The purpose of this article is to give a few useful tips for OpenBSD including information on how to make a bootable CD from the OpenBSD files downloadable on the Internet.

The BSD systems differ from Linux in several aspects. They are incredibly stable and also have a different history. These systems thrive on an isolated island in the ocean where neighboring bigger parts of habitable surface owns Linux and Microsoft. The isolation of BSD has several causes, but BSD advocates generally say that commercial companies support Linux, not BSD.

The famous TCP/IP, upon which the Internet has developed, is the invention of BSD. This family of systems has a legendary history and three forks of the original BSD code are quite famous today: NetBSD, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD.

The history of BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) started in the 1970's. The US military agency ARPA supported its development too. The presently known family of BSD systems originated early in the 1990's. These systems developed partially from an unofficial patch of 386/BSD. The NetBSD team snapped up the chance of the released code as the first BSD Open Source project (1993) and a few months later another group of enthusiasts formed the FreeBSD Project (1993). OpenBSD is the latest continuation of these. Theo de Raadt founded it in December 1994, soon after he separated from the NetBSD team in order to employ his own courageous visions.

The key difference between these three systems is as follows:
NetBSD          -           supports the most of computer architectures
FreeBSD         -           was originally intended for the i386 architecture
OpenBSD       -           is the best security solution, as the system is very well audited for security holes

The above systems have also their clones such as PC-BSD, a clone of FreeBSD.

In user interactivity, BSD and Linux are similar. The most noteworthy difference between Linux and BSD lies in the kernel and the license. A BSD license, for example, allows developers to take the code, change it and afterwards keep it for themselves. GPL or General Public License does not allow this.

BSD systems are available with the so called „core system“, where many binaries are actually part of such a BSD OS. In the Linux world, terminologically only the kernel is Linux. In the BSD world, the „core system“ is installed separately from applications or packages. It is also separately archived in FTP servers. Packages are under the license of programmers who develop them. The BSD kernel and the core system are under the BSD license.

How to make an installation CD of OpenBSD?

If you do not want to buy an official OpenBSD CD/DVD, you must create it yourself. If you have time, download the core system files from these FTP mirrors; pick up your architecture like AMD64 or i386 and the version (like 4.1, 4.0, etc.). If you see files like base41.tgz, bsd, bsd.mp, cd41.iso, etc., then you are in the right directory. A good example for finding orientation is the following FTP directory, where you only need to pick up your architecture.

After you downloaded the system files to your local directory (for example, to /usr/opbsd41), issue the following command to make the ISO image of it:

mkisofs -b cdrom41.fs -c boot.cat -R -v -o /usr/MyFirstOpenbsd41.iso /usr/opbsd41

You may use the above command both in Linux and in BSD systems; actually in any system which is ”mkisofs-friendly”.

To extend your OpenBSD, you must download (and install) all its packages separately (KDE, OpenOffice, etc.).

What to do after the first boot?

Type “man afterboot” to see an overview of most important things that you can do after the first complete boot.

How to switch between console screens?

As a Linux user you surely know that in Unix you can switch between the text console screens with the combination of Alt+F1 keyboard keys. Replacing F1 with F2 (or F3, etc.) brings you to another virtual console. In OpenBSD, you do this in the same way, but you must always press Ctrl+Alt+F1. If you want to go back to the X environment, you use Ctrl+Alt+F5 key combination.

How to stop my cooler from crying out?

If you have problems to activate your motherboard's „cool 'n' quite“ ability and you have an AMD64 processor like me and feel that your CPU fan is too noisy, a very simple way to go around this is to use the sysctl command: 
sysctl hw.setperf=0

Your 2 GHz processor will then slow down to 1 GHz, which you can check out with the
sysctl hw.cpuspeed command. To raise your CPU's speed, just type:
sysctl hw.setperf=50 or sysctl hw.setperf=100

How to use a Linux terminal?

A behavior of some predefined terminals in OpenBSD can change the distribution of keyboard keys (as you remember them from Linux) in some console applications. For example, immediately after you log in, OpenBSD always asks you: Terminal type? [vt220]. If you pres [Enter] for the predefined „vt220“, OpenBSD maps some keycodes differently in console programs like Midnight Commander (but not in X). If you type „nxterm“ for the terminal (instead of vt220), you will see a blue Midnight Commander instead of the ugly black one, and you can use the same keys like in Linux (F5 for copying of files, etc.).

How to localize OpenBSD?

You can install many national keyboards from within KDE, but dead keys may not work. With the present version OpenBSD 4.1 you just edit the /etc/profile and add the following text there (an example for Slovak): LC_CTYPE=sk_SK.ISO8859-2; export LC_CTYPE

It is up to you to decide whether you want „LC_CTYPE“ or any other option. This is a quick guide and the localization works. The various types of locales can be found in the /usr/share/locale directory. Peep there to see the correct syntax for a particular locale. If you see, for example, ru_RU.ISO8859-5 („RU“ for Russian, „PL“ for Polish, „ZH“ for Chinese, etc.), just type the desired locale's name to your /etc/profile file as in the above example (for example, replace sk_SK.ISO8859-2 with ru_RU.ISO8859-5) and restart your computer. Then, if you use KDE, from the Start menu choose Start > Control Center > Regional and Accessibility > Keyboard Layout and choose the national keyboard of your choice. A flag of the chosen country will appear at the bottom of your KDE desktop and you can write dead keys and any other special characters with a particular national keyboard.

BIO: I live in Europe and I developed 1FCDBSD, which is a One Floppy CD Audio and MP3 Player based upon FreeBSD; my website is specifically dedicated to FreeBSD.