OpenBASED

Setup OpenBSD as a daily driver using only the included, core programs. Based on OpenBSD 7.6.

Requirements

The real requirements are having patience and a passion for keeping things minimal. It’s important to remeber that this setup isn’t the most user-friendly. There will be no config files to edit or download in this guide. We will be using the xenodm login manager paired with the default stacked window manager fvwm. And that’s it.

You have been warned!

Installation

Make sure you have the latest OpenBSD image formatted on a USB device (or burned to a CD if that’s your cup of tea!) and that your computer/laptop is set to boot from USB via the BIOS. Also make sure you are connected to the internet via ethernet cable (don’t worry, we’ll setup WiFi in a minute!)

Boot into the device and input the following when guided through the installer:

  1. Boot from USB
  2. Choose Install
  3. Keyboard layout: us
  4. Hostname: x220 (or whatever you choose)
  5. Network: em0
  6. IPv4: autoconf
  7. IPv6: none
  8. Network interface: done
  9. Password for root
  10. Start sshd by default? yes
  11. X Window System start with xenodm? no
  12. Setup user? username (follow setup user steps)
  13. Allow root ssh login? no
  14. Timezone
  15. Which disk? Use internal (sd0 etc.)
  16. Encrypt root disk? no
  17. Use WHOLE disk
  18. Use AUTO layout
  19. Which disk to initialize: done
  20. Location of sets: http
  21. HTTP Proxy URL? none
  22. HTTP Server? 1 (Toronto)
  23. Confirm again
  24. Server directory? pub/OpenBSD/7.6/amd64
  25. Set names? done
  26. Drink some coffee while it verifies (depends on network speed)
  27. Location of sets? done
  28. Congrats!
  29. Reboot and remove USB device

First Boot Tweaks

User Permissions

Before we do anything, we should give our main user full access via doas. Login as root and run the following:

su -
echo "permit nopass :wheel" >> /etc/doas.conf
exit

Firmware

The next steps will help you ensure you have the latest firmware.

Simply run the command: fw_update

WiFi

To enable wifi on your device, run the following command (filling in the proper details where need be)

ifconfig iwn0 up
ifconfig iwn0 scan
echo "join WIFI-NAME wpakey PASSPHRASE" >> /etc/hostname.iwn0
echo "dhcp" >> /etc/hostname.iwn0
echo "inet6 autoconf" >> /etc/hostname.iwn0
echo "up powersave" >> /etc/hostname.iwn0
dhclient iwn0

Take note of the iwn0, as this might differ on your machine. (You can check this by running ifconfig)

You might also need to run doas sh /etc/netstart after.

Performance Boost

This step is optional and targeted towards devices with batteries (laptops, IoT devices etc). Properly setup apmd:

rcctl enable apmd
rcctl set apmd flags -A
rcctl start apmd

Login Manager

Remember when we chose No when the installer asked us “X Window System start with xenodm?”. Well, now we want to enable that before our next reboot:

doas rcctl enable xenodm

Now reboot your device.

doas reboot

The First Real Login

Now you will be presented with the glorious xenodm login screen.

Default xenodm login screen
The beautiful, default xenodm login screen. Image taken from tumfatig.net (who has some wonderful OpenBSD guides you should check out!)

Login with your created user details and you should see something like this:

Default fvwm view once logged in
Taken from the main OpenBSD Wikipedia page. (Some applications will not be opened by default)

Absolutely glorious. You’ll also notice a 3x3 grid box in the bottom right corner:

fvwm workspace pager

This is called the “workspace pager” or “pager”. Each section represents an individual desktop (or workspace if your more familiar with MacOS terminology). You can click on any grid item to instantly move to that desktop.

You can also navigate around using the Ctl + ↑→↓← keys.

Additional Packages

Configs

Okay, I know I said there wouldn’t be any configs included in this guide. Frankly, you should be having zero problems working with all those defaults now that you’ve run through this guide! BUT - I wanted to include some very minor configuration tweaks that might make things a little more intuitive for newcomers. Feel free to ignore these entirely!

Support OpenBSD

If you’ve found this guide helpful or even sparked an interest in OpenBSD, please consider donating directly to the OpenBSD Project. A little goes a long way, and the OpenBSD Project is a volunteer-driven software group funded by donations!

Contribute to OpenBASED

I’m far from an OpenBSD expert! Please help improve this project!