learn how an OS works and interacts with all applications and the freedom to tailor your system to your needs besides more philosophical aspects (community, BSD licence, UNIX)

Do not get me wrong, GhostBSD is fine and may be used for productivity out of the box. It is a stable and mature distribution with MATE or Xfce DE based on the stable branch of FreeBSD with proper config files but it lacks this appeal to go further.

Rob
Click to expand...
you can use a 3rd window manager, fully customizable, if you first remove the components that boot you into Xfce or MATE, thence many freebsd configurations besides those have been already done, saving you hours of time, at least in my case. [ Sorry to not know which components... ]
 
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