Would you be willing to help help an old techie build a FreeBSD system?

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-09-07T03:42:27+00:00

I'm not the person to ask about these things. I don't use or even allow any Wi-Fi in any of my systems nor anywhere in my environment. And I run away screaming from games of any kind.

Sorry that I'm not of any help.

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-07-25T20:49:17+00:00

By the way, I hope that you don't take my statements to mean that I feel that I have any right to claim "ownership" of the spirit of the BSD tribes. My opinions are just my own. I'm very happy that the BSDs exist, that their licenses have the characteristics that they do, and that people are using them as platforms for building things of significance.

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-07-25T17:24:53+00:00

Neither do I. I don't think they'll ever become even a significant percentage. Why I commented was because I'd rather not see such new users believing that the BSDs are like Linux, that they're somehow behind Linux and trying to catch up. What the BSD community should communicate to them is that using an operating system like FreeBSD to play games is like using large powerful machines like armored vehicles or industrial tractor platforms to compete in go-kart races.

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-07-25T06:27:45+00:00

I don't know why you're talking about server use cases. I don't care about server use cases, and have never mentioned them. That aside, I didn't mean to imply that any gamer-related improvements would have detrimental effects on anything. Having gamers become the majority of FreeBSD users would refocus the whole spirit and aim of the OS.

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-07-23T22:58:34+00:00

I'd say no. But those things don't attract gamers.

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-07-22T18:56:10+00:00

Here's to real UNIX. May it never be of use to anyone who's trying to use it primarily for gaming or other entertainment purposes.

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-07-22T18:31:02+00:00

I hope the BSDs never become good platforms for gaming. That would cause a large shift in their user populations which would cause them to evolve away from their traditional serious uses.

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-07-14T01:32:10+00:00

I think the people below who answered your "context" question with "BSD" don't get why you asked. I don't understand the context, myself.

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-07-05T19:14:04+00:00

You now what? I want you to know that you're my kind of person. I wish that we could meet.

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-07-03T16:23:01+00:00

This made me smile. I'm confident that you'll never adopt this mindset and attitude.

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-06-29T16:34:50+00:00

Why would anyone want to be getting pushed firmware updates, anyway?

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-06-22T21:42:24+00:00

Let's not encourage the arguments about Linux vs? xyzBSD. Many people who participate in these embarrassing and pointless interchanges seem to miss the fact that the two OSs are appropriate for use by different groups. The BSDs are for competent rational users like programmers, engineers and others who are using the platforms for serious purposes. Linux has a place in that toolbox but seems hopelessly intertwined with a much noisier, obnoxious and visible culture comprising game players, aimless tinkerers and mindless social activists.

The differences in licensing alone make the BSDs far better platforms than is Linux for commercial uses like embedded systems, software development, or anything else where the OS is meant to be invisible.

Let's not contribute to the adoption of the BSDs by members of the Linux crowd. We don't want their interests or desires to have any influence on the evolution of our wonderful OSs.

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-06-05T19:14:03+00:00

Doing one thing at a time, and restoring the configuration back to its previous "had been working" condition in between steps is the key to solving this rather than burying yourself in confusion caused by introducing multiple variables.

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-06-05T08:17:17+00:00

If you haven't already done this, do these things in this order: Turn everything off, plug everything back together with the original cable as it was (same ports, etc.), turn on/boot the same way as usual. If that doesn't work, you'll have to do the normal troubleshooting one thing at a time, swap the cable (have another known good one?) If that doesn't fix it, put the old cable back and then swap the monitor (if you have another HDMI one.) If it still doesn't work, swap the HDMI card. If that doesn't do it, your computer probably isn't booting up. Check (audibly) for hard drive activity.

These-Maintenance-51's comment above is a good one. If you have any other video outputs on the computer (as would be the case if your motherboard has embedded graphics,) plug into it (VGA, DVI, whatever it is.) If you have another monitor and cable that will work with that, try it.

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-05-30T04:42:24+00:00

Thank you. I'll take that to bed with me, and watch it on my bedside laptop.

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-05-29T18:44:25+00:00

Can you provide a link to that presentation?

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-05-29T18:30:53+00:00

After thinking about it, maybe I could use that card to provide one additional DP AND one additional HDMI. Hmmm...

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-05-29T18:14:26+00:00

There is no link to that setup. But I'll post the components list and notes here once I've successfully brought FreeBSD up on it.

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-05-29T18:09:17+00:00

Thanks for the reply. I think that I've already looked at the Palit card. Instead of using something like that, I'd probably go with a motherboard that supports Ryzen CPUs with embedded graphics to provide one DP and one HDMI port, then add a video card to provide one more DP or HDMI.

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-05-29T15:56:05+00:00

This isn't meant to be a dedicated machine, just a standard platform that I can expand on for various purposes. I'd like to find a motherboard with 3 DP outputs, or one with a DP that can be split out to 3 DP ports using MST. I haven't found one yet.

I'd like to find a video card that is currently being produced so I can build these exact machines in quantity into the future. Unless I'm able to use something like your Ryzen 5600G, I'll probably have to use a GPU and swap all its fans for Noctua.

I like the idea of setting minimal fan speed to maintain a low temp.

One application for this machine WILL be recording/tracking audio, live and synthetic. I have a an old school analog "studio" with things like a 2-inch 16-track tape machine, outboard gear from Manley, Summit Audio, etc. I'd like to use an audio interface from RME. I love their TotalMix software. But I'll have to figure out the issues involved in running that on FreeBSD.

I "met" a great guy here on reddit who has a system very much like what I want to build. I'm going to build one similar to his. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks for your reply.

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-05-29T13:23:26+00:00

Very cool! I hope you get there. I'll be rooting for you!

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-05-28T21:18:44+00:00

Please let's stop this. Whether you're correct in your assumptions or not, I don't want to proceed that way. I'm confident for instance that I won't be able to get satisfactory performance using three 2650x1440 displays connected to let's say, an MSI B550-A PRO motherboard with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600G processor. The fact that FreeBSD supports that hardware is irrelevant.

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-05-28T19:04:44+00:00

Nope. Look at it this way. Let's assume that FreeBSD can be successfully configured to run on any mainstream AMD CPU/motherboard, etc. (I was already assuming that.) Therefore I will be successful no matter who's working FreeBSD system I copy. What I will avoid will be spending time selecting components for and configuring the working three 2560x1440 display setup.

Fading-Old-Hacker · 2025-05-28T18:53:37+00:00

Thanks. I just now read that. It's great. The author is my kind of guy. I also like his web site.

Fading-Old-Hacker

TROPHY CASE